Lighting & Colour Research

The lighting & colour in film is excruciatingly important. Any slight changes in colour or lighting can change the mood of the scene and therefore the effect this had on the audience. Lighting tends to be either low key or high key. I explored these two terms in a previous post on it's role in the industry in general. Low key is when the lighting isn't concentrated on a specific area of the screen and the entire setting remains equally lit. High key is the opposite- where most of the lighting is concentrated on a specific area. I think generally, lighting tends to be quite often altered using various equipment so it appears as it does to the human eye, to ensure the actors faces are lit up appropriately. The costume and make up department often works with Lighting & colour to coordinate the visual aspects of the way a scene will work. Having the right make up will ensure the actors faces won't look oily or reflect any of the light in the scene to destroy the verisimilitude of the filmic world created. 

We already have lighting restrictions even before we arrive at the location. Due to the area in which we we're filming, we're not permitted by TFL to use any additional lighting as this would distract the train drivers. In a way I think this works in our favour. I think the end result of the film will give the viewers the impression they're at the location on screen, adding a sense of realism. Also it allows for versatility in adjusting lighting and colour later in the colour grading process so if we for some reason decide not to add anything or aren't happ with the way it looks we can always go back to the original format. 

I think one of the advantages of filming at this location is we have a variety of lighting available to us, as evident in the photo above. There are areas of high concentration of light as well as low- so we have a lot to work with. This will of course also depend on the whether forecast for the day which we will post and research beforehand. We may of course encounter the problem of there being too little lighting as the source for this station is natural light. 

We are also prepared to film on the underground station, Angel should Paddington not suit our requirements. As evident from the photo above the lighting is quite artificial and concentrated. I think for this reason it won't work as effectively as Paddington  The natural light of Paddington evokes a sense of coldness almost- and the theme of isolation is what we wanted to evoke. I think the warm, artificial hues of Angel won'y work as well because they lack the coldness  Of course this can simply be altered during the colour grading process.

Baker Street above is our final option for a filming location. This lighting is closest to what we envisioned in our minds due to the creepy low key use of light. We had all visited this station before and agreed that it captured the feeling we wanted to evoke perfectly. 

Colour!

We agreed on the colouring of the film to be mainly natural, with darker tones to replicate the main themes of our narrative. It also helps that the stations we plan to use have an aged look to them which gives of mystery and enigma, and also fits more to the conventions of our action/drama genre whilst providing us with a more cinematic feel. We planned for Ariadne to be amongst the initial crowd shots, therefore her clothes will blend in with the natural colouring of the scene to hide her importance in our narrative. This will also be similar to that of Isaac's character, yet he will hopefully have a more intimidating feel, with dark clothing that mimics Ariadne's colour scheme. This will mean that although he could be seen as an antagonist, a connection between the two characters is also faintly evident.