#this is not even getting into all the insane cinematography used for Byler

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

No because what would be the point of them making SUCH a big deal out of Will being gay and in love with Mike if they were just gonna anticlimactically and unceremoniously have Mike be like, “Sorry pal, you’re a good buddy to me” in Seeaon 5? Make it make sense Michelangelos 😭

[demadogs]

the color coding thing you talked about is so interesting! what courses do u recommend to learn more abt it and other subtext stuff?

im a film major and photo minor so ive taken a lot of college courses on camera and film techniques but i also think ive just always been pretty observant with stuff like that in film. i find myself being surprised whenever someone is impressed if i point out color pallets or lighting in different scenes and how they correlate to the story and characters. its just something ive always loved to analyze.

since most of what ive learned is through my college classes i cant think of any specific accessible course to direct you to but i can tell you some fun things ive learned in my classes and the movies we talked about and you can watch them too to get a better understanding of some things if you want.

so my favorite class ive taken was media aesthetics and that class focused a lot on color coding, lighting, framing and set design. for colors we talked a lot about wes anderson films. if youre really interested in color alone hes probably the best director to watch. im sure theres some good interviews out there of him talking about his color choices. he LOVES pastels. a lot of times he themes characters with specific colors its really interesting. the movies of his that we watched in that class were the grand budapest hotel and moonrise kingdom. for budapest he used lots of pinks and light blues and moonrise is mostly yellow. he also has some fun cinematic choices with cool fast panning shots. lots of movement in his frames but not to the point where its distracting. hes definitely got a very specific style.

other movies we watched in that class were the virgin suicides, get out, and ex machina (i think…, that mightve been a different class taught by the same professor its been a while). and i also did a whole paper on the color techniques in dead poets society! my professor didnt think that would be a great film to anaylze aesthetically and i was like “homie i literally already have a list in my notes app of super cool shit that this movie does THERES A LOT” and i got an A 😎. i went in so deep on the colors in that movie god i love that movie.

another show outside of the class that i personally have noticed do a lot of cool shit with color is defending jacob. this is my favorite murder story of all time (and that is SAYING something i fricken love murder stories). the show follows a 14 year old boys murder trial after his finger print is found on his classmates body. his dad is an assistant district attorney and he was originally on the case but they took him off when his son was arrested. almost the entire thing has a subtle but still very blue tint and every shot is overcast, never sunny. the first time you see a sunny day is when the characters think things are looking up and getting better. then one fantastic scene brings them back down again and that scene might be the bluest scene in the whole show. the shows very grim and the family is just deteriorating into insanity. the mom is losing trust in believing her son but the dad never doubts him. having the mood and lighting and color be so dark and cool was such a good move. and something really cool that they did was when there were flashbacks of events that happened before the victim was killed, those shots werent blue!! and then it would cut to present day and itd go back to being blue and dark. i loved that. i highly recommend that show just for the story alone but the film exacution was fantastic. lots of cool drone shots too.

i could keep going if you want. i didnt even touched on cinematography and lighting. i could probably do a more in depth analysis on stranger things alone and focus on their colors and lighting but i definitely think the biggest color choices theyve made that correlate with the story are the mileven break up and byler fight. let me know if youd wanna see that. thanks for letting me nerd out on film shit for a sec lmao.