Making Better Movies with Moviestorm Vol 3: Sound and Light

FAKING LIGHTING CONTINUITY
Technique
Shoot a scene with several different lighting setups, but make it look consistent.
One of the lighting crew’s favorite tricks is to relight the scene for each shot. This is much more common in film than
television. The aim is to make every shot look as good as it can, and create a pleasing visual composition. In some
scenes, a character may be lit from completely different directions, or may have different colored lighting on them.
If it’s done well, the audience will never notice the lack of continuity. In The Lord of the Rings I: The Fellowship of
the Ring, at the scene in the inn, the master shots are all lit from one direction, with the light appearing to come
from the fireplace behind the characters so they are mostly backlit. This creates a strong visual image. When we cut
to close shots, the light now comes from the opposite direction, in front of the characters, so that the viewer can see
the facial detail better. Most of the audience won't notice this lack of continuity, as they are focused on the
characters and the story.
When you're shooting television, you rarely get the opportunity to change lights between shots: it is common to
shoot the entire scene in one take. Film, on the other hand, tends to be filmed one shot at a time, which allows for
much more care to be taken over getting each shot just right. It's one of the main things that differentiates film from
television - and of course, this is reflected in the budget and shooting schedule.
In this relatively subtle example, the character in front is lit with a strong front light to help him stand out from
the background. When we cut to a close shot on him, one side of his face is in shadow, and we lose detail. By
adding in an extra back light which isn't present in the master shot, we enable the whole face to be seen while
preserving the shadow.
Take a scene in a single location – preferably interior. Ideally, it should include 2
or more people. You can use either an action or a dialog scene.
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