Empire of Light – Rooftop

[Thom Yorke]

Hi Roger,

after reading the “Looking at lighting” section, and watching Empire of Light again, I noticed that in the Night Ext Rooftop scene, before the fireworks, there is a distinct separation between the shadow side of the characters, and the night sky, because the atmosphere is not completely black.

Did you know in advance that this would be the case, and how would you know you can rely on it being like that on the shooting day? Or would you just let the shadow side of the characters merge with the night sky?

Typically you would see a (practical/motivated) light source providing backlight to separate characters from the expected black night sky, so it stands out that this is not the case here.

 

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[Roger Deakins]

Well, we did add a very light smoke haze and back lit this with lamps below the parapet. We had rigged the festoon lights along the promenade (the town had them in the past and most seaside towns have them now) and this was the main source that allowed the separation between the characters silhouettes and the background. Our lamps enhanced the effect. Of course, without the festoon, the smoke and the lamps there would have been little separation.

[Author]

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