Well, David Fincher, who is one of my favorite directors, is a good example of someone who is extremely visual but he's not changing up the color at all, really. He's interested in a patina. His visual thrust is all about texture and composition, film and cinematography effects (shaking the camera in Fight Club, "impossible" camera angles accomplished with CG, the film-grainy flashbacks in The Game) Fight Club is grey and full of flourescent lights, and Fincher is very interested in what flourescent lights look like on peoples' skin. Paper St. House is grey, Lou's basement is grey. The Game and Seven are all shades of amber and red and pretty much all about shadows. Panic Room is blue from beginning to end. Primer is flourescent lights and not much else, and has sort of a green tinge to everything. Naked Lunch is sepia from beginning to end. There's not a lot of color, there's plenty of lighting and texture. Delicatessen (it's a better example than Dark City, now that I think about it, there's some pushing of color in the flashbacks) is almost colorless but retains a great sense of drama.
I guess I'll know more when I see the movie, though. All of the mixed reviews that Ultraken mentioned, I've read a lot of them, and they remind me of the mixed reviews of so many of my favorite movies (and games!), they're placing far more importance on Mirrormask's plot than the visuals, and grading accordingly, which would have doomed movies like The Wizard of Oz to critical sneer, were it not already an unassailable classic. The Cell was critically loathed and excoriated, but I loved it. Reviews of that movie were full of frustrated would-be-filmmakers using their columns to smear the intelligence of anyone who likes being visually engaged. Movie reviewers emphasize plot and de-emphasize visuals (which I suppose is the opposite of games, which emphasize visuals and de-emphasize gameplay) Either way, both miss the mark frequently when it comes to what I like. So I really never trust reviews. Reviews of Led Zeppelin's records at the time when Led Zeppelin was making albums were describing the band as populist tripe. ;-) I can go back and read Ebert's review of Fight Club and just be aghast at how completely he missed the thrust of the film, and seemed more interested in reviewing its potential effect on people than the actual work.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-04 11:27 pm (UTC)I guess I'll know more when I see the movie, though. All of the mixed reviews that Ultraken mentioned, I've read a lot of them, and they remind me of the mixed reviews of so many of my favorite movies (and games!), they're placing far more importance on Mirrormask's plot than the visuals, and grading accordingly, which would have doomed movies like The Wizard of Oz to critical sneer, were it not already an unassailable classic. The Cell was critically loathed and excoriated, but I loved it. Reviews of that movie were full of frustrated would-be-filmmakers using their columns to smear the intelligence of anyone who likes being visually engaged. Movie reviewers emphasize plot and de-emphasize visuals (which I suppose is the opposite of games, which emphasize visuals and de-emphasize gameplay) Either way, both miss the mark frequently when it comes to what I like. So I really never trust reviews. Reviews of Led Zeppelin's records at the time when Led Zeppelin was making albums were describing the band as populist tripe. ;-) I can go back and read Ebert's review of Fight Club and just be aghast at how completely he missed the thrust of the film, and seemed more interested in reviewing its potential effect on people than the actual work.