ecemoz

[ecemoz]

Lighting

Lighting is one of the key elements in photography and cinematography. In fact lighting might even be more important in a movie than the conversation. It gives the most meaning. Through lighting objects gain depth and the characters’ mood is reflected. Lighting is also essential in creating a genre’s aura. Therefore lighting is a very crucial and serious subject. There are different lighting techniques to create different meanings and moods.

According to its quality there is hard light and soft light. Hard light creates harsh shadows. It is a focused light that makes the transition between light and shadow sharp. It was commonly used in film noir. Soft light is the opposite of hard light. It comes from a larger source and it is not focused on a single point. Unlike the effect of hard light, soft light makes the division between light and shadow soft. It also makes imperfections less clear.

When it comes to the direction of the light there is Three Point Lighting. Key light is the primary and the most intense light in a three point lighting setup. Fill light is for reducing the shadow. And back light prevents the subject from blending with the background and appearing flat.

There is also high key and low key lighting. High key is intense and it allows the subject to be evenly illuminated. It is a bright light that minimizes the shadows therefore there is no contrast. Low key light is much less intense than high key. There is emphasis on shadows. The contrast on the subject is increased.

There is so much stuff to learn about lighting. These are just the beginning. Even though there are many kinds of lighting depending on the genre or the scene, these are the very basic ones that I wanted to write about.

[ecemoz]

Boogie Woogie Daddy - Week 2

Boogie Woogie Daddy is a film directed by Erik Bafving. He made this film using the photographs his father took throughout the years. By putting them in sequence he created this film. Firstly I appreciated his work because he managed to choose some of the three thousand photos that make sense and work as a whole together. Every photo that I see fits the story that he is telling so the footage does not look like random pictures from the past. I like the idea of using already shot photographs and making a meaningful whole. It might be a little challenging because there is no chance to make adjustments and re-shoot multiple times to fit the narrative. In the film, Bafving used some photographs more than one time and each time the photos gave a different feeling to me. For example after he told his father’s death he used some photos of his dad, the balcony, the kitchen and the holiday again. He used cropped versions of some of them to emphasize a particular point in the photo. This time the vibe was different. In one part (around 4.32) he stops talking and we only see photographs switching and there is boogie woogie music. In that part the film has a more positive tone. But in other parts (like 8.35) the duration of the photos gets longer, the sound gets tense and it gives a more uneasy feeling. So the meaning can change according to the use of sounds and the duration of each photo. Overall I liked his way of telling a story from his life by using actual photos that belong to that moment. He did well in changing the tone of the film from time to time by using the photos in different ways and adjusting the music and sounds.

[ecemoz]

Fatboy Slim - Praise You

Watching Fatboy Slim’s Praise You video was surprising and entertaining. I found this music video interesting and memorable because the concept is unusual. In the video a group of people are dancing in front of a movie theater and the others are watching them and having fun. It is not artificial but totally natural. So we are watching a real moment from life. The choreography of the dance is not like most music videos that we mostly see on YouTube. It is unsynchronized and a little embarrassing but It is much more fun to watch in my opinion. The dance is one of the characteristic parts of this video. The dancers don't look like trained, professional dancers but more like a group of amateur dancers who are having fun. They don't seem to care much about what people will think about their dance. Especially I like how the director and the main dancer of this video, Spike Jonze, looks very excited and loves what he is doing. The dancers don't have costumes or any specific clothes. The shooting is amateurish. The quality is low and the camera is shaking. No part of this video is professional and this is what makes it popular I think. It is very sincere and has a positive tone. Joze made this video from a flash mob and it cost only 800 USD, it won three MTV awards. This is one of the most different and iconic music videos. The idea is a good clip doesn't always have to be produced in a professional setting with usual ways. Sometimes thinking out of the box and coming up with the most ridiculous ideas might work even better. Showing moments from real life and not using artificial elements attract most people’s attention. That’s why many people like this video so much and it has many views.