Making Better Movies with Moviestorm Vol 3: Sound and Light

MOSTLY DARK SHOTS
Technique
Shoot a scene where much of the screen is dark, allowing the audience to focus on one small
part of the shot.
Most of the time, you want to use the full area of the screen. However, for atmospheric shots, you may want to have
the majority of the screen dark with just a small lit area. This could be a foreground character, or a lit doorway, or an
area of the set such as an interrogation table. This is often found in film noir or horror, but certainly has applications
outside that; for example a character in a dark room working computer late at night, or a character may simply be
against a dark background.
This is not the same as shooting a scene in low light or at night, where the entire set is dark. This is an exercise in
visual composition where you choose which area of the screen will be lit.
Left: it's hard to make out what's happening in this shot, but the viewer's eye will be attracted to the
movement of the character at bottom left by the phone box. Right: this shot shows more detail, but the viewer
is unsure where to look.
Left: there is a lot to see in this shot, but the viewer naturally focuses on the man seated at the desk, even
though he's in long shot. Right: closing down the visible area by shooting through a window compresses the
action into a small space and intensifies it.
Take a scene in a single location – either interior or exterior. A scene with a
single character is sufficient. This works well with silent scenes as well as dialog
scenes.
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