#ILM
I guess you've proved me wrong. Thanks. I'm still not sure on where
the initial direction comes from. I guess it depends on the size of
the production and how many people are working on it. Using your
example about lighting a guy's face: Wouldn't the director be the
one who says "I want this to look scary" or "I want him to look
friendly", and then let the lighting guy do whatever he does to make
it look that way? It would seem to me, and I could be
wrong, that what the lighting guy does after that involves a lot of
technical knowledge and creativity in how to go about something, but
he's not saying "I want to make this guy look scary", he's taking
orders from the director.
I think, though, that what James said about having to consider that a
production is not a one person deal is true. You can't think about it
like you think about traditional art. There's a team of artists,
each with their own specialty, all working together rather than a
brain-child of one person.
I just thought of something else to argue my first point. When you
watch a film and then talk critically about it, you usually give all
the credit to the director. If you say something like "Mr. Director
used harsh shadows and contrasts to give a sense of eerieness (sp?)
to the dungeon scenes" are you giving credit to the wrong person?
Should you be saying "That gaffer did a great job"? Just a thought.
Aaron