Sustainable Cinematography Research - Reflected Light Experiment 1 - Proof of Concept

Introduction

As I approach the end of my second year of research on my part-time PhD, I am beginning to conduct practice-based experiments.

The working title for my PhD is:

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES IN THE ART AND CRAFT OF CINEMATOGRAPHY.

Can ‘New Naturalism’, with its emphasis on natural light, lead to more sustainable and environmentally friendly cinematography practices?

As part of my research, I am looking into the technologies available to aid cinematographers in shooting with natural light or using available light but still shaping light and telling a story through a lens. I am embracing creative limitations to fuel creativity instead of treating the limitations required to be environmentally sustainable on a film set as a hindrance.

In this article, I present the footage from my first experiment as part of my studies. This video is a proof of concept for a more comprehensive experiment. It aims to prove the concept and gain additional funding. s

The experiment

This experiment hypothesises that I can recreate the same 3-point lighting set-up to light a single 10-second portrait, both with a traditional 3-point lighting set-up and again using the Light Bridge Cine Reflectors and a single light source. Although these techniques are used on film sets globally, people need to record the carbon footprint of these techniques. s

This proof of concept shows I can recreate the set-up and raise aesthetic questions. The reflected set-up is more pleasing and has fewer light spills in the scene. To recreate the background exposure, I must add flags and lighting control to the 3-point setup. Equally, more reflectors would be required to expose the background if desired.

The next steps

The next phase of the experiment is to produce this same setup but in the following ways:

Set up 1: 3 point lighting 3x150w Dedo Lights

Set up 2: 3 point lighting 1x150w Dedo Lights & reflectors

Set up 3: 3 point lighting 3x40w LED Dedo Lights

Set up 4: 3 point lighting 1x 40w Dedo Light & Reflectors

Set up 5: 3 Point Lighting sunlight and reflectors only.

The aim is to use the BAFTA albert carbon calculator for all five setups and to showcase all five setups as identical on a false colour reading as possible. Someone has yet to recreate this and measure how much carbon is saved when the same image can be created with less or no artificial light.

Follow-on research can then take the form of the scope three emissions of these techniques, examining the emissions required to make the lights and the reflectors. s

Equipment used

Camera - Arri Alexa Plus 4:3

Lights: Dedolight DLED4T

Reflectors: The LightBridge Cine Reflectors 15: 3 and 4, Cine Reflectors 10: 1 and 3.

Edit - Adobe Premiere Pros

With thanks to Stephen Young, a technician at the College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities at the University of Lincoln.

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