Lighting Research

For lighting research I decided to focus on looking at mainly film noir lighting and its typical techniques and methods of using a high contrast between light and dark, its long shadows and dimly lit and moody environments. After all my short animation is a thriller and concerns itself with a hit-man. Film Noir films in the 1950s were black and white and usually focussed on the crime thriller genre and hit-men did feature in these sort o films. I particularly chose to research film noir purely for its effective lighting which helped to convey a particularly gritty and mysterious moody atmosphere, which also managed to have a very artistic slant. Great abstract techniques can be used to achieve some very interesting lighting setups which can make the shot have more of an emotional impact. For example slits of light were used a lot to highlight the eyes of an actor or actress to achieve a dramatic shot to convey fear, shock or thought.

Film Noir "literally means "black film" or "dark film" which French critics named these new unusual but artistic American films. Film Noir generally utilizes strong directional lighting and deep shadows that initially derived from German expressionism in the 1920s.

I also looked at lighting used in Blade Runner (1982) as it is probably the best use of lighting I have every seen in a movie that is used as a tool to convey the period, emotion and mood. Despite that "Blade Runner" is set in the future and filmed in colour, it encompasses all of the classic elements of Film Noir in both plot and visual style. Ridley Scott did use "Citizen Kane" as a template for the look that he wanted in Blade Runner. Themes that link most Film Noir films together are moral ambiguity in plot and characters, a sense of pessimism and alienation.

What I hope to achieve is to replicate these examples and methods of lighting. I intend to use light to help to tell the story and convey emotion. My favourite genres are fantasy and science fiction, however with this project I wanted to do something different and more mature in content. This is why I have chosen to do a story about a hit-man in an awkward situation. I want the visuals in as far as composition, mood and lighting to be an homage to the Film Noir genre. I want to emulate a classical feel in a contemporary setting, and instead of black and white I shall use colour to convey the protagonist's morality, motivation and emotions to the audience.