Reflective Blog — Camera
Working on a scene from the film — Caffeine Rush
This scene was shot in class during an afternoon session. Roles on set were chosen before shooting by the director. I was delegated Director of Photography.
Lighting the Scene
The request from the director was bright plain lighting, similar to that found in offices with strip lights in the ceiling. In order to achieve this affect we used two Kino Flos up high to the left and right of the room. The Kino Flos were both turned down to half their output with two bulbs out of four lit in each light. After some experimenting I found this to be the best setting for the lights to provide enough exposure in camera; with the Kino Flos on full the whole scene was over lit. This lighting was stark and blue and created quite a flat drab image, similar to that found in The Office mockumentary. This ‘look’ helped with storytelling by reflecting the protagonist’s feelings towards work and her job. We added a reflector to pick up the actor’s face and add a little definition. This lighting setup was basic but ensured the subjects were exposed enough.
Camera, Settings and lenses
The camera was setup with standard settings to the native ISO (800) with frame rate at 24fps and shutter speed at 1/50. We wanted a normal day to day feel to the images so these standard settings worked fine for this purpose. Shooting in log or raw wasn’t an option with the canon 700D DSLR. We used a 24mm lens for the initial wide master shot, a 35mm lens for the mid shots and a 50mm for the close ups.
Challenges encountered
An issue straight away was that we began with little to no shot list or storyboarding. This meant we lit for the first master shot and then were essentially making up the following shots as we went along. I was aware by doing it this way we were potentially causing problems later in the edit, that the shots might not flow together or not make sense in sequence, or that moving lights later would also contribute to continuity errors. Thankfully the lights we chose at the start were bright enough to serve for the later shots with only minor tweaking needed, for example the use of reflectors to add a little extra light to subjects.
In camera stills from Caffeine Rush footage:
Lighting issues
One issue with the Kino Flos was once positioned they were reflecting off of a glass screen behind the actor. I suggested we move the desk and actor so they were positioned in front of a wall rather than shiny glass but the director wanted the desk in this place for later interaction with an actor at the door. We later managed to minimise this issue by increasing the height of the lights and moving the camera to a spot where the reflections were less obvious. I think ideally we would have also had a back light to ensure the actor stood out from the background. However, not having a back light did add to the dull office look we were going for and an extra back light may have appeared unrealistic in the scene without motivation. Another issue was there were some subtle shadows present with this lighting setup. These occurred when other actors entered the scene. Ideally we would have had more space between the actors and the back wall so we could light this separately. With more time I would have liked to eliminate the shadows cast by the walk on actors completely.
Composition
We did not have much time to plan shots so our shot composition was pretty basic, either framing centrally or having the subject on two thirds. I think with more time spent planning we could have looked at ways to make the shots more cinematic and also to include more camera movement in the scene, for example using a track or slider to up the production value.
The Results
Looking at the resulting footage one thing which is apparent is how blue the images are. Using the Kino Flos, even with the correct white balance, resulted in an overly blue image which would need to be corrected in post. As we shot on an entry level DSLR and didn’t use a camera with a log or raw mode, colour correcting in post may prove to be a challenge. In future I would like to consider the colours of the lights I am using and if this can be adjusted in camera I would aim to do so. I am pleased with the focus and overall exposure of the shots and felt we achieved a workplace or office type look in keeping with what the director imagined for the story. Once the finished film is edited I am keen to see how the director has used the scene and the look we created to tell the story.
