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Georgia Swarbrick

Isabelle Jackson

Jason Cutting-Davenport

Jorenzo Zafra

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Series/Films we used for Inspiration for our film: Dark Comedy - sociopath - inspo for charlie's costume

"You" developed by Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble (2018) on netflix

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Series/films we used for inspiration for our film: Colour scheme and storyline - costume inspo for Melissa

Greta by Neil Jordan (2018)

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Me and my groups first meeting on ideas for our story development

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Week 2: creating a synopsis for our story

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Week 2: creating a synopsis for our story

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My synopis of the storyline:

We all individually created our own synopsis of our storyline and came together and shown our ideas to eachother, which helped decide what things we want and dont want in our story. Gathering ideas from each persons synopsis, this assisted to our final storyline.

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This was our draft synopsis of our storyline

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This was our final synopsis of our storyline

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We came together and discussed about our male and female roles in our film. We spoke on our group chat and firstly decided on the characters names and then from there gave ideas on how we think their characteristics should be

Chosen names:

Melissa - Female role

Charlie - Male role

Charlie

early twenties

uncomfortable confidence, becomes a little nervous around Melissa

has a boring life, becomes an interesting character when hes around Melissa

Melissa

Is sweet and popular, liked by many

Influencer

gets nervous around charlie

seems interested in him at first

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Jerenzo - Camera

Georgia - Director

Jason - Producer & Actor

Isabelle - Sound

Holly (Me) - Lighting & Actor

We briefly discussed on our group chat about who would be interested in what and we decided on our roles in our next lesson. Since I didnt get a chance to act in front of camera last term I wanted to have a chance to do so and my group were happy with me doing so. I agreed to do the role of lighting as this is something I haven't tried before and wanted to see how challenging it would be. From already looking at the storyline and inspiration from our 2 films we looked into, I had ideas on what kind of vibe I wanted to give off through the creative choices for the lighting in this short film.

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This was the first script we worked with, but changed along the way due to deciding some things wouldnt work and information was missing in order for the audience to understand. Georgia decided to change some scenes and move some things around and add more onto the storyline.

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This was our final script, however when it came to the end scene, it was changed from Charlie begging her to help her after she poisioned him with a pill being put in his drink and she is walking off, to them meeting back up in a cafe and poisioning him with a drink with hazelnut in it without him realising by researching into him on social media. We felt that this idea gave off more of her characteristics of being unpredictable and her unexpected revenge on Charlie.

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Things I learnt about lighting which gives off the idea of creepy and the themes of predator and pray, desperation and gender politics.

Use low key lighting

This helps to create the look of dark and gloomy ambience

implies danger, mystery and terror

This style focuses on shadows

How to create this: use a powerful key light and then set it in a high or low angle

wanted the vision of cold lighting to make it feel uncomforable and makes you think something isnt right (makes the audience feel uncomfortable)

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Low key lighting uses lots of shadows and contrast thus creating a dark and gloomy ambiance. It is common to use low key lighting in horror films to imply danger, mystery, and terror. It can also conceal or show scene features such as a monster, a weapon, or a hint. You need a powerful key light, generally set at a high or low angle, and minimum fill and back lights are required to achieve this effect. Gobos, flags, and barn doors can also be used to shape and regulate the light.

What is low key lighting and its effect in horror films?

Low-key lighting is a filming and photography lighting style that focuses on shadows. The look is created by the use of harsh source lighting in the scene. As opposed to high-key lighting, it seeks to accentuate the contrast between the subject and the scene. It does this by the use of shadows and gloomy tones. It is distinguished by deep blacks, shadows, and dark tones. There are few to no whites or mid-tones.

The effect of low key lighting in horror films is the chiaroscuro effect. Its gloomy hue and shadows are appropriate for horror film customs; it produces anxiety owing to its enigmatic and dark atmosphere, regulating how much of the surroundings and people are shown. Through the shadows and dark hues, it sets the tone, and atmosphere, and develops a hazardous relationship with the enigma.

Why is low key lighting used in horror films?

It elicits feelings of anxiety and anticipation: Low key lighting may make the viewers feel apprehensive and interested about what might be hiding in the dark by restricting the visibility of the scene. This can heighten the anticipation and anxiety before a jump fright or disclosure. Low key lighting, for example, is employed in The Shining to create a dismal and sinister mood at the Overlook Hotel, particularly in moments where Jack Torrance sees the spirits of prior caretakers.

It enhances the atmosphere and tone in horror films: Low key lighting in horror films can also aid in expressing the emotional states and the general theme of the film. For example, in The Babadook, low key lighting is utilized to portray Amelia's melancholy and grief as she struggles to cope with her husband's death. The film also employs low-key lighting to create a contrast between the light and dark, suggesting the contradiction between the Babadook's reality and his dream.

