Quentin Tarantio, aged 52 from Knoxville, Tennessee, USA is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer and actor. His work has been noted for many years in the non linear violence and action styled films. He was often criticzed for his use of gore and blood as it was sometimes seen as repulsive to watch. Other than that he is also a cinema genius when it comes to the image and setting of his films and are most considered cult classics.

Tarantino expresses a large variety of bright overhead light sources thought his film, most of his films have spotlights or key lights positioned on the main characters to express dominance.

Kill Bill Vol. 1. (2004)

Django Unchained. (2012)

 

Pulp Fiction. (1994)

Inglourious Basterds. (2009)

Each of the shots I have shown above in my “Spotlight on Quentin Tarantio” express a well known technique used by Tarantio, which is the key light or hard light source from above. This technique is used in a particular way to highlight the certain character he is wanting to show. Most of these hard light sources are from artificial light in the room but he does express some from natural lighting which creates a strong use of shadow. In his indoor shots he uses a fill light to create an even spread, unless he is creating tension or a dramatic effect like many other directors the strong use of shadow usually come into play along with the dark representation.

In respect, of the recent death of American Mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Nash, I chose the film “A Beautiful Mind” directed by Ron Howard (2001).

The film was set in the late 1940, depicting the life story of John Nash and the struggles he went through. The film starts off with him as a young student, and ends with him as an old man.

The found scene I chose to explore is the car chase seen which involves John Nash, William Parcher and the ‘Soviet agents’. The scene is already shown in the dark, very low lit mostly by street lights which are noticed as they reflect off Nash’s face as he leaves the mail box.

What I love about this particular scene is the artificial lights and how its added to the scene to construct a very dramatic representation of panic, thrill and paranoia. The emotions the audience gathers from this setting in the scene is dark and scary. Nash walks up to a large creepy house with a large creaky fence and just a single lamp post to light up the area Nash is walking in.

Opening shot of he scene.
Big black fence opening to an unknown house where John Nash enters to deliver his work. The shot is very very dark and lit by only the one artificial street light from above. This creates a sense of mystery and tension.

This shot is of Nash leaving the unknown mystery house in a hurry to not be seen. That one artificial light has created an extreme amount of shadows on the house behind Nash as he leaves as well as a hard light source on the right side of frame highlighting his left side of his body.

The two shots above is of Parcher, rolling the car up to get Nash, as people are following them. What I love most about this show is it has a transition where you can see the car rolling up and its two lights and then ends on the hard light shown on Nash’s face from the car. It created this almost deer caught in headlight effect, which the audience can sense from his face as the car stops just in front.

As Nash enters the car Parcher frantically talks to Nash, alarming him of a chase. The light of the car behind him creates a very hard backlight which creates a very dramatic representation on his character, which works well in the shot as it is a thrill type scene.

This shot is beyond fantastic. The glare on the screen highlights the artificial light source depicted. What you can see is a hard backlight behind him from a street light creating that white outline around his character. It also has a hard key light positioned in front of him depicting the car following, which you can clearly see as his eyes light up showing his emotion of stress and panic.

This shot follows on from the one above, but the light source from the car behind them is much more intense and highlights John Nash in distress. It shows as if the car behind them is very very close. The backlight from behind is in a way washed out.

This shot justifies the light source from behind. From this particular angle we can see light sources from the street lights as well as the car behind chasing. The bullet hole/break in the window has a hard light edge which I think creates a more intense representation as they are in full frame.

As I was searching lighting, I came across lighting ratios. This never seemed to have occurred to me but was something I found interesting and was something I could investigate. I found this table that was able to help me understand a bit more on how it all worked etc.

1:1 – No difference (flat lighting)

2:1 – One f-stop (for general colour photography, videography)

4:1 – Two f-stops (for low-key dramatic effect)

8:1 – Three f-stop (film noir)

Lighting can create a range of different effects, which I have explored throughout my investigation. But there are several ways to improve these lights, whether its natural or artificial. In this post I hope to explore the use of reflectors, diffusers and flags in film and how they are presented on screen.

