Lighting People - On Location

Paul Atkins, ASC & Stephen Lighthill, ASC

Lighting People - On Location

Paul Atkins, ASC & Stephen Lighthill, ASC

4.3

3h 53m

4 modules (view curriculum)

$349

$39

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Total Time:

3h 53m

Description

In this 4-hour course, master cinematographers Stephen Lighthill, ASC, and Paul Atkins, ASC, share their tips and tricks for on-location lighting, both indoors and outdoors. This is particularly relevant for documentary filmmakers, who often have to work with what’s available in terms of location. Having worked as DPs in the industry for many decades, Paul and Stephen share a wealth of experience and knowledge with a diverse group of filmmakers, and the MZed audience has an exclusive chance to be part of that workshop.

This course was filmed in Austria as part of the Jackson Wild Summit. You can watch the other course with Stephen and Paul, The Wildlife Cinematography Workshop, for free on MZed as well.

Modules

Indoor Lighting with Paul Atkins, ASC

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1h 10m

In Lesson 1, Paul Atkins, ASC, one of the most renowned wildlife cinematographers in the world, teaches indoor on-location lighting of people to a diverse group of young filmmakers. He talks about camera angles and positioning, eyelines, direction of the light, and achieving naturalistic looking lighting depending on your location. He experiments with the positioning of the key light and how it changes the look of the subject in front of the camera including how shadows fall. Paul talks about big light sources vs. small ones, and shows the effect of reflecting surfaces as well as spill light, and how to control it with black floppies, and so much more. At the end of the session, he answers lots of student questions on lighting and shooting interviews.

Outdoor Lighting with Paul Atkins, ASC

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57m

In Lesson 2, Paul Atkins, ASC, transfers what he taught in Lesson 1 into a very simple and everyday outdoors situation during harsh sunlight. He deals with getting an acceptable image and explains why he recommends always shooting into the sun outdoors. Paul touches on how to adjust for various skin complexions in outdoor lighting, and how to get more contrast even on light skin tones when the sun is out. In conversation with the students, they also discuss what to do if it’s overcast and how to change the setup. The importance of having eyelight is mentioned and explained how to achieve it in any situation. Diffusing sunlight is shown in practice with frames and diffusion. The students ask practical questions from documentary shooting outdoors - how to shoot interviews on a boat, for example. Paul also goes into practical considerations like choosing the right time of day for an interview, the right location, the right clothing for interviewees, and so on. Lighting is also creating shade when needed to create contrast, especially outside, and using reflectors to create a natural looking image without artificial light (or as a fill light).

Indoor Lighting with Stephen Lighthill, ASC

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56m

In his first indoor lighting session of the workshop, master cinematographer and former ASC president Stephen Lighthill, ASC, challenges the students to tell him what their plan is to light the room, and then gives his comments about their suggestions. He talks about the problem of working under existing fluorescent tubes in a room when you are shooting an interview on-location, and how to manage different circumstances - lights you can swap vs. lights you have to live with, and how you can modify their look. Stephen talks about how to tackle different challenges when working with windows - in shot and off shot. They talk about working with multiple cameras in an interview and what compromises that would mean for the lighting setup. They run through various focal lengths and show the different effect that has on the face in front of the camera in combination with the lighting. Towards the end of the lesson, Stephen shows how to light a setup at a bar.

Outdoor Lighting with Stephen Lighthill, ASC

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49m

In his outdoor lesson, Stephen starts by advising the students to look at the direction the sun is moving and plan for that. He then proceeds to talk about the sweet spot of various lenses and how to find it - and what not to do with them. Stephen shares his rule of thumb that you should reflect the key light in order to get a natural looking fill light. He talks about the importance of eye light and shows his favorite positioning of a key light - in this case, a large white bounce board. They then swap to a strong LED light and show how easily a portrait shot will look “lit” outside if not used correctly. Stephen talks about the importance of consistency in lighting, framing and lens selection within one production, and much more.

About the Educator

Paul Atkins, ASC & Stephen Lighthill, ASC

Cinematographers

2 Courses

Paul Atkins and Stephen Lighthill, both ASC members, are distinguished cinematographers recognized for their contributions to documentary and feature filmmaking, with Atkins known for his environmental narratives and Lighthill for his mentorship and influence in the industry.

Reviews

Amazing content. I learned a lot, thank you. -Armando

Luis Orozco

It is a great course with many useful 'real-world' pieces of advice from high-level cinematographers. It is not the kind of knowledge you can easily find for free online.

Gustavo Fonseca

I recommend the course to anyone interested in learning lighting techniques for interviews along with advice on framing. The teachers are very professional and prepared and combine theoretical explanations with practical examples.

Alessandro Iannella

Thanks so much for this course, content from both Paul and Stephen was amazing. Apart form excelent technical description of lightning an interview it was stellar to hear lot of CONTEXT troughout the course - how to simple thing up when in rush, how to comunicate with interviewee and director, etc. This is something which I really appreciate and find most valuable for me personaly especially because I find context missing in lot of contemporary courses. I must unfortunatelly take 1 star of for awful camera capture of whole second half (Stephen lectures) - In first half at least at most key moments (light change, lecturer referencing something in frame) camera op tried to frame the external monitor. But second camera op just gave up and showed the display maybe few times troughout the whole two hours. Maybe let the camera/recorder roll and show the small preview in corner of course screen next time?

David Urbanczyk

The course is very interesting, but it's really badly filmed... It's a shame given the subject.

GILLES MONNAT

This was a good intro/intermediate overview on lighting. I found the most valuable part of this course was the little nuggets of wisdom imparted by the presenters. There is a lot of good advice in here. And I love how both of them said a version of "you do what you can do with what the client/producer wants." So many times I am asked to shoot in a location and direction that just can't be well lit. It is good to hear experienced pros get stuck with the same issue.

Trevor Parker

3.5

The Teacher is good but he speaks kind a slow.

Arjan Oldenkamp

3.5

Very informative into the thought process of lighting people in both indoor and outdoor scenarios. It was good to get the perspective of 2 seasoned veterans. The only gripe I have is that at times it would have been nice to show full screen what the camera was seeing. I don't think they were recording on that camera, but there were a few scenes where that would have been helpful. Instead they were showing the DP talking when we should have been looking at the subject who was being lit. Also, a little extra effort in editing could have been done to show overhead diagrams of the scene with lighting setups, and perhaps listed some of the equipment being used, but not the end of the world.

Shaun Martineau