In this task we aimed to expand on the first experiment about silhouette and take our gained knowledge and use this tool in a Neo Noir style scene. We aimed to light this scene with contrasting neon colours featuring a victim sitting on a chair before a shooter with a gun appears from the shadows and pulls his trigger. Using the depth in the room and creative lighting we aimed to utilise our time to stylistically create silhouettes of both the shooter and the victim in different shots while changing the distribution of colours in the scene. 

Before this experiment I undertook some research to base our visual style off. John Wick (2014) from director Chad Stahelski and Cinematographer Jonathon Sela proved to be a great resource. Using contrasting warm and cool neon colours in neo noir shootout scene proved to be the perfect inspiration for our piece. We decided to adopt a similar colour pallete to our experiment. We also toyed with the idea of colour associations and how this might affect the perceptions of our characters. For Example Red is associated with danger in the human brain while blue is associated with safety.

In shot 1, we decided to give the victim a silhouette with a red edge light off to his side. While the shooter moves through the scene behind him before illuminating himself in harsh neon green. The Colour contrast between the bright blue background and red foreground comes across very aesthetically pleasing and seems to have some emotional undertones. (see link below)

In shot 2, we attempted to keep the shooter completely silhouetted and the victim lit with a red key light and contrasting green edge light. This colour combination still gives the victim an evil feel due to the red key light while the completely silhouetted shooter in front of a blue background has a safe, trustworthy feeling. (see link below)

In shots 3 and 4, we turned the lighting combinations around with cooler colours in the foreground and warmer colours in the background. We kept the same lighting setup as the previous shot yet the feeling of the image changed substantially. The victim for the first time seemed like the “good guy” and the shooter seemed to have sinister intentions. (see link below)

Shot 5 was an experiment within the experiment. We tried to create a different angle of the scene while keeping its sinister neo noir tone. The shot features the victim still sitting in blue light with the shooter emerging from the subtle shadows and his gun illuminated in red. The setup for this shot required two cutters in between the blue and red lights. The goal in this shot was to have the gun correctly exposed with the rest of the shooters body only slightly illuminated which is what we have successfully achieved. (see link below)

Overall this experiment gave me the opportunity to build on our last task and experiment with coloured lighting in a filmic situation. It was interesting how lighting the characters in different colours could enhance or detract from their motivations. Adding emotion through colour is something I wouldn’t usually consider doing and am now keen to pursue this technique further on future endeavours.

Scene Link – https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hLbkzKXf-npzS9CFDnX9_hP6A7NGEiTC