Throughout the lighting workshop of this trimester, many things were made apparent to me once more. These are as follows:
I suck at maneuvering light stands
I definitely can't look at lights when they're on
They heat up very quickly and keeping my gloves in my bag is very useful.
Working with lamps is a pain in the butt and is one of the reasons I study post production.
So, with that list out of the way, we shall embark upon our journey of reflection!
We were told to light a specific scene environment, and my group got the scene that, I believe, was an office waiting room. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. Regardless, after about three hours of working with lamps, getting feedback, redoing, moving, and having lights shine in my eyes, we managed to complete the scene fairly successfully.
When we initially set off into action, I quickly realized that I hadn't set up lighting or worked with film lamps, or done any sort of set production in over a year. That realization led me to acting mostly like a chicken without a head, wandering about almost aimlessly.
Now, despite this moment of hesitance, relearning how to set up lamps, work with C-stands, remembering to put shot bags on the stands so they don't fall over if someone trips on them, and constant movement while playing around with diffusing light and using gels.
Though this isn't new knowledge, it is good for me to relearn it, even if I do study post production and not production. Throughout my studies, there will almost certainly be time after time where I need to be able to step in and help people out on set, regardless of my particular position in the shoot, and this experience will only help with that.
While I doubt my particular practice won't change with how I approach things, as I'm still only able to work with lighting in a basic sense, it does allow me to bring to light (pun intended) to my skill set outside of post production, which is necessary for me to understand the processes that other people go through in film and help me to figure out who to talk to about what and when to talk to them about it.
While I doubt my particular practice won't change with how I approach things, as I'm still only able to work with lighting in a basic sense, it does allow me to bring to light (pun intended) to my skill set outside of post production, which is necessary for me to understand the processes that other people go through in film and help me to figure out who to talk to about what and when to talk to them about it.
That's all for today, so enjoy your time and have fun!
