Young says: “ the question of representation was always first and foremost. Indeed, all of these cinematographers, including Young, trained at Howard University under Haile Gerima, who stressed the importance of accessing the vast referential universe of black art and culture. Young credits closely studying the work of those who came before him – including Arthur Jafa, Ernest Dickerson and Malik Sayeed. But the DOP on everyone’s lips has to be Bradford Young, responsible for the look of Pariah, Middle of Nowhere and Selma, and the first black man ever to be nominated for a cinematography Oscar. They include Dion Beebe (Collateral), Rachel Morrison (Fruitvale Station), Matthew Libatique (Straight Outta Compton), James Laxton (Moonlight) and Sean Bobbitt (12 Years a Slave).
DARK MOONLIGHT LADY BLACK AND WHITE SKIN
After all, the original title for Moonlight was In Moonlight Black Boys Appear Blue.īerkofsky has put herself firmly in the ranks of a new generation of cinematographers who are finally giving black skin the treatment it always deserved. The colour palette is key, whether in the production design or the post-production grade – drawing a rainbow of colours from the actors’ skin itself to create something more vibrant and less concerned with being “real”. Although many directors lament the shift from shooting on film to digital cameras, one of the advantages is that one can digitally recreate the effects of shooting on extinct Fuji, Kodak or Agfa film stocks, which were particularly good for capturing the richness of black skin.
Lighting should be used to sculpt, rather than bleach, an actor’s skin, a technique championed by Charles Mills in Boyz N the Hood in his night-time exterior shots. Of these, the oldest trick in the book is the importance of moisturising the actors’ skin to give the lighting the most bounce (this was particularly important to Spike Lee when working in black and white on She’s Gotta Have It).Īva Berkofsky. Thanks to the likes of Insecure’s director of photography, Ava Berkofsky, who recently shared the tricks and tactics cinematographers can use to achieve on-screen black magic. “If there’s a dark brother, and if he’s in a frame with a lighter-skinned person, you don’t automatically light for the lighter-skinned person and leave him in shadow.”īut now things seem to be changing. “I don’t appreciate seeing black folks that are unlit,” 13th director Ava DuVernay said recently.
I shudder when I think of the number of times I’ve watched a beautiful dark-skinned actor transformed into an ashy sallow spectre because too many film-makers fail to tailor their practice to making that actor look as good as everyone else. Chronically bad lighting for black actors has been a problem ever since black actors first appeared on screen (and before that, to the era of blackface and minstrelry). But the conversation about the aesthetics of representation – what people of colour actually look like on screen – is rarely addressed. There is an increasing amount of chatter about tackling questions of representation onscreen – which reached tipping point with the #OscarsSoWhite scandal and has been followed by a triumph for diversity with this week’s Emmy haul for people of colour.
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