Film Noir Lighting: How to Get the Shadowy Look

[JackTorrance]

I am in the motion of writing a short film noir style film and have been looking at the correct lighting I should use to get that shadowy look. I plan to use silhouettes and venetian blinds to gain this effect.

However, I have found whilst researching that anything on film noir lighting tends to sound complex although I've read it is very easy. This is down to my lack of knowledge of the lighting aspect of film making so I thought I'd come here to clear up what I've read and see if I'm on the right track.

Basically, I would like to know in a simpleton way, how I achieve film noir lighting. How many lights, where they should be positioned... etc.

Hopefully this is not too vague.

Cheers.

 

[Lazlo]

This is extremely vague. I think you need to first just watch a lot of film noir movies for starters.

The thing about lighting is that there isn't a "set" way of doing things so that they magically turn out good, and everything looks beautiful. Everything depends on the size of the room, the decor, the budget of the film, the precise tone of a particular scene or shot. There isn't a cookie-cutter to fit any genre. Or at least I would like to think so. Of course there are stylistic similarities. Noir tends towards harsh, directional light sources. Deep shadows, bright highlights, very contrasty. High key-fill ratio. You could theoretically light a noir with as few as one light, to as many lights as you could possibly want.

 

[CinemaGadgets]

I'm sure you have learned about Key lights, fill lights, back lights. Film Noir lighting has key lights set bright enough to make the camera get a good picture, but the fill lights are very dim or non existent. With the Key light or main light you'll want to position it in a way that it gives the actors' faces shape, that means you'll put it to the side so you can get good shadows with their nose or their eye sockets if that's what you want. The really pro way to do this is to go to my website (cinemagadgets.com) and check out my C-Stands and my Flag/Scrim sets, and cello cucoloris. You'll use these to carve the light and put it where you want, at the brightness you want. If you don't have the money to get gear off my website, then you can do other things like use light bulbs (preferably pretty bright ones, maybe photoflood bulbs google that) you can place these as far away from your subject and use what you have to block the light and control it, so that it hits the subject the way you want. Also try to make it so no light is going into the room you are shooting in, IE black out those windows.

Here's a video of me talking about scrims:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-Gdj6Hz9Q

 

[isis5]

Film Noir

Film Noir

I found that a great way to create this look is to carve the background pattern for a variety of different looks. You can use a cucoloris pattern or even create some shadows with a plant. A cheap but effective alternative is a Shadowfoils kit.