It gives the horror film a stylistic flair: Low-key lighting may also be employed to create a distinct visual style for the film, which is influenced by many genres and movements. Some horror films, for example, utilize low-key lighting to mimic the appearance of film noir, a genre that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s and included gloomy and murky photography.

How to achieve it?

This lighting technique highly depends on managing the key light while reducing ambient light. Filmmakers and gaffers often use simply a powerful key light to generate severe shadows with little fill or ambient light. As a result, there are more shadows and dark tones.

However, this might result in a rather flat image. Fill light is frequently used by filmmakers to provide richness and depth to their shots. It is vastly outpowered by the key light, with an 8:1 light ratio favoring the key light.

Shooting against dark backgrounds or scenarios will also aid in achieving low key lighting in horror films. When shooting against a bright or white backdrop, the lighting might bounce off the wall, resulting in unwanted fill or ambient light. This problem may be avoided by using flags or dark material to generate negative fill on the subject.

More tips for setting up low-key lighting in horror films

However, for the aforementioned setup, each light source must be identified and adjusted on screen. Here are more tips for working with low key lighting in horror films and a dark setup.

Start with key light: When setting up the illumination, the key light is always the ideal light to start with. This will guide the rest of your lighting selections.

Use natural light with caution: Low key lighting, as opposed to high key film lighting, is focused on limiting unwanted illumination. As a result, attempt to black out all windows and doors to reduce unpredictable light sources.

Hard lighting is good: While softboxes and LED constant light can still be used, low key lighting can benefit from harsh lighting since it establishes greater contrast in your compositions.

Understand the native ISO of your camera: In general, it's best to shoot video footage at your camera's original ISO to achieve the best quality (and least grain).

There is no such thing as excessive light: Even with low key lighting in horror films, the old adage "never have too much light" applies. Even if you want your character to look in a gloomy area, it still helps to add lighting with certain colors or emphasize specific components.

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Low key lighting in horror films: Four basics to know

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This article talks about low key lighting in horror films, including its definition & effect, the reasons to use it in horror films, how to achieve it, and more tips for the setup.

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The choice of lighting I wanted to use throughout the film

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The choice of lighting I wanted to use throughout the film

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High key lighting

use for restuarant scene, to show romance but unseen danger

makes the audience feel unsure

can convey a sense of happiness and innocence but also feel like something isnt right (gives off a sense of danger)

false sense of security before a twist or a shock - (Thomas & Savoca, 2024)

How to achieve this: multiple light sources, used close to the subject your highlighting

Aim - something that is simple but makes you feel a certain way

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Lighting is one of the most powerful tools in film production, as it can create mood, atmosphere, and emotion in any scene. However, not all lighting is equal, and some techniques are better suited for certain genres and situations than others. In this article, you will learn what are the best lighting techniques to create a sense of danger or unease in live action cinematography, and how to apply them to your own projects.

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What are the best lighting techniques to create a sense of danger or unease in live action cinematography?

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Learn the best lighting techniques to create a sense of danger or unease in live action cinematography, and how to apply them to your own projects.

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Shooting Week - First shoot: Restaurant Scene

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Shooting Week - First shoot: Restaurant Scene

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The set

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16th February - First shoot day: Restaurant Scene

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16th February - First shoot day: Restaurant Scene

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High Key Lighting used mostly

This was our first shooting day and we decided to make a start on this scene first since this was the longest scene compared to the rest, and was with the most duologue.

Booking the equipment was an easy task as everything we needed to use to create this scene was luckily available. For this scene I used 3 LEDGO 1200 LED panel lighting. I had one set behind the shoulder of each actor when sat down, and a light next to the camera to light up the main set. I wanted to bring in as much light as possible for this scene to make you feel like its just a normal regular date at first and to make you feel unsure about what is to happen. Every other scene has been dull and dark, which gives off that impression of the storyline being unpredictable. Since we were filming next to a window, this made things difficult due to the lights being visible through the reflection and the natural light coming through on to our faces. First hour or two into filming, the sun wasnt very bright which made natural light coming through the window not as much as an issue. However, after being filming for a while, the sun started coming out which then ended up brightening up me and Jason's face when doing over the shoulder shots and made it difficult to maintain the correct lighting. I gave the idea of potentially closing the curtains so this wouldnt have an affect but the director liked the idea of having the view still on show to imply the character has potential freedom to get away from this character but its far away. When looking back at the footage through the camera, the lighting didnt seem bad at all and was giving off the illusion I wanted to make but when it came to getting all our completed footage off the SD card and watched it on a computer, the lighting looked completely different which became an issue for us and for our edit later on down the line. (explained in "Post production" slides)

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19th February - Shoot day: The park scene

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19th February - Shoot day: The park scene

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direct lighting used mostly when needed

This was our second shoot day and due to the weather we decided to get the park scene done as soon as possible in case the weather changes up. We didnt want it to be raining but we still wanted it to be quite a dull day. Using lighting when there is natural lighting anyway was pretty challenging but made it effective to look natural and nothing too artificial. This scene had less lines than the rest and was just mostly clips of the characters walking through the park or sat down on the phone. This made my role of lighting really difficult as there was a lot of hand held camera choices from the camera man which meant the use of lighting was minor. The only time we really used the lighting properly was for any close up shots to highlight what we were looking at. I noticed I struggled trying to figure out how to keep charcters in main focus using lighting when the characters are walking from afar. We decided that hopefully when creating the edit, we would be able to erase this.

