Recently I’ve started up watching Breaking Bad which is very long overdue (not really the point,) however whilst watching the show I’ve been subconsciously analysing and trying to figure out how specific scenes have been created. Some shots and scenes are very stylised and coloured whereas others are naturalised in a sense. For example:
Establishing that the stylised lighting fills the whole space
This scene is shot in a bar, I’m assuming somewhere out in the desert. Across all scenes inside the bar, there is the yellow green tinge that falls throughout the bar which can be understood to be the sun light reflected through the windows. It’s a stylised lighting choice, and it fills the space as if it is a soft light but creates also creates shadows upon the characters faces as if it is hard light source which I found strange. It was really interesting to watch this scene progress because it shows one of the men outside the bar, and it reveals the incredible difference that the ‘windows’ are making to the light to create that type of temperature.
Colour temperature outside the bar
Colour temperature inside the bar
I honestly watched this scene a few times, not because it was of any interest to me because of the show but purely because of the temperature differences and trying to establish how they created that specific shot. I feel as if the director went in there with the intention of shooting a specific aperture, one that under exposes it ever slightly, maybe half a stop or one stop under to create the darkness and moodiness of the bar. Creating the atmosphere I guess, and to add the temperature difference with the light being pushed through the windows not only diffuses it but adds another element of intrigue to the scene, and to the atmosphere of the bar. It definitely added tension to the scene, made it more ambiguous and I think really suited the overall scene. So despite the fact that not all scenes within the show are highly stylised and flooded with colour, sometimes when the colour at a different temperature, or highlighted in a particular way it creates questions for the viewer (aka me) as to what is going to happen in the scene, because well something always does.