LIGHTING TESTING | nataliekidd

LIGHTING TEST PRODUCT

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We wanted to try out with projections so we used the school projection system onto the white screen. It took us ages to find a good projection, we wanted something like ink. We wanted to use it as a metaphor for our character to be corrupted and possessed by the ink which represents evil. After at last fourty minutes of looking we found one we really liked. It really slowly reveals itself until the whole screen is completely covered. The lines represent her being tied down and contained. We were really happy with how it turned out and how black it came out. The only lighting we used was the projector and the black was black enough to be effective. This was partly down to the colour correction we used in post-production, increasing the contrast and saturation made the colours brighter and the blacks more striking. The mixture of the lines and the ink is really good and the flashes also bring another dynamic to it. The lines follow her body really well. I like one of the lines halfway through that curves down and almost perfectly follow her tummy and chest.

I really liked the colours, we used a blue and a pink light, both towards the left. Colour correction in post production increased the contrast and saturation as well as making the highlights more yellow and the low lights more blue. I would improve this by adding more detail on the left side of her face, possibly by darkening the light, moving it further away or diffusing it. I would also put a low key light behind and to the side of her head, to bring out more detail in the right side of her face as it just disappears into darkness. I did like the shadow however and this meant she needed to be quite close to the screen, which would have made it hard to put a back light on.

The first thing I would change would be the framing. It looks less natural for her to be centre frame as she is turned to the side, it would be more natural if I gave her more looking room, moving her more towards the left of the frame. I like the pink filter on the light as it makes the screen in the back look really nice and gives almost a pink gradient. I like the way the shadow falls on her cheek but the lighting is too high key and washed out. I could potentially solve this by moving the light further away or using something to diffuse the light or bounce it off of a reflector. I want her whole face to have as much definition and shadow as her nose does. This could also be improved by back light to the side and behind her a bit, even if it was a very dull light, as it would help differentiate between the back of her head and the shadow.

This was my favourite of the shoot. We used two lights with pink and blue filters on again, with the blue to the left and the pink to the right, both more central than in the last set up. I loved the detail in the face and the shadows created were exactly what I was looking for. The shadow behind her is a light blue and not so intense that the side of her head disappears into it. The waves in Beth's hair created lots of different colours and shadows and was a really good texture. I like the contrast of the blue and the pink, especially with the background being half of each. This could be used to represent a conflict within a character as the different colours being very different emotions, with blue being used for sadness and cold and pink being used with love and warmth.

I really liked how in this one you cannot see Beth until the lightening strikes and she shows up. This makes it much more of a shock and more effective. We moved Beth around so that it flashes across her face, making it seem as if the lightening is part of her. We found out that we could not use and other lights apart from the projector as it meant it washed out the image projected and it didn't show up properly. Another big problem we faced was stopping the shadow of the camera on the tripod from being on the screen. It took a while to fix this, but we finally did it by making the camera further away and as low as we could get it without an extreme low angle.

The lighting of this needs to be a big less bright. We used a yellow filter and it makes a more natural looking colour on her face, but I think it is a big boring. This would have benefited from using more than one light, and potentially using a diffusion method on the light on the right side. This would have made sure she wasnt so flushed out and there was more definition on her face. I did however like her collar bones in this as they are nicely highlighted, it could have benefitted from the light not being directly on it.

I tried to match the camera movement to projection, moving it from side to side and shaking it around like the twisting of the snake like shapes on the screen. The figures look really cool underneath it as you don't really know what is going on, creating enigma codes. I like how strong the pattern still was on top of the actors, the projection was strong enough for it to still be effective like this. You can still tell there is something there as it is darker and the shaped are moves slightly. We found that the colour and darkness of the think underneath, whether it was clothes or skin, affected the strength and colour of the projection, becoming a darker blue on their faces.

(Click on the photo to scroll to the next) these show how effective the projects were, we were so happy with how they turned out. It looks like a on computer animation, you wouldn't assume we were filming a screen with a projection on. I like the pattern as it demands attention. It's not like the ink that interacts with the actors, this completely over powers them, which means it could be used in a completely different way. It would be good to show a drug trip or hallucinating.

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