Music Video: "Corrine" Black Honey

New Wave Film Evaluation: Health and Safety

My New Wave film consists of a variety of shots which emulate certain new wave films. This was intentional as it demonstrated the research I conducted in order to further my understanding of New Wave Cinema. I composed these shots in a cohesive narrative structure, however the narrative itself is sparse. In my initial idea for my new wave film I was hoping to explore a much more looser narrative structure, however due to time restraints and lack of usable footage I was forced to abide to the traditional narrative structure. I was initially hoping to take a lot of inspiration from the film 1966 New Wave film Daisies with the aforementioned editing techniques. However I later decided upon drawing primary inspiration for the 1972 film Morgiana in which there is a traditional cohesive narrative structure.

What stood out for me in Morgiana was the point of view shot of the cat whom roams the castle. I therefore applied this shot to the point of view of the dog whom wakes up the primary character of my New Wave film. As this technique was present in a New Wave film that I studied I decided to emulate this to further the validate my film under the category of New Wave.

The Making of My Own New Wave Film: Film Brief

The Making of My Own New Wave Film: Film Brief 

- I am thinking of making a film based around the connotations that come with certain foreign films, whether they are new wave or not. Such as: 

-Including Subtitles in my film even though the films language will be english. I am torn between deciding whether I should include english subtitles or translating the films dialogue to Slovak and including those subtitles. 

- I am also thinking of writing a very loose narrative structure which is common in films that came out of the Czech New Wave. Example's include Daisies and Valerie and her week of Wonders. 

- I am thinking of involving animals in the story and shooting parts of the film from their point of view, similar to the techniques used in Morgiana.

- Many filters will be used in the making of this film, maybe could use a few practical effects such as shooting through different coloured plastic sheeting. I want to avoid as many special effects that are available in post production, as possible, as these were not available during the time that these examples of new wave films were made. Therefore practical effects were used and this is what I wish to emulate in my New Wave Film.

- I eventually decided on including a loose narrative consisting of man wandering around his home town which is transformed into a "mystical wonderland" before his eyes whilst he is inebriated. 

Health and Safety in the Studio Environment

Many precautions were made in order to ensure the safety of those involved in working in a studio environment.
For example it was enforced that no liquids such as beverages or anything that could be spilled was brought into the studio in order to prevent anyone from slipping and falling which may result in injury. Another reason that liquids we're not allowed into the studio was the possibility of it being spilt onto any electronic studio equipment such as lighting and the cameras themselves that can cause damage to the equipment as well as encouraging the chance of shorting out an electric circuit which would result in an electric shock.

The floor was also ensured to be kept clear at all times. This means no electrical cables lying around in case of anyone tripping over the wires and falling. This also applies to other objects that can be left on the floor which are also a tripping hazard.
It should also be ensured that there are no sharp objects lying around the studio that can cause injury to people working in there. However if that sharp object is necessary for either operation of the equipment or props for the shoot etc. then it should be made sure that that object is well out of the way until it is needed.

When using tripods, it is always a necessity to ensure that they are safe and secure both when they are in use and when they are not. By secure, it is meant that it must be made sure that the tripods are ensured to neither fall and break studio equipment nor fall of and injure anyone in the studio. This also means keeping the tripods out of the way of people working in the studio to lessen the chance of it being physically knocked over.

In order to prevent people fro tripping over any wires that are on the floor of the studio, they have to be taped down to the floor. This ensures the safety of both the people and the equipment whom/that are present in the studio environment. Additionally, when the studio lights are not in use, they must be switched off. This both saves electricity as well as prevents injury. If the studio lights are left on for too long they because very hot. This runs the risk of people working in the studio bring themselves on studio lights that have been allowed to become to hot. The studio lights need to be turned off to allow them to cool down as they will need to be handled when the studio session is finished. 

The Theory Of Light as it Applies to Camera Lenses

The theory of light as it applies to camera lenses: 

According to this book (book title) the light rays travel from a specific point on the subject of the shot.

How Shutter Speed affects moving Image

The shutter-speed determines how much light is being captured by the camera's sensor by restricting the amount of time that the sensor is exposed to the light source. If the shutter speed is set to a higher general setting then the longer the sensor will be exposed to the light source and vice versa. If the shutter speed is set to a high general setting then it also runs the risk of making the resulting image overexposed by late depending on the environment in which the image is being captured. If it was captured within an environment with high light levels then the image will run the risk of being over exposed however if the environment didn't have enough light then a high shutter speed will be needed in order to achieve the correct exposure.


