The Language of Lights and Colors: How Filmmakers Use Visual Cues to Tell Stories

We all know that Diwali is the celebration of lights. The theme of good winning over evil and darkness being vanquished by light is well captured by the vibrant colors of rangolis and sparklers, as well as the sea of lights that come from the millions of diyas and fireworks that surround us. But don't lights and colors convey these kinds of tales all year long for every film enthusiast? Consider this: we frequently find ourselves in awe of the striking, captivating paintings that we refer to as movies, immersing ourselves in the narrative, connecting with the characters we encounter, and being carried away by the feelings they arouse. Nevertheless, we frequently overlook the fact that a significant portion of those feelings are influenced by the hues and lighting we view on screen. I can't really explain the "hows" and "whys" of it, but as a movie buff, let me illustrate with a few instances.

LAND LA LA

Although it's immediately clear why La La Land was dubbed the "cinema equivalent of a festival of lights and colors," closer inspection and several viewings reveal further facets of the film's allure. Because director Damien Chazelle and cinematographer Linus Sandgren decided to shoot on film, the metropolis of Los Angeles and its neon lights were depicted with saturation, perfectly capturing the characters of the musical's hopeful, creative goals and life-altering romance. Additionally, whether it was in the form of their individual outfits, the surroundings, or the lighting, colors functioned as visual indicators for Mia or Sebastian's emotional states. Consider their first kiss, for example: two lovers in the middle of a sea of crimson movie theater seats.

COOKER

ranging from one extreme to the next. Instead of depicting a famous comic book figure with grandeur and majesty, Todd Phillips reduced the genesis story of our favorite villain to a gritty, realistic, and earthy tale of a guy suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher appropriately used strong lighting and color combinations almost solely to indicate Arthur Fleck's (Joker's) hallucinations throughout the movie. Gotham City, a city plagued by crime, was also trapped in icy colors and confined in the shadows, much as Arthur himself is imprisoned in the chilly, gloomy tones of his apartment. Strangely, warmer hues entered the narrative as emblems of wrath, chaos, and bloodthirstiness rather than, as is more common, order, wealth, or desire. For instance, at the movie's conclusion, the Joker's gory grin denotes Arthur Fleck's death and the arrival of the Joker. Still believe that crimson represents passion and love?

THE UNIVERSITY

Although it may seem like an odd choice, The Mandalorian must be highlighted when discussing how lighting and colors may create magical effects in a film because of the innovative way it was filmed. The color palette of the Star Wars world is very straightforward: blue or green sabers for the Jedi, and red sabers for the Sith. except from Samuel L. Jackson, who, if my memory serves me well, once carried a purple sword. However, it is the result of Mr. Jackson getting his way. Other than that, the Jedi wear brown hues, transitioning into vivid colors that are brighter, while the villains wear garish black clothing.

What's amazing, however, is how director Jon Favreau recreated the universe Lucas had first showed us to using cutting-edge filming methods. Rear projections are a common cinema technique that we have all seen in the past; the original Star Wars trilogy made extensive use of this technique. The back projections were replaced with blue and green chroma screens due to the advancements in computer graphics.

VFX artists added in the details after the fact, while actors conjured up their imagined surroundings while shooting. Rear projections returned with Mandalorian, but in a new way. Because perspectives in back projections from the past could not be altered, the camera was immobile. The StageCraft system, also known as the on-set virtual system, was created by Industrial Light and Magic, the pioneers of several filmmaking innovations. It entails projecting virtual or computer-generated imagery (CGI) worlds, sets, and environments onto massive, ultra-high definition LED screens on set, along with motion-controlled camera rigs that enable the perspective on the display to change as the camera changes angles.

Before The Mandalorian was revealed, ILM had been working on StageCraft for years, but it wasn't until Favreau and cinematographer Greig Fraser used it on the Disney+ series that the technology began to be recognized as the way of the future for motion pictures.

EVERYTHING AT ONCE EVERYWHERE

The film's filmmakers, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, as well as cinematographer Larkin Seiple, encountered a number of difficulties in creating this very ambitious, visually stunning, universe-jumping, and poignant movie. The difficulties varied from needing to invent new rigs to deal with Covid lockdowns to the requirement to perfectly reflect the lights in the characters' eyes. Yes, there are a lot of oddities in both the movie and the tales that lead up to its creation. However, there were a lot of artistic decisions made by the filmmakers and actors under the surface of the breathtaking images, which we often miss the first time around and then find ourselves thinking about them endlessly.

Not only are there apparent color and saturation choices made for many planets, but there are also subtler ones, such as the use of background lighting to produce bokeh that changes form in several scenes, signifying the universe's constant expansion and evolution. The fact that this is used more in the movie' most poignant sequences rather than their more striking action set pieces is even more amazing. It really adds a whole new meaning to the idea that our ideas create the reality we live in.

Dickler's List

You may wonder why a black-and-white movie would be discussed in this specific context. The influence that "The Girl in Red" had on Schindler's List is something that cannot be discussed while talking about color in movies. That scene in which she appears as the lone exception to the universe around her—despite the fact that the film is in monochrome—may be one of the most powerful in cinematic history. Red has never been more noticeable.