Post 11: Media Language - Lighting 1 (Shape & Texture)

Lighting is a huge part within any production of a film. We learnt about Film Noir and that lighting is just one way in which we can create a style for our short film.

Film Noir

Film Noir is a cinematic term, a term that describes stylish Hollywood crime dramas in America in the early 1940s to the late 1950s. It can be associated with a low-key black and white visual style exploring themes such as fear, mistrust, paranoia and despair.
Examples of classic film noir features films are:
Double Indemnity (1944), the Maltese Falcon (1941) and Touch of Evil (1958).
 

Lighting can be used to create effects throughout a film, and this happened a lot in the film noir era. When using lighting in a black and white film the effects that it causes can be very important, along with the shadows it is creating. There are two different ways to describe shadows, they are cast and attached.

Cast shadows = when a person is partially illuminated due to an object in the way of the light source, for example a door casting a shadow on an intruder

Attached shadows = when an object or persons features result in partial illumination, for example when a person is wearing a hat that creates a shadow on their face

As mentioned before, lighting is one way we can create a style for our short film; it can help create effects on the characters that we want the audience to see. We watched the film Lolita which had a great use of using the lighting in order to create an effect on the main characters, as seen in the picture the character of Humbert has a much darker shade on him than the character of Lolita does. This could suggest that Lolita is more innocent and the victim, whereas Humbert could be quite mysterious, confined and secretive.

 

Other films that have used lighting in order to create effects can be seen below:

 Double Indemnity
In this photo there is a cast shadow on the man standing up, the noticeable lines across his body look to be coming from the blinds at the window. This can suggest that he is more important than the other character as the shadows of lines are enhancing his illumination that's grabbing the attention of the audience watching.
 Asphalt Jungle
In this photo the light source is obviously coming from the hanging light, this is creating some attached shadows on the men's faces, especially the man wearing the hat. This could highlight that he is a shifty character who is hiding something from the rest of the men sat around him. The darkness in this photo could also symbolise that these men are up to no good and possibly planning something dangerous or illegal.