Untitled Science Fiction Film: Scene 5

I shot this short film scene with my friend Sam Higgins to complete an assignment for Cinematography 309 at Brooks Institute. We were a crew of two. I was inspired by the opening scene of Blade Runner, where Leon shoots the guy for asking about his mother. I wanted a high contrast film noir look.



If I had to do it again, I would have added a fill light with a 1/2 CTB to bring out some more detail in the shadow while maintaining the illusion of darkness. Blue light is a common technique for shooting dark scenes with video.

Shooting this scene with only two people was a big challenge. I tended to the camera while Sam attempted to both direct and hold the boom. If we only had one more crew member, we could have focused more on the lighting.

Sam and I had a look in mind and I think we accomplished it. Looks great! But It would have been best if we could have justified the look a bit. Such as, why is there so much smoke? Why is it so dark? Is this scene Noir for the sake of Noir?

All things considered, I am proud of the outcome. I can't wait until next session.

After school, I plan to return to Seattle. I would like to get employment working on corporate videos and commercials but also to applying my skills as a Seattle film maker towards independent projects.

Smith & Winston

This is my first student film for Brooks Institute. I am mostly happy with how it turned out. I was not the director. There are some small things I would do differently but before I get into that, let me point out that not every good idea was my own and not every bad idea was presented by someone else. This was a group effort and every decision was made as a group.

Now, first you must watch the film.



I annoyed by two background lights. The white light on the piano is too intense and should be filtered down with some scrims and maybe extra diffusion. We couldn't really fit a flag back there without risk of the c-stand being in every shot so mostly I'm happy the c-stand we did put back there wasn't more obvious. Also, the blue light on the bricks is both too intense and too blue. Lastly, our professor pointed out that the light should have been lifted up to cast down more like a street lamp.

I wish we had spent more time on the reverse shot of Winston, the man in blue. This is most my fault because art department was my duty. I love how Winston is shot for the 'toast' shot but I wish there was something in the background such as a poster or something.

I don't know why we have a jump cut at the end there. Maybe we didn't get enough coverage. Maybe the shot of Brittany rushing over with the bar mop didn't look very good. Maybe we needed a close up of Winston walking out the back door. Whatever happened, we needed another shot.

Never dress a girl in black if you want to see her. Someone warned me against doing this and I did not follow their advice because I am a dumb dumb dumb boy. To be honest, I did not have a lot of options. I wish I had a faded black because I could have gotten away with that. The red dress may have worked. I don't know.


Over all, I'm pretty happy with my group and I think we will work together again on future assignments.