History of Lighting Methods I

For my project I am going to make two variants of my Subway station that will convey different emotions primarily using lighting as my asset. I think it is important to represent how the correct use of light can change the entire atmosphere of an environment or scene. Without good methods of lighting, I believe it is near on impossible to portray the core elements of a video game. Whether it's the environment, character, sound and even narrative, lighting is used cleverly in many ways to portray all aspects of video game development. 

I think a lot of influences with lighting techniques in video games derived from historical and cultural examples. In old paintings, movies and even literature, light was the most important asset to convey emotion or atmosphere within a scene. Using old Film Noir movies as an example, the non existence of colour technology made it that light had to be used to demonstrate certain all aspects of the film.

One book I came across called 'Painting with Light' by John Alton, focused on how old Film Noir celebrated the fact that they only had light as their primary asset to show atmosphere in a scene. The beauty of black and white cinema, is that lighting can be used in such a diverse amount of ways to represent a story without a need for colour imagery. The strong contrasts of light to dark and all methods of lighting properties, such as diffusion and reflection are all accentuated to reveal the theme of a story. "Black and white are colors," stated by John Alton on the first page of the book. This really made me think in terms of how the lack of colour technology did not affect the portrayal of a story within classic cinema. Depending on the use of light and how a scene is illuminated is enough strength to represent any aspect of a scene in classic cinema.

For example, Traditional Murder Mystery or Crime movies used particularly heavy lighting methods to portray the intensity of the story, where needed. When we think of Murder or Crime, we perceive it to be evil, dark, curious or suspicious. Those words alone are quite shrouded, and it's with that in mind, lighting is used to represent those feelings. Cleverly using light to 'shroud' areas with heavy contrasts to highlight particular scenes in the film.

Here is an example of how Film Noir movies used lighting to express particular scenes in the story:

A scene from Canon City 'Painting with Light' /John Alton, pgXX

This image is from a scene in Canon City; a crime mystery made in 1948. With the theme of 'Crime' in this movie is very well presented through the expression of lighting methods. Using black and white as a helpful tool to build sharp contrasts, this type of genre can be powerful presented if the lighting is correct. Black and white compliment well with harsh lighting techniques and that is why the crime genre can be a very dynamic and atmospheric part of classic Film Noir. For example, the image above shows that of a lady and a man separated by a wire grid. It is evident from the setting that the two characters are in some kind of prison, but it isn't so much the obviousness of the environment, it's how light is used to represent the emotion within that scene. Lighting is being used to convey not only the environment in which the characters are set, but the emotions striking between the two. The lady is very brightly illuminated with little shadow to her figure, whereas the man is practically shrouded in darkness, only with a slight touch of light that we would consider is coming from the lady opposite him. With the particular theme of the story, we can indicate through the clever use of lighting, that this man is the criminal and the lady is someone important to him. If we analyze the picture, we can indicate the lady is innocent by her clear illuminosity, she has no dark imperfections like the man opposite her. He has committed a crime and is therefore enveloped in darkness. However, the soft light on his face is clearly being lit by the lady in front, highlight small facial features. It is as if the lady opposite him has some kind of importance to him, whether relative or loved one, she is framing his face with her innocence. Maybe he isn't such a bad guy after all? 

It's all these ways of lighting a scene help depict not only the personality of characters, but the way in which a story is being told. From my short analysis, I perceived the man to be a criminal kept within the shadows of his sins, but with how pure the lady is opposite him and how his face is lit by hers, makes me think maybe with her he isn't such a bad person. If someone were to visit him during his imprisonment, so clearly and cleanly illuminated, almost like an angel.

Here is another example from the same movie:

A scene from Canon City 'Painting with Light' /John Alton, pg XXi

In this image we see a man clutching a woman in a tight grip. Similar to the previous image, we can identify that the man is portrayed negatively with the way in which he is lit, indicating that he is antagonist within this scene. Compared to that of the woman, he is also shrouded in darkness, almost entirely, besides that of his hand and part of his face. His hand is clearly illuminated to highlight his actions towards the woman, his face also to perhaps give an identity to the character during his action. The darkness of the scene surrounding that character clearly indicates his evil intent within this scene, whereas in contrast the woman is clearly illuminated to perhaps express her innocence. I think it is more so a strong light to highlight the expression of her face during this particular scene. The lighting method clearly conveys her emotional trauma as the male character pulls her almost into darkness.

It is really interesting to see how lighting was used significantly more so in classic film, as with the lack of colour came supposed lack of expression. But it is evident from this analysis that it is certainly not a necessary aspect to produce a dynamic atmosphere. Lighting is a crucial part of story telling as it accentuates all elements that are relevant to the genre or theme.