Lighting Cinematic Introductions | 3 Creative Techniques

What's going on guys? Welcome to 4 Minute Film School. I'm Ted with The A-Team. Today I'm here with Josh Park. Josh Park is an amazing DP that has shot tons of music videos, commercials, films. Today we're going to go over how to shoot amazing cinematic intros. Let's do it! If you like this episode, make sure you subscribe to The Aperture channel. Hit that notification bell. But without much further ado, Josh, tell us about that first lighting setup. First lighting setup, we wanted to do a scene where he comes out from darkness and into just a pool of lights. We had a 120d with the light dome on and then we put the double diffusion on so that we get the softest lighting. It was more like feeling into the front of the face. We had another light setup up top which was with the 120d with a mini dome and then we snooted it with the Adobe team and then created basically a skirt. Skirting the Adobe essentially what does is instead of spreading the lights so that it goes everywhere, it just like concentrates the lights so that it just goes in the one direction. Gives you a little bit of that spotlight look. Yes. Right on. This light was 120d with the green gel on. We took off the front soft diffusion that way we have a harsh light just coming in. That light would act as a kicker once the talent kind of steps from the back of the wall all the way to the front. We can just see the hint. Green worked kind of in a good combination with the kicker light that we had. For our next light, we put mini 20 with the CTO gel and then we put it in the corner so that when the talent is leaning all the way against the wall, we still don't see him. All the payoff is when he walks right into his like last mark and then he's surrounded by a pool of lights. The extra thing that we added was a fog machine. Once we fogged up the place, all that haze that's moving around the air eventually settles down and just creates a nice solid line. Especially with the mini 20s did definitely a good job at just like shaping the light and then just seeing the strength. Our next lighting setup, I know we totally changed up the color palette. What were we going for here? We placed television on a little desk right there and then we just kept it off the channel so that it just creates a little static. So after we've added that TV, added a little bit of visual interest, what was the first light in the scene? We set up our key lights which was entirely lit by MX. It was so small that we were able to hide it. We had two mini 20s. One was pointing straight to the wall. Something that creates a shadow from the railings of the fences essentially just kind of breaks out the wall a little bit in a more interesting way. The second mini 20 acted as a kicker for the talent. Put it right behind the fence and then we were able to use the fence as a cupolaris. It just kind of like created a little more interesting vibe. This light was 120d and we placed it in the back of the TV with a red gel pointed straight upward. We snooted it with black wrap in the back so that we don't hit the back wall. Kind of gives out a little crimson red vibe. Creates the scene in a very different way. Our final lighting setup, we're thinking of doing something more interesting by like having some people operate the lights at the same time. Our key light was 120d. We put it with the dome again. Double diffusion and creates a very soft lighting on our actor. Next light, we decided to kind of jazz it up a little bit again. So we placed two 120ds with two different colors of gels. So one was blue and one was completely red. Put a fresnel lens on and then we put it in a spot so that it would actually concentrate the light. That would do a little bit of like a searchlight kind of an animation. Kind of a fight night look. Exactly. What happens is that it just adds a little bit of animation to the scene other than the person that's actually there. Catches your eyes at the same time but then again all the focus goes on to our main actor who's in the middle of the screen. Very cool. So the person that you're shooting is worth all of this attention. All this movement. All this craziness. He deserves it. A couple lights that we added were mini 20s. I had two mini 20s rigged up with the cardellini clamps and we had an articulating arm and we were only able to see the light itself like the light bulb itself. We were able to achieve it without running power into it by just plugging some batteries in there. It acts as a kicker for our actor and it just gives out a little nice rim and edges and also at the same time it could act as a something that's visually interesting like for example if your camera lens has an interesting flare then you can definitely use that to your advantage and then flare out the camera. So I noticed that you added some fog to that scene too. Why was that? Added the fog to the scene because it just adds a better atmosphere. Searchlights definitely do a good job at just lighting the actors but we were able to see the streaks which is awesome and just creates this like mysterious very surreal vibe at the same time. So there's the episode on how to cinematically introduce characters with Josh Park. If you like this episode make sure you find Josh Park on Instagram at Josh Tree Park. I'm Ted from The A-Team. Make sure you leave a comment below with your favorite way to visually introduce a character. We're gonna pick the best comment and give out one of our new Amaran MX's which is five times brighter than our M9. Shameless plug out. If you liked this episode make sure you find us on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button. Hit the notification bell. I'm Ted from The A-Team and we'll catch you guys next time. See ya!