2013 Post 12: Media Language Lighting 2 (Quality & Direction)

Over the past week I have been focusing on lighting and a great video to watch to focus on lighting is Madonna's Vogue music video, it uses elements of light very well to highlight important features that the music video includes. These features highlight importance when watching the video and it is clearly visual with what the lighting used is trying to achieve. When watching the film for the first time we sat down and watched the video together, after we had watched the whole clip we started talking about what types and styles of light have been used and why they have been used.

In this picture it is clearly visible to see Madonna's face highlighted by light being used, we also had to think where the lighting would be coming from to create this effect of highlighting a key character in a video. In the picture I understand that the light is coming from in front of Madonna and it is above head height as there are shadows being created under her chin. After talking about this in our group and with our teacher the task became easier and easier as we had more idea of how and why lighting has being used.

In this picture a male is highlighted on the right of the photograph and the male on the left is in a darker toned lighting. This is because the male on the right needs to be highlighted as he has a bigger part to play in the music video then the character on the left. When watching the video it is clear what Madonna and the lighting used is trying to achieve, the actors who have a larger part in the video will often be highlighted to make this more clear to the viewers.

I have used this picture to show how light can be used from different angles to highlight objects that are important towards the film. For example in this picture it is clear that the highlighted object would be the small pillar as it has a important object on top that may have a effect on the film or what happens next. In the picture the light being sued has come from the right of the male character, I know this as there is a large shadow behind the male character and the lighting used would be coming from a high/mid angle as the shadow is bigger then the character.

In this photograph there are two highlighted areas that use artificial lighting, the lighting used highlights two areas that almost seem to be glowing. Madonna has used this style of lighting to create a glow effect and the glow is easy to create as it is a rectangular base that has lights behind it, this is a simple effect used and it creates a glowing effect where necessary. The pathway Madonna has created looks like she is going to be walking out to heaven, this shows how high class Madonna is as she has used lighting to highlight importance.

There are two types of different lighting that can be used when creating a video using lighting, the two tpyed of lighting that can be used are hard and soft. The soft lighting is more direct on a persons face that still shows details that are visible. Hard lighting is more doll and dark but focus's on creating shadows and effects around the character rather then focusing on using colour and a soft shadow. In the photographs below there are two types of lighting used, the picture on the right is hard lighting as it's doll and dark and creates shadows around the characters nose and eyes. The soft lighting photograph on the left is easier to see visually as it doesnt use dark lighting effects and is still in colour, this is what all soft lighting effects will look like visually.

2013 Post 11: Media Language - Lighting 1 (Shape & Texture)

When preparing for our short film we needed to take into consideration the qaulity of video production through technical elements such as lighting We devided these sections into two as we thought that this would help when starting to film out project. These two elements were direction and quality as we thought that these would be most nescesary to focus on when filming out short film. The quality of our filming would have been to focus on the illumination given to the viewers, for example hard and soft shadows will be used to create effects throughout our short film.

On the right is a example photograph oh hard lighting being used when using quality in filming, it is clear that it is irect light source creating bold shadows with crisp textures and edges. 

The second element of lighting is a soft shadow, this shadow would be used to highlight textures as this is a indirect lighting. This would be used to create blur contours and textures and there are softer contrasts and shadows between the light and shade.

The direction of light focuses on the specific light source and where it has been positioned in order to make the shot. For example how it bounces off the different surfaces after being positioned at either the front, back, side or above. Ultimately every light source has a point where it is at its brightest.

After the two varieties of the elements of lighting had been defind we then watched a example video where the two elements of lighting had been used the most. The example video that we watched was on youtube and this was Madonna's Vogue music video as it captured and used  great ammount of light resources. When watching the video we had to identify where hard and soft lighting had been used, this was very helpful because at the start when exaplinign hard and soft lighting it was very complicated, but when looking at examples where hard lighting had been used it was clear to spot the differences within each element.

Not only does the video use the Film Noir effect it also includes distinctive soft light sources where in which images have blurred contours and textures. This is most noticeably seen on the faces of characters, they appear to not have defined shapes or curves and a lot of the women’s clothing is unclear due to the softer light source illuminating the clothing.

After analysing the different elements of lighting and defining the quality and direct aspects to lighting by understanding has improved dramatically. I now have a better understanding of the different effects of lighting and how it can change the films affect and tone easily. When it comes to creating our own short films it is important for us to consider the different light sources available and how they will in due course help convey different moods for the characters. The workshop has made me realise that during the planning for our short film we need to consider the lighting and how effective it will be. It is also important for us to remember and use the different types of equipment to manipulate the light. This includes using barn doors and light diffusers. 

In this video it shows the effect used creates a blind effect which was made by myself. To make this effect I used a large peice of card and simply marked out rectangular guide lines for me to cut using a craft knife and cutting mat.After I had cut these rectangular peices out I then used the light to penetrate through the blind creating this effect. My group and I will be discussing whether this effect will be needed to use in our short film as it can be used to highlight facial features that will be recognised by the audience.

2013 Media Language - Lighting 1 (Shape & Texture)

When creating our short film, the aspect of style is massively important towards our end product. Throughout our planning and development stages of our short film we knew that lighting was a key effect within the films production process.

Film Noir

When researching lighting "Film Noir" was a great example of how light can be used to add effects and create a feeling within the viewers. "Film Noir" was often highlighted as the aspect of the films style, this is also refereed as a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, one that particularly emphasise cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. The time period that classic film Noir was used was stretched around the 1940's to 1950's and was used in some of Hollywood's greatest films to highlight important characters to give the viewers a more clear understanding. Film Noir of this era is associated with low key, black and white, visual style with both bright lights and effective shadowing.

 Film Noir usually contained a character who contained a cynical, hard hearted male character who encounters a beautiful promiscuous amoral, double dealing and seductive female. This theme and style is clearly linked to the era that film Noir was first established as woman had more power over Male's but this was shown differently in film Noir as woman's roles on screen did suffer. The photos situated to the left and the right of my text are examples of film noir ways of lighting.

As a group we all watched a short film based on Film Noir as this helped us choose our lighting techniques when using lighting for our short film. When watching the film we had to focus on the angle of the lights and how the variety of positions and techniques can vary, we watched this very carefully as there was alot of information to take in. Lighting is commonly used to highlight and create shadows that can be used to manipulate the space of the different scenes. There are two different types of shadows and these are:

• Attached shadows: Attached shadows occur when lighting doesn’t illuminate parts of the object due to its shape and size.
• Cast shadows: A cast shadow is when objects block the light source and “cast” a shadow.

When using lighting it can be used for a variety of effects, for example lighting can be used to highlight a charcters importance in a film, for example the film named 'Lolita' is a great example of this as she has been highlighted throughout the film where she takes part in, this highlight her great looks for the male viewers.

On the right I have used a example photograph that i found on Google. When looking at this photo it is clear that the male standing up is highlighted.The blinds appear to be blocking the light source from the outside sunlight and are forming a cast shadow onto the man standing directly opposite. The man has noticeable lines across his body from the pattern of the blind, this can reinforce the theme of being imprisoned. The noticeable pattern draws attention to him rather than the man positioned on the chair.  

2013 Post 10: Script Feedback

When we had completed our srcipt within our group we had checked over it to make sure there were no errors and we also had to check that the language used was appropriate for our target audience. After we had double checked our script it was ready to be shown to our target audience so we selected a few random people and showed them the script. By doing this they gave us feedback of what they thougth could be improved and what was needed to be done to make it complete. This feedback was very helpful as it gave us more idea's on what could be done to make our script suit our film more, the feedback was taken into consideration and as a group we looked over it to create more ideas.

