3 posts tagged “lighting”

When I watch something like 'Notes on a Scandal', it can sometimes take me a minute to really enjoy the experience.  My problem is I'm just worn out by everyone trying to do the same thing, shoot with the same lights, frame the same way, make the same moves. And, normally, this is done by people who are just mimicking Oscar-winners of the past.

It's rare to see someone do it and do it right and for all the right reasons. Chris Menges may not be a genius. Cinematography has too many practitioners who've come to believe in their own genius.  But, Chris Menges knows what he's doing. That's the highest compliment I can give. The big-source natural look really works here. He chooses his moves. Saves the big crane shots to let us know that something is coming your way - it's important but simple. Like the approach of evil - God is watching, and if He could, he'd let you know too. But, all we have is this move. Up, slow drop, across the walk, up the stairs, around the pillar, and she knocks on the door. Done. Simple. It's really great. And, thank the Lord! He keeps them to a minimum.

The night scenes work as well. Even one scene being outside the pub works diagetically - as they women want to keep a lid on the situation - giving Menges the opportunity to use his big sources.

Any problems? One, but he gets away with it. When visiting friends in the country, Judi Dench's female friend comes into the doorway one night to talk with Judi about and old friend. She stands in the doorway with a tungsten unit blasting into her robe from mere inches away. It's an interesting choice, especially considering the lack of source. But, it works and he gets away with it. The fill it gives from the door helps to shape her face. The strongest part of the light is at the edge of frame. It's a convention used often, though usually a bit more softly. I can't remember, but it might have been used to frame Dench's head as well. I wish I would have noted that.

One thing that was interesting was the lack of kickers and/or edge lights on Judi Dench. It could have been for the sake of her thinning hair. Come to think of it, I think I only noticed them on Cate Blanchett at all.

I need to be more watchful.
It's a decent movie, too. They try to make it into more than it is with the idea that Judi Dench is somehow causing all the problems in Cate's life. I liked that the second act actually begins within a flashback. Which in fact may not have been as they've been toying with time in the movie. Tell me what you think.

My wife love's ATK (America's Test Kitchen) and I have to say that I think it's really well done television as well.  I really appreciate how they focus on the cooking and the things that work in a straightforward approach.  It's the anti-Rachel Ray.  I have nothing good to say about her. So, let's look at ATK.

ATK has a new High-Def look. Looks like all the attention they've been getting over the last year or so has paid off in an investment in the look. It's obvious that they've got new cameras, maybe new lights and some added technical personnel. Unfortunately, the show is suffering because of it.  At least for now.

From the over-blue windows in the background to the moving cameras up front, the added production values have become the cart leading this well-bred horse. Of the changes that I found distracting, the most troublesome was the movement of the foreground wide camera. In a cooking show, there's always at least three cameras, one dead-center and one each on the left and right. The larger the budget, the more cameras. I think ATK may have as many as six cameras going in their recipe section. The problem with the wide-angle shot that's dead center is the dolly movement. First, dolly movement dead on in a wide shot is for drama and drama only. I kept thinking that they were going to kill each other after they made the low fat cheesecake.  Secondly, in the edit, at least once, they kept the dolly move through a direction change, meaning the camera is moving in one direction, it comes to a stop and then starts in another direction. So, not only is the wide shot moving in an incongruously dramatic fashion, they're not cutting on the stop, making it not only strange but poorly done as well.

Other problems with the camera? Yup. All those cameras going, and they can't even get the ingredient close-ups that they need to finish the show. So, they end up using a cropped close-up for a shot of an ingredient that's grainy and put into slo-mo for the shot timing and again, it's an incongruously dramatic, stylized shot.

I'm thinking that these guys will learn to work with these cameras, but the lighting still doesn't have any excuses. Under-lighting is pretty much the gravest sin there is in non-dramatic television. There's no reason nor place for it. That you're underlighting people who aren't moving more than a foot or two during the entire segment while working in a studio environment is inexcusable on a level that's nearly inexplicable. If you're shooting in HD,  you must have a monitor (or six) on set. These monitors are calibrated. The Chief Lighting Technician has every opportunity to look at these monitors to check exposure. You see that your talent is underlit, you adjust accordingly. That this show is going into this new season with all this added equipment and making these amateurish mistakes really makes me wonder about how these guys get and then keep their jobs. I know plenty of young shooters and gaffers who know how to adequately light a production in HD if these film guys can't figure it out.

I always think I'm not going to call people out for doing a bad job. That I'll just point it out and that will be that. But, I'm always surprised when I see bad work when there's really no excuse. I think whoever lit and shot the first episode of America's Test Kitchen for this season, should immediately be fired and replaced by people who know what the hell they're doing.