hi welcome to filmmaker iq.com - today we’regoing to look at how to light for film noir. the concept of lighting for film noir is deepand complicated topic but a great subject for modern filmmakers. film noir was createdby filmmakers who were bound by their budgets and their technology. but they weren’t limitedin their talents - that makes this an excellent starting point for studying lighting. the common thread of film noir lighting islow key lighting - a style called chiaroscuro in the art world. chiaroscuro emphasized shadows and harsh lightingto create a sense of depth and volume in paintings. cinematographers working in the classicalfilm noir era sought to do the same thing
- trying to overcome the bland flatness thatbright black and white film could have if there’s not much contrast. let’s turn to the traditional three pointlighting setup that is the fundamental system all filmmakers learning how to light willstart with. we’ll talk about the three point lighting system in regards to lighting a facemainly for terminology as noir setups could use fewer or considerably more more than threelights. the first and most important light is thekey light - this is usually the brightest and most dominant light of a setup. complementingthe key is the fill light, which is place opposite of the key light to fill in someof the shadows left by the key. the final
light of the three point setup is the backlight - this light adds an outline to separate the subject from the background. in film noir, the most prominent lights aregoing to be strong keys and back light. fill light is not as dominant as we want to exaggeratethe contrast and get that low key look. film noir generally uses “hard lightsâ€- the hardness or softness of a light is the type of shadows it creates. hard lights leavesharp edged shadows - this is created by a single point source of light where the lightrays are running more or less from a single point in space. think of a bare halogen bulb.soft lights leave fuzzy shadows and are created by a larger area of light where the lightrays is being scattered in different directions
the illumination is coming from many points.think of this like a frosted bulb or compact fluorescent. hard shadows almost define the film noir look:be it the alternating patterns of dark and light slashes from venetian blinds to a silhouetteof a man running down an alleyway. soft lighting is used more conservatively often glamorizingfemale characters. to determine where to put your lights, here’sa tip from john alton, the director of photography on “the big comboâ€. he suggests usinga test lamp which i have created simply by attaching a simple worklamp and light bulbto the end of a boom pole. with this test lamp you can walk around the set can testdifferent lighting positions and how they
look before moving light fixtures into place. since shadows are so essential to film noir- let’s talk about a few of the tools often used to shape light and shadow. the firstwhich you see over and over again are cucoloris - often called cookies. these are cutoutsof wood, metal, plastic, or anything that cast a patterned shadow - say like a venetianblind pattern. cookies go between the light fixture and the subject. they’re availablecommercially in different patterns and its easy to make your own. very similar are gobos - short for go beforeoptics. these are cutouts made of metal or glass that go inside the light fixture betweena light source and a lens. these can cast
a perfectly crisp shadow but require specializedlights that have projection lenses. moving beyond the basic three point lightingsetup, there’s one light in film noir that gets a lot of play - and that’s the eyelight. used in non-film noir productions to add reflection in the eyes, film noir oftenisolates this light illuminating only the eyes and brow to get a dramatic look. youcan do this in a couple of different ways, you can use flags, which are like solid cookiesthat don’t let any light through and place them so that they block all but your intendedeye light, or you can barn doors - which are leaves that attach to your light fixture whichact as mini flags. we’ve only touched the surface of noir lighting,the rest can only be learned by studying the
cinematography of the masters - from nicolasmusuraca’s german expressionist lighting in “stranger on the third floor†- tojohn f. seitz’s polished studio noir look of double indemnity, john alton’s dark butcreative lighting placement in “the big combo†or the lively location lighting ofrussell metty on “touch of evil†look for source of the light - how much contrastbetween key and fill and the position of back lights. let that inspire you in your own productions- go make something great. i’m john hess and i’ll see you at flmmakier iq.com