Post 13: Media Language - Lighting 3 (Source & Colour)

Source and Colour

Source and colour are two aspects of lighting that should always be remembered when filming. Whilst speaking of the source of lighting, three point lighting is often used. Three point lighting is when,"by using three separate positions, the director can illuminate the shot's subject (such as a person) however desired, while also controlling (or eliminating entirely) the shading and shadows produced by direct lighting." The three lights are; the key light - which focuses on the subject matter in the shot, the fill light - which focuses on illuminating the entire scene which helps get rid of unwanted shadow and the back light - which focuses on illuminating the background and getting rid of the shadow.

Here are the links to three point lighting where I collected my information;    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting
http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/

My group and I experimented using the three point lighting, below are two videos showing our experiments.

The images below show what happened when we tried to recreate the three point lighting technique. They all show various parts of the screen being illuminated at each time, with the key light illuminating the main person with a lot of shadow, the fill light subtly illuminating the screen in comparison to the back light which focused purely on the background ignoring the subject matter. 

Key light: It is usually the strongest and 

has the most influence on the look of 

the scene. It is placed to one side of 

the camera/subject so that this side is

well lit and the other side has some shadow.

Fill light: This is the secondary light 

and is placed on the opposite side of

the key light. It is used to fill the 

shadows created by the key light. The

fill will usually be softer and less

brighter than the key, you could

move the light further away to 

achieve this. You might also want to

set the fill light to more of a flood than the key.

Back light: The back light is placed behind the

 subject and lights it from the rear. Rather than

 providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its

 purpose is to provide definition and subtle 

highlights around the subject's outlines. This helps

 separate the subject from the background and 

provide a three-dimensional look.

White balance and Colour gels

In video recording, white balance is an electronic process that calibrates the picture for accurate colour display in different lighting conditions by determining what is "white." White balancing should be performed prior to any recording. The easiest way to calibrate is to focus in on a piece of white paper where you will be filming. 
Colour correction by using colour gels is a process used in cinematography with the intention to alter the overall colour of the light; typically the light colour is measured on a colour temperature.Without colour correction gels, a scene may have a mix of various colours. Applying colour correction gels in front of a light sources can alter the colour of the various light sources to match. Mixed lighting can produce an undesirable aesthetic when displayed on a television or cinema screen.Gels may also be used to make a scene appear more natural by simulating the mix of colour temperatures that occur naturally. Colour gels may also be used to tint lights for artistic effect.There are two main types of colour gels; CTO (colour temperature orange) and CTB(colour temperature blue). A CTB gel converts tungsten light to 'daylight' colour and a CTO gel performs the reverse.

Here are the link to the information about white balance and colour gels;

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/white-balance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_correction

Orange colour gel

By using colour gels they have the ability to change the lighting of a scene and therefore the temperature also, for example an orange colour gel is used to make a room seem cooler and a blue colour gel to make the room appear warmer. 

Blue colour gel

My group and I wanted to experiment using these different colour gels as we wanted to see first hand the changes the colour gels made to the film. Our experiment took place in a corridor which was already full of natural light, we turned the camera to white balance then held up a piece of white paper with either an orange or blue colour gel above it so the camera was able to pick up the colour. Here are the video links to the experiments; White balance to half orange and  White balance to half blue. You are clearly able to see how half blue can make the room feel warm where as the half orange can make the room feel rather cold, these colour gels could come in handy when shooting our short film.

Above is a video showing the effects of both red and green colour gels placed over lights to create a different atmosphere.

Although we used the colour gels specifically to alter the white balance of the video, we discovered you can also use the same gels placed in front of a light to balance the colour temperature of the lights (As seen in the green and red video above). This is useful knowledge as my group and I may need to change the colour temperature of the lights in the room however not the white balance. We tried to do that in the experiment below placing orange gels over lights.

