Lighting practise

Lighting practice

 

We have been practicing a variety of shots with different lighting to create a specific effect on the viewer. There are a range of techniques that can be used to portray a character to be a protagonist, antagonist, or merely just a sinister persona.

Backlight

 Firstly we practiced having a large amount of natural light near or behind our target in order to darken the scene and create some sort of a silhouette around them. This technique is often used before the reveal of the character that may play an important role, to help build suspense and anticipation to who, or what, they may be.

Focused light

 

For this effect we used a torch to give off a direct beam of light towards the subject. This helps to darken out the rest of the scene and encourage the audience to focus on where the light is. This is often used in horror films when someone is in a poorly lit house or factory then a beam from a torch decides what the audience will see and where they will look. The fact of the audience having no control or what they must see creates suspense and fear as to what may happen next.

 





Close lighting

This technique involves using two different intensities of light to show both the focus character and a particular scene occurring in the background but with less focus. Here we have a bright, artificial light at the front aimed towards the main character to show focus on them but with a slightly darker light in the background on the other two characters to show that they still have involvement but may be a slightly less important role in the scene.

 

 







 

 

 

Seven textual analysis

In the opening sequence of Seven, the two detectives are walking down the street and the younger detective (Brad Pitt) keeps bumping into people portraying his character as inexperienced and reckless whereas the older detective (Morgan Freeman) doesn't bump into anyone which depicts his character as wiser and more composed on the job. Also in the mise en scene, Morgan Freeman's character requires a metronome to get to sleep which could infer that his job is keeping him up at night.

When the two detectives are walking down the street, a low angle tracking shot is used to place focus on the two men and could be shown to assert dominance and portray them as authority figures. An over the shoulder shot is used when Morgan Freeman's character is getting ready and it shows him wearing smart clothes which infers to us that this character takes pride in what they do. 

During the opening credits the sound is uneasy and the overall score has a discomforting effect on the viewer which makes it clear that they may find the film as a whole uncomfortable which may be the writers intention. Also the overall score is not synchronous to the movement and transitions of the titles which shows that there is something strange occurring and something not 100% there. This could reflect the type of thriller which is a psychological and people who have psychological issues are seen to be not fully there and with it, just like the sound and titles.

Editing is used to great effect in the opening titles, it uses cuts and they get quick as the sequence progresses, this creates suspense and leaves the viewer curios to what the film has to offer. Also the title sequence creates a sinister tone and is very dramatic which again builds suspense and leaves the viewers wondering what the thriller contains.

Textual analysis using 'Art of the Title'

Evaluation Questions

This is the link to my evaluation on my preliminary task presented on Prezi.

Finished preliminary task

We have completed our preliminary task and it is available to watch below. Enjoy!

Preliminary task brief and shot types we will use.

For my preliminary task it will involve filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.




I am working with James Hawkins, and Linden Whitehead.


My role is to help direct and act in the short video.
Lindens role is to film and edit the video.
James' role is to direct and film the short video.




Match on action - where you cut to different shots but still show one continuous action.


Shot/reverse shot - where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.


180 degree rule - a fundamental rule where the camera does not pass an invisible axis of 180 degrees, otherwise perspectives change and continuity error are likely to occur.

Shot types practice

 Shot/reverse shot to show characters in conversation and to see each others response to the other.

Low angle shot to show dominace and power of one character.

Extreme close up is used to show important detail or gesture, for example the fist could represent what is to happen in the next scene.

Long shot to show the character from a distance or to set the scene.

                                                      

Establishing shot is used at the  beginning of a clip to set the scene.