LIGHTING

STARLIGHT STARBRIGHT

Lighting is such a key factor when it comes to setting the mood of a scene. Alterations in light, even slight ones, can be indications of something much deeper than what meets the eye, subconsciously informing the audience of what is happening right in from of them and below the surface. In our film, we made what use of lighting we could, though we didn't quite have the Hollywood lighting budget. 

In the first scene, we used a lamp to illuminate Juliet. Here you can see me trying to put the lamp in position for our recording. The light didn't hit her directly, but just made the room a tad bit brighter so it wouldn't be fully dark, but still quite gloomy to reflect how Juliet is feeling in the scene. There are also little lanterns surrounding the mirror, though those were more for the stylistic choice of making it look like a dressing room mirror with bulbs on the frame. In one shot, we light her from below with the same lamp, which I held in place for the scene. We wanted to make her face ominous and different, showing her mixed emotions of fear and anger.

For the bedroom, breakfast, and driving scenes, we relied fully on natural lighting. There was no emphasis on any one object or character, just realism to express how normal these events are, a stark contrast from the stylized lighting of the dressing room scene. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for the happy(ish) parts of a coming of age movie! The only alteration we made was opening the blinds in Nicole's house to let in more light to make it more natural with less intervention from us.

Finally, for the hallway scene, we have bright, but unequally distributed light. This is the regular lighting of our school hallway, so it does add to the realism. It also kind of reminds me of hospital lighting. The lighting is highly artificial, an indication that something different is occurring. I think it makes this moment prophetically ominous with the way it hints at what is coming in the future.