All film directors employ light — natural, artificial, and reflected — not simply to illuminate but to add to the desired mood of the scene or to provide another supernatural dimension.
For example, use of light in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (directed by Steven Spielberg in 1977), provides a means of communication among characters, audience, and the dubious presence, good or evil. It also acted as a way of heightening the cinematic experience by disguising where the source of the light was actually coming from, that it was acting on behalf of the being(s).
I have always loved what I call “God Light” shafts coming out of the sky, or out of a spaceship or out of a doorway. It’s just been very romantic and extremely wondrous to me, light. — Steven Spielberg
In combination with its positive emphasis on the “surface of things” science-fiction’s de-emphasis of narrative process and closure allows corresponding weight to the sense of awe and wonder evoked by many science fiction films. This is particularly apparent in films like ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ in which a child character, responding with amazement at some miraculous apparition, function as a stand in for the film’s spectator. — Annette Kuhn
In the closing scenes of Close Encounters, the alien mothership has opened up her womb to the human beings, who stand in a paralyzed state, unable to move out of sheer adoration. Like gods from heaven, the aliens appear from within the light, surrounded by an emanating, iconic glow, they reach out to share their love and warmth with human kind.
It is at this moment that we see lead protagonist Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) regaining control of his life, and by entering the womb of the mothership he is going to be reborn, heading toward the light that is hope and eternal life. We are presented with one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history, the awe and wonder of the mothership, the outward structure of which resembles that of a city. When we see the alien beings for the very first time it is like a religious experience in itself. The use of overexposure and backlighting gives the aliens that mysterious presence, where we try so hard to see what they look like but as always, Spielberg only allows us to see so much, making us return again and again to relive the experience.
Mah Honey gets posted to the Geeks Of Doom.
Oh Yeah!
Rock On.
Very intelligent and well considered.
I liked the “light” angle in “Close Encounters” much better than the whole SOUND thing (If they were an advanced civilization, why could they even manage to produce TONAL music?), although I enjoyed the part of the movie where the colors on the “light board” were used to signify different musical notes.
I hadn’t really thought about Dreyfuss “going into the light” until you mentioned it — death and rebirth and eternal life — (smacks forehead) how PERFECT!!!!
Nice first effort, Dizzy.
Hope to see more thoughtful articles like this.
A great beginning to an article.
It’s a very thought-out and well written article that begins to delve into a major technique in cinematic storytelling. However, the title at least, begs the comparison to more than one film as do the ideas evoked. To create a true theme and connection of this usage of light in film, you need to delve deeper into the annuls of hollywood and indie films to find even more examples. Do they differ at all from each other? Do they all follow that underlying element of the wondrous?
I agree that “Close Encounters…” is a wondrous and apt example of the technique; however, it seems like this article would be better served as the intro to a more comprehensive and insightful analysis of the phenomena in question.
Nevertheless, even the small taste provided here is more than adequate to wet the palette.
It is true that “All film directors employ light” (at least those with a modicum of technical skills) but it is in the hands of the cinematographer that that idea is realized. It is unfortunate that you comments don’t include, and as such discount, the contribution by the cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond to the beautiful look of this film.
[...] dimension in 1977’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. [...]
as to whether an alien life form would develop tonal sounds. Sound wave are just kinetic energy traveling through a medium. The would be known to any advanced civilization. The tonal relationships are mathematical, and are inherent to the structure and medium. Knowledge of them is necessary for engineering. Whether audible tones would be used for communication and artistic expression is open to debate, but almost all higher life forms on this planet use a form of sound wave communication (not as many fish, but some of them too), so again I think it would be highly likely that this tonal knowledge would be known to any advanced alien life.
I think it is more likely than some alien life receiving visual information of the same range of wavelengths as our visible (to humans) spectrum.
[...] dimension in 1977’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’.[...]
[...] in 1977’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. [...]
Sol: The article is indeed a cut-down extract taken from Dizzy’s University Last Year Dissertation. There is more to it, but for constraint and space reasons she thought she’d hint and something that leads to more.
This piece is an extract from my final year dissertation from which I received a first class honours degree and my degree was in the Visual Arts and Film. I appreciate people’s comments,i was focussing on certain films to discuss, I did not include the whole piece that spanned a further four pages that was much more indepth as I did not want people complaining about the length, which I know would have occurred.
You know you would have complained about the length, so that’s why I chose a certain section to look at, I didn’t expect a know it all session.
[...] read more | digg story [...]