Leo Biagi
Mr. Mitchel
Film making
03/27/20
During the past weeks of distance learning I have learned about the different types of lighting. I have had experience with lighting before when working on WSTX and seeing all of the different lights and where they are position to face the subject. While watching the videos this week and reading the articles I found out more about lighting and the definition. Lighting can be used not only to show the objects but frame the visual story telling. Lighting can be used to block out things we don’t need to see or make us focus on the things we do need to see. Some of the best examples of this are in Citizen Cane or any film noir film like Double Indemnity , the Stranger, or Blade Runner. Lighting can also be used to give the film a certain type of atmosphere. An example of the is is Mission Impossible: Fallout. Director Ralf McQuarry keeps this film bright with most of the action taking place during the day and that is mostly so you can see the action and see the danger because Tom Cruise is really doing all of his stunts. But the lighting is used most effectively when there is dialogue taking place. When there is a lot dialogue and conversations happening in the scene the rooms are darker and more strategically lit. There isn’t a lot of hard light and harsh shadows like in film noir but a lot of soft light. While the characters are easy to see because there is a lot of soft light on them the background is harder to see. Each of the conners is dark and hard to make out making these scene tense and claustrophobic. All of the talk of espionage becomes much more dire and stressful. I have never really notice any of these techniques until i watch the video on it in class. Another good example of lighting is in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can directed by Steven Spielberg. At the end of the film the main character (Leonardo Decaprio) is stuck serving out his jail time not in a cell but behind a desk doing paper work on Fraudulent checks. One shot in particular is when Spielberg uses hard light coming through the blinds and making parallel lines of shadow on Leo’s face. This is to show that even though he is not in prison he is still trap and unable like prison. This scene is a great example of wordless story telling because it conveys the subject thoughts just through lighting. I have now realized this after this weeks studies.
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