LUMU 101: CINE/VIDEO
EMOTION THROUGH APERTURE
If you ever watched a great movie, I have to break it to you - You’ve been exploited. Your eyes were maneuvered under the helm of the director. He kidnapped your sense of direction, steered their every move, put you in a trance by transporting you into his own cinematic world. Thats what a good movie is supposed to do. But It’s not just a great screenplay, and exceptional acting that makes it good. Every skilled filmmaker is aware of the capabilities cinematic lighting can have on their audience. Great cinematographers have the spellbinding power of moving the viewers eyes anywhere the director commands. With intentionally designed light, they convey a visual mood, an atmosphere, psychology of their characters and create a meaning for the viewer.
Cinematic lighting is defined by three important components
DIRECTION
The direction of the lights can affect the viewers perception of the subject on screen. It can emphasise character traits or motivations, and give enviroments an atmosphere. While direct, harsh light withouth shadows can create a nonthreating feeling of ease, moving your light source to the side, creates drama and depth, literally and metaphorically.
CONTRAST
In contrast or quality of light, lack of it can be just as important as the light itself. Soft light with soft shadows can be associated with happiness, relaxation, joy. On the other hand, hard light can quickly add tension, communicate fear, anxiety or stress. You can easily achieve desired light harshness by measuring it with Lumu’s Illuminance feature.
COLOR
Color can stir up your emotions remarkably, but you’ll probably not even notice it. This subconscious detail can be your most powerful tool. Colder colors such as blue give us a grimmer, depressing mood and warmer colors such as yellow can convey a peace of mind, joy, euphoria. You could psychologically dissect any dominant color on screen and match it with the directors intentions. Try it yourself. You can instantly measure the color of your scene with Lumu’s Color Temperature and Chromaticity features.
Here are three simple lighting setups to help you get started:
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH LUMU CINE/VIDEO FEATURE?
When you’re on set you want to dedicate the most time to your story subject. That’s why here at Lumu, our goal is to make the technical side of your storytelling as easy as possible. With Cine/Video you can match your artistic vision with the footage you produce. With FPS, shutter speed, and ISO you can put in your desired parameters parallel to your lighting setup and Lumu will calculate your aperture - all for perfectly correct footage, in sync with your creative vision. In addition, it can also take ND filters into consideration and calculate f for the perfect moody scene.
HOW TO MEASURE APERTURE WITH CINE/VIDEO ON LUMU:
If you’re used to different measuring units you can change them, by going into settings in the upper left corner. Adjust your preferred parameter steps, unit or display additional information if needed.
Job well done.
Here at Lumu, our goal is to reduce that gap between your creative vision and a wholesome final product. With that in mind, we’re launching a new segment of the Lumu experience on all of our social platforms - Lumu 101. Each week we’ll provide beginners and professionals with tips on how to improve and become the master of your Lumu app, and take your skills to the next level. Until next time,
