Lighting

Due to also being involved in another UCA engagment with fashion Atelier I was not able to make Wednesday 25th May and get involved with the lighting of the film set however I came in the next morning for group 1's lesson on the lighting.

HEALTH AND SAFTEY:

• Use gloves when moving the barn doors for both spot and flood lights to avoid burning your hands as they get very hot.


• As some of the lights have 3 tiers and as they become very tall, they are the top head and can fall over easily. To avoid this sandbads are placed over the legs at the bottom to keep them stable.


• Lights must be placed the right way round on the stands and all wires must never be placed in front of or cover the radiator at the back of the light.


• Be aware of any cables on the floor.

NOTES ON LIGHTING:

• The Lighting can help create illusions, shadows can distort the set and fool the audience.


• To make certain Stills or films work is all in how we control the light. What is it that we want to be controlling?


• Through the use of different lights we are able to contorl: The colour, direction, intensity, harsh and soft lighting, the mood and certain compositions.


• The differentce between harsh and soft lighting: HARSH: Harsh and sharp shadows are created, the light is pretty solid. SOFT: The light is often bounced off a board to create a more subtle highlight and produce a more defused look.

VIDEO: We can control:

• Aperture- How wide of small the lense is made, the smaller the aperture the less light is allowed through the lense.


• Changes in Depth of Field - The focus for example: The person in front of the camera in focus whilst the background is blurred and visa-versa.


• Composition

STILLS: We can control:

• Shutter speed- How quick the picture is taken, with a slow shutter speed there is often a slight blur.


• Aperture- Exposure to light


• ISO- sensitivity to light

GELS: We can control:

• Gels are put infront of the light to change the colour, the light shines through the gel.


• The gel is clipped onto the barn doors in font of the light. The barn doors must be pushed slightly forward for then to be clipped.


• The gels can be layered to create different colours.


• Colour correction


• Sets the mood

SCRIMS:

• Put in front of the light and place between the light and the barn doors. The barn doors must be off to allow the scrim to be put into place.


• Stops down the light- As people get closer to the light the brighter they become.


• Scrims can make the light apear softer.


• Scome scrims are cut in half to create different efftects.

I found this mornings lesson very informative and look forward to being able to take part in lighting next time.

Work done in the study

Once the panneling had been placed on the walls in the study they now needed to be painted however after the first panel was painted we noticed that where the nails had be drilled into the wood could be easily seen.

Going around the room Abbie and I used filler to cover over the nails. Once dried we then used sand paper and sanded them down to make them smooth so when the painted went over them the nails could no longer be seen, this also gave the panels some nice texture in areas.

Once dried we then carried on painting the panneling using the same wood graining technique used on previous peices, using a base coat then adding another slightly darker colour over the top to then lightly add black with a dry brush to finish.

Helping with Heather and Laurens Table

Whilst Lauren was absent from class I help Heather sand their small table.

Before started the feet which had previously been made and put on the table had to be removed. As the feet were made from paper mache and then painted over in the gold paint, they were proving very difficult to remove. I resulted in having to cut the feet off using a knife and small hand saw.

Once the feet were off the table legs they were then ready to sand. Using a hand held electric sander I sanded down the legs to remove any excess dried glue and to make them smooth. I found the sander very efficient and easy to use.

I done the same for both sets of legs. Heather then went on to rounding off the corners and continuing with the rest of the table.

Painting the Dado Rails

For sections of the doors and the planks of wood which the doors were later going to be hinged onto, a number of thin Dado Rails needed to be painted so they could then be attatched as soon as possible.

With an undercoat of a red/brown mixture of paint I then painted over the dado rails with gold paint. The paint was used sparingly and lightly so that parts of the undercoat could show through to produce a more toned appearance.


The paint brushes were then washed in Methylated Spirit due to the gold being oil based paint and would not be removed from the brushes with water.

This job was simple and was able to be done fast and came out very effective.

Fixing The Broken Baroque Picture Frame

For one of the Baroque frames which was broken, Abbie and I worked together to fit it so it could then be used as a photo frame for the set. The frame had been broken in half with opposite corners snapped. The backing of the frame (the card which would have held the photo in place) was missing. Whilst I held the frame together Abbie took measurements which she then went and cut the back out from ply wood. As Abbie was away cutting the back out I was left with the broken frame, where both corners had become disjointed bent nails were visable and sticking out of the frame.

Using pliers and from some of the other nails a hammer I removed all the evident nails. From pulling the first nail out I noticed that the nails had gone rusty so in doing so when removing them I was very aware and carefull not scratch or cut myself with the rusty nails.

JOINING THE FRAME TOGETHER:

Before putting the corners together using a hand held electric sander, I sanded down each side of where it had broken as there was dried hot glue stuck onto the wood where someone had previously tried to stick the frame together.

To join the corners of the frame together we put "No More Nails" adhesive and pressed the corners together until the connection was strong enough that we no longer had to hold them together before adding a second form of support. On the corners which were now previously broken we added a small peice of ply wood and nailed them into the frame to keep the corners from coming apart again.

The frame was now ready for a photograph to be printed and inserted into the frame, however once finished and was up on the wall the frame was not able to sit 100% straight and whilst most of the members of the group thought it was not extremely noticeable a number of students strongly disagreed and the frame was removed from the set.

Helping to paint the bookcase draws

To help Dan, Chloe and Nuria, Abbie and I painted the draws which were to be placed on the bookcase. I painted the draws with a base coat of a ligh brown whilst Abbie also done the same and added the wood graining effect by adding a darker brown on top to then add black paint using a dry brush.
Eventhough we only took part in painting the draws I feel the overall end result of the bookcase was come together well and looks very effective in the sets alcove.

Helping With Fiona's Tiles

Like many people in the group I helped with some of tiles for Fiona's Russian fireplace.

The tiles had been painted in Covent Garden Primer and two coats of White emulsion paint, when dry I drew around fionas acetate stencils of the petals which were placed in each corner of the tile then around a seperate stencil which included all the circular decoration which was then put is in the centre of each tile. Once drawn I then traced one of three designs: A cat, rabbit, harpie while fiona done the picture of the flowers by eye.

This job was simple, stencilling was easier than painting as painted took more time, patience and had to be done correctly however I was happy to help fiona and the rest of the group who were also helping to finish off the tiles.