Post 12: Media Language Lighting 2 (Quality & Direction)

Quality and direction are also two aspects of lighting one should consider when filming. My group and I researched into the quality and direction of lighting and what to consider when producing a film as it can only benefit us when we come to actually produce our short film, because of this we also thought it wise to conduct our own experiments of quality and direction.

Fresnel light

Quality: Refers to the intensity of the illumination that the audience are viewing which can be separated into two areas, soft and hard. Soft is indirect or diffused - which blurs contours and textures, and softens the contrast between light and shade. Hard is direct light which creates large and bold shadows with obvious textures.

Kino Flo

The quality can be effected by the type of light chosen for example using a Fresnel light instead of a Kino light. A Fresnel light is a focusable spotlight used in film and television lighting, which can be adjusted via a knob on the back of the light from "spot" for a narrowly focused beam, to "flood" for a wider beam. Kino lights however provide a relatively compact and efficient way of providing soft lighting. Compared to the original motion picture lighting, incandescent lights and HMI lights, Kino Flo tubes produce less heat and fit into smaller spaces, two significant advantages that have made them popular with professionals.

Direction: Refers to where the light is coming from and what part of the frame it is effecting. Every light has a point where it is at its lowest and blends, and it also has its brightest moments where it creates a sort of spotlight. The direction of a light can come from anywhere possible; left, right, high, low and so on.

Madonna's Vogue video is a powerful example of showing how direction and quality of lighting can effect the object of importance. There are many techniques used throughout the video with lights shining from a range of different directions to create shadows or back lights or three point lighting. 
The photo to the left shows Madonna's face as the object of interest in this shot, this is done by there being a plain black background with her face being strongly illuminated in a film noir style. To the right is a photo of a woman picking things up in the middle of the frame, she is made the interest of the shot with a large back light producing a white background  which contrasts against the black shadow from the person's outfit. The last photograph shows a man sat in a chair with his fingers close to his face, there is a light source coming from the left hand side of the frame which produces an attached shadow on his face where his fingers are placed.

Above is the music video Vogue by Madonna

Post 11: Media Language - Lighting 1 (Shape & Texture)

Lighting can be very important when it comes to setting the mood and creating the right atmosphere for a film. So my group and I researched into what type of lighting we could use for our short film by learning about film noir.

Film Noir : "Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940's to the late 1950's. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression." 
Various examples of film noir and their range of genres include The Big Sleep, The Big Heat, The Set-Up, Night and the City, Gun Crazy and D.O.A. 

In film noir many effects were created through various lighting techniques because of film noir being in black and white it was rather important for everyone to look out for what shadows had been created and finding an interesting way to use them. The two main ways to describe shadows are; Cast Shadows and Attached Shadows.
Cast Shadows: Is when someone is only partly illuminated by light because an object is in front of the light source. E.g Blinds or a door casting shadows over a stalker.

Attached Shadows: Is when something or someone's features are partly illuminated because something natural is in the way. E.g Someone wearing a hat or having a large fringe creating shadow on someone's face.

Lighting is a very powerful tool when creating atmosphere in a film as it can keep certain aspects of a character hidden from the audience, or can reveal it to them. When we began researching into films in our genre we discovered Lolita which was a Film Noir, my group and I had previously commented on how the lighting used had helped set the atmosphere and revealed things about the characters. For example Humbert Humbert is always seen in shadows or in a darker light in comparison to Lolita who is always on display for the audience. Light is often signified with innocence and dark often signifying danger and mystery, therefore it is understandable why the lighting was taken into consideration when creating the characters.

Double Indemnity (1994) : The photo to the left shows a cast shadow of the blind going across a man standing up. This could suggest to the audience that he is more important to the film then the other character as the lighting is grabbing the audiences attention and making the character standing appear more interesting. The lighting in this photo helps with the characters body language to reveal something to the audience if not hint at something. The photo to the right is also a screen grab from Double Indemnity, only this time showing a woman standing over a balcony. The lighting suggests that she could be a femme fatale, as she is somewhat in the light of a gloomy mansion possibly trapped from a possible husband. The lighting shows her to blend in with her surroundings instead of making her stand out, this could show her to be trapped in her situation.

