Raw Shorts: Painting with Light, Texture, Colour & Tone

As part of my research trip for BFI Sci-Fi late night screenings we are producing, I went to Raw Shorts: Painting with Light, Texture, Colour & Tone workshop organised by BFI Southbank. It kicked off with a panel discussion with Marc Price & Prano Bond-Bailey independent films director and Alex Neville a cinematographer. During the discussion speakers explained how they use colour and light as important elements of creating atmosphere and bold visual themes. Marc Price is known for producing films on a VERY low budget so it was really encouraging to hear him talk about overcoming financial obstacles.

Below you will find some a few links to the clips we watched during the discussion. Prano Bond-Bailey’s The Trip & Man vs Sand trailers are great examples of using colour to set the mood. Tribute to Roger Deakins: Shadows in the valley is a stunning compilation of some of his beautifully photographed movie scenes, well worth 5 minutes of your time.

After the discussion we attended a practical workshop with Marc Price, who showed us how to build a space ship from scraps found at a junk yard and how to animate it to add dynamics to scenes using light.

Although the workshop was mainly aimed at film-makers, most concepts could easily be adopted to events, which is why I was able to draw a lot inspirations for our supporting events. The BFI building itself has quite a sci-fi vibe to it and even their toilets have some amazing lighting ! Both the panel discussion and the practical workshop were a great source of inspiration for creating bold visual themes for our audience and hopefully enhancing the cinematic experience.

The amazing BFI Southbank toilet lighting