Month: September 2019

How To Cross Genres

The various Star Wars films take place across many different planets. They prominently feature spaceships and space travel. There are futuristic weapons, like laser blasters and lightsabers. Despite this, Star Wars doesn’t really feel like science fiction in the same way that Alien or Star Trek does.

I would argue that Star Wars is not “true” science fiction, because science and technology are not central to the story. Star Wars is concerned with destiny and “the Force” – in other words, magic. The setting of Star Wars has the trappings of technology that is beyond our current capabilities, such as faster-than-light interstellar travel. However, you could remove any of the specific technology of Star Wars (such as replacing the lightsabers with swords or the different planets with different kingdoms) and the story would be the same. Star Wars has more in common with fantasy, fairy tales, and mythology than “classic” science fiction.

This has nothing to do with the fact that Star Wars is set “[a] long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Science fiction does not need to take place in the future or involve earthlings, although it usually does. However, it must grapple with issues raised by science or technology – the mythology of Star Wars is universal enough to take place in any setting.

Of course, there are science fiction elements in the Star Wars films. The plot of the original film, for example, involves the empire developing new weapons technology. The imposing symmetry of the imperial ships contrast sharply with the overgrown chaos of Yoda’s training grounds, which hints at a tension between nature and science. There are also interesting moral questions raised by the way droids are treated in the films, although this wasn’t explored in-depth until the recent Han Solo origin film.

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How To Reveal an Environment

One very basic principle of setting a scene is to either start on a wide shot and gradually cut closer or to start on a close up shot and work your way out. Going from wide to close gives a lot of information to the audience and helps to establish the geography of the scene.

Going from close to wide creates a sense of mystery for the audience; by beginning with unexplained detail shots, you create a sense of anticipation, and the later wide shots become a reveal.

In the opening sequence of The Empire Strikes Back, we first go from wide to close, beginning with a shot from the planet from space, then a wide aerial shot of the probe entering the atmosphere, then to a slightly closer shot of the ground as the probe hits. The next shot is a close up of the probe, which makes the following wider shot of the probe an interesting reveal for the audience.

This technique of going from wide to close and close to wide is a great way to give the audience information about the environment of a scene and to hold their interest by gradually providing new details.

https://youtu.be/CmUpCJNkujs?t=137

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This sequence from later in the film also begins extremely wide and gradually moves closer. Eventually, the shot settles into a shot/reverse shot – note the adherence to the 180 degree rule.

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How To Create Mystery

This technique is similar to the one described above. In the following sequence from Star Wars, the scene begins with a sequence of close detail shots from the environment; in this case, various aliens in a cantina. Here, we see four different shots of aliens before a medium close-up of Luke and C-3PO. Then we see the bar in a wide shot from their perspective. The camera movement (a pan) helps emphasize that this is a point-of-view shot.

The camera continues to alternate between shots of the bar’s exotic denizens and reaction shots of Luke and C-3PO, until we finally cut to a longer shot of them walking forward into the bar. At this point, there is an exchange between Luke and the bartender and the story advances.

Without any additional context, the close up shots of strange creatures at the beginning of the scene creates a sense of mystery, even confusion. When we eventually see Luke and C-3PO, we realize that we are experiencing this place through their perspective – and their reaction shots show that it is an unfamiliar environment for them as well.

As the sequence progresses, Luke has an altercation with another patron and Obi-Wan has to step in. Because the scene begins with shots of the aliens, it’s easy to believe that this is a strange, potentially dangerous place. If the sequence started with Luke already at the bar, the tense exchange that follows would not work nearly as well.

https://youtu.be/g6PDcBhODqo

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How to Tell a Story with Lighting

In The Empire Strikes Back, the main characters have adventures in several wildly different environments, including an ice planet, an asteroid field, a foggy swamp, and deep within an industrial mining facility. The production design does a lot to make these different locations feel distinct, but so does the lighting. As the sun sets on Hoth, the dim, blue lighting makes the shots feel cold; back in the bunker, the harsh uplighting makes the environment feel tense as the battle progresses.

On Dagobah, the cool, diffuse lighting outside contrasts with the warm, contrasty light in Yoda’s hut. In the mining facility on Bespin, some of the shots recall the tense, directional lighting in Alien. In the room where Han is frozen in carbonite, the orange foreground lighting and blue background lighting are a classic example of a complementary color scheme.

Despite its fantastical settings, The Empire Strikes Back always does a good job of “motivating” its lighting. Lighting is motivated when the audience can attribute its presence to something in the world of the film. For example, the warm lighting in Yoda’s hut is motivated, because we see shots of a fire in the room. In the shots below, the red and purple lights on Han’s face are motivated because we can see the devices that (we assume) are creating the lights.

