Why do so many Bond scenes occur in the dark?
Dovy
Posts: 206MI6 Agent
I find it very frustrating that we I many scenes of the Bond films take place at night outside or in dark interiors. So often it's just hard to see exactly what is going on.
Comments
It's atmospheric and can be seen as glamourous.
and more realistic to the spy game. What time of day would be best for skulking around and stealing secrets?
but from a cinematic perspective its a fair point, I used to find the big car chase in Goldfinger very difficult to make sense of when seen on teevee back in the seventies.
I have no problem seeing some scenes at night, they felt more realistic.
But when it's not intentional, like in NTTD with the dark green bluish palette, that's distracting.
That's why I'm not a fan of NTTD's cinematography, the colour comes off as a bit too dark with the touch of Turquoise, that every scene were very hard to see and often too monochromatic, it's more of an anomaly or intentional than natural.
But when it's shot at night, think of the Goldfinger scene, the OHMSS skiing chase scene, or the attack in Albanian Border in FYEO, it makes the scene more realistic.
The scene in Dr No, where Bond,Quarrel and Leiter travel to Crab Key, was actually shot during the day,using the day for night technique.
It was quite common during the 60s.
I think dark scenes add to the tension and suspense.
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
All the comments are well taken, but so often it's just plain hard to see what is going on, especially since so many of the action scenes are so darn fast!
Ah, c'mon - what happened to my funny post? It's enough to make one wonder if Elon Musk isn't running this place!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Based on what I've read, lighting up a movie set or filming location for the camera takes a lot of effort. Credits for the production to do so. With that said, I've had no problems watching any of the night scenes or dark scenes in the Bond movies.
I can remember finding several scenes hard to see in the days of murky, taped-off-the-TV VHS, but in the DVD and Blu-Ray age I can't say I've found this to be an issue.
Well, watching them on my expanded monitor has been a challenge with those dark scenes. The earlier films didn't have so many fast dark scenes.
I don't know what you mean of Fast Dark scenes.
What is that?
But for me, one thing is for sure that made the earlier films a lot more rewatchable than the newer ones, and it's a lot more to do on palette:
the earlier films captured those dark/night scenes beautifully and realistic.
Meanwhile, the pallette of the newer ones tend to be dark for the sake of aesthetic rather than realism which was unnecessary if one might think about it, like what I've said, more of anomaly than an intention of good cinematography.
Especially with the recent Bond films, NTTD in particular, the palette tends to something that it's very hard to explain, like, it's unnecessary for example the London scenes in that film, I think it could have been a lot more brighter, but they leaned on darkish grey for example, like it's a bit dull and probably not done on purpose since the scene was meant or supposed to be in daytime.
Unlike in the earlier films where it's intentional because it's what the scene demands, and it comes off naturally.
What I mean is the chase scenes or fight scenes occurring at night or in dark places where it's hard to see what's happening, especially as they happen so fast.
Yes, I do admit there's so many things like this particularly in the earlier films (the Connery Era, to be specific, some parts of Thunderball tends to suffer at this where I couldn't see the action and it happens so fast and really dark, but what would I expect, the editing in that same film aren't good either), some also of the shots in YOLT too or even in the scene in AVTAK with Bond and Tibbett escaping from Zorin's mansion after beating out Scarpine and his men, (that's before the sex scene between Bond and Mayday happened).
Some of the actions where it's so fast that I need to rewind it to understand.
Have you downloaded or watched them in HD? Maybe because of the resolution, some of them comes off as pixelled.
I spent a while thinking about this. I agree with MI6s post #4 in that to deliberately dull the palette seems an excessive artistic decision which is [almost] unnecessary in a Bond film. NTTD is very bad for this; whole sequences go by in muddy colour, including the finale.
I don't particularly enjoy the day-for-night shooting in Dr No, LALD and OHMSS as it's so easy to spot. For OHMSS, I expect night skiing was inadvisable. Having said that, it doesn't hurt my enjoyment of a scene. I sort of 'zone it out'.
Now, regarding action scenes taking place at night. As is pointed out, it adds atmosphere and night or evening lend themselves to the idea of silhouettes and shadows, the espionage game as someone wrote. Often a scene must take place at night for the narrative arc to succeed. I do feel it is worth considering the editing and how this will affect a viewer's enjoyment. On another thread, the death of Riona Volpe was highlighted as a bravura example of Peter Hunt's slick and suspenseful editing; that scene takes place at night in an open-air nightclub, but you can see everything of importance to the sequence, as well as in the preceding street chase. Any confusion is here is deliberate, the editor snatching at brief moments to create tension and excitement where perhaps there may not have been much, if any.
There's also, occasionally, a visual emphasis. YOLT is a prime example. When the SPECTRE rocket lands, it is night-time, so the audience is watching a dark or darkened screen. The roof slides over to hide the launch facility. When the volcano base's lights switch on the screen is suddenly flooded with bright colours, particularly silver and white phosphorus. When director Lewis Gilbert repeats the shot for TSWLM, it doesn't work because there isn't enough darkness inside the US submarine to create the contrast. Mendes uses light and dark to create contrasts in both Skyfall and Spectre, pitching bright foreground colours against black surrounds or the reverse - very noticeable in Macau, or wherever it was - and also the scene in the villa in Rome.
Thanks for that! Appreciated it @chrisno1
Agreed on most except the OHMSS skiing, I think it's advisable and could possibly happen, many people were doing it.
Bond was escaping from Piz Gloria, and you really see the transition of night to dusk, the changing of the sky's colors in the background whilst focusing on the action, we really see the progression of the scene realistically.
It's one of the best cinematography combined with great use of palette, like in a painting.
And it's not overly dark in there.
The only error I see in it was, it supposed to be dusk already by the time Bond went to the fair/Christmas Village, I mean we see the transition of the skies, so by the time Bond went to the skating rink, it should be dawn already or near the daylight, but when he arrived there, it's still night and the whole meeting of Tracy, the stock car race, and even their escape to the barn still all happened at night? It should be morning already by the time Bond and Tracy invaded the stock car race.
When it comes to Thunderball, granted, it's intentional but it's fast that I need to rewind each scenes, the editing seemed to swing from left to right; right to left, then Bond's running while Fiona and her men were chasing Bond, I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding what's going on, same for when Bond swam at night to investigate the Disco Volante but saved by Volpe and took him to the hotel, that whole sequence seemed to be a bit fast for me and it doesn't helped that it's shot at night, same for Bond entering Largo's Palmyra, where he'd encountered a shark, the action in it seemed blurry for me, because the camera focuses on the whole surroundings instead of the main action happening inside of the surrounding.
Agreed with the killing of Volpe at the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Nightclub, it's very well done though.
But I wholeheartedly agree with the rest of your post, very well done 👍! Thanks!
I have started Dr. No again and noticed how many scenes are in bright light compared to the repeatedly darker scenes in Craig's films.....it makes the film much more enjoyable. What can I say?