Camera and Lighting Strategy for a Film Project

This article discusses the camera and lighting strategy for a film project that revolves around a boy who loses track of his life and goes into depression after his mother passes away. The camera angles are mostly close up to reflect the expressions of the characters, and the lighting is dark and depressive to maintain the overall atmosphere of the film. The article also emphasizes the importance of close interaction between the camera and lighting operators with the team to synchronize the overall message of the film.

Running head: FILM PROJECT
FILM PROJECT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

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Camera Operator
The camera strategy is very important in shaping the film’s perception in the audience’s
minds (Stam 2017). Here the film is basically about a boy who loses track of his life and goes
into depression. The boy’s mother tired of waiting every day for the drunk boy to return home
and ultimately passes away. The camera strategy would be to translate this depression and grief
into the audience’s perception. Most of the camera angles are close up to reflect the expressions
of the characters. There is very little movement of the camera as most of the scenes are shot on a
static camera angle, as static as the life of the mother of the boy.
The implementation plan is to place the camera tripod in strategic spots to capture the
heart of the scenes. There are scenes which includes long shots and mid shots like the mother’s
scene at the market, these will be implemented by both handheld shots and moving tripods on
wheels. The particular role of the camera person will be to be in close contact with the director to
understand the emotion and portray that in the screen, so there will be continuous interaction.
The team of producer, writer, editor and sound controller along with the director will sit for
regular meetings and interaction throughout the shooting to integrate the roles.
Davis in his article “Video Production Tips: The Basics of Lighting and Camera Angles”
has stated that to create a particular effect the cameraperson must be visualizing the whole scene
before shooting it (Davis 2015). The films main message is to state that a mother’s love is
universal and eternal, the last scene where the son discovers the letter is very important, Close up
of the letter and the son’s face will be shown consecutively. Montage will be used in editing to
depict the depth of the scene (Bordwell, Thompson and Smith 2016).
Lighting

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The lighting must be in sync with the camera strategy that has been adopted. The overall
atmosphere of the film remains dark and depressive. This reflects the mindset of both the son and
the mother who are unhappy in their own settings. The lighting strategy would be to maintain the
light and shadow effect throughout the film and reflect the message all over (Standish 2014).
The implementation will be done through ensuring the maximum use of controlled
artificial lighting and maintaining the darkness even in the scenes where plenty of light is used.
There will be screens that will be used to reduce or control the effects of light. In the scenes
where the mother is waiting for her son to come back there will be a dim yellowish bulb that
would maintain the gloom of the atmosphere. There are a number of scenes which have a black
screen and only background sound effects. The immediate scenes that would follow will be
carrying the effect of the darkness, hence light use will be low in the following scenes as well.
The integration process will be same as the camera person where close interaction of the lighting
operator will happen with the team about synchronizing the overall message of the film with the
lighting technique.
In the article “Lighting for Cinematography: A Practical Guide to the Art and Craft of
Lighting for the Moving Image”, the author has pointed out how perfect lighting can amplify the
effects of the film to a large extent (Landau 2014). In the film “Godfather” the lighting was
specifically crafted and customised for the title character to enhance his role, similar method will
be followed in this film while lighting the two main characters.

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REFERENCES:
Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. and Smith, J., 2016. Film art: An introduction. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Davis, D., 2015. Video Production Tips: The Basics of Lighting and Camera Angles.
Tubularinsights, January 20.
Landau, D., 2014. Lighting for Cinematography: A Practical Guide to the Art and Craft of
Lighting for the Moving Image. A&C Black.
Stam, R., 2017. Film theory: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Standish, I., 2014. The Aesthetics of Shadow: Lighting and Japanese Cinema by Daisuke
Miyao. The Journal of Japanese Studies, 40(2), pp.465-469.