OUAN505 - Applied Animation - Research/Pre-Production: Set Design & Lighting (Part Two)

OUAN505 - Set Design & Lighting:

For the lighting department, whilst in our woodwork induction that I mentioned in the previous post, our tutor at the time (Roger Berry) was telling us about how he worked in electronics a while back and how it would be more cost-efficient of us to create our own customised lighting for our sets. He mentioned that by buying short strips of LEDs and soldering them to battery packs, it would be a better way of tailoring the lighting to our needs.

So, with this in mind I sought out to buy a metre's worth of white LEDs for the set I was so keen to make. Just under £2.00 was a brilliant bargain and at 12 volts input, I sought out some batteries for my lighting. I first wanted to consult Roger to see how exactly this work and what would be the best way forward. I didn't want to go into this blindly as although I had done plenty of this sort of thing at high school, I was no expert and thought it wise to have a chat with him first.

As lovely and theatre-like the white lights were, I was intent on saving up for a strip of the colour-changing LEDs so that I could stick to the "disco" vibe I had in mind. With alternating colours and even a possible mini disco ball featured in the animation, I could achieve a very authentic looking set. 

The coloured lights look much better, however price-wise they weren't that pocket friendly for the budget I had set... In order to add a little more funk and realism, I bought a small disco ball bauble to hang from the top of the set so that it would give some light reflection. After ringing my godparents in a flustered panic about the price of colour-changing LEDs (they have their entire kitchen decked out in them!), they suggested going for a short strip (1M) of them using a 12v DC current so that they could run on batteries (better for set maneuverability) and would a little bit more cost-friendly. I will look into this and ask Roger for some advice. 

From what I learned from the lighting induction last week, it would be wise to follow the three point lighting setup to achieve the best possible results. However, considering the fact that I will be using strips of LEDs running around the top of the set (slightly higher than my models' head height), I think it will only be necessary to have a fill light and possible a key light (I will experiment with lighting once my set has been created and tested).