Reading & Writing

This week, in preparation for telling a story in mini-documentary format, I read chapters 7 and 9 in Tom Schroeppel’s The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video. Here are my learnings from both chapters:

Chapter 7: Lighting

This chapter covers exterior Lighting, interior lighting, and basic lighting setup. Considering exterior lighting, the most common and powerful source of light is the sun. most people look their best in sunlight when the sun is 45 degrees above the horizon. However, the sun can present many challenges for maintaining controlled lighting due to its constant movement. When sunlight causes strong shadows on your subject, it is best to use a reflector or fill light. 

• A reflector is anything that reflects light including a board covered in foil or silver paint or a white poster board. 
• A fill light is a supplementary light used to lighten shadows. Fill lights are powered by electricity.

Three commonly used lights in interior lighting are focusing quartz lights, broad lights, and softlights. 

• Focusing quartz lights are the most common lights in use. They are versatile, allowing you to control the pattern and intensity of the light, ranging from “spot” to “flood.”
• Broad lights are designed to emit broad, even light. They are non-focusing. Broad lights don’t offer any controls, so the hard light that broad lights emit can be softened by bouncing or using diffusion material.
• “A softlight is a permanent, portable bounce light.”

Most lights come with flaps, called barn doors, which allow you to block off or shape the pattern of light. 

The classic basic lighting setup includes a key light, fill light, and backlight. Sometimes, a fourth light is added, called the background light.

• The key light serves as the main light source.
• The fill light should be set up on the opposite side of the subject from the key light. This light needs to be bright enough to fill in the shadows, “leaving just enough shadows on the subject’s face” to create depth.
• From behind, the backlight trims your subject’s shoulders and head. This light separates your subject from the background.
• Finally, the background light illuminates the background to add depth. 

Lighting is an art in itself, so it’s best to be methodical and go slow. Try one light at a time and see what it does.

Chapter 9: Doing It

Planning and shooting a sequence starts with deciding on what your finished product will be. The next step is to create a shooting plan. Once you have a good understanding of your final sequence and your shooting plan, you can begin to shoot. Try shooting “all the way through in a wide shot, and then just repeating certain sections for medium shots, close-ups and cutaways.” When shooting, slates are great tools for identification to help organize various shots. Additionally, camera logs document specific scenes and descriptions in detail, providing the editor with more organization and structure.

As part of your shooting plan, it often helps to create shooting scripts and storyboards.

• A shooting script is a list of what you’re going to shoot and how you will shoot it.
• “A storyboard is a series of simple drawings… representing the shots you plan to make.” Creating a storyboard will help better visualize what you will shoot. it’s like a “free practice shoot—and it doesn’t take up any film!”

Sometimes, there are advantages to shooting out of sequence. For example, it’s best to prioritize the shots you plan to get and shoot all your wide shots at once instead of moving the camera, lights, subject(s), and other elements back and forth between shots for the sake of the natural order of the sequence. Adjusting the camera and other elements multiple times can easily result in noticeable differences within shots that are intended to appear the same.

In film and video, communication is key. It’s important for everyone, including directors, camerapersons, assistants, and subjects to be on the same page and feel included in production and the overall project. Although there will always be a point person, involving each person in the process maintains the objective and makes the work meaningful for all parties. 

Occasionally, you may find yourself working in uncontrolled situations with unexpected factors to consider. Nevertheless, “you can still shoot great sequences—you just have to hustle… to get them.”

Research to Inform

Well-Produced Video Storytelling

My Brother Jordan

Justin Robinson’s My Brother Jordan is an independent documentary that chronicles his brother Jordan’s life and death and paints the bond of brotherhood between Jordan and Justin.” This documentary was created with “the help of 102 interviews and 300+ home videotapes, equaling 450+ hours of footage.” It depicts the story of Jordan’s life and the impact of his death on his loved ones and community. Justin, a film director by profession, did a phenomenal job creating a compelling storyline and documenting the accounts of the interviewees through tons of photos and home footage. 

As Justin narrates Jordan’s life story alongside other subjects, we hear clear, crisp, well-balanced audio, paired with appropriate b-roll, intentional uses of lighting and framing of subjects, and subtitles and lower thirds. The footage of Justin speaking at the beginning, end, and throughout the documentary serves as a stand-up. As an independent piece, My Brother Jordan came together very nicely. The trailer shares that this documentary took 8 years to complete, and it is evident that Justin was intentional about publishing an inspiring and well-produced film in homage to his brother Jordan.

90-Day Fiancé and Reality TV

Although 90-Day Fiancé is categorized as reality tv, shows like this often incorporate short storytelling sequences in which the featured subjects narrate their lives and backstories, segueing into how their unique relationships began, before jumping back into reality. These sequences display subjects in their homes and natural settings, including clips of them performing their daily practices as they speak about it. Since these sequences serve as introductions, they rely heavily on b-roll including photos and footage that support the narrated backstory. 

True Crime and News Stories

True Crime shows and in-depth news stories including ABC’s 20/20, Dateline NBC, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and more often consist of an appointed news reporter narrating a story. These reportings may include real or dramatized footage or audio to help reenact the story. Furthermore, they often incorporate clips of victims sharing their personal accounts. Nevertheless, these types of storytelling videos often begin and end with narration provided by a specific news reporter, in this case, Diane Sawyer.

Room for Improvement

Personal Documentaries produced by YouTubers

Over the years, I have noticed a trend of YouTubers publishing their own amateur documentaries or video biographies. These films have a varied range considering sound, audio quality, editing, lighting, storyline, etc. In the examples above, Carmen’s documentary trailer contains a storyline that is complicated to follow. This is accompanied by dramatic music, quick editing, unique transitions, and fluctuating soundbites, sound effects, and audio quality. Although the storyline, b-roll, lighting, and framing are somewhat there, the way everything was pieced together creates a feeling of confusion. De’arra’s documentary feels a bit more professional, however, the audio quality and lighting are inconsistent. At times, the narration and b-roll feel drawn out.

Film and Video in Nigeria

Netflix’s Skin explores beauty standards in Nigeria, pressures to conform, and skin bleaching as a practice in African culture. As a Nigerian-American, I have always noticed a stark difference between film and video production in Nigeria and America. Similar to any other country, Nigerian cinema has grown tremendously over the years, however, there’s room for improvement. Although it is not on Netflix, Skin’s official trailer includes various soundbites that sound amateur as well as professionally produced. These soundbites are placed back-to-back, making the difference in the audio quality evident to viewers.

Create

Pre-Production for my Own Story

This week, I started planning to tell my own story in video format. I am focusing on creating a mini-documentary that shares the journey of a young couple, my friends Krystal and Chima, who met in undergrad, started dating in grad school, got engaged on their master’s graduation day, and started planning their wedding for March 2020. 15 days before their wedding, amid a pandemic, a nationwide quarantine and lockdown began. With their wedding quickly approaching, Krystal and Chima were forced to make the biggest decision of their lives. 

Over the weekend, I spend 3.5 hours interviewing Krystal and Chima alongside my production assistant, aka my husband. To guide my interviews, I came up with a list of 80 questions, crafted by myself and sourced from various blog posts. With a lot of footage to work with, I am currently working through the best way to accurately share their story in under 5 minutes.

In my mini-doc, Krystal and Chima will be the source of all narration. I plan to start with a quick backstory into the nature of Krystal and Chima’s relationship, using their solo interviews to recount their story. I will then transition into the wedding that they planned for vs the wedding they had, using footage from their joint interview. For b-roll, I’ll incorporate photos and videos from the periods they refer to, including their proposal, wedding, and selfies/clips taken throughout their relationship. I also plan to return to their home this next week and capture more natural footage of them and relevant elements they may have around the house. 

I am excited about the documentary, yet nervous about the time limit for the final video, as their testimonies were really inspiring and uplifting. Generally, I tend to be (too) thorough in my work, but I’m hoping that focusing on the pandemic’s impact on their wedding day will help dictate how long all other parts of the storyline should be. Here’s some rough/raw footage from their interviews. (Excuse the buzzing in one clip; thank goodness for main and backup audio!):