Lighting in Film

Filmmaking does rely on capturing light as it can be used to assist the meaning of the production. Light in film can be produced by; the sun, the moon, existing light sources or using powerful artificial light. The way the scene or shot is lit does influence the audience’s gratifications.

The lighting can also help the audience understand the production values and quality, therefore it is important for me in my production to make sure the light is well placed and planned. By doing this I can avoid my viewers thinking my production is amateur. It also possible to consider lighting in terms of genre, for example Documentary’s use natural light so it connotes to the audience. Horror genre would use torchlight or something to connote fear.

Allen Daviau said "why we hate multiple cameras: because we light differently for close-ups." This is a quote from the book ‘Twenty-one Cinematographers at Work’; this makes it clear to me that I need to consider separate lighting for each camera shot if I am using multiple shots simultaneously, this way I can get the correct lighting.

High Key Brightness

There are different elements of lighting:

Brightness- the biggest difference when it comes to brightness selection is high and low key brightness with a mutual mid-key brightness.  Yielding average brightness is mid-key lighting. Brightness can be used to depict the drama of the scene. High key is preferred in a scene when there is a lot more action where as low-key lighting should ne applied to a stretched slow drama scene. In terms of my production I should look to be using high-key brightness that connotes high-speed action and tension, which is part of what I am trying to achieve in my film trailer.

Contrast- the specific meaning behind contrast is the balance of pure white and black tones in a piece of footage/image. Low contrast appear easy to the eye where as high contrast is sharp and uses a more diverse range. The use of high contrast is used in other real media examples to heighten drama and allow the audience to have a better understanding.

Quality of light- this can be defined through hard or soft light, the hard quality light features dark shadows with very sharp shadows whilst soft light gas diffused shadows. In my production blending the two in different scenes to create Claude Levi Strauss’s binary oppositions could be used.

Focus- this is the overall sharpness of an image; altering the focus levels can create a very soft or sharp image. The depth of field can further measure focus; different lenses can produce different depths of field. There can be both shallow and deep focus.

Deep perspective

Perspective- I must ensure that the depth is not decompressed in order for my footage to appear sluggish and slow, as the generic conventions of my genre require some fast paced shots that is achieved through a deeper perspective.

Color- otherwise known as hue can be manipulated through lighting, shooting in color which applies to me of course allows for more aesthetic variables so I need to take into consideration overall hue, the means a scene can be tinted, for my production I will consider using a dark blue tint which will give me the sinister horror effect. This would be considered a cool hue.