Vertigo - Scene Anylysis

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock 1958)

Studied Through Mulvey's Psychoanalysis

Hitchcock's film Vertigo is a film that can have psychoanalysis applied to it such as Laura Mulvey and her theory on patriarchal cinema. When observing this film you do it through the eyes of a male protagonist and the direction of Alfred Hitchcock which in of its self may be male centred but not exactly patriarchal. The idea of something lacking leading to the obsessive looking through the eyes of a man and the enjoyment gained from that. This brings together elements of Mulvey's theory which can be explored and applied to this film.

The 1st moment in the film where the male gaze can be spotted is in the opening of the film where there is a female form, fractured and shown in extreme close up and tightly framed. The technical signification of having the parts of a female tightly centred and framed make it become the focus for the audience, a fractured female meant to be seen as an object and in this case in mystery. The camera throughout is the audiences view point and by showing us this we become interested in wanting to know the whole image. It was technically edited to have a red filter on the womans eye too giving us the idea of a mysterious woman is dangerous but a woman is to be sexually desired with the many meanings of the colour applied to this one shot of passion and danger.

2nd I would point out the scene where Scotty is peaking out at the female character, Madeline, from a slightly opened door where we see a flower shop. When he first peeks the framing has a whole third dedicated to flowers to highlight that it is pretty and women should be pretty. You could go further and draw lines to that women like flowers only bloom for a short while which is why it is mainly the young women are shown by them or even that women are a commodity like the flowers able to be purchased, acquired for a price.

Throughout the film the young women are placed in front of flowers and by placing women by these flowers in the miss en scene we can confirm connections between the two and infer that Hitchcock finds the beauty of women is to be looked at and framed to heighten this.

Not only that but in the flower shop scene in particular we see the male gaze portrayed by cutting back to Scotty peeking through and watching, affirming that you too are meant to watch like a male, making men copy the actions and women to aspire to be passive. A similar example is also of the art piece in the gallery where Scotty observes Madeline observing a painting but from the point of view of the camera as Scotty, the audience, the "male", it becomes a painting of its own.

Scotty late in the film after having lost what he perceived to be his love but may have just been what filled his lack. He wants to fill it again but not anyone will do, he wants his pretty woman back just as he remembers when he sees someone in the street who looks remarkably similar he pursues. From this encounter he becomes fixated on making her look as she does in his mind, you could say he is trying to craft her who sort of fills his lack to fit perfectly. To make her into his perfect woman through his male gaze it is then shown technically with shots that pause like the mystery is being peiced together and music which portrays the slight sadness that she does not yet look like Madeline, exploring the scopophillic side. The narrative informs the audience by having her buy the same dress and dye her hair the same colours. "I just want you to look nice." Said by Scotty in the dress shop. Heavily implies the male gaze by stating that I (the male) want you (slightly dominating) to look (scopophillic) nice (perfect, the way you should as you are a woman).

There is the Hair Dye Scene 

Finally when the image is completed the Scotty who quite shyly is looking towards he changes once she has finally submitted and became the passive being he wants to see. It is shown by a mid shot of him turning with loose framing and the focus on Scottie. We then have the reverse showing another mid shot but a but tighter framing before we return back to a close up of Scottie's face. This is a close up of his face so we can see him looking, gazing, at her but also to see his pleased expression on viewing her in her perfect form. The shallow depth of focus in this shot gives us just the face to see, to affirm the male gaze to the audience.

The male gaze is definitely at play here in Vertigo and it was prevalent in many of Hitchcock's movies, He being a heterosexual man himself would have high probabilities in being the director and having a predominantly male crew (as seen in credits) of showing the male view and an older sexist view of women. What would make this theory less prevalent now would be people following mulveys theory and would be aware of this and also with people of more backgrounds making film different sexual view points are exploited like female and queer gaze.

The Machinist - Freudian Psychoanalysis

The Machinist

Freudian Psychoanalysis Film Studies

The Machinist (2004) was directed by Brad Anderson and starred Christian Bale. A film that revolves around a character, a man named Trevor Reznik who works in a machine parts shop, visits an airport cafe most nights and has frequent visits with a "hooker". The film develops as the audience is shown that the main character is not in his right mind shown through the actor being emaciated. Reznik is struggling to come to terms with a hit and run incident and his mind causes paranoia and incidents. Reznik is warned frequently through the film by various manifestations of the Super Ego.

