Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Noir Lighting Part 1

okay so we're gonna talk about pulling out of focus and then pulling back and focus is something like this for memory and then kind of making sure that we have the correct exposure in a situation like that I'm gonna press record I'm literally just gonna have you looking down at your typewriter or you know what your piece of paper with your script on it so no one needs to know what that piece of paper is by any means that is his scrip before right now that's just going to be his directional last investigation whatever he was working on that night again and press record we're going to edit this uh overnight and have it to you guys by tomorrow but I'm gonna go ahead and try to get back and focus that will be his opening shot I could do that again see if I was in focus lindsey talked before about uh finding your focus so let's see if I want to start stop focus on his face here okay get perfect focus in there so something more less those lines my third that's fine I'm gonna go ahead and rec...

ord it and I'm gonna completely go the opposite way so look down for me and out of focus so now when I do it in post I could do the total opposite that I did before and I'm gonna do that one last time on ly because I just hit this by accident so I want to make sure that we have a perfect shot for tomorrow okay harsh shadow in the back left hand corner in the middle of you that's I don't is that the mic years that's actually the pier is a lamp so I reckon completely zu mountains fine I just I just didn't know if you wanted to I had a shot with the hat that kind of the more the feel of it well let's see if I wanted to switch this in monochromatic so let's say I I plan on shooting this month like black and white right someone switch my pictures down over too monochrome let's see what that looks like and start stop so I have an idea this is going to be the final representation but I'll mess with colors to get a good representation outside does that look as bad now that doesn't mean it doesn't look bad whatsoever so more purposeful yeah exactly so you have the opportunity to switch things in post my idea was I have something that I can color and then have something that I can keep in black and white in post so this specific section is actually what's called meant to be shot in black and white but if you've seen like gangster squad the movie that shot in the same manner and completely editing color but it's still that old three point light from you know way back when in the thirties and forties so it's interesting how the multipurpose things in this specific instance I'm okay with it in color because I'll color great it to where it looks more modern and then I could do a black and white virgin if I needed to sit and actually I think that's a great point when I know that I'm shooting stills and I know that I'm going to be ending up in black and white because I'm shooting raw I'll change my pictures pictures sell the monochromatic because it looks different I want to see like where I'm going ah lot of times I'll go with much contrast more contrast in modifiers and then I go for things more over exposed if I'm going to be in black and white so I'll actually shoot that so I can see so yeah switching over might be like oh yeah no I like that lighting pattern that looks great and that's that yeah on the other thing is absolutely in in something like this it's story telling you definitely don't care about like ifit's a chris chad oh its mood yes it's fine and it might be a little for example picked really harsh modifiers like the monitors we have here is pretty much besides the soft wants is harsh is you could get which means it brings up a lot of skin detail so what they used to do in the old days is when they would have film noir and a woman would come into the scene they'd rim like her for the dramatic shots and then they would have more of a soft box from above on her face and so when they were together a lot of times you'd almost be mixed lighting for the two where they take a light like that punch it in on his face even though she's lit by a soft box so he's harsh and she's a little softer do me a favor can you just tilt your head up a bit with men when I tilt you head down just a tiny bit and look over to your right hand side perfect and just a tide but us and attacks you left I personally like when jaws like angler like that so if you notice the lights actually carving out his job if if we had let it from the front whatever reason he loses a lot of that detail and with men like tio make their girls look angular causes you know alfa male you want to just have this like long chiselled draw supposedly so for right now he has a long chiselled jaw so you're the alfa male of the little group right now how does that feel ok so we'll try that one more time just you know what we'll shoot in black went so I can show you guys what the difference is for tomorrow okay you know what I might add um is that while he'd be shooting this basically he's doing the directing he's doing exactly what he wants I don't really take over like he's the lead so I might say like that exact same time maybe I'll get a shot like right now all I can see is his lips in the brim of his hat so I might shoot that in the the actual actually match but I don't direct him because he's trying to get that main shot so he knows in the end he actually can edit full piece together more or less what he has but then he goes to mine as like cutaways and extra details and giving us variety to work together like that we work together to come up with the final product I shot normal again I mentioned that was gonna shoot standard before I wonder shooting portrait anyway just out of habit so I can't go back