ChloeHughes7152: Lighting Research

Lighting

When making a film it relies on capturing the light as it assists in interpreting the meaning and tone of the production. Light can be produced by; the sun, moon and strong artificial light. The way a shot or scene is lit will affect the audiences gratification.

The lighting assists in helping the audience understanding the production values and quality, therefore it is essential that the lighting is correctly placed. This will help my film look more professional to my audience. It is also important to correctly light my film in terms of genre, for example Horror films use very low lighting and this is made aware to the audience and connote fear.

There are many simple techniques that can be used to apply to any film project. I am going to look into ways that I can apply these to my project, so that I can get the best possible outcome. The first method to ensure the lighting is correct is basic three-point lighting involving key, fill and back light.

There are various different elements to lighting:

Contrast- The meaning of contrast is to balance pure white and black tones in a piece of footage/image. Low contrast is much more aesthetically pleasing than high contrast which appears sharp and has a more diverse range. High contrast lighting is used to heighten drama and allow audience to have a more clear understanding in real media products.

Brightness- The brightness of a film can depict the drama of a scene. There is a major difference between high and low key brightness with a mutual mid-key brightness, the average brightness that is used is mid key lighting. High key lighting is normally used in a more dramatic seen with lots of action whereas low key would usually be applied to a slow drama scene. In my film trailer I will be using a mixture of both to ensure I capture the action from the high key lighting and then the drama with low key lighting.

Quality of light- This is defined through hard or soft light, the hard light features dark shadows sand very sharp shadows. Whereas soft lighting have more diffused shadows. I am going to combine the two in my film trailer.

Focus- This is the overall sharpness of the image; altering he different focus levels can change the image, making it very sharp or soft.

Perspective- In order to stick to the genre of fantasy and make the film trailer feel action packed I must ensure that the depth is not decompressed.

Colour- Colour is manipulated through lighting, shooting in colour can make the film more varied aesthetically. I am not sure that I will consider shooting with a tint, however if I was going to I would shoot with a red tint.