Technical Production: Lighting Aspect
Cinema 200
Marty Lighting Analysis
Marty: Analysis on Lighting Aspects
Although light may seem trivial, overtly simplistic in terms of cinematic production, it is one of the most powerful tools that a director can use in the advancement of character development and mood. Depending on where light is focused, it may serve as an imaginary “pointer” guiding the audience towards a certain object or person. In contrast it may also serve to block out images that the director doesn’t wish to reveal. One film that uses lighting to provide a direct interpretation of symbolism, character development and mood is Marty. The role that light plays within Marty is as important as a role played by an actor because it illustrates Marty’s interior emotions as well as his hidden insecurities between his mother and Clara. The fact that Marty is a black and white film also enhances the use of the semblance of light. Throughout the entire film Marty’s emotions seem to rollercoaster from peaks to valleys. It seems that at his most happiest moments in life are when he’s either interacting with Clara, or at the butcher shop. It’s evident that whenever he’s with his friends or with his mother, the lighting drops a couple of hues. This is in direct representation of his insecurities and his indifference to those people. Marty’s mother and his friends are just there to replace time that he would spend alone. Moreover they control Marty’s life and chose girls that he’s not really interested in and when shows little interest in their suggestions they either give him a guilt treatment or make fun of him. It seems that he doesn’t have a really strong connection to them.
The Essay on Black Film Mother One
Essay topic: What do you think about the presentation of the black characters in the film to kill a mocking bird The presentation of the black characters in the film, To kill a Mocking Bird, hinges on the history of slavery in the southern states of USA. The film is set in the township of Maycomb in the state of Alabama in the 1930's. Slavery was abolished after the northern states won the civil ...
Another use of lighting within the film is one specific scene where is friend dumps his date in order to pursue a more attractive girl. While he is telling Marty this, he is standing next to a mirror. The mirror is positioned so that it seems that there are two images of him; one of his real self and the other, a façade of what women perceive him to be. The director takes advantage of this opportunity and directs a strong stream of light focused on the mirror, while dulling the light with the intention of displaying his true self. This is more or so to symbolize good vs. evil.
A quarter into the film where he comes in contact with Clara at the balcony where she is crying and heart broken that her date decided to ditch her. The director deprives all light by presenting Clara’s mixed emotions as well as to show the somber mood. Immediately proceeding this scene, they walk back into the ballroom where the light is revived just as Marty comforts her. As both characters feel an attraction towards the light that had been absent in the last scene, the light that shines on both of them is so strong (perhaps foreshadowing a marital bind) that an illuminating halo is formed. In reality it is no more than the refraction of light from their heads, the black and white film intensifies this, however it is symbolic that Marty is in his own “heaven” or at least at the moment, he finds it. The film Marty is a direct example of how light may be implemented in which to do more with the plot than to just further it. The light scale is just another example that the use of light in which to present any type of medium is endless.
