by Aaron Gouchenour
Cinematography has been an art that I have desired to improve since starting my degree in Video Production. So, when my capstone class began this semester, I jumped at the opportunity to be a cinematographer for the narrative portion of this class. I knew that if I chose this route for my Senior Project, it would allow me to recognize what more I could do to improve my cinematography skills. So I met with professors and had a conversation about what course of action to take to express that in the best way. This is where my SWOT analysis comes into play.
As I broke down my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, I saw what courses of action to take for my cinematography.
Firstly, with strengths, I saw when I had the ability to trust in my team, I observed that my team would be the greatest opportunity to give me suggestions on what things to improve on, I also recognized that my passion for researching would play a large role in being able to know how to perform best as a cinematographer, and lastly, I recognize that because I am passionate about films as a whole, I would take time to watch and observe how each scene is done within a film and compare that to my shoots.
With opportunities, obviously, this project would be the best opportunity for me, I would also have the opportunity to observe those around me within my group and gain ins from the choices that they make and the insights that they give, and finally, specifically, cinematography would grow me and my skills with everything surrounding this art. This would apply to lighting, lensing, and composition.
Next, weaknesses that I saw within myself were with lighting, meaning that I did not know how to motivate my lighting, connecting emotion to shots, meaning that I still did not completely understand how to connect composition and lighting to a specific emotion that I wanted to convey, and lastly, I believe that the struggle with understanding the balance between dialog and being able to show people a situation through cinematography.
After pondering over these specific details, I then began to research what specific things I needed to do to improve my cinematography. YouTube and my Cinematography manual became among my best allies. When I told my professor about areas where I was lacking in skills, he suggested that I apply for COMM362. And so, I signed up for that class and studied the process of learning proper lensing and accomplish better lighting. I then took an advanced photography class to also understand composition and creative techniques better.
So as you can see here, we have a combination of composition, lighting, and camera playing a role in this shot. For this scene, I used a 14mm Rokinon lens with a Blackmagic Cinema 6K Pro camera. I set three different lights to give the illusion of lighting that would be typical of the inside of a car, lit by street light and moonlight. Two orange lights give the illusion of the yellow orange street lamps that we’re used to seeing in the night time, and then, behind the subject is meant to mimic moonlight. I then used the 14mm lens to make the space inside the car more open, allowing the actor’s movements to fill the screen.
The best part of this shot was that I positioned the lighting with being able to shoot from many angles in mind. I was successful in that effort. The beautiful thing about motivated lighting is that it is all about making things seem natural. Once you shift your focus from making things look bright and colorful as a student, you learn that things can look colorful, natural, well-lit, and have texture. You want the light to give shape to your subjects.
What I gained from this Senior Project was the ability to recognize a new way to do things. I learned the importance of research. I gained a greater ability to know where to put light when I listened to the words of those who came before me. I learned the importance of tech rehearsals. I really pushed my team to do tech rehearsals with me, and I’m glad I did. Many shots improved because of this effort to do tech rehearsals. Preparation is key if you want something to succeed.
I will take this knowledge and apply it to future jobs. I hope to advertise and do film work one day. This experience I gained is a stepping stone in that direction. I hope to have many more experiences like the one that I had here, moving forward.