In the photo from Asphalt Jungle you are able to see how lighting shapes a shot's overall composition. The Light being cast from the hanging light creates attached shadows on the men's faces more so over the man wearing a hat. The light shows the protagonist making him the most frontal due to the illumination that is being  held over head. The shadow in the frame could reveal to the audience the secrecy and mystery of what is taking place, possibly an important meeting involving things illegal.

Below is the experiment my group and I conducted trying to recreate the effects of blinds going across Max's face like in Double Indemnity, I believe this effect made Max appear more mysterious and interesting especially combined with the rule of thirds. 

Lighting can also change our sense of shape and texture, with Josef Von Sternberg -thought to of been one of the cinema's masters of film lighting, said "The proper use of light can embellish and dramatize every object." An example of this theory is shown through the clip Lemon by Hollis Frampton, by moving the light in various ways and focusing on various angles of the lemon, you are able to create what appears to be an entirely new object for the audience. However my group and I decided to recreate this video using a skull instead which is below the lemon. 

Post 10: Script Feedback

My group and I had one last process to go through before officially finishing our script; we had to ask our target audience for feedback. We had to gather a random selection of people who fit into our target audience and ask them various questions concerning our storyline as well as letting them read the script for themselves and enquiring about their opinion. Our reasoning behind this is due to it benefiting us in the long run, if our target audience don’t enjoy a certain scene or maybe they don’t like some of the dialogue then we are able to change it before it is too late. Of course after receiving our feedback we as a group debated once more over the comments and made sure to take note and consider all of our feedback which could in the long run affect the successfulness of our short film.

One of the points that our audience told us we needed to consider was the ending, we were told we should include something that the audience wouldn't expect. They told us they would expect Sophie to eventually come forward and tell the police so we needed to figure out a way of surprising the audience yet keep to a realistic plot line. We as a group thought of various things including leaving the script on a cliffhanger and instead of Alan being caught we would let him walk free. However we thought that it would be unfair to the audience if there was no justice for Sophie. This meant we added Alan's last piece of dialogue of "But Paige never complained" leaving the audience guessing about the relationship between Alan and his daughter.

Another point made was that some of the dialogue used needed to be changed to match the characteristics and background story of our characters. Some of the dialogue both the girls and Alan were using did not sound correct, with the girls sounding more mature beyond their years and Alan using language that our target audience struggled understanding. We as a group went through the script and made sure to edit any necessary language to ensure our script was understandable and better suited to our characters.I believe my group and I made the necessary improvements in order to produce a good short film that our target audience will hopefully enjoy judging by the feedback we were given. 

My group and I were fortunate enough to also have our script read and reviewed by a BBC Script writer called Dudi Appleton (Here is a link to information about him http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0032425/)who suggested the script needed to create more questions in the audience's minds as initially the plot's outcome was apparent. From this feedback I altered some of the dialogue and actions of the characters including the subtlety of the relationship between Alan and Sophie. We did this by taking out some of the winks or suggestive and possible innuendo dialogue, as well as making Sophie appear younger in comparison to Alan by her choice of words when sending a text message or email, also by her use of language. 

Dudi's overall feedback was that the script was extremely well written we just needed to improve; the subtlety of the relationship, he mentioned the importance of setting up constant questions in the audience's mind to keep the audience guessing so they wanted to find out more - which could be difficult with the voice over and add more detail to the plot line as it was too much like a story. In order to achieve this Dudi Appleton suggested my group and I should create a list of questions that we would pose throughout the script such as; who is leading who on? Are we imagining this? Is the daughter aware? We took Dudi Appleton's feedback in to consideration and we believe we have effectively used his criticism to improve our script even further. We hope this could be the making of a great short film. The image above shows the feedback we had back from Dudi Appleton.

