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the lighting used for: Alien 

CDM 347- Lighting 

 This scene in Alien uses Low key lighting through out the movie, because most of the cinematography represents themes of dark and mysteriousness. In this scene Characters Kane and Dallas have made a shocking discovery of a dead engineer, the mood for this scene creates a gloomy and desolate atmosphere for audience  and references feelings of isolation, seclude, and detached from any communication. Most of the lighting in this has a lot of natural light which is shining down on the gunner seat, and bounces off the sides of platform its attached to. You can notice that the high contrasts have a lot of dark tones and you can even see that the light source has a more cooler temperature which makes it a high kelvin , the moonlight from above gives the audience a feeling of  a haunting and formidable glow, that really works to create a influential climatic piece of scenery. 

Another example from Ridley Scotts alien  is the famous chest burster scene, the lighting in this moment amplifies the tension and horror presented to the audience. this type of lighting is high key, the bright illumination creates a clinical and sterile atmosphere, making the gory act of the chest bursters presence even more unsettling. instead of relying on shadows high key key lighting exposes everything,  forcing the audience to confront the horror head on. the use of high key lighting emphasises the vulnerability of the characters. the crew is also brightly lit showing their feared expressions which adds to the tension and makes you feel that your there with them. in this iconic scene high key lighting explores innocence and exposure making this scene jarring, this juxtaposition highlights how quickly innocence can violated and how exposed they are to the alien threat.        

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recreation  shots from films and lighting diagrams.

Here are some of the comparison from films we had to recreate.

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for this recreation we blacked out the room and used a tripod light behind the  drapes  from the film Neon Demon, like this shot from the film we had red aperture lights from behind the drapes creating a silhouette giving it this shadow like effect.

For this scenario we had to create a police scene with the lighting equipment, we used two aperture lights which were hand held either side of the framing so that the light would illuminate in the middle. With the aperture lights we put the setting on flashing lights with gave them a repetitive effect, most of our light was covered by tripod light which gave the shot a low key lighting with the room blacked out to create a noir atmosphere. 

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for this recreation in inglorious Basterds we recreated this scene by using black drape and set the camera up on the ground, for this close up shot and from the side we used a tripod light which cover our main highlighting on the body and leaving shadows over the side of the face 

lighting scenarios

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This recreation we created was from the 80s classic blade runner. For tis creation we struggled getting the exact lighting, for this shot we assumed it would be easy but it was actually are hardest creation, we used a tripod light on the left side of Max to create most of the brightness in the frame. What I like about are recreation is the shadow against his face like the shot and the position of the character is dupilcate to our creation    

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In this scenario we had to recreate a lighting video of a campfire, of this shot we used two aperture lights below to have the light rising a little on their faces as seen in the video, this videos lighting has hard light used in it because there's a lot of shadows and dark tones,  we also thought it was a good idea to use a guitar, so that it gives the video more character and improvisation. 

For our moonlit lake scenario we used a set aperture lights and a light flashing over the face like a torch or light reflecting we also used a plant as a prop to make the scene more surreal. this shot is a hard light shot, we can see this because of the tones shadows that blend this shot into making the audience believing it could filmed out in a lake somewhere .

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In this lighting recreation we created the setup by using drapes to create the blackouts in the background, and aperture lights and a blue and red setting but we put both lights over each other against the tripod which created a purple light, this shot only highlights the face so we only needed to present the face in which we have done in the image above.

