As a result of my research I have made the following plans for my lighting. I discuss the process of making these decisions in my Lighting Research, and I evaluate my decisions in my Preproduction Evaluation.

 

My research has led me to the following decisions/criteria

 

1. My main lighting "feel" that I am going for in my film is "natural"

2. Since I am filming outside, the main light source will be the sun.

3. Filming in bright direct sunlight would give shadows that are too harsh. I want to avoid that.

4. Filming in some shade will help diffuse the sunlight, reducing the harshness of the shadows.

5. I don't have enough crew or the right equipment to position reflectors, whiteboards or diffusers without needing more crew to hold them.

6. I do have 2 battery powered filming lights on light stands that I can position.

7. I don’t want to go for full high-key lighting as I feel a slight shadow on faces is more natural, so I only need to make slight adjustments.

 

There are 2 parts of my filming that I need to consider.

 

1. Lighting for filming me speaking to camera

2. Lighting for "filming me filming"

   • Shots from Camera 2 of me filming

   • Shots from Camera 1 of my Mum standing in the glade.

 

After many location scouting issues, and much test filming, I believe I will be able to film in the woods, as I had originally hoped. The area that I have found to film in, which meets the criteria of minimising contact with other people, helps with the criteria I have settled on for lighting, because it is a shaded glade.

 

 

1. Lighting for filming me speaking to camera

These are pretty much all mid-shots, but with different actions and backgrounds to add variety (see my Mise-en-scene Research for reasons and Preproduction Evaluation for effectiveness discussion). My face will be very visible, facing the camera, hence I feel I need to light it to get the natural look I want.

 

I will make the most of the diffused sunlight due to the shade, and supplement with my 2 lights to ensure that I am differentiated against the background, have no harsh shadows but have some soft shadows for a natural look. From experimentation, my lights are strong enough to do this. I will need to position the lights for each shot depending on the current light conditions for each, to get a consistent look across all shots.

 

 

2. Lighting for "filming me filming"

• Shots from Camera 2, of me filming. These are all long shots including me and my Mum, with the Camera 2 in a stationary position. My lights are not strong enough to light this entire area. So, I will have to be reliant on the sun and shade. To get consistency between shots, I will need to try to wait between shots to keep the same level and balance of sun/cloud cover.

• Shots from Camera 1 of my Mum standing in the glade. I could position my lights to light my Mum, but, from test filming and experimentation, I believe that the natural light in the shaded glade is OK. Any slight improvement in lighting would be outweighed by the lighting equipment "cluttering up" the footage shot in Camera 2 where they would be in shot, distracting from the main point of the scenes i.e. showing the difference camera movement makes to a scene. There won’t be many obvious shadows because my Mum's face won't be visible because she will face away from the camera. If I ensure that she is differentiated from the background, I believe the scene will be lit fine. She will wear a bright blue hoodie so that will help keep her differentiated too.

 

In summary

1. Lighting for filming me speaking to camera – Use natural sunlight with it being diffused by the shade of the trees, and supplement each shot with 2 lights to make shadows natural, not too harsh and not too much.

2. Lighting for "filming me filming"

Use no lights, keep consistency by choosing moments to film with consistent sun/clouds.