Post 9: Script Workshop 2

My group and I, after a lot of debating about improving and removing are almost close to finishing our script for Behind Blue Eyes. There were quite a few changes we had to make to get to the almost complete stage of our script, however the group and I believe after all the drafts it will hopefully improve not only the storyline but making sure we show the characters relationships and identity.

We decided to improve and develop on the relationship between Alan and Sophie and get across how long Alan had been grooming Sophie for, yet we tried to keep the audience guessing about the relationship so tried not to make it as obvious as before. We included subtle hints about the relationship with suggestive touches and body language as well as supportive and suggestive dialogue. We tried to make it simple and not include graphical scenes in the hopes of keeping the audience entertained and guessing instead of the possibility of them figuring out the storyline which would make the short film rather boring and slightly vexing.

We decided to edit the language used by both of the girls as my group and I believed that two teenage girls would not converse in such a mature manner, therefore we altered the language and put a few shortened and 'slang' words in. We wanted the dialogue between the two to appear as real as possible and from experience young teenage girls would not talk to one another in the same way adults do. Hopefully this change will make it more realistic for our audience as well as easier for our actors as it would seem more natural. 

We also wanted to continue the storyline and introduce more stages of sexual grooming, the reasoning behind this is we wanted the audience to see exactly what groomer's will do just to get close to their victims and by doing this we might help the audience see what happens in a real case situation which could affect them or someone they know.

We are close to finishing our script, we just need to receive some feedback from our target audience in case certain things need changing or if there are ways we can improve it.

Post 8: Script Workshop 1

We were given the brief to produce a short film for this year's Media Studies coursework. We as a group believed we had a strong and original plot -focused on sexual grooming which is an uncommon plot line in films, from our AS opening sequence and we wanted to develop it further. My group and I whilst researching sexual grooming last year came up with various ideas on how we would extend the opening sequence and were   disappointed we could not do so, as we believed it had the chance to become a great short feature film. We took the brief this year as an opportunity to do just that and to explore more into sexual grooming and the relationship between the characters Alan and Sophie. 

The image to the left shows various scenes from the first script we drafted together with obvious annotation and cuts made to better our script. The first draft of our script included several errors and many mistakes which, of course was going to happen in the first draft, there was no avoiding that. Luckily because my group and I were using the basis of the storyline from our AS project, we had an idea of what we wanted our short film to be about.This of course meant there was a lot of discussion about the script, from what we wanted to happen and where we wanted to take it, to how we would make an obvious time jump and anything else that could cause a problem or confusion to the audience. 


My group and I believed it would be a good idea if we all took responsibility for the script and wrote our own selected scenes. By doing this I believe we were all able to help shape the characters and put our own ideas across and contribute. We then put together the script with the various scenes from each other and discussed what needed to be improved, what we all agreed worked and what we would cut and of course what we needed to add. Through out our discussions we always made sure that we kept the characters in our mind as we needed them to be as realistic as possible especially with our chosen topic and making our target audience believe the situation. Due to this we made sure the girl being groomed was a school girl, who would be groomed by her best friend's father whom she had known almost all her life.

Writing the first draft of a script isn't the easiest thing, you have to be creative, a team player as well as independent and make sure your ideas fit the situation. These can be very difficult things to do however I believe our group handled it well and it was an opportunity to show just how well we could work together in a team. 

Post 7: Research short films

I wanted to achieve a better understanding of the use of editing techniques current short film makers were using. I decided the best way to do this was to analyse an existing short film and take notes on the techniques used.

The short film I decided to analyse was: The Promise by Sam Molleur

A five year promise between friends leads them to explore the darker sides of their personality.

