"Dark style", literally, is a dark and dark style.

Although this term is quite unfamiliar to the mainstream movies today, "dark movies" have been dormant in the film industry for a long time. In the previous film industry, audiences like to call similar movies expressionism, b-level movies, gothic movies, or noir movies.

Speaking of which, Duke is not unfamiliar with this style, and "The Matrix" also has this style.

It is actually difficult to verify the origin of the "dark style", because evidence of the existence of the "dark style" can be found from Goya's black painting series, Bruegel's Old Bruegel's "Trium of Death", Boccaccio's story collection "December" and other paintings and works.

But at that time, these contents were not called "dark".

In the movie, Duke's post-production "The Dark Knight" is undoubtedly a representative. If you look at Hollywood's history in this style, it is not difficult to find that as early as "M is the Murderer", Carl Theodore Deleye's "Vampire" and F?W?Monau's "Northfaratu" had elements of "dark style".

Not to mention the kind of movie noir that deliberately shows the poor streets, the sinister human nature, and the intentional need to put scenes and stories in the dark night.

In Duke's eyes, the dark style is the same as the film noir, except that one of the branches that the film is forcibly separated.

There is no doubt that Christopher Nolan was the key figure in the dark-style films that could truly enter the mainstream film industry, and dark-style has even become synonymous with high standards.

This style is unique in superhero movies, which indirectly brings two trends. First, against its contrast, films like "Avengers" and "Iron Man" that are in mainstream commercial blockbuster styles seem more joyful and popcorn; second, after "The Dark Knight" brought depth and style to the DC comics and Warner Bros., the entire DC universe must follow a unified style and values, so "Superman: Man of Steel" was also forced to add the "dark wind" that is not very suitable to some extent.

As for "Batman vs. Superman", the dark tone was determined at the beginning of the project.

If you want to achieve this style, one is setting and shooting, and the other is post-production.

In fact, whether it is Duke or the former Nolan, the filming of "The Dark Knight" is mostly during the day. To realize the dark wind of the picture, post-production is crucial.

Although I have experienced Gothic films like "The Matrix", this style is still unfamiliar with Duke's post-production team. This also determines that the post-production speed will not be very fast, and Duke has to strictly control the production.

No one is born to be proficient in movies of all styles, even Duke is no exception. Even though "War Moment" allows him and his team to accumulate some experience, he still carefully and meticulously controls every link of post-production.

If you want the post-production team to follow this style, you must first understand what the characteristics of the dark style are.

Darkness refers to the tone of the films in these movies, which are artificially dimmed, and even the scenes that occur in the daytime are dark and damp.

Of course. In these movies, many plots take place in the dark.

Black means that the theme of these movies is black, and the stories are often related to words such as darkness, pathological, weirdness, violence, bloody, mystery, religion, alternative. Although the main body of many movies is positive and punishes evil and promotes good, in the development of the story, the above elements are amplified and exaggerated, thus producing the "black" effect.

However, even an artificial concept needs to follow certain regulations and styles to be established. In the Dark Wind movie, in Duke's view, there are roughly a few characteristics.

First of all, the story is dark. There will be certain pathological elements to a considerable extent.

Most of the protagonists, whether they are positive or negative characters, will have childhood shadows and trauma, such as Bruce Wayne.

This shadow and trauma accompanied his maturity and eventually became a part of his values, and such trauma would allow him to show himself to another "pathological" image, such as the scars and costumes of the clown.

More importantly, the negative characters seek revenge not for repayment or revenge, but a ritual involving violence and bloodshed awakening of the masses. Their violence is largely not related to the personal past and grudges, but to some kind of redemption and revelation.

Such a villain is like a clown, breaking through the "bad guy" in the general sense. He has the same speculative and philosophical colors as positive characters, which makes positive characters fall into a dilemma in many cases. Such values ​​swing and thinking about justice and evil can be described as a darkness in the aesthetics of film.