In the Machine Shop we can see how his bosses are split with a middle manager and a head of department. We can assume that the abuse that the middle manager hurls at him is the severe punishing side of the super ego, the drive to get things done and efficiently, whilst the head manager is concerned of the self saying that Reznik looks sick and should get help. The role of the super ego being split as real people is then repeated within his own mind where he creates another version of himself who is also fed up and drained. Initially this new side of him represents the Id the impulsive rough ball of a force that is shown smoking, wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket to emphasise his rebelliousness. Technically in the screen capture shown below we are introduced through a medium close up low angle shot giving this mental break the power. The shots framing is loose, enough so that we can see the outline of car and the focusing is deep enough so that you can see the character against its background and feel the distance between him and the wearhouse.

The Ghost Ride scene after Reznik has offered to look after the boy, of the waitress in the airport cafe, is a scene where his subconscious Super Ego comes through in the attraction. Shown in the miss-en-scene there are words and images that have the guilt and retrubutional side of the mind become real as he slowly passes by on the railed cart. The hanged man because he was "Guilty" of his crimes but alone by a tree signifies a self punishment. The Sheriff's office is shown as a way out for Reznik the dead man already hinting that he should hand himself in. Technically shot in deep focus so that you get all the meaning that you can from it and whilst all is seen it is in the background for the audience to see that it is not in his Ego the forefront of his mind.

There is then a simulated car accident which mirrors what happened in real life, his Super Ego reminding him overtly but through an almost comical means that he ran over a kid. After this there is a choice in the tracks, tracks in of its self signify a planned route, where he pleads to the child to take the path of hope and forgiveness but through his actions he is forced only to take the highway to hell. His choicelessness could be considered the impulses of the Id which caused the actions and the need to carry on after the accident and the Super Ego reusing this fact to instil guilt making him have no choice in which path just as the boy had no choice in being ran over. Letting the boy have this choice in the scene is a symbolic way of supporting that idea.

Prison becomes the resolution for Reznik's story as after he has faced his previous actions and realised that it was his mind telling him to repent he relents and heads to the police office. As he arrives and decides on his decision he glances out of the window to see his other self bidding farewell or a greeting as the split is no longer needed now he is atoning for his transgression.

When Reznik is taken to his cell the super ego's repentance is shown technically by having white, clean colour on the walls and surroundings and having three persons in shot is a realised identity and a complete mind again. He is placed in his cell which is framed in thirds again to show that he is the Ego the one in control again but with the thirds that was shown before the other elements are still there but back in the subconscious. Finally that character is laid down on his bed, which in the white room looks holy or religious, so after being denied sleep for so long his is given his rest.

Freuds theory of the Id, Ego and Super Ego is around this film and unlike many films where people are shown to stay mad where they reside within their Id, kept impulsive and untamed, The Machinist focuses on the discovery and making up with the mind by owning up to transgressions made.

Psychoanalytical Film - First Ideas

First Film Ideas

Mulvey Theory Based Idea

Wanted to include elements from the theory like fragmentation, clothing and setting to show and explore the male gaze on screens. From films like

Lacan Theory Based Idea

The obsessive need to want and possess someone so far that it would change everything you are to achieve filling that hole in your mind but after so much change the object of desire is no longer the right shape to fill that gap or even never would of in the first place. The use of mirrors would be use during the outward change of the character, as the mirror is the Ideal state, I would have say a man breathe in and hold his stomach whilst the camera is pointed at the mirror then have him breathe out when pointed at him to show this difference between the reality and the perceived Ideal. I would also do the same with clothes and body language showing maybe a well kept suit and standing tall in the reflection of a window then looking through the glass show a slouched messily dressed character with a weak smile. Music that could be use could be that 80s song obsession.

