Film noir is a style of filmmaking that became popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Its most notable style characteristic is a lighting design that is matched to the dark nature of the storyline and the sinister characters that the film follows. Film noir is known for its shadowy, high-contrast scenes consisting of deep shadows and intense highlights. In order to mimic this lighting style, one must first understand the basics of film noir lighting.

Think of film noir lighting as a magnifying glass. What do you want the audience to focus on? Use your light to carve through the shadows and illuminate the object of focus. You may rather choose to create a crisp shadow or silhouette, allowing that to be your focal point. Either way, to successfully light in this manner, an intense hard light is required for keeping your subject illuminated while the camera’s iris is closed enough to allow for the dark shadows.

Remember, you’re not lighting the whole scene, you’re trying to pull things out of the shadows. Be sure to always light with precision and purpose. Shadowy faces, dark surroundings, and silhouettes are all acceptable, if not encouraged in film noir, so use them. Learning as much as you can about lighting in the film noir style, as well as any lighting set-up, will help you in your quest to capture the desired look and feel in your next production.

Start lighting your scenes better with Videomaker’s Ultimate Lighting Toolkit. This informational combination of two DVDs, five eDocs and three Video-On-Demand downloads created by Videomaker, will help take your lighting skills to the professional level.

Interested in more tips on lighting? Sign up for Videomaker’s free Video Lighting Course. This free tip series is designed to help you improve your video production skills, fast. Learn More.

Anyone can point a video camera at something and press record. However, creating quality videos requires an understanding of basic video production concepts. This week, Videomaker takes video production back to the basics with the newest addition to our webinar training series: Basic Video Production.

Whether you’re interested in video production for your business or interested in improving your home movies and personal projects, our comprehensive Basic Video Production webinar will teach you the techniques needed to get a jump start on making better video. You will learn basic techniques such as shot composition, camera moves and controls, microphone and audio techniques, as well as lighting setups and techniques.

Following the webinar, all registrants will receive a copy of our special report “Handheld Shooting”. In addition to valuable information and a free special report, the Basic Video Production Webinar will also include a live Q&A segment; our team answering your questions. The Basic Video Production Webinar starts at 11:00 AM (PST) on Wednesday, December 15th, so be sure to sign up soon!

Not interested in Basic Video Production? Videomaker’s Webinar Training Series provides a wide variety of webinars that cover topics including Advanced Editing, Documentary Production, Lighting for Video, Advanced Shooting, Audio for Video, and much more.

Imagine you’re in a restaurant and you knock over a full glass of water. To stop the spilled water from landing in your lap you put a napkin barrier around the spill and prevent any further encroachment. This is similar to the way light spill works. You turn your light on, the light spills forward and, if you don’t block certain areas off, you’re going to get light in places you don’t want it.

There are many reasons you might choose to control the spill. Perhaps the spill is interfering with another light source, or maybe you want to strategically place a dramatic shadow that will conceal an area of your scene. Whatever the reason, learning the ways in which you can control light spill will allow you to light your scene more effectively.

You can control light spill in a number of ways while creating either hard edge or soft edge lighting. For example, a barndoor is an accessory that mounts onto the front of a light and is characterized by its adjustable hinged doors. Barndoors physically mask the light from reaching areas that don’t require it, while creating a hard edge where the light and the shadow meet. Other ways to control your spill include using diffusion screens, flags and lights equipped with Fresnel lenses.

Experimenting with different light controls, and the learning the techniques involved with each one, will allow you to successfully mask light spill during your next shoot. Eliminating unwanted spills will increase the effectiveness of your lighting setup while improving the look of your video.

For more information about spill control and techniques whether you’re indoors or outside, check out Light Source: Mop Up That Spill!

There are many ways you can use light to alter the mood of your movie. Knowing what kind of movie you’re making will help in deciding what kind of light you will need to set the desired mood. There’s nothing scary about a well-lit scene, and you wouldn’t necessarily want shadowy, mysterious lighting for a comedy, either. Before you start lighting your set, you should ask yourself, “does this scene call for high-key or low-key lighting?”

A common misconception regarding the terms high-key and low-key is that they are describing the strength of the key light. Though the key light is part of the equation, it will always remain constant and should focus on good exposure of the subject. The “high” and “low” are actually referring to the strength of the fill light.

Once the key light is set for proper exposure, the fill light can be adjusted to light the opposite side with either a high or low amount of light. High-key lighting means more fill light. This will give you little to no shadows on the subject and their surroundings, which will result in a cheerier, normal looking scene. Low-key lighting means less fill light. With less light to fill the shadows, your scenes will appear to be more mysterious or suspenseful. With other lighting techniques, such as chiaroscuro or cameo lighting, you might not use a fill light at all.

Your lighting choice should reflect the type of movie, or scene, you’re shooting. Good lighting choices can enhance the mood of your movie and add impact to each scene. Don’t stop at 3-point, high-key and low-key lighting. There are many specialty lighting techniques you can use to get that desired look and feel.

The office is bustling, here at Videomaker, as we prepare for our upcoming workshops. The weekend of October 9^th is coming up fast and we couldn’t be more excited. For the first time ever, we’re offering an Intensive Lighting Workshop, as well as our Basics of Video Production Workshop.

Our Basics of Video Production Workshop is a start-to-finish course on movie making. This is a great way for beginners to become familiar with the equipment and the processes involved when telling a story with video.

For those of you who already have a grasp on the basics of video production, the Intensive Lighting Workshop will allow you to build upon your production skills and knowledge by focusing on light theory, equipment and techniques.

If you’ve been to one of our workshops you know that it’s a great way to get hands-on experience with professional equipment, learn new techniques and work with people who are as enthusiastic about movie making as you.

It’s not too late to sign up, so if you have never attended one of our workshops, or just want to build upon your previous experience, now is as good of a time as any to join in on the fun.

Click here for more information on attending a Videomaker Workshop