Lighting and microphone workshop

Before we started filming for our project, we had a workshop on lights where we were shown 3*lighting is set up and what it is used for. The Three Point Lighting technique is a (professional and standard) method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. It uses three lights called key light, fill light and back light.

The big lights are called ‘Redhead’ and the small one is called ‘Lilliput’. The flaps covering the bulb are known as ‘barn doors’.

The key light is the main light as it is the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. Fill light is the secondary light and it is kept on the opposite side of the key light. It is mostly used to fill the shadows created by the key light. These two are the direct lighting in the technique unlike back light that is placed behind the subject. Its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject’s outlines which helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

We set up the three lights on the tripods as shown in the paper which I (have to admit) was quite scared to touch as they were quite big and expensive. We tried different colour gels for the cameras (which are the thin sheets of polyester or polycarbonate), to get different effects that enhance the mood in photographs. Colour gels have the tendency to melt if kept in heat for a long time which might possibly result in fire so we had to be really careful while using them.

(My group had decided to film everything outdoors so the studio lights weren’t necessary for this project.)

We were also told about microphones and headphones, for example, mono mic (puffy mic) which has the windjammer to block out unwanted noise and the usage of ‘fish pole’ to record interviews and such without showing the microphone. We are to use the headphones while recording sound (interviews) so that we can change settings while filming: some things can be quite difficult to edit later in the post- production stage.