Exactly. An ivory interior would have been a gaffer's nightmare, also it would have meant an increase in budget for the set construction as I'm sure the dark interior was a good way to hide some obvious plywood walls. Also it's a good way to hide walls that tend to wiggle during depth charge scenes. There is one scene, I believe where you can see a wall waggle but it's been awhile and I can't remember which scene. The rule of set construction for the stage says: "As long as it looks real from 15 feet away." For film I'd guess 3 feet or so.
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Originally Posted by Subnuts
I imagine it was a deliberate choice on the part of the cinematographer, Jost Vacano. As it was, the only lights they could use were the ones already part of the set, and those had to be substantially brighter than the "real" ones due to limitations of the film they were using. If they'd painted the interior white, as it was IRL, you'd end up with "hot spots" all over the place that wouldn't look good on the big screen. So, the interior of the submarine in Das Boot was painted dark grey to avoid this problem.
Yeah, I'm kind of a film geek.  |