Lights and the Symbolism

Lights! That's what I'm writing about today, no camera or action. Personally, I know very little about lighting. I just notice that lights can be symbolic when used correctly. It's also something I thought "Hey the sun can take care of this"-type thing. When you watch behind the scenes featurettes or B-roll clips, lighting a scene takes a lot more effort than I thought. For example, a lot of the time the crew would use reflectors that help light a scene. They also use more lights behind the camera, in addition to the lights in the shot/natural lighting.

For my film, I am shooting at night, so natural lighting is out of the picture (sorry Inarritu). But my house is has a lot of lighting outside that can make the shot well lit, in addition to lights inside the house (obviously). What I want to do is use lighting to convey a struggle between good and evil in the main character. When the character walks through the dark, he tenses up. When he walks through the light, he looks more conflicted, until the end, when the character's little brother opens his door (and there's a cool silhouette of the character and the knife) , the character becomes tense and walks into his room.

I think that this gives the opening another layer, and this addition would separate me from the rest of the film openings that I've heard from my classmates. I think that this is going to be really good. Now this is hoping I finish my steadicam before I leave for Houston over the weekend. That would push back plans, but I have plenty of time. 

Until next time.