90 Grammar of the Shot

Set and Location Lighting

Creating the silhouette mentioned earlier called for more light on the set or location
background and no light on the middle ground talent. This helps us illustrate that plac-
ing light on your set (on the walls, furnishings, oor, trees, etc.) or location is often just
as important as lighting your talents face with a scene-appropriate ratio. Certainly you
need to add light to your set for general exposure, but placing light on specic areas of
the set or location can add to the ambience of the scene, change its tone or mood, and
create that additional 3D effect into the deep space of the lm set. Light in the middle
ground and deep background helps separate those layers of distance discussed earlier.
They can also rim a subject and help further separate them from the darker back-
ground on night shots and so forth.

Any light xture on your set that actually works and emits light that helps toward expo-
sure and the overall creative lighting design is called a practical. Its job is to appear
within the frame and provide light to the scene. Most often practical lamps are not
bright enough to generate good exposure levels of light so they are usually accent lights
that provide points of visual interest around the set or act as motivators for other (off
screen) larger lm lights that raise exposure levels on the set. Practical lights can also
be a good source of motivation for creative color usage, as in warm amber re light,
cool blue refrigerator interior light, deep red neon light, and so forth.

Color, of course, is another great creative tool for the lmmaker. Beyond the basics of
accepted color treatments (blue for moonlight and cooler temperature locations, such
as a meat freezer or the Arctic Circle, or amber for warm, safe places, such as a fam-
ily home or a candle-lit dinner for two) one can use colors to underscore the storys
themes or represent a character. Perhaps a person who is jealous or envious of another
is always shown wearing green clothes or standing in environments that have a high
component of green in them. Maybe a character who feels emotionally distant from
others is shown in a pale blue wash until the end of the story when he is united with
his loved ones and the overall tone of the shots turns more amber.