LIGHTING
TRUE REPRESENTATION Clockwise from top left: When They See Us, Sex Education, Top Boy, Moonlight
© NETFLIX
HBO’s Insecure – based on Issa Rae’s own web series, Awkward Black Girl – Ava Berkofsky frequently used a polariser to film Rae and her co-stars. DOPs can also manipulate light by using coloured lenses, filters or reflective papers, experimenting with atmosphere while emphasising the natural undertones in each actors’ skin. Akinsehinwa likes to use gold reflectors to “slightly warm up the skin”, with silver having the opposite effect.
Colour often plays a significant role in establishing a film’s overall aesthetic. Take the Oscar-winning Moonlight : writer/director Barry Jenkins and DOP James Laxton opted for high saturation, high contrast and subtle highlights. The actors’ black skin appears blue under the moonlight – a purposeful storytelling device (the film is based on the unpublished play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue ). Each of the film’s three ‘acts’ also takes on a distinct colour
palette, differentiating phases of the protagonist’s life.
INDUSTRY OVERSIGHTS Actors want to feel like a valued part of any production. While teaching a course at MetFilm School, Akinsehinwa recounts, “[Actors] were frustrated by the way they were being lit, which often failed to represent their true likeness and made them feel neglected.” He continues,
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