The Development of Lighting

Throughout film's advancements in technology, lighting has never lost its place as one of the most important aspects of production. Lighting helps convey characterization, mood, and many other aspects of the theatrical process. Many film critics also claim that the legendary film Citizen Kane wouldn't have been so successful without its amazing cinematography by Gregg Toland. Stars themselves go as far as having their own lighting specialists to make their appearance the best possible. A few of the major elements that make up the lighting in Hollywood are high-key, low-key, and star.

High key lighting uses a large amount of light to illuminate the set and actors. This helps to reduce shadows and make the picture more clear to the audience. By doing so the film creates a more jubilant and upbeat mood thats usually seen in comedies and family films. Companies like Walt Disney usually use these high key lighting elements for all of their children's movies. Their film "The Chronicles of Narnia" primarily used high key lighting since a large portion of the scenes were originally filmed inside of a black out box (equivalent of a gigantic surrounding green screen).

Many films with dark story lines and strong dramatic elements tend to use shadows to depict the mood and personality of it's characters. The film industry refers to these darker sides of lighting as low-key systems. These uneven distributions of light help to set the mood for film genres such as mystery, suspense, drama, noir, science fiction, and horror. A famous shot using this dark lighting scheme from Citizen Kane depicts Kane's shadow towering over his wife Susan during an argument. This symbolically emphasis Kane's dominance over her and the uneven distribution of power in their relationship.

When the audience is unable to distinguish character expressions and features, the audience can get lost in translation. For instance, if you couldn't see that a character was smiling while they said "I hate you" you might interpret it as malice, sarcasm, or flirting. This is where star lighting comes into play. Star lighting singles out particular characteristics by concentrating light on more areas of a person then others. This allows the director to single out areas on characters that help to tell the story better or symbolize some kind of meaning. This form of lighting has also been used to make the stars themselves seem more "luminescent" or lively. This is done by focusing excessive amounts of light on the star to make them shine unrealistically.

The three systems of lighting (high, low, and star) all have their purposes for depicting mood in films. Although the styles all seem different, it would be quite unusual to experience any of these elements independently from another. Although some movies will use primarily high or low key lighting, almost every movie makes use of all three elements. This helps to make a more balanced and interesting experience for the audience.