Light in Depth

LOW KEY LIGHTING

Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect. In traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination. Low-key lighting requires only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.

Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. The relative strength of key-to-fill, known as the lighting ratio, can be measured using a light meter. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio, e.g. 8:1, than high key lighting, which can approach 1:1.

The term "low key" is used in cinematography to refer to any scene with a high lighting ratio, especially if there is a predominance of shadowy areas. It tends to heighten the sense of alienation felt by the viewer, hence is commonly used in film noir and horror genres.

HIGH KEY LIGHTING

High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. This was originally done partly for technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal well with high contrast ratios, but now is used to suggest an upbeat mood. It is often used in sitcoms and comedies. High-key lighting is usually quite homogeneous and free from dark shadows.

In the 1950s and 1960s, high-key lighting was achieved through multiple light sources lighting a scene—usually using three fixtures per person (left, right, and central) —which resulted in a uniform lighting pattern with very little modeling. Nowadays, multiple hot light sources are substituted with much more efficient fluorescent soft lights which provide a similar effect.

The advantage to high-key lighting is that it doesn't require adjustment for each scene which allows the production to complete the shooting in hours instead of days. The primary drawback is that high-key lighting fails to add meaning or drama by lighting certain parts more prominently than others.

Most recently, shows with bigger budgets moved away from high-key lighting by using lighting set-ups different from the standard three-point lighting. Part of the reason for this is the advent of new lighting fixtures which are easier to use and quicker to set up. Another reason is the growing sophistication of the audience for TV programs and the need to differentiate.

The term "high-key" has found its way from cinema into more widespread usage, for example referring to an event that requires much organization or is subject to a great deal of publicity.

Study of lights!!

Light is electromagnetic radiation, particularly radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human eye. In physics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.

Lighting or illumination is the deliberate application of light to achieve some aesthetic or practical effect. Lighting includes use of both artificial light sources such as lamps and natural illumination of interiors from daylight. Daylighting (through windows, skylights, etc.) is often used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings given its low cost. Artificial lighting represents a major component of energy consumption, accounting for a significant part of all energy consumed worldwide. Artificial lighting is most commonly provided today by electric lights, but gas lighting, candles, or oil lamps were used in the past, and still are used in certain situations. Proper lighting can enhance task performance or aesthetics, while there can be energy wastage and adverse health effects of poorly designed lighting. Indoor lighting is a form of fixture or furnishing, and a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscaping.

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I picked up all the above information from Wikipedia.lol. But what I really want to highlight here is the fact that Lights are a perfect means to describe a humans beings mood.
But honestly, if you are in a dull mood you tend to sit in an area with low lighting. Your out partying the lighting tends to go with the music. Romantic dinner would be with a candle lit on the table in front of the moon. Feeling of being enlightened; early morning sunrise!!!

Below are some pictures I picked up from the internet describing different lighting scenes.

Low-intensity lighting and haze in a concert hall allows laser effects to be visible.

Daylight utilized at the train station Gare de l'est Paris.

A demonstration of the effects of different kinds of lighting.

A cloud illuminated by sunlight.
A city illuminated by light bulbs.

The grand opening

The following video shows the opening of the world's tallest building - The Burj Dubai. I thought before I start writing about my research on Lighting and projections It would be worthwhile to show this. If you look closely it looks like the building is shimmering but actually the shiny spots are the reflections of the camera flashes and firecrackers. I loved it !!

movies watched!!!

I saw some great movies over Christmas last year and found some amazing similarities with my experiments and what already exists. The following is a clip from the movie poltergeist. The lighting in this scene is exactly what I did in my previous experiment.





My favorite film was City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) directed by Fernando Meirelles. The reason I love this film is for the fact that not only is the story breathe taking but also the direction is unparalleled. Also this makes me come the point that I have no favorite director. I love the work done by many but it’s not necessary that they always give in their best. It’s too difficult for me to choose one.
The following is the list of movies I watched over Christmas.

1.) Poltergeist (1982) - Steven Spielberg.
2.) City of God (2002) - Fernando Meirelles.
3.) Being There (1979) - Hal Ashby.
4.) Satya (1998) – Ram Gopal Verma.
5.) Salaam Bombay (1988) – Mira Nair(After watching this movie you’ll forget slum dog Millionaire)
6.) Avatar (2009) - James Cameron.
7.) 3 idiots (2009) - Rajkumar Hirani.
8.) Sherlock Homes (2009) - Guy Ritchie.
9.) The Curse of the Jade Scorpain (2001) - Woody Allen.
10.) Phyco (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock.

