The term Chiaroscuro is an italian word that literally means light (Chiaro) dark (Scuro). This is where light and dark are contrasted sharply. Here is an example of a painting with this effect:
This effect can be very sinister within thriller movies. Here is a clip that includes this effect and as you can see is very sinister. The contrasting dark and light add an eerie feel to his whole clip.
As a class we have put together a short video showing all of these types of lighthing:
Shot one: Key Light:
The key light is usually the first and most important life that a photographer and cinematographer will use. The purpose of the key light is to highlight the form and dimension of the subject and can cause silohuettes. In this shot we can clearly see the dimension of the subject:
Shot two: Back light:
The back light helps to counteract the effects of a silhouette when used in the 3 part set up. However a back light alone helps to create a silhouette of the subjet where usually the face is blacked out. However it is not completely effective here.
Shot three: Filler light:
The filler light helps to soften the harsh shadows that the use of key and back lights create. The filler light is only used in the three part lighting structure. It prevents contrast. In this shot we can see that there is lack of shadows.
Shot four: Under lighting:
Underlighting is whereby the source of light is placed underneath the subject. It helps to make the subject look old and eerie. It is often used in thrillers, I would like to include this lighting in my opening scene. Notice here how creepy the subject looks.
Shot five: Top lighting:
Top lighting is whereby the light source is placed above the subject. It tends to be a flattering light as it highlights key features. In fact a shot from the film 'Shanki express' holds a very famous shot of this form of lighting. This shot was copied by Madonna in a magazine. The actress in the shot even employed her own lighting crew to 'light her' in this most flattering manner. Below in our shot of top lighitng we can see that the subjects features are highlighted in a flattering manner. Below is also the famous shot that i mentioned.
Shot six: Low-key lighting:
Low key lighting is created by using only the key and back lights, this helps to produce a sharp contrast of light and dark areas on the screen. Distinct shadows are formed, this is known as a chiaroscuro effect. Low key lighting is the most used lighting within thrillers as it creates an eerie look.
Shot seven: High key lighting:
High key lighint is where the fillers are used as well as the key and back lighting (3 camera set up) This is the most common form of lighting used as it appears as the most realistic. It prevents shadowing.
There are multiple forms of lighting used within films to help create different effects such as shadowing, silhouettes and no shadows at all. A standard light set up looks like this:
The different terminology and use of lighting are:
Back lighting: This helps to counteract the key light and create silhouettes.
Key lighting: This is the biggest most influential use of light, it has the biggest impact.
Filler lighting: This helps to soften harsh shadows that the key and back lights create.
Under-lighting: This is where the light source come from below the subject creating eerie shadows and a sinister look. (typical in thrillers)
Top lighting: This lighting is placed above the subject and create a glamorous look highlighting features
Low key lighitng: Uses key and black lighting producing a sharp contrast known as the chiaroscuro effect.
High key lighting: Here more fillers are used and the lighting appears more realistic. This is the most common form.
Film noir: This is a form of lighting where there is constant use of low-key lighting creating a dark and sinister feel. It creates a sharp look and contrast.
Here are a few famous examples of these types of lighting (mainly film noir):
Noseferatu(1922):
This film is a Hitchcock movie based on the tale of Drakula. It has always been noted that Hitchock explains his movies visually rather than through dialouge. This is a film noir movie which has an eerie feel to it due to the intensity of shadowing. Low key lighitng here would have been used. The reason why this scene of the movie is so great is that rather than seeing 'Drakula' and his actual hand grasp the womens heart we see the shdow of him. His eerie shadowed hand creeps over her body, we can see that his fingers are long and twisted through the shadows. This creates a sense of fear and thrill. Low key lighting is often used in thrillers.
Suspicion:
In this scene Hitcock again uses light and shadows greatly. There is no dialouge in this scene but the thrill and plot is explained all through the lighting. Notice how the husbands face is black as he appears at the top of the stairs. The fact that we can not see his expression or even his characteristics suggest suspicion and that maybe he is not as much of a 'loving husband' as he makes out to be. Wihtin in this famous scene also note that the glass of milk stands out as clear as it possibly could when being carried up the dark stairs. Hitchcock actually placed a light in the cup of milk so that it would stand out that obviously. It helps to create a chiaroscuro effect and highlights that the milk is of importance. is it poisioned? creating enigma codes. This would have been done through low key lighthing and a back light.
The big combo:
The Film Big Combo is another Alfred Hitchock movie which too is a film noir movie. These images are shots taken from the famous scene whereby the man on the run is finally caught. I have included this in this post as the lighting uses a chiaroscuro effect and is done very well. The 'airport' scene is in fact filmed in the car park of the studio. The mist helped to cover this up and sound effects of planes added to the effectivness of passing the car park off as an airport. The lighting also helped to do this. The light helps too add an eerie effect and uses low-key lighting.
