Why are movies filmed so dark

[reesewithoutaspoon]

I'm not sure whether I'm just getting old, but sick of squinting and struggling to see wtf is going on in movies these days. I get they are trying to make it gritty and atmospheric but its annoying. You can barely see what is happening. Never mind see the actors faces for expression. Don't want to have to close the curtains middle of the day and sit in the dark just to watch a film.

No it's definitely a thing, really annoying.
Add also muffling when speaking.

I must be an old fogie too because it annoys me as well! Not a problem in the new Downtown Abbey film- very well lit.
Recently got around to watching Parasite which was a lot better than expected but I was definitely squinting at times! Just a sign we're too old for trendy films 😂

I'm in my twenties and think the same!

Yep drives me crazy! Also every drama or thriller film is completely blue & orange. Like every scene they will be the dominant colours. I don't know if it's to do with the types of cameras they use? But it drives me mad

My sister and me refer to this as PD Vision. As in partial darkness. We moaned about it for years. What good it it being able to see their teeth and the whites of their eyes?

Muffled speech and then really loud environmental sounds.

It’s awful. I watch everything with the subtitles on now. And have tried to do what I can with my TV settings to minimise the darkness.

I really don’t understand why the current fashion is for such difficult to watch film and tv.

It is notoriously difficult to record colours, there were many long running debates about the different film emulsions as to which was the more 'natural', especially when shooting outside without extra lighting.*

Now that most images are captured digitally, you'd think this would have been resolved, in fact it's the opposite as it's far easier to manipulate digital imagery.
Add in to that there are differences between what is seen as 'natural' across different locations, even cultural differences, it's not surprising that what is seen as right by one person is not the same as another.

*an easy example of this is to compare family snapshots from the 70s & 80s with today's. The older ones look far more washed-out because the film couldn't cope with a wide dynamic range (unlike B&W) whilst modern digital systems are capable of much higher dynamic range

The mumbling.. that too. I have given up on so many films because of mumbling and continual darkness. It feels like a chore to watch rather than a pleasure

I have had this problem too. It surprised me what a difference it made when I switch off the lighting in the room. Made Game of Thrones so much more understandable.

I assume because most movies are made for the cinema, and cinemas are dark.

I find the same with the sound, to hear properly it needs to be loud, like it is in the cinema.

I haven’t been to the cinema in 15 years, so no idea if modern films are hard to watch there as well.

@Ifailed I don’t think it’s necessarily a technical thing or about being entirely ‘natural’.

It’s definitely a common stylistic choice to have everything lit extremely poorly and it all be very murky. That might be ‘atmospheric’ for various purposes but it too often crosses over into really not being able to see.

Add in mumbling, interspersed with really loud crashes and bangs, and it’s a horrible sensory experience.

Colour grading movies in teal and orange has been a Hollywood thing for years (basically ever since they got their hands on digital colour grading equipment). I think the theory is that people’s faces are basically warm/orangey and so if you make the background cool/teal coloured then the colour contrast will help make the actors stand out and the frame seem more lively.

The problem is it is massively overused and has become a cliche that seems to define the look of modern cinema.

@FishcakesWithTooMuchCoriander

What I was trying to state somewhat contortedly, is that the colour of a movie can be far more easily manipulated, and hence follow the current 'fashion'

The 'blue' colour range is known in the industry as creating atmosphere. Just gone overboard with it.

I noticed it particularly in an Amazon TV series called Night Sky. I started yelling at the characters to switch the lights on — no couple in their sixties goes about their lives in murky dark living rooms and kitchens with all the lights off.

And the mumbling! Actors used to be trained to speak AUDIBLY!

Sodding ‘realistic’ dialogue can just do one. Watching any box set from 20 plus years ago makes the difference woefully apparent.

It drives me up the wall.

Unless I watch a film at night, lights off, curtains closed, I can see bugger all.

Not kids films, they're fine. But everything else.

I have the brightness up full blast and I can still see fuck all.

my Netflix had a problem a few months ago which caused a problem with the colour- everything was extra dark. I got through half a film before realising it was actually an error. Because of the trend you’re talking about.

the blue effect is more irritating. Horror movies used to be washed out with blue for a while.

We lost the TV remote control during a series of The Handmaids Tale. We cracked and bought a new TV* because it was near impossible to follow without subtitles!

The remote turned up 9 months later.

*the TV was aging fast so a replacement had been coming on to the agenda.

DH drives me mad with his taste in films that go
mumblemublemuble
BANG!!! CRASH!!! WALLOP!!!
Fucking annoying and hard to ignore.