Deconstruction of lighting use in trailers

Deconstruction of lighting use in teaser trailers

By Connor Taylor

A major part of trailers and media productions which seems minor but has a major impact is lighting. Lighting has the ability to completely change the effect of the shot, from the mood, presentation of narrative and so forth.

Casino Royale:

I decided to first deconstruct Casino Royale, which is a action genre with crime drama aspects as the main narrative, meaning it can be very applicable for out trailer and the portrayal of the narrative. For the most part of this trailer, the lighting used is very dependent on the location rather than a required effects such as with gloomy forests midday within horrors.

The shot below of the main antagonist torturing the protagonist (James Bond), that lighting that has been used is very subtle, only with the shots that are closer to points of interest which have used little lighting for texturing of the characters and the scenery.

The lighting used within this shot is mostly ambient to clearly display the shot to the audience, mostly because of the trailers genre being action its mostly fast passed visible shots for the audience that mostly care the action alone. 

The Gambler:

I then looked at The Gambler, a drama with many crime aspects, especially to do with money. Many of the shots present in the trailer have darker lighting and tones, suggesting a big aspect of the underbelly of gambling, such as it's corruption and danger, which is makes for a more dramatic approach to the narrative.

This lack of light within many of the shots also makes for an effect upon the background and the areas seen, making them seem more gritty, cold and uncomfortable further presenting this idea of the corruption and threat behind masses of money and the methods to gain money.

The Wolf of Wall street:

The Wolf of Wall street is a business corruption drama which greatly conforms and inspires our trailer has used lighting a more of an addition for shot quality and area representation. The shot below shows a much brighter and more vibrant colour and lighting within, making the area to appear more desirable to live and therefore more expensive which then conforms to the shot of them money smuggling.

This shot however, which shows them to be in a shut down car garage using much darker and grayer lighting, taking a significant amount of colour out of the shot making appear to be less desirable to be in and more dirty and gritty.

Conclusion:
After this deconstruction, I have seen many subtle methods of using lighting to show other aspects to the shot, and therefore can greatly benefit our trailer, such as the possibility of using darker lighting or graying on shots of him in bad situations and bad scenarios for the protagonist.