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.
Field of Dreams
In Field of Dreams, directed by , there is one particular scene in which the use of lighting evokes a tone particularly appropriate for the moment. As Kevin Costner and his wife review their finances, their daughter tells them that there’s a man on the field outside. Costner moves from the regularly (if somberly) lit dining room to a window apparently untouched by any light source in the house. As he peers out the window, his face is lit only by the natural moonlight. This effect is used to connect Costner with the man standing outside on his field (this connection is obvious taken in context with the movie’s plot). The light seen in the following shot of the man standing in the field is unknown, though the audience likely reads it as the ridiculously bright moonlight that lit Kevin Costner in the previous shot. This is a very powerful shot, showcasing the singularity of the figure in the field. The subsequent shots of him, all close-up or medium shots, use strictly backlight to define his outline and nothing else. The flood of light in which he stood at first is gone, because the mystery of the character must be maintained. While his distance in the first shot allowed him to be fully lit, now the lighting must go down. Ultimately, however, his identity is revealed as Costner raises the ballpark lights, flooding Ray Liotta again in discomforting and unnatural light. This is significant because the character Liotta is playing has never seen such lights, and their piercing of the subtle moonlit night parallels his unfamiliarity and confusedness.
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.
Vicky Christina Barcelona
This is a scene in a public park with an interaction between Juan Antonia and Vicky. They are talking about a night long ago during which they made love and how Juan Antonio never did anything, not even calling Vicky after that night. I feel like this exchange can be taken two ways. One, it is a dramatic exchange between two characters who are romantically linked. However, you can also look at it as a bit of frivolity. Two people are arguing over such a minute thing as a phone call. Both of these interpretations work with the lighting scheme of the scene and the movie. The whole movie, including this scene, is very brightly and warmly lit. At some points, it is even yellow. It evokes the ideas of summer and old memories. In this specific scene, the characters are outside and the sunlight provides a broad warm light. It reflects off of the various sculptures and structures inside the garden. The high angle of light, coupled with the dark orangish-yellow quality of the light, on the character’s heads indicates that it is later in the day. The colors of the park are vibrant. There are greens, blues, and ceramic tiles of varying colors that reflect the light. If you take the idea of the exchange being dramatic, it acts in direct contrast to the warm light, which would usually indicate a happy scene. However, if you take the idea of frivolity, it matches up to the lighting scheme. The night of lovemaking becomes this frivolous tryst that occurs during a summer vacation. I’d say the lighting in this film plays a part in the story. It adds to the emotional meaning of the character’s actions and helps to evoke the idea that this is a memory, a wild vacation that occurred in the past of the character’s lives. I don’t think I would change the lighting very much. It portrays everything and everyone beautifully; also, it makes you want to visit Barcelona really badly.
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
At 00:36:57 of Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Joel begins to lose his most recent memory of Clementine, his ex-lover. The emotional content is terrifying, because the experience is that of a forced memory erasure, where images jump, darkness fills every corner of the room, and Joel is lost in a surreal lucid dream. The color at the start of the sequence is warm and yellow, with both characters in Joel’s living room under tungsten lights, but as Clementine gets up to leave, the sequence moves into the hallway, which is pitch black, then to the bathroom, which is a colder and brighter white light. Finally Clem leaves through the kitchen, which is a blue fluorescent, to the door and out into the hallway, which is an even more pronounced cold blue. Here the camera moves out of the room and shoots from an intersection in the hallway, where only the hall corner is lit. Joel enters out of the darkness, only to find more darkness in front of him: no Clementine. The light here serves as a distinct part of the story. It is a representation of the limits of memory, where the lit world suddenly vanishes into nothingness, presumably where peripheral vision ended in the original memory. Because of this, lighting in each memory scene begins with plenty of light, and eventually ends up with a single spotlight beam from directly behind the camera. As the memory is erased, the vision of the observer is visibly narrowed, until it vanishes and starts elsewhere. If I re-shot this scene, I would set up a full light kit (key, spot, fill, back, etc.) on a power strip, and unplug them one at a time as the memory faded, until only a flashlight remained, and then black.
