Camera Lighting Advice

Video Transcript

"Alright folks in this clip we're going to talk about camera lighting advice. Lighting, something that is rarely considered by amateur filmmakers that ends up absolutely destroying their finished movies because they just don't know how to do it. Some people have an eye for it and that is honestly the thing that you hopefully possess yourself as an aspiring filmmaker the natural ability to see good light schemes or to look for the right angles or filters or light setups that allow you to have brilliant light schemes in your images. Some people don't inherently possess that knowledge and a great way to attain that knowledge is to watch a lot of movies and try your best to emulate them when you're on location when it comes to different lighting schemes. Finding a source light, very, very important in maintaining that source light throughout the day, hours. It's very important whether it's artificial or the sun which is obviously the biggest source light of all. Back lighting, fill lighting, all very, very important. Quick definition, back lighting is the light that allows the human form to pop out from the background and actually standout. It creates almost a haloed effect so you can see, so it separates your subject from the rest of the scene. The key light being the light that's coming at them the harshest that creates the predominant light source and then the fill light that allows you to see the rest of their features or it's features, whatever it is you're shooting. That is called a three point lighting scheme but when it comes to lighting your short films, whatever, what you really want to do is feel out the mood of the scene itself. What is it that you're trying to shoot, what mood are you trying to convey, what look are you trying to achieve that is in keeping with the rest of the film itself like deciding on a visual style and tone early on is very, very important when it comes to color and just your basic lighting schemes. Deciding on this at the outset is incredibly important and sticking to it and really feeling out the mood of each moment is incredibly important as you progress throughout the story. So my advice to you, watch a lot of movies, know your story through and through, know the mood of the scene that you're trying to setup and light and yeah, just do your absolute best to capture exactly what you see in your mind's eye."