Analysis of Lighting in The Film Belly

Analysis of Lighting in The Film Belly

The motion picture Belly explores the ghetto and the characters that live in this dark and obscure world of violence and criminal behavior. Tommy or "Bunz", and Sincere, who both live in New York, have differing views of criminal life. Bunz lives a mixed up, drug-run lifestyle, while Sincere aspires to be a law-abiding family man. To help the audience get the full effect of evilness portrayed by the character, the scenes are very dark and gloomy. There are, however, lighter scenes in which the good heart of one man is represented. The lighting in Belly helps with the characterization within the movie. One character is shown as a dark figure, and one as an almost holy figure, plus disillusionment is brought out nicely through lighting effects.

Throughout most of the movie, Bunz is in heavy shadow. This represents the underground and evil nature of his way; He deals in drugs and money, with quite a bit of killing involved. The fact that the audience almost never sees his face is a representation of society never seeing the actions, or faces for that matter, of real hard core criminals. For instance, while Bunz is in jail, his face is barely seen while he talks on the phone. His mouth is the only part of his face that actually enters the light in the segment. Hype Williams, the director, is drawing specific attention to the nature of this character: Bunz is a bad person, who is in jail because of illegal dealings, and a blanket of darkness has been cast over him. Society has turned its back on him, and he sits in its shadow. In another scene, Bunz is in the light; he is in a drug dealer's house, and the sun is shining through onto Bunz. However, his back is to it, like he is...

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... untouchable!" is Bunz response. But he is obviously disillusioned when his "invincibility" is shattered and he goes to jail within the next two days. He thinks he is like a ghost where no one can touch him. He thinks he rules the world because of all the money he has from drugs. All this happens under that eerie blue light. This blue light helps clue the audience in to things that go on in the characters' minds that actually differ from reality.

The lighting in this movie is very effective. It helps to establish the characters very well. The audience is helping in distinguishing the bad and the good characters through the lighting. The movie overall is very stylized. There are some other strange lighting patterns brought out by Hype Williams, but by far the most effective lighting patterns are ones that help to characterize the main players in the film.