I’ve noticed that in many Hollywood movies and US TV shows that when someone returns to an unoccupied house at night, lights throughout that house are all switched.
Also, when a person walks from room to room, lights, both lamps and overhead are likewise all switched on.
Is it standard behaviour for the average US household to turn all lights on during dark hours until bedtime? Or is it a quirk of filmmaking?
In my house my wife and I leave the main hallway lights on until bed time, but we only turn on lights in the other rooms as we enter and leave them. It is very rare for all of the lights to be on in my house. I imagine that this happens in Hollywood movies because it makes it easier to film.
Mike
Do people in Hong Kong normally stumble around in the dark when they get home?
I’m not quite sure I understand the question. If you’re asking if we come home and turn on every single light in the house, no, we don’t do that. But we may turn on quite a few, and some (such as the living room / den) may stay on all night until we go to bed.
Maybe this will shed some light: It’s a standard battle in most homes between energy-bill concious parents and uncaring children who leave all the lights on.
Call me crazy, but if I’m watching a film, and it’s set in a house with all the lights off, I’m expecting J.L. Curtis to get into a fight with a guy in a hockey mask. If the room is dark and the light gets switched on by the person entering the room, I’m expecting them to discover parts of J.L. Curtis ruining the carpet and sofa.
By having the lights on as the actor enters the room, unintended meaning inferred by a transition in lighting is avoided.
I, personally leave the lights on because I’m afraid of the dark.
just kidding. I’m afraid of what’s IN the dark.
I agree with Inigo.
It is part of the visual vocabulary of film that when the lights are set in a certain way, the filmmaker has done so deliberately to set the mood and create an atmosphere.
one light on at someone’s desk: the character is working late.
one light on by someone’s bed: it is night and the character is getting ready for bed. People in the movies never turn off the light at the wall and walk to the bed in the dark.
one light on, interior stairwell: the cop is returning home with his bad news and will hold a conversation with his wife who won’t come down the stairs, and he won’t go up. Someone has probably just died, or is about to.
no lights on: the Monster From Beyond is waiting in the shadows, dribbling unspeakable slobber.
Since there was a huge energy crisis in the 1970s and energy conservation was drilled into everyone alive at the time, I doubt very much if turning every light on in the house is a habit in America. I know I only turn on lights I am actually using. Other homes I have visited seem to have similar habits.
I’m pretty sure it’s just a Hollywood thing. You can’t film what you can’t see, after all.
Just a quick tip: Hollywood movies and TV shows are rarely an accurate reflection of real life.
Are all policemen in Hong Kong super athletic karate experts who regularly subdue criminals with whatever everday object happens to be lying around?
I’ve never actually seen a film a main stylistic device of which was its lighting fixtures so that comparison is redundant.
Obviously, I am aware that, for instance, a single female subway ticket inspector is unlikely to be able to afford an apartment overlooking Central Park but may live in one in a film for some kind of effect BUT background details on film are often a reflection of real life.
A smart answer was not what I was looking for, I was just interested whether this reflected the habits of an average US household.
Furthermore, in the OP, I did allow for cinematographical necessity.
I gave up on the lights-out battle years ago – principally since my wife is on the other side, undermining my efforts to teach family members good lighting habits. She turns on every light as she goes throughout the house, and then leaves them on.
Whenever I come home after dark, our home is the brightest one on the block.
No, I don’t feel any strong pangs of guilt. I have done my part, but in the name of domestic harmony, I have not taken more drastic measures to limit usage.
In that case, I’d have to say “asked and answered.” Several times.
It’s not typical of real households, but it does follow cinematic convention.
Background details on film are a simulation of real life, especially in Hollywood films. I wouldn’t count on anything I see in a movie being an accurate depiction of real life. The number of technical errors, logical impossibilities, and real-life inconsistencies captured on film is truly astonishing. For instance:
- It is not possible to park right in front of your destination in downtown Manhattan at rush hour.
- The safety catch on a pistol does not automatically switch on when you stick a gun in your belt.
- Foreigners do not say “yes” and “no” in their native languages while speaking English fluently with only a tiny accent.
