Painters Influence

Introduction

Paintings as a topic is something I have wanted to write about since the beginning. During the course of my filming I have found art to not only be a great source for inspiration but also a lesson in lighting. The first painter who has grabbed my attention is Italian-American Rico Lebrun and the second is Swiss surrealist painter H.R. Giger.

Rico Lebrun

A quote of Lebrun’s that first got me interested in his work comes from the College Museum of Art site; “(Lebrun) believed in art that was engaged as having a responsibility to deal with the existential theme of the human predicament, to address the evils of the modern world”.  I fully agree with this statement, art like film can influence the opinion of millions on a topic they have no prior knowledge or experience with. It is a painter or filmmaker’s responsibly therefore to depict the harsh reality of the world in a responsible way. This quote had me hooked and encouraged me to view his work.

Through Lebrun’s collection of paintings there was one picture in particular that caught my eye, the Genesis mural, created at Pomona College, California.

Lebrun uses a number of techniques to bring the viewers attention to the figure in the centre. To begin with, it is the largest object of the painting, the contrast is high and as already stated it is positioned in the centre. The size and position are the more obvious reasons for why it stands out, what really struck me however was how the high contrast draws the eye exactly to it. This explains my liking for previous examples I have listed through the course of these blogs, like ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘Raging Bull’. Both have dim lighting however the contrast is altered when the cinematographer wants the audience to pay close attention to a significant piece of information.

Upon first viewing this I found it difficult to determine whether or not this used naturalistic or stylistic lighting. Naturalistic because the contrast on the background objects is quite soft, giving the impression that the sun is beginning to set but then stylistic because the centre object has a higher contrast.

After reading up on chiaroscuro however I learnt that if a picture has a high contrast between light and dark with a dark background then it will tend to lean more to a stylistic approach. It then became very clear to me that this is a stylistic painting; the corners are dark yet the background is dimly lit. This further confirmed to me that a stylistic approach is what I’m aiming for as it is completely in my control to create my own style like Lebrun has done.

My observations for Lebrun’s Genesis Mural on lighting can be applied to his other work that is included below.

A small observation I also made whilst looking at Rico's other work, especially with the picture to the right, is that the faces are always darkened. As learnt in lectures, A.L.Yarbus states that the eye will natural be drawn to the face so the higher contrast on the face the more effective it is. Rico quite clearly goes against this form, at first the eye doesn't know where to look at which I find to be far more creative and therefore interesting.

H. R. Giger

I first became aware of H.R. Giger the same way many others have, for his academy award winning design of the Xenomorph in Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’. His other work is a lot to take in at first viewing and truth be told the gothic imagery of skulls and the sexual themes is not to my liking as there is little humanity to be found in these paintings making it hard to relate.

However just because some aspects of his work is not to my personal taste does not mean I find Giger to be talentless, on the contrary similar to Lebrun’s work Giger’s lighting and dark contrast is what I’m greatly fond. In this picture Giger has used the three point lighting method to create an extremely mysterious and daunting image. With the harsh key light positioned directly above the subject’s head the eyes are completely darkened by the shadows of the eye socket, much like Gordon Willis’s work on ‘The Godfather’.

Unlike much of Willis’s cinematography, Giger has made the light source much closer to the subject’s face so that the other features are very bright. This is extremely stylistic however as I doubt you could have such a high contrast between two features which are so close to each other. Nonetheless it illustrates how effective contrast can be in creating a moody atmosphere.

Conclusion

All of Giger’s work and Lebrun share a continuity of dark, eerie images. I fully believe that this is why they are so renowned, they have stuck to a style and pushed the limits of what can be seen as stylistic without treading into an absurd territory.

What I will take away from this blog is to push my harsh contrasting style even more then what I was planning on for a dark atmospheric style. Though Gordon Willis is still predominately the major influence for my work, Giger and Lebrun have taught me to be more experimental. 

Test Footage

After losing all my test footage I managed to restore most of it after a week of trying to recover it. Below is the testing I did, heavily influenced by Gordon Willis and Vittorio Storaro.

From my previous light testing I found the Gulliver lights to be the most effective in giving a low level of brightness on a chosen subject. They are easy to move and position making them practical also. The camera I used was a Canon 550d using an ISO level of between 200-400 depending on each shot. Similar to Willis I lessened the aperture to make the shadows more prominent. 

The dark look i was going for would have been thrown off balance however had my actor been wearing a bright colour top. I had to be careful though as too dark of clothing would make him blend in with the background so grey was chosen which I found to be an effective middle ground.

When colour grading I didn't want to change the colours I had capture, just bring them out slightly whilst inputting black also to counterbalance. The picture to me became more clear whilst still keeping the desired look.

Overall I was quite please with how the test footage went, though their are some changes I would make such as the punch bag in the background during the second scene not being so brightly lit. With careful planning I plan to greatly approve upon this work.

Gordon Willis and Vittorio Storao

Although Martin Scorsese's camera movements is something that will influence my work; in terms of lighting my short I have so far been researching cinematographers who underexpose their films and use. Who better than Gordon Willis who has the name "The Prince of Darkness" by his peers, to now research upon.

His films that I have seen include, "The Godfather Trilogy" "All The President's Men" and "Annie Hall". Particularly in "The Godfather" series, Willis used a lot of overhead lighting which casts many shadows to help give the film its dark setting. The use of overhead lighting is noticeable with scenes involving Marlon Brando's character, Vito Corleone, as his eyes are covered by shadows which in Willis own words "When you saw this mysterious human thinking, you didn't know what the hell he was going to do".

Cinematographer Conrad Hill, who gave Willis his prince nickname, has said that Willis made "an art of underexposure". During the Godfather II scenes there are many examples of characters talking by a window which gives a great natural light and allows Willis to then underexpose the scene to make the characters silhouetted.

This video is where I got the quote's from and is also a great insight into Willis's work for "The Godfather".

What stands out to me the most in this video is Gordon Willis's final quote that "You can't just do one thing." The reason for his cinematography style being so effective is a combination of the dark lighting which matches the black/grey business suits, not only "The Godfather" but "All the President's Men" and importantly the story. Gordon Willis style would not be appropriate for say, 'Toy Story' because of the context. As I will be using similar lighting, my story to the film will also have to be quite dark.

His mention of colour, bringing out the yellows to create a brassy feel is what I find to be the icing on the cake, it is very visually pleasing. It also reminded me of Vittorio Storao's work on "Apocalypse Now" especially the scene involving Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz.

Here Storaro has, like Willis underexposed and used over head lighting, however he has gone a step further and seems to have put a yellow filter to gain an even brighter yellow colour than Willis went for.

On the whole, Willis's and Storaro's work is something I will be attempting to replicate. By previous research on Michael Chapman's cinematography for "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" will also be a major influence. Hopefully by utilising these three similar but different style I will be able to create something fresh amongst those who will use post-production extensively.