Maddy Flaherty A2 Media : Getting Advice

As I have said before, our production will definitely have some low lighting in it which isn't one of my strengths, so I've been looking at tutorials and seeking advice from people I know work well and can overcome low lighting, one person I asked for advice from was my friend Leo who makes videos/short films (through self teachings) such as, are you asleep? & Parallel, both of this short films are short in close to pitch black.

I messaged Leo and asked him how he achieved the professional look it had with low lighting and if there was any advice he could give me so I can also achieve it.

Leo replied with " it looks like low lighting, but I actually had pretty bright coloured lights. Although there are ways to shoot in low lighting. You can get a lens with a high aperture or have a subtle lighting in your videos."

In response to Leo's response I played around with my camera to discover that when the camera I will be using (Nikon D5100) is in Mode A (Aperture) I can turn a dial to adjust the brightness the shot will actually turn out in the final production meaning I can use my softbox lighting to prevent noise but then use Mode A to lower the amount of light on the final shot without adding any noise to the shot. I haven't fully perfected this yet however, I believe that this is progress and with some practice and I can achieve a very professional low lighting film look.

I also messaged another one of my friends Matt Brosey who is currently studying film in the US and has also won awards for his short film. I asked him if he had any advice/facts/tips when it came to grain/noise on footage and the screenshots to the left are his responses. He replied with similar advice I had found in the youtube tutorials I've found previously. This has also shown me that I can look into more aspects to help me get the perfect and professional look rather then just searching 'reducing noise.'