"A Dimension of Mind: Film" - Part 3: Lighting

"A Dimension of Mind: Film" is a facsimile of the "Sight and Sound: Film" course at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.  However, "A Dimenstion of Mind: Film" differs in some important ways because it can be replicated at home.

Difficulty level: 2

Round 3 – Light. 
It’s time to learn lighting techniques. Get a bunch of big electric lamps. Now you can shoot inside. Still no sound allowed.

Movie 9 — 3-point lighting.

• Use the lamps to create a scene that uses a basic 3-point portraiture lighting scheme. This consists of a key-light to light the figure, a fill-light to dilute hard shadows, and a back-light to create a slight highlight or shine on the figure.

This video is a very clear (if slightly hokey) explanation of how 3-point lighting works.


Movie 10 — Soft Lighting

• Use diffused and bounced light to create a soft, glowing, radiant, magical texture with the light.

This scene from the Baz Luhrmann interpretation of "Romeo + Juliet" features some diffused, soft lighting bounced/reflected off of the "water" (which of course, is a filmmaker's trick, you know).


Movie 11 — Moving Through Light.

• Create a scene that features an environment of mixed hard-lit areas and starkly shaded areas, and have a character or object move through this environment for dramatic effect.

Click Here to watch a perfect example of lighting for movement in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull 

Movie 12 — Using light for special effects

• Light can be used for all sorts of cool things: Flashes, explosions, double-exposures, magical/scientific/supernatural light-sources, narrow illuminated beams for puppetry, contrived shadows —the world is yours! Use your imagination and your lamps to come up with some real-life magic tricks to shock and amaze your audience.

This is just one of the many successful special effects lighting projects made by NYU students under the "real" Sight and Sound: Film program: