How Is The Lighting Used In Pan's Labyrinth

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Recommended: Pan's labyrinth analysis and symbolism

Pan’s Labyrinth is a foreign film that deals with a little girl named Ofelia. Ofelia must travel with her pregnant mother to see the Captain (Ofelia’s step-father) and while she is in Spain at her father’s house, she encounters a mysterious faun who gives her three tasks that she must complete. The Faun says that she is Moanna, the daughter of the king of the underground and in order to open up portals to reach her real father she must complete the tasks he had given. Throughout the movie, the mysterious monsters that arrive symbolize Ofelia’s step-father, Vidal who is also known as the Captain. The film constantly reinforces the horror fairytale theme and even how brutal and evil the Captain can be by symbolizing, camera positioning and even …show more content…

Most of the lighting for the forest was soft light from the overcast that the trees gave and it made the forest look even more enchanted. When we first see the Faun, under-lighting was used to make the Faun’s surroundings behind him dark and to make all the focus go on him to make him look scarier. Another major lighting effect that was used was frontal lighting. Frontal lighting was used a lot on the Captain and we received good view of this when the Captain was sewing up his face after Mercedes had cut him. Hard lighting was also incorporated when the Captain was looking for the soldiers in the woods because we could see the defined shadows of the forest trees. I think the filmmaker chose to give soft lighting for part of the forest scenes to make it look more like a fairytale and I think the under-lighting was used to portray the monsters as being mysterious and creepy. The frontal lighting was used on the Captain a lot so that the audience could really focus on his character and to show that he is the main part of that particular scene that is …show more content…

The short focal length which is a wide-angle view was used a lot during the film. One major example was when after the Captain killed two men by smashing one of their faces in with a bottle and shooting the other. After both of the men are dead laying on the ground, the camera is zoomed out and we get this wide view of the men laying on the ground, the Captain standing away from them and then the rest of the Captain’s soldiers just looking with disbelief in their eyes. The film maker did this shot to express just how much control that the Captain is in. The Captain is over all his soldiers and even strangers and no matter who you are, the Captain will brutally hurt you if

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