Story: She is a dancer with unparalleled beauty, and her dancing has always fascinated many people. Every morning, she will dance in the sun's first light, making her beautiful face looks lovely. People all over the village go around her to see her dance. One day, the country's king passes by the town and sees her. He is shocked and immediately announces that he will choose this beautiful woman as his concubine and give her great wealth. So she enters the palace and dresses in rich silk and glittering jewels, but she looks unhappy and does not enjoy it. The king is still fascinated by her. That makes the queen so angry that, late at night, she spreads rumours that the dancer is a seductive witch deluding the king and plunging the country into crisis. The rumour circulates so quickly, but the dancer has nothing to say for herself. The queen continues to intimidate the king, let the king make decisions. Finally, the king can not bear the dancer's indifference and the queen's pressure and announces that he will put the dancer to death. When the night of judgment comes, and the dancer goes to the place of execution, she remains silent and expressionless. The executioner holds a torch. Between the flames, the priest pronounces false charges against the dancer. The king dares not look the dancer in the eye. The crowd talking about the witch, and the queen smiles wickedly. Finally, the executioner throws the torch at her and engulfs her in flames, but for a moment, she says in a hoarse and demonic voice: "The people who treat me as a plaything, you will pay for that." Suddenly the flames from her body explode in all directions, and people panic. Her rope turns to ashes, and she strolls down. She points to the queen, and the fire engulfs her terror and life. She laughs and dances with the fire, reflecting her contented, joyous smile amid burning sounds and screams. The emperor sits on the ground and looks at the dancer in despair. The dancer gives an intriguing smile and becomes a fire butterfly, leaving the castle in flames.
This week, I tried to focus on light using "As the flames consumed her, she Danced alone." as the premise expands the story. The beautiful dancer is the witch of fire, she has two personalities, and I tried to make the lighting express how complex she is. When dancing in the village, the sun is the primary light source, and the tone is warm and soft, then she is natural, relaxed and peaceful. When she is in the palace, the light source mainly comes from the reflected light of candles or jewels in the castle. This is a small light source and relatively sharp, which makes her look mysterious and attractive and reveals some sense of danger. When the queen speaks ill of her, it is late at night, and the character is in the dark, with only a little cold edge light, showing the darkness of humanity. Finally, in the fire, the dancer's power is exposed. A large area of high-saturation fire constantly renders her terrible power, giving her a sense of control and explosion. In sharp contrast with other fearful characters, she manipulates the fire to release herself, creating a substantial visual impact.
This technique of making multiple tonal changes to the light source for contrast can also be seen in this film (https://vimeo.com/46339721). The animator cleverly conveys the relatively ethereal concepts of insomnia and nightmares through distorted scenes and changes in lighting. The constantly flashing high-saturated red, blue and yellow lights form a visual impact. The transition between bright and dark has a sense of rhythm, symbolising an inconsistent and irritable psychological state. Finally, the lights dimmed and settled down, but ripples in the faint light gave the impression of wanting more.
By exploring lighting, I try to make the different feelings brought by light sources act on the role and let it interpret other aspects of the position to get a different visual impact. In addition to explaining the environment, lighting plays a role as a foil to the performance of the characters' psychology. It's an exemplary operation can depict the character's image more detailedly.
