Lighting Investigation

Lighting

Lighting is one of the most essential principals of filmmaking. There is a quite daunting variety of ways to light a scene. The different aspects of lighting vary from brightness, color, temperature, white balance, soft/hard, direction, and more. There are many ways lighting can be used to better communicate understanding of a scene. For instance, lighting is one of the key components in creating the tone of a film. If you look at a comedy film the lighting is always balanced and light in tone. On the contrary, for a dramatic film the lighting will be darker and less balanced. There might be hard shadows cast across the background to amplify and enlarge reality. The human face will be lit different ways to portray the characters emotion. All of these decisions lead to a better, more meaningful and developed film.

The Cinematographer's Role

The role of the cinematographer is to decide what to do with the lighting. The cinematographer, or director of photography (DP), will work very closely with the director to make sure their vision is achieved. The lighting of a shot goes hand in hand with the framing and compositional choices of the director. That is why it is very important for the vision to be unified and not contrast. We as the audience would be confused if there was dark, moody lighting for a scene that was meant to be joyful. However, this ironical contrast is the bread and butter of dark comedy. Dark comedy is all about creating dramatic, serious tones in contrast to comedic actions, or comedic, joyful tones for dark, violent actions. Furthermore, if you are not intentionally juxtaposing tones be careful! The audience might misread the intended tone of a scene leading to confusion and disinterest.

Roger Deakins

While studying cinematography I discovered a cinematographer by the name of Roger Deakins who I found greatly inspiring. My favorite film that he has worked on is Blade Runner 2049. The cinematography is a masterclass in demonstrating lighting to tell a story visually.

There is not a single shot that lacks visual meaning. Naturally it only makes sense for him to have won the Oscar for cinematography on Blade Runner 2049. Part of the reason he is allowed such freedom is he has worked with Director Denis Villeneuve on multiple occasions. The most notable practices of Deakins that I would like to implement is the use of lighting as a way of implementing the principals of design. Deakins' creates contrast with lighting, balance, simplicity, unity, rhythm, repetition, tone, and meaning. Before seeing his work I had not seen lighting used in such a remarkably influential way. From lighting alone Deakins is able to communicate so effectively. It is most prominently the effective communication of meaning that I wish to replicate.

Lighting for Tone

Perhaps the most important role of lighting in a film is to set the tone. There are other ways of creating tone in a film. For instance, production design, performance, music, but the most universally used and understood way to create tone is lighting. Not every scene has dialogue, music, or actors even, but every scene has lighting. Lighting is what enables us to comprehend what is before our eyes on screen. Certain color temperatures and direction of lighting alters our perception of the time of day. The picture to the right is a simple guide to some of the most basic lighting set ups for portraiture. Even though this guide is intended for photography, these lighting set ups are seen everywhere in film. The photograph is a great example of where tone in performance and lighting come into play. The darker photos where the subject is obscured creates a much more dramatic vibe as opposed to the photographs where her face is filled. Utilizing the various curves and divots of any subject being lit is essential to interesting cinematography. However, there is a major misconception about cinematography that I would like to address. This is about the beauty of cinematography. Not all cinematography is meant to be beautiful. "There is good cinematography, bad cinematography, and the cinematography that is right for the movie" - Unknown. The main concept to learn in order to be a good cinematographer is that it is about adding the understanding of the film.

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