Actors: Rod Tayler, Tippi Hedren, Suzzane Pleshette
Narrative:
A
wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small
Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of
all kinds suddenly begin to attack people there in increasing numbers and with
increasing viciousness. This time the external threat comes from nature, the birds! Herden (actor) was actually cut on the face by abird whilst filming!
Suspense and thrill:
Within this movie and the trailer there are mulitple elements of thrill. There is use of fast pace cutting, scens of bird attacks and even scenes of a man with his eyes pecked out. This scene is very disturbing and create masses of thrill and tension. At the begginning when the wife returns we notice that all the china cups are broken and her husband is un responsive. This creates an enigma code. We as the audience question where he is and what has occured whilst the wife was absent. We are then presneted with a scene of her husband clumped dead in the corner with his eyes suspectedly 'pecked' out. This creates an erie and very frightening thrill through out the rest of the film. This film too created fear within birds for the audience, many would shriek when one would come close. At the end of the film Hitchcock did not do his usual style of showing 'The End' instead there was nothing. This was done too add again a thrilling an eeire feel to the movie. It implies to the audience that in fact the movie is not over, it will still continue, the birds shall attack. This is very creepy in itself as birds are free animals and are around us whenever we go out. This is a great way to end a movie in his time adding that extra cold chill to the atmosphere.
Psycho is a Thriller movie directed by the famous Hitchcock. The narrative is about a young women (Janet) who is struggling financially. When sent home early from work after feeling ill she was asked to deposit some money for her company along the way. Janet took this as an opportunity to help her self to the money. This is the plot that the viewers expect the movie to be about, a women on the run. However when she pulls over for a night of rest at the Bates motel the plot begins to change. Janet is killed off within the first 30 minutes of the movie which totally throws the audience as she is the main character and we expected the narrative to be about her on the run. This intrigues the audience. The rest of the movie is about the death of Janet being uncovered.
I feel studying this movie at GCSE as well as A level has allowed a greater insight of what makes a good thriller movie. This movie is famous for a number of reason. First it changed the whole idea of Thriller completely. Instead of a killer animal (The birds) or a killer alien (The blob) the killer was in fact a human. this instilled a whole new fear factor within people. Secondly the movie created phobias within people of showering, it was recorded that people would much rather take a bath than shower and felt very vulnerable when showering. Thirdly the music itself when Janet was being stabbed has become a world wide icon. It is recognized by almost everyone and has been used in countless productions. For example The Simpsons. Also the shower scene itself has been re-created numerous times as well as the shot of blood trickling down the plug hole.
Psycho teaches the importance of camera angles also. For example when Hitchock showed his first production to the censors their reaction was outstanding. They refused release of the movie on several counts. One minor reason being that a toilet was flushed. Another reason was for the brutality of Mrs Leighs murder. The censors claimed that they saw the knife penetrate her skin and saw wounds and too much blood however Hitchcock was quick to point out that in fact you do not see the knife penetrate her skin at all but that the use of his clever camera angles makes the audience believe they have seen this. Therefore in fact his movie has done nothing to upset the censors. The use of his angles in this film could quiet possibly be the making of Hitchock himself. I admire Hitchocks work within this movie and feel that it has truly changed the ideas of Thriller today. I would love to be able to use camera angles as effectively as Hicthcock did.
An innocent man is mistaken for a government agent and faces a group of foreign spies set out to kill him, he is pursued across the country in his bid for survival. Along the way he meets a young women who helps him but who also sets him up at thesame time.
Fast cutting:
Wihtin a thriller trailer fust cut action tends to be included. It is presented as quick snapshots of scenes one after another to allow a build up of suspense in the audience. Within Hitchcocks trailer we can see that a three part structure is used. At the second this is where the trailer starts slow, reaches a peak and then slows back down again building suspense. At around about 1:30 in this trailer the peak occurs. We are shown fast paced scenes consecutively, one after another, this allows a great sense of urgency and thrill to be created. We are shown scenes of gunshots, explosions, chases and so on in this peak. This works well to create ehigma codes and draw in the audience.
Characters:
Again this trailer and film has its typical characters. First is the main man being chased by the spies. His character is typical as he is very good looking, tall, abd very smartly dressed. This tends to be a typical character in all thrillers, at a glance his characteristics could be recognised as cool and un stopable although he is only a regular day-to-day man. The women in this film is also typical. She is very attractive, youthful and blonde, she is also sexualised alot in this movie. This is a typical character of thrillers as they tend to be the damsel in distress or mistress. However in this movie theres a slight twist of her character, she in fact sets up the main character, although she does this through her sexuality which again is typical.
