Igor Faustino
pre production
Primary location & location Recce
Shot list
shooting schedule
Story board & shot planning
Filming practice + Blocking
Lighting practice
During my practice session I didn't have access to the main key light that I planned to use for my actual l filming day. So I decided improvised with a Beurer TL40 UK Daylight therapy lamp borrowed from my mum. This lamp served as a makeshift key light and allowed me to experiment with different lighting techniques.
when filming I wanted to have warm tones in this scene and to achieve this, I used two lamps from my house that were warm lamps. These lamps managed to give me the desired color temperature but were overpowered by the cool toned key light, that ended up overpowering both the lamps, to get over the issue i hat to find a way to dim the lighting but i didn't have a dimer built into the light so i used baking paper to diffuse the key light. This gave me a simple solution and softened the harsh light and still was able to get rid of the shadows created by the two lamps that were casting a shadow in the wall, and to also the key light managed to get rid of the shadow on the left side of my face created by the lamp facing me.
I also had an idea to strategically placed the key light facing the opposite wall behind the camera to bounce the light of that wall to also create a bit more the defusion because i cant change the brightness on the camera. The reason for this set up is that key light helped brighten and get rif of some shadows is the room and to eliminate the shadows created by the two warm lamps. The key light gave a more natural and and a somewhat even distribution of light, and it still managed even it being a cold lighting it still let me maintain the warmth and mood of the scene.
text in forn
key light with difussion
with and without the key light
For my lighting did three-point lighting setup technique with some motivated lighting coming from the lamp that I learned from my research. This setup was done with a key light, a visible lamp on the left side of the desk for motivated lighting , and a lamp behind on the monitor. The key light, that is my main light source is placed to face the wall behind the camera to try and get rid of the shadows and to make sure that the room overal more bring because ether lamps make it too dark . The reason fro that is to not have any shadows on the left side of the face of my actor that is being created by the visible lamp for the motivated lighting on the desk. The lamp, thats on the on the left side of the desk that is the only visible light is placed there with the intuition of creating a natural, motivated lighting effect, and the hidden lamp was that on the right behind the monitor to get rid of any shadows that are crated in the wall because all the lightning on the right is greating shadows on the wall behing my actor so that light hets rid of that and to enhance the warm tones in the scene. The three-point lighting setup have me balanced and natural look for my shot which is what i was looking for .
Camera and Lens Testing
While doing my filming practice I used a camera simulation app that I found during my research where you can test different lenses and focal lengths. This approach allowed me to test various camera lenses and aperture settings, giving me a great view into which lens would be the best for my visual style and vision that I had for my project. By using this app, I managed to explore different focal lenses and apertures without having the actual physical equipment, which allowed me to save money and also mainstream my work, and also helped me solidify my idea for my short film.
After testing, I made the decision that a 24mm lens with a 1.4f stop would be the most effective for capturing the desired visual style, depth of field and quality for my film. This lens choice for the Lumix GH5 that i had planned on renting, ensured a realistic view for my film, that was suitable for the interior shots that i wanted for my room and also helped me deal with the space issues that I had in my room, this lean is also good because while having a low f-stop it provides me excellent control over the depth of field, which will allow me to do close up shots with a depth that will give me the freedom to do pull focus shots and maintain a very beautiful depth of field.
Lens tests
26mm
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Pros: Provides a balanced in close up shots and wide shots, making it very versatile different shot types, it would be the “best for my money”. it has good depth of focus for my background and its close to the human eye making it good for people to relate to the short film.
Cons: Might not be good for extreme close-ups or very wide establishing shots, but iy has an 1.4f so it has good depth of focus
77mm
Pros: would be perfect for close-ups and detailed shots ,and would have a good shallow depth of field
Cons: Has a narrow field of view, making it difficult to include things from the background. would be very difficult management the camera position and focus with such a small space in my room.
13mm
Pros: Offers a very wide field of view, capturing a large part of the scene and would be super helpful for the limited space .
Cons: has noticeable distortion in the table so that would take way from the scene, and can make most of close-up shots appear unnatural. Managing lighting and focus would be challenging.
F.stop testing
1.4F
also during my lens testing I was also able to emulate the F stop to see how it would look in my film to be able to plan for how shallow I was able to go with the 26mm 1.4 f stop lens, and swing that gave me some ideas on the close ups I would be able to do
22F
I was also able to see how 22f stop would look like in my shoots to know how wide the range would be if I needed to get wide shots with a lot of the definition on my background, that would possibly allow me to show how messy his room in and still campturer him
During my testing for camera shots and lenses, I noticed that the filament lamp in my room that I choose to build my motivated lighting, was creating issues with exposure of my shots. the reason for the issue was that when I attempted to capture the definition of the filament, I had to bring my shutter all the way up , making the whole shot way too darker. To fix that problem, unfortunately I had to replace the filament lamp that had a lot of style with a different lamp that did not have an exposed filament or lightbulb and had a cover over the bulb. With this change it allowed me to use my lower shutter speed, giving me a better exposed shot without ruining the lighting of the scene.
By doing this lens testing I was able to rent the correct lens and improve the lighting in my shots, which will give me the best visuals for my films. this whole process will allow me to be faster in my production day, saving me loads of time.
