Illumination and Comedy

My bother and I are participating in a film festival this week, so this weekend we had to shoot a 7 minute comedy. Because this film festival requires that the films must be made over the course of one week with no budget, using professional-level lighting was out of the question leaving us to the mercy of natural lighting to provide enough illumination for our movie. This became problematic later in the day, once we started losing a bit of light, because even though the actors were still clearly visible, the jokes were no longer playing well because of the quality of light. Comedy is heavily reliant on subtle reactions in order to maintain its humor, so even subtle changes in lighting can drastically affect the comedic outcome of a moment. For example, as the sun was on its way down, one of the last shots which we had to get for the day was of our actress reacting to a stranger being at the door. When we started her face was well lit and her performance was playing well, but several takes and a quick lens change later and the room was now a few shades darker and shadows had begun to creep into frame. This moment which was comedic several minutes prior now suddenly felt unfunny at best and creepy at worst. We ended up getting the shot the next day, but this instance really helped me realize the fragility of comedy and the extent to which a subtle change in lighting can drastically change the way a scene is perceived.