Abstract
My project looks at the importance and affects of lighting in Science Fiction films. I wanted to look at certain lighting techniques that are commonly used in science fiction films and how does that affect the tone or theme of the story. I used the original Star Wars trilogy as my example to look at. I was going to do more films, but there was a lot of information on the lighting in Star Wars so I decided to just stick with that. I also looked at how the tones that were created by the lighting brought the themes and the story together. In my research I looked at certain blogs that talked about film techniques and I also looked at articles with the director of photography of the films on how they decided to light certain scenes. My main purpose for this project was to get across to people how important lighting is to a film and that it is not just there to illuminate, but it is there to give a scene or story meaning my bring emotions to the screen.
In my research I learned that a main lighting technique in science fiction films is the use of blue lighting. Blue lighting adds a science fiction feeling to the film and it also adds a dramatic tone to the film as well as making the scenes more serious. I also learned that the most common technique used is three point lighting, I figured this because this technique is used in almost and if not all films. This is a great technique for a science fiction film because it allows the production crew to manipulate the shadows to have more dramatic tones and to have a more creative looking scene. I learned that there are a lot of scenes in Star Wars were lighting is used to show the theme of Hero vs Villain or Good vs Evil. This is one way were lighting helps the audience realize who is the protagonist or the antagonist and how they should feel when they are on the screen. Lighting affects so many things that people don’t realize how crucial it is to a movie, I hope my project helps people open there eyes to see how I see lighting in film through my eyes.