The main feedback point was to make sure the characters part in the script were suitable for there ages and ability, for example the girls are very young so this means that they have to use words appropriate for there age. The feedback given was also helpful as Alan used words that the girls would not have understand, we simply changed these words as one of the target audiences that gave us feedback said that the words used were not appropriate.

2013 Post 9: Script Workshop 2

When working on the script we worked in a group as we all has to participate on improving the script and all of us gave idea's and opinions on what we thought would help improve the script. As a group we all sat around a table and worked as hard as possible to create a script that we were proud of, we all gave opinions towards what would improve the script and we took on what everyone said even if it wasn't worth doing it still gave us idea's and helped create out final piece.

There were many rules that we had to stick to as we used two young girls as as characters so our language had to be necessary to suit the girls ages. This was hard to stick to but luckily Alex, a member of our group has dealt with younger children as her mum is a carer so she had a good understanding of the language used by younger children. The main discussion that was relevant towards our script was how we would get the point across to the viewers that Alan is a groomer, we did not want to make it to obvious as this would have made our film a lot shorter and would have less of a meaning. We wanted to show the viewers the stages of a groomer so we had to make the script work it's way up so the viewers could then realise what Alan actually was. We needed to make it appropriate for Alan so we couldn't have a script that was too graphical so we created the script so it was very suttle and disguised.

Post 8 – Script Workshop

Over the past few weeks we have been researching important information that is relevant towards our final project; we have researched online and looked at many sites that give us details towards sexual grooming. First of all we thought of appropriate characters that would be needed for our short film, we looked at examples of who had been groomed in the past from the internet and ages of potential groomers. After we had done some serious research towards grooming and finding out important facts we then started to come up with a few ideas for relevant characters. In our group we sat down and discussed who we thought would be right for our film, if we use unsuitable characters then this may not get the point that we want to achieve across to the viewers. This is a key point of our film and we want the story of the film to be easy to understand, this will give the viewers more of an idea of who is being groomed and concerns that will lead to grooming. We also carried out some further research involving a member of staff who deals with the child protection act at our school. We asked the member of staff nicely to have a interview with us and give us some examples of what has happened in the past and how he has made rules to prevent this. The information he gave us was very relevant towards our project, the facts he gave us really did help with our project as we did not know this information before the interview. Before starting the interview we did come up with some relevant questions that were appropriate to ask, we also recorded the interview so no information was lost in the process, after this we then listened to the interview back and made some very crucial points for our short film outcome.

Before starting to write the script we needed a short story line for us to plan our script on, if we had not of done this then plotting the script would have been very hard. We discussed this in a small group around a school desk and focused on the script and how many actors we would need. Alex and Katie said that we needed to keep the script as basic as possible but create a story line that viewers will understand easily with no confusion. When discussing the script many errors and mistakes did appear but this was all in the process of making a successful script. The script features two young girls; one named Sophie who is being groomed in a disguised way by a character named Alan (The groomer). Alan has a daughter of his own named Paige who loves to have Sophie stay round and learn mathematics together. Sophie and Paige are good friends as they go to school together, they also focus on swimming together and race in many galas. This is a very short plot of how the story develops and we used this idea to create the script and make it a short film. The script had to be re-drafted many times but this was not a problem, we did this over and over again as we knew that every time we did this then the script would get better and this is how we developed the script. When working on the script we all had individual parts to take on, for example I stuck to a scene where Alan is approached by Police, this was a great idea as we all had a chance to show how we wanted a part of the script to go. This was also a very fair way of sharing the script, If we had let one person finish it then we could have disagreed and it would have been unfair as people in our group wanted to share their thoughts and opinions on what they thought would be a high standard script.

