This show has the muddiest look of anything I watch. The first episode I kept fiddling with the contrast, etc. trying to improve clarity and color, then watched it online and on a relative's set, but finally realized this is the way it's shot.
Why would anyone make a drama look washed out and basically kind of beige? Indoor shots, outdoor shots, they all kind of look the same. Weird.
So you'd think you were watching it in the 60's, which is how tv looked.
m'kay?
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
So you'd think you were watching it in the 60's, which is how tv looked.I completely see the point you're making, yet I have to disagree--to a degree. I think it's partially that, and partially a desire to give the show a film noir-ish look, in other words, using its look to add to the mystique of the story line. I watched TV in the late '60s, and it most definitely did NOT have the look the OP refers to.
http://www.CaliforniaDreamsPhotography.comshare
My friend, shows in the '60s had more color than practically any other decade in TV history. Batman, Mission: Impossible, Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie, on and on and on -- color by DeLuxe that was about to jump off the screen.
shareSo you'd think you were watching it in the 60's, which is how tv looked.Heavily filtered? They just want to set a tone. This is not how TV looked in the 60s.
So you'd think you were watching it in the 60's, which is how tv looked.
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Heavily filtered? They just want to set a tone. This is not how TV looked in the 60s.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
Keep in mind when you're seeing "old clips from back then", you're probably watching a film product on today's HD digital TV. Something may be lost in translation, as it were. However, I remember shows I watched when first broadcast (on a CRT hulk)
That were fine in terms of color and clarity, but the characters just didn't have any imagination when it came to interior decor! Take Brady Bunch home, everything was olive green, beige, brown... Except for that ORANGE kitchen. Dad was an architect, right? I don't recall what Carol did (if she worked outside home), but I think they couldve afforded some better looking stuff. All that said, I think my own house growing up in the 60s probably had similar color scheme.
Bewitched, Drean of Jeannie, Partridge Family all had drab-ish interiors, but that might have been to keep the focus on the plot/actions.
Aquarius' lighting does drive me slightly crazy. I think they are trying to evoke a mood, but as said elsewhere on this thread, why does it have to be dark and gloomy in bright sunshine? MAD MEN is the most successful "period piece" which drew the mood of the times depicted absolutely perfectly (I was there so I speak with authority, lol), but they didn't resort to silly lighting manipulation to get us there. IMHO, theyre just being lazy on Aquarius.
In spite of alla that, IM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS SHOW COMING BACK !
Ü
Cinematography like that is usually more for evoking a mood or feeling for an era than for authenticity. For example, washed out, sepia is often also used for Depression era things. I prefer rich color myself, so don't always like that kind of cinematography.
shareI can handle a soft or underexposed look for certain subjects, like mystery or crime dramas...it doesnt' bother me that much.
But what I really HATE these days is the trendy color correction that certain films and shows are in love with where they'll tint the entire scene blue or sepia/khaki, both prevalent in nighttime and daylight scenes respectively.
People believe what they want to believe. One term for this is Faith. Another is Delusion.
I don't like the washed out color. It is very distracting to me.
shareWhether or not you like washed out colors, or even eye popping color in films/TV, that does not matter so much as: did you let yourself fall into the world, or more importantly did the world pull you in?
There are things I didn't like about the show and it's fictional characters, did that detract from the "world" the creators made? Not for me. I could tell you how I hated the parts where everybody is always having sex, drinking and smoking. I feel today's TV shows get all caught up in those things and it most of the time ruins them. It did not ruin this show (yet). It felt real, as any fictional world should feel (video games, TV shows, movies, whatever), the world they created for us to be entertained by felt grounded in it's own fictional reality.
I was engulfed in watching the show for Duchovny's character, slowly falling for all the other characters. Even Gethin's Manson surprised me. As an avid Game of Thrones watcher I didn't know it was Renly until I looked it up because I felt I knew the actor from somewhere.
TL;DR
I feel you didn't let yourself be pulled into the world the creators made. Either that or you should be faulting them in general for making a world you couldn't believe enough to be pulled into.
Who the Hell is "Renly"??
He carries illegal weapons, drives fast cars, and wears clothes obviously designed by a homosexual.
did you really ask that?
could you not extrapolate from his post that he was a game of thrones character? mystery shows must be really hard for you to follow, huh?
sorry to be snarky, but c'mon.
ox! where is thy yoke?
I've never seen Game of Thrones, so how would I know that? I tried to watch it once, but couldn't follow it without watching it from the beginning, so I gave up until I had the time to rent the first season. Do you REALLY think everyone on the planet has watched Game of Thrones and knows all the characters?? Don't be so shallow. Some of us READ as well as watch tv, ya know. Geez....
"Home is where they don't want you to leave." (Stephen King, Revival)
I have never watched Game Of Throne either, but the following sentence:
Even Gethin's Manson surprised me. As an avid Game of Thrones watcher I didn't know it was Renly until I looked it up because I felt I knew the actor from somewhere.made it very clear that Renly is a character on that show. share
Clear to YOU, maybe. Not to me. Obviously.
