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Introduction
500 years from now, the Earth is a shell of a planet, and humans its castaway children,
carrying with them all the baggage of civilization. People now live across hundreds of
planets and moons in a new star system – they are pioneers trying to find a place for
themselves in a harsh frontier environment: Serenity itself is the name of the beat-up
spaceship our main protaganists live in. This is the vision of the future that we see in
Serenity (2005).
Various stylistic elements such as camera angles and techniques, lighting choices, shot
compositions, set design and colour schemes in Joss Whedon's Serenity are important
in establishing the writer/director's vision of the future, the genesis of the narrative and
the development of characters. As Serenity was based on the television series Firefly,
the back-story and characters were already well-established in the minds of many fans.
played a large role in introducing and establishing these factors. The scenes are marked
by a strong sense of mood, a result of the location, the design elements of the frame, the
lighting, and cinematography. This persuasion of mood “sets the emotional tone and
guides our [the audience's] reactions towards the story, action and characters” (The Art
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spaceship Serenity itself, the planets Haven and Miranda, and Mr. Universe's ion cloud
moon. The spaceship Serenity (Fig. 1) operates as the 11th main character, and it is built
different from what the audience would expect of a spaceship – it does not sport a
weapon or a shield, nor does it look sleek and futuristic. Instead, it looks lived-in, broken
down and clunky – but it has personality. Joss Whedon stated that he was “obsessed
with the messiness of it” and wanted the ship to have a real sense of textured reality
where the audience knew that the characters lived, ate and slept on the ship.
We are introduced to its interiors in a glorious five-minute long take after the opening
credits. We go from room to room, trailing behind the ship's captain, starting with the
cockpit (or “bridge”), through the front hall to the dining area, to the engine room and the
infirmary, and are introduced to various characters along the way. Barnwell (2004, p.
26) suggested that when used consistently, “the audience becomes highly familiar with
the set , gaining an awareness of the geography of the space [and] understanding how
the different rooms link together.” We can observe from the long take that the ship's set
was contiguous so that the action could run continuously from one part of the ship to
another. The decision to build the set at full-scale was essential as it gave a sense of
familiarity and realism that was important to the existing fanbase to make them feel like
they were coming home, and also to express upon the newer viewers that Serenity is
Each room in the ship possesses a different color scheme, running from hot warm tones
in the engine room to even tones (the dining and cargo room) to very cold blue tones at
the front (the bridge and infirmary). Each room has its own character and looks like it
actually belongs to its occupant. This is in direct contrast to the sterile and uniform sets
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we often see in science-fiction movies. The colors represent the different characters in
the show. For example, the engine room belongs to Kaylee, Serenity's young engineer,
and it has been rusted up to look warm and brown. She is about emotional warmth,
earthiness, sexuality and optimism. This is in contrast to the infirmary, which is bathed in
cool blue and grey. This cold space belongs to Simon, the ship's doctor, and these
over emotion” (Allen, 2006, p. 135) that is linked to Simon's masculinity and modernity
that separates him from the other earthy characters. Allen also commented that “ the
distinction between cool colors and warm colors draws upon the emotional valency that
The layout of the set allows the viewer to see from part of the ship into others, breaking
up the colors, and this “creates a greater sense of depth and helps viewers distinguish
one space from the next.”(Argy, 2003). The décor of the ship is cluttered; signifying how
people in space accumulate as many things as they can to make themselves feel at
home. Thus, the colors, props and design of the set of Serenity establishes the movie's
genesis and separates it from other Sci-Fi films. A prominent critic of Sci-Fi movies
noted that movies such as Star Trek and Star Wars “convey a fundamental sort of
optimism about humanity's future” (Westfahl, 2005) that Serenity refuses to embrace,
and this idealogy is displayed prominently in the introduction to the spaceship where
design choices have been made to “deliberately subvert audience's expectations and
highlight certain concepts” (Barnwell, 2006, p. 35) as well as reflect the narrative,
the world of Serenity away from the “purple and stately” stereotypical science-fiction
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Color, Texture and Design in other locations and scenes
planets are coloured accordingly, with an opposition between cool colors (Alliance
planets) and earth tones (Outer-rim planets). The landscape and scenes set in Alliance
planets (Fig. 2a) are dominated by cool blues, green, and whites right down to the
North by Northwest, Allen (2006) points out these colors represent “an image of the new
world order, an order controlled by the impersonal and calculating machinations of most
male agents in blue suits”. The director makes use of colour psychology to “direct the
impressions to the audience, making them more receptive to whatever emotional effect
the scenes, action and dialog may convey” (Kalmus, 2006, p. 26).
