Sorry to Paint You in a Bad Light
In Sorry to Bother You, both color and shot distance are used by the director to convey the power dynamics within a given scene and push forward the meta-narrative. The colors that are displayed often present the internal feelings of a character earlier than in the scene where they are vocalized or acted upon. Characters are often lit in or are surrounded by blue when they are in a position of inferiority or lack confidence in themselves. When characters are lit in or surrounded by yellow, it portrays either the confidence or high position, whether that be class or authority, within the featured group. Green is also used to show these powers clashing and can even foreshadow this tension in future scenes.
From the moment the movie starts, we are immediately shown the distribution of power at Regal View. Before anyone even speaks, we see that Cash is boxed in with Mr. Anderson in his yellow office while all the workers outside in blue are boxed into cubes and boxed into their computers to make a sale. We know that Cash does not hold the power and can follow that pattern until he starts using his white voice to make sales.
After the team meeting at Regal View, Cash tries to get coffee while Squeeze drinks his off to the side. This shot starts in long with other people passing by with food and coffee and zooms into a medium long shot to show that in that moment they are separate from the other workers and managers for the moment and are able to speak privately. The walls are blue all around and they are boxed in, cut off right above the knees. They then move towards the center after a cut and are framed by the vending machines in a two shot that has them both in medium close and holds this distance for the rest of the scene. Their power is balanced in this scene as Squeeze discusses protesting, holding coffee in his hand, knowing Cash is hungry both for food and more out of his life. Squeeze has seen Cash quickly rise and still question authority and believes having Cash on the side of protest could make a huge difference. While Squeeze may think Cash could help the cause and Cash may think the protest could help him, they are both still surrounded by blue, showing that they are just workers who are at the will of their bosses. The choice of a two-shot also allows both Cash and Squeeze to fill up the frame and shows how they both have the power to push the conversation and push the protest. Squeeze’s confidence and ability to organize and Cash’s ability to sell make them equals in this scene. There is then a dissolve to Troi at her corner spinning her sign under golden light happily, cutting between long and extreme long shots. Her work environment is open as opposed to the previous shot where Cash and Squeeze were boxed in and the full body shot accentuates that. This scene shows the contrast between her job and Cash’s. Troi is happy at her job because she is not just a part of the machine and has her art on the side and actively protests, unlike Cash who only has his job to make him feel fulfilled.
When Cash becomes a Power Caller he expresses it in his life by using his newfound wealth. He immediately pays back his uncle, presenting the family in a medium long shot that gives the viewer full scope of the room. This room is covered in yellow and gold, most importantly, yellow and gold crosses. This shows that his action is a selfless good deed and that goodness and spirituality hold the most power within this space on the screen. The camera then pans right, following Cash into the next shot with his old car in a medium long shot, Cash in a medium close, and then a cut to a close-up of the bottom of his new car. The car has very prominent blue lights on the bottom that directly contrast the last scene with a selfish act of lesser good. After the car back up, there is a cut to Troi in a medium long shot backlit by green and yellow and Cash’s car pulls up in blue. Then there is a cut and Troi is cut by the car into a medium shot as she walks up to the door, moving between green and yellow lights. This shows how Troi stands in opposition to what Cash currently stands for, but that she is trying to keep their work separate instead of fight. The mere presence of green light on the storefront, however, shows that Cash and Troi’s conflicting powers and viewpoints will clash and foreshadow the conflict in the following scene in Cash’s new apartment. Cash’s new items show that while he may have a higher paying job and new lifestyle, it is still dependent on his obedience to his employer. Troi may just be spinning signs, but she would never let anyone have any true power over her.
When Cash is at Steve Lift’s house, he walks into the room where Steve is from the foyer in a medium long shot and shows him glancing into a side room. It cuts to the room lit in green with a graffitied Worry Free sign in a long shot that says “freedom!” This shows the irony of Cash’s situation, earning money that makes his life easier while doing a job that restricts his decision making to obeying commands and how this will propagate in the following scene. When Cash is being forced to rap, he is bathed in green light in a close-up on the stairs and it then cuts to the rest of the partygoers in medium shots in yellow. This shows Cash’s internal conflict in that moment to either hold his ground and take the power from the crowd and Steve or if he will give in to their expectations. Cash does neither by doing both. Cash does give in by rapping for them, but repeats the same line in an aggressive tone, satisfying them while not backing down. Steve sees how easily Cash was able to sway the audience in this moment and Cash wins the momentary battle for power. Then there is a cut to a close-up of drunk Cash in his chair that zooms out into an extreme long shot of the partygoers having sex. Cash is lit in yellow in his room while the others are in almost complete darkness, showing how powerful Cash should feel from being accepted and by his job, he just feels defeated. This also shows how his performance convinced Steve of his abilities to convince the equesapians that he is on their side even if Cash is unsure of himself and his skills. Steve Lift is only presented in yellow and green light, and shows the conflict of his own power as being the leader of Worry Free, but completely relying on his inferiors to support him, having to ask Cash to assure his and the company’s success by being their man on the inside.
Throughout the first two acts of Sorry to Bother You, Cash is only ever personally lit in blue. Additionally, he is only either surrounded by the power of others (in his boss’s office, when they are explaining what the Power Callers sell) in yellow or by his fellow workers in blue. It is not until he is confronted by Steve and has video of the equesapiens that Cash feels that he truly has the power and responsibility to out Worry Free and that is when the focus on color and lighting disappear. In this third act, the film takes on the appearance of realism, many more scenes taking place in natural light or yellow light (as is true with the final protest and when Cash is rescued from the police van) and avoids the super saturated colors seen earlier.
This kind of emphasis on the technical elements of lighting, set design and shot distance are important to acknowledge because they help the story progress and accentuate the details of the characters and their interactions that you may just brush by otherwise. The colors especially play into the surrealist elements of the film that wouldn’t naturally be in every scene in the real world. They are less overt than the dubbing, animation or costumes but still draw your attention and say, “this is important.”
