This week in Film Study I learned about the art of cinematography. Cinematography is the art of making motion pictures. More specifically I would like to talk about the use of light in the motion pictures. This is because I feel like this is the most important topic I have learned this week.
The use of light can make or break a scene. For instance a properly lit scene can in theory convey all the feelings that the director wants without any words. However a badly lit scene can and will cause the audience to not be able to follow what is going in the scene and confuse everybody. That is the ultimate fear of a cinematographer and a director in general.
One movie that I feel has really good lighting is Django Unchained, a film I reached during the course of the week. One scene in particular that I feel exemplifies this notion of good lighting is when we first get the chance to meet Django at the beginning of the film. In it Dr. Schultz played by Christoph Waltz is looking for a slave from the Karucken plantation, who happens to be Django himself. However the audience is able to know this because of the lighting that Tarantino uses to identify Django. When Schultz is asking the salves which one is from the Karucken plantation and the camera goes to a shot of the slaves, Django is slightly silhouetted by a back light. We as an audience are able to deduce that this salve is a major player in the story because of the way that he is lit. This is also important because the scene itself is set at night in the 1800s so the only source of light are oil lamps that the Peck brothers(slavers) kept with them. So the slight illumination of Django is a stark difference to the overall blackness of the night.
Another movie that I feel has really good lighting is Schindler’s List. This movie is just on another level than other modern movies because it is in black and white. When films are in black and white the story telling is conveyed not in colors but in the lighting itself. Throughout the film, Oskar Schindler’s face is usually veiled in shadow with a high light to dark ration. This is used to symbolize the various complexities of his character and how he struggles with being a good man during the time of the Nazis. Another thing this film does right in terms of lighting is the ability to establish certain characters in such a way that they seem important. For instance in the scene when Schindler is trying to bargain with Goeth, an important official in the Nazi Party. In it Goeth is illuminated in such a way that it establishes him as the leader of the group. He is also illuminated in such a way that the shadows show his ruthless side and his ruthlessness in general.
So in conclusion, lighting is of the more important concepts of cinematography because it can make or break a scene. Good lighting can stick with us and be an important storytelling technique. Bad lighting on the other hand can and will break a scene causing it to become confusing.
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justinhamilton2000 