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.