Highs - Short Film (Drama)

Special Mention, Best Cinematography.

Mari Yamamura DoP and I met years ago, at a Guild Of Television Camera Professionals (GTC) workshop. Over the years we bumped into each other at several more training days and other events. We worked in different sectors. Mari was then a 1st AC making the move to DoP. I was a DoP working mostly in the factual sector, and we just hit it off.

Winter is often quiet in our industry, and a couple of years ago, Mari and I were chatting on Facebook, commiserating with each other about our enforced period of rest, when I said I was hoping to work on more drama-type productions. Mari knew I had a lot of lights and in-depth lighting skills, so she asked me if I would consider being her Gaffer on a short film she was soon to DoP. I readily agreed.

Over the next few days, she sent me photographs of every scene and her thoughts. We had a Zoom meeting. All good.

We would have 2 nights over one weekend with a full crew and a small cast. Filming would take place on the streets of London, in and outside a cafe, and at a large suburban house also in the capital.

One small setup would involve our hero chaining his bike to a lampost. So Mari asked if I could mount a light high on the lampost to shine down vertically onto the action.

Preparation

I had just invested in an Aputure LS 60X bicolour, battery powerable and remotely controllable, spotlight. It is a superb and quite small but fairly powerful floodable spotlight which would be ideal. In fact, I was so impressed that I decided I would like to have another LS 60X and immediately ordered a 2nd unit.

I then set about designing and making a mounting bracket. As soon as the sun set, I tested it to ensure the bracket worked perfectly and to see how closely my LS 60X could match the colour of the street lighting. I measured the colour of the street lighting outside my house. It was almost exactly 4000 Kelvin, so I set my LS 60X accordingly and took some pictures with my DSLR set to 4000K. Close enough, albeit the street lights do have a green bias but nonetheless, I could get a perfectly acceptable match.

The day came and I drove to London with the required lighting kit.

Location 1

Our first location was a family home where we had 3 setups to shoot.

1a, Hall: our hero arrives home, carrying a bicycle wheel.. He looks apprehensive and unhappy.

I have an LS 60X with softbox, high outside the front door. The light shines through the stain-glass window. A Fomex FL 1200 with softbox positioned near the kitchen door is the key light, as if the kitchen door is open allowing light to shine into the hall.

1b, Kitchen: the table is a mess, so he clears it.

I have a Fomex FL 1200 with softbox and a skirt, on a boom over the table. My LS 600D Pro, fitted with its Hyper-Reflector, is in the back garden to provide a moonlight effect on the far doorway.

A couple of Aputure F7 bicolour panel lights are fixed beneath the far wall cupboards to create depth, texture, and interest.

1c, Patio: a touching scene on the patio. Our hero and his wife talk.

I have my LS 600D Pro, 20 feet/6 meters above with a 1-meter softbox, power set to 1%, creating a moonlight ambience, with a couple of Totas in Chimearas, out of sight, in the kitchen, producing a colour and light-level contrast, and a helpful kicker effect.

Location 2

2a, Bridge: our hero cycles into view, over the arch of the bridge and towards the camera.

A row of streetlights are our main lights, supported by a couple of LS 60X battery-powered lamps, one at each end of the bridge. The light at the far end of the bridge is spotted, at ground level and shining towards the camera. The other is high on a stand in the foreground, left of camera. It has a softbox.

As our hero is about to exit the bridge he sees a NO CYCLING sign. He is such a model citizen he dismounts and walks on, pushing his bike.

Location 3

3a, Street corner near a cafe: He cycles into scene, dismounts and chains his bike to a lampost.

For the closeup, I secured my LS 60X above, flooded and colour-matched. It works perfectly, imperceptively adding a hint of accent to the action.

He nervously walks towards the entrance of the nearby cafe.

The interior lights are on and I have an LS 60X inside the cafe with a softbox, aimed through the windows to link him with his destination, while he hesitates to enter. Another LS 60X is behind him, camera right, on a tall stand, to imply streetlighting.

3b Cafe interior: I have a Fomex FL 1200 with softbox and flag, over the counter left of the cafe owner, a black flag for negative fill on the dark side. I have put black-wrap around the down lighters to control the spill and clamped Dedolights high on the shelves creating accent lighting behind the cafe owner.

Our hero finds being an unknown customer, trying to buy illegal drugs, is stressful and unexpectedly expensive.

After the singles, a two-shot, with the camera on the counter, looking along it towards the window. Our actors, camera left and right. Time to relight. The FL 1200 would have been in shot. So I mount it on a boom and raise it above the frame to light the faces partly by reflecting light off the counter, so they closely match the single shots. The building across the street needs lighting, too. Once again, the FS 600D Pro provides an exterior ambience. Again, I use the 1-meter softbox and just 3% power, to create a dark urban night look with a slightly sinister edge. Of course, I needed to balance the exterior to the interior exposure, albeit very much on the dark side, and I'm suggesting a scary alien world out there. I power my FS 600D Pro with batteries to avoid mains power cables and extension leads on the pavement and we are good to go.

Of course, when our hero eventually leaves the cafe, with his illegal drugs, his bike has been stolen. Only the front wheel remains, still chained to the lampost.

And by the Magic of Film and Television

You will of course realise, we shot the scenes out of sequence. Shoots two and three were the start of our story, and the end was filmed during shoot one.

Everyone did a great job. There was a wonderful positive vibe amongst all cast and crew. Making Highs was a delightful experience and I loved working with my brilliant friend Mari Yamamura DoP, for the first time. Let's hope we do it again soon.

Awards

Mari Yamamura's contribution to Highs earned her an extremely well-deserved:-

Special Mention Best Cinematography 2023 - Unrestricted View Film Festival

Best International Short 2023 - Catalyst International Film Festival

Young Audience Award 2023 - Catalyst International Film Festival