Week Two - Lighting in Maleficent

I am at this present time trying to obtain permission to post clips and pictures on my blog. Disney protects their copyrights, which I do not blame them for doing. In order to be legal, I have sent a request. Until I get approval, I will have you visit the Offical Disney Maleficent website in order to see what I am referring to. I will not hyperlink the links since I am not sure that is entirely legal either. The Official Website for Disney's Maleficent is movies.disney.com/maleficent. You then select videos. At the bottom of the video screen are several different selections. They are named for easy access.


Week Two: Lighting

The use of lighting in the movie is outstanding. It is used in many ways to play at our emotions. We feel the anger or happiness of the characters based on the lighting choices in the movie. The vibrant colors in some scenes add to the beauty of the film. It is one of the many elements used to make this movie successful.

It is hard to know which scenes would have been three-point lighting based on the special affects and blue screen shots done in the film. I do, however, know that there are several scenes that are in low-key and high-key lighting. The uses of the low-key and high-key bring us to the distinctions of the moments that are joyous and moments of hatred. It is used as a seperation.

With low-key lighting, examples are actually in the video named "Maleficent Trailer 3." At spot 54 seconds, Maleficent is seen hiding in the forest. She was watching from a place she felt was safe from Aurora seeing her. It is very dark (assuming it is night). Maleficent's face is vastly shadowed except the light is illuminating her eyes. It is to give us a fearful feeling of being watched by some evil being. It is mysterious. It is frightening. That is how Maleficent sees herself. She doesn't want Aurora to see her (Maleficent Trailer 3, n.d.).

High-key lighting is seen throughout the movie. If you review videos "Light vs. Dark: Maleficent Featurette" and "Maleficent Teaser Trailer" you can see many scenes of high-key lighting. These are because of the happiness in the world at the time. It is to show the innocense and the beauty in the world when evil wasn't present in that area or time period (Light vs. Dark, n.d & Maleficent Teaser Trailer, n.d.).

With the clip "Awkward Situation", I feel that some of these scenes might possibly be filmed with traditional three-key lighting. Referring to the moments when the camera is focused on Maleficent (with the crowd behind her), she seems to stand out. It is almost as if she is highlighted in the scene. The background looks a little hazy while she is crisp. She is the most important in the scene. This is where she is attending, uninvited, to Aurora's christening (Awkward Situation, n.d.).

The lighting in the film helped with the theme because there are times of love and happiness. There are times of evil. The theme had to do with vengeance and anger. The low-key lighting targeted that theme. There was also love and beauty where the hight-key lighting brought those emotions out. Fantasy movies tend to have dark moments in them (usually because fantasy is good versus bad) but they also have a certain beauty and mystique where the light is important to bring that out.

If the evil, unhappy, jealous, and spiteful Maleficent had been in white, she would not have been as evil looking. If the lighting was bright and cheery, it would not give the feeling of darkness that the movie needed. With the parts that deal with the love and happiness, had they been filmed in low-key it may have given us the feeling that they were not really feeling that way. Dark seems to be depressing when it comes to emotions.

References:

Disney Maleficent Official Website (n.d.) Awkward Situation Maleficent Clip. [Video Clip]. Retrieved from
movies.disney.com/maleficent.

Disney Maleficent Official Website (n.d.) Light vs. Dark: Maleficent Featurette. [Video Clip]. Retrieved from
movies.disney.com/maleficent

Disney Maleficent Official Website (n.d.) Maleficent Teaser Trailer. [Video Clip]. Retrieved from
movies.disney.com/maleficent

Disney Maleficent Official Website (n.d.) Maleficent Trailer 3. [Video Clip]. Retrieved from movies.disney.com/
movies.disney.com/maleficent