Technical Research

 

 

 

Technical Research

 

Last year for our AS Media production (opening of a short film) it was the first time I had ever had any experience with the editing software "Final Cut Pro". I had used IMovie in the past however that requires a more basic approach to editing. We decided that we wanted to challenge ourselves and use Final Cut as it offered a broader range of tools and techniques from which our production could benefit from. For my Technical research last year, I produced a PDF Instruction Manual for Final Cut pro which helped me heavily when it came to creating the final roll of the film.

 

 

This year I have decided to take a more difficult technical task and look into the lighting of a scene. This is going to be a vital focus point for us in the near future when it comes to actually filming our piece because we are planning on filming at either night time or in the dusk when the sun is setting.

 

 

 

This here is a still frame from the movie Moonlight (Directed by Barry Jenkins) The film has heavily influenced our approach on social realism and the type of camerawork and overall cinematography that we are aiming for.

We can see that the only source of light coming from the background is from the orange glow of the street lamp. The balance of light between the dark and the orange is perfect because it reduces the grain in the shot and it makes the characters stand out so that the audience can actually see them.

 

 

 

As we can see from this Students short film, the only lighting is coming from behind the camera, as we can see in the reflection from the car, due to this we see that most of the frame is quite grainy and the darkness takes all the shadows, highlights and white balance from out of the picture.

 

To fix problems like this I have been researching on YouTube how to set up lighting for a film shot in a low key environment. I found a channel called

 

"Andyax" are a Norwegian YouTube channel who specialise in teaching their subscribers how to make short films and how to alter all the technical aspects of a film to make it easier for a film crew with a relatively small budget, which in our case applies to us.

  

In their video they show us how to set up the lighting of a short film using lights, Aperture, ISO and Black / White Balance. In this shot we see that the only source of light is coming from the door in the background much like the shot of the student short film. Andyax will show us how to change this sort of low key lighting into a much more warmer and expressive setting which will be easier for the audience to watch. 



 

Technical Terms

 

1. ISO : In very basic terms, ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to available light. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light and vice versa.
2. Aperture :  The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. The lower the aperture is, the more depth of field you can use therefore the background of the image will become blurry and the subject will become in focus.
3. Shutter Speed :  shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time when the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light.

 

Different Ways To Create and Adjust light

whilst filming at night, we are going to struggle to create light therefore we need to take advantage of the natural light from either streetlamps or reflections. I think that Streetlamps will be the best option because they are always available and they can provide an interesting contrast on the image.
Another option for lighting in a low key environment would be to use a portable light. However this may give the short film a more un-natural image. We don't want this, so we are going to use street lamps and differentiate the settings and options on the DSLR Camera.