Reflected light

According to the instructions, I had to frame an object closely that was alight by a light at one side. On the other side, I had to hold up a sheet of white paper. The idea was to notice how much light was bounced back at the object. And I had to repeat the experiment using other surfaces as reflectors. So, I did what I was asked for and that was what I achieved.

Firstly, on the top left of the picture, we can see the object without any reflected light. As it happened, its left side is in the shade. At the same time, the right one is sharpened by the light source. Once I started to use reflectors the texture was softened and the light that was bounced back, caused the removal of part of the shadows. The colour was also affected. Specially for the last photo. The reflector in this case was an orange surface so the atmosphere created was warm. In contrast with the first capture, that was very cold, is remarkable the change produced. The other surface was a green one, similar to the orange. That's the reason why both images look so similar.

Atmosphere

In this exercise I've been asked to record two short scenes where I should create atmosphere by combining lighting, shade and colour. There were different choices to film and I finally went for the following two: 

A depressed person alone at home

Before I started, I could visualize in my mind a scene alighted with a very low source in terms of intensity. In this manner I thought that I was going to have a very dark scenario. Moreover, the source of light had to be cold, very cold. The idea was to convey a feeling of disturbance and, as consequence, make the audience willing to stop watching the sequence or, at least, to wish a change for another atmosphere, happier and more illuminated. So, to achieve that I believed that only one white light would be enough. As I did in previous exercises, I took my bike light and I recorded a person alone at home, doing nothing and alighted only by the cycling element. I didn't use any additional stuff. 

What I acieved was something scary but not depressing. I must confess that it was a little bit disappointing to see that. And having reflected on what happened, I can point three big mistakes. The first one is the lack of consistency in every single aspect that contributes to build up the climax. The light is different from one shot to another. But not only the light. The texture is also different. The first picutre is sharper than the other two. The second error was having filmed at night. It's clear to me now that the perfect location would have been a room where the blinds stop the light that comes through the windows. In all probability I wouldn't have needed any artificial sources - either reflectors or something lije that - because it seems that that would have been enough to create the atmosphere that I was looking for. There's nothing more depressed than a dark room when outdoors the sun is shining - or, it's daytime. And finally, there is no clue about the origin of the light in the first shot. In conclusion, I'm not happy with my final cut.  

Another mundane day at the office

My intention here was to capture all the essence of an office that is well represented for a very white light. In principle, it looked easy to do this. It was just a matter of going to my work and film. However, I considered another way of making it - among other things, because I don't work. Given that the corridor of my block is as dull as an office, I imagined a scene when the worker gets home after a long and boring day. That's another part of the routine. That is to say, the man comes off the lift, walks along the hallway, opens the door and walks into his house with a look of resignation. This means that the lights of the building were, in my opinion, enough to get the desired atmosphere. If I wasn't wrong, the colour and texture would be ideal to offer a sense of boringness. 

In this case, the result was optimum. It all worked as it was expected. And I didn't use anything else apart from the things that I had. In contrast with the depressed film, I achieved what I wanted to achieve.

Comparing techniques - looking at other student's works

As usual, I'd like to start by having a look at my colleague María from the "Warmer than here" blog. She explains to us that this was not her most succesful work. However, I do think that she did really well. Let's see how she achieved. She  recorded the romantic dinner scene and the beautiful day one. In the first scene she created a very warm atmosphere with a candle. Probably, it was the obvious choice but, what was not so obvious was the contrast between the setting alight with and without the candle. The texture and the colour change a lot. Actually, without the candle, the illumination is flat and dull. Once the candle is there, the feeling perceived is othe. You really want to be there, having dinner with her. Something similar happens to the second sequence. Just with the daylight. Raising a blind and the sense of being on a very beautifil day is achieved. Again, it could be said that this is basic. And it's true. But, likewise it was in the dinner, the transition from a dark room to a clear one, is significant and it has been acomplished. 

The other student blog I accesed was the "Rjdown" of Richard. He did the stalker and another video that I didn't understand very well. In fact, talking about the latter, I think that there was nothing to comment on it as there was no atmosphere at all created by the lighting. On the contrary, the other sequence worked well as the sense of discomfort that the author intended to show was defintely there. The stalker is in the middle of the night and we can see that clearly through the window. What is more, due to the lighting source outside, when the man put his face against the door, his eyes turned into a strange kind of alien eyes. Furthermore, there's a shade on his face because the light at the door comes from one side. This is a good technique. To sum up, I believe that this video was a aligned to the spirit of the instructions. Although I doubt if that was the intention or it was accidental. 