Reflectors are great if you’re wanting to fill in the shadows and/or highlight the “natural” light or artificial light source on the character you’re aiming at.

A diffuser is used to soften and smooth the image on the screen. It is used with the light source on the object and/or individual is too hard.

A flag (which in my research finally realised what this was called) is used to block the light and deepen the shadows using a black card or ‘flags’. This particular object is used primarily for blocking the sun or natural light coming from inside the window or outside use. This would only be used inside if you were wanting to use artificial lighting to create an even balance.

Low key lighting is technically the complete opposite of high key lighting arrangements. The low key fill light is very low, creating a large amount of shadows. This highlights the dark and light parts positioned in the frame.

This lighting technique is commonly used and is more effective in film noir productions as well as gangster and crime films as it presents a very dark and mysterious atmosphere. Low key lighting is just seen as an overall darker image compared to the high key lighting.

When researching low key lighting I came across this example from the film “The Dark Night”

The shot begins with low key lighting from two visible sources. The lamp of the desk, and the florescent light behind Detective Gordon. The darkness behind The Joker, creates and off screen space. Ultimately a big dark shadow. Then to end this particular shot sequence I have presented above is Detective Gordon, standing in front of the police door, that florescent light that was once behind him is now directly above him, showing us a full visual of his face and expressions. It bounces off the wall, but is intended to create a large source of shadow on his character, as it is a very intense scene in the film.

High Key lighting involves the fill lighting, used in the three point lighting technique, to be increased to nearly the same level as the key light itself. This extra illuminated light can make a scene appear very bright and soft, also showing very few shadows.
This particular lighting technique can be found in musicals and comedies, especially in the classic Hollywood era of film.

An example of this high-key lighting was from the film “The Wizard of Oz” (1939). It created a very bright, soft and vibrant look in the image.

 

Traditionally, Filmmakers use three types of lights.

• A main key light in front of and/or to one side of the subject
• A fill light, half as bright as a key light. Usually placed on the opposite side to reduce and soften the shadows
• A rim light, to make the edge of the subject stand out from the background setting. Backlighting is also used as a forth source of lighting.

The image to the right is how each of the lights work on their own. Each create their own type of dramatic change. Fill light being soft and smooth. Rim light as well as backlighting creates the hard and/or soft edge around the characters body from behind, and key light is a very dominant light which lights up the entire setting of the shot, but can create shadows depending on where it is placed.

These are diagram versions of a basic 3 point lighting set up.

Each of these set ups are made to create an even spread of light on the character. This particular set up can be found in interview, live air or even large house/restaurant settings which allow the audience to see a wide, even spread of lighting.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) also used the three-point scheme throughout the film. There is enough contrast in the backlight and highlight, that the people in the crowded scenes are distinguishable from one another.

Black and white films were once the only type of films made, and the thought of colour films was almost too good to be true and something of the future.

Although now days we only view films in colour, we see black and white films as a scary, mysterious, dark, very old school or even showing the past (in colour films), which is why I would like to explore how lighting was used in this particular medium to convey a different emotion.

Pretty much lighting in black and white films was the most important and influential source they could have and play around with. You could highlight a particular person, enhance the setting of the scene and overall change the mood of the entire film. Although we see black and white as a scary/mysterious view, it was here, lighting became crucial in making sure that effect didn’t happen.

Lighting and contrast in film noir style can enhance the brutality of a violent scene. For example lighting is kept dark, conveying a sense of panic and confusion

 

The lighting shown in this film is a hard back light, which highlights the edge of the character shown in the shot. What is also presented is a very soft fill light in the background which has a diffuser on it which is what has made the soft edge as well as that glow effect surrounding her image. This is the one of many ways directors used lighting in black and white films to enhance it perception of a happy/positive film

This lighting technique was used in most and almost all horror films in black and white. It’s an easy way to enhance the characters image and facial expression. It also creates a strong use of shadow which is what creates this mysterious and almost vicious representation of the person or thing.
The light is positioned below the character and is usually a very hard light with no diffuser.

