Practical Task- Lighting

Inspiration

For inspiration I looked at the film ‘Gangster Squad’ and a YouTube video,shown below,to see how to create different lighting effects in the film noir genre. Lots of low-key lighting and shadows were used as well as contrasts between bright and dark lighting.

Practical Task

Whilst watching Gangster squad I saw that in some shots there was a contrast between the lighting in the background and foreground. The background was normally bright whilst the foreground was dark. This created a silhouette of the character enabling them to remain unknown. 

I then tried to create a similar image myself. I waited until it was dark outside and decided to place a bear on a windowsill whilst the lights inside were turned on. This then allowed me to make the contrast between the lighting creating a silhouette, showing only a faint outline of some details on the bear.

Our group also wanted to try an interrogation scene where there would be a light swinging above the characters. For further inspiration I looked at an interrogation scene from the film Nightcrawler.

This clip showed the two characters sitting at a table with one light directly above the table making the scene dimly lit. This type of lighting means that the two characters sitting at the table are bright, to create a focus on them, whilst their surroundings are dark. I then tried to recreate this lighting.

I used my phone torch as this was a white light often seen in interrogation scenes. As I could not hang my phone from the ceiling I had to hold it. Therefore, I had to set the camera on timer and place it on the floor so that I could hold the light up. Consequently, the angle of the photo was not how I wanted it.

I also tried to shine the torch more towards one character so it was obvious as to who was getting interrogated as seen in the photo above. In Gangster Squad they used the lighting to clearly define the features on one side of the characters face whilst the other side remained in the darkness. This lighting was used to show the villain whereas the hero would have been shown in full light.

I then looked at a YouTube video to see how they created this effect. The video showed a bright light being shone onto one side of the character. I then recreated this lighting in my own photo showing one side of the bear whilst the other side is in the dark.

Finally, I looked at shadows which are common in film noirs. I found that shining the light on the right of the bear created a shadow on the left and by shining the light on the left side a shadow was created on the right. By shining the light directly in front of the bear a shadow would also appear in front of the bear.

Evaluation

In the future I would make sure that we could hang the light up during the interrogation scene or have at least two people filming the scene. This would then enable us to get better camera angles. I also found it hard to recreate some of the effects due to not having professional lighting,