Subtle lighting doesn’t need to be specifically motivated; we can assume that there is some light in any given environment. However, when lighting is used for a specific effect, it’s important to ground it in the world of the film.

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The History of Compositing

• Compositing has been done since the earliest days of filmmaking – Georges Méliès used it before 1900
• Early compositing was done using multiple exposure photography, wherein part of the frame was blocked off and an action was filmed; the film was then rewound, the inverse area was blocked off, and another action was filmed
• Simple double exposures eventually evolved into more elaborate matte painting techniques, but the process is essentially the same
• Blue screen compositing began as an optical process, with no computers involved – it was first used in 1940
• Digital compositing removes a single color from footage – this is also called chromakeying
• Green is now the most common color for compositing, since digital sensors are more sensitive to that color and it is less common in costumes and clothing – any color could theoretically be used, though

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Modern Green Screen Filming

• Your green screen should be as smooth and flat as possible, with no obvious wrinkles or folds – if you are using a fabric screen, you may want to steam it or use weights to hold it taut
• Green screens should be lit using soft, even lighting that is cast over the entire filmed surface
• Don’t place your subject too close to the green screen – you don’t want any green light reflected onto them and you don’t want their shadows on the screen
• Backlighting is especially important for green screen, because it helps separate the subject from the background and erase green spill
• Remember to consider what your final footage will look like and light your subject accordingly – but avoid casting unwanted light on the screen itself
• Don’t wear clothing that will blend into the green screen – if you need to wear green, use a blue screen instead
• Hair is challenging to composite, so avoid loose strands whenever possible
• Be sure that the subject is in focus
• Most current editing software has green screen compositing capabilities

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Bucknell’s Green Screen Facilities

• There are two green screen facilities on Bucknell campus: the production studio in Marts 003 and the 2nd Floor Studio in Bertrand Library
• The 2nd Floor Studio has a camera, lighting, and a green screen already set up and ready to film – you should use this for your first video project
• The Marts production studio has a much larger green screen and more lighting options, but it is more complicated to set up and use
• To use the 2nd Floor Studio, reserve the space using the “Browse & request equipment” link on the library Equipment Services page
• The 2nd Floor Studio is accessible through the East Reading room on the second floor of Bertrand Library
• You will need a thumb drive formatted to FAT32 (this should be the default) to capture footage
• Once in the 2nd Floor Studio, place the thumb drive in the port on the desk and the lights should activate
• There is a black switch box that is used to set the backdrop light to blue or green
• The key and fill lights can be adjusted using a dial on the back, but be sure to set them to their initial settings after you are done filming
• You can also bring additional lights into the space

Color Temperature

• Color temperature is the measure of how “warm” or “cool” a light is, measured in kelvin (K)
• Just like with the light emitted by stars, lights with a lower temperature are “warmer” – they are on the orange end of the spectrum
• Indoor lighting tends to have a lower color temperature
• Lights with a higher temperature are “cooler” – they are on the blue end of the spectrum
• Natural light (on Earth) tends to have a higher color temperature
• Lights with variable color temperature tend to range from around 3200K (sometimes labeled “tungsten”) to around 5600K (sometimes labeled “daylight”)
• You experience light of different color temperatures every day without realizing it
• Our eyes adjust very quickly to changes in color temperature, while a camera may not

White Balance

• White balance is the setting on a camera used to match the color temperature of the light in the environment
• Cameras with highly automated controls (like most default phone camera apps or point-and-shoot cameras) use auto white balance to estimate the appropriate setting for each shot
• Cameras with manual settings allow you to either use a white balance preset or specifically set the color temperature
• I recommend the Moment Pro Camera app ($6) if you would like more manual control when using your phone to record video
• White balance can used stylistically – for example, to make a scene filmed during the day appear to take place at night, you might use a low kelvin setting. This will add a blue tint to the footage, since the camera is trying to compensate for orange lighting.

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[gdoc link=”https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTRFGziRIHhXHgxM3EHO9x2E5RX9GjwSLr6g0gQmzbZ-bG0LcyrBLrLO-jNT0QITJZozY6tSUj1qQFu/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000″ height=”800″]

Color Schemes

• White balance is usually an “invisible” setting, but color can be used in much more overt and stylized ways
• A color wheel arranges primary (red, blue, and yellow), secondary (orange, purple, and green), and tertiary colors by hue in a radial pattern
• Different color schemes can be chosen by their arrangement on a color wheel

• Monochromatic or analogous color schemes use colors from a limited area of the color wheel
• Complementary color schemes use colors from opposite sides of the color wheel
• Triadic color schemes use colors from three equidistant points on the color wheel
• Discordant color schemes deliberately break an otherwise harmonious color scheme

• There are also many (highly subjective) theories about the psychology of color – red for violence, yellow for hope, blue for calm, etc.
• Equipment for manipulating color includes variable temperature lighting, gels, reflectors, and practicals
• Color can also be heavily manipulated in post-production – this is called color grading

I know of several projects that use data visualization to represent the color palettes in different films. The Colors of Motion determines the average color of each frame, then stacks them from top to bottom. Here are a few examples from science fiction:

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Here are the first six Star Wars films, courtesy of designer Dillon Baker.

