attachments_06-04-2012_23-41-26 / 3 Lighting

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Read the following text and be ready to answer the questions given below.

Lighting

After the scenery is set, the next step is to assess the lighting treatment and the types of equipment that will be needed. Without light, the set won’t be visible to the camera.

Lighting in television and film is about much more than just making things visible. The lighting must enable all the TV cameras to produce pictures of the highest quality. On the stage, it must fit in with the scenery, treatment and the sound boom’s positions.

Badly positioned lamps can prevent the actor from reading the prompter, resulting in boom shadows and spoiling a skillfully designed setting and actor’s make-up. Besides, good lighting creates a three-dimensional illusion in the flat picture, it helps to create special mood and atmosphere for the occasion on the stage and in TV studio.

The lighting in realistic settings should look natural and suggest the time of day or weather conditions. Successful lighting usually guides the audiences’ interest. It directs their attention towards important features, hiding staging defects, such as: wrinkles in a cyclorama, cables and shadows. Lighting influences our interpretation of what we see on the stage and on the screen, it forms our judgements of size, shape, distance and texture. It even can change a scene’s atmosphere, making it lyrical, dramatic, mysterious or joyful. To achieve all these effects, you should use systematic lighting techniques and equipment.

Together with the scenery, lighting helps to create the illusion of any situation or environmental phenomenon. But it should be absolutely accompanied by sound. For example, seeing a wet window on the stage, emphasized with gloomy dramatic light, you would never believe in thunderstorm, if you don’t hear the roaring sound of it.

1. What technical functions does lighting perform on the stage and TV?

2. How can lighting express emotions?

3. Give examples of some special effects on the stage or TV, made with the help of lighting.