Interrogating Active Light Theory in the Film Productions of Sarah Hassan’s Plan B and The Royal Hibiscus Hotel by Mo Abudu
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Date
2021-08-01
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Department of the Performing Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria
Abstract
This paper interrogates Active Light Theory as a pragmatic approach to film lighting in our contemporary society using Sarah Hassan’s Plan B and The Royal Hibiscus Hotel by Mo Abudu as paradigms. The paper employs the descriptive and non-participant observation methods of research while interview instrument complements the two methods. These methods enable us to study the functional relevance of film lighting in the selected movies. This paper also relies on relevant journals articles, textbooks and internet materials. More so, Adolphe Appia’s Active Light Theory re-modified by Palmer (2015) is adopted as our theoretical underpinning. We found out in the study that, film lighting is an expressive element that unifies all the stagecraft including actors and audiences. This paper recommends that technical experts in the film industry including cinematographer, lighting aesthetician and director should advance with the new trends of lighting by studying and learning various methods and techniques of film lighting. The study concludes that, the approach and technique of lighting design does not only define the object of focus but also influence the visual appearance, cinematic shots, story’s mood and aesthetics values of the film production as reflected in the two selected films where lighting create dynamics background for different cinematic shots and scenes.
Keywords: Active Light, Theory, Film, Camera, Theatre.