LONDON FILM SCHOOL 16MM SHORT IN BLACK&WHITE

[Alex Birrell]

Hi guys,

 

I am in the first term at the London Film School and will be directing a silent 3 minute short to be shot on regular 16mm in the academy ratio as our first term exercise. We are shooting with Zeiss distagon primes and using Kodak 7217 which will be telecined as a monochrome best light transfer for editing. We are using the Aaton XTR and the brief is that we have to shoot with available light only.

 

I really imagine the short to have a soft diffused look and would like to experiment with netting the lens with stocking material for a slight flair in the highlights. I'd be very grateful for any information and what materials work well for people and any pitfalls I might have with this.

 

Also I imagine one shot as a deep focus frame initially framing a street in long with a man's face entering from frame left in close-up (obviously all in focus from the face to infinity). We plan to achieve the effect shooting outdoors stopped down and studying the hyperfocal distance chart for our lenses. Thing is, I would really like the man's face to be in near silhouette. Would we achieve this by taking a reflected meter reading of the sky and background and exposing mid way between those reading and just let the man's face drop to black or do you think we'll run in to problems?

 

Thanks in advance.