nofilmschool: 'Two Interview Lighting Tutorials That'll Kick Your Footage Up a Notch'

The great "nofilmschool" blog turned us on to these two awesome lighting tutorials. If you're new to lighting, or just looking for some pointers to sharpen your skills and fill out your aesthetic toolset, these are both worth a watch. From the nofilmschool article:

The first tutorial comes courtesy of stillmotion, the folks behind SMAPP (which looks like a pretty useful filmmaking app for folks learning the ropes).  Not only does this tutorial do a great job of illustrating a general lighting set-up, it does so while jam-packing key terms and concepts.  It’s a solid introduction to lighting in general — from key lights to fill lights, to lighting ratios, you get a lot of great information:

The second tutorial is from Eve Hazelton and the folks at Realm Pictures (who are developing what looks like a really cool underwater fantasy project).  What I like about this tutorial in particular is how it shows the many ways you can spice up the image with well placed lights in the background, and that 3-point lighting isn’t some hard and fast rule — you light to your tastes:

Evan Richards: 'Reverse Key Lighting'

Freelance director / cinematographer Evan Richards posted a well-written article about a lighting technique used by many Hollywood DP's, something he calls "Reverse Key Lighting."

The idea is that the key light is placed behind the subject rather than in front (the way you would probably see it set up in most cinematography books).

Read the rest of the article, which includes images from numerous blockbusters such as True Grit (above), here: http://evanerichards.com/2012/2463

Greenscreen Lighting Techniques Tutorial from Eve Hazelton

Here's an excellent video tutorial on properly lighting, shooting, and keying a greenscreen shot, courtesy of Eve Hazelton and Philip Bloom.

You can check out Eve's previous lighting tutorials here and here.