Crash
The opening sequence to “Crash” is initially lit with a stunned and ascetic tone. The blurred headlights—red and incandescent lights diffusing off of the water droplets—illustrates the experience of being dazed in aftermath of a violent collision. When the camera focuses on the inside of the car, the main character’s face is revealed in the frame, lit by a light blue. The headlights continue to blur by. After he delivers the opening line, an officer approaches and the lights become a combination of emergency lights: red sirens, yellows flood lamps, blue sirens, the police officer’s flashlight, and a pale blue that seems to be “general” evening light. I think we are meant to assume that this is the glow of L.A. from a distance (the scene of the accident is situated on a ridge). Later, as the characters emerge from the vehicle, there is a strong key and fill effect that plays with red and blue light on each half of the actors faces. I would argue that this fragmentation of color and the sporadic light sources help to prime the viewer for a similar fragmentation of storyline. The reds and yellows contrast with the blue “nighttime” light (and have a jarring effect), and we descend from the unity of the first credit lighting—simply headlights moving along—into the many different “colors” of racism. Perhaps the different colored lights on the faces of the actors reveals their own internal duplicities and the many “faces” racism take on.
Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window
I have chosen to analyze the one of the last scenes from Rear Window. Throughout this movie Mr. Jeffries watches people out of his window. During the day his room is filled with sunlight however, at night it is very dark. During the nighttime he keeps his lights out and stays in the darkness in order to observe a murderer. In the scene where the murderer find out that Mr. Jeffries is watches him he comes to Mr. Jeffries apartment. This scene is filled with terror. The lighting in this scene is very sparse however, darkness is used to convey the feeling of fright and distress. Mr. Jeffries has turned off all the lights in his room and we can only see the outline of the murderer and Mr. Jeffries. The objects in the room are barely visible. He then uses the camera light flash to blind the attacker. This lights up the room illuminating and expanding the space. It also points out that the murderer is becoming exposed. The lighting in this scene serves as a way to accompany the story. During the nighttime bad things happen in this movie, this shows that darkness represents danger. If I were to re-shoot this scene then have more light in the scene start to appear as the fight. This would bring the murderer to his final demise because it would represent truth and him becoming completely exposed.
Lighting is combined with sound in this scene to create suspense. From the beginning, when the murderous neighbor, Lars Thorwald, is in the hallway of Jeffries’ apartment complex, the sound of slow footsteps is heard. The viewer sees a horizontal strip of light at the bottom of the door. Then the light goes out. Jeffries scoots back until his face is cloaked in darkness. However—curiously—his body is lit by moonlight. The rest of the room is dark…indeed, there are darker spaces in which Jeffries could have hid. Instead, he occupies that space. There is a cut to the door, and as Thorwald steps through it, only a narrow strip of his face is illuminated by the light from the “rear window.” There is an interesting juxtaposition, here: Thorwald, the ominous, violent figure, is plainly visible; Jeffries, the protagonist of the film, is obscured by the black. Jeffries is presented as more powerful, as having the upper hand in knowing who Thorwald is and what he’s done. Thorwald’s ignorance is represented by Jeffries’ lack of tangible identity. The lighting seems to be mostly natural, but could just as easily be artificial. The source is from outside the window. Clearly (from the above description), lighting plays both a technical and narrative function. Lighting establishes the characters’ balance of power, as well as the mood of the room, which is somewhat dull. The frame is dominated by black (the absence of light) and drab grays. When Jeffries flashes his flash blubs near the end of the scene, it is clear how much lighting has driven the narrative action.
This is a scene from Rear Window, by Alfred Hitchcock, about 10 minutes from the end. Its duration is of 3 minutes 20 seconds. Lighting is notable in this scene as it is essential to the development of the mood Hitchcock wishes to create and makes the scene credible.
A justified light shines in from the right, where the window is supposed to be on the set, probably created by a dim or diffused spot light. The housekeeper and Jefferies, who are speaking urgently and secretively in the dark, are illuminated solely by the light coming from the apartments opposite and perhaps the moon, only faintly lights them. It is just enough to more or less define colors, the wrinkles in the clothes, and the two’s silhouettes. As the reflection on their foreheads and the chair frame shows, the light’s real source is probably a dim key light illuminating them from the front and right. This throws the rest of the apartment into darkness and creates a high lighting contrast with large shadows on the faces and folds in the clothing. In fact the only truly discernable things are Jefferies, Stella, and the wooden chair behind her, situated respectively further and further away from the window. Through this, Hitchcock intensifies the suspense he wished to build up for this scene and the imminent climax, unfolding and end of the film in the next ten or so minutes.
