Use of lighting in 'Mama'

Within the film Mama, lighting is used in various different ways, I am going to talk about the lighting in the last scene of the film and how it is used to tell the story (87:16 – 95:27).

During the end scene a lot of cold colours of blue lights were used to give the audience a cold, dark, sombre feeling. The use of the blue light might also be used for a more natural moonlighting.

Low-key lighting is often used in horror films and in the film Mama the low-key lighting is used to create a mysterious environment; this causes a lot of shadows in the sequence. The darkness also makes people more vulnerable and threatened, as they are afraid of the unknown and places where they cannot see.

Andy Muschietti slowly brought the creepy character ‘Mama’ into the film and did not show what the character actually looked like until the very end. This creates suspense and tension towards the viewers and builds enigmas, which leaves the audience watching. In the end scene when they introduced Mama properly, keeping the detail and the highlights of Mama’s facial features and skin tone right till the very end. As the audiences have not seen a proper close up of Mama it adds visual interest and mood throughout the scene.

The three main types of angle lighting that are used in the film are back lighting, under-lighting and side lighting. All three of these angles of lighting techniques are used to add to the mysteriousness in the film, each angle with a different effect to the visual. Back lighting creates a silhouette to the characters and gives it a creepy effect with the many shadows on Mama’s face; under-lighting is used to disfigure the faces, this is used in many horror films and the third type is side lighting and this produces a shadow across the character’s faces and on the set creating mysteriousness.

Deconstruction of 'The Last Lioness' Documentary.

This documentary is literally about Lady Liuwa the last lioness, living across the isolated lands of Liuwa Plain. She is alone with no support or care from any of her own species as illegal trophy hunters came and wiped out her entire kind in that region, so she is the last only known lion that is surviving on Zambia's Liuwa Plain. In this documentary camera man Herbert Brauer spent four years as he watched her lonely life unfold and something amazing happens.

The documentary starts off with an very extreme long shot slightly zooming out of a buffalo with the endless background of Zambia's Liuwa Plain, this shows the audience that the environment is proper isolated and lonely. Then it cuts to close ups, mid shots and long shots of Lady Liuwa literally doing everything on her own from attacking for food and just spending time alone. The close ups show Lady Liuwa's facial expressions of her feelings and emotions of loneliness and the long shots again show how empty and alone she is on this land. 

After about one minute into the documentary, panning longs shots are shown of the buffalos, zebras and birds to show that their species are still going strong as there are groups of them travelling together and then it fades to a static shot of Lady Liuwa walking across the empty land; this is heartbreaking to see as you can tell that she is the only lonely species that is travelling on her own.

When they talk about the illegal trophy hunters attacking Zambia's Liuwa Plain, there is a panning shot and the it fades to black and white this is to show the audience that it is in the past also with the help of the voiceover. This is also done in slow motion to give it more of a dramatic effect as well as it being black and white with the sad music playing in the background. 

Photo Portfolio

To support our Practice Portfolio grade in the production module, we had to complete a photographic portfolio showing our understanding and knowledge of composition, choice of lenses, control of aperture, ISO, shutter speed and the use of focus and how it works with lighting.

We had to think of a theme that linked all our images together, I chose the theme of 'Christmas Lights' as it was during the Christmas period when I was capturing all my photographs. In 20 photographs I needed to illustrate a concept or two from visual organisation, proportion, lens effects and aperture/shutter. Each concept had some themes within them and we had to make sure each of our 20 photos included at least one of each theme within the concepts. The themes that we had to fulfil were things like Frame within a Frame, The 'Sinuous S', Deep Focus, Under Exposure and so on.

At first I wanted to do the theme 'Urban' and capture images around the City of London of the main landmarks in London and the way people travel in London like the tubes, buses and taxi. I thought that theme was a bit too broad and it would have been hard to link the images together, so then I thought of the theme 'Lights', which was still a bit vague so I narrowed it down to 'Christmas Lights.' The theme of 'Christmas Lights' was a perfect theme because it was the right time of the year as it was Christmas and all the lights and decorations were put up, which gave me the chance to capture some beautiful images of the lights and whilst capturing my photos, I found that a few of my peers had also chosen the theme of lights and others Christmas but no one had done Christmas Lights I don't think.

We had a tutorial with Dale Wightman using the Canon EOS 7D's before going out to shoot with the cameras, so we got a rough idea of the how to work the controls on the 7D. The kit comes with 3 different types of lenses; a 28mm prime lens, 50mm prime lens and a 18 - 135mm zoom lens. I used all three of the lenses to suit each of the concepts as each of the lenses work in different ways, the prime lenses you can not change the vocal length where as the zoom lens you can vary the vocal length from 18mm - 135mm. This allows me to use the zoom lens to change the composition of the subject without having to move. The prime lenses are smaller and lighter to carry around, they also offer better light-gathering ability meaning a larger maximum aperture. I used the prime lenses mainly for the low lighting whilst I was shooting at night and to get the wider angle shots, so it does not cut off the edges.

Middlesex Now show

I was a VT Supervisor for the second 'Middlesex Now' show, which requires a lot of responsibilities and time. I learnt a lot whilst partaking on the role of VT Supervisor, a few things I already knew and a lot that I have taken on board. 

The 'Middlesex Now' shows are based on the current affairs happening around Middlesex University campus. The second show was based on the Raise And Give (RAG) student society, which plays a big part within the University. We got Sophie McKay, the President of the RAG society to be part of one of the VT's and even got her in the show as one of our guests. Our second topic was on the Artist, Kelvin Okafor who graduated from Middlesex University and he drew amazing lifelike portraits of ordinary people and celebrities using only pencil and charcoal. The third VT to finish off the show was a prank VT consisting of Frankie Checkley dressed up as Ronald McDonald the clown, going around the University campus trying to capture some of the student's funny reactions.

