Lighting Critique

Kyle Geerkens · January 19, 2007

Hi Posters!

I know it's lame, but I figure the only way to get better is to show people your work and let them tell you what you did wrong.

Here are 2 Videos i shot recently. The First one was in the fall for a 24 Hour film challenge. I know... many of you think these are lame because they don't aim for perfection. But I like them because they test how well you can imagine and create a scene quickly. i think it really puts your technical/creative juices to the test! What do you think?

This one is a music video I shot for a friend. The Story was not designed by me. Just lighting and shooting. Comments would be very much appreciated! And if you like the song be sure to let the artist know! Needs some exposure. Thats why i did it for free ! haha

Thanks!

Jonathan Bowerbank · January 20, 2007

Couple of nice setups in the first one, but overall you can tell that most of it was just a matter putting light in there to at least see what was going on.

The music video was nice though. I think it would have been nicer if the singer didn't wear that hat to cover his eyes...especially if he's wanting to get noticed. Don't know if it's his "thing", but yeah, should have gotten rid of the hat. Still, very nice on the closeups with the single source and contrast. I think the video suffered quite a bit in compression though, it'd be nice to see a better QT version or something.

:)

Frank Barrera · January 21, 2007

To be honest it is nearly impossible to say anything in a critical manner while looking at such a compressed image. I could only say that it appears that the horror piece is over lit for my tastes. Perhaps you were trying to have it look bright and sunny so as to contrast it to the dark horror of the violence but it mostly just looks like a BBC sitcom to me.

The music video is simply too dark for the codec for me to make any comment. Except the song is good.

If you want to get critical feedback on the internet you must forget about YouTube and find some other way to share your work.

Good luck.

Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC · January 21, 2007

To be honest it is nearly impossible to say anything in a critical manner while looking at such a compressed image. I could only say that it appears that the horror piece is over lit for my tastes. Perhaps you were trying to have it look bright and sunny so as to contrast it to the dark horror of the violence but it mostly just looks like a BBC sitcom to me.

The music video is simply too dark for the codec for me to make any comment. Except the song is good.

If you want to get critical feedback on the internet you must forget about YouTube and find some other way to share your work.

Good luck.

Aye. You-tube sucks~. Compression is toooo high.

The int house stuff was a little bright. Didn't really put me in the suspenseful horror mood. And some of the camera work during the phone sequence was odd, what was the motivation for that? The dark basement shoots were a really moody and put me in the horror mood, I would have kept that low key look for the entire film. Good effort for a 24hour short. I've done a few of those back in the day and 24hours is not long enough to do anything special with lighting.

Kyle Geerkens · January 22, 2007

Thanks for the comments guys.

I agree. For the indoor horror stuff. I truly ws running out of time. I did want the bright look to contrast teh dark basement but I failed there without being able to really shapy my light. Live and learn i guess.

The phone conversation in the edn took me out of the mood. the idea ws that We would stay on one shot and I would reality/style shoot it (ie. slight handheld crash zooms) I think it was a mistake to even have the phone conversation in there. Booooorrrrring....

Seany Sauce (music video artist) liked the cover this face idea. SO we kept it. We did discuss the fact that his face would not be recognizable. But in the end his call was to stick with that mood.

Again thanks for the info. Id be interested to hear some conventional ideas for lighting a sunny indoor day witha bright mood.. yet properly shaping shadows to create a horror feel.

Kyle

Daniel Carruthers · January 23, 2007

Thanks for the comments guys.

I agree. For the indoor horror stuff. I truly ws running out of time. I did want the bright look to contrast teh dark basement but I failed there without being able to really shapy my light. Live and learn i guess.

The phone conversation in the edn took me out of the mood. the idea ws that We would stay on one shot and I would reality/style shoot it (ie. slight handheld crash zooms) I think it was a mistake to even have the phone conversation in there. Booooorrrrring....

Seany Sauce (music video artist) liked the cover this face idea. SO we kept it. We did discuss the fact that his face would not be recognizable. But in the end his call was to stick with that mood.

Again thanks for the info. Id be interested to hear some conventional ideas for lighting a sunny indoor day witha bright mood.. yet properly shaping shadows to create a horror feel.

Kyle

I understand what you where going for with the bright interiors for the horror short, I think a softer light source would of been better, video doesent handle hard light that well.

the dark basement stuff was well done reminded me of Hostle with a bit of blue velvet.