Film Lighting – Fixtures and Gripping
Partnership with Duke Arts Create & Cinematic Arts

The Arts of the Moving Image Filmcraft Workshop Series
The Arts of the Moving Image Filmcraft Workshop Series is six workshops designed to give students the opportunity to develop hard skills in practical areas of filmmaking. It includes topics in cinematography, editing, post-production, and sound. It is aimed at filmmakers looking to advance their practice, as well as those interested in a first look at the techniques and technology of film.
Sessions are held each Friday from 3pm to 5:30pm, and are repeated Saturday from 11am to 1:30pm. The Spring 2020 series runs from January 24th through February 29th.
The workshops are open to the Duke community, with no sign-up or registration required.
Film Lighting - Fixtures and Gripping
In this workshop we will light a handful of scenes and sets, and in so doing introduce the goals and workflow of cinematic lighting. By understanding the simple qualities of light as they occur in the world and as they can be constructed for film, we begin to navigate the infinite possibilities offered by modern lighting tools. It is a subject worthy of a lifetime of study and practice, but one which still yields valuable secrets with a few hours of exploration.
This is a companion to the Film Lighting – Fixtures and Gripping workshop, in which students learn the use of the specific tools employed, but neither is a prerequisite for the other.
This workshop covers the following elements and techniques:
- Lighting recipes and methodologies
- Motivation and style
- Judgement and speed
About the Instructor
Steve Milligan is a professional cinematographer. Over the last fifteen years he has worked in long and short form documentary, narrative features, commercials, music videos, and projection design. He has been a lecturing fellow in the Duke Arts of the Moving Image program since 2015, and advisor to the Duke student-run production company, Freewater Productions since 2006.
About the Location
This workshop meets in the new Arts of the Moving Image Studio located in Room 232 in the Rubenstein Arts Center.