Lighting

Three-point lighting is the standard arrangement used in Hollywood. There may be more that three lights used, but they are set up to imply that there are three sources from which the light is coming from. The lighting is composed of the key light, fill light, and the back light. The key light is the main source of light. The fill light is weak and fills in the shadows that the key light forms. The back light is used to fill the space between the back of the set and the actors to differentiate them from the background. This should create the illusion of depth. High-key lighting is used to reduce the contrast ratio in the scene. It has a high amount of fill light to get rid of the shadows, making the set brighter. Low-key lighting is used when the ratio of fill to key light is low and is used in movies like musicals and comdedies. This gives a darker feeling because of the shadows casted and is used in movies like thrillers and horror films. Star lighting is used to draw attention to an actor or actress. It can even be used to hide flaws that the stars don't want people to see. Star lighting makes it seem as if the light is coming from within the actor.