Diary of a film school student - Week 3

Week 3 of my year at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking was incredibly intense. I say that in a good way though, because I took home a massive dose of crucial tips and tricks about properly lighting a film. Our instructor Stephen is a true lighting guru, and he sure knows what he's talking about.

Anyway, we covered everything from color temperatures to correction gels, party gels and the aspects of hard and soft light. We talked about the numerous ways to soften and cut light, and we were pulled into the fascinating world of three-point lighting as well. It truly was an exhausting, yet highly engaging week.

The most interesting part for me personally was our introduction to the six basic lighting patterns: Rembrandt, Short and Broad Loop, Split, Rim and Paramount. Each of these patterns really make a difference when it comes to setting up your shots, and they obviously each have their own rules.

The highlight of this week dedicated to lighting was a workshop, during which we split in groups and got to practice each of these six patterns. The lesson I learned: lighting is crucial in terms of your film's look, and it sure takes a darn long time to set up, adjust and eventually master. Make sure you plan accordingly.

Indeed, I recently crewed on a little shoot for a co-student's future documentary, and we quickly realized that setting up lighting can swallow an enormous amount of time. Luckily my colleague planned ahead and knew exactly what he wanted, but making the necessary adjustments still took a while.

Consensus: lighting takes time, and practice helps as well. In fact, when it comes to prepping my upcoming fiction short, I will make sure I test lighting on my set several days in advance. Oh, and in case you're wondering: my favorite patterns are Rembrandt and Split.

We wrapped Week 3 with a discussion about coverage, and we ended with shooting a short scene from a film with two actors. This was a particularly interesting experience for me, considering I'll soon be shooting a short about two characters sharing an intense conversation at one location (more on that project later).

So, that's it for Week 3. As I already mentioned above, it was quite intense, and the days were long and exhausting. That's part of the fun though, because I can't imagine anything better than coming home after a long day of school and feeling dead tired because I've been absorbing all kinds of new knowledge.

My upcoming entries in this diary will focus on our first project, the National Film Challenge we recently completed, and of course Week 4 at school, during which we talked about storytelling and developing screenplays. Stay tuned folks, and thanks for reading.