This photograph of the Statue of St. Peter shows an accurately focused subject in beautiful lighting. The exposure is also very good despite the difficult lighting. The low angle and bright light coming from the to left corner make this statue appear to be a god of sorts.

I think this picture by Rarindra Prakarsa is a wonderful example of lighting. The hazy background light in the top right sets the mood for the picture. It reflects off the water and silhouettes a boat that is on the lower horizontal third line at the point where it meets the far right vertical third line. The plants on the left side are illuminated almost fluorescentally and acts as a balance to the otherwise darker woods on the left half of the picture.

What did I learn from my portrait assignment?

In creating my portrait assignment, I learned that it takes a lot more time to edit a short film than I thought, especially when there were a couple things I had no idea how to do. But my classmates were helpful with a couple things I was confused about. I learned a lot about working with a DP and felt like we had good communication and executed our shots well. The feedback from classmates was enormously helpful because I am always eager to hear or learn something new that I might not know about or might not know how to do well. Some of the short films produced by my peers blew me away. They were so talented and it inspires me to work even harder on my next project and to try to achieve something that visually appealing.

Different Cameras

In working with the different cameras, I reinforced my previous idea that I like shooting with the JVC much better. Last year in Swartz's class, I shot with the HDV and was annoyed at the entire process of shooting on tape and then having to transfer it onto the computers. The media card is so much simpler and faster, so you can get to working on your editing. The zoom and focus however is much worse on the JVC in my opinion. I'd rather have two separate rings to focus and zoom like the HDV as opposed to flipping a switch for one ring on the JVC. The JVC also doesn't fare very well in low light conditions.

Goals for filmmaking

My goals for film making are basically just to work my way up from gripping and gaffing and one day to have my ideas and thoughts portrayed on the screen, no matter how big or small the production. My learning goals for the course are to get better acquainted with cameras that I am not used to using. I also need more experience with post production and editing my actual footage. I hope to take from this class a better understanding of those aspects of the production process.