Lighting

Lighting is a crucial component of a film as it must align with the genre of the film.

There is an obvious difference between high key and low key lighting. These are studio lighting techniques that create moods for the audience.

Lighting is fundamental to film because it creates a visual mood, atmosphere, and sense of meaning for the audience. Every step of the cinematic process affects the lighting setup, and vice-versa.
- Lighting tells the audience where to look. The lighting setup guides the eye to a specific actor, prop, or part of a scene.
- Lighting reflects the psychology of characters. The amount, size, color, and harshness of light surrounding a character can be adjusted to match their emotions.
- Lighting defines and supports the genre of the film. Lighting is the tool that conveys mood most clearly.



High key lighting refers to less contrast between dark tones and brighter areas. This includes brightly lit subjects, soft shadows. Fill light to increase the amount of ambient light to reduce contrast.

Low key lighting is a great contrast between dark and light areas with a majority of the scene in shadow. This results in darker shadows, few amounts of whites, and mid-tones. Creates a dramatic feeling, and draws the audience's eye towards part of the composition. Mysterious moods can be observed from this.

It is important that our film will need to use high key lighting for our filming process. Chick flicks are known to be bright and colorful. Therefore, high-key lighting is a suitable option.




We are going to need to find large light sources to successfully execute the high-key lighting to be portrayed correctly. That is a lighting element we are going to need to figure out soon, in time for our filming days.

To determine the time in which to film, we should do it during the early morning. We can use the sun for natural light to brighten the mood. The only issue with this is the inconsistency with the natural light. Clouds and other independent variables can affect this. We need to be careful with where we film and in what lighting