Studio Shoot - Lighting the Set + Evaluation

As my role in the production was to light the set, I liased with the Cinematographer (Charlie) and we decided that we wanted a gloomy/dark, low key style during the opening scene. This would give the scene a depressing/cold feel, indicating to the audience that this is an uncomfortable situation for the character.

We began by using a spotlight facing towards the actor, thus giving us a harsh shadow which projected onto the furthest wall. Two lights were used to fill the rest of the set, however it was a challenge to create this as we didn't want those lights to interfere with the character's shadow (therefore creating multiple shadows).

The shot of the character breaking through into the creative world was a successfully lit scene (I preferred this scene as it turned out as I'd hoped). We used a smoke machine to accentuate the harsh light protruding into the 'Creative world'. The harsh light was intended to simulate the eyes focusing from a dark environment to light, therefore creating a white light in the background.

The TV scene didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, as the character can barely be seen during this part. The way in which we could have rectified this is by adding a stronger light from behind the TV's, however we had hoped that the TVs would create a strong enough light to create an outline for the actor. We had tried adding a background light with a blue gel, however it didn't produce a strong enough light (as shown in the above picture).

Another flaw I noticed when watching back the footage was the fact that there were a couple of inconsistencies with the shadows during the first scene.

I analysed the above still which is the first shot of the film. The wall behind the actor shows one shadow (also includes the shadow of the guard), however in the same shot we can see another shadow which was created from a different light. This was difficult to fix as we had to use a spotlight in front of the set in order to create the shadow for the right side. The biggest problem for this was the fact that a later shot (picture below) shows that the shadow is harsher on the back wall (as opposed to the left sided wall).

In conclusion , despite the small gripes I had with the consistency of the lighting, I am very happy in the way the film turned out. The amount of effort and teamwork that went into this production is something that I enjoyed and hope to work in a similar kind of work ethic again. 

My role for lighting was a new experience in which I was excited to try and have an input in the way the audience could interpret a scene just by how a set was lit. It was a tricky process to have to try and get the perfect balance of light on set but with the help of Charlie (Cinematographer), Tori (Lighting), Laura (Director) and Chloe (First AD) I was able to get feedback and suggestions on how they thought the scene should be lit. Although it may not be perfect, I believe that the edited footage gave the film an intentionally dark/gloomy look, which alludes to my research on prison films/scenes (such as Bronson and The Dark Knight). I also enjoyed working closely with Charlie as she had a lot of input and advice on how to light the set accordingly. I think that the way to improve on my role on lighting would be to test out some more styles of lighting, however I believe that with the amount of time we had to test the lighting, it was impossible to try all the different styles.

Overall it may not be the most professional looking outcome, but I believe that with the timescale that we had (we only had a day to film without any time for rehearsals), our efforts show on screen and I am pleased with the way it turned out. The teamwork was the main focus of this production and it was great to be a part of it.