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Week Eight
In Week 8 of my Final Project, I undertook Practical Experimentation to find the most effective methods of certain techniques. The techniques I experimented with were Lighting and Colour Grading.
Action Plan Follow-Up
The target I set myself last week for my Practical Week was to ensure I was keeping my Experimentation complex so, I made sure of this by choosing Lighting. Lighting, setups in particular, was something that I had never thought about using in the past, not once in a previous project did I or even think to take out Lighting Equipment, I have always either used Natural Lighting from the sun or just typical room lights. So, learning about how to use Lighting Rigs in a particular way was most certainly making my Final Major Project complex.
Feelings
Just like Planning, I was really excited to move into the Experimentation Stage as it finally meant hands-on practical work with the equipment, an element that has been one of the most enjoyable parts from my time on Film and TV. The time was also getting closer to Production Time, and I couldn’t wait to finally put my all my ideas and plans into action. My practical ability is by far my best skillset so I felt super confident going into this, it was also only Experimentation so I wasn't too stressed as Experimentation is something we do to ensure we have less stress trying out things, when it comes to Production Week.
Lighting Experimentation - Lighting Setups
For the Lighting Experimentation, I split this up into two different stages Lighting Setups and Natural Lighting. Lighting Setups consisted of me setting up a One-Point Lighting Setup and experimenting with the position of this light finding which angle or position could convey "suspense" the best. I found in my Contextual Research Report that plot twists ‘‘create suspense and tension, and add an element of surprise". So I knew I needed to find the best way visually to convey suspense.
This went successful as I found the perfect position that shows suspense well and I also found another position, that created a gloomy dramatic look on my character’s face which could come in handy if this is something I end up pursuing in my Final Film.
BEST SUSPENSE
DRAMATIC LOOK
Generally, the Lighting Setups went well as it especially taught me the importance of Lighting Rigs, being something I never thought about using in the past. I knew I was very inexperienced with this beforehand as my friend, Charlie Hooks, had to show me how to how to properly put the battery in as I couldn’t figure out how to clip it in. So, experimenting with this beforehand was clearly detrimental to me if I was considering using it in Production, I didn’t want to waste my time in Production figuring out how to do silly things beforehand when I could learn throughout my Experimentation.
Looking back at this Experimentation, what I feel I could’ve improved on, to make the experimentation useful in more scenarios, was switching up the angle the camera was placed at. I kept the camera placed in the same position the whole Experimentation which led to me only achieving one set of results. I could have placed the camera on the subject’s face and I experimented with the Lighting specifically on this as I knew close-ups would be a shot I would undoubtedly be having in my Final Outcome.
Natural Lighting
When it came to Natural Lighting, I split this into two different categories: experimenting with Relfectors and experimenting with the position of my subject in correlation to the sun. Reflectors were straightforward forward I had my subject facing against the sun and placed the reflector at a 45-degree angle towards my subject bouncing that light from the sun back onto them. The second category I experimented with was where my subject was placed, I experimented with two different positions: facing against the sun and facing towards the sun.
I liked this experimentation as I had never really thought about the position of my subject. I always just placed them according to what looked best around them, not thinking about the lighting. However, what went well with the Experimentation is I found a clear difference between the two, one gave me a nice-looking shot with contrast, lens flares and the ability to keep bokeh in my shot and the other provided me with a flat, blown-out shot that looked aesthetically unpleasing. So, I knew after completing this Experimentation that it was necessary to ensure my subject is always placed facing away from the subject with the camera pointing towards it, to capture the best results in my opinion.
What didn’t go so great about this Experimentation was the results I gathered from my Reflector Experimentation. I thought I would achieve great results from these as I stated in my Contextual Research Report during the Theories and Techniques section that, Reflectors ‘keeps both the subject and background exposed the same.’ However, after completing the experimentation they completely failed with this, leaving me with an overexposed unnatural golden subject but a well-balanced background. The subject looks so out of place and the golden glow the subject acquired from the Reflector doesn’t look like it's from the sun, instead, it feels like a one-point lighting rig with a warm gel shining on it.
I also believe I should’ve gathered more Behind the Scenes footage to showcase evidence of where I placed the Reflector and how far away I was. However, I would’ve found this hard to do as I only had the subject and myself there, the Reflector required two hands to hold steady which is why I couldn’t do this.
Grading Experimentation
For the Grading Experimentation, I attempted to achieve the same results with two methods: Colour Gels in front of Lights and DaVinci Resolve’s Color Wheels. Colour Gels were an item I had never thought about using to grade footage as I always only ever associated grading in post-production however, I decided I wanted to make my project complex by trying out a whole new way of grading and that was within the filming element instead of post.
What went well about this Experimentation was it showed me the flaws of Lighting Gels and why grading in post, in my opinion, will always be superior and a necessary step to any content. Initially, the two shots could be matched and provide the same results when choosing one colour. But grading in post took the superior place due to flexibility and the short time it takes to achieve a simple look.
How I feel I could’ve improved on my Experimentation looking back at it was picking a variety of colours to grade with when it came to the Colour Gels. The colour gels could have provided a better look when it came to different colours which may have enticed me to use them more. But even if they did, Colour Grading in post-production is an element I would not have gotten rid of as I still believe it is an important step of creating a Short Film.
Conclusion
To conclude Week 8, I am really happy with how my Practical Experimentation went as I feel I am ready to put what I have learnt from this into my Production next week, as I am now better equipped with the most efficient ways to light my shots and grade them.
Action Plan
For the first week of Production, a target that I am going to set myself is to make sure I am implementing the techniques I have experimented with throughout this week and especially to showcase evidence of this as this is necessary when it comes to the Final Evaluation to visually show the link between my Experimentation and the Final Outcome.
Problem Solving
When it came to Experimenting with Colour Gels, I initially couldn't figure out how to place the Gel inside of the Lighting rig, every time I thought I had it in place I couldn’t secure it and it would fall out. This made me stressed and realised how little I had used Lighting rigs in the past as I didn’t have the faintest idea of how to set a gel up inside of it. This just backs up my reasoning for taking on Lighting for my practical experimentation as it is an area that I have hardly touched on throughout my FMP therefore, ensuring I can learn it and make my project complex.
So, to resolve this issue I got my mate Charlie who was here helping act in my Experimentation, to try and put the color gel in. I knew Charlie had more experience with these than me as he used Lighting thoroughly through his PYO project, and he successful was able to fit the two colours into in front of the light, and secure them in place.
To ensure this does not occur again, I got Charlie to give me a demonstration of how to fit the gels in there, taking me step by step through the process which allowed me to try it myself and I was thankfully successful. From this, I can now successfully use the Gels on Production Days if I so wish to.
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