Cinematography - Week 5



14/03/2019

We were given 20 minutes to find or create a short one-page drama for the filming today. It had to be a person walking in and the scene was about a discussion between two characters. At first, I tried to search for a free script, but there weren't any copyright-free scripts, so I spent ten minutes to compile a script based on a TV show idea from attending Duncan Sarkies' final screenwriting workshop at SIT, which was a drama about a declining video shop.

Video shop script

INT. VIDEO SHOP - DAY

Derek is pacing, looking annoyed. Zack enters.

ZACK
Hey man.

Derek sits on a chair, relieved to see Zack.

DEREK
Sit down, Zack.

ZACK
(confused)
Ohh..kay.

Zack sits down on a chair.

DEREK
We’re in the dog house,

ZACK
What do you mean?

DEREK
I mean, we’re down the crapper. As you know very well, people are
preferring to watch Netflix.

ZACK
Well, it’s more economical.

Derek looks unhappy by that comment and bangs his fist.

ZACK
Okay, okay. Calm down, Derek.

Derek calms down.

ZACK
I thought we doing okay… ish. What happened to the money
from selling half the shop. It--

DEREK
(interrupts)
Not important. You can just leave now. I have business to
attend to.

Zack nods and leaves.


 Today was a productive day. I have realised that I am starting to become more comfortable with c-stands and lighting, but I still need to improve. I was the lighting assistant for the filming today and the filming today was in a studio environment. I helped set up the c-stands, pegging the diff, and sort out the cables. We all chose what job we wanted. I desired to be a grip, but I ended up with being the lighting assistant no one else wanted the position and needed more practice with the lighting equipment. 

It took the entire morning to organise the key light, back light, and fill light. It was pretty straining for my eyes working with bright lights all morning and I don't think people in camera or grip roles did as much as the lighting did that morning. We had a massive light outside the room to use as daylight when a character came in the door. One thing that I came learning out from this week's cinematography class was that you need a lot of lighting, even if it is for a simple interior scene like a discussion between two people.














For the rest of the day, lighting wasn't much a big thing, but we did have to draw out a diagram of the lighting in the scene, showing where the lights are on the filming location, what voltage and specs they are, and so on. It was a new thing for me to do, so I consulted with Lukas (gaffer) and Ash from time to time, to clarify what was needed to be recorded in the diagram and what type of lights used for the back light and fill light, and such.



























At the end of the day, it was a big job packing up and dismantling the lighting equipment, but we got there in the end. One thing about lighting this scene we didn't notice until the end was that we accidentally forgot that the fluorescent light in the studio's ceiling was still on and would had made a minor effect on the white balance from the filming today. 


Ash offered to show us up at the cinema projector that he maintains at the SIT Centrestage next door, which I joined in and it was informative and interesting to take part knowing how modern movie projectors work nowadays.

20/03/2019


DaVinci Resolve 15 Tutorial : Color Grading Crash Course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBvEOIozAJk

 Aspects of colour grading
Hue - Colours
Saturation - Intensity of colour
Luma - Brightness/Shade of colour
Waverform - Something to do with exposure and white balance
Vectorscope - It tells what colours and saturation are in the image

 Colour correction workflow
1. Adjust exposure
2. Adjust colour temperature (white balance)
3. Adjust saturation

 Colour wheels
Lift - Shadows or dark parts
Gain - Highlights or bright parts
Gamma - Midtones
Offset - Overall image

 There is a white balance eyedropper. We can manually adjust the white balance's tint and colour temperature

 To create consistency between two images, you snapshot the first video and right click with the second video selected and click' Apply Grade'.

 Use 'Tracker' and click 'Track Forward' to keep masking in place

 Curves - Bottom point is the shadows and the top point is the highlights. You pretty much adjust the contrast in between those two points

 Using the nodes when colour grading is like layers on Photoshop.

 I never there was so much precision in producing colour grading in film and video.
LUTs are some colour grading preset, but we can adjust them to suit whatever we have in mind.

 I did some experimenting with colour grading on DaVinci and selected some footage from the boot camp that I liked and aimed for a bluish, noir, X Pro II (Instagram filter) look to the footage, which was done by having the Offset colour wheel towards blue. 
However, it was inconsistent with other footage because they had more exposure than the footage originally graded (especially the clip that is outside the dance studio). 

 So I tried the white balance eyedropper on a person's skin and it dropped the saturation of the originally grading. I compared it with the raw footage because I was concerned that the eyedropper brought the colouring back to its original condition, but it was really the colouring was half-way between the raw footage and the colouring after it was applied by the white balance eyedropper.




I applied the new grading onto the other footage, but still had inconsistencies with exposure, but I will have to twik those particular clips. I tried playing with the exposure wheels on the colour wheels and the Curves, but with no outcome I was aiming for, which was to get rid of the daylight glare coming from a window.

 I just realised I forgot to follow the colour grading workflow process as said in the tutorial video, but I will try to remember next time.

 I tried to mask the window and tried to focus on the exposure to see if it would make a difference, but it only took the entire colouring of the image with it and even with a really soft edge and then feathered, it seems like I'm back at square one.





I simply then looked at the other footage and dimmed their exposure down with the Lift and Gain colour wheels. I then exported it to test out exporting video with DaVinci. The export came out well, but it gave me a better view on the undesirable exposure, which is something I need to learn and develop on how to fix in post-production.
I still have no clear understanding about the Waveform.


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