Artefact 2 Evaluation

Final Outcomes:

Main outcome: Green tint with moderate saturation levels

Extra outcome: 'Film Noir' style with no colour and high contrast

The main aim of this second artefact was to explore lighting and colour-correction techniques in order to create an eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere for my classroom environment at night. From my research, I decided to experiment with both colour and the genre of ‘Film Noir’. Once again, I decided to use a combination of an online survey (using other students on my course) and my focus group to gain feedback on my experiments.

The feedback I received from the initial survey was quite widespread in terms of people’s opinions on the colours and effects; therefore finding one method to use for my outcome was quite tricky. For instance, only one or two more people preferred my experiments with lower saturation levels, and only a few more seemed to prefer my green tinted imagery to the blue. However, from observing the results to the best of my ability and using some personal views, I decided on a compromise between the high and low saturation levels of the green version, due to a small margin preferring this colour.

In my focus group, however, both my tutor and one or two students suggested that the blue could be more effective if I improved other areas, such as light quality, shadows, and camera angles. It was also noted in this feedback that extra lighting, such as upward lighting, could be considered if I wanted to create a more eerie effect, which is a technique used in many films to create this mood, such as Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.

Once again, I have realised that people can have very differing opinions on colours in association with mood, but also that colour isn’t always needed to add mood to an environment, as showed by the ‘Film Noir’ style of film. Also, as an additional question on my survey, I asked which techniques would enhance the mood more, and the most popular answers were texturing and camera angles, therefore these will be the techniques I explore in more detail next, starting with texturing.