ABSTRACT

If, as a lighting artist, you do not stop to consider the emotionalaspects of the story at hand, then it does not matter how deep your understanding is of the variety that can be achieved with simple three-point lighting. Knowing all the lighting tricks in the book is all well and good, but without considered application, all your technical wizardry will be for nothing. Your lighting needs to operate on an emotional level to do several things: it should illicit a reaction from your viewer that is coherent with the script; it should guide the viewer visually to the focal points of a scene, whilst reinforcing the atmosphere and providing your audience with clues as to locations and characters. It should do all this whilst emphasizing the three-dimensional nature of your production and helping with the framing and composition of every scene.