Viewing light levels

This exercise is about finding good examples of light levels changing radically within a scene and explaining how these changes are justified. On reflection, it has to be said that I consider this task as one of the easiest so far. I struggled to compose the shots of creating depth with lighting. This is true. However, after having experienced with that, it's quite clear to me the use of sources of light. So, according to this and applying the rule that warm light means comfort and cold light the opposite, I'd like to expose the following stills:

Picture 1: This first example shows a man in his living room. The light is warm as this is a space where he feels good. The problem is that the place is connected to another room through a door. And in this room is happening something that is not convenient for the man. Thus, when opening the door his relaxation is gone. And we can see clearly the contrast between the two atmospheres. The first one has a light which is warm and pleasant. On the other hand, the second one, has a very cold light. Obviously, the character is not happy at all after the quiet environment is brought into disruption.   

Picture 2: In this case, there's an action that causes the change. There's no two different scenarios. Just a lamp that has been switched off after being thrown on to the floor. This motivates going from a nice lighting to total darkness. And the variation reflects well the mood of the protagonist. Before, he was thoughtful - although he was angry too. Afterwards, he is very mad at something and it all goes black because  of that.  

Creating depth with lighting

This exercise consists in creating a series of images with varying depth by movin objects in a dark room. When doing this, three different impressions of depth have to be obtained. They could be the same space appearing larger, smaller, cluttered, empty, wide or long. Having said that, the things that I got were the ones presented bellow.  

Layers of lighting.

I achieved this by leaving dark areas between two objects that were lit. The idea was to create depth but not in a sense of altering the dimensions of the room. It was just to have that feeling of, so to speak, 3D. And it was done in the easiest and most obvious manner possible.

Having a look at this still, it can be seen clearly that the effect hasn't been a much of success as the region in between is not completely dark and there is a shortage of darkness in the foregorund. This means that the sequence is an object, a black zone, another object and finally, another black zone. But what would have it been the result if there were a first very black layer in front? In all probability, it would have been slightly different and better. Furthermore, the object placed behind is not well not defined because the lighting was not good enough. A soft light is required and there's nothing to say about that but it's extremely weak and it's not able to see the figure well. 

Long and spooky

The technique of flooding the background with light was used in this case to achieve this goal. It was not difficult to do it and it seems that it worked, more or less, as it was expected. However, I couldn't make any difference with respect the size of the room which was really disappointing. So I had to accept that the only change created was that of the atmosphere preceived. From a quiet and, in a sense, safety place, to a spooky one.

We can see in the first still that the space is quite long as there are three different areas where some objects were placed. To be precise, we've got the toys in the foregorund, a few books in the middle and a teddy in the background. Conversely, in the second footage, even when the lights sources were the same, a simple variation on the exposure of the camera, made the scene spooky. The toys seem to appear from nowhere and, in the background we've got something else. Unfortunately, there was nothing aside from that. That is to said, the room kept all its dimensions. 

Other student's examples

I've chosen the following examples ought to I consider them as three exercises that achieve precisely that I couldn't make it - and I really wanted make it. 

The first one is a very good sample of wide-long effect. Just killing one light in the background and another one in the middle. In this manner, the author creates a diagonal movement that crosses the room and makes it wider than before - still 2. Besides, the light on the ceiling was off and as a consequence, the apparent height of the room was reduced. One of my ideas was to produce this kind of impact on the size of the room.  

The second example works on the same idea but, now, the large-small relationship is the one which has been modified. Although the student didn't realise about that, it can be seen without any doubt that the first room, with the foreground unlit, is biger than the second one, that has got a dark background. I reallu like this impression and I would have had something similar. I think that I could have done the wide-long link by using light sources at the edges of the space. Just switchin them on and off I guess I might have conveyed the feeling of a wider-longer space. Defintely, I shoud have a go at it. 

Finally, I really like how my colleague got the cluttered perception by lighting those points where the objects were. As easy as that. I don't know how I didn't notice that this thing could be done so simple. Looking at this picture, we can see that there are objects at the back and the front. And these two sets of things are lit with strong sources of light. This helps to enhance the result. I think it's a very good work.