Season 1: The Lighting

I think I heard Joss say also that they were trying to go for a darker, grittier look...to distinguish the show as something new and different. Of course, that could have been spin on the fact that they didn't have any money, but it made a lot of sense to me at the time. I started watching Buffy in s5, and by then, of course, the production values were perfect....when I got around to watching s1, tho...I just loved it. That dark, murky look really attracted me to s1, and it's one of my favorite seasons. I've always been a fan of 40's style film noir, tho......not necessarily horror, but just that whole look, the lighting contrasts, the acting, the costumes, the makeup, all of that.
 
It would be neat to see a Buffy ep that was actually shot in black and white. You can turn the color completely down on your set, but it's not the same. It needs to be designed for B/W. Then, so much care is taken with the faces, the highlights and shadows"”whether it's indoors or out.

The indoor shots in Season 5 start to have a glamorous, almost Classic Hollywood feel. Great care is taken with highlighting people's faces just so...

One very good, sort of fakey thing you notice in many TV shows is that whenever possible, the overhead fluorescent lighting in public buildings is turned off. Like in Sunnydale High, starting with Season 1, it usually appeared to be natural daylight streaming into the classrooms and the Library. Any overhead fluorescent lights usually seem to be off in the daytime"”except for maybe the hallways. Most everyone and everything is more attractive in natural light, "sideways light"...
 
I like the dark lighting, it suits the season, it wasnt too dark for me though, i really liked it dark. 🙂
 
I liked it dark as well...I mean season five was pretty much perfection as far as lighting and all of that goes like alot of people seem to agree about, but I liked the lighting in season one as well. It wasn't perfect and it was lower budget but I liked that about it.
 
Yeah, the first two seasons of Buffy were filmed in 16mm. When I first saw them, I noticed the dim lighting and graininess and it bothered me at times. However, I grew to love it. After watching many episodes from later seasons, I remember watching Season Two on DVD and immediately thought, "Jesus, the visuals are fantastic!" Maybe it's the nostalgia, but for me, the first two seasons had the quintessential Buffy "look" that I now love so much. Everything about them was so dark and gloomy, which creates a perfect mood for Season Two in particular (my favourite Buffy season). They just have this "feel" to them that the later seasons don't have. Wonderful atmosphere - even the music in the Bronze was grungey and melancholy (unlike in, say, Season Four where they have Blink 182 playing at one point. Urgh). Don't get me wrong, I love the others, but I really miss the dark gloominess of the first two seasons.

Oh yeah, and does anyone notice that, during the opeing credits, when they show clips from the first two seasons, they REALLY stand out because of this? I was watching the third season a while ago and noticed that they showed the dancing scene from When She Was Bad and it looks really weird compared to the other clips. You really start to notice the graininess of early Buffy more when you watch them after a bunch of later ones.
 
I just sed bout this in anuva thread , i guess i shud have looked ta all of them before i posted that. anyway yeh i noticed that but its proberly because they didnt have a very big budget then , i heard they had to shoot the cooridors of the school at different angles to make them look different
 
Az89 said:
I just sed bout this in anuva thread , i guess i shud have looked ta all of them before i posted that. anyway yeh i noticed that but its proberly because they didnt have a very big budget then , i heard they had to shoot the cooridors of the school at different angles to make them look different
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Um...what?: pconfuse
 
VisionGuy
VisionGuy
Right there with you.
S
Schillaci
Yeah, what VG said. Only I'm a little further back.
I didn't really notice until I went back and looked, but it's more apparent now that I look at it. I came in around season 3 and WB's broadcast station near me is really crappy, so I always had a bad picture. When I get to look at the DVDs side-by-side now, I really like the older style better.
 
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