COLOUR SPECIAL
I t’s 2026, and everyone has got an opinion. Influencers are now attending film festivals and posting their paid ‘reviews’, while audiences are taking to social media, critiquing productions without necessarily knowing how they were made. The latest rhetoric is that today’s films and TV series are devoid of colour and light – that sequels look worse than their predecessors and that modern productions are bland and desaturated. This is, of course, an oversimplification, so we went to the source: DOPs. We chat to two cinematographers, Andrew Droz Palermo, ASC and Nyk Allen, who give their take on the great debate. What are audiences picking up on? What’s happening, and why? DEFINITION: Many fans believe that productions have gotten less colourful over time. What is your response? NYK ALLEN: I think there is something real in what people are noticing, but the comparison usually skips over the reason. Those older films were not more colourful simply because of their format; they were more colourful because someone chose to push them there. The Wizard of Oz was built as a spectacle. The early Harry Potter films were intentionally warm and stylised. The newer versions could be just as saturated if that was the creative aim. Usually this is less a technology issue and more a taste issue. The other thing that rarely gets a mention is the viewing environment. People are judging images on TVs with motion smoothing, auto brightness, AI picture settings, vivid modes and all kinds of processing that the filmmakers never approved. We grade in controlled, calibrated rooms, whereas most people are watching at home in bright spaces on displays that are rewriting the image before they ever see it. The gap between those two experiences is real. ANDREW DROZ PALERMO: I resist the notion that cinematography should be bound by a singular aesthetic. What served the narrative requirements of the past is not a universal blueprint; visual language must evolve alongside the story. To choose to mimic the palettes of the Technicolor era or the specific aesthetic of a predecessor would be
Fans have been loud online, voicing a common criticism: that today’s films and TV series look a bit lifeless. We ask filmmakers for an explanation
WORDS KATIE KASPERSON
BIT OF MAGIC The original Harry Potter films (above) and this year’s upcoming TV series (right)
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