"Home is where they don't want you to leave." (Stephen King, Revival)
no actually i truly thought you could infer from what he posted that renly must be a character. as a reader, i would think that's something you could do. i don't expect everyone to watch game of thrones-which, by the way is a series of books that I'VE read- but when someone posts 'i watch game of thrones, and didn't realize it was renly', the assumption i think I would make is 'hm, must be a GOT character'. does that make sense? i'm not sure that's being shallow.
i do apologize for being snarky- i'd been reading some truly idiotic posts and finally took it out on you. sorry.
ox! where is thy yoke?
Hannibal and a lot of Under the Dome are filmed the same way. Dark cinematography has become synonymous with "dramatic" television. I find it very difficult to watch because most of the time, it looks like you're staring at a blank screen. Who wants to "watch" radio on tv??
He carries illegal weapons, drives fast cars, and wears clothes obviously designed by a homosexual.
Dark cinematography is one thing; I love film noir, for instance, but the best directors and DPs who were the first to work in noir had some budget constraints to deal with and some creative responses to offer. For instance, texture and contrast can be used in amazing ways to add depth and interest and these and other things can help set key characters apart from one another or to show their similarities; linked fates, behaviors, whatever the story calls for.
Aquarius just plods along on what feels like the same light level in every scene. I realize they want to shade out sunny southern California to show that there are deep dark doin's afoot, but that kind of thing should be almost subliminal, not in-your-face. Unfortunately do I find it in my face and distracting. And yes, as others have pointed out, it has nothing to do with how television shows looked in the 1960s. Mad Men got that look almost perfect, but had they really gone back to the authentic palette the show would have been over lit, over saturated, and a bit cartoonish.
I am aware of all that; I work in the tv and film industry. I'm talking about the screen being so dark that you can't discern anything at all. What's the point of it being that dark? Nothing. It just irritates the viewer.
He carries illegal weapons, drives fast cars, and wears clothes obviously designed by a homosexual.
I am aware of all that; I work in the tv and film industry. I'm talking about the screen being so dark that you can't discern anything at all. What's the point of it bring that dark? Nothing. It just irritates the viewer.
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There's absolutely nothing wrong with my tv's settings. Nothing. Other programs are just fine.
He carries illegal weapons, drives fast cars, and wears clothes obviously designed by a homosexual.
If the show was "too dark" for you... I can assure you the detail is there, I've seen so many awful TVs and monitors that can't display anything properly. Most of the trash at Best Buy and other retailers cant even display black levels, white levels, gamma, gradients, contrast or any of the standard stuff properly. Let alone have a good viewing angle, pixel response time or something as simple as clock and phase. More than likely you have never calibrated your monitor/TV and even if you did, your cables/connection could cause distortion or artifacts, or compression.
shareIn the ep ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding the photography was FABULOUS
shareIf the show was "too dark" for you... I can assure you the detail is there, I've seen so many awful TVs and monitors that can't display anything properly. Most of the trash at Best Buy and other retailers cant even display black levels, white levels, gamma, gradients, contrast or any of the standard stuff properly. Let alone have a good viewing angle, pixel response time or something as simple as clock and phase. More than likely you have never calibrated your monitor/TV and even if you did, your cables/connection could cause distortion or artifacts, or compression.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
I've no idea what the jargon refers to but I watch this show on a high end 60" Samsung purchased a year ago and professionally installed. Everything else in HD looks fabulous. Aquarius does not. Simple darkness I could adjust for but the strange muddy color of every single scene is new to me. It infuses even the shots that are in sunlight. Don't know how else to describe it. Everyone's clothes, eye color, furnishings, etc. all look the same. I just find it a really strange choice on the part of those who made this series.
shareI hate this de-saturated/filtered drab colour that is used so frequently to, I guess, try to invoke the feeling that the story was set several decades ago.
Here's the thing: reds were just as red, blues were just as blue, and greens ware just as green, back in the 60's as they are today. And if the production team need to use these kind of tricks to invoke a sense of the 60s, then they should get a new production team who can film it in natural colour and still invoke a sense of the period.
I don't know whether these people use their colour tricks out of trendiness, laziness or incompetence, bot I hate it.
I am aware of all that; I work in the tv and film industry. I'm talking about the screen being so dark that you can't discern anything at all. What's the point of it being that dark? Nothing. It just irritates the viewer.
To me, it just looks amateurish or "artsy" (without actually BEING artsy). It means we can't ever watch this show when the sun's still up. I have a similar problem with shows like Scream, which insists on forcing you to read a (too small) text on a phone. We have to keep pausing the show to get up off the couch to read the text before continuing. It completely disrupts any flow the show might have.
"Home is where they don't want you to leave." (Stephen King, Revival)
OMG...just tried to watch a DVR'd episode of Hannibal midday and I couldn't see anything! No clue what was going on other than the commercials. Sheesh, not even worth my time. Aquarius has some dark scenes but certainly not as bad as that.
Right? Fortunately, Hannibal has been cancelled and won't be on much longer to torture its viewers with this crappy cinematography.
He carries illegal weapons, drives fast cars, and wears clothes obviously designed by a homosexual.
Yeah, the cinematography looks terrible. It's quite boring to look at and makes you sleepy. I'm not sure what they were thinking with it. There's literally not a single change of light, it looks dark even when it's the middle of the day.
shareThe show is not shot this way, it's shot in bright day and studio light, the muddy look seems to be created in postproduction. The most eerie thing are the pinpoint pupils of the actors. They all seem to be on drugs.
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