Thursday 15 October 2015

Lighting in Thrillers


Lighting in Thrillers

In Thrillers, low key lighting is often used to create and show the eerie mood of the music and story. The low key lighting also highlights the shadows and detail of the scene in extreme close up shots. A combination of high and low key lighting can also emphasise detail. 

An example of lighting in Thrillers is this close up shot of fingers in the opening of the 1995 movie Seven has a contrast of light where the forefront of the shot is extremely dark and the background is gloomy. The tips of the fingers themselves are highlighted by a bright light from above. Dark lighting helps to give the film a gloomy mood and help to make the audience feel more suspense towards the film when they see this gloomy light contrast with the brighter fingers with makes them stand out and seem out of place.

Another example of lighting in Thrillers is at the end of Fight Club (1999) where the Narrator and Marla are standing by each other and looking outside of the window. This image makes good use of lighting as there is a contrast of colors with the blue tinge of the natural, night sky and the black silhouettes of the Narrator and Marla. There is also the bright lights produced by the explosives that cause the buildings to collapse.

Lighting is also used effectively in the opening of Sixth Sense in the first shot of film after the titles. This shot is of a light bulb and sets an ominous feeling that evil is surrounding this bulb. The surrounding darkness indicates a call out for an evil character or antagonist to appear and to infiltrate the life of the protagonist. The bulb itself and the light it produces shows the audience that the evil has not fully taken over and that Dr. Malcolm Crowe is still present but has not got rid of the evil that the darkness brings. This happens as Vincent Grey shows up and shoots and kills Dr. Malcolm Crowe in cold blood before killing himself. This single shot uses lighting so effectively that it shows what will happen in the opening of the film through metaphoric imagery.








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