Lighting

We have a number of different lighting techniques for all of our unique locations in the short film. We are filming both inside and out, so we need to vary our use of light in order to create the right atmosphere.

The first location is in Churchill Square, Brighton. This location could vary lighting, because it is a shopping centre. There will be both natural (from the glass roof) and artificial lighting (from the inside lighting) inside. Depending on the weather, one of these may be more prominent than the other. Our best option would probably be to film sometime in the morning, before the day is too bright, and whilst there may still be lights on within the shopping centre. Hopefully, the artificial lighting will suffice, and be appropriate for our film. The other problem would be setting up our own lighting in the centre, as this may be a problem, particularly with lots of people walking by and lots of shop windows surrounding us. That is why we will need to set the white balance, and chose a day where the lighting will be appropriate for us. For the first scene, we want to have natural appearing lighting, as this scene is meant to appear normal at first.

Our second location is outside Pryzm, by the seafront. If the weather is nice, there will be lots of natural lighting here which we can use. However, the building is slightly over the footpath, meaning that we can move closer if we need more shade in which to film. This also means we could use our own lighting if we so wish, and there will be far fewer people walking by than in the centre. This choice will be great, as we can chose whichever lighting will be more appropriate with the conditions of the day. We will want a similar style of lighting to the first, as it needs the same natural feel to the scene.

The next location will be the alley where the protagonist is kidnapped. We may use less lighting during this scene in order to add a darker tone to the visuals of the film as this is where the narrative also takes a sharp turn for the worst. We can use our own lighting to bring out the protagonist, and make her stand out in the dark street. This will add a sense of innocence ot the protagonist and unnatural theme to the scene, which is appropriate to this point in the narrative, as it is the transition from a very surreal earlier few scenes to a dark scene of kidnapping.

Our last scene will be shot in the darkroom at college. In this room, we will use a combination of the rooms artificial lighting, and our own lighting. We want to have the scene shot with red lighting, much like a traditional darkroom. If the college's room has this, then we will use this feature to film. If not, then we will use standard lighting, and alter the scene during editing. We want the light to spotlight both the protagonist and the antagonist. This will add to the shot/ reverse shot sequence with both the characters. We will use lighting above the protagonist, to show that she has very little power in this scene, as the light is shining down on her, and she will be composed lower within the frame. As well as normal shots, we will also have a POV shot of the protagonist waking up, where we will use the rooms lighting to add distortion to the scene by having it very bright and central in the frame.