BBC Lighting Workshop

On Friday 14th of November, our media group went to the BBC studio's to learn about lighting, filming and directing. In the morning we had a light workshop with the lighting director. His job was to make sure all the lighting in films and music videos were decent and had the right colour and light for films. During his workshop we learned about the different types of light and also the different lighting that is used for different situations, (e.g for an interview on tv there would be a soft light, this would make the background clear where there are no hard shadows or bright areas of contrast. To show the different lighting techniques that were used in filming, Alex was chosen to sit down on a chair in front of a camera and different types of lights so that the class could understand the various types of lights that are used during filming.

Another workshop that we had was with a woman called Shelly Love, who was the director of films. Shelly Love mostly directed for fantasy films. Both of these workshops were combined together. During the workshop she showed us a film that she directed, most of the characters in the film were clowns in a circus. We were able to see the different shots and lighting techniques that she chose to produce that particular clip.

In the afternoon, we all got into four seperate groups of 3 and 4 to create a news report for the day. There were 3 reports; "Incident at Gangster Head Quarters," "An alien abduction," and "A real life incident" the real life incident turned out to be a report about children in need. Also there was a news report, this is what my group (Finella and Gamze ) created. In this news report we had to include and introduction, and link all the other reports that the other groups created, into ours. Finella and I were the characters of the news report and Gamze was the director and the camera woman aswell. For the news report we used three lights; a soft light- which was placed in front of us so that there wouldn't be shadows in the background and so that it would also have a brighter contrast. There was also a light at the back of us and another one at the side. The shots that were used didn't really change because it was a news report which meant the angle of the camera stayed the same throughout most of the filming.

Evaluation

The people in my group were, Finella , Cheryl, Alex, Leslie and Jodie. In our Group we were able to film all of the shots that we had designed in our storyboards. There were a few positive aspects that our group had while filming our 10 shots, for example, we were able to film most of our shots and include different types of shots, so that we were including the right information that we had put into our storyboards. During the filming of all the shots we all took turns on filming different shots, this was good because we all had an opportunity to have a go at using the camera. Although we were able to get most of the shots taken, our group didn't really have a lot of time to edit because most of us didn't really understand how to use the "razor" to cut the clips in "Final Cut Pro", this meant that we lost time.

Story Boards

This is the 10 shot sequence list to go wih the story board:

1. Long Shoton back of runner moving away- possibly foreground for point of view.

2. Medium Close Up of the front of the runner crouched in front of a hiding place.

3. Close Up of chasing feet.

4. Over-the -shoulder shot of the runner looking back

5. Point-of-view of the runner to danger

6. Close Up on chasing feet.

7. Close Up on the runners face, (the runner looks scared)

8.Medium Close Up on the runner getting up/stumbling (no face)

9. Long Shot/ ELS on "Safety"

10. (Spilt Screen) Close Up on faces/ Over-the-shoulder shot of the runner turning (still no face of the chaser)

5 Shot Sequence

Today, we were able to choose a scenario in which we had to then make a 5 shot sequence. The majority of the class decided to film the "receiving exam results" sequence in which we had to decide how we could go about filming the process and therefore making it appear as a sequence. My group consisted of three people. We each decided to film outside the school building. The first shot consisted of Leslie entering the school building looking worried, (this was a long shot). The second was Leslie recieving the envelope (this was a medium close up), the third was a close up of Leslie opening the paper and the fourth was her looking disappointed and throwing the paper onto the floor. The outcome of the sequence was rather effective as or group focused on presenting different filming techniques by using a different range of shots. However, there was not enough time left.

The Rule of Third

The rule of third shows the position of the picture. In the rule of third you have to make sure that the eyes of the person is in the correct place in the box. Lines are placed vertically and horizontally in thirds so that you can get the correct position for the image. The eyes have to be around the top line of the box leaving enough head space.