to standard because now I'm gonna have to switch things off some going I'm now having to just stay with portrait in case I have to cut in between shots okay so I'm gonna stick with portrait just because I started that anyway okay and let's go ahead and review here this very small card by the way its focus in focus again just pulling focus and let's say that's focused on his hat because that's what I want focus and coming out of focus and in post I'll probably just again switch that back out so the next line for you guys is fitting since I spend most of my nights with my one true love justice okay so for me I'm alone I want to represent the fact that he's alone on his desk so I like the fact that he has the glass of randy I wouldn't touch that for continuity purposes for storytelling but I want to shoot across the desk to show all the work that he has that he's not leaving that office for so now something like this I can use a slider at that point lyndsey mentioned jump cuts so jumping back and forth into a shot I am thinking that for this specific section because the last thing that he says is just this I liked the jump cut okay so I'm going to break my own rules because I want for the justice I'm probably going to get him actually saying justice and mouthing justice so it's gonna be a little cartoony it'll be like you know him speaking in the background and then the only thing that he's going to say is look up at me and say just this you know so it'll be kind of funny like I said we're gonna bring this slider up forward put it against that slide across this so I can see the things that are happening in the scene for all intent all intensive purposes that's off I might turn it on a little later for a different shot it's really really dangerous but because I'm moving forward I'm going to leave it off but just know continuity purposes I'm gonna have it on later it's not gonna make it match just just about like your choices so if jeff comes ford and shoots a wider lens at the edges he's going to get the size of the set but it will also exaggerate the things on his desk so what you would have to do is just cut what were your sliding like you couldn't maybe do ah full side left to right we'd have to angle your camera that way so if I back up and zoom in everything will look smaller the things on his desk will look less exaggerated but I can see everything in versus moving forward they become exaggerated but I might have to cut my edges sooner and if maybe instead of shooting a twenty four to seventy you shot like a fifty one four then maybe when actually noticed with those are because it could be so out of focus if you want it to just some choices you could have it back in there so right now if I kept everything in the that's like this one that kept things in the foreground I have things that move in the foreground says shows some distance between him and that specific desk look how much motion that I have just by having a wider shot if I zoom in I could do the same thing for sure that he's alone maybe I want to show just a fan and everything in the foreground and focus right um I don't want I want the typewriter let's say t completely unfocused for this specific shot to show that he's alone or maybe even a glass of brandy just to talk about it later when we discussed that somebody got a zoom in there that's seeing the glass of brandy right this is also laghi so I move and it like gets focused and then my syverson so so right now that's the only thing that's in focus so that's going to show the audience that's the only thing on his mind is that glass of brandy press record and again I'm just gonna try to maintain the same speed and it catches their specifically because it's not oil during else we'll try that again at a faster speed or the opposite manner one two three perfect it's just catching in the center so in an instance like this where this is catching I can use a different slider I'm doing the final slider around yeah she's gonna grab a different slider for right now again it's still not oil we have oil onset you could look up you'd have to look so scared I promise okay he's like readings are you memorizing that whole thing meanwhile I'm gonna go to the next shot so the next shot is justice okay in an instant life like that I want to be in his face because I want to get that light of him saying justice that's it that's it more or less what I want so I can't use this unless they use a another like a seventy two hundred to get in his face thank you if you could do me a favor do you mind just putting that on here meanwhile let me not tangle us I'll put the camera on the slider and even with the side I feel meanwhile what she does that and I'll redo the other shot I'm going to use a shoulder rig to get in a little bit closer only because I like the shakiness of the shouldering for that specific shot just out of like she likes apparently voyeurism in her photography it's a little more voyeuristic cause it's like somebody in the room and it's a little scary okay so when you go ahead and switch out to my shoulder my favorite children if you give me a second when you use your desperately detectives don't arrest me while I'm here so it's clinton and their turn this camera on I'm not gonna be able to see through this whatsoever so what I'm gonna do is record it and then I'll play it back for you guys in camera if that makes any sense if you give me two seconds schooling close so okay and two seconds let's make sure my white balance on my picture style is all the same fix your portrait what balance is currently a daylight which wouldn't have been good right okay thanks then zoom in okay and in about two seconds but I want to do is look at me just like that and say justice so look down at your paper again and one two