first short - screengrabs

[astrozombie]

Hey guys, wondering is someone knowledgable can crit some screengrabs from my first short so I can get some idea of what I gotta work on:

Lighting was an Lowel Omni Light with no diffusion as key, and an impact floodlight on a stand with an umbrella as soft fill.

In Vegas I did some gradient map (purple shadows yellow highlights), Levels for exposure adjustment, desaturated a bit, and a tiny bit of MB looks "Filmic" preset.

thanks for looking...

 

[Justin Aguirre]

Can you explain what you were going for and the genre of your short.

 

[astrozombie]

its a horror short - dude tries to kicks it to a nerd girl using bad poetry, she eats him. Was going for a 70's or 80's look.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

its a horror short - dude tries to kicks it to a nerd girl using bad poetry, she eats him. Was going for a 70's or 80's look.

Yeah, that's why I never tried poetry to get into a girl's shorts... they'll eat you alive...

But on the technical aspects...

In the 3rd still, the girl seems to be mostly lit by the fill, so there sort of a significant difference between the girl and the guy. Since the background is also lit by the fill... with falloff... she tends to meld into the background. (Updated for clarification... had to run the dogs around the block...)

On the other shots, the guy is frequently given more light than the girl, but in the final shot, the 'hot' light on the guy is gone.

My question would be what motivates that light on the guy? Window, lamp in the apparent corner of the room, what?

 

[David Jimerson]

Seems like it's way underexposed. Most of the makeup of the images hovers around 20-25, which is problematic because it makes it look flat, and that range is also where the video noise lives.

Needs a bit more contrast. You really can't tell the actors from the background walls.

Subjectively, I can't really say much about it without knowing more about what you're trying to achieve and what the actual mood of the scene should be.

EDIT: Feeding off the post immediately above, in one shot, the wall behind the actress is lit brighter than she is. I suppose it could be used effectively if it's appropriate for the mood you're trying to go for, but typically, it's odd and unnatural.

 

[Ronald Gerald Smith]

It looks pretty obvious that they are lit with 'movie lights' try to make the light look more natural by working within the motivations within the set.

 

[Jordan Scott Price]

I would suggest a very soft backlight motivated by ceiling fixtures, an open window, or a practical.

A very neat trick is to establish a practical - like a lamp, computer screen, or TV, although the last can be tricky - in your wide shots. Then, in your tighter shots, you can use a more controlled light to work as a fill- or backlight, so long as it is truly motivated by the placement of the practical relative to the talent.

Omni's produce pretty hard shadows, which can work if you motivate an open-face lamp in the shot or a ceiling fixture, but without an explanation, the hard shadows and directionality of an unseen light source can feel unnatural almost entirely because we are in a bedroom, where lamps, windows, and ceiling fixtures are expected.

I gotta say your framing is definitely not in the "student film/first film" category. Solid use of the art on the wall and the corners of the room to create depth and an interesting image. Some backlight and a soft key, and you have something!

 

[astrozombie]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

Heres a second cc attempt (used bump map to spotlight the dame a lil bit) I'm sure I still have color temperature issues it seems to jump around. As for my intentions, It's supposed to be low key, nightime, (lit by off screen lamp? streetlight from window? ceiling fixture?) I didn't think about motivation much at all, guess i will more next time. As far as grading I planned on mostly just desaturating a bit for a 70's old school horror look; I might try to cool off my shadows somehow, maybe with levels.

Getting a softbox- will use that next time for key, and the Omni (with frost?) for backlight. Right now my kit consists entirely of an Omni Light and a scoop floodlight with an umbrella, so i did the best I could with what I had and knew.

Thanks for noticing the framing and cheapo art direction ( I put up the posters, and changed the curtain and bedsheets). Wish I had more foreground framed shots or was smart enough to remember to make the shot where she attacks a dutch. Anyways.

You guys rock.