I find the use of editing in the promise rather interesting as hard cuts are frequently used to build up tension for the audience as the film progresses. I believe this is very effective during the conversation between the two men when shot reverse shot is used as it keeps the film flowing and the audience interested. The editing in this film is very simple using hard cuts to create tension and a fast pace for the audience to go with the plot line of the film. There is also cleverly done match on action whilst the friend fire's the gun at the mugger, this along with the hard cuts portray the now murderer as strong and powerful.

I found this short film on : http://www.shortoftheweek.com/
But it can also be found here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yYTY3BGr5A

Post 6: Media Language - Editing

Film Editing : Editing is the process of taking chosen material (footage) and arranging it to form a coherent finished product.
When it comes to film making editing is a vital part of the process and it's key that my group and I pay close attention on how to edit so that when the time finally does come, we are able to create a film to the best of our abilities. There are various effects that can be used whilst editing, below are a few examples of effects and how they came to be used.


Kuleshov Effect : The Kuleshov Effect is a film editing effect demonstrated by Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910's and 1920's. 
Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of an expressionless face of a man was alternated with various other shots; a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, and a woman. The film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on the man's face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was "looking at" the plate of soup, the girl in the coffin, or the woman, showing an expression of either hunger, grief or desire. Kuleshov used the experiment to explain the usefulness and effectiveness of film editing. He discovered that viewers brought their own emotional reactions to this sequence, and then attributed those reactions to the actor, investing his impassive face with their own feelings. I believe we can incorporate the Kuleshov Effect into our short film by using Alan's expressionless face in the swimming pool alternated with various shots of Sophie. This could help the portrayal of their relationship and make the audience connect emotionally to the characters, it could also help with them figuring out exactly what Alan and Sophie are.

Below is a film showing the Kuleshov Effect.

Montage (filmmaking): A Montage is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time and information.
A Montage can also be a series of unrelated shots that leave the audience to figure out the meaning and connect the importance of the shots. Though a Montage is usually used to suggest the passage of time rather then hold any symbolic meaning. We hope to use more then one Montage in our short film in the hopes of cutting time, yet presenting the audience with the key information for them to guess about Alan and Sophie's relationship. One key Montage will be when we incorporate the Kuleshov Effect during a scene when Alan is with the girls at the swimming gala. We hope to present the audience with the knowledge of exactly how long Alan and Sophie have known one another and how close they've become in the last few months. This will hopefully explain to the audience the nature of the relationship and the possible changes it has had in the past months, as well as connect the audience to the pair emotionally and keep them guessing about the relationship.

Edwin Porter: Was an American early film pioneer, most famous as a director with Thomas Edison's company. His most famous films include, Life of an American Fireman (1902) and The Great Train Robbery (1903).Although his significance as director of The Great Train Robbery and other innovative early films is undeniable, he rarely repeated an innovation after he had used it successfully, never developed a consistent directorial style. Edwin Porter is still remembered as an important figure in motion picture history. As an early filmmaker he took ideas from others, but instead of just copying films he tried to improve on what he had borrowed. In "Life of an American Fireman" Porter created dissolves, the technique helped audiences follow complex outdoor movement. In his next film "The Great Train Robbery" the one reel film, with a running time of twelve minutes, was assembled in twenty separate shots, along with a startling close-up of a bandit firing at the camera. It was ground breaking in its use of jump cuts, cross cutting, and panning shots. No earlier film had created such swift movement or variety of scene.

French New Wave: The New Wave was a term used by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the later 1950's and 1960's.  Many also engaged in their work with the social and political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes as well as a clear contrast between black and white featuring natural lighting. The combination of objective realism, subjective realism, and authorial commentary created a narrative ambiguity in the sense that questions that arise in a film are not answered in the end. The new flexible and creative New Wave showed alternative framing and the release of the camera from a tripod, giving it a more documentary and realistic look and feel.

Post 5: Researching Short Film Content (3)

I decided to look more into the films that were already out there that featured sexual grooming. I decided to do this so when it came to discussing with my group about possible ideas for our short film we had some inspiration from other films that focused around the subject besides Lolita. The film gave us the prospective of a sexual groomer we needed more knowledge about how to make our characters behave and more then one source to turn to when it came to questions about how to handle certain scenes or situations our characters would find themselves in. 

