Lighting Design Comparison: (Film and Television Genre)

Film + Television:

Psychological Thriller

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller. With heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters, However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, Along with the typical traits of the thriller genre many psychological thrillers contain elements of the horror genre. With often intense and disturbing views of sadistic nature and violence. 

Silence of the Lambs is a psychological horror/thriller movie  from 1991. The villain in this film is a cannibal with sadistic tenancies. He loved to boast about his killings in unconventional ways. He saut a kind of fame for his murderous tendency.  In this scene he is speaking to senator Ruth Martin in a manipulative and disturbing way. The lighting in this scene adds to this disturbed theme the script is establishing and makes the audience feel very uncomfortable. There is flashing blue lights on Hanniba'ls face. The flashing of these lights suggests how cutting and ruthless he is. This type of sharp intense light is usually associated with mental and physical illness such as migraine and concussion. Unlike theatre, films are able to do this small detail with lighting because of the intestacy they create with their audience. 

Psychological Horror/Thriller (Film)

Stoker is a psychological horror film that was released in March this year. The lighting and colouring of this film is very important in creating the overall visual style. When designing lighting for television, film or theatre you must consider all artistic aspects of the piece. Everything from props, costume, location and set. However in films you are able to make this much more stylised with minute details that the audience will notice and pick up on. For example in this scene  there is a candelabra object that has glowing yellow light emitting from it this yellow light contrasts very well with the cold blues and whites in this scene. All of the costumes are tones from black to white as well as the staircase. The blue 'pantones' create a 'pastel-y' subdued effect that translates the sadistic nature of the man and the girl. However in this scene they are trying to hide what they have done and I feel that this is reflected in with the yellow shining light in between the officer and the two murderers. Yellow has connotations of bright innocence and sunshine. Also another aspect of this scene that is not achievable in theatre is the way the camera pans the room and swings round the actors. It focuses the audiences attention very directly on to how the scene is lit, the colours of the set and how this reflects the characters. You can help but notice the way the gloomy white light bounces of the pastel blue walls and how the orange spear, that you can see from all shot angels and what meaning this creates. 

Drama

Most dramatic television programming falls within other standard categories such as miniseries. One major category of dramatic programming, particularly in the United States, is Crime Drama.

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others and  society.

Sherlock is a crime drama with elements of Thriller. The main aim of the thriller genre is to create a gripping and 
intense viewing experience. In the scene I have picked the main character has been druged. He is helucinating and thinks he is in a room trapped with a hound. The suspense and drama is created through camera work and lighting. They have used lighting in many ways. They have their general source of light so that the auidence can still pick out his face and track his body on the screen. There is also the use of a torch that is a typical prop in an investigative scene.  The torch light flickers across the screen and the auidence can't help but follow it thus making the scene very fast pased and intense. It also creates dark Eire shadows on the main characters face which adds to the 'creepynes' and the drama of the scene. 

There is also a deep red and blue 'back light' that gives the characters form a dramatic depth. Red also has connotations of danger and anger. Much like musical theatre the lighting plays the to audiences expectations, they feel something is going to happen as the tension builds. The red is used as foreshadowing. It could also mean that because it is on the main character that the red danger light is a reflection of his own psychological behaviour. That he is the only danger in the room, he's a danger to himself. The statement that man is his own worst enemy. The hound could be used as a metaphor.

This theory is continued in my next two examples. In this sequence in the scene the light of the torch is emitting from underneath his face and casts very mammal-like contours onto his face. For example the light makes his teeth look sharp and pointed and his head and side of his face narrows into a snout shape. Also the shadows of the bars on his face makes it feel as though he is a caged animal.

 The scene quickly changes as an additional character comes in and turns on the lights. This completely changes the atmosphere of the scene and the audience are left wondering if there was a hound in the room or if  there was nothing in the room and it was all his imagination because of the drugs. The light is a very bright U.V intense white. This sudden change in lighting also makes the audience snap of of the situation as much as the character has. Because of the intimacy of the audience to the screen there are a few aspects of the lighting in this scene that could not be achieved in theatre however because of the semiotic meaning and bold contrasts it could be possible to create an similar intense atmosphere in theatre.