Light and Color.

Movies didn't always have color, in fact color didn't really show up in movies until 1912 in the documentary,  with "Our king and queen through india." and even then it was rare.

Color in film didn't fully popularize until 1939 with a two hit films, "Gone with the Wind." and "The Wizard of Oz." most people actually consider these to the first ever films to have color, but color has popped up here and there before then.

But in-between all that was the golden age of black and white films, where light and dark filled theaters across America, and now you can watch them on the TCM Channel.

"Casablanca." 1942

"A Touch of Evil." 1958

One would think that since there was no concern for color back in the day filming a scene must of been easy, since no one had to worry about all the colors known to man to set it up.

Though whenever they filmed inside of a house or building, I wondered how they could set up the time of day, I could only imagine the amount of work that was put into the shot to give the illusion that it was night or day.


In modern films its obvious to tell the time of day, everything we see on screen is nearly identical to what we see in real life.

"A Serious Man." 2009

But take this photo from the 1934 film, "It happened one night."

"It Happened One Night" 1934

How can we tell as the audience what time of day it is in this photo? Is it morning or is it night?

Even without color at the time filmmakers had to consider where the light went, where shadows needed to go so the audience can clearly tell when it was taking place. I could only imagine what the wardrobe department had to go through so the clothes could be visible.

Mood.

Mood rings aren't the only thing that can tell how a person feels with color.

In film color can is used to help portray mood, even so the mood of a character.
On AMC's TV show, "Better call Saul" a Spinoff to the highly successful Breaking Bad. It follows the life of Saul Goodman before and after the events of Breaking Bad. Now in Breaking Bad, Saul Goodman is a criminal lawyer who is known for his Colorful personality, it even shows through his bright wardrobe that Saul was the comic relief for what was other wise a pretty grim show.

Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad.

Saul in contrast to one of his counterparts.

So it'll come to a surprise that in the pilot of Better call Saul we open to a saturated black and white Cinnabon with Saul not feeling too comedic.

Saul isn't a lawyer anymore and we can see that he isn't too enthused with his new job.

And it's told, in my opinion beautifully in the cinematography and color, (or lack of).
The black and white tells us how he feels about this point of his life and its bland. There is no excitement no enthusiasm, just a man getting by.

All in a days work

The scene carries us on to his home, everything still in heavy black and white where he sitting on his recliner with his drink channel surfing. Awhile later he gets up and goes to his closet to get whats reveled to be a video tape. He walks over to his Tv and puts it in the VHS, as he sits back down on his recliner the Tv comes on but the shot doesn't move, it stays on his face.

We can hear that it's an commercial and we find out that it's one of his from his lawyer days. We can hear his voice but we still don't see the Tv itself, and as the Camera pans closer to his face we see slowly see the reflection of the Tv off his glasses.

Reflecting on his past.

It's in color! I loved this when I first saw it. It tells us so much with just a look and a few colors. Saul is reflecting on a better time in his life, when he was happy being a wise cracking lawyer doing what he loved. And by the faint color in his glasses we can tell all of it is now a distant memory.
Just great story telling in my opinion.