Secondly, religion and the resulting sense of ritual, mystery, cult, incompleteness, alternative are often the characteristics of the sensory and narrative elements in these movies. In many paragraphs and plots, the protagonist will go through some masters' tips or take the lead in some ritual gatherings and activities before he can enter the next stage.

Such a setting is actually just a process of self-healing and ability upgrade. However, driven by the dark wind, a scene that could have been full of vitality will definitely become a plot of "climbing up from a mass grave". In the process of becoming a hero, the hero must go through a series of events that eliminate their own ideas, and then painfully choose to maintain the status quo.

No matter what itself, how you understand the world, and whether the world needs to be cleaned up or not, heroes will always follow the most universal values ​​to make the least bleeding choice.

In more movies, the dark style is a reflection of visual elements. "300 Warriors", "The Matrix" and even "Batman: The Moment of War" are not the dark values ​​of the movie itself.

This dark wind in visual effects implies to a certain extent the style elements of mv, including the lens language and editing techniques of mv. It fully reflects the "miraculous" effect in the coordination of the set, color tuning and overall production.

If we trace the origin, such visual effects come from painting, expressionism, Gothic and many modern and contemporary oil paintings.

These elements that can be reflected in the shooting are more from the actor's performances and lines. In post-production, if those brightly lit shots are successfully integrated into the dark style, it is a problem that director Duke should consider.

Of course, there is another question he must consider, which is also the aspect that Doug Walter was most worried about at the time whether the audience can accept this style.

If it was at the beginning of the century when superhero movies were on the rise, Duke could not confirm that although Tim Burton's movies also had a clear dark style, compared to "The Dark Knight", the dark winds of "Batman" and "Batman Return" can only be said to be a minor meaning.

Everyone in Hollywood knows that movies are deeply influenced by the social environment. Some movies that will succeed in the future are likely to fail after moving forward for a few years. Therefore, Duke has always been cautious when dealing with the Batman series and is also paying attention to the changes in the film market environment.

In fact, it is not difficult to find that after experiencing the bombardment of many superhero movies, the audience's expectation of those plots and only paying attention to whether CG is realistic or not, to a certain extent, is decreasing. For example, alternative superheroes like "Iron Man" have been welcomed.

Similarly, this kind of superhero movie with serious film characteristics and creative tendencies can be said to be produced in line with the trend.

Of course, in such a dramatic plot-led film, the direction of the characters is positioned in the dilemma of "alternating good and evil", and the villain is placed with a strong logic and speculative nature. Coupled with some spectacular displays and stories that take place in the dark, it can completely bring a fresh stimulation to the audience.

In this style of movies, villains are also the key. If villains are just stereotyped characters in Marvel movies, this style will be unbalanced.

Therefore, villains are often similar to decent people. Masters and apprentices use their own ideas to transform this society. For this purpose, they do not hesitate to use "sudden death" shock therapy to treat this society.

This will naturally raise the level or style of the villain.

Even how long the future superhero can maintain strong development, to a large extent, depends on the villain.

Tim Burton, who has a certain dark wind, was also added to the first Batman movie. What he is good at is a Gothic expression method.

Under Hollywood revisionism, this method of expression has no much connection with the story itself. However, the dress, set, makeup of the characters, and the scenes of his filming "Batman" and "Batman Return" are almost shrouded in the darkness. The story involves gothic and dark elements such as death and paganism.

This kind of surreal, futuristic, and mix-up with Bortonian characteristics is actually different from the style Duke wants to achieve.

What Duke wants to achieve in post-production is that "The Dark Knight" can completely break away from the category of comic-adapted movies and exist as a *** film.

If we consider it from the perspective of a movie, what Duke needs to do in editing is to try not to use the original comics as text, just borrow the relationship between characters in the comics, reshape the main line of the story, and use other methods and storytelling techniques to create the complete film of "The Dark Knight".

This is a bad thing. If there is a problem with the quality of the movie, it will inevitably be overwhelmed by the saliva of comic fans.

But this is also a good thing. Without the limitations of the style of the comics, the director can play more freely, making the dramatic ** more intense under the contradictions and conflicts of the plot. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!