Lighting and Shadows and Monsters Oh My in CAGED
Caged (1950) has strong, dramatic use of light and shadow, including live lighting changes.
We’re looking at two different (v short) scenes today, particularly how they’re imbued with meaning and dread through:
1. blocking and framing
2. incredible use of shadows
3. transition and camera movement
Blocking and Framing
The warden Harper (Hope Emerson) towers over Kitty (Betty Garde), showing off her position and leveraging her power.
The positioning would be effective in most angles, but the framing really makes Kitty look as small as she feels, and forces us to look up at Harper and feel ‘smaller than.’
It helps that Emerson was a vaudevillian and strongwoman, so she knows how to use her physicality, which shows even when she is still. This also comes into play when she walks away . . .
Shadows
ohmygods just look at the shadow moving! What an amazing choice — it looks like a monster projected on a child’s bedroom wall or a dragon on the side of a cave.
It’s perfectly positioned so as Kitty hisses her pent-up anger towards her fellow prisoners, it looks like she’s addressing it to Harper, because her eyeline is right at Harper’s shadow.
I’d love a look at the BTS light setup which created this strong imagery.
Then in the next scene, we see Marie (Eleanor Parker) standing against a wall with shadows of jail bars cast on it — just like the last scene — showing no matter where you are in the prison, you are always, always caged.
Transitions and Camera Movement
Finally, the scene transitions to a more ‘mundane’ setup, a closeup of a door with a simple ‘parole hearing’ card pinned to it. But this gets more complex, led with a simple camera movement, first panning right to see Marie (above), then continuing its move, drawing back to show Maries is only one of many.
The movement is far more effective than a simple cut, because we can see her restless body language as she shrinks and shrinks in frame, until she ends up completely surrounded.
Takeaways
Though one shot is still and the characters move within it, and the other shot makes three different moves (a pan, then a pause, then a dolly backwards) as the characters remain static, they both create similar feelings of powerlessness. Staying coherent with themes and clear with visuals is important, but you can take multiple approaches to the same end goal, mix-and-matching to keep your film visually interesting.
Shadow symbolism may take a lot of setup, but is worthwhile . . . don’t be afraid of exaggerated elements and a little melodramatic effect, this is cinema!