Freud Theory Based Idea - Chosen

My idea for exploring the Id, Ego and Super Ego was to have a narrative of

It will be set in my house utilising the ground floor, upstairs and attic level to give the symbolic levels of the Id, Ego and Super Ego. I will explore the theory by having an actor playing the Ego (our protagonist if you could call him that) and another actor playing the Syd the Id. I want the id to be challenging the Ego's believes and fears of the Super Ego who will be known as "The Man Upstairs" to also create a polysemic film exploring religious themes.

After watching a few clips from various experimental movies I would like to give the Super Ego a personified object as its symbolic source using perhaps a light or in the absence of a man upstairs , making the upstairs seem more alive through the camera. The characterisation and actions that the actors playing the Ego and the Id will be through suggestion of a new idea to be improvised , this would get a more natural response of which the Ego and Id are to be representing with the Ego naturally trying to forfil everyones needs a bit of a people pleaser who could respond to the Ids impulsive and primitive actions of which and improvisational approach would make that more apparent and mistakes may still be included.

Bibliothek - Sources for Essay

[1]
As Tears Go By 1988
By Wong Kar-Wai

[2]
Days of Being Wild 1990
By Wong Kar-Wai

[3]
Chunking Express 1994
By Wong Kar-Wai

[4]
Hong Kong Cinema - The Extra Dimensions
By Stephen Teo

[5]
Contemporary World Cinema
By Shohini Chaudhuri (P 122 - 123)

1st new wave 1979. 2nd late 1980s
 '...combined popular genres with cosmopolitan art-cinema influences and explored contemporary and historical

[6]
World Directors Wong Kar-Wai
Stephen Teo

[7]
Hong Kong Babylon
Fredric Dannen and Barry Long

[8]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofFalBKSNFw "20-Minute Wong Kar Wai interview on 'In The Mood For Love'

[9]
this other thing here

New Wave Inspired Sequence and Review

New Wave Inspired Sequence

My brief was to create a New Wave cinema inspired short sequence around three minutes long and that in principle is what I have created. Overall I diverged from my brief focusing on internal struggles of young adults and instead of focusing on two characters and their relationship I created a montage sequence. This was because of a lack of actors that I could find willing to help me explore the ideas presented in the brief and a lack of organisation to my vision. With a plan I could have thought ahead with what shots I wanted and then created a piece closer to my brief but when it came to planning the location shoot to Leicester my ideas of recording the public, like at the start of public news pieces, made me think of how I could create a three minute montage instead. I would justify it in the sense of as it was only a sequence, the three minutes I had would be too ambitious to explore two characters and use enough New Wave features so by having a montage which could be apart of a wider film exploring the narrative. This change had a hard hit to the personal feeling that I wanted in my brief. When recording the public, it felt impersonal and I was more of an observer than one of them and I didn't start to feel the personality in those shots until editing and thinking about music. Speaking of music I decided not to use the ambient sounds that we took as at times the Zoom mic didn't record in some takes and there was a lot of wind sounding through recordings we did take. This could have be avoided and we could have acquired good sound samples as there was nothing wrong with the zoom mic, taking good indoor samples whilst we recorded in a coffee shop. To have solved these problems a foam covering over the microphone would have protected against the buffeting of the wind. In the case of non recording sound the lead going between the camera and the zoom mic could have been rechecked or recorded separately making sure the record button was pressed so that the microphone was recording.