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the whole planet. The scenes here are overexposed slightly, with the light blown out
completely. This visual (Fig. 4) effect gives the idea that the planet Miranda represents
the insane optimism of the Alliance – it is too bright and perfect, and there are no
shadows to hide in, no place for people to be themselves. Furthermore, by filming these
scenes at a lower shutter speed, it achieved a similar “strobing effect” as the one in
Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator, making the scene crisper and more crystalline
(Wightman, 2001). There is no realistic texture to this planet: we associate it with the
cold rationality and emotionally deadening regime of the Alliance. Everything is too sharp
and bright, and this “lack of depth perception brings a very welcome element of
unreality” (Arnheim, 2004, p. 328) that is fitting for the scene. These images of modernity
are juxtaposed with grey corpses of the population that was experimented on, and this
evokes the wider connotations of Serenity that debates whether the Alliance is a benign,
enlightened society, or that their knowledge that they use to "improve" the nature of
humanity is evil.
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Other notable sets are: The Operative’s Alliance spaceship, a space that immediately
appears very different from Serenity – it is modern, electronic and very cold: The use of
color timing turned any hint of warm colors such as red into cool purples to represent
stateliness and the lack of life and emotion. The set where the final fighting scene
between Mal and the Operative is held – where we see a huge moving mechanical
structure looming below Mal that he could potentially fall into and die – is another good
example of how the director has made the sets active characters of the movie: This set
has a sense of real danger, and is so active both “in its motion and the threat it poses to
the character” that it becomes “not only another character, but a major antagonist.”
Costumes can play “important motivic and causal roles in narratives” (Bordwell &
Thompson, 2008, p. 122) and the director uses costumes to effectively characterize and
distinguish characters from each other. Simon and River are always kept in an Alliance
color scheme of blues and purples – unlike Mal, whom with Simon is always conflicting,
they represent the Alliance even though they are on the run from it. Simon is a perfectly
handsome, brilliant, well-meaning person the Alliance is,while Mal (and the rest of the
Allen (2006, p. 136) points out how males in movies are “usually dressed in a cool,
sensitive, intuitive feminity.” However, this color associations are inverted in the case of
our two main characters, Mal and River. Mal wears redemptive earth tones that
articulate his groundedness, and River is dressed in blues, greys and other cool colors,
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psychological state of mind. It also explicitly relates her to death in the forms of the grey
corpses found in Miranda. These costumes guide our understanding of the characters.
Color Psychology
progressively greater degrees of danger. The use of red at the discovery of a dead
Wash recalls to mind a strong feeling of danger and warning – and rightly so, as he is
There are several examples in Serenity where lighting is not only used to create the
overall composition of a shot, but also effectively “carry strong emotional associations
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(Fig. 9), all the natural light in the room has been taken out, and the harsh blue light from
continue to add to her sense of disassociation and alienation. This intentional artificial
lighting and its desaturation with white has a great deal to do with the emotional
In the scene in Fig. 10, the light has been taken off
one who has brought the family into danger, and emphasizing his disconnection from all
of them.
(Fig. 11) often in shadow, and he is both literally and figuratively “in the dark”.
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shadows. The soft light here allows the audience to “not [be] conscious of the light being
there”
Book from the background, and brings the eye to what is important. It also gives the
glamourous, as we (Fig. 12) and (Fig. 13) cut to an overexposed shot of River
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He is gone – he is a shadow and the lighting (Fig. 14)
signifies that he has completely lost himself and his faith in his belief system.
From these examples, we can see that the lighting in Serenity not just creates a great
many moods, but the type of lighting is chosen on how well it will tell the story through
There are rarely any establishing master shots in Serenity - most of the shots are
blocked and shot with a wide lens, in order to get intimate shots as the camera moves
from one space in the set to another. Its stylistic appeal comes from its imperfections -
the framing is flawed at times, adding to the lived-in texture of the film. There is lack of
wide shots, which would have given “an audience a sense of distance, a certain
detachment and withdrawal from the action” (Douglass & Harnden, 1996, p. 79), and
instead an emphasis on medium or close-up shots that bracket the human action,
interaction and emotion that separates Serenity from other sci-fi movies.