This is a clip that i shot with the shutter speed set to 30: 



It can be seen that there is a lot of motion blur in this clip as the camera is rotating. The motion blur gives a much more smoother feel to the shot.


This clip was shot with the shutter speed speed set to 80:

Experimenting with Lighting

Experimenting with lighting:

Using a Reflector:



In this clip, it shows us experimenting with the reflector,  a circular frame of reflective material that is used to illuminate specific areas by reflecting light from a specific light source. This is used to illuminate any areas that wouldn't normally be illuminated by the current lighting set up. It's the lighting equivalent of filling in the gaps.


High Key Lighting:



In this clip, this lighting setup makes sure there are no dark areas in the shot as all the lights in the studios are being utilised.




Low key Lighting:



Butterfly:



This was a second attempt of sorts, of the Rembrandt lighting technique. We wanted to fully establish the "butterfly" underneath the nose that wasn't so evident in the Rembrandt clip. In this clip it still isn't perfectly established however it is much clearer than the previous clip.


Edge Lighting:



Edge lighting consists of the subject being illuminated by the singular light source, only on the one side, leaving the other half of the subject in a lower key lighting creating a very distinctive contrast. In this case half of my face has a shadow cast upon it with the other half completely illuminated. This was achieved through a very simple set up of  singular light being shone on one side of my face.

Rembrant:



In this lighting set up, it is most commonly identified by a shadow that is cast underneath the nose of the subject which resembles a butterfly in flight. It can also be identified by a emmitence of light in the shape of  triangle that appears on the right side of the subjects face. As shown in the following images:

The triangle of light has been achieved on the subject however the butterfly was proven hard to establish. It took a lot of experimentation with different angles with the Key light in order to achieve satisfying results. This showed us that this particular lighting set up isn't the easy to set up on the first attempt but after a few more attempts then the "butterfly" will become more apparent.


3 Point:



The 3-point lighting set up is used to fully illuminate the subject, in this case it was used to fully illuminate my face. It was defiantly one of the easiest set ups despite the fact that it consists of three lights. These are the Key light, the Fill Light and the Back Light, as shown in the following image:

Experimental:







Image Sources: 

1.    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/3_point_lighting.svg/2000px-3_point_lighting.svg.png

The conversation - A short film made within roughly 4 hours

How Aperture Affects Moving Image

In this clip, I shot with an aperture setting of 2.8. This provided a very shallow depth of field which means more of the shot is out of focus rather than in focus. This allows the viewer to naturally draw their attention to the point of focus.

 

How ISO affects Moving Image

This is a short experiment regarding different levels of ISO. The ISO setting is the setting that establishes how sensitive the cameras sensor is to the available light source. In the video above I used a relatively low ISO setting considering how little light I was able to work with at the time. The ISO seeing i used was ISO 800. You can see that the image is crisp and more detailed than it would have been if I used a higher ISO setting. However the image is also much darker and underexposed and therefore less clear.

In the video below

Experimenting with lighting techniques

In this clip I provided a backlight upon the subject with a LED light, to create a shadow which will be cast upon the white screen in the background. The LED light source was not static, but hand held which distorted the showdown that was cast upon the screen. I also experimented with different levels of focus and to see how that affected the image.

How lighting affects camera techniques for moving image

Lighting can translate to an audience member, a certain feel to a shot that the filmmaker wishes to express in order to better communicate the story. This can be done by evoking a certain emotion that can be related to whatever level of intensity the lighting is set to. For example a shot lit with low key lighting is able to convey a dark and spooky tone to the scene, especially if it was a sudden transition from high key to low key. A sudden transition from high key lighting to low key lighting can signify a change in mood as well as the feeling of an upcoming change of events which is about to unfold. This is one of the many examples in which lighting affects camera techniques. There are some lighting settings that can compliment certain shots more that other settings of lighting. For instance soft lighting would compliment textures that were being filmed such as a cheetahs fur in a wildlife documentary, where as intense or high key lighting would make the textures of the object much less obvious and clear giving the shot a much more cleaner and pleasant appearance. According to the 'Digital Video Handbook' by Tom Ang, different styles of lighting in film are used to establish the overall tone. It goes on to explain that "Many musicals and comedies make use of even and steady lighting, which indicates a lightness of content and meaning." It also adds that "In contrast, fantasy and adventure movies make much more use of dramatic side lighting." (Ang, Digital Video Handbook)

The direction of the lighting source in a shot can massively contribute to the narrative of a film. For example if the source of the light is coming from above then it tends to look much more natural and nothing is particularly out of the ordinary. However if the source of the light was emitting from below then it would translate to the audience that something is out of the ordinary/out of place as it has unnatural connotations.