Week 7, Part 2- Lighting in films

Hi,

This week we learnt about lighting in films so I'm going to talk about a couple films where the lighting and colour really effected the piece.

The first one that comes to mind is 'Thirteen' directed by Catherine Hardwicke (she also did the Twilight films - muted colour seems to be her thin). In the film, as Tracy's (the protagonist) life becomes darker the colour of the film becomes muted until it is almost black and white. The last shot of the film as in colour to symbolise her recovery. It is done very smoothly and I actually had to read about it before I noticed it, then I went back and watched it again.

Another movie that comes to mind is 'V for Vendetta' directed by James McTeigue. At times the lighting is quite bright in certain areas, and extremely dark in others. One example is when the totalitarian head of state is addressing the other leaders. Each one of the leaders is well lit, but all around them is darkness. This lighting makes them seem mysterious and frightening.

When I was in school, they told us that the highest paid people in early Hollywood were the hairdressers. This was because the light would be behind the actor or actress and highlight every single flyaway hair. So for that reason I think I should mention Michael Curtiz's film 'Casablanca' as Ingrid Bergmans hair looks impeccable throughout the whole thing. The lighting people and the hairdressers worked excellently together on that one!

Mockumentaries should also be noted, I think. Although Oren Peli's 'Paranormal Activity' movies aren't the first horror films to be made in the recovered-footage style, they are the most recent. This required a lot of natural light, and night vision. We had to be able to see enough but not too much or else it wouldn't have looked realistic. The night vision I think is an excellent technique for this. It keeps some things in the shadows, which makes it really scary, while giving the viewer enough light to watch what the characters are doing while still maintaining a realistic night time feel. This way of lighting became hugely popular with the film 'The Blair Witch Project' directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. People still think that movie is actually real!

Lighting is extremely difficult and I never thought about it until I did this course. To make something look realistic but interesting as well as being consistent....that's tough!

The end.