The role of VT Supervisor involved a number of different things; I had to make sure that everyone who was a camera operator had the correct tutorials and that they filmed on the right format. After all the filming was done and all the XD cam disks were handed to the correct editors, I would make sure that all the footage was imported into Avid Media Composer, as I learnt from the VT Supervisor for the first show because she had trouble with one of her VT's not being imported properly and suffered the consequences of all the footage from that VT being erased. Once all the footage have been imported into Media Composer properly, I can then begin to sit down with the editors and the directors from the location shoots and talk about how they wanted the finished product. Sitting with the editors gave them the chance to ask me any questions or if they needed any assistance I would be there to help them. After all three edits were completed I ran them by the VT Producer, Director and our tutor to see if anything needed changing. The completed edit will then be exported back to the XD cam disc with all the timings of the VT's written accompanying the disc for the VT Operator.

There were a few problems I encountered whilst supervising, the Directors from the shoots were not there whilst I was working with the editors, which was difficult as we had nothing to work with so I just went with my own initiative and just edited the VT's my way and informed the VT Producer and Director of the show what was going on. As I am new also new to Avid Media Composer, there was a lot that I did not know, like colour grading for example so I had to get one of the technicians to help me. Next time I would make sure that the location Directors will be with me whilst editing and that I improve my knowledge on using Avid Media Composer before I start any editing.

Final Cut Pro Vs. Avid Media Composer.

                    

                                                            

Avid Media Composer is a professional video editing software that is edited offline and non-linear. Since the first Avid Media Composer was released in 1989, the application features have increased to allow for film editing, uncompressed standard definition, video and high definition editing and finishing. The first Avid Media Composer was released in 1989. In 1999 the first Media Composer released on Windows. In February 2003 the first version to support Mac OS X was released. The latest Avid Media Composer is compatible with Windows 7/8 and Mac OS X 10.7, 10.8. 

Final Cut Pro is another professional video production editing software for Mac OS X from Apple and also a direct competitor to Avid Media Composer in the high-end movie production industry. It is now only available to purchase through Apple online or in the Apple stores. In April 2005, Apple replaced Production Suite with Final Cut Studio, which includes new versions of Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and Motion. The first Final Cut Pro was released in 1999 with different versions released since then and the latest released in July 2011, which was the Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4.

Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro are both editing softwares that can both put a video together but with the different tools that are set in both softwares can then be edited in different ways. One of the major differences between Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer is that Avid is compatible with Macs and Windows where as Final Cut is only compatible with Macs. 

When importing QuickTime media files into both of the software’s, Final Cut allows you to drag and drop directly into the software where as with Avid, you have to import and convert the media before being able to use it. Another difference is collaborative editing as Avid allows multiple editors to work on a project where as Final Cut is still behind when it comes to collaborative editing.

Roles, Hierarchies and Feedback.

Throughout this year I have been involved with a number of different productions, multi camera and single camera productions. I have written each production in more detail in separate blogs.

'Middlesex Now' Studio Show - VT Supervisor:

First time working as a VT supervisor went well as it was such a big role to play. I had to work with each of the editors as the location directors were not there for me to work with so I had to take matters into my own hands and work with the editors, editing the VT's how I wanted them to be edited and also let the VT producer know and run it with her after the VT's were edited to make sure that they were alright to export.

'Felixstowe Beach' Documentary - Sound Operator:

I was working with Megan and Grace as a sound op for their documentary filmed in Felixstowe and it was difficult as they wanted me to capture the sound of the waves washing against the shore and crashing against the rock and also the sound of seagulls. It turned out better than I expected as I got compliments from the students in their documentary class and also their lecturer, Tom.

'Called To Care' Documentary - Sound Operator:

I was working with Megan and Grace again as a sound op for another documentary but this time filmed in Loughborough and capture the drunken night life there of the students whilst following the street pastors around whilst they were on the job. I had a major problem whilst working with the boom microphone as the wire became loose and stopped working after a while, which was horrendous, as we had to use the sound from the cameras that were used but luckily the interview's were all indoors so I could use the zoom microphone on its on, making sure I kept very still and quiet.

Recreating Lighting scene in 'Memento' - Lighting Operator:

This was my first time working with lights, whilst at University and I loved working with them even though they are a pain to carry around and set up. Making sure that the lighting matched the scene correctly.

'My Precious Folk Culture' Documentary - Sound Operator:

Mikela asked me to be her sound op for her documentary, which was based in a Sixth Form College in South West London, recording the sound of interviews of the Albanian children talking about if being brought up in England have changed the way that they think about their culture or not. Working with Mikela was very different than working with Megan and Grace, as Mikela was very unorganised as she forgot to bring batteries and also SD cards, which then I had to go out and buy out of my own pocket.

'Dare To Flair' Studio Show - Camera Operator:

Being a camera operator for the first time in second year went pretty well, I was a bit rusty at first but got the hang of it once I had my hand on it. Overall, I feel that the camera crew worked pretty hard together despite having confusing with what time we were meant to arrive at. 

'Seeing Without Sight' Drama - Sound Operator:

Ending the second year with a heart warming drama in Surrey and as I have worked with the sound equipment quite a bit this year, I ended up being the sound operator again. Working with some great people, just a pity that the director could not be there for both days and had to have someone else in our group direct.