Importance of light: sunshine

I m p o r t a n c e   o f   l i g h t -  s u n s h i n e

Why sunshine is so important to Video Marketing. The UK punches far above its weight in Hollywood. Remember Colin Welland holding the Chariots of Fire Oscar above his head declaring “The British are coming!”? The truth is, Britain arrived in Hollywood a century ago and never left. But in a way he was right. Chariots of Fire was directed by Hugh Hudson and he was the first of a rapid stream of Brit directors who had all cut their teeth making ads. Alan Parker, Tony and Ridley Scott were among the others.
What they had learned was advertising depended on light. They went to endless trouble to capture the dying rays of sunlight on a scene, or to get the highlight on a bottle of beer to look just right. Watching a compilation reel of their advertising work was a photographic joy and this discipline conferred a new dimension to their feature films. Just look at “Alien” shot in 1979. The cinematography is so crisp and sharp it could have been made just last week. These directors did not leave little cutaway shots to some second unit. They were as lovingly lit with the same care and attention as the stars themselves.
Why bother? As long as you can see whatever is in the ad, surely job done? No. To win this argument, imagine you have to sell a diamond in a video. Not easy, because it’s see-through. Suddenly, the cameraman has a dilemma and he has to introduce some sort of light to make it sparkle (revealing its nature) and shine off the facets (revealing its shape). Now think of every other kind of product that might feature in a video. To the business-owner, these products are all diamonds and they deserve to sparkle too.
Sunshine is the essence of life. We are all more cheerful in sunny weather and we spend a great deal of money to ensure we go to where the sun shines when on holiday. Northern European countries are very familiar with Sunshine Deficit Syndrome and places with prolonged absence of sunlight see higher suicide rates. Sunshine makes us feel warm and gives our skin healthy vitamins. No surprise that children draw the sun with a happy, smiley face.
Feature film cinematographers know this and nowadays every scene is shot with buckets of sunshine pouring into the camera lens. The mega-budget “Lone Ranger” is a good example, with every last frame containing as much over-exposed light as a breakfast cereal ad.
Now look at videos shot for use online. How many of them waited for an extra half an hour to get the sun to shine just right on a scene? How many of them shifted their shooting days with one eye on the weather forecast, so exterior scenes would sparkle instead of sit flat? All online video content is advertising content, by definition. It requires its audience forms a favourable impression. One of the simplest tricks to win over a viewer is simply to make sure the sun is shining.