This week was a good introduction to colour in lighting, and I learnt many new concepts. The colour temperature and daylight/tungsten settings were interesting to learn about, but also introduced new ideas that I will have to think about when performing lighting myself. It also introduces further ideas for creativity, that being that light temperature is not always indicative of the light source. This is something I can be imaginative with when lighting.
The sunlight exercise was good practise for setting up a scene wholly. I enjoyed the whole concept of the exercise, that we got to play with lighting changes specifically, and it was an educational process as a group to figure out different ways we could achieve what we wanted. The only thing negative takeaway was that we had a time limit of one hour, and still managed to only film for the last five minutes. I think in future it will be more helpful to our learning to film many different takes instead of just trying to set up the (one) best shot we can. This way I think we will be able to learn more in the timeframe given.
Watching back the Rachel/Barney exercise, I was still happy with how our scene turned out. I liked that it was filmed logically – by that I mean it was clear that the audience was seeing what Barney saw, not just watching the scene play out. Two times this was clearest, first when the Rachel character was out of focus in the background (Barney has not seen her), and second when the camera followed quickly the eye line to Rachel coming seemingly out of nowhere. This added a new layer of meaning to the scene, an aspect of the class exercises I want to continue to explore. This also goes with what was reiterated in class, asking ourselves: why have we shot the scene this way? Analysing the implications of shooting when watching a scene is one thing, but bringing meaning to the shots we create is something that I want to work on more.
Reflecting on the sunlight exercise, I found reflecting upon managing the exposure of the shot interesting. This is because I have not had much experience with (or achieved) managing light changes in the shot and having anticipatory exposure. As in previous weeks, this is one of those things that I can really put to use on the day of filming.
I think our method of showing sunlight through the window was okay, but we executed it poorly and it therefore did not look effective. By using the artificial light, and the black cutter closer to the subject, the end result did not look organic. I think the other group were more successful, as they ended up with a far more natural look. They had the cutter closer to the light, giving the line of sunlight a softer edge. Additionally, which is something in particular to think about for next time, they used a fill light so the key light would not be as harsh in the frame. This also makes it easier to manage exposure, and again, gives a more natural look to the shot. To be fair, in the room we shot in, this could not have been achieved as successfully, but still there were fewer limitations than initially thought. Next time, I will try to experiment more with these ideas, and put them into practise.
Additionally in the lesson I enjoyed watching the clip from The French Connection. It was a good example of how seamless a sequence can look even though the colours change so drastically, from shot to shot. It is further an example of it being the cinematographer’s task to control where the audience is looking in the frame, and I found it fascinating seeing how it was done in the scene. It further shows me that colour in a shot is open to interpretation by the creator and is something to be experimental with. I would like to play with this idea in a future exercise.