The dictionary definition of interpretation is “An explanation of conceptualisation by a critic of a work of literature, painting, music, or other art form; an exegesis.” and “A performer’s distinctive personal version of a song, dance, piece of music, or role; a rendering.” As you can see you can pretty much interpret anything, from film, to music, and everyone has their own interpretation of things, it allows people to think differently and distinguishes the creative from the dull.
“Good artists copy, Great artists steal” – Pablo Picasso
This quote by Picasso can be interpreted in different ways. My interpretation is that artists who copy, are the ones who take an existing interpretation and do not change it or put their own style and twist on it. Artists that steal are the ones who take something of value and make it theirs, they interpret it in their own way and express that through their art, therefore separating the good, from the great. Picasso is one of those people, separating himself from the good, making him great.
Steve Jobs explains here that it is about “exposing yourself to the best things what humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you are doing”. Meaning that in order to create something magnificent, you must have no shame in “stealing” ideas from elsewhere and interpreting them in your own way, just like Steve Jobs did with the Apple Mac.
Research
Lighting
Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. Traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for illumination. Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector. Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio. The term “low key” is used in cinematography to refer to any scene with a high lighting ratio, especially if there is a predominance of shadowy areas. It tends to heighten the sense of alienation felt by the viewer, hence is commonly used in film noirand horror genres.
High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. This was originally done partly for technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal well with highcontrast ratios, but now is used to suggest an upbeat mood. It is often used in sitcoms and comedies. The advantage to high-key lighting is that it doesn’t require adjustment for each scene which allows the production to complete the shooting in hours instead of days. The primary drawback is that high-key lighting fails to add meaning or drama by lighting certain parts more prominently than others.
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Stephen Ross is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross during the 2000s. Ross also hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio 2, and acted as a film critic and presenter of the Film programme. Ross then began hosting a new chat show on ITV1. Other regular roles have included being a regular panellist on the comedy sports quiz They Think It’s All Over and being a regular presenter of the British Comedy Awards.
His interview technique is very straight to the point. Jonathan Ross is mostly known for his comedy and he implements that into his interviews as you can see when he presents ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’. Similar to the other presenters I have researched, the interview runs more like a conversation not just a question, answer, question, answer structure. He is also seen giving his own opinions on things before he asks a question, for example, “Gary’s terrific in it, I think Gary’s great. Has he forgiven you for the comments you made when you refused to sign the band a few years ago?” Things like this make Jonathan more involved in the interview and the audience isn’t just hearing the opinion of one person.
Post Match Interview with Steven Gerrard
This is a different type of interview seen after all football matches with players or managers from a team. In this one with Steven Gerrard the interview is a lot more formal compared to the chat show interviews. There is no “chit chat” in between questions or making jokes, it is just straight to the point question and answers. The structure to these interviews is mainly down to the length of them, they are normally very short, a minute to two minutes long if that. The camera shot is the same throughout the whole interview.
ITV4 Sports Life Stories
This trailer includes many different camera shots as past sports stars speak about their experiences in life. The lighting used is very different in each shot. They have tried to capture different parts of the body in different lights. They have used a nice choice of colour contrast also, they mix black and white backgrounds with the colour of the sports persons shirt to make it stand out.
Mourinho
The scene I have chosen to analyse is the interview with Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson between 1.07 – 2.15. First I am going to talk about the camera shots and angles they use during the interview. The shots used range from close ups, keeping Mourinho in the third of the frame and extreme close ups. The shot changes to an extreme close up when he talks about something quite personal and emotional to him, drawing the viewer in as well. At the start of the interview you can see Mourinho enter the room and say hello to the interviewer, you can also see the lighting set up and cameras. I haven’t seen this before in any other documentary I’ve watched but I like the idea, it gives the whole documentary that extra sense of realism. Within the first few seconds of Mourinho entering their are a number of different shots used. A medium shot as he walks into the room, as he sits down the shot changes to an extreme close up but out of focus, and then quickly cuts to an un-steady shot where Mourinho’s face isn’t entirely in the whole frame, all of this is within the first six seconds between 1.08 – 1.14.