The cinematographer has shown us, through Jeffries’ window that the suspected culprit has exited his apartment after glaring in the camera’s direction. Now, contrastingly, the viewer is restricted, in the dark, to the protagonist’s point of view. We know something the protagonist does not, but we are restricted in the light. After Stella rushes off to pay Lisa’s bail, the camera closes in on Jeffries and the lighting increases slightly. As Jeffries notices the culprit’s apartment is dark, the camera frames Jeffries in a close up, letting the light illuminate the whites of his eyes. This creates tension, making the audience more and more nervous, as he darts his eyes anxiously back and forth. Due to this low-key lighting design, Hitchcock creates suspense and unease in the audience, and thus as he wishes, is able to frighten the viewer in the scenes to come.
I think it might be interesting to increase the light coming from the back, so as to create a sort of halo around the heads of the two actors, and take advantage of Jefferies’ white shirt to reflect some of the same light. This might increase the eeriness of the mood of this scene. I would keep the high lighting contrast created by Hitchcock, though as it strengthens the tone of the film noir that Hitchcock wanted.
The Truman Show
In The Truman Show, the scenes shot on the beach have notable lighting. It is clear to the viewer that the moon is fake. It is too big, too bright, and always full. The light reflecting off of the water looks staged; we can clearly see where the “horizon” is. A useless and miniature “lighthouse” spins beams of light across the frame. It is clear that the makers of the television show have put much effort into recreating this false world. The beach itself is well lit by another elevated light source. All of this light, which is clearly artificial to us, seems real to Truman. The lighting creates a phony atmosphere. The ocean is, in our reality, a grand enormity over which humans have little control. It can not be manipulated by people; it is a symbol of the wildness of our natural world. The too-white lighting on the sand and the finite “Earth” created by a short horizon enhance the viewer’s understanding of Truman’s world. We pity him because even the seashore, a space that should be organic, has been created by other humans. Truman goes to the ocean with Sylvia. In another film, this could be a beautiful and private moment. But because of the artificial lighting on the water and on the characters, we are reminded that the scene is part of a television series. Later in the film, when Truman escapes the cameras, the moon turns into a bright spotlight. This epitomizes the phoniness of Truman’s world. The moon is a heavenly body, and should not be under the control of humans. Throughout the film, and especially during these scenes on the beach, the conspicuous lighting creates a tone of falsehood and manipulation. We are reminded of Truman’s naiveté. The artificial lighting on the ocean adds to the viewer’s feeling of compassion for Truman, and we look forward to his ultimate escape.
Edward II
Edward and Gaveston Upon the Throne The shot opens with two dancers in all black performing in an open doorway. The scene opens with an extreme long shot of the two dancers who appear to be dancing in a large open space. The two are doing a dramatic piece when one dancers falls and the camera cuts to a long shot, so we better see the dancers face and movements. The light on the two men appear to be natural sunlight shinning in from the doorway. The shadows of the two men are crisp and clear. The camera then cuts to look at Edward and his lover. The lover, who is seated in front of the throne, is looking out into the distance laughing as if amused, while the king flirts with him. This look gives the allusion the two couples are in the same room and one is watching the other. The scene then cuts back to the dancers who are now in a long shot that fully fits the scene. The attention of the dancers is outward. The scene then cuts back to a long shot of Edward and his lover. The two then kiss. The current setup shows a thrown atop a large pedestal with a path in front of it. It gives the allusion of depth and ands to the overall grandeur of the scene. The dancers are dressed in all black and contrast the grayish tan color of the walls surrounding them. Edward and lover on the other hand are dressed in all white sitting on a red and gold throne. The two have a light shining from a right angle onto their hair and faces which accentuates their purity and beauty. The scene itself does not include much color however the music and the movements of the characters set up the romantic and yet forbidden tone of the shot. The misenscene in this movement relies on the “simple” lighting and character movements. The lighting throughout the scene remains constant as if there are enormous windows outside the room letting in sunlight onto its occupants.
