Notes about lighting
Lighting is a huge part of any horror film, the way that the director uses light is important to making sure that the audience feels that the victim is in trouble for the tense scenes and giving the illusion that the killer could come out of the darkness at any point. On the other hand, when using lighting in horror films t is important to look at the other side, when the lighting is high it means that the audience could possible relax because it feels that the victim is safe. During Horror it is important to build atmosphere, high key lighting could be used to show a character's innocence or safety. Low key light, straight away screams danger and death. There are many stereotypical locations for horror films with low key lighting, Ranging from Wooded forests and abandoned warehouses. These are most commonly used in horror films do to the fact that the killer could be anywhere and the victim is usually in the middle of nowhere with none to help and nowhere to run. Another use of lighting in films is shadows, this could be ranging from a body shaped figure behind the victim or a shadow of a gory death the use of shadows can help show that a victim is in danger even when high key lighting is in use. You can also look at different kinds of lighting, if you film is based outside you might not want to use artificial lighting because it could make it look unrealistic.
Films that use lighting effectively
The Women In Black
The Blair Witch Project
Nightmare on Elm Street
Insidious
Saw
Paranormal Activity
As the majority of our trailer was filmed during the day, the scenes were quite light therefore it was important for us adjust the lighting during editing to make the scenes more dark and mysterious. This dark and mysterious lighting makes the feel for the trailer scarier as seeing a random person in the forest in the dark is a lot more creepy than seeing a strange character in the light. An example of a film trailer that was filmed during the day whilst it was light but was changed in the editing was the Blair Witch Project theatrical trailer. Also this trailer used the same sort of location as we did (a forest) and they still managed to make it look like a dark mysterious backdrop which shows we can do it.
This is the location we used that is similar to the one shown in the Blair Witch Project trailer which is shown below.