Lighting

Key

Key light highlights the form and dimension of a subject, with the use of 3 lights including the key light a three dimensional affect is achieved to make the subject stand out against the background. If just a key light is used, the background may not be very luminated and thus we focus on the subject.





Fill

Fill light's purpose is to reduce contrast in a shot, and therefore illuminates darker or shadowy parts in the set. It is often softer and less intense than key light so as not to lighten the shadow too much. As seen in this picture, the fill light is illuminating the grey background so there is less contrast between the subject and it (unlike the picture above in key light).







Back

The purpose of back light is to illuminate the subject from behind, it can be natural or artificial light. The viewer and the back light face each other with the subject in between them, as a result the subject appears glowy around the edges (halo effect) and some parts may appear shadowed. It can be used to create a silhouette effect.





High key

High key lighting's purpose is to reduce the lighting ratio in a shot by reducing the amount of shadow in the shot. So the shot is fairly bright. However, since the whole shot is brightened high key l is not very good at creating meanigful semiotic lighting as you can't really make subjects lighter or darker than others since the ratio is less.





Rim

Rim light, like back light, illuminates the subject from behind and directly faces the camera. Because of this, the light must be blocked out by the subject. This creates a slight rim of light around the subject, as seen on the right hand side of this image. It is a kind of back light, where the light is usually placed right behind the subject.






 
Chiarosauro

Chiarosauro is when there is a strong contrast of light and darkness in a shot or a painting, etc. The great contrast can be used to volumise subject to create three dimensions out of two dimensions in a painting, or the strong contrast could be representative of something.

Working Title Visit

 This gone Tuesday (5th April) a group of media students from years 11 - 13 ventured down to London to visit Working Title Films - and I was among them! We spent the morning talking to a variety of staff that worked at Working Title including Tim Bevan (founder and co-chairman), Sarah Jane Wright (Production), interns from different areas (including runners, a projectionist and creative executive) as well as Anthony Hines (writer & producer - famous for Borat, Bruno, Ali G). This post is a summary of what we found out from talking to the people of Working Title.

Tim Bevan

• Working Title is unlike other British film companies as it receives Hollywood funding from Universal Pictures. Who also come into play regarding distribution of films made, as well as funding for them.
• The large departments at Working Title include business affairs, finding new film ideas & hiring script writers/pitching (creativity) and production. The main things done in production include packaging the film; gathering cast, crew, sorting a budget, etc. After this is done the package will be shown to Universal, if they 'green-light' it, it will get made.
• When releasing arthouse films (the majority of Working Title film) a safe film will often be released at the same time that is aimed at families for example (like Johnny English), to ensure the entire year isn't a total flop.
• Also, we found out that the most difficult kind of film to make is one that is very historically fact based- as there is a lot of legal things to go through to ensure the event is portrayed accurately and persons involved are protected, etc.
• When questioned about piracy, Bevan was sure that cinema sales would generally not be affected as people go to the cinema for the unique experience as oppose to just watching a film. However, DVD sales are reasonably affected by piracy in relation to Working Title and Bevan hopes that there will be some form of download service in the future where a customer can download a film for a cheaper price than buying it on DVD, so the customers get a fair deal and the film industry doesn't lose out.

Sarah Jane Wright

• Informed us that films under the Drama genre were less favoured by the public, and seeing that most Working Title films are Drama-based this was a problem at the time as Universal simply wouldn't green-light Drama films.
• Closure of the UK Film Council won't affect Working Title as much as others such as upcoming talent and independant films companies- sees it as a government message that they don't value the industry/see how important it is (for economy, etc).
• Working Title prefer to film in Britan when appropriate and possible (all of Atonement was filmed in the UK, mainly resident locations), but filming location are often comprimsed by rebates gained from filming in foreign countires (e.g. filming in Hungary receives a 20% rebate). Also, studio spaces in the UK are limited, so other locations need to be considered.
• Info on Atonement included: it was shot in 62 days, cost £17million (cheap for period drama), more location shooting than building sets as its more economical. Good team chemistry & effort and brilliant Director, rewarding.
• Dunkirk shot in Atonement - soldiers were actual 500 local army boys (paid little, wanted experience), every three rows are so tiled (a lot cheaper than CGI). Waited until right time to catch sunset, limited amount of time to get it just right - rehearsed over and over.

BAFTA Best British Film Nominees - what do you think made them eligible for this?

Best british film award baft as nominees

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