The first film I looked into was Trust.14 year old Annie Cameron meets 16 year old Charlie in an on-line chat room where the two instantly hit it off. As time goes by Charlie explains how he is not 16 but is in fact 20 which he soon changes to 25, Annie is taken aback but continues with the relationship due to being flattered by the attention. Charlie suggest they meet up in a mall where Annie instantly discovers he is in fact in his late thirties or early forties, Annie although upset is soon coaxed by Charlie to be taken to a motel where she is made to model lingerie, Annie has no idea however that as he soon coaxes her onto the bed calling her 'Gorgeous', 'Perfect' and proceeds to rape her, what she doesn't know is that he is filming the whole thing. An FBI investigation is started although Charlie still can't be found through DNA evidence they discover he has raped several other young girls including one who was just 12 years old, this causes Annie to be devastated because she believed she was the only girl in his life, she feels betrayed, which leads to her finally admitting to herself and the hospital counsellor that she was raped. Charlie is never found, yet as the credits start to roll a home video shows Charlie to be a high school physics teacher named Graham Weston, a married father with a young son.


Trust has given me an insight into the modern day proceedings when it comes to being told a child is being sexual groomed. It has also shown me how the family is effected and falls apart when they realise what is happening to their child. It has helped me realise exactly how much control the groomer has over the victim, being able to make them do anything they ask for as well as how they make the victim believe nothing is wrong with their relationship. I think therefore this film is extremely helpful as it will help my group and I when it comes to writing the script and directing character movement. We need the audience to watch as Alan controls Sophie in the same way Charlie is able to control Annie, making her believe that she's special and there is nothing wrong with what they are doing.

Below is film Trust.

The second film I researched was The Lovely Bones, 14 year old Susie Salmon is just experiences her first love when she is viciously raped and murdered by her next door neighbour Mr Harvey in an underground den, she finds herself in the cross between Earth and Heaven trying to come to terms with being dead. Susie watches as her family begins to drift apart struggling to cope, ending in her mother leaving her father. Susie's father continues to investigate her death and even after many years maintains contact with the police officer in charge of the investigation trying to piece together exactly what and who happened to his little girl. Mr Harvey is feeling confident that he's covered his tracks well enough to get away with the crime, Susie watches with a young girl and later learns of Mr Harvey's long list of victims including his latest target- her sister.

 The sister however doesn't believe Mr Harvey is as nice as he makes out to be and finds the plans of the underground den Susie was murdered in, a lock of her hair and newspaper clippings about Susie's death whilst searching around his house. However her father and mother are in the middle of a happy reunion and not wishing to spoil it hides the book from them and instead gives it to the grandmother. Mr Harvey realises the book is missing and flees taking the safe with Susie's remains with him dumping them in a swamp on his way to safety. Sometime later Mr Harvey meets a young woman outside a diner and offers her a ride, but she rebuffs him and leaves, a large icicle falls from an overhead branch hitting Harvey which causes him to fall backwards over a cliff to his death. As the films ends Susie finally enters Heaven with a voice over saying almost the same as the beginning of the film. "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life."


I have already watched The Lovely Bones before and I thought the neighbour Mr Harvey would be a good inspiration for Alan as he not only manages to get away with his crime but he also manages to creep the entire audience out. The plot twist of realising Susie wasn't the first girl he had raped and murdered is also helpful as it surprises the audience, which we hope to do with our character Alan who turns out may or may not have been grooming his own daughter Paige. This film although not focused on child grooming, does touch upon the theme of child abuse which is helpful and gives us an insight into the type of character who could hurt a child yet still believe they have done nothing wrong. I hope my group and I are able to keep the audience guessing and surprise them with the plot twists like The Lovely Bones. 

Below is the trailer to The Lovely Bones.