But why are recent series so dark?

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But why are recent series so dark?

The dream of watching a series Les Curtains Open...

Temps de lecture : 6 minSalammbô Marie Salammbô MarieTemps de lecture : 6 min Salammbô Marie Salammbô MarieDepuis Game of Thrones et sa dernière saison filmée dans une noirceur quasi complète, le débat est ouvert : doit-on abandonner les visionnages en plein jour et délocaliser notre télé dans une cave pour apprécier nos séries, toujours plus sombres ?

No, do not throw your television or your mobile phone: it is not your electronic devices that are defective, if your series take a CRACRA shade.Rather, this is an aesthetic trend that has been observed for several years already.Recently analyzed in an article exciting by American criticism Emily Vanderwerff, this greyish filter seems to have invaded our big and small screens.

As such, the example of Dexter is glaring: bye-bye the sun of Miami and hello the cold regions of Iron Lake, in New Blood, in 2021.Beyond the landscapes invoked, it is the whole of the series which seems to be affected by a detection, indoors as exterior.Characters' clothes, sofas, workspaces, schools ... all sorely lacking in colors, compared to the clarity of the original Dexter.

And our vigilante serial killer is not the only one to benefit from a cavernous appearance.Just watch the last season of Game of Thrones or more recently that of the Casa de Papel to realize that the "muddy" palette is fashionable.

Always the fault of the digital

So why so few glitter in our series?For Ariane Hudelet, professor in English -speaking visual culture at the University of Paris (Laboratory Larca), the transition to digital television, in the early 2000s, changed the situation."This made it possible to offer a greater definition of image, and therefore the possibility of exploiting dark shades.It was much more complicated with analog hertzian television, since the definition was less and the contrast less precise.The hyper sensitive sensors of digital cameras allow you to further explore the pictorial appearance of the image, to sculpt the colors, the low lights and the depth of the field differently.It seems to me that an episode like that of the Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones (S8 E3) would not have been possible before the passage on digital television.»»

But this questioning about colors was not born from the last rain either, tempers the researcher: "We can quote The Wire (on listening), in which many scenes take place at night, or the soprano, with magnificentClear obscure plans.We must not think that everything has been invented in the last ten years, but it is true that trends are taking shape.The exploration of the shadow on the screen is still more and more visible: The Handmaid’s Tale or MR.Robot rest a lot on contrasts and nuances, for example.»»»

Une norme « passse-partout»»»

The debate may seem superfluous, but it remains essential, as the visual nuances guide our emotions and our feelings in front of the screens. « La couleur est un aspect vital de la narration audiovisuelle»»», estime Florent Favard, maître de conférences cinéma, audiovisuel et transmédia à l’Institut Européen de Cinéma et d’Audiovisuel (IECA) de Nancy."We can notably think about the colors of the different parallel worlds of Fringe or the labeled universe of The Good Place.This palette of colors is played at both calibration, but also at the marketing level, to better identify the works.»»»

Pour l’universitaire, ces tendances évoluent au fil des décennies, pour le meilleur ou pour le pire : « Il y a encore cinq ans, on se plaignait de l’omniprésence du « orange and teal»»», une palette qui combinait le bleu/vert et le jaune/orange.Today, we have entered the era of Grisâtre. J’ai tendance à suivre Emily VanDerWerff dans l’idée que le passage au numérique a pu avoir un contre-effet inattendu : l’établissement d’une norme « passe-partout»»». L’image désaturée évite les « débordements»»» et autres audaces colorimétriques : elle ne fait pas de vague, ne choque pas.Even though productions can go further and further in experimentation, this standardization of calibration causes the series which do not lastly mark the retina.»»»

A wind of protest

However, one representatives of this darkness remains one of the most striking on television, namely Game of Thrones.With its slimy battles and its costumes all darker than each other, the most commented series on the small screen cannot really boast of a bright visual.

« Selon moi, cette esthétique boueuse tient à la fois de l’image et de la narration»»», estime Florent Favard."The dirt brings a certain cachet to the production since we do not hesitate to tarnish the costumes.As for the story, it becomes more realistic by feeding on rain and vase to support its dreary atmosphere.»»»

It was with its eighth and last season that the medieval-fantasy fresco made a wind of protest rise: we patiently waited for a end of the name and at the fateful moment, impossible to follow the action.On the networks, thousands of fans had then denounced this lack of clarity.For Florent Favard, the explanation is simple: "Like the cinema, the series feed on the image and the sound, which are the vectors of the narration.Do not succeed in seeing the action amounts to missing part of this story, just as we have been able to blame sound mixes for making the dialogues inaudible. Ce manquement est d’autant plus frustrant sur les « petits écrans»»» personnels puisque les conditions de visionnage ne sont pas toujours optimales (environnements bruyants, trop lumineux…).»»»

Question our relationship to images

Alors, doit-on mettre nos téléphones à la poubelle et tous s’équiper de rétroprojecteurs, y compris dans un 9m² ? Bien sûr que non, mais tout ce débat a le mérite de poser la question du visionnage.Not everyone has the chance to be able to watch their series from a three -seater sofa and on a large television. « Compte tenu du nombre de critiques, il y a bel et bien un problème»»», considère Florent Favard."This is both screens, which have too many reflections, but also signal, since video compression ruins contrasts.This aesthetic requires control of the settings of its screen, to assess the rendering referred to by the realization.»»»

Prerequisites that question, at the time of the massive democratization of series.Unlike cinema, for which optimal viewing conditions are possible in dark rooms, series can devour at home as much as in the metro. Pourtant, il est difficile de brider l’imagination des créateurs de séries : « On ne peut pas abandonner l’ambition esthétique»»», juge Ariane Hudelet."This offers new, interesting, different elements.If all series were formatted to be visible on a mobile phone, this would still limit audiovisual creation a lot.»»»

For the researcher, it is up to the spectators to have a more active attitude in front of their screens: "An episode of friends can look in the metro, to relax, but on the contrary of the series with big spectacle like Game of Thrones or Better CallSaul, will appreciate better on a more important screen.This requires an analysis of the series that we watch and their visual mechanisms.It may be a good opportunity to question our relationship with images.»»»

Do not miss the last season of Game of Thrones

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