three just look at me okay I'll direct a little better than that so you're gonna look from your paper look up at me and say the most aggressive justice that you can okay so let me stop recording two seconds because I don't I don't believe you right now I don't think you want justice I think you like you kind of want justice you don't really you know so one two three justice perfect let's go ahead and play that back for you guys right now jeff while you're working there question shoot from picks casey shouldn't there be a perspective shot for reference on the scene in case there's something moved during the process do you ever do that to maintain continuity and check that story absolutely I am I have a still on my iphone as we speak because this set was actually set up yesterday and generally if I'm on location I'll take a photo of the entire set with like my iphone it doesn't have to be anything significant patterson actually fitting in here can you just figured that out yeah so let me step that way and answer that question so I generally take a photo of my uh with my iphone for that's scary for ah continuity purposes so I literally I shouldn't have my phone in my back pocket but can you just make sure that's plugged in so I'll take a photo the whole set for this specific set what I did was take a photo the set take a foot of each light from yesterday pre lit this so it's not designed while we were at lunch I mean sure that a pre prepared so every single morning light setting and everything was already set so I knew more or less everything that I needed the day before I needed to do it so all I needed to do that today is shoot write a script and shoot or edited script and shoot okay let's play give your institute do you have go to lighting like a couple favorites that you guys use again and again and if you're doing that do you ever find like wouldn't get stale would it be like your fail with the same kind of thing um what I usually do is I do three point waiting with vd dish and then to back room lights or to bet grids depending on how much of the body I have to have in because that is what most corporate were interview or anything like that and it can be dramatic for three point light meaning something in the front that front light the modifier that I choose sets the mood so if I want to be soft would be a soft box we want two more dramatic maybe it would be tele zoom reflector the angle sets the mood and then those two back lights if I want to be dramatic I pumped them up so it is like he has in his jaw line a harsh light if I just want to separate them from the background make it a little bit more subtle than I'll turn them down so it's basically I bring out three lights usually to be dish and then to back barn doors and that's over and over again getting with him seeing justice so there goes me trying to find focus and he's going to try one more time perfect so I have referenced footage all I want is that specific shot of him seeing justice and that brief one or two second clip that's all I want everything else of being shaky I'll cut out and just use that one stable footage of him turning towards us and saying justice okay so let's continue moving forward again this is kind of if you walk into scene and you're about to do something for a business profile and knowing what the person's gonna say ask for the script if they're going to say I do this and this and this for my business and I have these in these in these clients and I have this and this and this and this asking for listen what they're going to write don't let them do it on the day off because they're just going to stutter and just repeat themselves try to get a script from them about approximately what they're going to say so that when you have things for editing purposes what do you need to show so if I was filming let's say an industrial industries business and all they do is manufacturer toys I would make sure ok what how long have you guys been in business we've been in business since eighteen fifty okay what shows eighteen fifty go on record eighteen fifty same way that you would with photography you want to find this key core concepts that they're speaking about and show those in your your final edit okay so the next shot after seeing justice will go back to the slider and a bit is the phone ranks it was russell two tone looking down or looking to bend my ear with the latest bus I want a close up of the phone ringing and him picking it up okay I don't have to go ring ring by any means I can do that in post production takes him stock audio replicate that I'm going to do it on a still tripod um listen can I have this still tripe on thank you and we're just going to shoot with a fluid head of thank you write on it I'm gonna have one if you just come up who wants to come up and just shoot detail shots of the phone itself from purposes there she's like yes I get to shoot take yourself take this out for two seconds I'm going to switch lenses I always keep my lenses near me on set I don't keep him in a bag generally speaking I want to make sure that I have all my lenses with me on set that no one else has them readily available or if I have an assistant they're constantly giving me what I need we're going to go back to lindsay's one fifty okay generally this there would have lens column here we're not going to use the lens college today because we left it at home be prepared huh socks so thank you assistant I'm gonna be your assistant okay so I'm gonna set this up for you this tripod is completely this tripod is completely kind of rickety exactly and stewed right so I'm gonna make sure that it's nice and level so you have your little level here I'll do it for you I'll be your little assistant and given us levels possible so we have to get forward