Modern Lighting Technology In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby Baz Luhrman has reinvigorated the 1925 classic novel by introducing many modern filming technology such as lighting and colour; sound and music and editing. While Joe Wright has attempted to do the complete opposite by taking a modern novel and attempting to recreate the past using the same techniques as Baz Luhrman.

By using Lighting and colour, Luhrman has made his characters come alive. We experience a kaleidoscope of candy colours that almost take over our senses. This is used effectively as Luhrman wants the audience to feel as if everything is over-the-top just like how Gatsby is. It amplifies how Gatsby’s life was a dream not reality.The lighting tends to be theatrical and illuminates the characters bringing the focus on them and not on the background. An example of this would be

In the classic novel music such as jazz was introduced and at that time jazz was considered as modern new liberal music. To create the same atmosphere, luhrman has used hip hop in its place such as rap songs like “100$ Dolla Bills” from Jay Z and Beyoncé. It gives the audience an idea of how dramatic it was in the 1920’s which is the same goal that Fitzgerald wanted to accomplish in his novel and at the same time it draws in the youth of today as it gives them something to connect with.

In Atonement, Joe Wright has used the typewriter to great effect , it transports the audience to a time when there was not much technology available and adds tension,anticipation and rhythm. The use of violins and other stringed instruments make a mournful piece of music that blends well with the horrific events of the war and the soldiers singing the hymn.
All of this brings emotions of grief and sadness to the audience as they experience how tragic the lives of the soldiers stranded on the beach must have felt. It amplifies their helplessness and their diminishing hope that they would go back