The Godfather(1972; cinematographer: Gordon Willis)
shown in the accompanying photo—threatening
and mysterious.
Color Color is another property of light. Perhaps
its most important technical aspect is color tem-
perature, a characteristic of visible light that is
important in cinematography. Any light source will
emit various light rays from the color spectrum.
The absolute temperature of these rays is regis-
tered on the Kelvin scale, a measure of the color
quality of the light source. The movie camera does
not see color the way the human eye does and thus
sometimes seems to exaggerate colors. We may see
an object as white, but it may turn out to look very
blue or orange on the screen. Understanding the
temperature of a color enables a cinematographer
during shooting (or laboratory technicians in the
post-production phase) to correct the color and
achieve the desired look. One way to balance color
is to match the sensitivity of the film stock to the
color temperature of the light source. Another way
is through the use of a camera filter, an optical ele-
ment (usually a transparent sheet of colored glass
or gelatin) placed in front of the lens that alters the
light by cutting out distinct portions of the color
spectrum as it passes to be registered on the film
stock.
The overall style of a film is determined by its
production values, or the amount and quality of
human and physical resources devoted to the
image. This includes specific decisions regarding
the various properties of light we have just dis-
cussed. During the height of the classical Holly-
wood studio era, studios distinguished themselves
from each other by adopting distinctive lighting
styles and production values: for example, somber,
low-key lighting in black-and-white pictures from
Warner Bros.; sharp, glossy lighting in the films
from 20th Century Fox; and bright, glamourous
lighting for MGM’s many color films, especially the
musicals. The studios cultivated (and in many
cases enforced) their distinct styles with an eye to
establishing brand identities, and the filmmakers
working for them were expected to work within the
limits of the company style.
Cinematographers working within the con-
straints of a well-established genre often find that
their decisions about lighting style are at least
partly determined by the production values and
lighting styles of previous films in that genre. Film-
noir lighting, for example, conventionally uses high-
contrast white-and-black tones to symbolize the
opposing forces of good and evil. The very name
film noir(noirmeans “black” in French) implies
that lighting style is an important aspect of the
genre. Filmmakers working within a genre with
well-established conventions of lighting must at
least be aware of those conventions.
Of course, the lighting conventions that define a
genre can be altered by daring and imaginative
filmmakers. For example, cinematographer John
Alton deviates from the film-noir lighting formula
in Anthony Mann’s T- M e n(1947) in order to develop
a sense of moral ambiguity rather than a hard-
edged distinction between good (light) and evil242 CHAPTER 6 CINEMATOGRAPHY
Lighting from aboveIn the opening scene of Francis Ford
Coppola’s The Godfather(1972; cinematographer: Gordon
Willis)——the wedding reception of his daughter Connie——Don
Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) responds to a request from
one of the guests, Signore Bonasera, an undertaker, who asks
Corleone to arrange the murder of two men who beat his
daughter. Don Corleone listens impassively as lighting from
above puts his eyes in deep shadow, emphasizing his power
and mystique. He at first gently rebukes Bonasera for not
paying him respect in the preceding years, but because it is
traditional to grant requests on a daughter’s wedding day, he
finally grants the favor. Bonasera understands the magnitude
of his debt and that he will one day be called upon to repay
the favor.