Shooting on Film
From MediaStudies
This lecture will discuss how to go about shooting on actual film and how that differs from video. Stephanie (director of Media Studies Production) will join us and discuss the equipment we have available and the new cameras being ordered. She will also project some righteous film so hopefully we can entice a few students to incorporate film into their projects. The session will also include a lighting demo for film where we will again highlight the differences between film and video photography.
Contents |
Shooting on Film and Lighting
Leaders
- Zac Miller- Lighting
- Maggi Massad -Lighting
- Evan- Film techniques
Lighting
Basics
- Three-Point Lighting
- Uses three lights to illuminate a subject:
- Key Light
- Primary source of light in the scene
- The brightest light
- Casts primary shadows
- Gives sense of directionality
- Fill Light
- Used to “fill” in the shadows produced by the key without casting its own distinct shadows
- Generally placed on the opposite side from the key light
- Almost always softer than the key light
- Sometimes bounced to provide a flat, even fill
- Back Light
- Serves to separate the subject from the background
- Much lower in intensity than key light
- Usually placed behind the subject
Play around with the Three-Point Lighting Simulator
Theory
- Controllable Properties of Light
- Distribution, Intensity, Movement, Color, Direction
- Distribution
- Size of area of covered
- Quality- diffused or not
- Character- texture, hard or soft, etc.
- Focus
- Intensity
- Amount of light- brightness
- Movement
- Pretty self explanatory
- Color
- Warm vs. cool (blue or orange, mostly)
- Direction
- What angle is the light coming from and how does that effect the scene
All of these properties affect a variety of things in the scene such as mood, place, time (of day, of year, etc.), etc.
- Motivating Light
- What does the light in the scene come from?
- Dictates what qualities of light to emulate, e.g. sunlight coming in through the window vs. an overhead fluorescent house light
- Practical lights in the shot
- How to approach lighting a scene
- Block, light, rehearse, tweak, shoot
Clips and Examples
We will discuss these clips and others in class:
Barry Lyndon- "unconventional" lighting- the scenes beginning at 3:58 until 7:33 are entirely lit by candlelight, no additional sources or instruments are used.
Yoplait Commercial- What seems strange about the lighting in this commercial?
You are encouraged to add your own clips to this section. Link to any examples of good or bad or simply interesting lighting and be prepared to discuss.
Resources
Three-Point Lighting Simulator
Quick video tutorial on three-point lighting
