Research: Mise en scene: lighting and colour - MS B

Mise en scene: lighting and colour

What is lighting and colour? Why is it an important convention?

In a thriller based film, the lighting of the scene helps to convey mood and atmosphere, it can be used to guide the audiences attention to a particular object. The colour used in a scene is also

very important as it will get the audience interested of what is about to be shown.

Angles of Lighting:

• Under Lighting - this is when the light reflects from below to the person. This tends to have a disturbing effect on the character.

• Top Lighting - comes from above highlighting the feathers of the characters.

• Back lighting - light source is behind the person. If no light is used this creates fear or disgust. 

Types of Lighting:

• Low Key - the lighting is dark with small areas of light. 

• High Key - appears to be more natural and realistic.

What type of lighting is conventional in thrillers and why?

In a action thriller it is conventional that the director uses High Key as lighting because

it will show the action scene as natural as possible and this is guide the audience to feel like

a part of the action scene.

Colour and Lighting in scenes - examples 


This is a cover of a horror thriller and the director has used dark colours to present the characters role, as black, navy and brown are negative colours. Also 2 types of lighting have been used; first one is Under Lighting as the light reflects at the characters` face, shadowing her eyes and sides of her cheeks. This creates an disturbing image of the little girl.

                                                               




 This scene is from Paranormal Activity and the  producers has used Low Key lighting as we as an audience could only see some areas of the scene.
This indicates that this scene creates a nervous tension as we dont know what to except
 and we cannot see the scene in detail. 

 

What types of colours are conventional in thrillers and why?

Colours in scenes have different connotations to them and give different interpretations of the scene such as a Light coloured scene with bright colours is used in Romance as the lightness of the colours present love and warmth. On the other hand, Dark coloured scenes are ,mostly used in Crime, Action and Horror Thrillers as the darkness of the colours show evilness, wealth and torture.

Thriller scene analyse  - THE MOON AND THE GUTTER

The opening scene from The Moon and the Gutter introduces us to a scene of red, the first micro element we see is the colour red as this is a sign of what the film might be about a red indicates death or cruelness. The whiteness of the female characters dress, represents her innocence and love, Low key lighting creates suspense and creates a brain teaser as it feels like a mystery. Furthermore, top lighting is also used supporting the use of low key lighting. Top lighting used allows the audience to see the clearly the speed that the characters walk at, This illustrates fear and anxiety.

 

Conclusion

From this research, I now clearly understand how important it is to present your Thriller film, in different lighting angles as it creates emotion. When creating my own Thriller, I will use Under lighting where the light comes below the character, This may present my characters as powerful, disturbing and capable. I then will use Back lighting which light tends to come behind the character, if I use this lighting effect then this will create solid scenes and characters. When using these two lighting effects, I will use High key Lighting also as to illustrate my Thriller as a natural and realistic Thriller. Using High key Lighting is a firm way to present my characters as my characters will look realistic.