I have this Arri Fresnel mounted on top of my bookshelf. It has sat up there for a lot of years—mounted on one of those bolt on clamps.  I used to have it plugged in, thinking I would use it. But, I never did. So, I unplugged it way back in the way back when.
 
I have this other Fresnel, a DeSisti, sitting over in one corner. I put it there… …Wow, way back when. I thought it would be a good idea to keep it there just in case I needed it in a pinch. Have never used it. At least not so far…
 
My storage unit… Forget about it. I’ve got tons of lights and stands.
 
One upon a time, in the long ago and the far-far away, I used to have to load up all those lights and drag them along whenever I was doing a shoot. You know, all to give the production a vibe. I was all into the highly gelled looked. That was my method to get it.
 
Somewhere in my filmmaking evolution, however, I stopped doing all of that. I got, for lack of a better term, Natural.
 
Back when I was teaching a lot of classes and seminars on filmmaking… (Before the pandemic and before classes got all remote. I just don’t like teaching in that manner). I would do this one thing in order to teach the students how quickly you can change the entire vibe of a scene simply by doing one small thing.
 
I would set up the camera and feed it into the monitor. I would have all the lights on in a classroom; as is commonly the case. I would focus on the face of one of my students. Then, I would have another one of the students turn off half of the lights in the classroom. BAM, instantly everything changed. The entire way you look at what is being filmed on the screen is altered.
 
Like I have long discussed, and taught, any filmmaker, any cinematographer really needs to learn to see what the camera sees; not just what the human eye sees; as from this, you can make the photography of your film great or very bland.
 
But, like I said, somewhere along the way, I begin to leave the lights behind. Now, I shoot au naturel.
 
That’s not to say that someday, the inspiration will not strike, and I will take it all back to the way back when. But, as my Zen Filmmaking style has evolved, and I have moved to the Non-Narrative Zen Film, it has simply become my method.
 
But, the fact of the fact is, how you find yourself in any situation is defined by the light that surrounds you or the light you create. You can bring in the lighting fixtures. You can focus them. You can gel them up. You can place them to totally create the lighting definition that you desire. …Making a scene look any way that you want. Or, you can simply let the light be as it—as you found it.
 
Which is best? I don’t know, what do you think?
 
Life is either allowed to be as life is. Or, you can attempt to control it. If you let it be as it is, you are free. All you have to do is to live and capture that moment. Or, you can try to dominate it. Then, the all and the everything gets way more complicated.
 
Your life, your choice.