- Tires do not squeal on dirt roads.
- Working the action of a pump-action shotgun or a semiautomatic pistol is only necessary when loading a shell into the chamber of a freshly-loaded gun. At other times it will load a new shell at the cost of ejecting a perfectly good round.
- Computers do not beep-beep-beep when you type.
- Real cars have rear-view mirrors.
- Bullets that miss a person will continue on at something near the speed of sound in a straight line. They do not kick up dust at the target’s feet.
- Cars that jump ramps land only to destroy their tires, shocks, frames, or all of the above.
- Dead bodies aren’t pale blue. A nursing friend tells me that they are more yellowish.
- Real homes have mirrors and glass-paned pictures on the walls. Hollywood homes have no reflective surfaces because they reveal the camera crew.
There are enough similar errors to fill a small book. In fact, such a book already exists: Roger Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary. We simply have to add your question to it, so:
- Real darkness is dark. Hollywood darkness is always light enough to see by, unless there is something in the darkness that they don’t want us to see yet.
[nitpick]This is wrong for a pump-action shotgun. After firing one round, it is necessary to cycle the pump to eject the spent shell and load the next. There are semi-automatic shotguns, but they are not usually pump action.[/nitpick]
Thank you, Scooby. I am no firearms expert. Nevertheless, the point remains that Hollywood frequently gets it wrong.
<hijack>I hate those movies where everything is in shadows. I know the director thinks it gives some kind of effect, but to me it just means I can’t tell what the hell is going on. :mad: </hijack>
I find that [url=http://www.x10.com]X10* goes a long way towards controlling the lights. It’s cheap, easy to install, and works well. Of course if you’re still upset about the whole X10 pop-under business, Leviton actually makes nicer, X10 compatible stuff.
“Teaching good lighting habits”?You mean constantly worrying, and then griping about it with the family.
Why do people get so hung up about lights being left on? A well-lit house is bright and cheery. Do you prefer to keep everything dark and dreary?
The cost is irrelevant–if you leave 10 lights on, (with standard 100-watt bulbs), that’s only ONE kilowatt. Most electric companies charge about 5 cents per kW-hour. So leaving all the lights on for 4 hours costs you a whopping 20 cents a day!
And how much does it cost in light bulbs to illuminate empty rooms? Power consumed is only part of the cost.
A light bulb lasts 750-1000 hours.Thats about 6 months of daily use for 4 hours.
So ,over the course of a full year, you 'll have to replace each bulb twice.
For our example, that’s 20 bulbs during a 12 month period. That’s almost 2 whole light bulbs every month–another huge, unbearable expense for the average homeowner.
About $10 a month, for keeping a nice,well-lit home where you don’t stub your toe fumbling in the dark for the switch.
Why do millions of parents prefer to yell at the kids over the “high cost” of $10?
I have to admit that I’m a lights-on kind of guy. My boyfriend and his family (with whom I live), however, are human-shaped bats. Every light in the house is off. All the time. When they are on, they’re dimmed. It’s like living in that house in “The Others”!
Well, chappachula, ten dollars is ten dollars. If I wanted, I could buy paper plates and cups and plastic forks instead of washing ceramic plates; that’s only ten dollars. And I could keep myself in dijon mustard and gourmet bread (instead of generic) or get extended cable with 1,200 extra channels that I don’t watch. But if I can control my costs to save ten dollars a month, I will.
Ten dollars won’t break me. It’s just that I’d rather spend it on something I can use rather than something I don’t. Do I stub my toes when turning on the lights? No: I have a light-sensitive nightlight installed so I can see where I’m going.
That’s all beside the point. Is it really all about the money? I don’t know where you live, but I find it interesting in the days where we can still fondly remember rolling blackouts in California and a week-long power outage in the Northeast and punitive power-lending from a Texas energy giant and energy companies on the verge of bankruptcy in the Northwest that the only motivation people have to turn off lights is cost. It’s simply not very responsible, in my opinion, to consume power to no point, and that is the reason that I think many people in the U.S. have power conservation habits, and that (back on topic) the every-light-in-the-house phenomenon in movies isn’t particularly accurate.