Lighting and the Nite Owl

by Theodore Park, Ashley Modell, Aaron Wong, and Kevin McCurdy

In the Nite Owl scene, lighting plays a huge role in setting the mood for the scene. Its use in the scene creates a sinister atmosphere that builds up to the reveal of the murders.

The scene opens in the office, where the room is glowing. We then see him outside the Nite Owl, appropriately nighttime as a crime scene. When Ed enters the restaurant, the inside is dimly lit, with a yellowish-greenish tint, reflecting the sense of nausea and paranoia that audience has as they look at this scene. In the hallway leading up to the big reveal, it is dark, creating tension as the audience prepares themselves for something shocking. In contrast, the bathroom filled with all the dead bodies is startlingly bright, emphasizing the direness of the situation. Finally, the scene cuts to the outside, where it is dark to help us recover from what we just saw.

In just one scene, the lighting changes from glowing, dark, dimly lit, dark, bright, and dark. This makes the scene much more interesting for us to look at, as we get all this stimuli that makes us wonder what the filmmakers are preparing us for. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the lighting would be consistent, ruining the mood of the scene as we feel indifferent and normal rather than anxious and confused.

Along with this, the lighting helps reflect what the character, Ed feels during the scene. In the office, where the room has a nice glow to it, he is feeling confident, ready to take on whatever may come to him. When Ed gets to the scene of the crime, he feels he is in the dark, as he does not know what to expect, like the audience. The way the lighting hits the character really helps the audience relate to him.

From this one scene, we can really see how lighting is a vital tool to a filmmaker, and what makes the difference between an okay scene to a work of art.