Heya,
Even though you're shooting in the "average joe POV" style, such as Cloverfield, lighting is still necessary. The problem is, it has to be more subtle. Look at Cloverfield, it was the same style and remember in the party scenes where it's chaos, tons of people, etc... yet we still knew what was going on, who was around and this is occuring when the camera is all shaking and what not.
That's because of what the camera is focused on and what's being lit. When you're a director, you have to assume the audience is full of toddlers thus when you light a set you need to make sure everything is easy to view, you can't have the audience "looking" for anything, they're a spoiled bunch and need everything presented to them.
Things that are important need to be shown clearly, imagine that in a movie a bowl of fruit is very important... I guess a wizard lacks vitamin C or something and needs said bowl. You can't just shine a light on the fruit and film it, you also need to light the background with a dimmer light, you need to shine a light at the back of the fruit and then light the foregroud. This way the light is seperated from the background with the light that is hitting the back of the fruit, the background is still seen due to the dim lighting and the fruit are seen clearly with a nice bright diffused light on them.
The audience needs to have the image processed in a way that is easier to understand, if you show an image where everything is lit evenly, then you're going to have issues with people not being able to follow things properly. Try watching a movie and look for the lighting, try to notice what is lit and what isn't... look at what's in and out of focus. A director has to use all of things at his disposal to make the movie easier to swallow.
Take that as you will, but here are some examples of subtle lighting in Cloverfield:
With this one, you can clearly see Rob being lit... why? because he's the one you're supposed to be focusing on.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1895602432/tt1060277speaking of focus, notice who's in focus here... you immediately see her and recognize her as being the main character in this shot, obviously she's important. The people in the background are harder to see, thus making them trite.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2147260672/tt1060277I like this one, because you can see how lighting and focus compliment each other. Rob is lit and in focus, then you see Marlena in the background as well. you can pick them out, but the other people in the background are barely visible due to dimmer lighting and being out of focus.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2046597376/tt1060277Here's a picture of a behind the scenes shot, you can see an assistant camera operator holding up a light, this is to imitate the on camera light, obviously though the on camera light doesn't work that well.
http://www.pleasedsheep.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=140&d=1201281552I had another pic of the ending with Rob and Beth under the bridge and you could see a great big light outside, but that was more so to recreate daylight opposed to actual actor lighting.
- your friendly neighbourhood Westcroft