Production Challenge – Off World

In pairs, find an area of campus that looks like an extraterrestrial world and take a photograph of it. Think about ways to crop your image to make the result look otherworldly. You can use any of the colored gels provided, or alter the hue and saturation after the image has been taken. Email the finished image (with both of your names) to dan014@bucknell.edu. You have 15 minutes.

Terminology

• Hard Light and Soft Light
  These terms refer to the quality of the light being emitted.  Hard light has a sharp edge and creates harsh shadows.  Soft light has a diffuse edge and tends to wrap around things, creating subtler shadows.  Hard light tends to be dramatic while soft light tends to be flattering.  Generally speaking, large light sources (or lights close to the subject) create soft light and small light sources (or lights far away from the subject) create hard light.

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• Spot and Flood
  Spot and flood are the two extremes of a light’s “throw.”  Spot describes light that is concentrated in a small area, generally with a well-defined edge.  Flood light is spread over a wide area, generally with a soft edge.  Some lights, like fresnels, are focusable, allowing you to go from spot to flood.
• Contrast Ratio
  Contrast ratio describes the amount of light in two different areas of a shot – generally, the two sides of the subject’s face.  For example, a contrast ratio of 4:1 on the subject’s face would have four times as much light on the key side as the fill side.
• High Key and Low Key
  These terms are related to the overall look of a shot, in terms of its contrast between light and dark areas.  A high contrast shot with dark shadows is low key and a low contrast shot is high key.

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• Key
  This is the main light illuminating an actor in a scene.  It should be placed in front of the subject and off to one side, creating shadows on half of the face.  
• Fill
  The fill light softens the shadows created by the key light and adds illumination to the side of the face not illuminated by the key light.  As such, it should be placed in front of the subject on the opposite side from the key.  The fill light should be set to an equal or lower intensity to the key – if it is greater, it becomes the key.
• Rim/Back/Hair
  The back light is the third light in a classic “three point” setup.  It is placed behind the subject, generally on the same side as the key.  The back light is used to create an edge of light on the subject and provide visual separation between the subject and the background.

• Bounce
  Bounce lighting is reflected off a surface before hitting the subject.  Lighting can be bounced off of a reflector, a white card, a wall, the ceiling, or just about anything else.
• Cookie
  An object placed in front of a light that creates a pattern or shape.

• Practical
  Practical lights are the lights that are visible in the scene – for example, a lamp in the background of a shot.  You can place practical lights in a shot to correspond with the off-camera lights you are using to make a scene look as though it is light naturally.

• Ambient
  The light that exists in a space before it is lit is its ambient light.  Light coming in through a window is one example.

Three Important Points

• Three point lighting describes the fundamental lighting setup – a key and fill light in front of the subject and a back light behind, forming a triangle around the actor
• The key light can be on either side of the actor; it is whichever light is stronger
• The fill light softens the shadows created by the key light and helps to determine the overall contrast ratio
• The back light creates definition and separation between the subject and the background
• Generally speaking, lights should be placed off to the side and a bit higher than the subject
• To create a silhouette, the back light should be the most intense

When you are setting up three point lighting, you have a few factors to consider.  How harsh should the shadows be?  How intense should the back light be?  Which side should the back light be on?  These are largely a matter of personal preference and can change from one setup to another.  I personally think that the back light looks best on the opposite side from the key, but many lighting diagrams show the opposite.  The important thing is to be conscious of how these choices affect your scene.

Contrast Ratios

Contact ratio is incredibly important because it can really help establish the mood of a piece.  You will often see a high contrast ratio on highly dramatic or tense films.  Low contrast lighting is more flattering than high contrast lighting – it makes skin look soft and even.

• Average contrast ratio is somewhere around 4:1
• In a shot with high key lighting, the faces of the actors might be lit with a contrast ratio of 3:1 or 2:1
• Low key lighting might use a contrast ratio of 6:1, 10:1, or higher – the greater the contrast ratio, the more dramatic the lighting

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Lighting Simulator

Virtual Lighting Studio