The sand should be orange! Why isn't the sand orange?

Most of the exterior desert scenes look so. fucking. boring. These scenes are so devoid of color because they were shot in the most beige landscape imaginable. The sand is white, the sky is white, Timothée Chalamet is white. There is no saturation, no contrast. It looks so dull and flat and lifeless.

The landscapes themselves look pretty cool but imagine how much cooler they'd look with even a little bit of color instead of this shit:

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It's especially confusing because many of the other scenes in the film make excellent use of the monochromatic color scheme. The interior and nighttime shots have this stunning contrast with predominantly vibrant yellow-orange hues which really stand out. So having orange sand would have visually tied the whole film together. But instead we're stuck with beige for the majority of Part 2.

I had assumed they shot where they did due to logistical restrictions (it probably wouldn't have been practical to shoot in the Sahara desert) but I looked up Wadi Rum, the desert in Jordan where they filmed, and it's orange as hell!

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This place looks like fucking Mars, so how did they mess this up? They found the most boring section in the whole desert and filmed there instead?

My best explanation is that this was a very intentional and deliberate choice, so that when the film actually does use color it's more impactful. But... I still don't like it, I think it sucks. The sand should be orange.

  • AlicePraxis [any]
    hexagon
    ·
    3 months ago

    credit where it's due though, this scene is a fucking slay

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    • AlicePraxis [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      u right, but this picture of Wadi Rum is not at sunset:

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      and this still from Dune 2 is at sunset:

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      I actually kinda like this shot btw, the dunes at least have some color at golden hour

  • huf [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    i dont think the sand's supposed to be orange, except when it's a spice patch.

    and the sky of arrakis is supposed to be silvery/whiteish from all the dust in the air or something. so wrote the author.

    so i guess lore accuracy dudnt look so good.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      3 months ago

      The air on arrakis smells like spice and there's enough thst everyone I'd perms high on it. It'd not a matter of patches, thst shit is everywhere.

      • huf [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        yeah but not in a visibly orange way, i dont think

  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    3 months ago

    good points. ton i don't like aesthetically in those films but fumbling color & lighting is up there