Thunderstorm scenario 

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This scenario was our most practical because we spent a lot of time on trying to cover where the lighting would come from we had to people chuck leaves over the drapes so it looked like the wind was swaying them in the storm we created 

lighting Diagrams  for scenarios 

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thunderstorm 

For this scenario we set up our lighting by using a tripod light to the right, and used drapes black out the any excess light blocking out the background lights in the room. behind the drapes we had someone throw leaves over the drapes whilst filming to make it look windy. another way we created this scenario were with aperture lights, putting it on flashing mode to make it look like thunder  

on set we were required to use lighting to represent themes, mood and a sense of meaning to the audience. The equipment we used were aperture lights on a red setting to create a sense of danger and violence presented to the audience. The tripod light helped cover light that couldn't be handheld. for example the scene where max is alone watching the tv we used a tripod light behind max so the natural light from the tv illuminated the room and max, we also blocked out the curtains to make sure there wasn't any excess light that had perhaps peeped through. Most of our shots were shot with low key lighting to represent our theme isolation, which is also the theme of our character and through this theme we can create different shades of light to show how the character's feel in each scene .

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moonlit lake 

For this scenario the moonlit lake, we set up the equipment by using two aperture lights on the  on a blue and bright light  setting  with another blue aperture light on the right. Again we used drapes to block out the room light, and circle drape to reflect the light off of the actors face.

lighting plans for shoot 

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for this scene in our film we wanted the room to look isolated  and only light we used used was from the tripod and tv with the curtains closed the reason for this was to show the audience that Sid lives unhappy and has the personality of a hermit,  he does not  like people. we put the light behind the camera show his face in shot and the rest of room dark making it a low key lighting  emphasising on shadows and dark tones. 

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cop car 

 In scenario we created a cop scene using blue and red aperture lights to represent police sirens we also used a tripod light to highlight the actor as he is presented to the camera.

an intense scene was where max goes up to discover the monster, with this scene it was a contrast of lighting we needed high key lighting to expose the monster to audience showing its true form, but also low key to build tension during the scene, for this we had a tripod light at the bottom of the stairs, but also we had a light switch up stairs that we wanted switch on  quickly showing the monster for a second and then the monster jerks its head back leaving us as the audience surprised.   

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evaluation for lighting on shoot 

overall I thought our lighting on shoot was effective, and our planning for the lighting set ups were purposeful. We wanted to have a low key lighting for our short film to the the themes of danger, mystery and terror. This lighting helped create a better atmosphere and effect one example in our film where we had a powerful form of key lighting was when Sid was watching Tv, in this this scene we wanted to represent the loneliness of Sid, blacked out windows, lights turned off, he lives in the dark, with lighting and our character we wanted to present that Sid is detached from the outside world. The way we set this lighting up gave a style of unease, and discomfort making the audience have that feel for isolation. One criticism with my edit is there is a lighting setup that could of been done better, When Sid watches up his plate the lighting is quite dark and shadowy in the sink and also against Sid's jumper it didn't help that Max's jumper was black. If i was to improve this in the future i would use the skills I have now to brighten the exposure and even make a slight change to the ISO. A lighting plan that was one of my favourites was the bathroom scene, in this scene it is where Sid discovers his body and the quick flashing cuts of him being killed. The lighting was soft but balanced, with the monster I really loved how the Red lighting brighting the whole room and he slowly walks in you see a shadow silhouette of the monster, the red lighting really works with themes of violence, danger, and rage. This type of lighting would be considered as a warm lighting temperature creating those reddish tones. Another example of lighting on our shoot was When Sid is going up the stairs after he hears a noise.  The stair is a black mass, exactly how planned, giving the audience that suspense, and making feel that tension, they can't see beyond the shadows but also in another way they don't  want to know but are still intrigued. and when he flips the light switch we create a jump-scare, and it moves quite quickly so you only get glance of what the monster or thing was. The way we did this was have someone at the top of the stairs hold the mask and quickly move it out of shot and the rest of us downstairs showing the whole stairway on camera . Overall The lighting for our film was effective we really covered the mood and meaning. We wanted to create short film that left viewers unease and with questions that they want to know our climax of the film was left with a cliffhanger, which neither has a good or bad ending. There  are still some scenes in the film where i know i could adjust on and for next time the skills i have learned on the way with lighting, in the future I know I can use lighting to create Atmosphere, mood, and a style creating suspense and tension presented to the audience.             

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