Film: Making Meaning 1 Micro Element: Lighting A guide to developments in lighting and associated terms and styles
Conventional Three-Point Lighting Set-Up Back light or kick light
Fill light
Key light or main light
The Back Light (or Kick Light) Back light – positioned behind the subject in frame, separates the subject from its background.
= gives depth to the mise en scène, stops the character being absorbed into a flat backdrop. Creates a long, or deep, depth of field
The Main Light (or Key Light) Key light/front light/main light – is often positioned near the camera, pointing toward the subject
= lighting the scene or subject for the audience to see and comprehend. Can be quite stark used on its own
The Fill Light Fill light (or side light) is usually positioned at an angle and to the front of the subject.
The fill light adds definition and depth to a subject. It produces what we call modelling, where the surface of the subject reveals any ripples, bumps or hollows
Flat Light Flat light is rubbish.
It’s very dull and uninteresting
2 point lighting
Low-Key Lighting
Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now
High-Key Lighting Common in musicals, especially those from MGM Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes
Chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro is the use of dramatic lighting and the dramatic contrast of light and dark. The sense of drama serves to give the image an emotional power this originates in art and is a feature of the Baroque style.
Source or diegetic lighting
Diegesis – the world within the narrative. Diegetic sound and lighting are part of the character’s world, they’ll be as aware of it in the story
Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977)
Expressionistic
Can connote a feeling or emotion
Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1944)
Noir
Expressionistic, low-key lighting and chiaroscuro effects are part of the film noir style/genre
Contrast Low contrast
High contrast
Saturated Drenched in one or sometimes more colours.
Lurid
Shining or glowing with an overly bright or unpleasant colour Examples: •a lurid neon sign •the lurid lighting of a nightclub •‘The light from the fire cast a lurid glow on everything’.