(Suspiria 1977)

 

One aspect of video creation I really want to explore during this class is creative lighting, especially in terms of using lighting to convey a theme or mood rather than just to look cool.

A couple of films I have recently viewed that I draw from as inspiration for our music video are the 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria, and the 2013 film Only God Forgives with Ryan Gosling.

(Only God Forgives 2013)

These films use some breathtaking lighting setups that immediately draw you into the world. I especially want to draw from Only God Forgives’ use of neon lighting which I think evokes a lot of emotion and seems to have its own personality on the screen when i is used. Suspiria on the other hand is a marvel in how it uses such vivid colours to evoke strong emotional responses, especially in the late 70s where everything had to be done on site and couldn’t be drastically altered in the editing suite like we can do nowadays.

“We had many good directors – John Carpenter, Brian De Palma – but things have become polluted by business, money and bad relationships. The success of the horror genre has led to its downfall.” – Dario Argento (Suspiria director)