Nobody thinks very deeply about the way hospital lighting is used, yet it may have a subtle importance. Garish, incredibly bright lights bring out the worst in peoples features, so it’s no wonder that filmmakers and television producers light their shows in ways that are not identical to a real hospital scenario. While cloud light panels could improve the look of your average hospital, it’s unlikely they’ll ever be as well lit as what you see in a Hollywood set.
The reasons hospitals light each room in such a way are obvious enough. In a place where details can make the difference between living and dying, and doctors and nurses have to see every aspect of the peoples bodies they are operating on or examining, having the least amount of shadows possible is of paramount importance.
But these hospitals aren’t really worried about how their patients and staff will look. It’s quite different in the land of film and television of course, and this is why the lighting in the fake hospitals of these shows is so different.
Lighting isn’t just a matter of flipping on a switch when it comes to movie making. In a Hollywood film, a large amount of people are employed, all with the job of lighting the actors, actresses, settings and props in the manner the creator wants. Henry Fonda was once shooting a scene when he asked the director for the “doo-hickey”, this “doo-hickey” was in reality a small light that aimed into Fonda’s face, giving his eyes a moist, poignant look that was his calling card. Lighting tricks such as this are the reason Hollywood stars are able to look so iconic and attractive. It’s not common that we stop to consider these differences, due to the fact that this style of portraying life is everywhere. Only through directly comparing the films of Hollywood with documentaries about real hospitals could we start to notice the big differences.
If you think the sets in House or other hospital fictions are realistic, compare the way they look to a real hospital. Even ER, a show that was often praised for its gritty realism, was obviously lit in such a way that no self-respecting real doctor would allow themselves to work in such a place. But the creators of television stories require this kind of lighting for the reason actual hospitals couldn’t allow it: the increase in the amount of shadow. While shadow in a real situation could mean missing a vein or losing the patient, on a film set it means more handsome leading men, and sultrier leading ladies.
It’s really no surprise that film makers tend to cheat to make their performers look better than they really do. But when you begin to think about the way real situations are portrayed onscreen, it causes us to ask a deeper question: If Hollywood is willing to make changes to the lights and appearance of characters from real life, what changes are they creating to the way the people behave, and manner in which they interact? In short: never look to Hollywood film for a glimpse into real life.
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