Intro
How do you find the light when it’s gone?
You push through the darkness until it reveals itself again.
Now, I don’t want to be that guy, but in order to get the most out of this blog post, you’re going to need to watch my short film. Usually, I feel unbelievably cringe saying stuff like that, but it’s only 0:38. You’ll honestly probably get the gist if you just watch the first 0:15.
Anyways, I’ve been ITCHING to use my new Sony FX3 that I bought for my video production and commercial media business in Little Rock, AR. I’ve got some gigs coming up and I’m hoping to use it on set. So I decided to put my chops to the test and develop a little short film with my girlfriend, Brittany.
This is what I spent my rainy 4th of July doing.
In this blog post, I’ll be discussing the setup I used for this video, my intentions behind the production, and how I used sound design to elevate the video.
Key Takeaways
The Setup: This project was a practice shoot with the Sony FX3
My Intentions: I used creative lighting and visual metaphor to convey a sense of loss
Utilizing Sound Design: I was able to leverage sound design to keep the energy and pacing of the piece up
The Setup
This project was specifically designed to get more familiar with my Sony FX3, so obviously I used that to film it. I paired it with a 50mm Sony prime lens, which gave me a crazy depth of field. Using a low aperture and ISO, I was able to create a nice, moody scene.
Then, using the Godox RGB Mini Creative Light and Raubay RGB LED Video Light, I was able to further dial in this vibe.
I really wanted to be conscious of the way this was shot, because my intention was for this piece to be very emotional. Plus, I wanted to practice some visual storytelling concepts for future brand campaigns.
My Intentions
The first shot I had in mind for this was the actual first shot of the film. I call this “writing chronologically.”
I had this picture in my head of the same scene, but flipped somehow. In the first version, the light was happy as two people laid on the bed together. Then, it flips and the light changes, revealing a single person, alone.
I thought that it could potentially represent the grief you feel when someone is gone. You’ll catch yourself doing normal tasks, remembering when you did them together. Scrolling, making coffee, even lounging on the couch can bring back memories of the loss.
That’s why I decided to light the scene with the couple together with orange and the scene with the woman alone with blue. I hoped that it would really drive home the emotional message. Some people might call it “heavy handed” or “too blatant” or even “overused and outdated.”
They have never worked with the general public.
Anyways, I shot the three “flipped scenes” and put them on the timeline in Adobe Premiere Pro. Watching them back-to-back just felt a little bit wrong. I was definitely feeling the loss, but there was no emotional payoff at the end. Some people might say “there’s no emotional pay off in real life.”
And to them, I’ll say “hey, can you stop interrupting? This is the second time you’ve done it this blog.”
I, obviously, use art as a way to escape reality, so I decided to add in some emotional payoff.
I decided to reeeeeeeally push the Sony FX3 and shoot in a completely dark hallway. I panned over Brittany with the Godox Mini, trying out several different colors and expressions. I was partially inspired by this scene in Euphoria season two, which I would never admit to actually watching.
I swear, I was just in the room while my girlfriend was rewatching it.
This sequence was exactly what the film needed. I swapped back and forth between it and the first scenes we shot, representing the passage of time in the woman’s life. Once I got everything laid out in the edit, I knew we were about 75% of the way done. The only thing standing between me and the finish line was sound design.
Utilizing Sound Design
I used my sound design library curated from Storyblocks, plus a couple of new effects downloaded specifically for this project.
I guess I should tell you my dirty secret. I didn’t record any audio for this project. Everything that you heard during the short film was foley. So, I grabbed my folders full of whooshes, subs, clinks, and bangs, and got to work.
The end result was a very aurally satisfying sequence. I used sound design to both support and carry the short film, keeping the energy high for social media. I, personally, think that this stage is super important during post-production, but there really is nothing like spending two hours on the sound for a video that someone will see with their phone muted.
Sometimes, we just have to do things for ourselves.
The Wrap Up
I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on the FX3 now that we worked on this. It gave me a great reason to get behind the camera and create something!
I guess I get some creative fulfillment out of it as well, but don’t tell my clients.
