In my first essay on the Duchess of Malfi, we have to consider how we would stage one of the scenes. In researching this it has turned my mind to lighting in tv, film and plays.

Drive was the first movie I watched where the lighting really struck me. I found it fascinating to learn about the deliberate use of lighting in film. How props and costumes are considered and used in telling the story, and the colors used in sets. Drive was very blue, red or yellow.

Only God Forgives is another movie that makes specific use of color. Heavy red lighting is used with the American family. The retired Thai cop never enters the sphere of red light but remains in white light. He is occasionally cast in a pinkish red glow when coming into contact with Julian or his mother. Julian becomes less ‘red’ as the movie goes on and in the fight scene with the Thai cop ends up being lit the same. There was also pink in the movie and I’m still trying to work that out. Does being lit in pink or wearing pink signify that the character could go either way, ambivalence?

Similarly, Breaking Bad, Moonrise Kingdom, Utopia are other shows/films where the lighting or color significance struck me. There is a whole article about the color of Breaking Bad. It’s interesting to study and has definitely made my essay more interesting to write and research.