TV shows have certainly gotten darker over the years. And no, I do not mean to comment on their tone or the increase in violence, but just the fact that often times these days, it is hard to even see what is happening on the screen. A few years ago, Game of Thrones’ final season came under criticism for lighting its night scenes too dimly for audiences to see. Other shows in the genre have faced a similar criticism. But even as fantasy shows continue to be repeat offenders in this ‘crime’, the makers of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power say they made a conscious call to avoid them. In an exclusive chat with DNA, director Charlotte Brändström talks about conceptualising and shooting night scenes and why she has a problem with the darkness on screen.
When asked about how they managed to keep the night battle scenes on the show better lit than most other fantasy shows, Charlotte says, “We worked very hard on that from season 1. I have seen shows where I can’t see anything if I don’t turn off all the lights in my house. I have to watch them on my iPad because even if I watch on TV, it’s not good enough. That bothers me because I feel television is not a movie theatre. People should be allowed to watch TV at home with one light on. You might want to go and have something to eat at the same time. And then you want to see something. And if you are can’t, then it’s a problem.”
The filmmaker who has directed two yet-to-air episodes in season 2 that feature extensive battle scenes in the dark, says she and the camera team worked together on that to come up with innovative solutions. “We tried to do that. We wanted the light to be very natural so we have a lot of fire light, moon light. So the light is not directional but we made sure that it’s lit enough that we can actually see it in a room that is lit, or at least dimly lit. That was very conscious decision that something that me and the cameraman talked about at length,” she says.
The second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is streaming now. The first three episodes premiered on Amazon Prime Video on August 29 with the subsequent five episodes dropping weekly through September.
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