MFA Thesis Blog Post 1

Queer Coding Through Lighting

For my Animation M.F.A. thesis, I’m planning to explore the history of queer coding in cinema through lighting and cinematography. “Queer coding” is the act of implying that a character is queer through subtext or visual symbolism without outright stating it. I wanted to use this opportunity to combine my love for animation lighting with my goal of supporting positive LGBTQ+ representation in animation. Through lighting design, cinematographers subtly give audiences visual clues about how we should feel about the characters we are seeing onscreen. I want to unpack the role that lighting design has historically played in making LGBTQ+ people look villainous, and how future lighting artists might be able to flip the script in animation to create thoughtful depictions of marginalized people.

In preparation for my thesis, I’ve been watching and analyzing classic films with queer-coded characters to examine how the cinematographer chose to portray actors' performances through lighting and shot design. Hollywood has a long tradition of queer coding characters, often the film's villains. This was particularly true during the height of power for the Hays Code, when the film industry censored any overt reference to “sex perversion.”

While watching classic film noir movies such as The Maltese Falcon, I found that queer-coded characters often used shadows and what I now recognize as gendered lighting practices to highlight their differences from the films’ protagonists.

Still frame from Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940). Mrs. Danvers is heavily implied to have been in love with Rebecca. Her hair and dark clothing are so dark that she is almost a silhouette. The shadows cast on her face highlight her eyes, emphasizing her role as a female voyeur.

Still frame from The Maltese Falcon (1941). When Joel Cairo is introduced, he is softly lit, closer to the glamour lighting for actress Mary Astor than the dynamic side lighting of lead actor Humphrey Bogart. The shadow of his cane draws attention to his lips.

These techniques have historically been used to vilify and other LGBTQ+ characters. However, from these techniques, we can learn to create lighting design that amplifies nuanced performances of characters who have historically been othered in animation.

I’m preparing to direct a short, 3D animated film that uses lighting to queer code my protagonist, to show his unique journey coming to terms with his being different from those around him. The animated short will be a series of vignettes showing animated toys in a dollhouse, with a toy soldier as the protagonist. The soldier will attempt to play through the role of a fairytale princess, but the more he tries to fit in, the more he stands out. In many ways, the toys that we are given and play with as children are the first gendered “test” we receive to see if we fit into the cultural norm.

Mood board for my first vignette. The porcelain dolls and toy soldier were taken from Pinterest and Midjourney, respectively. The background environment is a photograph of Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, currently at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

First pass at the style frame for my first vignette.

Goals for this week

•   Revise and refine Style Frame
•   Create initial character designs and models for the toy soldier and the dolls
•   Beat boards
•   Create compilation of research

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