Chapter 615: A New Production Concept

Taken literally, a "dark" style simply meant one that was dark and bleak. While the term might be relatively unfamiliar to mainstream audiences today, "dark films" had long lain dormant within the industry. In the past, audiences tended to call similar works expressionist films, B-movies, gothic films, or film noir.

Duke was no stranger to this style; The Matrix possessed it as well.

The origins of the "dark" style were actually very difficult to trace. Evidence of its existence could be found in Francisco Goya's Black Paintings, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Triumph of Death, Giovanni Boccaccio's story collection The Decameron, and other literary and artistic works.

It was simply that no one called such content "dark" back then.

In terms of film, The Dark Knight, which Duke was currently in post-production for, was undoubtedly a representative example. If one flipped through Hollywood history with this style in mind, it wasn't hard to find elements of the "dark" style as early as M, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr, and F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu.

Not to mention film noir, which deliberately aimed to showcase mean streets and the sinister nature of humanity, intentionally setting its scenes and stories under the cover of night.

In Duke's eyes, the dark style, much like film noir, was simply one of the branches forcefully carved out of cinema.

Without a doubt, the Christopher Nolan of his previous life was the key figure who brought dark-style films into the mainstream, to the point where the style even became synonymous with high sophistication.

This style was unique among superhero films, directly or indirectly bringing about two trends. First, by contrast, mainstream commercial blockbusters like The Avengers and Iron Man appeared even more lighthearted and popcorn-oriented. Second, after The Dark Knight brought depth and style to DC Comics and Warner Brothers, it forced the entire DC Universe to follow a unified style and set of values. Thus, Man of Steel was forced to incorporate a rather unsuitable "dark" style to some extent.

As for Batman v Superman, its dark tone was established from the very beginning of its inception.

Achieving this style relied on two aspects: first, the setting and filming, and second, post-production.

In fact, whether it was Duke or the Nolan of his previous life, the majority of the filming for The Dark Knight took place during the day. To achieve that dark visual style on screen, post-production was absolutely crucial.

Although they had experience with gothic-style films like The Matrix, this particular style was still relatively unfamiliar to Duke's post-production team. This meant the pace of post-production would not be very fast, and Duke had to strictly oversee every step of the process.

No one was born a master of every film style, and Duke was no exception. Even though Batman Begins had allowed him and his team to accumulate a certain amount of experience, he still carefully and meticulously controlled every aspect of post-production.

To ensure the post-production team followed this style, they first had to understand exactly what its characteristics were.

"Dark" referred to the visual tone of these films, which was artificially darkened. Even scenes that took place in broad daylight were gloomy and damp.

Of course, in these films, a large portion of the plot also took place in the dead of night.

The "black" aspect indicated that the themes of these films were bleak. The stories were often associated with words like gloomy, morbid, eerie, violent, bloody, mysterious, religious, and alternative. Even though the core message of many of these stories was positive—punishing evil and promoting good—these elements were amplified and exaggerated throughout the plot's development, thus producing that "black" effect.

However, even a man-made concept needed to follow certain rules and styles to be successfully established. In Duke's view, dark-style films possessed several key characteristics.

First, the stories were gloomy and, to a considerable extent, contained certain morbid elements.

The main characters—whether protagonists or antagonists—mostly suffered from childhood shadows and trauma. Bruce Wayne was a prime example.

These shadows and traumas accompanied their maturation and ultimately became part of their core values. Furthermore, such trauma would cause them to present themselves to the public through another "morbid" image, such as the Joker's scars and makeup.

More importantly, the antagonists' pursuit of vengeance was not for the sake of payback or retaliation, but rather a bloody, violent ritual meant to awaken the public. To a large extent, their violence had nothing to do with personal pasts or grudges; it was tied to a certain kind of salvation and revelation.

Villains like the Joker transcended the general definition of a "bad guy." Just like the protagonist, he possessed a philosophical and contemplative nature, often forcing the protagonist into agonizing dilemmas. This wavering of values and the profound contemplation of justice and evil could be considered a form of darkness in cinematic aesthetics.

Second, religious undertones and the resulting sense of ritual, mystery, cult appeal, imperfection, and alterity were often characteristic of the sensory and narrative elements in these films. In many segments and plot points, the protagonist had to receive guidance from a master or emerge victorious in some ritualistic gathering or event before they could advance to the next stage.

