Lighting In Film: Direction

Lighting is a crucial element when creating a film and this is because it obviously helps audiences to see what is happening and with the right lighting techniques, it helps to enhance the mood of certain scenes, giving the right tone to the film in general. In this blog, the techniques of lighting will be discussed in one of four different key factors, direction, quality, source, and color as well as the name of the person in charge of lighting and the responsibilities the title has.

In charge of the lighting in film is the cinematographer. With the first job of a cinematographer already mentioned, the two other things that the cinematographer is in charge of are the looks and color of the shots and for framing every single shot of the film.

Direction in lighting is simply defined as where the light is on the set and where the light points to. In relation to direction, some shots use three main lights: the key light, the fill light and the back light. The key light is placed in front of the subject and can have angles from 15 degrees to 70 degrees with 45 degrees used most often. The key light is the primary light in a scene and is meant to illuminate one section of the subject. 

The fill light is considered as the second light of the shot/scene. As its name suggests, the fill light's purpose is to fill in dark areas due to the shadows of the subject. It can be used in many ways, but it is most common to see the fill light opposite to the key light in relation to the camera. The fill light is used by many filmmakers to not only add depth to the subject, but to bring out detail on the other side of the subject.

The backlight is placed on the same side of the key light and behind the subject, often placed slightly higher than the subject. The backlight is considered the third light that is position when setting up lights on set. Backlights are used by filmmakers to bring their subject from looking two dimensional or 2D. It is also used to show contrast between the subject and the background.

Script for First Draft

 Although it is not much, every film opening needs not only a planning sheet, but a script to control what happens in during filming, what is in the shot and where everything is. In this blog will be the script to the first draft of me and my team's film opening.

Film Opening Planning Sheet: Part 4

For me and my team's film opening (the first draft), we first needed to plan out what we were going to do, where we were going, etc. which is the reason why we used a planning sheet. In this blog, I will be posting the work that one of my teammates completed and the next few blogs is the work completed by my other teammates. This teammate played the character 'Sarah' in the first draft of the film.

Film Opening Planning Sheet: Part 3

For me and my team's film opening (the first draft), we first needed to plan out what we were going to do, where we were going, etc. which is the reason why we used a planning sheet. In this blog, I will be posting the work that one of my teammates completed and the next few blogs is the work completed by my other teammates. This teammate played the character 'Kayla' in the first draft of the film.

Film Opening Planning Sheet: Part 2

For me and my team's film opening (the first draft), we first needed to plan out what we were going to do, where we were going, etc. which is the reason why we used a planning sheet. In this blog, I will be posting the work that one of my teammates completed and the next few blogs is the work completed by my other teammates. This teammate played the character 'Paige' in the first draft of the film.

Film Opening Planning Sheet: Part 1

For me and my team's film opening (the first draft), we first needed to plan out what we were going to do, where we were going, etc. which is the reason why we used a planning sheet. In this blog, I will be posting the work that I completed and the next few blogs is the work completed by my teammates.

Composition: Rule Of thirds

In filmmaking, composition is another important factor of camerawork used by many filmmakers to direct the eyes of the audience to the right places of the frame, centering the focus of the audience to one area in the scene. In this blog, the techniques of composition will be discussed with one of the four categories: Rule of Thirds, Balance, Blocking and Depth of Field. The next blogs will continue discussing composition.

Rule of Thirds:

The rule of thirds is used by filmmakers to give a more aesthetically pleasing look to a frame, making audiences attracted to certain types of pictures and creating memorable scenes in the film. The rule of thirds is achieved by applying a grid to the camera; the grid having two vertical lines and two horizontal lines across the screen. The part of the process which is considered the rule of thirds is when the subject of the frame is off-centered and placed in three of the nine rectangles of the frame or when there is a scenic shot of the ocean and land; it would be best of the horizon or the line between the land and sea we placed on one of the lines of the grid.