There’s a trend in movies and TV that you’ve probably noticed: Everything has gotten extremely dark, and for some audience members, too dark to even see.
The Batman (2022), Warner Bros. HBO
It comes down to aesthetics and technology. The first one’s pretty simple: As popular content leans grittier and darker in tone (i.e. The Batman, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, etc.) the visuals tend to reflect that.
But productions have also moved from shooting on film to shooting with digital cameras, and the way scenes get lit has changed dramatically. Shooting on film meant that you couldn’t see the final product until everything was developed. Under those limitations, it made more sense to flood dark scenes with light to ensure the footage would be usable. With digital cameras and digital monitors, it’s easy to see what the final product will look like — and that can embolden a cinematographer to film scenes darker and darker.
But how dark is too dark? And how do filmmakers ensure that their vision gets accurately represented on the screen you’re watching it on? Check out the video above to find out.
One of the biggest changes he noted has been the switch to digital cameras, which overtook using film stock in the early 2010s. Digital cameras can perform better in darker settings, since they generally don't need as much lighting on set to fully capture what's in front of the camera.
A dark theme is a work of fiction (usually a movie, but sometimes a book or video game) with a sinister, often tragic, story. It is often about characters with corrupt or damaged psyches, bleak backgrounds, struggle with mental illness, or those who battle inner demons.
Eco Mode and Ambient Light Detection: Modern TVs often have an eco mode or a feature that adjusts brightness based on the ambient light in the room. Ensure that these settings are calibrated correctly or disabled if they're causing your screen to appear darker than desired.
If a movie utilizes special effects makeup or if a shot picks up lighting cables in the background, the darkness provides a great solution for hiding things that filmmakers don't want the audience to notice.
What's going on? While some social media users have theorised scenes are being made darker to cover up shonky CGI, industry experts say the current trend towards dimmer scenes comes down to two main factors: artistic choice, and the switch from film to digital shooting.
If a TV show or movie is too dark, or isn't bright enough to see, you might need to change the brightness or High Dynamic Range (HDR) settings on your device.
film noir, style of filmmaking characterized by such elements as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks, intricate plots, and an underlying existentialist philosophy.
These long-ago experiences have granted people a highly responsive, albeit mostly unconscious, threat detection system. Because horror movies do such a good job of simulating threatening situations, this means our emotional responses to them are similar to those we'd experience if we encountered a real-life threat.
Exposure to terrifying acts like stories of demonic possession or alien infestation can be stimulating both mentally and physically. These experiences can give rise to both negative feelings, such as fear or anxiety, and positive feelings, such as excitement or joy.
If your TV screen appears dark or dims automatically, this can be due to TV settings such as the selected picture mode, Energy Saver settings, or the AI Brightness function is enabled.
If your screen appears dark or unclear, don't worry, you can adjust the picture settings to watch all of your favorite shows and movies. You can also experiment with special modes, change the picture size, and tweak the settings for customized image quality.
What makes these DC animated movies so grueling and dark is the traumas they put their characters through. There are wars, tribulations, and the loss of loved ones, there are some stories that even die-hard DC fans find difficult to watch.
There've been a lot of people making TV very fast in the past few years. Things are pre-produced, produced, and then distributed to postproduction, and then sent back to the streamers in a very short time span. All these factors lend themselves to these low light levels and an overly color-corrected look onscreen.
Filmmakers behind 'The Batman,' starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, calibrated the lighting to keep the movie shadowy but legible. Joaquin Phoenix starred in 'Joker,' which channeled the look of gritty 1970s films in 2019 and received 11 Oscar nominations.
Jurassic Park changed CGI forever as it was the first feature film to use CGI to create real animals. ILM was the reason CGI was used in Jurassic Park at all, as Steven Spielberg originally planned to use stop-motion techniques and full-scale animatronics.
Explanation n°1: digital color grading. Movies take multiple weeks or months to film. During the editing stage, the footage that is assembled may have been shot over multiple days. The light might be different, affecting the decor (leaves on the trees, sky…) with hues that don't match across the various scenes.
It's because they shoot in digital and don't bother to do the proper color grading. This was really bothering me as I had a chance to see the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films again recently, and was taken aback by how vibrant and lively they looked compared to modern movies, not just superhero flicks.
The Prime Video app adapts the color scheme/display resolution according to your phone. Some high end devices which have AMOLED/OLED display with HDR/HDR10+ support, may give a bit darker output on any streaming app. However, this may vary from device to device.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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