This kind of setup was essentially just a process of self-healing and personal growth. However, driven by the dark style, a sequence that could have been vibrant and energetic would inevitably turn into a scenario of "crawling out of a mass grave." In the process of becoming a hero, the character had to endure a series of events that washed away their original beliefs, only to agonizingly choose to maintain the status quo afterward.

Regardless of their own nature, their perception of the world, or whether the world actually needed to be wiped clean and restarted, the hero would always follow the most universal values to make the choice that shed the least amount of blood.

In an even greater number of films, the dark style was a manifestation of visual elements—such as in 300, The Matrix, and even Batman Begins—rather than the film's core values being dark themselves.

To a certain extent, this visual darkness contained elements of music video styling, including its camera language and editing techniques. Through set design, color grading, and overall production coordination, it fully showcased a "spectacle" effect.

Tracing it back to its roots, such visual effects derived from painting, expressionism, gothic art, and many modern and contemporary oil paintings.

The elements that could be captured during filming largely stemmed from the actors' performances and lines. During post-production, how to successfully blend those brightly lit shots into the dark style was the core issue Duke had to consider as the director.

Of course, there was another issue he had to account for, which was exactly what Doug Walter had been most worried about initially: whether the audience could accept this style.

If this had been the beginning of the century when superhero movies were just rising, Duke wouldn't have been sure either. Although Tim Burton's films from back then also carried a distinct dark style, compared to The Dark Knight, the darkness in Batman and Batman Returns could only be considered child's play.

Everyone in Hollywood knew that films were deeply influenced by the social environment. Some films that would succeed in the future were highly likely to fail if they were pushed forward by a few years. Therefore, Duke had always been cautious in his approach to the Batman Series, keeping a close eye on changes in the film market environment.

In fact, it wasn't hard to notice now that after being bombarded by multiple superhero movies, audience anticipation for comic adaptations with superficial plots that only focused on realistic CG was, to some extent, declining. Conversely, alternative superheroes like Iron Man had been well received.

Similarly, a superhero film like this, bearing the characteristics and creative leanings of serious cinema, could be said to have emerged in response to the changing tide.

Naturally, in a film driven by such a dramatic plot, placing the character's trajectory in a dilemma where "good and evil alternate," outfitting the villain with incredibly strong logic and philosophy, and topping it off with spectacular visual displays and a story set in the dead of night would absolutely bring a fresh thrill to the audience.

In this style of film, the villain was also key. If the villain was just a one-dimensional caricature like in Marvel films, the style would lose its balance.

Thus, the villains were often similar to the protagonists, attempting to reshape society with their own ideals. To achieve this goal, they would not hesitate to employ a "sudden death" shock therapy to cure society.

This inherently elevated the villain's depth, or rather, their stature.

Furthermore, how long superhero films could maintain their strong momentum in the future depended, to a large extent, on their villains.

Tim Burton, who had also incorporated a certain dark style into the first Batman movie, excelled at a gothic means of expression.

Under Hollywood's revisionism, this means of expression no longer had much to do with the story itself, but rather concerned character costumes, sets, and makeup. In his Batman and Batman Returns, the scenes were almost entirely shrouded in night, and the stories involved death, paganism, and other essential gothic and dark elements.

This Burtonesque flavor of surrealism, futurism, and genre-mashing was actually quite different from the style Duke wanted to achieve.

What Duke wanted to accomplish in post-production was to elevate The Dark Knight completely out of the realm of comic book adaptations, allowing it to exist as a standalone film.

Considering it from a cinematic perspective, what Duke needed to do during editing was avoid using the original comics as his textual foundation as much as possible. He would merely borrow the character relationships from the comics and completely reconstruct the story's main thread, utilizing different methods and storytelling techniques to craft the final cut of The Dark Knight.

This could be a bad thing; if the film's quality had issues, it would inevitably be drowned by backlash from comic book fans.

But it was also a good thing. Breaking free from the stylistic constraints of the comics allowed the director to express himself more freely, ensuring that the dramatic climax carried even greater tension beneath the narrative's contradictions and conflicts.