Brick

Video Lighting: Brick

High Key: This type of lighting seems to be used predominantly throughout the film. Many of the scenes have been shot either outdoors or during daylight hours, which would require a high key approach for appropriate lighting effect. Of course for outdoor shots a natural source of light would be used.

Low Key-: Though for the most part this film requires the use of high-key lighting, the low-key elements have been used to proper effect during scenes such as the ‘party’, and outdoor night shots. For the party scenes, it helps create a sort of mood reflective of Halloween, which is the theme of the party.

Outside shots at the party use natural light to effect events taking place, such as the shady meeting between his new lady friend and an unknown character. The use of a streetlight is the major source of light, as they are so far from the house that no light from the party would be visible in a real life scenario.

Dogma, Heat, Elephant, Sin City, Jaws

Dogma: Sound

  Narration is ‘synch to picture’ throughout the film, with the exception of Metatron’s booming self-introduction as he first appears on screen.  Practical music is used in three of the scenes that we saw. Background music at the train station to create a realistic atmosphere is one instance. Another is the church organ as the new statue of ‘Buddy Christ’ is revealed. The lighthearted, almost comical style of music being played, is to employ the churches ‘hip’ new approach to promoting religion through the Buddy Christ symbol.The last instance of practical music is at the abortion clinic. A contrasting style of music is used here. As anti abortion protesters are heckling a staff member, instead of a serious tone in the music, the opposite is used, which reflects her mocking attitude towards them. This music carries over to the next scene as music from a radio in the office. Extraneous is predominant through the rest of the scenes and is tied in with a lot of effects to create an appropriate mood. As Loki and Bartlebey enter the train, after discussing their plan of a massacre, music suggesting a mischievous intention between them changes to an epic, heavy impact tone as the movie title appears.Effects such as the sound of flies for any appearance of the 3 demons, or evil screaming noises added for introduction of Azrael, help define these characters the evil villains of the film. Another time that a more epic tone in the music is used is as Metatron is introducing himself. Along with this, his voice is echoed to make him sound mighty, and flames/fire sound effects are added to help define his character- a holy messenger of God.   

Heat: Lighting

 A combination of high key and low-key lighting is used. There is a prominent use of natural light. Apartment- the source of light is from the windows, coming from behind the actors in both the bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen when Natalie Portman enters room. The unknown ‘shady’ characters have natural light on one side of face while the other side is darkened for effect. They are kept in shadow when possible. Vehicles have been hidden from light prior to heist scene. The truck used to ram the bank van only enters into light at the point of impact. Dampened light used inside the van to reduce glare off of the smoke from the explosion. Any natural light is fading quickly due to time of day. In the car park only overhead lighting is used. At the crime scene, light sources come from flashlights, streetlights, and a main light overhead, positioned to side of the actors to cast slight shadows on their faces. The bodies in complete shadow cast across them by the van. Elephant: Lighting 

Natural light used in opening scene. We can see the reflection of trees on the car windscreen at all times. Again only natural lighting was needed for the following scene in the park. Even though it was an overcast day, natural light suits the mood and the accompanying music. Background characters under trees are in shadow to enhance the main actor.

Reflective and natural light can be seen in the hallways and stairwell of the school. Reflection of the surrounding environment is visible in the glass door as he heads outside.

All shots are so far from behind the actor till this point. Sharp light on the actor’s face when he turns around, then fades back to shadowed (natural).

Patches of bright outside light can be seen under the classroom blinds. Actors fade in and out of light and shadow through unlit hallways, which again means using only natural light.

 Sin City: Lighting 

The black and white colouring used throughout the film is to recreate the effect of Frank Miller’s original comic book series. This means relying heavily on low-key lighting and background lighting. We could also be seeing ‘day to night’ lighting used in this film for some scenes.

Most overhead lighting is added digitally.

Headlights are very bright – low-key.

Focused lighting on important objects – low-key.

Bruce Willis is lit from the sides but not the front. The background is well lit to enhance scenery.

Shadow cast of the captor of girl victim to be the main image in the unlit room- high contrast. This character comes out of the shadows when he first enters the scene for dramatical effect.

A flouro colouring is used for blood- high contrast.

Water is reflecting background light in a ripple effect light. Heavy overhead light for the end of act one on the pier- low-key.