 

ND Neutral Density

Neutral density filter or ND filter will reduce the amount of light entering the camera, enabling a longer exposure time than otherwise possible. This can emphasise motion, or make a scene seem more real as the shot will be more in focus and will also make characters in films look more surprised when using a ND filter. Alternatively, an ND filter also enables larger apertures, which can produce a shallower depth of field, or achieve a sharper photo. Either way, this is a useful and often under-appreciated filter that deserves a deeper look. ND filters are also one of the easiest filters to use, and their effect cannot be replicated digitally at least not with a single shot.

We will be using the ND filter in our film when Alan is talking to Sophie and he seems surprised, this will give a clearer effect as the shot will be more sharp and focused. This is because the F setting on the camera will be lower to create more light into the camera making the shot more sharp, when the F setting is higher then this will reduce the light getting into the lens making the shot more dark and unfocused.

Colour Gels CTO + CTB

Colour Gels

In our group we carried out a Colour test using colour correction Gels, by using colour gels, or filters, is a process used in stage lighting, photography, television, cinematography and other disciplines. Colour gels are used to alter the lighting to make it brighter a blue gel would be used to warm the screen up, and an orange colour gel will cool the room down. In our group we thought the colour gels would be the opposite way around, I myself thought the blue colour gel would cool the room down but it does the opposite to this, the orange gel in fact cools the room down and the blue makes the room more warm and bright. Without colour correction gels being used this can alter the light in the recorded scene causing light to vary throughout the clip, this can make the scene have bad continuity as the light will change in each shot. Applying colour correction gels in front of light sources can alter the colour of the various light sources to match. Mixed lighting can produce an undesirable aesthetic when displayed on a television or in a theatre. In our group we used ½ and ¼ orange and blue colour gels; we covered the lighting with the gels and made sure all the wires from the lights were covered with black electrical tape to make sure it was safe.

White Balance test

In photography and the film industry white balance is a key part of making the colour realistic, Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "colour temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. Our eyes are very good at judging what is white under different light sources, but digital cameras often have great difficulty with auto white balance (AWB) and can create unsightly blue, orange, or even green colour casts. Understanding digital white balance can help you avoid these colour casts, thereby improving your photos under a wider range of lighting conditions. We used our colour correction gels to help us create a bright or cool lighting and we used the colours blue and orange, when we used the white balance setting on the camera we held the colour gel over the camera, then the camera automatically adjusted it’s colour temperature to how the environment’s temperature is.

Lighting test to see the values of using Colour correction Gels

After we had completed our White balance test we then used the colour correction gels to create emotion on our characters face, for example I was the actor and we used Green and Red colour gels to bring out a emotional effect that can be seen easier when the camera is recording. To do this we covered the lighting with the colour gels using crocodile clips to make sure the gels were at a safe distance from the lights as they can heat up very fast causing a high temperature so could be very dangerous. In this test we also made sure all the wires from the lights were covered up with black electrical tape so that all students in our group were at full safety.

2013 Post 6: Media Language - Editing

When speaking about media language we must know that editing is a massive part of completing our project as a group, this is vital towards our final grade as this is how we will be putting our film together. When we talk about editing it’s not just effects and visual elements that are noticeable but it’s how smooth the editing of the film is, this is crucial as if our editing is not up to our standard then our film will be a lower grade. Editing is part of the creative post production process of filmmaking; this includes using a vast variety of different types of digital technology. A film editor would have to work with all the footage captured by the group, they would then have to select shots and combine them into sequences to create a finished motion picture.

A montage is when a filmmaker will produce a series of shots that will reduce time and information, montages will mostly be used for flash backs or condensing space. We will be producing a montage for our film that relates with how Alan feels about Sophie as he is having a hard time trying to figure out what he wants.

Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer; he was most famous as a director with Thomas Edison’s company. He made some very famous films such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In 1999 Porter joined the Edison manufacturing Company. Soon after this he took charge of motion pictures creating many montages that are relevant for his films. He took charge of motion picture production at Edison's New York studios, operating the camera, directing the actors, and assembling the final print. After this he became the most influential film maker in the United States and he began by making trick films and comedies for Edison.

