Close Watching

Waterloo Bridge

(A preliminary scene in which Roy walks along Waterloo Bridge, reminiscing about his relationship with Myra – just before flashback)

In a medium – wide shot of Roy walking along Waterloo Bridge, he is lit very brightly, while his surroundings are very dark and grey. This scene was memorable to me due to his angelic glow during the scene. His entire figure is lit very evenly and very brightly, creating misty haze along the outline of his body; light glistens from his hat.. He appears to be blatantly in a spotlight, as no shadows cast upon him. The camera cuts to a wide shot of Roy stopping on the side of the bridge, looking out over the water. He steps forward into a shadow from one of the steel beams of the bridge that falls just under his collar. As the camera zooms in on Roy, a distinct circle of light closes in on a his figure from the waist up, enhancing the spotlight light approach. The dark shadow under his collar, combined with the dark beams surrounding his face, further the awareness of a distinct frame around Roy’s face. The black and white lighting in this scene implies a sad, tragic mood. The gloomy tone of the scene is furthered by it’s association with film noir, which is classic for sharp shadows and black and white images. Conversely, the bright, angelic lighting depicts Roy’s character in a positive manner; he is clearly a “good guy” if not the protagonist of the story. Through lighting the audience is given the impression that this is sympathetic character placed in a cruel setting.

The Lives of Others

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck in 2006, The Lives of Others begins with an extreme close-up of a gloved hand using a metal, cylindrical lock-breaking device to open a door. The lighting is dark, but light bounces off the shiny gloves and metal. The gloves and door are similar shades of grayish-green, which is the colour palette of the entire scene (and of the film). They represent the cold, industrial and gloomy feel of Communist-era East Berlin. The somber score is also integral to the mood created. Once the door is opened, the director cuts to a shot of the open doorway, from which bright natural light floods in. On either side of the door are dark green walls. Several men enter through the door, their figures silhouetted darkly against the brightness of the open door. In the next shot, they climb a staircase, again set against a green wall. The staircase is dark and heavily shadowed. I think dark, shadowed lighting with high contrast was used to emphasize the ominous mood of the scene: the men are Stasi operatives wiring an apartment for surveillance. The men, dressed in grays and browns, open another door. It is much brighter inside the room they enter, a natural room light. Brighter light is used here to highlight shots of them placing wires in the walls, the telephones, and so on. We see several extreme close-ups of them doing so. There is a shot where one of the men, Wiesler, crosses in front of a large window framed on both sides by yellow-green curtains. He is silhouetted in black against the bright white light. This reminds us of his role as the protagonist in the film, even though his position is mid-level and he is seemingly uninfluential. In most of the shots he is in, he is framed in the middle. In a later shot, we see him stand out starkly in the light through the dark circle of the eyehole in a door. We then see him walk up to the door, half of his face in shadows, and ring the bell. Again, the lighting and shot choice here lends the scene a sinister feel. On the other side is a woman who has witnessed the activities of the men and knows she is going to be asked to keep quiet. The lighting in this film is deliberate and part of the story. It works to create a mood of suspicion and portent. I think the director focused light on certain objects to highlight them and let the surrounding areas be dark or in shadows. For the shot in which Wiesler walks past a window, the window seemed backlit (although it was meant to appear as bright sunlight), but I’m not sure how he got the actor to be in silhouette. He might have used coloured light or gels to create the greenish colour tone of the film, although that could also have been adjusted in the editing process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ke3ns0giw

Fritz Lang's M

In the first scene of the noir/expressionist film M by Fritz Lang, the lighting is used to set a mysterious mood and then later, a somber emotion. This is accomplished by shining the light from one direction so to create a lot of shadows against the back wall of the set and make the ground dark with the frame getting lighter as you move up in it. This type of lighting creates the closed style of filmmaking that M is made in, because it makes very little use of offscreen space with the sides of the frame often being quite dark and shadowy. Since it is a black and white film, the light does not affect the coloring but what the lighting in M does is make very clear distinctions between the whites and the blacks by making most of the movie very gray. This way, when the shadow of the killer enters the frame for the first time, you can make out his silhouette clearly. This is accomplished by putting the light source and the actor close to the set so that less of the light is defused. Having the shadow projected on a white poster also helps with the quality of the image. Lighting in M appears to be very mechanical and the source of the light is more apparent and less natural then a film shot primarily in a city would feel. It never seems as though they are outdoors even though many scenes in the film do take place exterior. This is done to keep the overall tone of the film consistent. Noirs are notorious for dark, dreary, and shadowy lighting and M is no exception. Because shadows are so important in this film; the lighting is definitely part of the story as well. The only thing I would do differently in this scene is create more of a contrast between the lighting in the indoor and outdoors scenes. It would make the streets appear more dangerous and sinister.

Snatch

The scene that I’ve chosen in Snatch, directed by Guy Ritchie, begins at 1:02:50 and ends at 1:04:21. The lighting in the scene greatly affects the emotional integrity of the characters and the action as a whole. The film highlights the dirty business of underground London, and the subject of this particular scene is revenge. The scene begins in an arcade, obviously occupied by artificial lights. But, the arcade is very musty and unclear, the fluorescent lights are low and apparently dingy, not top quality. The tone of this part of the scene is very dangerous; the main character walks into the musty arcade to find a group of “gangsters” destroying the machines and accessories of the buildings with baseball bats. A fight ensues and the danger increases. The lighting of the scene is perfect in this sense; vision is slightly blurred because of the low and broad and sprawling lights; individual people or objects are not spotlit and the whole room contains the same thick, unclear light. The scene then fades to an outdoor scene of a trailer burning to the ground. This creates a rapid and intense contrast from artificial light to natural light. The tone of the scene remains much of the same thing; the subject matter is still revenge so the emotional content is constant. But, the lighting is obviously implemented differently. The enormous fire is the source of light, so people are easily and strongly silhouetted in front of the natural light source. This creates a great chiaroscuro in the scene, which looks beautiful while the content is devastating. In this portion of the scene, when the camera focuses on characters watching the trailer burn, a light (probably a very dim and yellowed key light) is used to emulate the fire in the background. The artificial light being used must be very low-key because all light in the scene looks completely natural. As the shot on a character gets closer and closer on his face, shadows increase and enhance the emotional tone as he watches his mother burn inside of her trailer.