RJ Gagnon discusses what it is like to be an International student from New York City, studying at York St John University:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/z7VnLdepydI[/youtube]
RJ Gagnon from New York City agreed to be interviewed about being an international student in York so we booked out a De Grey Interview room for Tuesday 28th February.
Unfortunately after a successful interview was filmed, we realised the sound had not recorded which set us back some time as we had to rebook the equipment out and rearrange with RJ for Monday 27th March. We had learned to check all systems are working by doing quality sound and filming checks before we started.
We set up 3 point lighting with a warm toned filter and back light.
When lighting RJ’s face, we tried to follow the advice,
“The shape of the face is fully formed when careful placement of the primary light source is directed toward the subject. In doing so, we create what we call a key light.” (Walsh, Michael J, 2016)
Our main focus was the placement of the key lights as Michael J Walsh stated,
“The key light is the most important light in a three-point lighting scenario. Without it, our subject would not have adequate illumination to establish basic shape, volume, color or texture of skin and clothes. Placement of the key light can have demonstrative effects on the narrowness or fullness of our appearance.” (2016)
We used rule of thirds on camera with RJ’s profile positioned to the right with a space on the left to demonstrate basic concepts of video production and ensure the film is compositionally balanced.
Health and safety precautions were taken putting up the heavy lights and tripod; we communicated with each other before each step, especially electrical aspects of the setup (such as plugging things in) to ensure we were each doing it correctly with each other’s approval. Before switching lights on we shouted to the other members in the room that the lights were about to be switched to avoid dazzling anyone.
Also all interaction with the lights once they were on was with the aid of safety gloves to avoid skin burns.
Cables from the lights took up a lot of space as the room we had for the official shoot was in a medical room so space was more limited. There was some medical equipment in there which was an environment risk as we were unaware of what it did and it may have been dangerous so we avoided it completely. We looped the cables and used tape to minimise tripping hazards. The room had a skylight which altered the lighting to be more cold so we added a warmer diffuser filter until we were satisfied it was warm enough. I would have investigated the lighting of the room in advance to have been able to change rooms as it was too cool.
The interview covered everything we intended to however it came to 7 minutes long and the brief required it to be 60 seconds exactly including opening and closing graphics.
Chopping down the footage without making it jump or lose coherence in his answers was challenging.
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