I was out driving this evening, and spotted the sun heading down, and thought it might make for a good blog entry. The sun was behind buildings at the time, so all I saw was the glow above the buildings - which reminded me of backlighting, where one can get that strong glow around the model. The quality of light reminded me of our par brushstroke - strong and harsh. What I didn't expect was that the rest of the sky looks sort of like a sunrise - cooler blues, as opposed to the warm colors I associate with sunset.
But then looking at the shops being lit by that light, the colors on the buildings seemed a bit more what I expected - warm, golden, amber-y.
Which seems like an interesting dilemma - if you're lighting for the stage, do you go with stereotypical choices that audiences will instantly recognize, or can you use reality even if it's a little unusual? Perhaps context is a big deciding factor here, and would be a big part of the discussion with the director and other designers.
Always the dilemma! What we actually see in real life and what our general audience as a whole will read it as! :) I like to try and find balances between the two, but more often than not, the storytelling requires us to tap into what our audience will relate to. Cycs can help sometimes specifically with sky looks by emulating a bit more of the colors we would see in the sky while allowing us to light our actors in a slightly different way. :) It's fun to stretch the limits of what we'll buy as an audience.
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