This shot, (which I have mentioned in other blog posts, The Clockwork Orange) is known as a very hard black light. This particular lighting technique is positioned behind the character and presents only a black figure in the shot. This is due to no light source shown at all on the face of the characters. It can be seen as mysterious or unknown depending on the situation.

The shot I have shown uses smoke to diffuse the light so it doesn’t come across scary, almost heroic.

Personally I love this shot. The light creates intense shadows on the individual but the light source seems to be coming from outside the window of the mans office, leaving the blind lines on the face of his character. This is commonly used in crime films, to give more of an extreme mystery look.

This shot is from the film “It’s A Wonderful Life”. A heart felt and moving film, which surrounds christmas. (It’s a great family film highly recommend!!!!)

The shot I chose, is a very openly lit shot. It uses the family house lights as well as an artificial light source etc Fill light. Every character is brightly represented, you can see the emotions on all their faces and it enhances the positive moment the family has as they all hug together.

Going on with my previous post on colour lighting I found it would be silly of me not to explore the work of Wes Anderson himself.

Each of his films use an unbelievable about of colour, but each of the colours presented in the shots are there for a reason. They are there to express emotion through detail. Now I could do about 50 blog posts on the colour palette Anderson has used throughout his films but my investigation is directly on lighting itself.

Each of the shots below are from the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

What I love about this shot is that it is clearly lit up just by a white artificial fill light, but the pink and blue objects surrounding the two characters has allowed the light to bounce of them and create a pink tinge on the faces.

 

A soft diffuser was also used in this shot giving it a soft feature.

This shot is of M. Gustave in prison. The blue light positioned behind his character, the bluely grey features on the wall and on the prison uniform creates a sense of cold, bitter and distort representation.

 

A hard backlight as well as a fill light was also used in this shot.
The hard light is to create an edge around M. Gustave and the fill light is to see the background setting.

The shots below are from some of Wes Anderson’s other films, that use lighting.

Hotel Chevalier.

Yellow in terms of colour is considered a happy colour and very positive yet her body language and emotions indicate the opposite. If you look into more detail she has a small window behind her head with natural lighting depicting daylight, yet she has two lamps on in her room, which is also there to create shadow.

Moonrise Kingdom.

This shot from the film is depicting natural lighting as it is set and presented outside.

Usually a diffuser and a reflector was used to soften the light on the characters/objects faces.

Lighting and colour are quite similar in the way they work. They can both create a particular emotion as well as set an entire shot or overall construct an entire scene to the way the director or art director is wanting to achieve.

For example director Wes Anderson is probably the most notable when it come to the use of colour, lighting and mixing the two together to contract a scene.

You can use colour to change the mood of your shot. You can also choose the colours of things to include in the shot like backgrounds, furniture and costumes.

Films that I found use the use of colour lighting to the extreme is “Only God Forgives”, “The Terminator”, “The Matrix” and most of Wes Anderson’s films.

Shot from the film “Only God Forgives”

This film is extraordinary in the use of their colours. The scene I’m about to show below is positioned in a bar and is only lit up by the artificial lights.

The use of red and blue lighting used created a very mellow, almost depressing representation, which went along with the help of the music . This particular lighting replicates the exact version of what the inside a club/bar would look like which I feel the lighting has established the setting perfectly.
The low lighting from the reds and blues allowed the character (played by Ryan Gosling) to have a lot of shadows, which created a sense of mystery, and darkness within his character representation.

What I found is the lighting in this scene set up an automatic emotional response to the audience. What we saw throughout the lighting is exactly how the director was intending to pursue. The only time we see a harsh light is on the asian woman standing up, she is obviously distressed and does not want to be there. This lighting almost highlighted her character.

The scene ends on a complete opposite lighting that was portrayed throughout the start. The lighting represented is very orange/yellow set up. Here it can be seen as positive colours in colour terms, but the way the director has created it was the complete opposite as he drags the man down the hallway.

After these investigations I found that lighting can create a huge impact on how a films scene/shot/coverage are all represented.