While researching for my short film I became extremely interested in the lighting aspects on many dramatic pieces. Previously, I briefly mentioned the hit TV shows 'Breaking Bad' and 'Euphoria'. I specifically mentioned these two shows are they both heavily rely on technical aspect, such as lighting and color to develop a tone as well as overall mood and environment.
For example, the famous yellow coloring of breaking bad is typically used in scenes that are set in Mexico and are typically flashbacks. This, is a way of providing context as well as separating the different locations by associating one with a different color hue.
Similarly, colors in this show are often associated with different characters as well as there relationship towards one another, kind of like a color wheel. For example, the chart below shows many of the leads characters basic color palettes and how they developed throughout the seasons. As you can see, as their color palettes develop through throughout the seasons, they typically do not mix into each other.
Euphoria on the other hand, often used lighting to convey emotion especially that when the lead character Rue, was under the influence (which she is a lot of the time). This is often represented by purple and blueish hues throughout the show although the entirety of the show has a yellow-blue contrast, an artistic approach by the director. The director, Sam Levinson, has said he uses color to physically show how the characters feel. The mixes primary colors and provides multiple light sources to highlight the intense moments/emotions characters go through. For example, the image below illustrates a character as she is about to go meat an older man she met online, this later becomes a larger plot point and is symbolic of her traumas that later explained in the show.
This shot uses 3 different light sources including a backlight, and overhead light and warm lights seen in the upper left and right quarters of the shot to create an intense and almost scary tone.
Citation:
Binder, S. (2022, June 20). Euphoria Cinematography Breakdown — DP Marcell Rév on Lighting, Camera Movement, and Oners. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqvM4r4GDAM
Kogge, M. (2022, August 27). Euphoria: Lights, camera, high school. The American Society of Cinematographers. https://theasc.com/articles/euphoria-rev
Colors | breaking bad wiki | fandom. Fandom. (2025, December 3). https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Colors
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