Advanced Lighting Workshop

 In this workshop, we  covered advanced lighting techniques in the film studio at school. We were introduced to the red head light and blonde light to demonstraight ways to make creative lighting techniques with photographic gel sheets, polystaring sheets and colour filters.

First thing to know is to turn off the mian house lights/ worker lights when oporating other lights. Turn them on when not using the other lighting to ensure nothing will break. 

The red head light was the first we were introduced to, it's feature is a netting over thr light incase ther bulb blows. Once you have chosen the lighting, set up the camera, with a 50mm mid length shot lens connected to a monitor screen and then place a model in center focus. 

The main use and advantage to the red head lighrs is that it portrays a warm light onto the set. once the camera and light is set up, adjust the exposure on the camera and move the camera as close as possible to the subject while in focus. First we were shown how to create key lighting. by putting a plasic, gell sheet of paper over th light, it softens the defined lines and sharp shadows to make a  softer light effect. 

To create 'Fill Lighting', set up another red head light in order to fill in the dark areas in the background  of the shot. To soften this light, put a piece of tracing paper over the light. However there is no defined contrast between the model and the background, so shine a blonde head light behind the model to seperte the model from blending into the darkness of the background behind. 

The next lighting technique we were shown called blade runner lighting. Firstly, turn off all front lighting and only leave the blonde lighting behind the model lit. Adust the depth of field on the camera setting to a shallow depth of field to ensure the modek's face is in focus.

 Using a polystaring board held up near her face, this bounces the light from the white polystaring back onto her face. To further soften the light, you can turn the power into the blonde light down. By using a matt box, this also will stop extra, exess light leaking into the camera and disrupting the shot. 

The next piece of lighting we were shown was fluorescent lighting. These tubes of light contain different colour gels. We then experimented by shining the fluorescent lights while using foreground and background lighting. Different colour fluorescent lights can portray different meanings, tones and moods to the shot and are highly effective. 

The final piece of lighting was Foto Flow lighting. This large rectangle light is good for shooting interviews as it reflects a sharp, warm light across the subject. 

From this workshop, it introduced me to new lights other than just soft box lighting, and also taught me new techniques and tricks to achieve a certain look and feel to the shot just by using photographic gels, lighting positioning and also by incorporating other materials to reflect the light. This workshop will be very useful when it comes to shooting my music video and to develop my ideas further.

Timeline

Here is our timeline which we created as a group to help us plan for the storyboard. The timeline shows what the band me members will be doing in each shot, and camera angle, at what time. 

Short Cast List

Here is our finalised casting list which we will re film as our call backs: 

Singer: 

Lottie Alford

Guitar:

Connie B

Bass: 

Cat D

Drums: 

Gina G

Incase we can't get these musicians to be in our music video we have also created a backup casting list: 

Singer: Connie B

Guitar: Emily B

Bass: Gina G

Drums: Neave VR

Cast List

 After running auditons and creating the casting video, here are the options for each instrament/singer: 

Guitar: 

Gina Gracia

Ella Watts

Ellie Previereio 

Matilde Damilio

Drummer: 

Neave Van't Riet

Emma Wright

Anna Cambell

Alice Silver

Singer: 

Abby Sparrow 

Arika Adams

Ella Overton

Lola Brown

Bass: 

Cat Donkin

Elodie Muncey

Casting video

Here is mine and my groups finished edited casting video. In our free time outside of class we auditioned potential guitarists, singers, drummers and bassists to cast in our music video. We filmed each audition and edited it onto iMovie.  

Advanced Camera Workshop 1

 In this camera workshop, we discussed the differences of fixed focus lenses, zoom lenses, and how to use a monitor. 

Firstly I learnt the differences of a zoom lens and prime lens. A zoom lens allows you to zoom and change the focal length, while a prime lens has a fixed focal length and cannot zoom in. 

I then looked at how the monitor works, its a large view finder which is connected to the camera. On the top left hand corner oif the screen, it says  the FPS and shutter speed. The shutter speed is used to capture the speed of the motion, so by changing the shutter speed on the settings it will wither capture a fast, sharp shot which is usually used when editing in slow-mo, sports, dancing and capturing perfomances. while a slower shutter speed such as 360 degrees, creates a blurred, dreamlike feel to the shot however it is less shakey and is a more smooth shot. But usually the natural setting on the shutter speed is 180 degrees. The FPS stands for frames per second, in the UK this is always going to be set to 25fps unless shooting in slow motion where this will change to 50fps. 

For our music videos, we will be using a prime lens as they have a fixed zoom and easier to focus. Our teacher showed us the box full of lenses, each lens had a fixed zoom which was written above it. We were also shown the tape measured technique in order to gain the perfect focus point. To do this we measured the distance from the camera to the subject, eg. 7ft away. From that information, we then adjust the focusing wheel to 7 in order to have a focused outcome. 

Usually for face shots in music videos, we should use an 85mm prime lens and for an establishing shot it is suggested ti use an 18mm to acheive that wide angle look. 

Legal Letter of Copyright Permission

 Given that we don't own this song, we seeked out the record label and contact information for our chosen song so that we could ask for permission to use this song as our music video. 

Here is our permission email to send to the record label/ownership of the band. 

Here is how we managed to find Grumpy Plums contact details online via FaceBook.