Hollywood lighting expert shares skills at CTC

It's rare that a major Hollywood production team visits the Heartland, and even more rare when one of the staff is willing to share techniques.

"We invited Tim Hawn, lighting technician from Gone Girl, to present a seminar at the Cape Career and Technology Center about professional, Hollywood-style lighting tips and tricks --wow, did he deliver," said Digital Media Instructor Randy McWilson, who organized the event.

The free and open-to-the-public seminar was held last week. In addition to McWilson's students, Stan Cook, digital media instructor at Perryville Career Center, brought his entire 19-student class to the event, and commented that his students were very impressed.

Hawn, whose resume includes well-known films such as Django Unchained, GI Joe: Retaliation, Looper, and Secretariat, covered the fundamentals of three-point lighting and demonstrated how relatively inexpensive solutions for complex lighting can be found at the local hardware store. The students were shown sample clips from productions that Hawn contributed to, as well as behind-the-scenes footage highlighting advanced lighting techniques.