Post 5: Researching Short Film Content (3)

 The research that was most needed for our project was facts on sexual grooming and how grooming can develop. When researching we found some suitable facts that were very helpful with our additional research that will definitely help us with our final outcome. We needed to know the stages of grooming, how a groomer would act around children that he hasn't spoke to or hasn't had any contact with and how a groomer would act around there daughter or son. When we went online and researched this topic there were many inappropriate details that were not needed for our project, we avoided these articles and made a load of notes that would help with our short film that were appropriate.

I have carried out much research that will help me and my group, the research I have done is crucial towards our final outcome and contains researching existing films online that contain relevant content with grooming. The main type of research that I used was the Internet, I had found out some interesting already existing films and I then searched them on Google and got some very interesting facts that would help to develop our film. The films that I researched were related to grooming and they gave us some very crucial information that is relevant towards our film, when I had found out this information I took notes and listed down the key points that would be needed for our group.

In class we looked at many examples of films that are related to the topic that our group has chosen, films such as ‘The Lovely Bones’ and this is a novel that had been released in 2002, it is a story of a teenage girl who after being raped and murdered watches her family and friends from Heaven struggle to recover after she comes to terms with her own death. We also looked at the famous Lolita as this also related to the topic chosen by our group, when looking at short films like this it helped us come up with idea's, it made us think of what we can come up with to produce a high quality short film that we can be proud of.

2013: Post 4: Researching Short Film Content (2)

Lolita is a Novel by Vladimir Nabokov, written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York. The Novel is a story told from a sexual groomer’s point of view. We all agreed that reading the book or watching part of the film would be good idea as it would give us more of an idea of what a sexual groomer would do to attract the opposite gender.  The main Character of the book is a man named ‘Humbert Humbert’, a literary scholar, who has harboured a long-time obsession with young girls; he suggests that this was caused by the death of a premature sweetheart, Annabel Leigh. Humbert then moves to Ramsdale a small Town in England, where he is then shown around the house by Charlotte, it is here that Humbert then notices Charlotte’s 12-year-old daughter named Lolita and immediatly falls in love with her. Later on in the book Humbert gets married to Charlotte so he can keep seeing her named Lolita that he loves.



Jeremy Irons as Humbert in the film Lolita (picture shown on Google images



This research was very helpful to our film as it gave our group more of how our script could end, we also gained an idea as to how we should structure our storyline. It also gave us a great idea on how old we would need our actresses to be and how our main character Alan would look. When reading the book I also took some note's on the ways and techniques that Humbert would use to disquise himself from being a groomer. This is very useful to me and my group as we initially found it very difficult to camouflage the fact that Alan is a groomer. This is because we were keen to build qeustions in the audiences minds as to whether he was or wasnt at fault. In the book there are many interesting facts that helped us within our group, these facts were mainly based on how a groomer would prevent getting cought and how he would come in touch with the person being groomed, for example Mr. Humbert uses a young girls mother to see Lolita and he see's her when he is being showed around the house by her mother. The book also provided further ideas for our plot with regard to how groomers use and abuse their victims cares in order to gain access to them. This is predaminently ahcieved by building up a level of trust.

2013: Post 3: Researching Short Film Content (1)

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In order to create a good short film, we will need to carry out relevant research so that we are able to portray our characters realistically. Our chosen topic is sexual grooming and this is what we will base our film on. This is a very diffucult topic to base a film on as it can occur in every day life with family and friends.

In our group we thought it would be a great idea to interview a child protection officer to find out some very useful information that will help give us a idea of the stages followed by a groomer. Throughout the interview we spoke about many ways and techniques of grooming. We also heard about how sexual grooming develops and who would experience grooming. The child protection officer who we interviewed has had experience.

