How to Use Hard Light: Overhead Lighting Technique
By Kevin Waczek
Determining how to light any given frame is as essential to filmmaking as the camerawork and the script. Lighting can set the tone of a scene and influence the way a viewer feels about a character. In this blog post, we are going to dive into a short film called A Christmas Miracle and dissect the two different lighting setups in the film.
LIGHTING CUES
This film has something unique that I haven’t included in a film before: clear and obvious lighting cues. This is achieved by changing all of the light in a scene from one style to another in an apparent manner. These lighting cues create an atmosphere for the scene better than any line of dialogue. Paired with a compelling shot, the viewer can learn about a situation or a character solely from the lighting. If the bad guy is lit darker and creepier than the protagonist, the audience is smart enough to pick that up. Lastly, lighting cues do not all have to be large and extremely noticeable. There are many more subtle reasons to change lighting that don’t draw as much attention. Some examples of this are lighting a creepy house different than the peaceful garden just outside. You may not notice such a change in the moment, but it creates emotional value for each scene or location. Although this is an effective technique, I want to dive into exaggerated lighting cues that turns the light on set into another character in the story.
THE STASIS
In basic screenwriting format, the beginning is also known as the main characters stasis. The stasis defines what is normal for the character. By defining the stasis, the story can move forward by introducing conflict to disrupt the stasis of our character. The incoming conflict then forces the character into action. Like the story, if you’re intentionally creating a cue, you first need to create a stasis with a lighting setup. Otherwise, the change in lighting will not be clear. After the stasis, a noticeably different lighting setup will need to be designed. The best time to change the lighting or execute a lighting cue is when the conflict of the story erupts. By matching the lighting and story structure, it can create a more effective change.
In my film A Christmas Miracle, the stasis was created by a standard three point lighting setup, with a 2 to 1 f-stop ratio, and a warm color temperature. The stasis lighting was warm and natural with the intention to create a heavenly glow. I thought the more hallmark and family friendly the stasis, the greater the impact, a twist in plot and lighting would have. If you would like to know more about three point lighting, f-stop ratios, or color temperature comment below!
THE CONFLICT
Now it’s time to create our second light setup. Once the conflict is introduced either from an inciting incident or a major plot point in the story, the lighting should promptly change. In this film, I use the image of an angel on top of the christmas tree as a bridge from the stasis lighting setup to the conflict lighting setup. The angel symbolizing peace, protection, and love slowly turns to a dark silhouette that can be interpreted as a demon or something else sinister. This motivates the lighting change and foreshadows the coming events. I wanted the second lighting setup to have a stark contrast to the beginning, so I decided to use direction, quality, and color temperature as my biggest factors to create a new lighting setup.
When thinking about direction, my mind immediately went to the classic gritty and dark film period of film noir. I wanted to emulate a detective interrogation scene throughout the rest of the conflict. In those film noir instances, the main light source is either a desk lamp on the table barely illuminating the characters or the light source is coming from above. I chose to light from above, and this decision did something amazing that I originally didn't consider. When lighting from above, the light created shadows over the eyes of my characters. The appearance of the once innocent father turned into an ominous villain. This effect known as raccoon eyes was made even more effective from my choice of light quality.
How soft or hard a light is can determine how the light falls onto a subject, and can create different emotional moods for the scene. When I talk about soft or hard light, I am not talking about the intensity. In fact, I am talking about shadows created by the light. The bridge between the light and the dark is what defines a soft or hard light. For example, a soft light will have soft shadows: a slow decay of light as it drops off into darkness. A hard light will have sharp shadows: visibly quick decay of light to the darkness. In my film, I created a hard light look to juxtapose against my soft light look from my original setup.
The last step I took to differentiate my second lighting setup from my first was through color. In the first lighting setup there is a strong orange tone - a warm glow that is supposed to bring comfort to the scene and provide a holiday richness. In fact, even the “white” lights on the christmas tree have a slightly yellow/orange tint to them. In my conflict lighting setup, I wanted a cold, blue tone. This color change was intended to make the atmosphere raw and tense.
RETURN TO STASIS
After the conflict has been resolved, our main character returns to stasis. Unlike the story we are referencing, the ending stasis is usually pleasant and marks a “new normal” completing the growth of a character. In A Christmas Miracle, a dark comedy more than a character-driven classic, the stasis is the same as the beginning. This creates an endless loop of our main characters twisted imagination.
Thank you reading and supporting The Filmmakers Blog. If you have any questions or want me to elaborate on any concepts stated in the article, comment below!