In order to incorporate the miniature filament bulbs into the set I went online to the site of UK based electronic part wholesaler, CPC. The site has an incredible range of components on offer and some of the parts I needed took a little while to find because they were quite abstract. In the end I ordered two sets of two 3mm filament bulbs with a 12V supply voltage ( I ordered four because they only came in sets of two and I needed three). I also ordered an adjustable 12V power supply which allowed me to alter the voltage at regular intervals from 3V all the way up to 12V. Which coincided with the bulbs voltage and thus allowed me to change the brightness or intensity of the them from a bright white to a dim orange glow. I thought this would be an easy way to be able to change the mood based on the interior lighting all by switching between different voltages. Finally I ordered some terminal strips, meaning I could connect the bulbs to the power supply using wires and ultimately create my own circuit depending on how I laid them around the set. After they arrived I went to Maplin in Leeds, another supplier of electronics and got 3 meters of wire cut (1 meter per bulb) so I could accommodate for the distance between each bulb around the set.
Once everything was wired up I did a small test to see if it would work. For the first time this project everything worked as I wanted it to with the first attempt and I was quite pleased with the ambient glow created with each bulb. Furthermore the distance between the three bulbs was enough so that the enclosed environment of the set was lit in all the necessary places, so I was quite pleased with the choice of positioning.
In some of the photographs below I have demonstrated what the lights looked like through a macro lens. The macro lens I used was a fixed 50mm lens and as you can see in the photographs when the lights were out of focus they had an extremely realistic glowing quality to them. In reality because of the size of the bulbs, being only 3mm long the light was quite directional and linear. However with some playing around the the focus and depth of field this was easily tackled and overall created a very nice effect that I was happy to move forward with.
I played around continuously with the lighting I had at my disposal. It was quite overwhelming in a sense due to the huge range of lighting effects and different moods and temperatures that could be created even with such a simple lighting set up. Furthermore I was given the opportunity to use an adjustable spotlight as an exterior light in combination with the lighting I already had. This made it much easier to create clear shots and create shadows at different angles, which looked great in some of the test footage I did because they were much bigger in the final shots compared with when you're looking into the set. When it came to arranging the lighting and planning some of the more complex shots that I wanted to try and incorporate in to the title sequence, I looked at trying to use the set and its design to its full potential. For example, shining a directed light through the window created a nice effect shown below, highlighting some of the edges of the windows design. Equally, the warmth of the light also gave off a different mood. For example, a very white almost fluorescent light would give the effect of moonlight passing through the window, whereas a warmer glow would look as if the sun is setting. I also tried to move the light around as the shot was being filmed, as if an object was moving past the window and blocking some of the light. These are all things that I attempted in order to try interesting ways to use the set. Sometimes I found that they worked quite well, however sometimes, simpler more realistic lighting was more attractive and worked best at producing the kind of mood and feel that I wanted for the footage.
Also shown below is a photographs I took of a camera mounted on a tripod. I borrows the tripod from the photography department as it was a lot more versatile than the one I owned. It allowed me to alter the direction of the camera on both the x and y axis that it was mounted on. Meaning I had full control of the kind of shots I wanted to set the camera up to record. I knew I wanted to place the camera above the set so I could film a still scene from above, and by extending the tripod and tilting the camera downwards in the y axis I was able to position the camera effectively. Furthermore, some of the most important shots I wanted to produce involved the tracking shot technique. Again, I borrows a camera slider from the AV department and was given a quick 10 minute induction into how to use it. There were two types of camera sliders available, an 80 cm long slider and a 120 cm long slider. The gap I was shooting through wasn't that wide, so I decided to go for the more compact 80 cm version. This was more than a long enough length for me to produce the tracking shots I wanted. The slider itself and the mount proved to be quite versatile, and I could rotate the cameras position forward or backward on a fixed point to shoot at a downward or upwards angle if I felt I didn't want the cameras direction to be directly horizontal. Whilst using the slider to test some footage and how smooth the movement was, I discovered that the looser the camera mount on the camera slider the easier it was to create smooth movement when moving the a long the length of the slider, it was also important to use a constant amount of force on the camera when pushing it so that the movement remained the same speed, or as near to the same speed as possible. I wanted smooth, even shots so several attempts were made until I got it right. Finally, I tried to utilise the two lenses I had by changing the distances and types of shots to test. This meant I had to regularly change the lenses but it wasn't too much of a problem. The longer distance shots were taken with an 18 - 55mm lens, whereas the close up shots detailing certain areas of the set were predominately taken with a 50mm macro lens.
Producing the lighting for the set was one of my favourite aspects to the project as it allowed me to experiment with something I've never really had the opportunity to before. Furthermore, it was quite a successful attempt and came out quite well in some of the test and final shots I produced. From this I definitely feel more comfortable about lighting sets and environments in general.
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