Post 12: Advanced Production Skills Workshop 2

Post 12 was all about experimenting with the two major features of lighting, 'Quality' and 'Direction'. The whole reason behind doing this seconds workshop was to enhance the quality of our video production by developing a sense of style.

There is two different styles of quality to the lighting, 'Hard' and 'Soft'. Hard lighting is  a direct light creating crisp textures and edges with bold shadows. While soft is softer in contrast between the light and shade. It is indirect or diffused which blurs contours and textures.

Every light has a direction and the direction of the lighting can come from many different angles as such the front, side, back, under or from the top.

As a class we viewed the music video Madonna - Vouge which used the different uses of lighting to its advantages. This was to help us in the next stage of the workshop. 

This will influence our short film as looking as the Madonna music video lighting can be used to your advantage. When it comes to filming my group should have a discussion on whether the direction and quality of lighting within each scene is needed to be manipulated.  


Direction Experiment

After getting into groups of around 4 we had to assign ourselves to a job. My job which was given to me was The "Clapper" this meant I had to write on the white board to notify the audience what they are watching, I also had to help the recorder.    

Equipment:

• Mini DV Camera,
• Tripod,
• Batteries,
• Base plate,
• Tape,
• Laminated whiteboard + marker pens,
• 1X Lowel Pro 250W lamp,
• 1X Stand,
• Extension lead,
• Barn doors,
• Torch,
• Candle plus bucket of water, plate, matches/lighter, 
• Black wrap and crock clips,
• White material + tin foil,
• Safety gloves.

Predictions:

Many different types of shadows will be created when experimenting with the light source.

Factor/s to change:

• Direction of the light
• The brightness of the light
• The brightness of the table

Factor/s to measure:

• Shadows
• Brightness of his face

What will stay the same:

• Sohail will sit in the same place throughout the duration on the filming.
• The camera
  

Our video on Direction shows how changing the direction of a light source can change how a character would be perceived or portrayed. For instance 2.19 in the test will give an audience the impression this character has something to hide or is a dangerous person. While on the other hand if they was to see him in the lighting at 5.50 they may see him as the protagonist. This experiment has also showed us that the direction of lighting can also have an impact on how big shadows can be made. 3.51 is a great example of a atmosphere making shadow.

I would say the main strengths of doing this is the range of different lighting we have used. Manipulating the light is a great way of creating an atmosphere and doing this experiment has shown how much power we have over the lighting.

One way we could have improved was by changing the base of the table to a darker shade. Towards the end of the experiment we did do this, However I feel the test would have been more successful if we had earlier on.

Quality Experiment
After completing the experiment both groups had to present their final product to the other group. The quality experiment was the other groups task and it looked at improving the quality within your lighting designs.


Equipment:

• Mini DV Camera,
• Tripod,
• Batteries,
• Base plate,
• Tape,
• Laminated whiteboard + marker pens,
• 1X Lowel Pro 250W lamp,
• 1X Stand,
• Chimera + diffusion attachments,
• Speed ring,
• Black card,
• Black sugar paper,
• Scissors,
• Safety gloves,
• Extension lead.

Predictions:
You will be able to see a clear difference between soft and hard lighting.

Factor/s to change:

• The lighting
• The diffuser 

Factor/s to measure:

• Shadows
• Brightness of his face

What will stay the same:

• The camera
• Anton will stay in the same position
• Position of light

One improvement the other group could have made was ensuring each shot was long enough. Each shot was far to short to be able to take a good look, It all felt a bit rushed. If the group was to re-do the experiment i would advise them to make each shot longer.

Conclusion
Doing these experiments will save us a lot of time when we come to filming. This is because if we choose to manipulate the direction or quality we can relate back to this. The two experiments have shown what different shots would look like when the lighting has been played with.