Starting from the start of my sequence you have a minute of long shots taken on a bus as to get a tracking shot without our own dolly system. This reflects with my brief of using objects around to get interesting tracking shots as a way on low budget films to get these shots. I would say that I could have found more of a variety and perhaps whilst in Leicester found a shopping centre with an escalator perhaps. Being critical of the shots themselves, the shutter speed was low (at 1/25s and 1/60s) and caused blurring in the shots, whilst I personally like this effect as it reminds me of Wong Kar-Wai and his slowed down "Smudge" motion footage used in Chungking Express (1994) which looks blurred and slowed manipulated time. I believe a similar effect was reached by the bus traveling at different speeds rather than, slowed reprinted frames. Things that can be debated with the opening bus shots as to weather they help or not and can be considered a mistake. To make these shots more crisp I would shoot again with a higher shutter speed (1/500 or higher) but as that would make the images under exposed would then have to widen the aperture to f 5.5 or lower and maybe have to up the ISO (400, 800) which would increase noise and grain to my picture which I didn't want. The shots were all long takes and the way I have arranged them with minimal jump cuts, unlike Easy Rider (1969) which uses stylised jump cuts frequently, and used a minute of my time on it. I would like to think with the long time it creates a journey that with the music it does give it a reflective melancholic tone. The way that you can see the bus in the reflection of the streets distance the viewer, again, knowing that it is a film. I used a hand held camera (the Cannon 5D with magic lantern) which is linked to my brief as being New Wave as the portability of it made it possible to film cheaply on location rather than with large equipment in studio sets. After the bus sequence there is shot where the camera is stable by being rested not on a tripod but on a grey wall and focused in on people walking at the side of the frame whilst a van approaches before turning. The composition of this shot is not exactly following the rule of thirds and looks a little off, by bending the rules of cinema we can explore them which is part of what new wave directors liked to do. The using of the environment is new wave and deciding to do so was to get a stable shot with what was available. My central part of the sequence is a series of short flashes of scenes actually taken from the automatic balancing from the start of recording, whilst a mistake I made the choice to use the flashes to give an almost memorial feel to it. Within these shots there is one of people behind railings which is out of focus, whilst the effect adds to my feeling of fuzzy reflection like a half memory or the way the world can become out of focus when thinking, this shot is still technically wrong. To remedy this I could have chosen a higher f-stop to increase my depth of field (which would have led to less light coming through the smaller aperture) the best thing I should have tried was, whilst on manual focus, is to focus in on the subject better. The lens flares in this sequence are deliberate and are to distance the audience again from knowing theses images are coming from a camera but not ply that, in the day time sun it accentuates that fact giving a glittery view to the peace (lens flare used deliberately in new wave films such as Easy Rider 1969 and inspired this). This section is not as new wave as I'd like and it isn't until the lens flared shots that I believe it helps in distancing the audience. Creating this  reflective feel in the piece and to take the audience out was in a way to get the viewer to reflect on themselves personally. The walking shadows are a creation of accident from when we were trying to get a shot up that end of the street as we had previously recorded the other. This mistake creates a haunting reflective feel which may be closer to experimental than new wave, this is an element that I would not exactly try and avoid but would like to watch more new wave films in order to get the balance between experimental and exploring ideas through known techniques. The dutch angled shot of a crowd walking in a strange unison I find to be a good one as to me it shows how strange our patterns are, it would have looked differently and have had much less of an effect if it was level due to highlighting the strangeness of our natural paterns. The transition between day and night is a great shot that I am proud of using the hand held camera in a way that it shows the movement of the camera man, I have created a walking shot. In transition from the day to night walking shot I used a straight cut at a frame that would continue the bounce of the cameras movement and the distancing done by that helps the audience get used to the new settings I had to use for shooting at night. I upped the ISO to 1600 and made where possible the lights out of focus to give glittering balls of light but by the process of a heightened ISO there is a lot more visible grain in the shots. I also made the aperture to a  wide aperture and low f-stop at around 5.5 or less so as to let in more light at night and give more scope for playing with focus to get my desired effect within the shallow depth of field. My last three shots go from out of focus to in and back again, as I final part I used this to look interesting and make use of the ambient lighting which was more prominent in the night.

This  above is my completed project based on my brief to create a New Wave cinema styled piece with music whilst below is the draft without. The non-diegetic music gives a different feel to each of the parts in the montage giving the first parts a sense of slight urgency and force in its passage as this is where we must travel and we will travel, pushing on as we must. The final part then has a more quiet inspection of the surroundings as everything that scurries now has its own tale yet its own interest in you.

