Landscape Lighting Design - Lessons Learned from the Movies. Part I: The Su

Why homeowners are willing to disbelieve.

Suspension of Disbelief The willingness of the viewer to believe something is real while knowing it is not. Lighting in film serves many purposes and affects the viewer's experience at many levels. It illuminates the actors and the areas they occupy; it direct the viewers attention to various parts of the screen and controls the way they follow the action; and light triggers emotional responses based on mental associations and underlying wants and needs. In short, a skilled lighting designer directs and controls the viewer's experience. Lighting for film and lighting the landscape - not so different Lessons learned in lighting films are very applicable to landscape lighting. When I go to a residential property I imagine the homeowners as actors and the various regions of the property as stages where the action unfolds. I walk the property with the homeowners, asking where they go and what they do, especially at night. In this way I establish locations where I know the homeowners will be walking, sitting or just looking. Each of these locations need to be illuminated in a way that directs and controls their nighttime experience - in ways both practical (safety and security) and subtle (setting themes and moods).

Natural vs. Artificial - The Dilemma Nighttime illumination is especially challenging for many reasons - the primary one being the dilemma of natural vs. artificial. This dilemma is always addressed in nighttime scenes in movies. The lighting director needs to have sufficient illumination for the audience to see the action, yet the feeling should be night. It's rare that actual outdoor lighting looks good on film, so the director places lighting fixtures to illuminate faces, and other fixtures to shed light of a certain quality on surrounding elements. Typically, they use medium blue filters for the back light and standard tungsten (yellow) light to illuminate faces. If you were to walk onto a movie set with this type of lighting, it would seem highly artificial. Yet, sitting in the movie theater, it looks natural.

The Suspension of Disbelief The willingness for movie audiences to accept artificial lighting is extremely important for the filmmaker, also for the landscape lighting designer. This willingness is known as 'Suspension of Disbelief'. Every moviegoer knows they are sitting in a theater; they know the film is not real; yet they allow themselves to enter into the film, to be transported in space and time and to be participants instead of viewers. In the same way, when a homeowner drives onto his property, he knows the lighting is artificial, yet (if the lighting design is good) he willingly participates in the fantasy and allows himself to enjoy the unfolding scene.

Compelling but Natural The challenge for landscape lighting designers is to create lighting that is natural-enough so the homeowners don't think "This is beautiful lighting." Instead, they should just think "This is beautiful." Skillful lighting reveals the natural beauty that exists in the property without calling attention to itself. It also creates patterns of light and shadow that are, in themselves, compelling but somehow natural.

Will the Homeowner Know the Difference? Most homeowners can not verbalize these subtle distinctions; they may say the lighting is good or bad. But on a subconscious level they feel the difference between mediocre lighting and great lighting. A skillful designer will create lighting that is evocative and triggers deep-felt feelings - feelings that enable a 'suspension of disbelief'. Just as the filmmaker disappears from the mind of moviegoers as they view the film, in the same way, the landscape lighting designer is far from the mind of a couple enjoying the romantic midnight ambiance in the subtle illumination of their backyard patio.

This is a reprinted CAST Lighhting article.

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