Lighting

Lighting!

I feel that within filming lighting needs to be considered as crucial as it generally sets the mood for scenes, plus it also can give a more in-depth and emotion to the overall shots. When filming it is crucial to understand that lighting must be used, by this I generally mean that natural lights cannot always be as practical, so mechanical lights would be used a lot. Furthermore, when creating the script ensure that you can identify the time of year and the weather patterns, otherwise the scene would not look as you would of envisaged them to look like. 


When shooting you have to take into consideration that without light there is no image, but you have to be careful with the light in which you are using. Carefully controlled lighting can direct the attention of the viewer onto a certain object, character and or event etc. Furthermore it is generally important to understand how lighting can change the emotion and mood of a scene, hard light shapes sharp shadows, for example sun, candles, unfiltered tungsten lamps). With soft light casts softer shadows for example, an overcast weather, lamps with diffusers, and certain surfaces which would reflect light. 

Contrast latitude is the actual film of different contrast densities. For example with low key lighting this is when high light contrast is being used with dark shadows as a pool of light. However, with high key lighting this consists of low contrasts of light, which when evenly spread, the lighting so that the whole set would be lit, this tends to be linked with daylight, comedy and vast majority of studio shows. 

The lighting used within film doesn't always consist through natural sources, mechanical light plays a huge part which generally matters depending on the overall situation of the scene and light needed within that scene, there is different types of equipment which can be used for example; Tungsten Lamps, these are quite common use of a professional standard light, with a range between 150W to 24,000W and with a consistent colour temperature of 3200 degree K which generally generates a lot of heat. You can also get reflectors which will change how the overall light appears for example when the reflectors softens the light, silver reflectors harden the light, mirrors harden the light and gold reflectors would add warmth to the lighting. As well as all the equipment in which you have, different set up's you can use to provide the most efficient and best lighting. An example of a good set up would be the 'three point lighting set up'. 

Key light is generally the brightest light which casts the main shadows which can be hard and or soft. Fill light tends to be used to fill out the shadows by doing this you must ensure that it doesn't create its own shadows. Back light is generally used to create bright outlines around certain subjects, it tends to be used mainly for the use of being able to separate a subject from the background. Clothes lighting is used to add additional key lighting which adds shape and brings out the different textures of the costumes as well as make-up. Kicker adds additional back light. Eye light which adds shine to the characters eyes. Background light is generally used to cover light that isn't wanted/ working within the background. With motivated light this is just like motivated shots, by this I literally mean that each light used must be justified, so if the use of the lighting motivated certain shots then this would add depth to the scene. However if it is not motivating then the shot would seem unrealistic. De-emphasise areas without light, this would make the viewer focus on certain subjects, this would show that you can be as telling when you aren't using light as you do when you are using light. 

Within this shot the lighting is directed to the main character but in theory there isn't enough light to then show the character which is in the background, this would then be used to show who is good or bad. The light on the women is generally to show that she is good or that she is about to be a victim with the darkness on the male to show that perhaps he is bad or an antagonist. 


In this particular shot the lighting is directly onto the eye of the character, this is generally used to show emotion and create suspense for the audience. The lighting is mainly used for the emotion when a character is sad or depressed. But within some films it is generally used to create suspense by the eye of a character you don't know, meaning you also have no idea what they look like. 


Within this shot of Leonardo DiCaprio the lighting is used within the picture to centre the attention towards the main character, but with general clear emotion and overall body language of the character within the background.