Lighting Research

In our video we have chosen to film most of the shots outside in the streets, courts and skate parks. With this in mind it means we will probably not need lighting to make sure the artist is seen in the video. Obviously we are hoping for when we are filming, it to be a clear day, however if it does happen to be a gloomy we may have to use lighting to make sure the artist is clearly visible in the picture.
We might choose to shoot in the dark when the artist is walking down the street. If we do so I do not feel we will need to use any lighting tools as the street lamps should be enough light to make sure the artist can be seen lip syncing. The use of street lamps will definitely give a good urban effect, creating realistics shadows and giving a good amber colour.
On the other hand if we do need to use light in our video we have decided on a few techniques to use which we feel will be effective.

The use of background lighting could be put into the video to illuminate the area of the set or location behind the artist. It will show separation between the artist and the background, so therefore we could use it in a fairly dark skate park to show the shadows of the ramps and the artist in the centre of the video.

We could also use fill lighting, sometimes called three-point lighting. It can be used to reduce the contrast of a scene and provide some illumination for the areas of the image that are in shadow. You can choose which of the three lights gives the best effective - for example have a brighter light in one corner compared to the other. The idea of three-point lighting is shown to the left. You can see that the camera can be placed in different positions to create the perfect mood for the video. Obviously you have to be careful to make sure the lights are visible in the shots you produce.

There is also a choice of using low key and high key lighting in our video when altering the standard three point lighting technique. Low key lighting will mean there is only the key light really making an impact. This will give a dark, shadowy effect to the artist - with just the artist being the centre of the picture and will perhaps create a lonely and isolated atmosphere. This is obviously unlikely to be used in our video, however we do have the option of using this approach to lighting.
High key lighting has become fairly old fashioned since the introduction of standard three point lighting, however knowing how it is produced could help us in our production. High key lighting aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene/location. It gives the scene a softer feel and will not allow for shadows if done correctly. The disadvantage of this type of lighting is it will fail to add much drama or effect if it is constantly used throughout a video.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematic_techniques