Introduction

Lighting plays a big role in creating the atmosphere in music videos and adverts. Low-Key lighting can create Mystery while High-Key lighting can create joy.Different genres of music and adverts use different techniques of lighting to emphasize what they are trying to say.

Lighting Techniques Used In Music Videos

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is filmed with low-key lighting. Silhouettes of the people are shown at the start of the video and everything is in shadow. This makes them look mysterious Only the faces of the four people that are shown together are brightly lit with a light coming from above, you can see the dust as it travels through the light. This makes them look like godly beings talking from the heavens. Harsh shadows are cast on their faces. This makes them look mysterious and god-like.

Thriller by Michael Jackson is low-key all the way through, it starts of with only a car illuminated traveling through a forest. After the intro, the video cuts to the inside of the cinema with only a front light, only the audience members faces are lit and they are all facing the light. When Michael leaves the cinema the lighting is kept very dark the whole way through and most of their faces are kept in shadow. All the zombies are darkly lit and it makes them look sinister.

Lighting Techniques Used In Adverts

John Lewis Advert Man on The Moon, starts with warm low-key lighting, it feels very Christmas like. When the man is shown on the moon it looks very bland and lonely. The only light shown is being produced by the sun. At the end of the advert the man gets given some very colourfull baloons. This brings life to the whole scene like it has filled a void. This represents how the man was feeling.

All the coke adverts all have high key lighting. They make them well lit to make it look happy to show that the coke creates happiness, it makes gullible people buy it because they think it will make their lives happy. The sun is sometimes the backlight in some scenes, to show that the subject is happy because of the coke.

Conclusion

Bohemian Rhapsody’s low-key lighting creates mystery and makes the audience wonder.Thriller’s low-key lighting creates an old horror film feel.Man on the moon’s lighting creates a very lonely and desolate feel.The coke adverts lighting creates a very happy feeling and makes the audience want to buy the product.