Pre Production - Lighting and Colour.

Similarly to the rest of our pre production, researching into specific lighting and colours and the techniques used will help us have our own ideas when it comes to making our own final film, and with any improvements that we might need to make.

The audience is guided by lights within a scene, and any sudden change in traditional lighting will create a new focal point within the shot, either to distract the viewer or to gain their attention. Darkened areas and shadows can always create a great contrast against bright lights, and also create suspense if part of the shot is being concealed. This matched with appropriate non diegetic sound creates an ideal atmosphere to whatever genre is being created.

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LIGHTS.

Back Light.

Shines from the back in order to contrast a key light,

to make the character in shot appear more rounded and in focus.

Key Light.

The brightest and most important light;

that shines directly onto a character and or object.

Filler Light.

The key and back lights may create shadows and darkened areas, the filler light helps soften out these shadows and there many be more than one of these coming from different directions.

Under-lighting.

This where the main source of lighting (key lights) are shone from below an object or character, creating a distorted effect, it is often used in horror films using artificial lights that are included within the props of the scene (Eg - torches)

Top-lighting.

Similarly to under-lighting; top-lighting is where the light comes from above highlighting the character or object.

Back Lighting.

This is when the source of light is from behind an object or character. If the light is low, shadows and silhouettes can be created; again popular with horror films.

High Key Lighting.

This is where natural and realistic lighting is used, with the use of many filter lights. The areas of light compared to the dark will not be as pronounced.

Low Key Lighting.

This is where only key and back lights are used; this produces a sharp contrast of light compared to the dark areas and dark shadows and shapes can be created. This is known as 'chiaroscuro.'

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COLOUR.

Every colour has its own different traditional connotation, (EG - red is stereotypically romance for hearts, or blood red for horrors) Selecting the right colours for the sets can help the subconscious mind make assumptions about any moods or themes that are happening within a scene. This is much different to early day movies where everything was in black and white due to technology restrictions.