Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,957
edits
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.UnnaturallyBlueLighting 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.UnnaturallyBlueLighting, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (image markup, BSG link) |
||
(9 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I used to like the color blue. Now it's dead to me. Cram it, Smurfs. Piss off, ocean. Screw you, sky."''
|'''[[Riff Trax]]''' on ''[[Battlefield Earth (film)|Battlefield Earth]]''}}
A subtrope of [[Mood Lighting]] common in [[Science Fiction]] and [[Police Procedural|Forensics]] shows. Shots are suffused with vaguely blue lighting. This is usually complemented by stark, overly bright desk lamps. Occasionally this infects outdoor scenes, making sunny days look more overcast; this should not be confused with the dark blue camera filter used in shooting "[[Hollywood Night|day for night]]".
Line 9 ⟶ 10:
Although this is a good way to cover up a lower-budget set, the light can sometimes become glaring and/or induce too many shadows.
Nowadays, the rise of [[Orange
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Advertising ==
* For whatever reason, it's being used in recent Viagra commercials like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbzSlBjmGs this one] (maybe because the pill itself is blue?). The effect is weird because that particular commercial takes place ''in the desert.''
Line 17 ⟶ 18:
== Film ==
* Used to great effect in ''[[Little Buddha]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20130912192326/http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=6972 contrasting the cool blue Seattle shots with the warm reds of Tibet].
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' films, the battles at Helm's Deep and Osgiliath are shown in a blue tint.
* The ''[[Underworld (
* ''[[Minority Report]]'' is a classic
* The future scenes in the ''Terminator'' films look like this.
* The first ''[[Twilight (
* ''[[The One (
* Done in ''[[Blade]] 2''. Daylight is a cool blue, to contrast with the harsh, halogen yellow of night lighting.
* The more recent ''[[Harry Potter]]'' films use this a lot for any scene that isn't in Hogwarts, and some that are, probably to go with the [[Darker and Edgier]] direction they're trying to take the franchise.
Line 29 ⟶ 30:
* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', all the scenes that take place in said Matrix have green lighting (except for the non- remastered first film). It's computerized tinting done entirely in post-production. That's why the non-remastered version is different. Similarly, scenes set in the real world have a blue bias.
* Used in ''[[Pitch Black]]'', though it's [[Justified]] by making one of the planet's suns a blue giant and it's only blue when that sun's in the sky.
* In one dream sequence of ''[[
* ''[[Traffic]]'' does this with Michael Douglas's politician storyline. Each storyline in the film is distinguished by slightly different filters.
* [[Justified]] in the second half of ''[[Melancholia]]'', where the sky is dominated by a giant blue planet. {{spoiler|It becomes intensely blue light when the planet is about to crush Earth.}}
Line 39 ⟶ 40:
* ''[[CSI]]''
** ''[[CSI: NY]]'' used this ''a lot'' in their first season, not only in the lab but in the outside sets too. To the point where many viewers kept feeling that New-York looked cold or in perpetual twilight. In an example of good [[Executive Meddling]], the producers were asked to tone it down in the later seasons. This and a change in sets for the lab (from cement basement to windowed skyscraper) helped the show feel less like ''CSI: Antarctica''.
** ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' uses orange and yellow light a lot to enhance the "sunny" feel of the scenes. They are more subtle about this than ''[[CSI: NY]]'' was with the blue lighting, but it still shows, especially on sets located indoors.
** The lighting used on the shows seems to extend to the DVD packaging with CSI being in green boxes, ''[[CSI: NY]]'' being in blue boxes and ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' being in -- you guessed it -- orange boxes.▼
One instance where this became humorous was when they had a crossover with ''[[CSI: NY]]'', and David Caruso obviously brought his orange with him when everything else was blue. This gets a [[Shout-Out]] in the ads for the ''[[Crossover|CSI Trilogy]]'' with pictures of the three leads tinted with their respective lighting. (original being green)
* ''[[Stargate SG 1]]'' and its spinoff ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'' has this in spades, the Asgard and Human spaceships especially. The Ancients get into it as well.▼
▲** The lighting used on the shows seems to extend to the DVD packaging with CSI being in green boxes, ''[[CSI: NY]]'' being in blue boxes and ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' being
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (TV)|Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'': Used for most of the scenes that happen on {{spoiler|New Caprica and the 1st Earth}} in the remake. In addition, the Algae Planet had a more grey-blue tint to it. Scenes in Caprica had a bad orange lighting even before the nukes hit.▼
▲* ''[[Stargate SG
▲* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* Parodied on ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]''.
{{quote|
* Used in ''[[Mystery Hunters]]'' for a "creepy" effect with personal accounts.
* ''[[Smallville]]'' was particularly fond of doing this in their early seasons to show contrast between Lionel's cold blue office in the urban Metropolis, compared to the golden glow of the Kent's farm home.
Line 50 ⟶ 53:
* Used once an episode on ''[[Dark Oracle]]'', every time the comic began influencing the real world.
* ''[[Silent Witness]]'': Unnaturally Blue Lighting is used regularly, particularly in pathology scenes. Partially this is an exercise in fashion and style: many contemporary British dramas were also using the technique. In the pathology scenes, the lighting increases the cold, clinical and confronting atmosphere.
* ''Murphy's Law'': Murphy has to infiltrate various criminal organisations, often ending up in harsh
* Used in ''[[Instant Star]]'' in the school hallways, to disguise the fact that they're the same sets as ''[[Degrassi]]''.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Star Wars: X-Wing]]'' has this in the scene where a [[Uncanny Valley|disturbing-looking medical droid]] is helping treat your rebel pilot's injuries {{spoiler|if he survives his ship being destroyed and doesn't get captured by the empire.}}
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'': While solely not for [[Mood Lighting]] purposes, night vision abilities work this way. In particular, using cateye (potent night vision drug) in very dark places will make everything heavily blue-tinted, which does make things easier to see, at least.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
== Real Life ==
* L.E.D lights
** This is because most “white” LEDs are made by starting with blue emitters, then adding a layer of fluorescent compounds (“phosphors”, although not all such compounds actually contain the element phosphorus) to convert some of the blue light to the longer wavelengths. Low-grade LEDs may use less phosphors than desirable, and phosphors can also degrade causing the light to gradually turn bluer with age.
{{reflist}}
Line 69 ⟶ 73:
[[Category:Blue Tropes]]
[[Category:Unnaturally Blue Lighting]]
[[Category:
|