ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several scenes from features, commercials, and classroom projects and analyzes their lighting schemes and discuss about the thought process that went into planning and executing them. Lighting is so complex that it’s hard to quantify. As a general rule, the lighting of a scene is “built”—one light at a time. Lighting a scene doesn’t happen in a vacuum—there is the action of the scene, the mood and tone, scripted lighting cues, the set, the scene’s time of day, the director’s intentions. The set or location will give many clues for lighting the scene. Practical lamps in the scene can be an effective and naturalistic way to light a scene. Lighting with practicals and having practical lamps appear in the scene was a key characteristic of film noir. In his neo-noir film The Killing, Stanley Kubrick foreshadowed the mastery of lighting and the use of practicals and existing light in his later films.
