From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Bouncing light onto the background

Bouncing light onto the background

- Just changing the lighting made this shot much better. But much better is not the same thing as good enough. So what else are we missing? The background here isn't great, it's just flat brown. But as the director of photography, sometimes the set dressing is just out of your control. So let's imagine here that we can't add or take away anything from the set. What else can we do? It's important to remember the inherent beauty of light. Even against a plain background, light can create gorgeous textures and shapes. So I wanted to create just a pocket of light against the background. Like we discussed earlier, I love the staggering of light and dark areas. The bulk of their heads are dark, then their edges are outlined by our key light. And those edges are contrasted against the dark background. So I thought it might be interesting to have a pocket of light in the center of the image. This creates a focal point, focusing the attention of the viewer on the center of the image where our…

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