Leicecter Trip - Review

Leicester Trip - Review of Visit

The Wednesday we went to Leicester started off quite slow as gathering and checking the equipment took its time. We had met up as planned in the College as a central point that we both new also as a place where we could get the equipment helping each to carry it. the equipment that we collected in the morning was the Cannon D5 Camera with flash card for memory but we had already collected a basic tripod. all sorted we headed to the town centre to go to the bus station. We boarded the bus and bought a day ticket that would take us there and looked at the scenery on the way there. We thought that it would look nice to record but with only one charge on our battery we decided to record what we wanted and could in the centre of Leicester first. If we had the possibility of recharging our battery we would have recorded a lot more, the same would be said for the storage but our limitations made our shot choices more thought through. This limit in retrospect would be quite linked to the New wave film makers as a lot of them would have had a very small budget and would have to have used their film wisely even with the experimentation. 

Once we had got into Leicester town centre we headed through some back streets to capture some footage of back streets and ally ways the screen shot bellow shows the shot we decided to take. the framing is a little off but has some nice feature such as the lorry making it more claustrophobic. the double yellow lines lead the shot on to the distance with the side of the walls and lorry helping give depth of field. We moved along after only a short while here as workers were near by and were watching, wanting us to move along.

We went to a square where students were passing through and linking it to my brief of trying to capture people of our own age which was one of the reasons Leicester was chosen for having two universities in the city which would lead to a higher than average young adult population in the city centre. This is where we found a problem with some of our footage as we would have everything, as far as we were aware, on manual yet the aperture and focus would auto to something different after only a couple seconds of recording. In future recordings we added a few seconds after it auto defaulted to redo our focus. In these shots it is unclear if or to how much the aperture would have changed.

After a while we decided to travel a little way down from the edges of city centre towards where I thought there would be a park, which would have good opportunities to capture fewer people but walking a closer more personal, maybe even more natural, with the surroundings of the park. The long and short of it is, I got us lost. This was a negative thing against our planning as even with street names and looking on a small map on my phone it took us a while to find anything helpful. We found a local city map which did help us greatly and after our frustration of being lost we took a clip of our relief and decided to stop and film in the park right by the map.


We Found A Map from Conker on Vimeo.

The park that got us back on track was neither the one that I originally knew was near the town centre, nor was it a particularly big and shielded by nature. This park however did have a steady stream of people who were about that Wednesday lunch time and we took the opportunity to take varied interesting shots of the people who passed us. We had set our selves up on the tripod with it balanced on the ground quite low whilst we sat on a bench right behind it. We kept the angle still at eye level for the most part and took some still shots and panning shots to get the parks space.

We headed back into the town after our rest, lunch and filming in the park to find more people for some crowd shots. We found a few other shots to take such as between trees looking up to the bright sky to get some

We had some interest whilst feeling as you might expect by being out in public recording with a camera and in various shots we caught people looking directly into the camera. This was good to highlight an element that is used in new wave film which is that it utilised non actors.

We captured a fair amount of crowd shots over the mid afternoon and in heading back we took some shots on the bus. In these we took footage of the streets as we hurried by, knowing that the shutter speed would effect how steady the footage was and how blurred the frames would be. Not quite knowing much we only dabbled in the low end of shutter speed from the very low 25 fps to 60 fps and slightly higher.

Taking the camera back with me to do a night time shoot. I used the contrast between the light and dark to experiment with the camera and show similar urban environments. I achieved these shots by increasing the ISO to its upper levels and opened the lens aperture. With the aperture wide it created a shallow depth of field I was able to experiment with the isolated light creating orbs out of lampposts and car lights.

Combining my experiments of aperture, ISO and shutter speed I collected some interesting shots that explored the naturalism inspired New Wave with some exploration of light.

Leicester Recording Trip

Planned Location Shoot - Leicester

We were tasked to go out and get some footage that could be used in our own New Wave short. In the beginning there was a plan for us all to travel to Oxford one Wednesday on a trip to gather the footage but that fell through. To do this task now, in small groups we went to different places to get this footage. Me and fellow HNCer Connor Stinton, decided that we would go out and film in Leicester and its town centre. The three reasons we decided to do this were: It would be easy and relatively inexpensive to travel there (48 bus trip) ; there are two universities in the city so the to capture people of a similar age to us would be higher; it has a large pedestrian centre too which would be great to capture.
We chose to go on the same day as the original Wednesday as the planned Oxford trip but keeping an eye on the weather leading up to it. Equipment was to be collected in part the day before as people involved in the equipment were still headed to Oxford. The equipment which we wanted to borrow was: Cannon 5D, Zoom Mic and Fluid head tripod. We were to meet at the college for 9am and be on the Bus to Leicester by 10am to be in the town before midday and we would record until the memory and battery ran out as the last bus wouldn't be until 9pm and we knew that wouldn't be our main factor for leaving. Set up and ready to record scenes of non actors getting on with modern life, we awaited our project trip to Leicester.

