DIY Lighting

I found this article giving us tips on DIY lighting which we will need as we are doing some outdoor scenes.




Professional lighting kits for video and photography are very expensive. Fortunately for the budget-impaired enthusiast, it is possible to put together a perfectly adequate lighting kit for less than £100

A good beginner's lighting kit should include:

• Three (or more) lights with stands
• Reflector board(s)
• Power cables, extension leads and a multi-box.

The Lights

The standard budget light is the halogen work lamp which can be found at any hardware store or purchased at amazon.com for as little as $US10. These come with or without a stand and range from around 150W to 500W.

The stand-less units have a small handle and can be rested on any solid surface such as a table or the floor. This is not ideal for your main lights but it can be useful for fill lighting, backgrounds, etc. In any case these units are so cheap that it can't hurt to buy a couple.

Lights with stands are more versatile and you should have at least one of these (preferably two or three). Try to find a stand which goes up to around 2 metres (the height of a tall person). Taller than 2 metres would be even better but this type of light stand doesn't normally go that high.

Some lights (like the W12665 unit pictured) can be used with or without the stand, making them even more versatile.

One drawback of these cheap lights is that the colour of the light is quite yellow. As long as you white-balance your camera this isn't a huge issue, but if you want the best quality lighting you can try one of these solutions:

1. Purchase a 32K white bulb (ask your hardware supplier).
2. Place a coloured gel in front of the light to correct the colour.

Speaking of gels, the other big drawback of these lights is that there is no built-in system for mounting accessories like gels and diffusers. You can improvise by creating a wire holder or separate stand for accessories.

You will also find that you can't alter the spread of these lights, i.e. from floodlight to spotlight. This is not a big concern for most people but if you do need this functionality you might need to consider a professional video lighting kit.

Reflectors

Professional reflector boards are used to add or control light in a scene. You can make your own from just about any large reflective object, although the exact colour and reflectivity will obviously affect your lighting. Common suggestions for an improvised reflector include:

• Windshield sunshade (pictured)
• Sheet of foamcore
• Polystyrene sheet
• Stiff cardboard, or tin foil on cardboard (try both sides of the foil for different effects)
• Whiteboard
• Survival blanket (gold on one side and silver on the other)

Hobby shops have a lot of items which may be of interest. Online auction sites are also worth checking as reflectors can often be found fairly cheap there.

Power

You will need a few power extension cables of varying lengths, plus one or more multi-boxes with built-in trip switches. It helps to have a separate carry case for power cables.

Safety

• Lights get very hot! Seriously, you can burn yourself badly or set fire to things.
• Lights can draw a lot of current so be careful not to overload power sources.
• If you're working outside, use an isolating transformer on your power.

Keyboard Shortcuts FCPx (Very Useful)

This video gives an overview of all the shortcuts within Final Cut Pro x which will help us navigate the software more effectively. Which will be useful for when we are editing our final project.

Some Lighting Terms

Ambient Light	The light already present in a scene, before any additional lighting is added.
Incident Light	Light seen directly from a light source (lamp, sun, etc).
Reflected Light	Light seen after having bounced off a surface.
Colour Temperature	A standard of measuring the characteristics of light, measured in kelvins.
Contrast Ratio	The difference in brightness between the brightest white and the darkest black within an image.
Key Light	The main light on the subject, providing most of the illumination and contrast.
Fill Light	A light placed to the side of the subject to fill out shadows and balance the key light.
Back Light	A light placed at the rear of a subject to light from behind.
Hard Light	Light directly from a source such as the sun, traveling undisturbed onto the subject being lit.
Soft Light	Light which appears to "wrap around" the subject to some degree. Produces less shadows or softer shadows.
Spot	A controlled, narrowly-focused beam of light.
Flood	A broad beam of light, less directional and intense than a spot.
Tungsten	Light from an ordinary light bulb containing a thin coiled tungsten wire that becomes incandescent (emits light) when an electric current is passed along it. Tungsten colour temperature is around 2800K to 3400K. Also known as incandescent light.
Halogen	Type of lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed in a clear capsule filled with a halogen gas.
Fresnel	A light which has a lens with raised circular ridges on its outer surface. The fresnel lens is used to focus the light beam.
Incandescent	Incandescent lamps produce heat by heating a wire filament until it glows. The glow is caused by the filament's resistance to the current and is calledincandescence.

Lighting

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived. Light (and shade) can emphasise texture, shape, distance, mood, time of day or night, season, glamour; it affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition. We feel that lighting will be a challenge within our production which is why we have hired a specialist light technician to set up the lighting within our set, this will make it more realistic and effective, but if any problems do arise post filming i feel colour correction will be a very effective tool for us to use and below is a tutorial of how it works and a step by step guide to using it.

