Understanding of light and shadow in movies

Turn off the lights and tear down the movie. People who know movies will have an orgasm watching these shots.

Bing Yi

Shooting is the art of light and shadow.

Movies are the art of light and shadow.

Meet the twin brother of light today.

"Shadow"

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Silhouette? Balance between prominence and ellipsis?

Silhouette is one of the most common light and shadow processing methods in movies, which can effectively omit the appearance characteristics of characters and shift the audience's attention to more important places.

For example, in some action movies, the silhouette fighting of the protagonist can highlight the physical movements on the one hand, and enrich the diversity of martial arts scenes on the other hand, which is a kind of expression technique that action movie directors love to see.

This high-rise fighting scene in "007: Breaking the Sky" is the most talked about.

Not only is the action play coherent and beautiful, but the jellyfish pattern on the background curtain wall enhances the artistry of the play.

The combination of rigidity and softness is reflected in the same picture, which is beautiful.

In other words, light and shadow can divide the picture into two levels, and at the same time put two opposing elements on the same plane, thus expressing some complexity of the film.

For example, at the end of Fight Club, the foreground is a static silhouette of Jack holding Mara's hand, and in the background we see skyscrapers crashing down, which is both violent and beautiful.

In this picture, the foreground symbolizes unity and the background represents division, which coincides with the duality of deconstruction and reconstruction of Fight Club.

Sometimes the background of the prominent part can also play a role in setting off the atmosphere. For example, in la la land, couples dance under the stars, and in ET Alien, the little boy flies by with ET in the night sky. ...

The background paved the romantic and fantastic atmosphere for the relationship between the characters in the silhouette.

The most common moments in movies are at sunrise or sunset.

In film science, this period is also called magic period, and in English it is called prime time.

As the name implies, because the angle of sunlight is close to the horizon and the color temperature is low, the whole picture is warmly reflected by orange-red light, which is especially suitable for directors to express the inner drama of characters in the foreground.

For example, on a sunny day, Ma Xiaojun overlooks the bitter friendship between Milan and Liu Yi, and he is particularly upset.

In some cases, the outline does not need the help of the background. The reason why the director uses silhouette is to hide more details and deliberately create mystery.

For example, Hitchcock's classic Psycho and Derel's Vampire all have such applications.

This technique is common in horror movies, and the shadow has almost become synonymous with evil forces such as the devil and the murderer.

Shadow? Key outline of start character

Introducing shadowy characters is also a way that many directors like to use.

For example, the masterpiece "Perfume", which Kubrick called "impossible to be put on the screen in this century", began with the director tom tykwer putting the protagonist in the shadow and revealing only his magical nose.

It is quite clever to use shadows to simplify or even omit unnecessary visual elements and focus on what the audience wants to see. It can be seen immediately that this is a film about smell with only one shot.

Lust, Caution takes another routine. Ang Lee wants to introduce mr. yi, the spy chief. The characters are mysterious enough and their careers are shady, so they are arranged to walk a long dark tunnel until the audience can't stand their temper.

Doing so highlights mr. yi's eagle-like eyes and shows the ferocity and mystery of men.

The opening of "007: Breaking the Sky" is also the same routine in the same world.

James Bond appeared in silhouette from the soft focus of the background, and his face was illuminated by a nearby beam of light, which also highlighted his eyes, but this time the director wanted to express the agility and vigilance of the characters.

Let's look at the opening of The Godfather. Coppola's design scared Paramount to death. The first shot was not aimed at the protagonist, but at an unimportant nobody.

The camera slowly opens, and the back of the old godfather stretches dignified in the soft focus shadow area, which is much more advanced than shooting the old godfather directly.

Seeing this, you must have found that all the characters who appear through shadows have one thing in common, that is, mystery.

Especially those supernatural creatures are most suitable to appear in the form of shadows, such as Mushulong in Mulan, the beast in Beauty and the Beast, and the mop elf in Fantasia 2000. ...

Their first appearance was to meet the audience in the form of shadow play, which is a classic routine of Disney!

Change? The gradual escalation of a generation of godfathers

Speaking of the first person who used shadows, there was a "prince of shadows" in Hollywood.

He is the famous photographer Gordon Willis.

Without his classic dedication in the godfather series, I'm afraid the filmmakers today can't play so many tricks in film knowledge.

How do you say this?

Take the protagonist Mike as an example. In the early days of the godfather, Mike had just returned from military service and had never set foot in the gangster business run by his father. At this time, most of his face is in the highlighted area, and there is no shadow.

But with the closer relationship with the family business, the shadow area on Mike's face is getting bigger and bigger.

Although The Godfather series contradicts the cruel image of gangsters, Gordon Willis still defines gangsters as outlaws. Therefore, the closer the characters are to gangsters, the larger the facial shadow area presented in the film.

When Mike successfully carried out the task and killed the boss of the rival family, it also meant that he fully undertook the mission of the Corleone family. At this moment, the shadow occupied three-quarters of his face, which was also his deepest participation in the family business from beginning to end.

However, the beauty of Gordon Willis is that the facial shadows he designed for each main character are different.

For example, the old godfather played by Marlon Brando always uses top lighting when he goes on stage.

This kind of lighting will leave a great shadow under the high brow bone peculiar to westerners, making people unable to see his eyes clearly, thus creating an unfathomable feeling.

Even in the outdoor sunshine, the old godfather's face is still wrapped in shadows.

Another distinctive shadow figure is tom hagen, the adopted son of the old godfather.

He often shows people photos with half of his face covered in shadows and half of his face clearly visible.

This expression has three meanings.

First, Hagen is in charge of the Lyon family's business, and half bright and half dark represents his black and white duality.

Second, Hagen is an adopted son raised by the old godfather. He is both one of our own and an outsider of the Corleone family, and the half-brightness and half-darkness represent his embarrassing situation.

Third, after losing the protection of his old godfather, Hagen shook his confidence in the Corleone family. Half bright and half dark represents his wavering sincerity, which can be said to be very clever.

Another special case is Sonny, the eldest son of the old godfather. He was the first heir to the godfather throne, but he was indirectly assassinated by the enemy because of his bad temper.

When shooting this role, considering his straightforward personality, Gordon Willis deliberately did not accumulate any shadow on his face.

Sonny's face stood out in the audience, which also reminded the audience that Sonny was definitely not the ultimate successor of the godfather.

Shadow, whether fifty shades of grey or Fifty Shades Darker, didn't expect so much attention.

With Gordon Willis's pioneering research and attempt on shadow, in the end, "film noir" no longer stays on the theme of black, but further achieves the unity of black in the art of light and shadow.

Movies are halls of light and shadow.

Please pay attention to the official account of "Turn off the lights and tear down the movie" WeChat.

Continue to watch the ingenious use of "light" in the film in the previous content.

We, read only classics.