The XI-XII Lighting vs. The Promised Land Lighting

[Doomitron]

How do people feel about the atmospheric, mostly blue-tinged lighting in XI and XII?

You can see the contrast when they have the naturalistic lighting in The Promised Land in the same sets. Do you prefer this? Personally I’m in the camp they went a bit overboard during XI and XII, although sometimes it looks good its mostly distracting and doesn’t fit the scenes.

Topic

[Professor Flibble]

I feel nostalgic for the XI-XII lighting because at the time I was very much into neon lighting and heavy blues and pinks, though now I do think it was a bit overboard. And I just rewatched Series X and there are points it feels more like the “classic” episodes because of its lighting.

[Turk Thrust]

I prefer the lighting in The Promised Land. It feels warmer and cosier.

However, I’m colour blind so I’m not sure my opinion matters a jot.

[Doomitron]

[Warbodog]

I didn’t get the point of it. It would have been okay if it was just on Starbug, but not on Red Dwarf. It strips the cosiness that X and TPL have.

[Dave]

I quite like that it gives XI and XII a distinctive look of their own, similar to the early two-series blocks of 1-2 and III-IV, but I don’t particularly like the look itself.

[Rushy]

I would prefer it in moderation. Like some rooms have TPL lighting, and some have the XI-XII lighting. But as Dave said, I appreciate that this era has its own distinctive style to it

[Rushy]

I also feel that X and Promised Land are overlit, and would benefit from some of the atmospheric mood lighting in the early years. 

[Dax101]

Wasn’t it said they were aiming for series 5 lighting for Series XI and XII. I remember someone complimenting them on that and they said it was intentional

[Technopeasant]

Given the themes of neglecting maintenence at the start of TPL, the fact that the coloured  lights have dimmed and flattened seems appropriate.

That said, I agree the mood lighting made more sense on Starbug than on Red Dwarf. I am getting seasonal affective disorder just thinking about living like that.

[Moonlight]

XI / XII have generally strong lighting but I think it’s too blue-focused. Can of Worms (and to a lesser extent Skipper) play around with using different colors in the corridors like green and pink and I wish they’d been doing that the whole time. It adds a lot of variety.

[Doomitron]

I do think the Science Room benefits heavily from the XI / XII lighting, when its lit in The Promised Land it looks pretty obviously fake and like a studio set.

I don’t like it when it does the corridor fan effect in the corridors though, that I’m going to stick with it being overboard. Even practically that corridor is way too dark, its like the ship’s on low power.

I think the lighting for Moonlight scene/Starbug crashed scenes does work, though, since they’re supposed to be on low power while on the subject. I imagine if they were still using atmospheric lighting they wouldn’t have made the distinction when lighting the cockpit for the scene since they keep it pretty uniform when they stick to something.

[Warbodog]

it looks pretty obviously fake and like a studio set.

If you say so. The blue ones look like they’re lining up for Laser Quest.

[Frank Smeghammer]

More like Blue Dwarf

(I am very clever)

[Doomitron]

This seems to be just part of the studio set itself since its in XI /XII and The Promised Land, but the shadows from the lights (or in-universe from the ceiling of the corridors or something like that) overcast on top of the actors heads in scenes isn’t too appealing to me either. Just seems unnecessary, not sure the logic behind it.

[Unrumble]

This seems to be just part of the studio set itself since its in XI /XII and The Promised Land, but the shadows from the lights (or in-universe from the ceiling of the corridors or something like that) overcast on top of the actors heads in scenes isn’t too appealing to me either. Just seems unnecessary, not sure the logic behind it.

Is it not meant to be continuing and accentuating the Alien-style aesthetic of them being on an industrial spaceship, with the light being filtered through grating and that?

[Doomitron]

Feels more overbearing in XI / XII though, granted I don’t think Series III – V had so many corridor scenes but maybe I’m misremembering.

[Doomitron]

Oddly in this scene in M-Corp everything is lit in non-blue haze in the Science Room, much unlike most of XI /XII.

