Digital News: Studio Shoot (Lighting)

This afternoon we filmed the studio element for our piece. We have chosen to have Laura as our presenter as this was the most practical decision. We also felt that working with Josh as our reporter proved to be a good decision as he knew what to do and felt confident being in front of the camera. Laura also said that she felt confident talking and it was easy for her to familiarise herself with the script as she was involved in the writing of it. Lighting was a huge element in this shoot. In order to compliment the white background on our website, we decided to use a white background for the studio introductions as well. We spoke to Ferg about the best option for this and he said that using an already white background and lighting this would give a very professional studio appearance without looking too flat. We thought that if we set up a green screen and then made it white using After Effects, it could look very fake and harsh against Laura. We set up the lights - using the new LED lights but felt that this was not strong enough to light both the background and Laura. With the help of Ferg we set up one of the other lights which we used to light the background with a blue tint to reduce the natural yellow tones of the light. This lit the back drop and then we could focus both of the LED lights on Laura. This made such a difference and eliminated a lot of the shadows on the face without looking too exposed.

For our sound, we used a zoom that was being held just under Laura to get the best possible quality. We decided to use the zoom because it had given us the most consistent sound throughout the project, having had some technical issues with the clip mic on the Demelza shoot day. We also used the Tele prompter to write our script onto so that Laura wouldn't have to try and learn it all. This also provided a good eyel-line so that it looked as if Laura was talking to the studio. I think that it was a successful shoot and we managed to get good coverage. However, I would say that I would like to learn more about the lighting equipment for future shoots as it can be so complex.