Stuck in the middle with.....
If you are a creative artist, you may be finding yourself in the same position I regularly find myself in. The best way I can describe my current situation is that I am stuck between two areas of work, one that pays me well and that I have experience in, and one that I am aspiring to, that seems miles away from acheiving. at present
As you will hopefully be aware - my name is Jonny Noakes and I work as a freelance filmmaker, videographer, editor, sound recordist, etc etc. When you start out working in video production, and you are freelance, (in my experience) you often end up working alone, and building up skills and kit in lots of areas so that people will hire you - a one man band that delivers a whole lot, it makes you commercially viable, and it’s a steep learning curve.
I actually love that I can go to a shoot and deliver a whole package, I have invested a hell of a lot of time and money into learning about and delivering on key areas including cinematography, sound recording, and editing. I am proud of the work I do and I never skimp on any aspect of filmmaking. That being said, I know I want to be exceptional at cinematography above all else. I’ll watch my favourite films and think - how did the likes of David Fincher or Roger Deakins light that, what lenses were used at what angles, what colour temperature and diffusion is being implemented on the light setup and how complicated is it.
I am really lucky in that my job is one I have chosen, I get to practice elements of cinematography in almost every shoot I do, I believe that whatever the brief - the final product should look at home on a cinema screen. It also means that in my free time, I can plan more creative personal pieces. At present I am writing a screenplay for a very short documentary drama style short. I have only just started and I already know that it will be a real challenge, mainly in terms of sourcing great actors and locations. Stay tuned to see how I get on, it’s something that could easily slip off my radar and get forgotten about, but I am really determined to not let that happen.
Below are a few examples of scenes I have shot that I like, as I am aware that a blog post has got to have a bit of visual stimulation!
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A window light with thin white curtains worked as a huge softbox to light this scene. There was an existing natural light source that was already visually pleasing and worked for the scene, and only a few shots were needed in a short space of time, so I didn’t worry about additional lighting.
This lighting setup required a bit more work. All the lights were turned off in the large room, except for the practicals seen in the background, and her face was lit with an aputure 120d with two layers of diffusion. The idea was to create a light that was both cinematic/dramatic but also reasonably flattering to the skin.
I like the soft exposure on her face and the back light on her hair (although if I am honest, it’s too harsh) which was created with a beauty ring light.
As always, thanks for looking x