Camera effects

This video will give us help with one of our most important scenes. We are trying to create the effect that our actor is intoxicated using a distorted effect. This video contains tips to try and develop this scene.


James

Markers Final Cut Pro x

Because James and i are working on the project together and often at different times, markers within final cut pro x will help us to keep track of our progress and highlight editing that needs to be completed, i feel markers are very useful tools and will help us to keep on track with our schedule and meet deadlines effectively

Photos of Our actors

First filming

We have decided that we are going to start filming on Sunday 18th December from 1-4pm. We are going to introduce our actors to both of our locations to familiarise them with it. We will talk them through the ideas and our forecasted final result. We will show the group the schedule and ask them if they have any new ideas or questions. We then will begin to film, shooting our first scene. This is the scene when the male is being thrown out of the house.




James

Contact List

We are going to start filming on sunday preferably, so we feel organisation is important, i have created a list of the various contact numbers and email addresses of our producers and actors to make sure we can get in contact with them if an emergency arises.

How To Shoot A Music Video

I was researching on the internet looking for some tips on how to create an effective music video and i came across a website, which gives 10 tips on how to shoot a music video, i feel this will be really helpful to James and Myself, the 10 tips are as follows:

1. Choose your song
2. Get a team and equipment together
3. Plan your shoot
4. Filming
5. Capture live footage
6. Use stock footage
7. Editing
8. Get the right software and hardware
9. Be creative
10. Few extra tips

There is a paragraph on each of these sections and i feel that if we follow some of the instructions given we could improve our production massively

http://musicians.about.com/od/musicindustrybasics/ss/makeavideo.htm

Interesting Demographic Figures

Here is some interesting demographic figures of the original Coldplay - Fix You video, it also gives detailed information on how Coldplay reached their audiences over different mediums and i think James and I could try to use this data to make decisions surrounding our target demographic and which medium we will use to publicise our production. We could also use these distribution channels to try to gain as much feedback as possible on our Animatic.

Feedback Responses From Presentation

These are the replies to each of the questions which were on our feedback form which was presented to the class during our presentation, we gained a lot of excellent feedback from this exercise and we will incorporate some of these ideas into our production.


What were the strengths of the ideas about our production? What did you find most enjoyable and why?

• Great message, speaks against alcoholism and drug abuse. Feel it is a good storyline to watch.
• I feel that the video represents a very common problem in todays society and this allows the audience to relate to it. 
• I believe that the concept is strong and relevant to the mood and feeling of the song. I really enjoyed the memories of the man's family with the instrumental.
• Great camera shots (close up of hand throwing clothes out of the window) Emotional story, I enjoyed the flashbacks
• Emotionally powerful story as it tackles drug and alcohol issues, powerful imagery.
• I feel that the idea is very good, it is especially relevant to life today in Northern Ireland.
• Very good concept, good storyboard and dealt with the challenging subject well.
• Storyboard well drawn
• Very relevant and topical, appeals to and resonates with lots of people, shows depression and hopelessness
• Good idea, appropriate theme, good demographic

Which parts of our idea did you find least enjoyable? why?

• No miming.
• Depressing theme towards the beginning but soon becomes more feel-good, so this matters little.
• None, i enjoyed it all and found it very engaging.
• I didn't particularly enjoy the constant viewing of pictures as it is a little generic for my liking.
• All enjoyable.
• Not a lot, I thought it was all very well put together with a great idea.
• Felt it was quite long.
• May start off slow but the pace should change as the man gets angry.

What do you think was the message being portrayed within our video?

• Dependance and anger, all things caused by addiction
• Alcohol abuse, loneliness, addiction and loss
• How alcoholism destroys families and how rehabilitation is necessary to combat drug use
• That the love of a persons family is strong enough to overcome addiction
• I think we can all empathise with struggling and going through desperate times that there is always hope which we can live on
• How alcohol can ruin peoples lives, regret and overcoming problems
• Effects of alcoholism, especially on a family regret and loss
• Redemption and overcoming demons
• It is very relevant to todays society with the drinking and drug taking.
• The separation of a family due to drug abuse, problems they face, relevant to fixing a drug problem.

Do you think any changes could be made to the video to make it more engaging for the viewer?

• No it is good
• Miming would give a more personal feel to the video
• Nothing i can think of, fool-proof plot, the idea of the flashbacks are brilliant in particular
• I feel that this video could be amazing if you do it the way it was presented
• I think there is less emphasis on the hurt of the family. The clothes are thrown out but I think it would be worth contrasting the hurt of both the man and woman
• No, it was very engaging
• I can't think of anything
• I feel that if the video sticks to the animatic and you can manage to portray the effect alcoholism and drug abuse can have on families within your video it will be brilliant
• The animatic and storyboard are very strong and fixed
• Should be made more obvious that he was thrown out for drink and drugs.