Example of natural low-key lighting in intense dramatic scene where Mister tries to get Gloria to find a job.
Example of brighter lighting during happier scene where the boys decide to stick together.
Title: The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete
Writer: Michael Starrbury
Director: George Tillman Jr.
Year: 2013
Actors: Skylan Brooks, Ethan Dizon, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Julito McCullum, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Anthony Mackie, Jeffrey Wright, Rege Lewis
Lighting:
In this intense drama, there are many scenes with low-key lighting to enhance the emotion in the moment. When Mister walks in on his mom getting high in her bedroom, is an example of a dark scene with a lot of shadowing. The low lighting is on Gloria, and Mister, but the rest of the room is relatively dark. This, I believe, allows the audience to be drawn to the actors in the scene, instead of focusing on their surroundings. There is a lot of outdoors action going on in this film, the boys are running around from place to place a lot so the lighting is natural. I think this adds to the realness of the entire plot, because we know that what this family experiences can really happen. When they are outdoors, you can really see their frailty, and overall weakness. They aren’t groomed, their clothes are over-sized and filthy, and they just look miserable. When they are inside, hiding out, the low lighting throughout the entire movie, creates more dramatization to the situation.
This type of drama film almost requires low-key lighting. But there are some scenes that sort of brighten up the theme of the movie, like when Alice comes around things start to look better for the boys, until the scene before disappears. At the end, when the boys are in Riverview and Gloria comes for Mister, the lighting seems to change to a three point lighting technique. Gloria is cleaned up, and the emotional aspect of the scene is really captured by the bright lighting. We are able to see, truly, how the boys feel about each other and how Gloria feels about herself and her son. If the creators of this film decided to use different lighting, for example, three point lighting during darker scenes or low-key lighting during happier scenes, it just wouldn’t make sense. I feel like it would actually confuse the audience, and creating confusion causes people to stop watching before it’s over. So, I wouldn’t change it all, because I think the lighting throughout this movie is on point.
References
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Film Festivals and Indie Films. (2013). The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete Movie Clip – Newspaper. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKFWVh_8zrE
Ngcobo, S. (2013). Best Scene from The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete. [VideoFile]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iggHmtKiTqo
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