Table of Contents
Technical Skills
Atmosphere construction under the concept of dramatic light effect
Stars and stories are important elements of Hollywood commercial films.
The lighting concept of classic Hollywood films emphasizes the dramatic atmosphere rendering from the plot emotion. In the book “painting with light”, a lot of space is involved in the lighting methods and techniques of fire, candle, light, moonlight, rain, fog and other special atmosphere lighting effects, which shows the accumulation of Hollywood films in this aspect.
Alton, with a little infatuation, lists various scenes that can produce mysterious light effects: shipwrecked people in lifeboats, in the dark, the faint reflection of the rolling waves and the distant lighthouse with flashing lights, flickering neon lights; lights flashing through the dark wet streets, searchlights in prisons or concentration camps, lighted refrigerator doors in dark kitchens open and close…
Although these are the common shooting methods of black films, they also mark that the consciousness and skills of creating atmosphere with light in classic Hollywood photography have reached a certain level.
Limit
Self contradiction in the pursuit of image reality
Hollywood films, on the one hand, emphasize the fidelity and credibility of the image details, so that the audience can enter the play without being disturbed, but on the other hand, they hope the film has a strong emotional and welcoming visual beauty.
This undoubtedly leads to the contradiction between the concept and method of using light in Hollywood films. “Realistic” is a word constantly appearing in the book “painting with light”. Alton constantly emphasizes that the lighting effect of the studio must always simulate the effect of natural light in texture and direction.
However, due to the limitations of the technical conditions and the level of knowledge at that time, Alton’s book about realism is also full of contradictions.
On the one hand, he believes that since the Second World War, the audience has been tired of yesterday’s chocolate coated photography, and more used to those “no” photos black and white photography with light intensifier, no reflector, no butterfly cloth and no soft light cover. “
On the other hand, he spent a lot of time teaching how to beautify the stars in close-up shots with soft lenses, but his figure lighting system with eight lights obviously can’t find a realistic light source in the shooting scene.
This contradiction coincides with the image appearance of classic Hollywood, which is boasting to attract audiences, in addition, the emphasis on dramatic and decorative light often exceeds the requirements of reality and emotional atmosphere.
It was not until the 1970s that European photographers used a large area of soft light source to depict characters became the mainstream. Modern film photography finally found a new balance between aesthetic feeling and real texture, and the soft light mirror in front of the lens gradually faded out.
Light distribution and over lighting without light source basis
From the current perspective, the lighting method of Hollywood is too cumbersome and rigid.
Taking the stills and light bitmap of the fire scene provided in “painting with light” as an example, five lights are used for lighting, including two arc lights with low angle on the left and right sides of the fireplace, two main lights of two characters, one left and one right, and one astigmatic light in front of the camera.
To make a comparison with the current lighting method, first of all, the lighting of similar scenes in movies usually doesn’t use so many lights. The photographer may design to draw a window on the left, and put a headlight outside the window to simulate the moonlight.
In the room, tungsten filament lamp and soft light piece are used as auxiliary light to control the light ratio. The figure’s back will play a contour light to simulate the fire light, but it won’t be like that shown by Alton Alton’s lighting method ensures that the main light and the auxiliary light of the two characters are all available.
Alton pays too much attention to the character’s modeling, but less attention to the environmental rationality of artificial light (i.e. the basis of light source). From the situation reflected by the stills themselves, because the lighting is mainly composed of people, the face is very bright, but the fire light can not show. The illumination of the people is too high, which is not compatible with the overall indoor environment.
In current photography, the light may be controlled at low illumination, or even choose the fire light of the fireplace as the main light, and use smaller lights to decorate it properly.
In short, try to pursue the real nature Instead of beating the characters so brightly.
Conservative tendency in the use of motion lens
Compared with modern movies, classic Hollywood movies have much less motion scenes.
One of the important reasons was that the lighting method was complicated and the effect was “accurate” – the large lamps and baffles strictly delineated the actor’s performance area, which restricted the free movement of characters and cameras.
The concept of motion lens in “painting with light” was probably universal at that time. Alton thought that there was no reason for camera movement to affect the viewing effect of the audience, and using motion lens “was like putting a fan” into the audience`s eyes.
Too much camera movement is as bad as no movement when ketchup is applied to bad food. ”
From the information presented in the same period, we can conclude that the flexible and free camera movement was not highly praised by most photographers in classic Hollywood.
Color problem
Color and light are inseparable. “Painting with light” was published in 1949, 12 years after the first color film “flashy world” came out. As a professional book of photography and lighting, there seems to be a lack of color issues here.
This may explain the lack of color research and exploration in Hollywood films at that time. Although the Academy of Film Awards (Oscars), which are used to being extremely sensitive to commercial atmosphere, just appeared in color films, took the opportunity to divide the best photography awards into two categories: color and black-and-white photography, the winners in those years were almost covered by epic films, costume films and dance films (of course, this was the main type of color films at that time), the special art color company, which monopolizes color film technology, strictly controls the technical standards of color film to ensure the correct color reproduction of the film. At that time, any technical exploration that hinders color reproduction was prohibited.
For example, when the photographer Oswald mirros used smoke and filters to lighten the color of John Huston’s Moulin Rouge (1953), he was unexpectedly “destroyed” “Special Artistic Color” was charged.
With this kind of technological control, coupled with the limitations of the American film production system and the market mechanism to please the public, few films have conducted in-depth exploration and research on the color elements of films. At present, most European and Asian directors have not yet entered the shooting of color film, so it is not surprising that there is a lack of film color theory in “painting with light”.
With the popularity of black films in 1940s, low-key photography once got a good development in Hollywood. We can’t ignore the contribution of classic Hollywood black films in low light photography and atmosphere creation.
However, due to the technical limitations of lens light hole and film sensitivity, and the lighting concept of dramatic lighting effect, the practical use of low-key photography at that time was high illumination, and the display of the dark part level of the picture was far less rich and delicate than that of modern films.
With the popularity of color films, the destructiveness of this kind of high illumination is becoming more and more obvious. Under the irradiation of high-power arc lamps, color is highlighted.
The mature partition lighting in classic Hollywood period is often abandoned. The light structure of the picture becomes a simple color structure. Excessive lighting makes the Hollywood color films at that time Bright and gorgeous.
The method of color control and achromatic treatment by controlling the shooting light, the color of the subject and the later development process only appeared after the 1960s.
After 1960’s, in the process of Hollywood changing from the old to the new, its image form is also changing quietly. Influenced by European realism, American films pay more attention to the reality and atmosphere of film images.
In terms of lighting skills, it is shown as follows: getting rid of the conceptual lighting conventions of the studio era, paying more attention to the reasonable light source basis, the application of area light source, the combination of point light source and area light source, and the low illumination photography which can better show the image details.
The concept of light based on reality makes the new Hollywood Screen present a variety of light forms.