Season 1: The Lighting

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Has anyone ever noticed how Season 1 seems so much darker visually?

It looks creepy, like a horror movie. And I like it a lot compared to the more lighted-ness (I know that is not a word, lol) of the later seasons.

I just seemed to fit the tone of the show and give it that dark and eery quality that made Buffy so special.

For instance, the Witch is a very dark lighted episode. And it fits so well.

Did anyone else notice this and or care for it?
 
I kinda felt that way about a lot of the Seasons...or maybe I just need to turn up the brightness on my TV 😀
 
I agree S1 was definitely filmed in a much creepier way. Although that might have been to hide the bad effects sometimes 😀
 
I have no source for this, but I remember reading somewhere that they did S1 on a shoestring, and some of the lights were burned out. They had to work around it, thus the dark tone. I personally like it. All of the seasons have their darker periods (and I don't just mean storywise). It lends atmosphere.
 
The problem with the darkness is that the transfer quality to DVDs isn't too great so S1-3 in particular look iffy when dark.
 
Yeah, I can understand that. I know that the tapes I have of eps (haven't got around to actually spending the money on DVDs yet) are dark, and any problems with the signal on the tv makes them unwatchable. But...it does create an atmosphere, intentional or not!
 
Yes, I thought it was what made Buffy special. I wish they would have used the dark lights for the entire series especially in seasons 6 and 7 because they had such dark themes.
 
I thought they did that awesomely in the episode "The Puppet Show"

When she goes to deserted Audiotrium.

Season one is one of the more "horror type" seasons

The other seasons rely on violence and more intense storylines, and not much of actual horror
 
Actually, I think Joss addressed this in one of the commentaries. Something about changing lighting directors and cinematographers. Although I always hated that idea. The eerie horror movie quality of Season 1 was better suited, although it didn't make me like the other seasons any less. But it would've been a nice added quality. 🙂
 
I agree with what Jacklyn said, about changing lighting and cinematographers. And also, didn't they film season one with different type of film, that kind that is not standard and that was used in later seasons?
 
I think your right-I think the first two seasons were filmed in Hi8...I may be wrong, but I think I remember something about this.
 
Well, the first two seasons were filmed on a cheaper type of film which gave it a grainier and more dark feel to it. I don't know, I like the lighter episodes rather than the dark ones basically because I could see the actor's faces better. Me being an actor myself, I like seeing the emotions and stuff on people's faces to better understand the plot of the storyline. I felt that with some of the episodes in season 1, I just didn't get very much facial storytelling ... Except in Prophecy Girl, I really loved the acting in that one.
 
I think in Season One they filmed the outside super dark..a little too much, and when something big and bad was happenening they tried for a darker appearance to make it more creepy. I think in the later seasons, they made it more lighter for the school mainly and didn't feel to change the complete lighting gor all the scenes, but the outisde scenes and the building/alley scenes were still lighed perfectly.
 
I didn't like the lighting in the earlier seasons because it was too dark and I could hardly see anything.I prefer the lighting from the later seasons because everything could be seen clearly.
 
Season 1 was definitely filmed in a different way although at later stages it was still very dark too sometimes.

I don't think the darkness always works though. In Unleashed I couldn't see anything but white flashes over a black background in the initial fight between Angel and the werewolf.
 
Season One was darker because the show had very little money to spend on lighting...very little compared to the other seasons. Thats why it's darker, although I gotta say, it does work.
 
The darkness of some of the indoor and underground scenes of Season 1 made the outdoor scenes in episodes like "Witch", "The Pack", "Nightmares", or "Prophecy Girl" that much more vivid. I really do love those scenes with Buffy and Billy in "Nightmares", and the whole dreamy quality of that episode, light and dark.

Low budget or not, the lighting of Season 1 worked! 🙂
 
Hmm. I have mixed feelings about all this. I generally love seeing stuff done on the cheap, on a shoestring, especially horror. Just makes things seem grittier. And the murkiness of Seasons 1 and 2 are good in a cheap horror movie way, like you guys are sayin.

Sometimes, it's so grainy it actually takes me out of the story, it's so distracting.

By season 5, the show is just gorgeous. The lighting, makeup, sets are all perfect"”no seams in the Buffyverse are showing, keeps you in the fantasy world. But, maybe it doesn't seem as...fresh or urgent or something.

I feel a nostalgia for the 90s when watching the early eps. A grungy, sort of twilight of the millenium feel. Hard to describe...like the culture was ending, bottoming out...horror and comedy felt appropriate...
 
Hmm. I have mixed feelings about all this. I generally love seeing stuff done on the cheap, on a shoestring, especially horror. Just makes things seem grittier. And the murkiness of Seasons 1 and 2 are good in a cheap horror movie way, like you guys are sayin.

Sometimes, it's so grainy it actually takes me out of the story, it's so distracting.

By season 5, the show is just gorgeous. The lighting, makeup, sets are all perfect"”no seams in the Buffyverse are showing, keeps you in the fantasy world. But, maybe it doesn't seem as...fresh or urgent or something.

I feel a nostalgia for the 90s when watching the early eps. A grungy, sort of twilight of the millenium feel. Hard to describe...like the culture was ending, bottoming out...horror and comedy felt appropriate...
 
I agree, Season 5 has the best everything. Its the best season, although the other seasons are good. The lighting in season 1 is dark. IMO, i think the darkness would have went better in Season 6, that is the Dark season (Not lighting dark though 🙂) In season one, I had to turn the contrast up on my TV, although it did work, it was a little too dark for me.
 
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