Research: Mise en Scene: Lighting Ms Heath

Lighting

Lighting is one of the five elements of Mise en Scene. The definition of lighting is the way light falls upon a face,object etc., especially in pictures and films. Lighting helps to convey moods and atmosphere in a scene/film. It can also be used to guide the audience's attention to a particular object, person, emotion or gesture. Lighting can be also used to cast shadows, silhouettes and to build suspense and tension.
 

There are 3 main lighting positions:

·         Under lighting

 

Under lighting is the approach of lighting a subject from a point below the subjects in the scene. This tends to have a distorting effect on the character or object and is often use in films to do with horror. This is a classic example of under lighting where the boy has the torch under his head usually used to tell ghost stories around the campfire. If you used a different type of lighting like top lighting it will not create as much tension.

 

·         Top lighting

 

 

 

Top lighting is when the upper areas of a subject are lit by a source generating from above it. This type of lighting tends to highlight the features of a character or object. It is often used to create a glamorous look in a character. This example show a ball being illuminated by using top lighting. Because of top lighting we can see the writing on it (Tachikara) which we may of not seen if we used back or under lighting.

 

 

·         Back lighting
 

 

 

Back lighting refers to the process of illuminating the person or object from the back to create shadows. If little of no back light is used silhouettes are created. This technique is very effective in horror and thriller films because you are unable to see the character which creates more suspense because in a film scene you may know what a cerain character did but you don’t know who actually done it.

 

Lighting is usually adjusted to suit the scenery. There are 3 main examples of this

·         Low key lighting

Low key lighting is illumination that creates strong contrast between light and dark areas of the shot, with deep shadows and little fill light. Low key lighting produced dark images with minimal lighting and rich in black tones. this is a good example as it is a scene that displayes low level light which leaves a small glow in the background which gives it an eerie effect.

 

·         High key lighting

 

 

 

High key lighting is a style of lighting found in comedies, musicals, and other upbeat films, in which the fill light eliminates dark shadows cast by the key light, producing an image that is brightly and evenly lit. high key lighting can be used to show a characters feature just like this example of the joker. the lighting is used in this way just to show how grusome of a character he is.

 

·         Natural lighting

 

 

Natural lighting is where there is no added lighting effect. It is where you use the light provided by Mother Nature e.g. The Sun. the picture above is the perfect example of this as she is on the rock face in broad daylight and they are not using any additional light to protray this.

The Moon In The Gutter

The moon in the gutter has a scene that shows a perfect example of lighting effects it has a mix of low level lighting, and back lighting that along with dramatic sound and quick cuts portrays this to be a typical conventional thriller scene.

 

Conclusion

This lesson in lighting has helped me it has shown me in a variety of ways how important lighting is when it comes to lighting. It has shown me that each type of lighting can be used for different genres. For example in horror films you would use low level lighting and in romance films you would use high key lighting. And finally it has given me hints on what types of lighting I would use in my thriller opener and where to use them.