LIGHTS, CAMERA, LIGHTS AGAIN

And so, I began the long-awaited production process for the movie opening. The results were... rather disappointing. I had planned on using a yellow-ish desk lamp (the one featured in my prop-making post) to create the "academia" feel. However, not only was the light irreversibly attached to the computer cord and other cables, it was also too heavy to be manipulated. With that, I had to resort to my own desk lamp, which, as opposed to the intended one, does not cast the warm glow - it is very brightly white. But perhaps this inconvenience was for the best since, from my other experiments with the lights, I discovered that two different sources are necessary. 

The setting of my "studio" allows for two options: facing the door or facing the family portraits. Because I can't move everything around, my solution was to create a "blind spot" by directing the beams towards the camera. This way, I can have the focus on my subject, and a dark, indistinguishable (almost) background. The same effect can also be achieved by placing the lamp right beside the camera.

 

In addition to that, it is taking me a while to figure out the perfect angles so that the lighting behaves the way I want it, and so the production will look uniform and not simply different shots compiled together. Below you can see one of my attempts at getting the illumination right. Using the two sources as the key and fill lights would not work in this situation; although the opening is centered around a realist plot, using a more "natural" lighting takes away from the darker tones I want to convey.

Even better, the darker background, paired with the correct lighting, can give the impression that the warmer light is being used, as seen in the second picture above. Still, that may just have been because the paper used is less "vibrant."

Below are some of my attempts at controlling the lighting and getting the right shots - both were... less than successful, but I will work on improving them.

 

 (this last clip shows another problem I mean to avoid: the light beam can be seen in the shot, and betrays the "darkness" I am trying to build)

 

I tried to record myself filming the scene, but the video was too big, and so I am unable to post it. I'll try to figure that out too, to give a look on the process of finding the perfect angles. But I guess that's a job for the next post.