This semester I have been focusing on shooting at night. After shooting some photographic tests (see one above), I decided I wanted to focus on only using available light sources, such as a street lamp or car headlights etc. My aim for the rest of the semester was to create a series of short scenes for each of the my tests, but as I started to plan my schedule, this seemed very unrealistic, and would leave very little time to do experiments. I then decided that I wanted to focus on a concept I developed on two of my photographic tests (below).
Because I am sort of drawn to crime, I wanted this to be a scene that involved crime. For just a quick scene, I decided to keep the narrative simple so I could focus mainly on the visuals. The concept is just a man pulling his car over and opening the boot, revealing the screams of a girl within. He then removes her from the car and drags her to the front of the car and attacks her.
In some of my investigations with lighting, I used red gels to create a violent/aggressive mood, but with this concept, instead of using red gels, I decided to use the “available” light from the taillights of a car (below), shown when the victim is taken out of the boot.
I started working on a storyboard, that were initially sketches, but I then went out and took a photographic storyboard. This gave me a better idea of framing and style. I then started filming some tests, comparing lighting and movement both on my Canon 6D and the school’s EX3 camera. Unable to come to a clear decesion on which camera I wanted to film my final scene on, I did a shoot on both. After starting to shoot with the 6D, I quickly began to realise that the shots were not very well lit with just available lighting, so I rushed through the shoot just to get the bare minimum of shots so I could edit them and explain why shooting on the 6D wasn’t ideal for this project. When we shot on the EX3, I had a new perspective, because it seemed like such a difference. The shots were easier to see with the same lighting, and the quality was incredible. When I got to the edit suites the footage was clear and had all the information needed to edit.
Movement test:
Test of scene:
Film scene:
Screener: