How to Analyze Movies Like a Boss: Lighting, Sound & Score

Last week we covered the Camera, in which I reminded all of you of one of the most depressing but best shot movies ever. This week in How to Analyze Movies Like a Boss: Lighting, Sound and Score! Seriously, don’t forget about these three if you’re analyzing a movie. They’re important. Let’s get started.

Lighting

Lighting is important in a movie to create a certain mood, or an atmosphere. You may not expect it but even lighting can add to and create meaning in a film. Horror movies, for instance, are known use lighting to create the mood a lot. Most importantly, they use a lot of shade to create the setting and the atmosphere. They are codes of meaning. Certainly, you will never see horror-type lighting in a romantic movie, as it doesn’t fit the setting. In lighting, available light suggests natural light. Spotlight, although mostly used in theater, picks out one member of a group, but is sometimes used more subtly in film, and could be used for foreshadowing. Full-face lighting highlights a face and can suggest openness and truth. Shadow and low contrast are often associated with fear, anger, suspicion, et cetera.

source: New Line Cinema // Lord of the Rings: Two Towers

High-key lighting is harsh and bright, and can uplift the movie’s mood. It can also intensify a scene where emotions are laid bare, as the high-key lighting makes it look as if the person cannot hide anything – especially when they also make use of full-face lighting. Soft-key lighting is, as the name already suggests, a much softer light, shadows are visible and contrast is lower. It’s often used to create a romantic atmosphere, or to set a more grim mood in darker movies. Watch this fascinating lighting in video tutorial if you’re interested in learning more about lighting – tutorials are very handy to get a deeper understanding of what it is the filmmakers do and how they achieve it (and why!).

Sound and “Diegesis”

There is a difference between sound that is in the scene when shot, and the sound that is added after the movie is shot. The former is called the sound of “the world of the film”, or diegesis. Examples are singing birds or cars driving by in the background, a baby’s rattle toy, or screeching tires in a car chase. Those sounds are diegetic. Not-diegetic are sounds that are added to a film after the film is shot to create mood and atmosphere, like the sounds of blowing wind, rumbling thunder or blows in a fist fight. Moreover, sound can also be dubbed. That means the sound is already in the diegesis but is replaced by a clearer recording of the sound, to emphasize on and exaggerate the effect of the sound.

The Score

Never forget to consider the score. The movie’s music goes a great length to set the mood. A horror will rarely feature a romantic ballad, though they may sometimes have a very cheerful song to create contrast with what’s happening on screen. This too is done to create that mood and atmosphere. Blade Runner is a dark and mysterious movie, set in a very dark, dystopian world. The score created by Vangelis really emphasized on that mood, even giving it a dream and trance-like feel, adding to the mystery and surreality of the movie. In fact, another movie that did this well was the movie we discussed last week, Requiem of a Dream. The score for this movie truly added to the dark mood and desperation of the characters.

source: Warner Bros

A great example of a perfect accompanying score for a tense action scene is the combination of Juno Reactor’s Mona Lisa Overdrive and the orchestra in The Matrix Reloaded during the freeway chase: http://youtu.be/eF9AC2Ce2ow Do you ever pay special attention to sound and lighting when you’re watching a movie?  What is your favorite movie score – and which did you think didn’t fit the movie you were watching? If you have any questions or comments, please post them below! If you enjoyed this article, please consider following The Movie Scrutineer on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you