[Ben Saunders]

Well that’s M-Corp lighting I guess so it makes sense, looks good and appropriately bright/corporate

[Doomitron]

That’d explain it. Examining the lighting choices upon closer inspection in XI / XII is giving me a newfound appreciation for them in terms of their lighting choices, although I stand by thinking they went too far in certain places.

[Warbodog]

This might have been discussed before, but I’m disappointed that my conspiracy brain didn’t pick up on the blatant clues.

JMC might be the forgotten origin of M-Corp, after it merged with other mining corporations to make a “multinational” MC, then expanded into other areas.

Or Doug could just have a limited imagination for sci-fi corporate branding.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

How has seemingly no-one else picked up on that in 10 years?

Maybe because we expected it to be Mega-Corp from the XI DVD sleeve, but M-Corp could well have its origins in Jupiter Mining Corporation 

[Doomitron]

I’m not sure about that since M-Corp bought JMC, which implies they were separate entities.

[Warbodog]

I’m not sure about that since M-Corp bought JMC, which implies they were separate entities.

I noticed that, but it was evidence that undermined the theory, so I naturally ignored it.

[Rushy]

It could be that M-Corp had different branding until it absorbed the JMC. 

[Warbodog]

Maybe because we expected it to be Mega-Corp from the XI DVD sleeve

Oh, this passed me by:

Maybe because I’m always distracted by the quality of the acting throughout that scene.

[Technopeasant]

I’m not sure about that since M-Corp bought JMC, which implies they were separate entities.

Emerged from JMC, spun off the brand later, and acquired it back as they bought out the entire galaxy.

[Doomitron]

Maybe because we expected it to be Mega-Corp from the XI DVD sleeve

Oh, this passed me by:

Maybe because I’m always distracted by the quality of the acting throughout that scene.

I have criticisms about some of the boys’ acting in the newer series but contrasted with those parts they’re Shakespearean.

[Rushy]

Idk I always thought they were a cute couple

[International Debris]

I can’t be arsed to search for the images, but in my head, the lighting in V is quite varied, there are different colours and brightnesses depending on the location, scene and episode. And yeah, it’s overall quite dark, but this makes everything look very distinct.

XI/XII are just constant dark blue, which I don’t think works in the same way at all.

[Moonlight]

I think to some extent the pervasive blue is probably also from color grading too.

[Dave]

I think to some extent the pervasive blue is probably also from color grading too.

[Frank Smeghammer]

[tombow]

I think BTE might actually be my favourite ship, it’s the only time the inside areas of the Dwarf have looked as epic as one could imagine imo, and the bedroom was a nice wide, light space for widescreen banter. I do like X’s concept of having the inside spaces actually look red though.

[Moonlight]

[Warbodog]

[Technopeasant]

Or perhaps…

[Dave]

[Podey]

[Dave]

[Unrumble]

[Ian Symes]

[Warbodog]

[Dave]

[Jenuall]

[Turk Thrust]

This is all because I said I was colour blind earlier in the thread, isn’t it? ;)

[Warbodog]

This reminds me of when I got into silent horror films as a teenager and was disappointed that a budget DVD of Der Golem was black and white rather than aesthetically tinted, so I unplugged the TV’s SCART cable on one side to make it terribly yellow.

[Moonlight]

Recently I was wondering how much color tinting existed past the silent era as I’d never seen it in a talkie, only to soon after watch Mighty Joe Young (1949) which features a climactic building fire where the entire sequence is tinted orange to great effect.

[Rushy]

Recently I was wondering how much color tinting existed past the silent era as I’d never seen it in a talkie, only to soon after watch Mighty Joe Young (1949) which features a climactic building fire where the entire sequence is tinted orange to great effect.

Aren’t… films tinted all the time? 

[Warbodog]

Moonlight obviously meant black and white films.

So I’m not sure whether The Wizard of Oz’s sepia counts.

[Author]

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