Someone asked me if there was anything I didn’t like, about The West Wing.
I’d have to say it’s the experimental lighting. It’s veeerrry Kubrick-esque in a lot of scenes. Light comes from the sides quite often. It comes from tiny spotlights in the ceilings quite a bit. And there isn’t enough of it most of the time.
I don’t know how or why this is. I haven’t read anything about Sorkin wanting a spooky feeling in the most important office building in the world. I haven’t read anything from people involved in the show, like DeeDee Meyer, who actually worked there.
It’s really about the only distracting thing, for me, in the whole show. As I mentioned earlier, the technology is kind of subtle. The motivations seem very real and very contemporary. But the way everyone working on the west side of the White House decided they would dial-down the electric lights and use little, ineffective spotlights? I dunno. I’d have done it another way.
