Notes on Lighting
In horror films, lighting is crucial. It can state to the audience whether a character is good or bad, whether a room is good or bad to go into or to focus in a particular character(s) or object(s). A perfect example is from The Woman In Black (2012).
The house and the room he is going into are completely black, to represent the unknown, and to represent fear and horror. The only light surrounds Daniel Radcliffe because he is the centre of attention and is the most important factor in the scene.
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From the films we have based our OTS from, light is the most important feature, as it tells the audience that what is going on in the light is what they should be drawn to and nothing else. In Dead Silence (2007), the doll is being designed in complete darkness apart from the candlelight the ventriloquist is working from. This makes the surroundings and the person even more suspicious and sinister. Only the most significant things are shown such as "Perfect Design" because while not everything needs to be captured, the things that outline what the OTS is about, in this instance the ventriloquist's best design.
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Where Dead Silence focuses on what is important, Se7en (1995) shows the whole setting but using filters, makes the scene have a prominent colour of dull brown, however there are flashes of red, obviously representing blood. The use of filters is effective because it paints a picture of what the person and their surroundings are like. The book being written in is shown in a higher key of lighting to highlight the fact that it is the most important object in the room.
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We decided to use dark and dingy lighting to help create a sense of danger and make the audience believe what they are seeing.
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We also came to the conclusion that our OTS would be more sinister if nobody was shown but the tools being used would be clearly shown so as to put forward of how the doll is made. The light would be focused on what was going on in the scene and using Final Edit, we would use the effects that were installed on the programme, to bring out or shadow anything that was missing or unnecessary respectively.
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