Lighting Experiments

Lighting

First, we have experimented with different forms of lighting. We wanted to establish where lights should be placed and how bright, or at what angle or height. We first tried 3 point lighting for a natural approach but later we found that using less lighting sometimes became more effective. We placed a strong light at a high angle directly behind the drum set to highlight features of the drummer's face as well as the reflective parts of the instruments. This also created a soft silhouette that was effective and the lighting forced the background to be less focuses, meaning that the black curtains in the background were less noticeable. I think this is more effective than seeing the curtains in more detail because it makes the performance stand out more.  We found that with this strong back light we used a filter light from the front to give more depth to the facial features and define the outline of the drummer.

Experimenting with Rhythmic Cutting

Today we experimented with some general shot types, like handheld close ups, extreme close ups and other typical conventions of a pop music video. After we had some basic footage we practiced on Final Cut Pro to make some rhythmic cutting to the beat of the soundtrack. Below is evidence of how we achieved our small final outcome. We also experimenting with masking at the very beginning of our short music video.