Light—God’s Eldest Daughter

I’m not exactly sure which direction our film will take in the coming weeks, but it’s safe to say we have some great ideas and examples. I think perhaps the most interesting technique we learned about last week was the use of lighting in film. I had a very limited knowledge of just how much lighting affects the story; the obvious examples of darkness and lighting shining up in horror movies was about as broad of a scope as I had. It’s interesting that lighting does not merely have aesthetic purposes, but it can in fact convey many emotions. It can turn regular scenery into multilayered characters with feeling and purpose. A tree is just a tree until the light hits it in the perfect way. It can transform into a frightening image from our childhood nightmares, or instead pleasantly welcome us to climb its crooked branches.

The pure aesthetics of lighting in films is not something to be overlooked. When looking at a scene in a movie the audience does not merely see a picture of what normal life would look like. They are instead seeing a multi-dimensional painted canvas beyond what real life can provide. While making our film I will do my best to ensure that we incorporate all forms of lighting, from main light, to the fill light, and finally the background light. I imagine we’ll have to get rather “ghetto” and use flashlights, but that’s okay. We will most likely have to plan out what we intend to highlight in particular shots beforehand, that way we don’t get an ineffective and unbalanced distribution of light.

I think something as simple as light can be taken for granted. It’s interesting that we have been around and dealt with light our entire lives, but we often don’t take the time to appreciate its dimensions and benefits. In a thunderstorm light is usually one of the first things to go… and people don’t know what to do with themselves. Use inappropriate lighting in a movie and see how the audience reacts. I guarantee they won’t be happy. I hate to write about American Beauty again, but it’s a wonderful example of the effectiveness of lighting. The brilliant cinematographer, Conrad Hall, used lighting carefully and generously throughout the movie to emphasize the most beautiful and symbolic things our eyes might not have seen otherwise. That’s genius. I’ll do my best to emulate Hall’s techniques and make Donna proud!