Lighting
Lights feature prominently in SYNTH and not just as general stage filling; the lighting cues in the OTS will be deliberately emphasized through the killer's perspective to show off how distorted his world view is, the sickly bleeding of bright and blinding lights obscuring the actual world in view of that cinematic lens flare style. There are also many shots that break the lighting rules by shooting into the beams; again this is to create a strong visual style with silhouettes. Below is a break down of the major lighting samples:
The opening shot of SYNTH depicts a pan into a car with our killer lit from the side by a strong but easily obscured 160 LED on a stand; you'll notice that the face of the antagonist is partially visible but for the most part shadowy with the cinematic lens flare at the weakest we see it in the entire OTS, the reason being that I wanted to show there was a human side to his character, however faint, which was about to be snuffed out by 'Kingston' and his brainwash commands. By being just about visible as well as having the actor (Frank Parker) speak in a timid and scared voice, the cinematic language develops empathy without some cliched backstory. Also note that this light is tinted blue, setting up our first contrast for the interior shots.
Although there are several shots with downplayed light, this is where we see the pallet for the inside of the house with it's bold orange lighting, again, we begin downplayed on the side of a characters face, another visual reminder that everyone it this OTS is a human being and not some deprived monster despite what reality might want you to believe. The contrast between the orange and the blue will grow as SYNTH goes on but for now it serves as a parallel and a unique lighting space that engages the audience through it's spectacle.
When we return outside, we see that all traces of humanity have been completely struck off from him, he's been taken over now by 'Kingston' and the lighting reinforces this by obscuring his face in shadow, leaving only the beaming cinematic flare of the warm light behind to indicate that his perception has shifted into killer vision. The fact that this shot is opened into by him opening the boot on the tinted light is also a piece of foreshadowing as he opens forcefully, enters into and leaves the orange lit location, a complete match to the invasion of the house.
Here we see an example of what the majority of the internal shots look like: Strong, warm colors with an emphasis on shadow and it's placement. Two lights were used in this set up, another 160 LED mounted on top of the camera as well as the inbuilt light of the room fleshing out the background nicely whilst the former colored what otherwise would have been very dark faces. In terms of lighting, this would also be a prime example of how Alex (Coral Deane) is wearing blue to both contrast with the orange of the interior and to emphasize her humanity as already seen by the first shots blue glow of the same metaphor.
Although slightly darker than I'd hoped it to be, this shot utilized a spinning disco ball with different lights shooting our across the room to embody how the killer had reached his full, fantasized attack mode with party lights whirring and the music thumping as a sensory overload telling him that he should kill. In the same way that the bright lights and volume of clubs encourage you to be carried away by the endorphin rush, this shot is supposed to be very distinctly inside the killers head (which is also why we enter in and fade out with white transitions).
These two shots I will admit came around mainly due to noticing their potential whilst out one night, the contrast between the green of the building and the red brick made for some beautifully complimentary colors and that both showcase a seemingly mundane thing given a sinister edge, the left image drawing particular attention to the word DANGER on the sign and the right showing a flickering light on the side of the Co-Op, each a foreboding and tense filler after having just seen our protagonist attacked that build suspense.
In the final tracking shot, the camera crawls out of the dark into the flare of an orange porch light as the camera returns to focus, done deliberately in an attempt to re-contextualize the inner safety of the home with the horror it has just been through, forcing the audience back into the established 'warmth' to witness the aftermath. This shot in particular I felt dove tailed nicely with the opening shot where one of the victims (Callum Hunt) had a strong orange light on his face as the rest relishes in the dark, the deck chairs, walls and world beyond steeped in shadows to a similar extent.
One of the final shots, done again with the mounted 160 LED depicts all of the light having faded as our killer stares into the dim, flickering orange lamp light, coming full circle with his mask now off again and one strong source representing his humanity, this time corrupted to orange. This shot shows the mask on it's own and had to be achieved through spot lighting via the LED to ensure that the audience knew the killer had been stripped of his anonymity once again and forced to face up to what he had done.