 This is a map view and satellite view of Leicester.

Health and Safety

Camera and personal safety will be an issue that must be looked into and followed. To operate the camera correctly and with safety you must know where the key elements of the camera are and to treat them carefully. The cameras lens is a sensitive piece of equipment so you must be carful of bashing or damage through accident or neglect. The lens on the Cannon D5 DSLR is a zoom lens with focusing capabilities in both auto and manual. When manually operating the zoom and focus be carful as not to be too forceful to damage the internal components. The camera is electronic so you will have to be weary of water and the weather, in particular, the rain as the internal components may be damaged. The camera is a weighty piece of equipment and if not kept on its strap or held securely either on a tripod or in hand could cause injury to persons. When cameras are set in a tripod it must be secure and the tripod must be stable on the surface it is on in case of damage to the tripod or camera due being to incorrectly set up.

There are other problems that may occur when we are out recording in Leicester. Working in a public space there is a possibility of having equipment broken or stolen by members of the public. You must always know where your equipment is when at a location and at all times when possible have it in eyesight incase of loss. If recording on the edge of or in roads be very weary of approaching vehicles and make sure you can be seen and can see a fair distance down the road so you or the vehicles can stop. If recording inside be aware of your surroundings and any fire escapes incase of emergency and always think that getting your self to safety is a higher priority than collecting any equipment.

Blonde In Love Editing

A Blonde in Love - Self Edit Recreation

For this remake we captured footage to use over a few days and a couple of shoots in a group. After sharing the footage we all started our own edit in Premier Pro. As in other projects in Premier Pro, in order to keep everything easy to locate and import I created the file and brought together all the source materials into the same folder. I created it in the format suited to the footage we had taken and then overlayed the original scene, on a higher video track, and re-sized it and moved the position so it would serve as a guide. With some of the shots we hadn't recorded enough for the take, so there were a few things that I tried to extend the clip to be long enough like reversing the shot and using the cutting tool to copy frames from still parts and repeating them. After laying the footage into the desired order I went into the effects window to find and apply a gray scale effect to change my material into black and white. The reasons behind doing this was that it looks more like the original source also to be more consistent in feel as the light changes appear less noticeable. The next task was to create the subtitles that would appear through the project, which was done by adding new titles at every instance. It was long fiddly work and noting where the subtitles should be became more guess work; as the longer the subtitle the more different the object as a whole was, effecting its position needed. Exported out after a couple of watches through and one from a friend, I had finished the scene.

A Blonde in remade from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.

Practical Shot Experiments

Practical Shot Experiments

This was our first time out practically with a camera so we went out shooting to try and experiment with types of shot and framing. We were going to change the aperture, shutter speed and ISO which we had recently learnt and wanted to get examples of their effects. This all changed when we couldn't use the camera as neither of us knew how to work it, before I got an introduction to the Canon5D with magic lantern.

First Attempt

In order to get some footage we put as much as we could find on to auto and started shooting things after a short discussion of each shot to take. We were not organised and had no set shot list so there was an amount of improvisation where it came to shooting. We instantly came across another problem, there was little to no control over the Aperture, Iso and Shutter Speed on the main menus so we decided just to shoot. Then the next problem was we didn't have good control over the focusing and zoom of out shots but through continues efforts we think we are getting better. "The inner swivel thing does the focus and the big outer swivel thing." There was one thing which made the progress of our learning particularly slower was that the camera would rarely take shots longer than 5 seconds despite there being plenty of storage on the SD memory card. I took as many shots as we thought covered all basic techniques we could do without and further control.

Here are some of the short shots we took


Camera Short Shots from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.

