How to Use Color & Light to Set the Tone in Your Film

Compare this to a short film shot by a pro on DSLR (DP Shane Hurlbut):

The difference between these two images is partially skill, but largely about how much thought and effort was put into getting very specific light & color in order to tell the story.

The top shot (and the rest of the film) simply uses the light that was available. They didn’t put much thought into color or light, and it shows.

All filmmakers start out worrying more about whether their shots will cut together right, whether the story makes sense, and so on.

Those are definitely important, but eventually, you must graduate from thinking only about 1 or 2 things and consider more of the storytelling tools available to you if you want to improve the quality of yo