Old VS. New

I have now studied the history of film where I looked at the following things: -

1.) Precursors of film.

2.) The birth of film.

3.) The silent era.

4.) The sound era.

These topics have helped me know all that I need and the fact that during the silent era live music was played during motion film has just changed my process of thinking.

The fact that the development of lighting started from the sheer reason to film for longer times during the day is inspiring and I wish to study this topic further…

I’ve read that at times instead of having actors during live plays objects and lights were used to emphasize on the character.

For E.G. if the play has a part about a king and his minister’s conversation; then there will be a throne and a couple of chairs and when the conversation keeps switching from one person to another the Spot lights are focused on each chair where the character is sitting and someone from behind recites the dialogues!

I wish to keep the museum interactive and lighting looks like a good solution. But we’ll C…

I feel the cinema museum is full of surprises and in order to emphasize this thought I made this pop up structure.

The following film is a sum up of my thoughts>>>

Starting point for research

After going to the museum and thinking about the client requirements I decided to go watch a movie for inspiration. And made a note of each and every thing I noticed during this journey. I went to Odeon Cinema at Marble Arch, London. The following are the things I noticed inside the theater.

• When people go to watch a movie they all come with something or the other going on in their heads. Some people are busy on their cell phones, a mother is shouting at her child to calm down and so on and so forth. But a few seconds before the movie starts the lights are turned off and the MOOD OF THE CROWD SUDDENLY CHANGES AND EVERY ONE IS QUIET.
• Also when the movie is actually on some people start living in the scene. If you were able to stand next to the screen facing the people you would see THE REFLECTION FROM THE SCREEN ON THEIR FACES AND THE COLORS KEEP CHANGING.

After this I looked back to the museum and thought on how I could use this to my advantage.
NOTE: the museum was very dark as they were trying to save electricity due to financial crises.
I made a collage of all the things I saw there so as to have a list of the stuff I saw with the theme of darkness in the back of my mind.



I decided to experiment further with this idea and made a walk through of what I think it should look like in there.




P.S. the walls of the walk through are inspired from the collage.

Cinema museum

The Cinema Museum, Kennington, London.
Nearest Tube: Elephant and Castle

My first impression of this site was like walking into a cave full of hidden treasure. They had stuff like the old projectors, cameras, old metal tickets etc. Basically it was a range of things starting from film production to film exhibition. The poster collection was like an ocean full of fishes; I was impressed. Although everything was very beautiful, it was very dark there and the place isn't very famous, at least I had never heard of it before. Also it lacked organization and needed a massive makeover. One thing that really hit me hard was the fact that you were not allowed to touch anything.

Client Requirements:-

1. The most important thing that they wanted to highlight on was the experience of going to a cinema.
2. Create an exhibition Space.
3. A space for private hire thereby generating some income.
4. Last but not the least, easy accessibility.
   

movies and thoughts

Finally I start, After a long research process this is my first ever blog...

I have been critically analyzing the history of cinema to increase my knowledge and understanding of this vast subject. During Christmas I was in India where I conducted a sort of survey in order to get into the minds of the people who go to movie theaters. What I understood from here was that people going to cinemas are not there to watch movies. Interestingly they are there because it is a place where some thing is going on and a group of individuals are there doing something or the other. For people, cinemas in India are equivalent to what temples were in ancient India. Movie stars are treated like gods and goddesses. A movie would be a definite hit if Mr. X or Mr. Y has a lead role. After a person walks out from a movie theater their recaction to the movie would be no longer than 10 words. For instance "what a beautiful film" or "the director didn't put in enough effort" or "pathetic!" or "waste of money" and so on and so forth. People are busy texting their mates about how good/bad the movie is when they are actually sitting and watching. They are not interested on what is happening and how things are rolling in the movie till the time a celebrity star shows up. Once he/she is there people are busy whistling and shouting or talking about how good or bad the actor/actress looks. With such results I have managed to find a very few Indian directors who are good at what they do. Most of them are well trained not well educated. All in all it was a weird and astonishing study.

Strangely I also noticed that movie theaters in India are a thousand times better than the ones in London, starting from the seats to the ambiance,everything, even the pop corns but I still wonder why???