a bit and that's it let's go up because we're shooting the at the phone booth and it is a million times better this is the this is the rhino slider and the one that we have at home is in synovate slider which we had there but in case you missed earlier we're having a problem but it wasn't popular properly maintenance meaning issues like oil it so it goes smoothly and it wasn't this one the rhino cider right now working perfectly so that's what we'll be utilizing it means do I'm gonna have you do the art focus on the telephone so for right now I'm just gonna catty corner this a bit okay I don't really care that that smooth for right now I just wanna get a good shot of that we're gonna focus on the screen today so let me mirror image this so what we're saying hands mirroring got it play split that in and we're moving out I haven't touched anything and spirit purposes now that should focus on that okay yeah it doesn't matter right now yeah sure wanna thank you welcome other camera let's figure out why I was sixteen hundred the whole way actually I'm trying to figure out why it shooting black it's because we're using a one fifty and everything is completely ugo that's why they go I should figure out why I was focusing on so located three twenty more there goes his phone to know you have razor thin sharpness there you should be able to see that there's well wait what do you do this brax can focus over the can if you want that's I'm gonna leave it up to you what you want to do and then I'm gonna have to fix it right so look there if you guys don't look at the screen uh she wants to rack focus okay so try do try you well do you know where it's really easy so you want to stay in focus right find a focus for right now let's look at the screen and let's get the letters and focused that's what I want okay I'm gonna let you I'm gonna start recording from there I'm going to direct him to when I ask you to I'm going to say one two three pick up the phone and put it next to your ear you'll get about two times until you get comfortable okay so he's gonna do it a couple times so we make sure we get it right and that you get the shot that you need okay so it's currently record I'm going to stop and start again so if you could do me a favor one two three can you pick up that phone and put it next to your ear okay we're going to just do it once so you can see his timing and then you can rack focus when you need to rack that makes any sense okay and do me a favor you're gonna put it down and go ahead and rack focus so you know just hold here so you have to do there it's already recording you're fine okay and rack focus across there and do me a favor you're gonna rack focus when I tell him to pick up his phone so you gonna go from completely in focus to completely out of focus that's to go here okay so the second he goes and picks up the phone you can go out of focus so one two three and go ahead and pick up that phone perfect that's fine we'll use that in a shot so you feel the thin thin razor sharp right but at the same token it looks kind of cool I would go ahead and try to figure out more less without focuses try to memorize where that is pinpoints just a tiny bit and that's it right so I'm going to stay out of focus like this let's say it's coming it's a little bit out of focus and we'll just slide across there as he's going to go pick up that phone so very very minimalistic lee I didn't snap into focus as we hit the right book and doesn't even have to live so what I want if you look at that screen I'm gonna go into focus and out of focus like that while he's picking up the film it'll be an interesting look right and then goes back in creativity that's not technically right but it looks cool it's at one two three pick up that phone like that look cool that looks cinematic in a way I like that specific shot doesn't have to be tack sharp focus on everything but right now I knew that was a phone for that minute second so that goes back and shows you when you're shooting for whatever reason you get something out of focus as always you get my new bit in focus it looks interesting and you knew what it wass so it doesn't have to be attacked short focus every single time so don't feel afraid tissue does things you go together shooting well what you're setting for roughly sure we're at three twenty fifteen to twenty all right hence the razor sharp focus out so three twenty was in three twenty one fifty okay uh so what I'm going to do and this is he's a lead on this project so periodically you might see me like thinking you periodically you might see me sneaking around I'm taking shots so for example in that shot if they were telling him to pick up and put down the phone I'm not directing I'm not getting involved I just make sure my settings are matching him and I'm saying we like close up with the eighty five one four of his face and then the close up of the hand so it is definitely nice tohave somebody it was a kind of a second shooter and you make sure that you have that motion repeated if maybe that shot didn't work at least have another telephone shot then it gives him more to edit with and your picture style wass portrait okay should I am trying to change my picture style here wait for it to come up on the screen maybe oh it's a little bit legally there was uh let's see let me get the name jim are who was wondering and this is kind of funny could use some salad oil from lunch on the slider like if you're having trouble moving it smoothly would you ever use something like that or are you worried about hurting the equipment I will be honest I've never tried salad oil isn't something I'm in depth to using on set and a different point and I don't want to give you the wrong answer but that is a great question that's a perfectly fair