7. Lighting Examples

My philosophy on light is that I like a lot of it and I like it to stand out. I enjoy lighting that draws attention to itself. For example:

I like when you can see light rays on film, I like glare, I like lens flare, I like excessive light. What I want from my lighting is heightened reality.

Notice the lens flare here and the silhouette-type effect on the woman. This is not how we see people; it's better.

Here, too, I like the flooding of light on the left side of the frame and the way the light diffuses through her hair. The light is purposeful and gives personality to the girl in the picture. 

This is what a lot of women might consider a "fairy tale" lighting scenario; another example of heightened reality. The brightest light rims the couple's heads and makes it seem like the angels themselves are smiling down on their love from above. There are also some great rays filtering through and a nice golden tone to the light which matches nicely to the washed out film. 

In this picture I especially like the big block of light above the kid. It looks like a big torrent of rain falling just for him. I like the glare and the fact that the subject was kept in silhouette. I'm not sure why they chose to make this yellow but I think it works. It makes it look more like a nice, refreshing summer rain. 

 This picture has some great blocks of colored light in the background framing the flower in the foreground, especially the one block of pink. The depth of field does so much more than isolate the subject here. It puts it on a canvas of bright, unfocused light, almost as if it were a painting.

 The color contrast from one side of the frame to the other is the best part of this picture. Centering the tree in silhouette lets it act as a wall between the blue-black of dusk and the golden-purple of dawn. If you removed the tree, you would essentially have diagonal swaths of black -> blue -> orange -> yellow. It may have been accidental, but it's beautiful.

Last but not least, I love the way the subject (in this case a homesick alien) is put against a bright, textured circle of color (in this case the moon). The exposure is just right, too, making the surface of the moon into a starburst/glare effect.

6. Portrait of an Event

Campus Morning
Director: Justin Sandlin
DP: Sean Dave
Song by Imogen Heap.

5. Pre-Production for Portrait

For the Portrait of a Place/Event assignment, I worked with Sean and we switched roles between Director/DP for each project. For his project he chose to do an eerie, atmospheric portrait of Old Bryce. There was little pre-production in the way of planning the final product because we didn't have access to the location beforehand. We used the Sony HDV and brought equipment to basically capture whatever sights/sounds/feelings we had while on location. That worked well for this project because we weren't hindered by anything except time and weather, so we were able to get plenty of shots that fit the bill for being moody or atmospheric. Overall I'm happy with the finished product.
For my portrait I decided to stay on campus and do a piece that showed the campus "waking up" and starting the day. I threw around ideas with Sean about what specific shots I wanted, such as the students at crosswalks, the quad in the early morning, coffee being dispensed, etc. I kept a list of the shots I knew I wanted, and then I basically gave Sean free reign to get anything else that he thought would be visually interesting. The result, of course, was a better and more diverse collection of footage to work with. We brought minimal equipment (basically just an HDV, some filters, and a tripod) and worked for about four hours one morning. It was a very peaceful and enjoyable shoot, which I attribute to a good balance of pre-planning and making room for spontaneity.

4. Reflections So Far

So far in 312 I have gained a much better understanding of the motivation behind creative decisions in film. Often when I would see something that looked odd, I would think "They did that wrong." But, more likely, the filmmakers intended to make something a certain way and I just didn't like it. I think the readings from the cinematography book about visual inspirations and our class discussions were really enlightening. I have also enjoyed using different cameras and I'm excited to experiment with the bigger cameras and DSLRs. I'm also learning more all the time about how a production operates and what decisions are made by which people.

I would say, objectively, my strengths are my narrative logic and my communication skills- those come very naturally. Composition doesn't come as easily, and I have to basically play with light until I get something that looks decent, so those are weak spots. The most rewarding thing is just feeling more knowledgeable at the end of each week and being excited for myself. I've listened to a lot of lectures and read a lot of books for other classes that I didn't learn from, so it's refreshing to be constantly pushing into new territories and having so much great material at my disposal.