Here is the medium shot as he walks into the room, you can see the lighting set up and the interviewer introducing himself.
Here you can see the extreme close up which is out of focus
This is the deliberately un-steady shot where Mourinho’s face is out of the frame.
The next few shots are are all different again, we see Mourinho in an establishing shot, the director decided to use a medium shot for this so you can see his whole body in the frame.
From this shot, it cuts to a close up with Mourinho in the right third of the frame, as he shows his confidence through a “cheeky wink”. The lighting in this shot emphasises Mourinho’s facial expression, his whole face is lit so it stands out against the backdrop.
The next shot is Mourinho in the other third of the frame as he is asked his first question. The shot at this point is the shot you see for most one on one interviews, and I think again is used as an establishing shot but it is a close up compared to the earlier medium shot. It draws the viewer in as he is about to answer the first interview question. The lighting in this shot is a bit different to the previous, one side of his face is lit more than the other as you can see the shading on his right cheek and ear.
This quickly changes to a panning out of focus zoomed shot moving from the backdrop onto his face, then back into focus once the camera is steady on his face. The variation of camera shots here expresses the personality of Mourinho, he’s a very mysterious yet confident man.
Evaluation
From my research I have learnt two different lighting techniques, low key and high key and I will experiment with both to see what works best. I already slightly prefer low key lighting because of the shadows it creates to give a more mysterious look to a shot. From the interviews I researched I looked at camera shots, and the lighting used in them too to get some inspiration for my shots and lighting I will experiment with. I also analysed the interview techniques used in different types of interview. Their is a big difference between a chat show interview and a post match interview in football. A chat show interview is more informal and chatty and it’s not so much scripted. Whereas a post match interview in a lot more formal and the questions are written down, there is no “chit chat” going on, it is just a question answer structure. This is mostly down to the little time they have to talk to the person after the game because their isn’t much time for general conversation. In ‘Mourinho’ the interview technique is a little different, you can’t hear the questions being asked, just a flow of different answers from Jose Mourinho. The camera shots used are a lot different compared to the other interviews I looked at, they use a range of different close up shots and medium shots as he answers his questions. They also use low key lighting in all of the shots to express Mourinho’s personality which is quite secretive and mysterious.
Experimenting
I experimented with different lighting in the studio to try and re create some of the shots they have used in the scene I analysed in ‘Mourinho’. Here is just a few pictures of me setting up the lights and getting them in the right position before I positioned Filipe in the chair.
After getting the light in the correct position, I placed Filipe in the chair and started to experiment with different types of lighting and camera shots.
This shot is an establishing shot, I wanted to position the light so that his right side was partly shaded to give him that mysterious type of look. I wanted to try and re create the same type of establishing shot they use in the documentary ‘Mourinho’.
This is a closer shot again of his nearest side partly shaded. I think this is a nice effect as it creates the shadow behind him but keeps his face lit.
I then experimented with lighting Filipes whole body to see the outcome, but I didn’t really like it as it was too bright and you couldn’t really see the features on his face distinctly. This is an example of high key lighting.
I experimented with lighting the other side of Filipes face but also moving the light higher so it shines down and shooting it from a different angle, this really worked well because it created shadows on different parts of his face like his cheek and nose while his forehead and eyes are still lit.
This is a close up shot where the light is positioned on one side of Filipes face emphasising his right side. I have used low key lighting to create shadows on his face to give him a mysterious persona. I used one key light and a reflector to angle the light onto Filipes face to create this effect.
Evaluation
I experimented with low key and high key lighting using one key light, reflectors and a camera. From my pictures I preferred the low key lighting photographs a lot more than the high key ones. I liked the shadows it created and the look it gave to each shot. I will use these lighting techniques in my final major project when conducting my interviews.
jordansumray 