After our first attempt we went back and sought help and information on our various problems discovering that our lack of control could be solved with Magic lantern. The problem with the short length of video footage was due to the SD card and the cameras conversion rate. I got some instruction on the 5D and how to edit the levels of the aperture, ISO and shutter speed. Going out again the shots in the day time in the video below were our immediate experiments. We noted that when the shutter speed was faster things appeared sharper and movement was less blurred but twinned with the smaller aperture less light came through. The night shoot was a week later and I chose two shots showing the effects of focus on a wide aperture and the grain given by a higher ISO.

5D Film Clips Experiments from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.

Here

Recording Sound For Film

Sound Capture for Film

Capturing sound for film is different when outside than recording in a studio, like voice over, where the set up would be similar to music production. We got to try a number of different microphones that would synch up with the video we were recording. If we were not using a cable to connect the sound to the video feed a Clapper board or a strong click could be used to create a peak in the signal allowing an easier sync up in editing. We were left to do some experiments with the Boom microphone set up to see what it would be like with the portable box and the boom pole noting that a microphone cover or dead cat could be placed on top of it to reduce noise from popping and plosives and also wind. The Boom mic had a small field of sound pick up possibly a hyper cardioid pattern that required careful control over the direction it faced.

Shot Gun Microphone

We got to use a Shotgun microphone mounted upon the camera's head first and then we incorporated it with the boom to see how that can be utilised with film sound. The audio we collected from this was mono but had better quality and a tight direction cutting out most of the sound behind the camera.



Shotgun Mic from Conker on Vimeo.

Zoom Microphone

The Zoom microphone is a portable machine with two microphones crossed on top to collect a stereo signal. We first recorded separately with the Zoom mic which gave us a soundless video feed and then a audio file on the Zoom's memory card. Then we recorded with the set up hooked into the camera to record both at the same time. Both of the audio from the Zoom mic had good to very good pick up of sound if the quality was less than the Shotgun mic. Its good pick up and portability would make it great for ambient sound or for stereo interview. With film it would be good for hand held and on location uses.



Zoom Mic from Conker on Vimeo.

Lighting Setup - Studio Lighting Techniques

Lighting Setup - Studio Lighting Techniques

Why light for film? There are many reasons and applications that you can use specific lighting techniques in order to get a subject or scene to look just right. cameras use light to record its images so by changing how and how much light gets through to the camera you can create all sorts of effects. Listed and explored bellow are three studio lighting techniques that can be utilised to give various effects.

Rembrant Lighting

Rembrant was an artist from history and in his portraits he gave his subjects a glow and a small shadow under the nose to create a triangle of light from it and onto the cheek but under the eye connected. We can recreate this effect through lighting to be used for film through positioning a light source above and across from the subject to have some shadow be cast by the face. To achieve it, you may have the subject turned until the triangle of light is there and more defined.

Butterfly Lighting

The Butterfly Lighting effect is a technique when the subject is lit from high above and casts a small butterfly shaped shadow just under the nose and above the lips. Whilst the shadow may only look small its effect builds up to create a glamorous storm of an image. Typically used in movies from 1940s Hollywood, to make there lead actors look glowing and glamourous.

Edge Lighting

This truly is lighting on the edge. Edge lighting is a dramatic style of lighting your subject such that it appears as one half of the face is cast in shadow. The style is made by positioning the key light (brightest light source) to one side of the subjects face and having, if at all, a much dimmer secondary light or reflector to cause the contrast on the face. This creates a definite edged line splitting the face and the feeling that there is something being hidden by your subjects character. An edgy character who may be... two faced! oh ho ho! :P

Lighting from Studio from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.

Health and Safety

When setting up lights be sure to have them switched off and at the socket too when plugging them in. The wires must be secure by wrapping them around the stand and wires on the floor must be visible and approached carefully as not to trip. The stands that the lights are on must be set up correctly and to be standing stable, be sure not to overbear the stands as it may cause damage to the stand or falling lights would cause injury to crew and further equipment damage. The bulbs used in film, studio and photography lighting get very hot, very quickly and can remain so for a long period of time after use.