Hi All,
I'm a first time DP on a small university production. Now last week we had a test shoot and it was completely chaotic. It was probably due to inexperience shared between myself and the director.
Note: Shot on location inside a house daytime on DV - Panasonic DVX100.
There were a few issues which I'm hoping some of you veterans can help solve:
1) When shooting, is there a proper order of shot sizes that should be followed to accommodate for staging / lighting positions? e.g. wide shots first, then close-ups etc or the reverse?
2) With regards to lighting setups and camera angles / sizes, when do you move the lights closer or further away? Is there a position (e.g. the wide shots) where the lights can remain in the same position for numerous shot sizes?
4) I had setup a light that was meant to be strong sunlight from a window cast upon the actor sitting on a couch. There was the problem of a harsh shadow cast on the couch because of this, but when trying to fill it in by bouncing light off the ceiling or other walls, it basically took away the moodyness / harshness of the key light - any suggestions?
3) Has anyone ever had the problem of other crew members making suggestions of how something should be lit or how to solve problems? How did you solve them? We had a talk about this but people are still doing it and it's very confusing and frustrating.
Thanks very much in advance,
Junior
