Leverage Did It Well

sassypagefriend:

i-like-plan-m:

dealanexmachina:

akireyta:

mierac:

lianabrooks:

I didn’t notice this the first time I watched Leverage (or the sixth), but when I posted a GIF of Hardison last week I noticed something…

The line is adorable, the writing fantastic, but the big thing I noticed is YOU CAN SEE HARDISON. Aldis Hodge is lit up so you can see his face easily.

Here’s another GIF.

And another…

So, here’s the thing. In most shows black actors fade in the background. They’re lit incorrectly and the dark background combined with the dark skin means the character vanishes. Especially on shows with cops and a lot of white people. 

Poor David Sinclair (Alimi Ballard) of Numb3rs is invisible in every night scene because he’s not lit up correctly. 

Before the advent of colored TV there were more black actors. They were common almost. But with color came the problem that a dark background makes a fair skinned person stand out while making a darker skinned person vanish. The Hollywood solution was to stop hiring darker skinned people. (Not a good idea).

In the first GIF Hardison is in a darker room. He should have vanished, they back-lit him, had ground lights, and framed him well. 

Same with the second on, notice the light on his head. He’s glowing like an angel.

Third GIF… notice the lamp placement? The light almost washes out the color of the green towel behind Hardison, but it means the viewers see him perfectly. And isn’t that really the goal? 

this is obviously about racism but also some part of you looks at this gorgeous human and thinks “OF COURSE THEY WANTED HIM BATHED IN SOFT LIGHT SO THAT WE COULD ALL GAZE UPON HIM AND BASK”

There’s a bit in one of the DVD commentaries where they talked about working with the lighting and not shooting until everyone is lit.

To be honest, yes to the above but also the real skill is when Hardison and Parker share a scene. Because they’re about as polar opposite as can be in terms of ideal lighting … But if a cable show produced on the smell of an empty rag can pull it off, no one has any excuse.

Originally posted by what-isright

#leverage#this show was a gift#honestly i cannot overstate that enough#leverage is possibly the best tv show i’ve ever seen from day one to series finale#even when it had its flaws it was BRILLIANT and so quietly excellent and subversive#in that way we really really WANT media to be these days#where racism isn’t ignored but isn’t given any quarter#where one of their fundamental storytelling tenets was /the women never have to be saved by men/#where people are given room to be good while not being nice and neither overshadowing one another#like yeah yeah do i wish there had been mroe queer and trans rep? of course!#but it’s also an absolute demonstration of how to write diversity without shoehorning it in#(you know: quietly. and with intentionality.)#and it was BEAUTIFULLY executed#it completely defines the whole case of the week genre#where every episode DOES stand on its own while also contributing to longstanding overarching character arcs#it really was a GIFT and a treasure and a masterclass#and everything you want a show to be#found families and slow burn romances and a bunch of dsyfunctional geniuses who just want to Help People#learning how to do that as a team and finding their home along the way#it’s a BEAUTIFUL show both visually and structurally and if you haven’t watched it you’re missing out (@fiddleabout)

Reblogging again for those tags

@stayoutofitnick