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Shooting Week - Second shoot: The Park Scene

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Shooting Week - Second shoot: The Park Scene

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The area we used + a bench

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23rd February - Last shoot day: Charlie's Flat + Cafe scene

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23rd February - Last shoot day: Charlie's Flat + Cafe scene

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Charlie's Flat + Cafe Scene

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23rd February - Final shoot day: Charlie's Flat + Cafe Scene

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23rd February - Final shoot day: Charlie's Flat + Cafe Scene

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Low Key lighting used mostly

We had an issue getting the correct lighting available for the time we were available to shoot for Charlie's flat scene. This challenged us to use other tools to help light the scene.

For the Cafe scene, we werent able to use the LEDGO lights that I had originally been using since they werent available for that day so I booked out and collected two Falcon Eye RX-12TD LED lights. I feel If I had maybe booked out the equipment sooner we would've been able to use original lights, however the Falcon lights worked better than expected for the creative choices I wanted to convey. For this scene i wanted to create shadows on each characters face to give the illusion that something is off and that something is going to occur. I found this task extremely difficult when recording in New Adelphi Buildings cafe since their lighting was really sharp. I feel to improve this for next time, I could research more into how to create this shadow look effectively. Over the shoulder scenes had the lights on the right side of their face, using orange warm tones to still give the effect of being in a cafe.

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Post Production - The process of editing

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Post Production - The process of editing

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26th February - Monday's lesson in reshoot week

Once we got all our completed footage off the SD card we were using, we were all able to sort them into files to make it easier to edit and was sent over to each of us individually. We had a look at all the footage together on a computer to see how it looked on a bigger screen and noticed a few issues with the lighting, espeically the restaurant scene. We noticed once It was on a big screen, the natural lighting near the end was too bright on the faces of the actors and the lighting was a bit too dark when doing a medium shot to show the setting of their date. We knew we had upcoming lessons about fixing lighting on clips while editing using premier pro so wanted to see if this would help. I brought up maybe reshooting these scenes to improve the lighting, however no one in my group were free to do so on reshoot week which I knew could potentially have an effect on my mark since Im the person getting marked on this role.

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Post Production - The Process of editing

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Post Production - The Process of editing

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2nd March - Getting all the clips onto my hard drive

I went to the library to collect all the clips that had been sent to me to put them onto my hard drive to make a start on editing for the upcoming week. I found this task easy, however, I found that our "Roll 4" clips weren't going onto my hard drive so I just waited for mondays lesson from the help of my tutor. Since I had issues with my hard drive from last term when creating our first short film, I wanted to make sure I wasnt doing anything incorrect so I didnt have that issue again.

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4th March - Successfully got all clips onto my hard drive

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4th March - Successfully got all clips onto my hard drive

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I was able to figure out why they werent coming onto my hard drive and It was because that all the clips on that certain folder had not been properly saved so with the help from the tutor I finally got it all onto my hard drive and she shown me how to save what I do on my edit when I make a start on it onto my hard drive correctly.

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In my own time, i made a start on my edit on one of the mac computers and chose all the clips I wanted to use and slowly started cutting each clip in the right place. I slowly started getting more and more different ideas on how i wanted to portray my film. Once I finished for that day, I found issues trying to save the edit on my hard drive which ended up having to just be saved on that computer for now.

i decided to wait for fridays lesson to explain whats happened to my tutor and what to do next

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15th March - Sorting out how to safely get hold of my edit onto my hard drive

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15th March - Sorting out how to safely get hold of my edit onto my hard drive

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Once my tutor had a look at the issue and why It wasnt saving onto my hard drive, we were able to figure out that the issue was because my clips hadnt been formatted properly. I found this really difficult as I dont fully understand how computers worked, so one of my peers were open to helping me with it since he has a better understanding of technology. He offered to take my hard drive home and replace the clips and format them properly and put them into folders so I dont get confused.

I think I could improve next time by maybe getting a better understanding of how formatting works and how to use premier pro in a better way.

I collected my hard drive off him the next day to continue editing.

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Once I got into the swing of things, I was able to get things done quicker. I feel once i get into rhythm, I enjoy editing a lot and create a lot of interesting ideas and have effective creative choices