Usually, I prefer to set up lights when I’m filming, but this time I challenged myself
to make a whole video using only natural light. So here are some things you can do to create
cinematic images without using loads of equipment.
Good lighting is probably the easiest way to make your films look cinematic - but when we're not
using any lighting equipment, it’s easy the shots to turn out looking pretty amateur. So what do we have
to do to be able to put together shots like these? I started with a glass of water, and placed
it in front of a window on a cloudy day so that the light was nice and soft.
Working with natural light is all about choosing locations that already have decent light,
and then blocking bits of it out if necessary. There was already a nice gradient from the
white counter to the dark background, but I wanted it darker, so I found a frying pan
to put in the background. Last of all, I cooled off the bottom half
of the image in color grading.
So for a lot of the shots, I used that same idea for lighting - using a window as a soft backlight.
I think it works especially well for close ups, little details and insert shots. But it definitely doesn't
work for every kind of scene. For the opposite kind of mood, I went out
to a shed and pointed a bike light around to get this look, which you could see in a
cliche horror film or something. don’t make the mistake of thinking that
you need to use more and more light for everything: darkness is all over hollywood films.
But lighting wasn’t the priority on this project, more important was to use the locations,
color, emotion and senses to make rich, cinematic, images.
Let’s go through those one by one:
For this shot, the lighting wasn’t special, neither was there anything particularly interesting
about the camera placement. But seeing something so grimy and stained..
I think it does make an impact. If a scene took place somewhere as mouldy
as this, it’d certainly give us a different impression to if it was somewhere that looked
like this. So if we’re going for a cinematic look,
we’ve got to pay attention to locations and sets.
Just think of how the sunny little village in the Hobbit, with it’s flowers and picket
fences is the perfect, comfortable place for Bilbo Baggins. It’s an extension of his character.
So when he leaves it all on a big adventure
the audience can really understand how much that means.
Now when I posted the video featuring the shots we’ve been breaking down, there were
lots of comments asking about which camera I was using.
Some people thought I was shooting raw, and others were asking how I did the color correction.
But the truth is, I was using the same camera I always use,
Literally just the T3i which doesn’t’ shoot raw, a microphone and a travel tripod.
As for color grading, I just did the same corrections that I do for pretty much all my footage.
The difference was not the camera, but what is in front of the camera.
For example, the main reason I filmed this was the colour contrast between the blue of
the curtains, and the brown of the window sill, which is then repeated in the blue of the vase.
Just imagine if that curtain had been green, it’d be a completely different shot.
So when we talk about getting that 'traditionally cinematic look' you've got to remember that on most film sets, they have an art department, who can pretty much design
the colour of every single thing that’s in the frame, they very rarely just turn up on set
and say, yeah, that looks fine, let’s shoot! So when it comes to colour, I’m more interested
in the props, the locations, costumes and the sets than any little tweaks I can make in software.
Now, I should definitely mention that the majority of the emotion in most films comes
directly from the characters and the storyline. However, with film being a visual medium, we should
have ideas about supporting that emotion in every way we can.
Let’s say there’s a scene where a character is feeling nostalgic, we might put them in
their childhood home, so that they can walk around and look at the old pictures that they remember
from before. Or for a character who’s just escaped from
prison, you might have them ride on a motorcycle through open fields of grass- the
green grass being a stark contrast from the greys in the prison, and the motorcycle being a symbol of freedom,
being able to travel, and have the wind rushing through their hair.
Now, you might think that those images and colours would actually work better for something
entirely different and that's good, hold on to that, that's your unique perspective and it's one of the most valuable
assets that we have as filmmakers.
Now if you'd like to watch the whole video it’s the first link in the description, but the idea
with that video was to take away the actors, and take away the script, and see if we could try and capture
some of that emotion and atmosphere: the kind of stuff that you can’t really put into words.
And I think the best way to summarise that is to think in terms of senses:
Of course sight and sound are the most important ones, just watch these to see the difference:
but less talked about are the other senses - seeing this shot we know that it would feel
hot, seeing this candle smoke we can imagine what that would smell like.
So, why does this matter? if someone is slapped in a film, that’s going to get a visceral
reaction from the audience. If there's a film where someone is walking home and a car drives
past, splashing them with water, we all know what that feels like to be cold and to have your clothes sticking
to you. There’s a reason why things like come up
time and time again, whether it's explosions, someone having a knife pointed right up against their throat,
Or someone washed up on a desert island, so thirsty that their lips are cracked.
These things immerse us in the film, providing a rich experience, real energy - and the best
thing is that it doesn't even cost much money to include these kind of things in your films.
So sure, you can shoot at 24 frames per second, with a shallow depth of field, but why
not try adding some active things for your characters to do, things that’ll create more
of a visual and sensory impact than just a simple shot like this, with a person talking.
My name’s Simon Cade, this has been DSLRguide and i’ll see you next week.