Alcott Lighting

For this blog entry I wanted to take a brief look on some of the lighting seen in the cinematography of John Alcott. Although in my assignment, I wish to emulate some of the diffused white practical light seen in Alcott’s films, I wanted to use some examples of films in where lighting has been used in different ways to express a certain mood in which the scenes take place.

An example of this is seen in “A Clockwork Orange”. One piece of lighting really appeals to me in this film in where Alex and the “droogs” come across a drunken elderly tramp on their way back from some mischief caused earlier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPu83WMl92Y

In the shots taken there is a large powerful backlight behind the “droogs” as they stroll towards their next victim. The shadows projected on to the floor in front of them are long and block the former well light pathway in the subway, symbolic of the moment; as the darkness prevails over the light.

Another great use of light and shadows can be seen in “The Shining”. In the scene where Wendy is on the run from Jack Torrance. She meanders he way up the stairs and reaches the caretaker’s headquarters in the Overlook where she see’s a manifestation of a bear and gentleman in a suit.



An interesting use of light is the way it creates a shadow of the railings in the banister of the stairs, which is projected on to the walls. This might be a metaphor to create a feeling of imprisonment. The bars look like those of a jail cell in where the dead souls of the Overlook are trapped in, and never can escape. Although the doorway itself is open and lit with practical light to possibly symbolize the open passage in which the manifestations of the dead are crossing into the real world.

In terms of continuity the only way the light could be casting shadows is in the middle of the scene which is open space, nowhere, where a light good be positioned naturally, so studio light must have been used to create the shadows of the banisters on all four sides of the walls; adding to the subliminal psychological disturbance of the films purpose.