The final task did not obey to a specific brief and instead gave an opportunity for us to individually express our knowledge of the course and choose our own specific brief to follow. There was only one feature we had to follow for this task, and that was for it to be between 2-3 minutes in length. Due to this module focusing on cinematography and production design, there was a varied amount of knowledge we had gained in these areas of a production making the decision on what to create difficult. I wanted to explore the wide range of lighting we have learnt about during different weeks and how the use of warm and cold lights can affect how a subject/ character can look on screen. As well as warm and cold, I wanted to also link this to colour and how using colours can work during a production.

As I am wanting to show a range of different things throughout my video, I decided to create it within the style of a tutorial, keeping it fun and simple. I had a steady Panasonic A101 camera on a tripod left within the same position and constantly running. In doing this, it gave me a chance to focus more upon the lighting I had chosen to use. I wanted to show the lights that I have used most often during productions as well as a few lights that can be used handheld. I therefore chose to use:

• Hand basher
• Travor
• Dedo
• Ikan
• Arri

These lights have a range of different wattage as well as showing the difference in cool and warm ranging from daylight white to extra warm. Cooler lights are used to enhance blues and flatten reads within the shot. Whereas warmer lights do the opposite and enhances red and oranges and reduces blues to appear almost black. This feature took up the most of my tutorial as I believe it is the biggest aspect that my target audience for the video would want to watch and gain more knowledge on to help during their own future productions. Although a simple aspect to shoot, lighting is a vital part of any production and keeping the feeling light hearted during my tutorial I believe worked well in making it an easy watch.

Due to the fact I was also wanting to experiment with colour gels during this tutorial I used colour theories to explore what colours can do for the camera and what colours can work well together when using more than one. Specific colours can add mood to a shot and express an emotion either towards a character or one they are feeling themselves. I wanted to include some of these colours within my tutorial and these are called visual identity colours.

Red = visceral, bold, courageous and energetic.

Yellow = optimism, clarity, warmth and positivity.

Green = balance, harmony, health and growth.

Blue = trustworthy, strong, dependable and secure.

Shane Hurlbut states “this is a big aspect of being a filmmaker and understanding how colours can affect your audience. Underwhelming colour choices can ultimately lead to a missed opportunity in your final piece.” (2018)

As well as this, I included a small sectioned that linked to complementary colour scheme. This theory explains that two colours on opposite sides of the color wheel make a complimentary pair. Marion Boddy-Evans (2018) stated that this is by far the most commonly used pairing. A common example is orange and blue, or teal. This pairs a warm colour with a cool colour and produces a high contrast and vibrant result. Saturation must be managed but a complimentary pair are often quite naturally pleasing to the eye. I explored the complementary colour pairings of purple and yellow as well as orange and blue. If I had more time during the production of my tutorial, I would of explore this aspect of complementary colours more deeply and included more examples of how they can work.

If creating this tutorial or another tutorial style again I would have an extra person to be my sit in character so that I could focus more thoroughly and professionally on the camera and making sure my character would be within the same section of the frame during each shot, having them sat equally within the thirds on screen. Due to me being sat in frame there were times your eyeline had to move when watching the finished product due to a slight move of my seating and the occasional unwanted camera movement during a shot to try and correct this which looked a little messy. Overall, I believe for my first tutorial, the finished product is easily watchable and informative which was my set purpose for my audience.

Boddy-Evans, M. 2018. What Are Complementary Colors? [Internet] Available from: https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-complementary-colors-2577513[First Accessed December 2018]

Hurlbut, S. 2018. HOW TO USE COLORS IN FILMMAKING. [Internet] Available from: https://www.thehurlblog.com/how-to-use-colors-in-filmmaking/[First Accessed December 2018]