Visual Effects...

Chiaroscuro literally means “bright” (Chiaro) and “dark” (Oscuro) in Italian. It is an art movement that began in the renaissance, it is where the artist uses dark colours to create shadows and bright light colours to create highlights, therefore creating an image consisting of purely these contrasting tones. It is used a lot in painting, just like this one by Giovanni Baglione, “Sacred and Profane Love” (1602-1603):

 http://filmmakeriq.com/2010/08/ultimate-filmmakers-guide-to-film-noir/sacred-love-versus-profane-love-giovanni-baglione-1602/

The light colours on the skin of the central character and the man on the floor represent a lightness or goodness of character. The same colour has been used to pick out the wings of the angel, commonly symbolising holiness or religion. Then with the dark shadows and tones, you can see a demon creature in the bottom corner, clearly supposed to be looking a bit evil as he has no highlights or anything really to connect him with the other characters. Chiaroscuro is very representative of good an evil, and I think this is important to consider when lighting our set to a certain extent.
here are a few other images which show how lighting can really change the mood of a room, giving it either a pure and innocent vibe or a more sinister one, depending on the levels of contrast are used.



http://www.rhythmvision.com/Part_1.html



http://www.rhythmvision.com/Page019-Light_at_the_end_of_the_Tunnel.jpg

These two pictures use chiaroscuro really well. Because the highlights are so bright, the contrast with the shadows makes it look incredibly sinister; as if there is a lot more of the picture which is out of view, a part  that maybe you dont want to see. the images possess an 'Elephant in the room' feeling, which I think is incredibly relevant to how Gregor's family must be feeling. Not wanting to look into the shadows in case they see something they dont want to know about.