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Just a note...lighting is under appriciated

L

Libby

I am taking a production class. I am gung ho about learning to use the camera and sound system and where to place what and eventually editing.

What I forgot about was the importance of lighting. This place where I am taking production classes has a small studio with quite a number of lights above, each one its own entity. Taking a ladder (not me, someone else) around and moving them just so slightly and dimming one light while enhancing another. Placing gels on another light and so on. A back light for reasons I forgot - to separte the subject from the background I think.

I don't know if there is a rule of thumb but it seems to be the one thing that is lost on me. Perhaps because it is something I forgot to think about in this whole filmmaking thing.

I was watching a tv show last night and was trying to note the lighting, noticing whats not there are shadows. Very well lit faces.

Just something to observe in future.
 
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Okay so I bought this hand held workmans light for under ten bucks at H.D. and one bigger one that sits on the ground. I did some trial and error with the lights, a flip video camera and a giant sized Barbie doll...who was seated at the bar.
I don't think it makes any difference as far as the camera is concerned because I know most cameras have difficulty filming in dark places...anyway...between the doll having too bright a face , too dark or some Alfred Hitchcock shadow lurking behind her, I finally did find a happy place for the lights to sit, the doll and the camera to make everything look somewhat normal (if normal is about a doll seated at a bar).

I am foreseeing lighting as being a big obstical for me...but here is what I think will happen...because I am thinking so much about it, it will turn out to be the best thing I can do...because now everything I think of regarding taking a camera and filming, is where and what are the lights?
 
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Probably creepy would be the word. I actually have two giant sized Barbies and didn't know where to put them..so one stands behind the bar and the other as a patron.
Atop the bar is a leglamp.
Cheesey? Trashy? Not sure.
 
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Check out the "Dogme95" film movement created by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. I'm not gonna explain what Dogme95 is but one of the rules is:


The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
 
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Keegan_T_OReilly said:
Check out the "Dogme95" film movement created by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. I'm not gonna explain what Dogme95 is but one of the rules is:


The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
Click to expand...

That would be fine if that's the style in which you film, but most of us don't (at least not once we know better :P)
 
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Keegan_T_OReilly said:
Check out the "Dogme95" film movement created by Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. I'm not gonna explain what Dogme95 is but one of the rules is:


The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
Click to expand...

I had a great screenwriting teacher once to said something that I think relates here. He was explaining the importance of ensuring that each of your characters speak with their own voice. A student pipes up, trying to be the smartest in the room, and says "But what about David Mamet? All of David Mamet's characters speak in the same voice?"

To which the instructor responded: "Yes, but that's David Mamet, and you're not David Mamet. If you do the same thing as him, everyone will simply recognize that you're just copying David Mamet. You need to find your own....."

And So On.

Dogme95 is really great if your name happens to be Von Trier or Vinterberg. (Full Disclosure: I was never all that impressed with the Dogme95 films - seemed like less of a stylistic choice and more of a way to get attention.) Just like uni-voiced characters work if your name is David Mamet, rampant homage works if your name is Tarantino, films where characters talk over each other works if your name is Altman, and so on.

Otherwise, either light your films or find your own reason not to.

I don't say this to single you out - but to point out that:

A: Imitation is transparent, and rarely works IMNSHO.

B: Lighting is important. AFAIK, Anti-Christ was not shot under Dogme95 rules.

It's fine to be inspired by something, but you have to find ways to make your work your own.
 
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I couldn't find anything on Dogme95-on youtube anyway.

I was setting up lights in the basement, trying to film down there and I discovered something - it was too friggen dark and to light the place to look somewhat normal, I would need stadium lights.
I was getting so frustrated yesterday...with this whole lighting thing. So I went outside under natural sun.
 
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dogma95 is basically a style of film making with a bunch of rules that have to be followed to be called a dogma95 film. To each their own but i can't say anything i haven't seen one all the way threw.
 
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