Zack Snyder's Justice League cinematographer Fabian Wagner has broken down the lighting techniques he used for the film's underwater scenes with Aquaman, Mera, Vulko and the other Atlanteans.
"We talked about the idea of doing it for real out on the water, but that went out the water rather quick, so to speak," Wagner admitted in an interview with IndieWire, adding, "because obviously we had so much to do in the water, and all the dialogue scenes, that was not an option. So, we quickly decided to see how we could do it above water."
"We came up with a lot of ideas," Wagner continued. "We were testing for movement, how the actors move on the water. We were doing make-up and lighting tests, various different colors options, and in the end I came up with solution that involved what we call rock ’n roll lights. These are basically festival concert lights that rotate and you can put different patterns into them, and they move. I was just thinking about how -- if you are underwater and the sunlight hits the water -- the light breaks and creates all those different patterns, so I was thinking along those lines."
In both Zack Snyder's Justice League and the film's theatrical cut, Mera and Vulko speak to Arthur Curry underwater by conjuring up giant air bubbles, in addition to communicating with other Atlanteans through a language in the vein of echolocation. However, this is a change from both DC's comic books and the DC Extended Universe's Aquaman film, in which metahumans who reside beneath the ocean's surface are simply able to speak to one another underwater.
In a recent interview, Justice League writer Chris Terrio attributed this confusing plot hole to the fact that he wrote the movie before the Aquaman film had even begun development."I didn’t know whether people could talk underwater," Terrio said. "That was a thing that I had to ask, because I didn’t know if I could do underwater scenes with Aquaman and Atlanteans. It was all just from scratch because there had been no [solo] character films."
Zack Snyder's Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ray Porter as Darkseid, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. The film is currently available on HBO Max.
Source: IndieWire