Lighting Techniques In Horror Films

These five cinematography tips will make just about any horror film more stylized and effective.

Lighting techniques in horror films. It adds the feeling of immediate danger and it s even more highlighted if you pair it with another saturated color. These lighting techniques are a great place to start. But remember they cut the light output by 50. Horror films are all about tone texture and mood.

Making a scary movie actually scary can be a serious challenge but filmmakers have found ways to communicate danger fear and other horrible emotions onto the screen visually by turning certain cinematographic techniques into horror conventions. Horror is a very specific genre that calls for some unique lighting techniques. To achieve this kind of lighting add highly saturated red gels to your lights. Film language and techniques.

These are often used in horror and sci fi films. You not only get to learn about lighting techniques that are commonly used in horror. Nosferatu 1922 features arguable the most famous silhouette in horror film history. At the end of the day all of these lighting techniques are just a way of manipulating shadows and in his very insightful blog post brogan o callaghan explains the horror filmmaker s purpose for doing so.

Unlike many other genres that rely more heavily on other elements dialogue plot points etc great horror films are all about style. Crafting together a memorable horror movie that stands the test of time is a feat not many directors can pull off. Light and dark the first thing you need is darkness and the best way to get that is to shoot at night or better yet in a well lit room which to your camcorder can be just about every room in the house. Keep these classic techniques in mind before you set out to make the next great horror film.

Unlike acting where there s a fine line between a great performance and overacting horror film lighting is always expected to be over the top so let s get started. But you get to find out how one technique in particular uplighting affects audiences psychologically. The common theme among all different lighting methods is that they all obscure or distort reality in some way.