Even if tickets have NOT become cheaper…

Had you already noticed that “So many TV shows and movies now have a dull filter applied to every scene, one that cuts away vibrancy and trends toward a boring sameness. Every frame’s color scheme ends up feeling the same as every other frame. And when there are so many projects using similar techniques, you end up with a world of boring visuals."

I had noticed that, and it has been annoying me for years now. And yesterday, finally, the Vox published a great investigation on how and why colors vanished from TV and movies.

The author gives five of the most likely answers, concluding that:

“there is no one answer to the question of why desaturation is everywhere. I’ve left even more possible answers out of this article (like the rise of LED lighting). Even so, I’m glad at least some productions are realizing the intangible sludge has become a cliché."

Have you noticed WHERE all those colors went?

To me, the most intriguing of those answers is the fourth: “We’re obsessed with the end of the world”, so we want to give or have confirmation (by exposition to dark scene after dark scene), but without seeing clearly enough what is the problem. Maybe because that would force to look for a solution?

But I am also intrigued by possible correlations. While reading that article (read it all, it’s fascinating), I realized that this generalized “darkening” has grown stronger in the same days (and even places and times, if you consider TV and in-theater advertising!) when people are pushed to buy smartphones exactly because they show or capturs more colors, and with higher definition, than the previous model.

The colors that disappeared from movies are all gone into the smartphones.

Is there some perverse link between these two trends? Does their coexistence mean anything? Thanks for sending your hypotheses!