Research on Narrative and Lighting

Narrative

Narrative is content, consisting of events, actions, time and location. The narrative is told by arrangement, emphasis/de-emphasis, and magnification/diminution, of any of the elements of the content. A narrative structure has usually got a Beginning, Middle and End.

Events are the constituents of a story, and are crucial to it. Without the different events there would be no story. An event is essentially a process, an alteration, which deals with occurrence of change. An event is an idea of change in time and is crucial in narrative. Each individual event can also be described as Major or Minor depending on the importance of its contribution to the overall narrative. An event can arise from the action of a character, natural causes or from an event before it.

The events are combined together to form the story line. A narrative has a main storyline that branches off into different events throughout the story making up the main plot of the story. The plot is defined as the sequence to the events of which a story is composed. Some events in the plot can also be defined as key moments in the narrative. A chain of events isn’t the plot but these events have significance.   

Lighting

A lighting technique to use is the tree-point-system. This consists of three lights, Key light, a fill light and a Back light.

The Key light is the primary light in the scene and it simulates the natural light either outdoors or an interior light, depends on location. This light is placed 30 degrees from the camera.

The Fill light partially softness the hard shadows from the key light. It has a lower intensity with a more diffuse light than the key light. It is placed on the opposite side of the camera from the key light at a 30 degree angle from the camera –subject axis and is set to the same height as the camera. The image can become flat if the fill light is too intense.

The Back light is placed above and to the rear of the subject. This is because you don’t want the light directly onto the camera lens. The Back light outlines the subject, mostly the upper portion to separate the subject from the background.

Other lighting system:

Eyelight- a small light that can be focused to reflect the subject’s eye to give them a reflective sparkle.

Background- to illuminate the background

Kicker light- A similar light to the background light. This light is usually low behind the subject opposite the key light.