The Master Guide / 08 Cinematography · Light and look
Motivated light movement
Light moves only when a source or the camera moves it. Effects are a choice, and exposure is set in the plate.
Light moves only when a source or the camera moves it. Effects are a choice, and exposure is set in the plate.
Light moves only when something real moves it, a source or the camera, and only where the treatment asks for it: a highlight sliding along an edge as the camera arcs; a rim catching a cheek as she turns; a reflection travelling across glass. Never written as a flash, a glow or a burst. Keep moving light off label lettering.
Exposure lives in the plate. Night and low key are built into the location plate, and into any start frame (see Video with Seedance → The six start-frame cases), because the video follows them. If a night take comes back too bright, the fix is a darker plate (a new still), not more words.
Effects are a look choice. Write them with a physical cause in frame, or add them in finishing. Never generated decoration: a generic bloom, glow on skin or product, materials lit from inside, light used as a transition. Check every take for effects you didn't ask for, and regenerate; never paint them out.
What failure looks like | The fix (one change) |
Unrequested flare, bloom or glow | Remove the effect words and add a look line that asks for clean glass; regenerate, never paint it out |
A highlight becomes a flash | A highlight that travels across a surface as the camera moves; no "bright", "flash" or "glow" |
Light used to bridge two shots | A cut, or a camera move across a real surface |
A material lights itself | One clean reflection of the window; nothing glows |
Light that comes from nowhere | A named source in frame, or one placed by the scene's first shot |
Sources
Roger Deakins on Blade Runner 2049 (moving light from real sources; ASC); Linus Sandgren on La La Land (practicals on dimmers; American Cinematographer); Emmanuel Lubezki on The Revenant (firelight; British Cinematographer).