The lion King is an animated film about family and love and betrayal. This is one of my favorite movie and I the lighting in this movie is outstanding in so many ways.
I am going to discuss the clip ‘Morning Lesson with Mufasa’.
The type of lighting used here is high key lighting where the “design has very bright light overeverything, with few shadows and relativelylow contrast between the lightest anddarkest parts of the scene”. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs) This scene shows the sun and the overall lighting of the land that appears to expand and makes it look like they are on top of the world. In this clip the lighting was very significant because it made you focus in on the lesson that Mufasa was telling his son. The lighting made the scene warm and loving in which I believe was the intent because there was a lesson about family and life in this clip. Ha this clip been in a low key lighting style it would have appeared to be sad and non-emotional. I also see that there is lots of natural light in this clip of course because they are outside but they could have chosen a different location for this discussion and it would not have come off to be as sentimental.
I also chose the scene where Mufasa and Scar were fighting and he pretty much left him for dead. This particular scene had lots of low lighting and a little natural light coming in and out as Scar was holding Mufasa over the clip. If the lighting would have been in high key then this scene would not have been as dramatic as it was. Because of the low key lighting choice, this scene made viewer relate to Mufasa and feel for him as if they were a part of the movie. I was angry and cried at the same time so the lighting choices were great.
Majority of this movie had high key and natural lighting which went very well with the animation aspect of this film. It also had lots of special effects, mainly rear projection “in which scenes playbehind actors to create the illusion of movement or to make it appear as if actorson a studio soundstage were in different settings, would further enhance effects”. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs) These things together made the lighting go very well with the musical genre this film is included in because when the land was good and happy we knew it and when it was sad and in distress we knew as well all.
This technique contributed to this film because if we didn’t has lighting and special effect for this musical we would not have been able to place ourselves in the animal characters. The lighting made the forest and the animals very pretty and magical and made you want to go to their land. It also had its scary moments where you thought what happened but that was the transition we needed on the movie to tell the story of how love, happiness and family can conquer all with patience.
References
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Mecchi, & Roberts (1994). The Lion King 3D – ‘Morning Lesson With Mufasa’- Official Disney Movie Clip. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7PlTaawfQ
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