This would be in the "Post-Tool kit" portion in my tutorials as I've concerted them out. I'd like the viewer to have the method / conceptual toolkit built before showing specific break downs. But definitely working through specific breakdowns. I'd like to bypass script writing, camera, blocking, etc… except where it informs the lighting design. Also How to look at a scene that you've lit and be able to analyze what you've designed, to see if anything is "off" about it… which I've encountered on set many times.
In the shoot shown in the pix above, we had an establishing shot in a high school library. We had a doorway in the background that was lit by the existing lighting in the building and slime windows letting sunlight in. We lit the foreground to match that look… when we looked at the screen, I noted that something was off about it. The mid ground was a giant dark horseshoe in the frame that needed pushing up. After 15 minutes of moving lights, we suddenly had a believable shot on screen… rather an image of a location that looked poorly lit.
The how to light a set for story and believability is absolutely something I'd like to address with this. Again, I've found those tutorials… they're few and far between and tucked away as little tidbits in commentary tracks and on obscure DVD BTS. My goal is really to make the info easier to find. The overlap I'd have with other tutorials is only to make all of the information live in one place in a Concept to Color Grade resource that covers bottom up techniques and differing budgetary solutions.
- On set tips and tricks for making real world setups work for you to give the director and the DP what they're looking for more quickly; specific examples from my portfolio of scenes and script breakdowns (the one we currently have in post, I spent a couple of hours on the phone ranking each scene from 1-10 for amount of shadow / contrast ratio lighting list for when we got to set. Putting my fill dimmer at the preset numbers 1-10, got us the correct mood for that moment in the script.
In the edit, we moved things around… and the fill ends up reflecting the mental state of our heroine as she progresses through her investigation of a series of deaths in her high school. Even though the script was fundamentally "day in the life" in its structure, when we moved around the scenes for sake of storytelling, linking the mood of the lighting to the main character allowed us to inform the viewer in a subtle way what was happening around her.
- Final looks during blocking walkthroughs for "Glings." Highly reflective moments that distract from the shot that need be fixed in the lighting setups.
- Lighting for the Color Grade… using color strongly that will eventually be dialed back out later to allow for better and more subtle masking during the grade.
- How do I replicate the look of a piece of reference material… how do I dissect lighting?
- How can I make my clamp lights work for me like your expensive setup (it can be done, it's just harder and requires a strong understanding of the physics of light)?
That sort of stuff...
@Knightly
As others have said, your competition is stiff. Here is what I'd buy in a heartbeat:
"Lighting for Story"
- Use or write a simple, short script with beginning, middle and end, AND an identifiable theme. Couple of actors at most.
- Use or develop a shot list or storyboards for the same script (prob. not necessary).
- Start your tutorial by lighting the first shot. Explain "why" you chose to light the location the way you did. Now, you decided to keep a character's eyes in shadow. Why? Film noir lighting? Why? Etc., etc.
- Change your "director's" intent/vision and light the same shot a different way, explain why. Does it work better? Why or why not?
- Now you can discuss the technical lighting details, but within context of the story and your D.P.'s vision.
Not sure I explained it very well, but I've found this sort of tutorial rare or non-existent (if I'm wrong, somebody let me know!). Partially because it gets into the *art* of lighting, which is tough to teach.
Anyway, just an idea. Best of luck!
kj