Working with the colorist during preproduction gave Laxton the confidence of how far he could push the contrast on set and still make sure there was detail and rich color, especially on the cast’s dark skin tones when their faces were in shadows.Ī raw image from the camera compared to the final color graded image that appears in the movie.Įarly during preproduction Jenkins and Laxton shared photos with Bickel as a way of expressing what they were looking for from the quality of light they wanted. “When I saw those first test shoot images, I quickly realized James and Barry were really going for it and this was going to be a visually aggressive movie,” said colorist Alex Bickel, who has worked on a number of stylized indies, like “Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter,” “Blue Ruin,” and “Indignation.” “Barry certainly wasn’t playing it safe with the story and he didn’t want to play it safe in the visuals. Building off this, he decided he would really push the contrast ratio in virtually every scene, using a single source lighting scheme with no fill light, so the light would fall off into shadows and sculpt the characters’ faces. To capture Miami, Laxton knew he’d want the actors’ skin to have a big shine, so the audience could feel the sun beating down on them. Right from the start, Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton discussed wanting to move away from a documentary, or realist look, that has come to be expected of American indies tackling social issues like “Moonlight.” They wanted a dreamlike feel that immersed the audience in the world of the protagonist Chiron, but that was also rooted in the color and light of Miami.Ĭourtesy of Color Collective and A24 Testing the Limits of Contrast READ MORE: Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast: ‘Moonlight’ Director Barry Jenkins Reveals the Unconventional Way He Cast His Three Leads (Episode 10) “We wanted to embrace the tension of that beauty, juxtaposed with the very dark things that are happening to the characters in the story.” “Tarell calls Miami a ‘beautiful nightmare’ and I think what we’ve done is paint this nightmare in beautiful tones,” Jenkins told IndieWire in a recent podcast. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 100% rating based on 9 reviews.There’s an inherent visual tension in the look of Barry Jenkin’s “ Moonlight.” Set in the harsh realities of Liberty City, an impoverished section of Miami where Jenkins and co-writer Tarell McCraney grew up, the sun-drenched neighborhood is filled with bright pastel colors and lush, tropical green trees and grass. He added: "It may be a coincidence - maybe not - that two of the best films ever made about exile have been made by Polish directors", the other being Polanski's The Tenant (1976). Vincent Canby, in The New York Times, called Moonlighting "immensely rewarding". Allmovie gave Moonlighting four out of five stars. Gene Siskel called it his favorite movie of 1982. Roger Ebert gave it four stars out of four and included it in his list of Best Movies of 1982. It was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Screenplay. Michael Sarne as Builders' Merchant (as Mike Sarne).Jill Johnson as Haughty Supermarket Customer.
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