Lighting

Lighting can be implemented in many different ways to create different film effects. Lighting can be used in dramatic ways as well as to make visual puns or anything in-between.

The whole mood and feel of a scene can be changed depending on the light, for example:

Bright clear and sunny- this shot has a happy and light-hearted feel.

(Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story 1999)

Whereas the softer English sunlight in Atonement has a more romantic and warm feel to it.

This dull and gloomy setting is what would be described as a pathetic fallacy in literature as the weather reflects the mood of the people in the film.

Whale Rider (2002)

Back Lighting
This is when the main source of light is from behind the character creating a silhouette. It can create a mysterious effect due to the effect of the shadows. This type of lighting is often used in horror films. The back light is placed behind the subject and lights it from the back. Rather than providing direct lighting (like the kay and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subjects outlines. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.








Key and fill lighting
The key light is the main light which is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that this side is well lit and the other side has some shadow. The fill light is the secondary light and is placed opposite of the key light, this is to fill the shadows in which the key has created.

 


Under-lighting
This is when the main source of light comes from below the character. It is often used in horror films to make characters look evil.

Top lighting
Top lighting can make a character look innocent because the "light of heaven" is shining down on them. Top lighting can also cast shadows on the lower section of the subjects body when needed.

Side lighting
This is when the main light source comes from one side of the screen in order to light one side of the characters face, producing shadows across set creating a sense of mystery.

Exposure
Another effect of lighting is exposure, this is the amount of light which is allowed into the camera. Over exposure in a shot can make the light look exaggerated and over brightened whereas under exposure will make the scene look darker than it actually is. A scene may be over exposed when a character has been into the dark and then let into the light they would want to over exaggerate so that the audience relates to the brightness the character will react to. Under exposure would be used when there is a dark scene and the audience often has to squint to be able to see whats going on, this again gives the audience a feel of what the character is feeling.

Vox Pop Questionnaire

Vox pop Questionnaire- A2 Media from Group Fifteen on Vimeo.

Analysis of results:

We asked students around college a few questions about the horror genre and our film idea, all of the people that we asked were either 17 or 18 which is within our target audience age group, we asked people of this age as we wanted to know what they thought of the idea seen as they are part of the target audience.

When asked 'what do you like about our film idea?' 3 people replied that they liked the idea of the murders repeating in different time periods and thought that it made our quite unique.

When asked 'what do you dislike about our film idea?' everyone replied that they wouldn't change anything apart from one person suggesting that we could maybe add more gore to make the film more suited to the certificate and more appealing to teens. However we have purposely planned to not show too much blood and gore as it will be difficult for us to include this without it looking unproffessional and unrealistic, also not being able to see everything in a shot can be even scarier than actually being able to see the blood and gore because it leaves it to the imagination of the viewer, we have seen this demonstrated in films such as The Blair Witch Project. 

Effect idea for film

Taken from the TV show The Vampire Diaries and the film Twilight I was influenced to try to create a similar super speed running effect that they use for our character of the creature because we want it to appear supernatural. 

When initially researching the running effect I found this video clip that demonstrates the effect that I am wanting to create a similar one to.

Link to example clip

I used a clip from one of our previous videos to test whether my idea would work, using Final Cut Express I modified the clip to give a supernatural super speed effect to a person walking down the corridor.

I changed the speed of the clip to 800 percent to make the character look like they could move at a speed which humans cant.

I then added the overlay effect by clicking on composite mode which darkened the clip and slightly changed the colour. 

I duplicated the clip so that there was 3 of the same clips and I moved 2 of them slightly to the left which created a sort of ghost effect of the character.

When played the character appears to have super speed and have a shadow following them which gives the supernatural effect that we wanted.

This is my first attempt at creating the effect which we can develop and improve when editing the actual film.

Speed effect test from Group Fifteen on Vimeo.

Analysis of short film - Lock up

Lock Up

 

Link to Lock Up film

The narrative of the film is very simple but effective as it focuses on fear of the dark which is a classic fear to play on and is seen as quite childish by most people but is likely to be something that most of the audience are actually scared of but may be reluctant to admit.

Cinematography

The use of the CCTV footage shots throughout the film gives the impression that someone or something is watching the character throughout the film and the fact that it is a high angle shot makes the character appear even more vulnerable.
Towards the end of the film the close up shot of the main characters face in the foreground is a subtle way on showing the villain character and is an effective way of adding to the fear of the audience.
The close up of the keys towards the beginning of the film indicate that they will be significant later on as it forces the audience’s attention to them

Sound

The sound of breathing alongside the ascending music creates tension and the audience know that it is building up to something that is going to scare them.

 

Mise en scene

The red light shining out of the door signifies blood and death which relates to how the main character is killed later in the film and is a typical convention of a horror film. The use of very dark lighting plays on the fears of the audience as most of them will fear the dark and it allows the fear of the audience to increase as they can’t see if anyone is there.

The flashing of the torch alongside the breathing and ascending music also helps to build fear to the point at which the masked killer appears.

Editing

The pace of the editing slightly increases when the character realises that he has forgot the keys and when the lights fail to turn on as this is when he begins to fear the dark himself, it then speeds up further when he is walking down the corridor and repeatedly hear noises as it shows his panicked state as he realises he might not be alone in the dark.

Generic horrror narratives

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Audience Questionnaire Results

click here for audience questionnaire results

Questionnaire link

Audience Questionnaire