(P5) Apply cinematic lighting techniques for the scenes and locations

When recording our footage, we used different lighting techniques in order to achieve the feel and style of video that we wanted. These lighting styles consisted of, natural lighting, camera manipulation and using physical lighting sources such as fire.

Natural Lighting - 

For most of the shots in our film, we used natural lighting that occurred on the shoot day. This is because it made our logistics much easier, but mostly because it suited the style of the music video much better. This lighting style was created by a midday overcast sky which we used for some of our shots in the video too. The overcast sky provided the perfect lighting for the video, as it was neutral lighting, rather than sunlight which would not have fit the style of the video. The monotone colour produced by the sky created a dark, serious style of video which fit the genre of the video and the song perfectly.

Fire/Creative Lighting - 

For some of our shots, we used fire to fit in with the theme of the 'firestarter' music video. These shots were filmed using paper, kitchen roll and tissues which were burnt with words written on them. This was done in a protected, safe environment with distance from the camera to ensure that the open flame was not near the camera. This created a theme that we thought fit the style of the music video very nicely, and fit between the character's shots extremely well. This created a genuine firestarter theme which was complimentary to the video and the song, and was a cinematic addition to the rest of the footage we recorded.

Camera Settings - 

For some shots, we manipulated camera settings and video settings during production and post production. For example, some shots were low angles which had a large amount of the white sky in them. For these shots, we turned down the aperture on the camera so that the sky did not overpower the protagonist who was in front of the sky. Some of the shots however, we forgot to adjust the camera settings whilst shooting, so in order to fix these shots, we changed the exposure and brightness levels in post production to make the shots look more suitable, and not overpower the character.