The movie I have chosen, is A Walk to Remember. It falls under the romance/drama genre. In this film, a popular boy in school gets in trouble and forced to act in a school play(community service) . There he falls in love with a unlikely girl, which he has made fun of for a while. As he begins to fall in love with her, he later finds out that she has terminal leukemia.
[Identify the type of lighting used in the film (traditional three-point, high-key, or low-key) and assess the impact of the lighting used to establish the theme.]
In this scene, low key lighting is used to get that seriousness/sadness point across. This is used due to nature of the scene, the female character(Jamie) telling the male character(Landon) that she is scared of dying.
[What are the benefits of the style of lighting used?]
The benefits of using low key lighting is it give the audience an increased understanding of the situation at hand. It also increases the gloominess of the scene, helping the viewer to get into the correct mindset.
[How did this technique contribute to the theme?]
This technique contributed a major portion to the theme, again it helped the viewer to understand the gloominess and seriousness of her situation (terminal leukemia).
[How was the lighting technique suited to the genre of the film? For example, documentary films tend to rely on natural light as a way of creating an overall tone of authenticity.]
This film like many other dramas used low key lighting to sway the viewer’s mood to that of a dreary one.
[Compare how the scene would play if different choices had been made]
If the cinematographer would have used high key lighting, he would of changed the scene completely. The audience would be left confused and the point would not be put across. The audience may have even been turned off to the entire movie. But with low key lighting, the cinematographer easily got the audience into the correct mindset.
References
Goodykoontz, B., Jacobs, C. P. (2014). FILM: FROM WATCHING TO SEEING (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/copyright.
Nisithpranshu. (2009, August 9). Walk to remember scene.. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPe_DjNMzSo.
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