Location Lighting

This week we were introduced to the lighting equipment that we can take out for whenever were filming on location and need some accurate lighting, there is also studio lighting but we will learn more about that next week. This introduction was to inform us on what the lighting equipment is and how to use it and makes the course more confident about letting us take the equipment out for shoots. The first light we were shown was the Red Heads which are quite common on film shoots and are 800 watts, they are known to get very hot and can set things on fire when not used and monitored correctly. There are also the Blonde lights that we can use in our productions that are 2000 watts which is considerably more than the red heads, but they can provide a stronger and more powerful light for a backdrop or any purpose you need on set. In case you want a light to cover more space you can use the flood lights and they can provide a more even overall light effect on a production. Before using any of these lights, it's important to check the electrics on any location or house you are filming in. You will need RCD's when plugging the lights into any sockets to make sure they don't overload the electrics or blow a fuse so it's important to remember to use these before using any lights on location. Also important to never use the lights without mesh or safety protector on them because there is a risk they might overpower and blow up and without the safety protector the glass could hurt a member of the crew or an actor. We were also informed that the UK works on a 23A voltage which can do up to 240 volts and in each country it can vary so it's important to understand this information for when filming in different locations.

After learning about the lights and the set ups we were given a task to recreate a scene just by reading the scripts instructions in a three point lighting set up, the script included shadows so we needed to interpret and recreate this as best as we could. We split up into two groups and divided the group up into actors and crew and started to film our recreation. We wanted to film it all in one take and get large shadows of two of the characters on the wall, so we needed to position lights correctly for this effect and it was a good exercise for us all to see the complications and skill that goes into lighting, we now know just how long it takes to set up a three point lighting and will be better prepared for next time.