Enigma codes:
withihin this movie there are multiple moments of suspense, cliffhangers and red herrings. For example the auction scene:
In this scene we can notice that first the sound track itself helps to create suspense but also the conversation between the two men displays elemnts of tensity, it is an awkward situation for both the men but also the women. The women is openly insulted due to his presence. The other male makes a comment of 'everybody' being in 'her room'. Indicating that she is promiscous, again intensifying the situation and making it even more awkward to bear.
Another scene of suspense that is more action pqcked is the helicopter scene. The moment where Cary Grant realises he has been set up and betrayed by this promiscous women.In this scens there is great use of visuals and as Hitchcock liked very much, a wide range of camera angle. We have close ups of his reaction, point of vie shots and so on:
Macguffin:
A macguffin is the plot element wihtin a movie that catches the viewers attention and drives the plot of the movie. The defining aspect of a MaCguffin is that the main characters in the story are almost willing to do absouloutely anything and sacrifice thier life and freedom to obtain it, which in this case is Cary Grant the suspected agent. In fact sometimes the MaCguffin is ambigous and unidentified, sometimes throughout the whole film and completely un significant to the plot. Common ones are money, power, glory, survival and so on. In this movie the MaCguffin can be identified as Cary Grant himself, the spies want Cary and will do anything they can to get him, even if it means killing him with a helicopter type thing.
Alfred Hitchcock interview:
Below is an interview with Alfred Hitchcock himself about this amazing thriller:
When recording the diegetic sound we used a microphone device to pick the sound up clearer. Within our exercise there is diegetic sound of dialogue, crashing and banging. The dialogue is important in our exercise as it explains the plot of the story and the twist. It is clearly an interrogation however the interrogated is the wrong person. In fact the body guard is behind it all. Without the dialogue this would not make sense.
Non-diegetic sound:
The non diegetic sound we used was at the timing of the flash back whereby the body guard is seen stealing the money helps to create an eerie feel and highlight the twist and thrill.
On screen sound:
We have use of on screen sound, we see the door handle opening and can hear the cogs moving inside it. We can also hear sound of banging the chair and can see the interrogated squirming.
Off screen sound:
We included off screen sound as well as on screen. This is present when the interegation continues, mid way through we hear the sound of the door opening and foot steps. By having this off screen sound an enigma code is formed. The audience wonder who has just entered and why has the main man not paid any attention? It almost creates a need, a thirst in the audience to see who has just entered the room. I feel this is a strong point in our exercise.
Parallel sound:
There is clear use of parallel sound when the non diegetic music is playing. Its an eerie chilling sound which fits to what has just occurred. We have just discovered that the body guard is the one behind the theft. Therefore the twist has occurred and an eerie atmosphere is set as both the bodyguard and the interrogated know the real truth. The fact that the bodyguard has this hold over the interrogated of being a trusty right hand man a thrilling feel is created. I feel this is good use of parallel sound.
Sound bridge:
I originally planned to include a sound bridge in our work but we had problems with recording the sound all together. We ended up having to film the whole sequence three times due to a faulty microphone. We wanted a sound bridge to be present when the flashback occurred but we struggled to form it and so decided we would not have one at all.
Contrapuntal sound:
We decided not to include contrapuntal sound as we felt it did not fit to our short sequence and would look and sound confusing rather than clever and thrilling.
Within media productions there are multiple types of sound. These are:
Diegetic sound-sound that fits the world of the film
Non-diegetic sound- sound that is added into the work, the world of the film can not hear it. (this is usually used to help create atmosphere and give the audience an idea of what is about to happen)
On screen sound- sound that is diegetic and fits to the action happening on screen
Off screen sound-sound that again is diegetic but occurs out of the scene for e.g somebody coming into a room, we may not see them come in but we can hear them enter.
Parallel sound-This sound is sound that fits to the action e.g suspenseful music at a suspenseful time
Contrapuntal sound-This sound does not fit to the scene e.g happy music at a funeral
Sound bridge-A sound bridge is sound that carries on from one scene to another, it allows the scenes to flow nicely.
The use of sound is very important in any media production and sometimes even the lack of sound is effective. Without sound it would be difficult to comprehend what is going on or what is about to happen. Sound helps the producer to elicit the feeling and emotion that they wish for the audience to experience.
Cinematography is the art of camera work and photography within a piece of media film. Cinematic style means camera work and music that is commonly found within particular genres. As an audience we do not really recognise cinematography however without these cinematic conventions a genre would be difficult to recognise. Everything is involved in cinematography. The sound the lighting the mise-en scen and so on..
180 degree rule: When filming and cutting a conversation it is important not to break the 180 degree rule. I have created an image to explain this. There are two people being filmed having a conversation. The 180 degree rule is an imaginary line called the axis which connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called jumping the line or crossing the line. If the imaginary line is crossed then the viewer would be disorientated as objects would appear on the wrong side.