We first see Marv as a shadow, looking from outside the window, making the light of his room predominant- high contrast.

Goldie’s hair and the bedspread are coloured. Strong light on her hair to further enhance the colour, which is important for her character (Goldie).

The killer’s glasses are completely white whilst his body is shadowed, giving an impact of how scary and dangerous his character is. Backlight is used for killer to further enhance his glasses.

The white of the band-aids on Marv is very strong whilst his body is shadowed to enhance them.

Any colour used throughout the film is only for special reason, to focus on only 1 or 2 items in a scene.

 Jaws: Lighting 

Underwater opening scene shows ripples of light from a natural source (sun/moon)- high key.

Firelight- low-key, is supposed to be the only light source on the beach apart from moonlight, but it seems other light sources may have been used.

Moonlight is the only source used in the attack scene (for mood lighting), apart from the fading sun, which is almost completely down and is only used as a back shot of the girl when she stops swimming.

Natural light is coming through bedroom window. Windows on different sides of the room cover actors from all angles, also casting shadows of the window frames over the room. Light through windows casting shadows of frames over room.

Light from the sun shadows the inflatable raft for the second attack scene- high contrast for effect of what the shark is seeing. The murkiness of the water changes the mood to the shark’s world, adding a darker feel, a sense of dread and suspense to the scene for the impending attack.

Fight Club

Film: Fight Club

The opening scene is actually set at the end of the film. This is to pose the question of how did he come to be in this situation? As mentioned in the lecture, we can see the effect but we won’t find the cause till we return to this scene in the final act.

From her the film cuts to an earlier scene, then back again to an even earlier scene. So far the timeline of the film has gone from the final scene, to a scene that would usually be towards the end of the first act, and finally back to the start of the story.

During the office scene, you see a flash shot of Tyler that is barely visible.  This is a sign of his descent into schizophrenia.

With the support groups, they cut from one group to another in quick succession- continuity cutting.

During a group session, they instantly cut from his face to Marla’s lighter as it sparks, going back and forth each time. This would be to focus in on his frustration and growing infatuation with her

Sound- Transformers

Digital Video: Sound

Transformers

Narrative:

                  Voice of god narrative has been used as an introduction to the film, where Optimus Prime tells the audience about the conflict between Autobots and Decepticons, and that the ‘cube’ has landed on earth. These events all took place before the film’s starting point thus setting up the film.Character based narrative is used when Sam, the lead character, talks to his class about his great, great, grandfather’s trek into the Antarctic. He is first shown on screen visibly talking to his class, then as the scene changes to images of his grandfather, the narrative carries over to off screen. Music:             Extraneous-Dramatic music is used during the initial conflict at the army base to reinforce the seriousness of the scene. As a Decepticon lays to waste everything in its path, the music appropriately creates a sense of dread and awe, which is intended to draw the audience onto the same emotional level as the characters on screen.Contradicting style of music used in classroom scene where Sam is trying to persuade his teacher to give him a better grade. Dramatic music was used in what was actually a comical scene. Practical-Mexican style music is being played in the office of the car yard for comical effect. This is audible to actors and audience. This type of music helps to tell the audience to expect some laughs from this scene.  Sound Effects:                          Soft Effects-At the army base we hear a lot of soft effects being used. For example, things like cars and trucks arriving/leaving, conversations between a mass of soldiers, yet being based in the desert there are not many natural background noises that need to be added.  Hard Effects-A lot of the hard effects have been digitally added in this film for obvious reasons. This applied to scenes featuring helicopters and jet planes in flight, the back windows of cars shattering at the car yard, explosions and gunfire, etc, but more importantly every scene featuring transformers. The transformers footsteps and transformations are a very important feature of the film and were precisely synchronized to match their on screen actions. Another example was the decepticon signal that was used to hack into the government defence system, which was synchronized to a visible sound wave.    Dialogue:                 Off screen used during the opening scene at the army base, when talking over the radio or via phone. A large area like this with many characters talking at once, whilst contending with vehicle and natural background sounds, means a lot of ‘wild lines’ have been added later.When Sam is giving his presentation to the class, his form of dialogue changes from on screen to off screen as we change to images of his grandfather’s expedition.