Sam Donley Lighting Assignment

Logan



Context:
Director-James Mangold
DP-John Mathieson
Title: Logan (2017)

Logline: Logan, formerly the X-man "Wolverine", attempts to live out his final years in peace but the appearance of a young mutant girl with similar abilities to him forces him to step out of his mundane lifestyle and protect the girl from the powerful people who wish her harm.

In this clip, we are shown Logan's life as a limo driver. At the beginning he is recovering from several bullet wounds he received from some punks who tried to kill him. We've seen this character heal from bullet wounds a hundred times before in previous movies, but here it is different. His age is finally catching up with him, and his healing ability is much weaker than it normally is. The bathroom light from above highlights his wrinkles and the old, crusty texture of his skin. The shadows emphasize his popping veins, showing how much effort he has to put into expelling the bullets from his body, something that used to happen with little to no effort at all. Later, at the cemetery, Logan is seen standing beneath a tree drinking. He is back-lit and visible to us as a silhouette in front of a well-illuminated background of greens and greys. This shows how much darker he feels compared to the rest of the world. He is separated and doesn't belong there. He's hundreds of years old and almost all of his friends are dead so that sure makes sense.