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Light And Light In The Shawshank Redemption

1270 Words6 Pages

The element of lighting is a sophisticated element to a movie. It has the power to control what you see and also overwhelm you when it needs to. During my discovery of this movie, I found that colors told the story just as much as the dialogue. It just goes to show that the most significant films cover all the ends of telling a story through the medium of film. Now the fun part, the analyst of The Shawshank Redemption’s use of light and color in painting the picture of its theme of hope. “Studies show that some people in northern climates are subject to severe depression in winter if they receive too little light. The importance of lighting in filming is suggested by the word photography, which literally means ‘writing with light’(page 70).” …show more content…

The lighting design undoubtedly had a significant impact on this piece. The theme of hope was repeatedly expressed throughout the two hours and twenty-two minutes by the interactions made with windows, shadows, and high exposure or lack thereof which genuinely delivered a lighting designers input into the contribution of the piece. Morgan Freeman’s character provides the theme of hope with a simple quote. As Andy plays classical music over the speaker system, we hear Red say, “I tell you those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drag cage and made those walls dissolve away. And for the briefest of moments, every last man at Shawshank felt free.” So when Andy slowly delivers hope in how he transformed the library and uplifted the prisoners with books. How he manages to get his fellow employees a cold beer for breakfast. Or the way he manages to escape so perfectly. We watch Andy Dufresne teach us what believing in ourselves and never letting anyone stop you from running toward what you want looks like. The medium of film gives a cinematographer the job of lighting this story. I don’t think anybody expected the role of lighting this movie’s outcome to be a masterpiece within

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