In our group we discussed before the interview what we wanted to get out of the Child Protection Officer, the questions we asked were all relevant towards our film and we all had the chance to ask what we wanted. We recorded the interview so that all the information that we found out would be permanent and we could replay this back to help us throughout our project. The child protection officer gave us some great information that was very useful for our understanding of grooming. Some great examples were given and some fantastic ideas for our film developed within our group. The most interesting information I excrtracted from the interview was that sexual abuse can happen in any family or set of circumstances and that carers are sometimes duped into believing that their child is being cared for when they are actually being sexually abused. This involves the groomer appearing trustworthy.

Post 2:How to write a good short film script?

In class we looked at two articles that are related to our short film, title, author and date of articles. These articles gave us an idea of what our film was going to be about, and also gave us some great information on the genre. The articles that we looked at were very helpful as they gave us facts and information on what the stages of grooming were. These stages are very important to our film as they will help us create a more convincing story that will guide the audience into the plot. After we had chosen what our film was going to be based on we started to research grooming online, I found out the steps and actions a sexual groomer would include to achieve his objective. The articles that I found online explored how a sexual groomer will come across and interact with his victims and a sexual groomer will try and defend their case. A groomer will come across as a very nice, genuine person and will bribe their target into thinking that they are friendly. They use a lot of tactics to make their target believe that they are trying to gain a bond or relationship.

The information that I am showing here is a small summary of my research from reading an article about what makes a successful short film. By carrying this research out within my group I can produce a higher standard short film, and considering the key points mentioned below.

The article indicates that following these 10 crucial steps will help in making a short film:

1. Script your story idea

2. While thinking of an idea, make sure you write something attractive to your viewers

3. Write an outline

4. Develop character motivations.

5. Include a dramatic event in the narrative.

6. Response

7. Storyboard individual scenes.

8. Show your finished product to friends, family, teachers, etc.

9. Receive feedback and see what can be improved

10. Preserve with group

By reading these steps it gives me a idea of how to start a short film as before I would have struggled when thinking of the stages needed to create a film. I can now consider these point within a group and begin our pre-production for our short film.

2013 Post 1 - Researching Existing Short Films Part A

That Old One

My first post is to research a short film and analyse it in detail. Throughout the short film I will be focusing on media language such as camera, editing, sound, costume and mise-en-scene. I will be textually analysing a short film because we have to create our own film that is approximately 5 minutes long.

The example of a short film that I looked at was ‘That Old One’, The film uses a variety of lighting effects to show the character's situation in a different perspective, for example different lightings have been used to show when the main character of the short film was lying and the type of light used is a back light and side light. A green light is used to highlight the character when he is doing something wrong, this makes it easier for the viewers to understand whats going on.

When the character is woken he is wearing a smart suit. The character is married but his wedding ring does not appear on his finger, he then starts panicking and the film cuts to the multitude of scenaries he has been in. The costumes throughout the film change because when he gets back home to see his wife he then starts to consider that his wife could have also been sleeping with another man, his wife’s costume then changes and she is wearing a long black dress to make her look more appealing to males. The editing used is non-linear; this means that the editing cuts from different situation throughout the film to show what really could have happened. In the film there is no set location, There is only three locations used throughout the film and this is the walk home, his house and the apartment of the female who he slept with.

There is a variety of shots used such as long shots and medium close ups, the main shot used is a view shot and this is used to show the expression of the character in different scenario’s. In this particular film there are a lot of different scenarios that have been shown, therefore the shots used must be correct to show emotion and feeling within the characters facial expressions. 

‘That Old One’ uses a lot of props in a very clever way, for example the character is drinking a coffee and when he goes to drink it he then realises that his marriage ring is not appearing on his finger, another example of props being used is the condom box that he has in his pocket, when he find the box in his pocket he realises that it has not been opened so starts to wonder if he had got the female he slept with pregnant. The main prop used in this short film is the wedding ring it’s self, if he had woken up with his wedding ring on then most of these situations would have been irrelevant, when he finds his wedding ring another prop had been used, he finds the ring attached to his house key’s that were in his pocket.