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Do audiences notice these things in photography?

H

harmonica44

I showed some of my footage I shot in my first short film to an expert in photography who does all that for a living. He said that the lighting on the characters did not match who the characters are. Saying that for a particular character, I should have a particular lighting, to show the character, otherwise the audience is going to get confused. Even though audiences don't know much about that generally, they will still be confused by it naturally.

I had a DP who knew a lot more than I did but he dropped out of the movie and I had to use whoever I could find who new whatever basics for that shoot day, since I couldn't find a committed replacement soon before shooting.

I thought the lighting I chose made the actors look generally okay. Good enough to look good in the shot. I wasn't going for lighting to bring out the character's personalities, I was just going for good enough for the time I had allotted, since I had 100 things to think of aside from the DP leaving. I am more of a storyteller rather than cinematography perfectionist so far.


But for future projects, will audiences notice this from being accustom to other movies and should I storyboard the lighting according to personality of character? To me those types of metaphors and symbolism are all open to interpretation and different people will interpret them differently, won't they?

He also said that my actors look too natural, as if it's in the real world, but that's what I want to go for in my style of directing. Like if you watch Law and Order for example, the actors do not really look that pretty. The women do some, but some of the men, do not look like they are made up at all. So I like to go real looking ordinary people characters, but he said that if you are already successful that's fine to do, but in my case I should make my actors look as pretty as possible. Think so?
 
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I'm not an expert but as far as I believe, the lightning can enhance the mood or improve the film aesthetically. But by no means, I can't see it as essential. If you are looking for characterization, no thing will beat the character's actions and language.
 
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Yes, the audience will feel what the lighting suggests of a character, they may not know why like a cinematographer would, but it does affect them.

One of the pitfalls of starting out is that you come to a fast realization that wearing too many hats doesn't let you focus on any one of the jobs to your fullest extent. Finish this film... Keep the crew that were effective... replace the ones who weren't... move forward. If you start making budgeted pieces, hire pros who won't bail on you... until then, it's a long game rather than a short game. Keep the people around you who work hard and are there to make the best possible product.

You're so focussed on this one single project and trying to get absolutely everything right, which you may have difficulty doing. My advice is to finish it, screen it, submit it to a couple of festivals to say you've made it to that point, then start the next one. In between the two, sit down with someone you trust to be brutally honest and watch it with the pause button ready. Rip it apart, figure out what's wrong (and more importantly what's right). On the next project, take the 2 worst culprits technically and fix them... while continuing to do the things right that you got right.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

If it were easy, everyone would be Spielberg.
 
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Looking at the audience point of view, assuming they know nothing about the tech side.

They may not 'know' why they didn't like the movie, because of hundreds of little things just don't seems to jell on the screen. Sound and lights comes to mind as the neglected ones in most indie production. Acting is another.

Lets face it, we don;t have 100K gear to do the job right and it's a struggle to make anything.
You just have to keep making movies the best you can and learn.
 
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One hundred INFORMED audience viewers are going to give you four hundred technical and historical opinions on two hundred "issues."

One hundred GENERAL audience viewers are going to give you two hundred random opinions on fifty "issues."


You're the President of the United States.
You just got voted into office with a huge 65/35 popular and electoral lead over your opponent.
That means 65% of the people are gonna b!tch if you don't do everything perfect 100% of the time, and they don't even really know WTH they want, let alone how to get it done in any practical sense.
And 35% of the people are gonna b!tch no matter WTH you do.

IOW - You're NEVER EVER EVER NEVER gonna make everyone happy.

F#ck 'em.

Make your film the best you can with the resources you have in the time allotted.
If that's what you got, then that's what you got.

The audience isn't going to be aware of a ton of stuff and is going to focus on God only knows what.
Mostly irrelevant shhh...stuff.



You will be better off making five four-minute shorts than four five-minute shorts, and better than two ten-minute shorts, and a whole lot better off than one twenty-minute short.


Chill.
No Monday morning ex posto facto quarterbacking.
Get it done.
Move on to your next four projects.
 
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H-44 - you're spending too much time polishing a turd. I know you want this particular short to be the best you can, but it's never going to be any better than poor to fair; it's your first one. Your current concern should be to get it finished as fast as you can and then post it for the criticisms.

Yeah, your photo-pro friend is going to criticize the lighting - he'll spend an hour(s) lighting a single frame, and he has really nice lighting gear. How many photos has he taken? You are going to be lighting 24 frames per second with zero budget and no experience; of course it's not going to meet his standards. Challenge him to light a short for you.

And yeah, I'm going to rip your audio to shreds. But I've got ten years experience and tens of thousands into my gear and the same into my room. You can't compete.

But that's not your job; your job is to direct. That's why there's folks like me, to do those jobs that you could spend the rest of your life learning and mortgaging your life away to acquire the gear.

Finish up, move on.
 
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Sure. I am not concerned about how the characters were lit in this short, I just took his advice on what to do for my next one. He also said that I should bring my storyboards with me to my next casting and to have the characters lighting in the storyboard. I should then light the actor in the audition, the way the character is suppose to be lit to see if the actor's look matches the lighting of the character's personality.

This seems like a fine thing to do, but next time I will not have like 50 actors to choose from and will probably have to choose the best based on performance, and age of the of the character, and compromise. He said that if I throw away the fact that the actors look does not match the lighting of the character, that could hurt my next project.

On example he gave me he said was that a character in my short was lit like he was a spineless character and pointed out the details. He said that it was incorrect cause the character was not spineless at all so it was confusing. I would have to find a lighting specialist who knew exactly what to do for my next project, since I myself cannot tell in such exact detail.
 
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When you can afford to pay professionals to do the things that will make your projects "right", you will. Until then I suggest working on things that you can barter to professionals to at least consult. Network, network, network, all of the time. If you have a friend who has an interest in filming and a good eye, buy knowledge for him or her. Classes, books,videos, and online information can all be used (as you well know) to improve your craft (or his/her) craft. Guide that person to lighting. I have a buddy who is a sound engineer, but never thought about doing film work. I bought him a field recorder and boom pole (he already had a nice assortment of microphones) and set him loose. He is currently building an audio database for us to use later.
 
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I would have agree and disagree with some of the points brought up here.

Yes, the general audience go-er will dislike a movie if things dont 'gel'. That said, this photography expert seems to be looking at things from a photography point of view. Whilst photography and cinematography are related, they are different. In photography, your portraits should be shot with lighting that sets up the character/mood you want. In cinematography, it really all depends on what you as a Cinematographer want, and what your Director wants. If you want a super-naturalistic looking movie with little camera movements etc. and really just want to add to the natural feel in the scene, then overlighting depending on the character would be wrong. As well, lighting each character in a scene differently may look and feel wrong if trying to intercut between close-ups. If you want a non-naturalistic feel, then sure light things differently but at the end of the day it comes down to what you want. I know of lecturers who have hated student work that has won awards and I know of films that have won technical achievement awards but in general was disliked by audiences. Look at the Tree of Life for example - I thought it was a profound film, but I know people who hated it, simply because they had no idea what was going on. It's all a matter of perspective and you're never going to please everyone, so do what you feel is right for your movie.
 
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Listen to Alcove:

-- finish this piece

-- show it to people and collect feedback

-- contemplate feedback

-- bring new knowledge to your next project

-- repeat from beginning

Each one will be better than the last.
 
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