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In these shots of her, the audience is put at her eye-
The camera angles in Serenity are powerful elements in creation of mood and
abilities, we see her as a psychologically disturbed but benign character – and she is
she possesses incredible fighting skills, the shots of her shift from high to exremely low-
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deliberate overhead shot (Fig. 18), surrounded by monitors that are all switched on
around him. He is literally surrounded by the Operative in frames, forcing him to give up.
This suggests defeat and amplifies his despair. After a few moments, he makes up his
mind and strides out confidently to his crew, where he is shot from a low angle to
represent (Fig. 18) and (Fig. 19) his renewal of mind and decision to stand up
Camera angles in the show also help establishing the ship’s spatial elements. In one of
the first few battles, there is a high-angle overhead shot of the ship's transport mule
crashing into Serenity. This sells the connection between the outside and inside of the
ship, once again giving the audience the feel they are there.
In accordance with the Old West feel of the outer rim planets, the character of Mal is
written and shot a Western character. This plays into the genesis of the narrative where
the future is not all about modernity and electronics, instead, there is a classic frontier
paradigm, which is that life is hard out in the Rim planets where the law is often useless
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Besides using colors to display Western conventions,
Westernness.
(Fig. 21)
as possible.
(Fig. 22)
This is the most important stylistic choice Serenity employs to establish a specific vision
of the future, aid in the audience's understanding of the narrative and introduce and
The aforementioned long take used in the beginning of the film is a good example. This
directorial choice not only helps introduce all the characters and what these characters
do, but also establishes a sense of safety in space and a familiarity with the layout of
Serenity, and the lack of a single cut for five minutes means that we are not cutting in
between performances and disorientating viewers, but instead letting things unfold with a
veracity that the audience doesn't even notice. It gives the audience a real sense of
In another unique shot, the director uses a Steadicam to achieve a roller-coaster shot
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that flows from River's face to the floor. It has a great elegance to it and puts the
audience in River's mindset. In another scene, we follow Mal in another long take after
he has decided on an action plan. This increases the urgency of his purpose and the
uncomfortable. The use of movement here sets the viewer off without calling too much
attention to the scene. When the crew discovers the crashed spaceship, the camera is
never kept static. To keep the mood creepy and to keep the camera alive, it follows the
usually taboos in visual effects are used to give the (Fig. 24)
audience the feeling that they are right there and experiencing it. There is a shot in this
scene where the camera operator is late in catching the action – and then there is a
sudden zoom out where we see Serenity falling to the ground. This hits home the idea
These '70s Western zooms, lens flares, misframes, bumps and imperfect framing are
also applied throughout the film - everything that is done photographically is intended to
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reflect life in the small, enclosed space of a spaceship, or to put across the feeling of
being there. The spectacular battle scene at the end is one long take filmed with fast
movement of the camera circling River as she fights. The two spot lights waving around
her gives a very expressionistic feel which feels right for what she is going through, even
Summary
We can see from these examples that Serenity makes use of very unique camera
angles, movement and imperfect shot compositions to create a sense of familiarity and
realism, as compared to the generic Science Fiction conventions. Along with set design
and lighting choices, the audience is able to interpret the mood that the director wants to
put across.
Bibliography
Aguilar, R. (1986). Strategy of Lighting. In Malkiewicz, K. (Eds), Film Lighting: Talks with
Hollywood's Cinematographers and Gaffers (pp. 83-98). New York: Fireside.
Allen, R. (2006). Hitchcock's Color Designs. In Vacche, A.D. & Price, B. (Eds.), Color:
The Film Reader (pp. 131-144). New York: Routledge.
Arnheim, R. (2004). Film and Reality. In Braudy, L. & Cohen, M. (Eds.), Film Theory and
Criticism (pp. 322-331). New York: Oxford University Press.
Douglas, J.S., & Harnden, G.P. (1996). The Art of Technique: An Aesthetic Approach to
Film and Video Production. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
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Eisenstein, S. (2006). On Color. In Vacche, A.D. & Price, B. (Eds.), Color: The Film
Reader (pp. 105-117). New York: Routledge.
Kalmus, N.M. (2006). Color Consciousness. In Vacche, A.D. & Price, B. (Eds.), Color:
The Film Reader (pp. 13-23). New York: Routledge.
Wightman, M. (2001). Movie Camera - a single effective shutter speed? [Msg. 10].
Message posted to http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0007ii
Filmography
Joss Whedon (2005) Serenity. Universal Studios.
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