Reading the Light Right: The Exposure of Asian Skin Tones in Cinematography

Yu-Lun Sung

doi:10.15664/fcj.v0i17.2075

Abstract

This article discusses how contemporary cinematographers make technical and aesthetic decisions about exposure when working with actors of different skin colours – specifically those of Asian ethnicities. Having worked internationally as a cinematographer and lighting co-ordinator, with casts belonging to different ethnicity groups, I am able to offer practical insight into the interaction between colour, the quality of light, and Asian skin in digital film production. As I will explore below, it is encouraging to see that cinematographers have begun exploring ways to better illuminate Black actors, and arguably, the same level of care and creativity can be applied when filming Asian talent. The article will examine firstly, how exposure tools for the camera are used, and secondly, the different approaches of industry practitioners seeking to develop more careful and varied ways of lighting Asian skin.

Highlights

Reading the Light Right: The Exposure of Asian Skin Tones in Cinematography
Lorna Roth, who has written extensively on-screen diversity, Indigenous media representations, and colour media, argues that in order to understand racial equality issues, we need to address questions of ‘cognitive equality.’. She proposes an intelligent strategy for fostering equity by inscribing a wider range of skin tones into imagery technologies, products, and emergent audiovisual practices.1. She suggests we must be more open to the possibilities of technologies to enable racial inclusiveness, and I suggest that this can be applied to cinematographers, who must recognise and investigate the range and subtleties of Asian skin colours by normalising them
My focus will be on three case studies, Columbus (Kogonada, 2017), Crazy Rich Asians (Chu, 2018), and The Farewell (Wang, 2019), in which the cinematographers adopt different strategies to represent the unique characteristics and qualities of a range of Asian skin tones

Summary

Introduction

Reading the Light Right: The Exposure of Asian Skin Tones in Cinematography “Reading the Light Right: The Exposure of Asian Skin Tones in Cinematography”, Frames Cinema Journal, Issue 17 (2020).

Results

Conclusion