tracks and dolly's with lighting and skeletons oh my!
In today's production techniques with lee, we were separated into two groups and tasked with lighting an interview like setup using a method called Three point lighting, where you use lights to fill an area without causing shadow. how it works is one light, is on the target (i.e the person sitting on a hair), then a 2nd light is used to fill in the shadow the first light creates, then finally the 3rd light brightens the background, in my opinion we somewhat succeeded but our back drop was still dark.
our 2nd task was to create a depth of field , making someone in the foreground the focus of the shot while a prop in the background was not the centre of attention and blurred but still featured, our prop was our very own pal, Jerry (the skeleton) who was standing in the background, whilst Chloe was sitting in front of the prop. it turns out when we had set it up, we didn't give enough space between Chloe and Jerry meaning our depth was not as effective as we once thought.
From these two small tasks, i can incorporate these skills into future projects when able to at university, personal projects and possible job roles into the future. if i were to need technical advice about these processes i can always ask lee.
Once packed we were asked to take the lighting equipment and the track/dolly to the bus sheds (now turned into sound stages) to light up on of the sets and to film a
tracking shot from different angles
Much like a model train track, setting up the track and dolly was a simple process, connecting each side of the rail by a piece of 4x4 with pegs, the dolly itself looked like a briefcase. when folded out inside were its wheels and a detachable handle.
with our lights in place and our actor (Has) ready, we did a simple tracking shot from the side following him, then a shot where he walks to the camera as we back off.
our final little task was to pull off what is known as the trombone shot, in which the target (for our test Craig) stays still, while the area around him moves. a noticeable use of this shot was in JAWS (1975) when brodie witnesses the shark attack.
The problem i had when attempting this shot was zooming in at the right speed of the movement of the dolly, but it seemed to work when reversing away from craig. however i finally got it in the end, meaning i could use this for my up and coming me, myself and i project.
Resources
[online] Movieclips. 2011. Jaws (2/10) Movie CLIP - Get Out of the Water (1975) HD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW23RsUTb2Y