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Making Better Movies with Moviestorm Vol 3: Sound and Light

Making Better Movies with Moviestorm Vol 3: Sound and Light

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REALISTIC VS UNREALISTIC LIGHTING<br />

Technique<br />

Use different lighting to create realistic <strong>and</strong> stylized versions of the same scene.<br />

In some scenes or movies, you’ll want to make everything look as realistic as possible. That doesn’t necessarily mean<br />

that you simply use or replicate natural light – these shots are often created quite artificially when you get on set.<br />

They’re merely designed to look as though they’re natural.<br />

At other times, particularly if you’re filming fantasy, sci-fi or art-house movies, you’ll want to create lighting setups<br />

that bear little resemblance to real life: strong colored lights, heavy shadows, lights coming from strange places,<br />

unexpected pools of light, <strong>and</strong> so on. The recent series of Doctor Who uses this effect extensively. It is not unusual<br />

for different characters in the same shot to be lit <strong>with</strong> very different colors, <strong>and</strong> there's no real logic to the lights:<br />

they just look striking.<br />

A stylized lighting setup need not be more complex than a st<strong>and</strong>ard one: for example, lighting the entire scene <strong>with</strong><br />

a strong blue fill, a purple back light <strong>and</strong> a greenish glow from a computer monitor in front of the character’s face<br />

would create an unusual effect <strong>with</strong> only three light sources.<br />

The same shot <strong>with</strong> realistic <strong>and</strong> stylized lighting. You wouldn't expect the right-h<strong>and</strong> shot in a police drama,<br />

but it would make perfect sense in a sci-fi movie.<br />

Use a scene in a single location – either interior or exterior, including 2 or more<br />

people. You can use either an action or a dialog scene, as they will give you<br />

different challenges. Good locations for this include deserted city streets,<br />

nightclubs, or an ab<strong>and</strong>oned warehouse.<br />

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