From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Lighting from below

Lighting from below

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Lighting from below

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- Because of the movement of the sun, we're used to seeing people being lit from almost every angle. The lights in our homes and also in public places, can also be found lighting us from almost every angle, and I say almost every angle because you almost never see someone lit from the bottom, so it feels very unnatural. But of course a storyteller, sometimes unnatural is exactly what we're looking for. In the same way that lighting from above could suggest a lowered brow, lighting from below suggests a raised brow as you can see on Lucy here. This expression can suggest fear, a mindless intensity, or maybe a menace of some sort. You know when we gather around campfire to tell a scary story, the campfire lights us from the bottom and that adds to the atmosphere. So this look is usually reserved for horror movies or other intense scenes. Here in The Body Snatchers these characters look into the mirror, they're lit from the bottom and it adds the uneasiness of the scene. Same thing with…

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