Spider-Noir Cinematographer Chooses Tungsten for Noir Drama

Spider-Noir cinematographer – Series cinematographer Darran Tiernan explains why he originally wanted “Spider-Noir” in black and white, how the later color version still let him push film-noir lighting, and what details like tungsten lights and specific classic references helped create Ben

Nicholas Cage’s gumshoe Ben Reilly is meant to look like he’s been dragged through a shadowy city overnight. In the Prime Video series “Spider-Noir,” that feeling didn’t just come from the script or the costumes. Series cinematographer Darran Tiernan designed it—down to the kind of light he chose to use.

Tiernan. who spoke about the show’s dual viewing options—either a black and white version or a color version—said he hopes people check out both takes. The reason is practical. but also personal: “Spider-Noir” started with a black and white plan. before color compatibility was later added through work with colorist Pankaj Bajpai.

Tiernan told IndieWire. “One of my daughters said. ‘You’ve been manifesting this your whole life. ’ and I went. ‘Yeah. I probably have. ’” framing the project as something he’d long wanted to do. He describes the creative aim simply: a proper film noir look. He also brings a clear sense of how rare that chance can be—“A cinematographer can wait their whole career. though. to do a proper film noir.”.

Before the final look was locked, the production leaned into a lighting approach that pushed back against modern defaults. Tiernan credits the shift to going back to film school in his own workflow—“I was reversing 25 years of being a cinematographer to go back to film school. where you only had three lights and where were you going to put them. And they were always tungsten.”.

Even with the camera department fully stocked, Tiernan says he gave himself deliberate lighting limitations to keep creativity possible. Those limits shaped how Ben Reilly. his Girl Friday assistant Janet (Karen Rodriguez). sinister mobster Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson). and mysterious dame Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li) were treated on camera. For him, the difference was straightforward: “Mainly: A lot more old school tungsten light, and a lot fewer LEDs.”.

Tiernan also pointed to a specific reference for the rules of noir lighting: “Painting with Light,” by John Alton, from 1948. He said the book is “one of the first cinematography books. really. ” and that it includes a chapter about film noir where the guidance is “so on-the-nose about what it is and how you use it.” In Tiernan’s telling. the approach became a working plan. “With the male characters, we pretty much did that lighting. But the female characters you would light in a slightly different way because that’s the way they did it.”.

The look didn’t come from one source alone. Tiernan’s reference points ranged from Otto Preminger’s “Fallen Angel” to Orson Welles’s bravado in “Touch of Evil.” He also cited Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past. ” and the “Kubrick before he was Kubrick” brilliance of “The Killing.” For Cat Hardy specifically. Tiernan leaned on the way Welles and Rita Hayworth’s characters are treated in “The Lady from Shanghai.” He described her as more ethereal than Ben. who—Tiernan says—“hasn’t had a good night’s sleep or a shower since ‘Across yhe Spider-Verse. ’” and he wanted that difference to read visually.

Tiernan said he didn’t want an abrupt change. but he appreciated the language behind what the team was aiming for: “I didn’t want to have a huge shift. but I appreciate what they were trying to do. that language. All the filters they used. the beautiful Dior stockings on the back of the lenses. all these things that they were trying out to get a particular feel.”.

The series itself also had to do something trickier than commit to one aesthetic. “Spider-Noir” has to shift between its central mystery and its more unabashedly comic book elements. That meant Tiernan and the camera team had to build flexibility into the look—how lighting would be motivated. or how expressive it would be depending on what the scene demanded.

He described the process as deeply collaborative: watching blocking rehearsals. consulting with the VFX team. and planning where the camera was likely to go. “We’d watch blocking rehearsals. and consult with the VFX team. and we’d have ideas of where the camera was going to be. and some amazing ideas just came out of watching their performances.”.

That collaboration mattered, he said, because the actors brought distinct faces and instincts to the world. Tiernan pointed to Brendan Gleeson’s mob boss as “beautifully vicious. ” and highlighted Karen Rodriguez. Lamorne Morris. and Jack Huston as performers who leaned into the character work and the noir sensibility. He said they “all had a love of film noir. ” and that “each one of them is very different in their own way.”.

The switch from an all-black-and-white plan to a two-version show didn’t erase Tiernan’s main goals—it changed how far he could push them. He said the brief began with black and white first. and then “the word came down from on high for Tiernan and colorist Pankaj Bajpai to make the show color compatible as well.” But he added that the addition of color actually opened freedom for his approach. allowing the team to be more graphic and immediate than mainstream modern cinematography tends to be. He linked the strategy to film noir’s German Expressionist roots and to the low-budget creativity that can power noir storytelling.

For Tiernan. one reference kept returning: “Vertigo. ” which he called a key touchstone for the type of color he wanted to evoke. He also described a bigger reason noir still matters to him now. “The point of a noir story. Tiernan discovered. is the ability to be very graphic and find compositional ways to not just evoke a character’s inner turmoil or conflict. but make the look of the whole world connect back to it. Not so unlike a web.”.

When it comes to what noir gives a production like “Spider-Noir,” Tiernan said it comes down to immediacy. “When you’re doing something visual, if you’re allowed to be very graphic with it, it’s very immediate.”

He ended with satisfaction on the craft side of the bet: “I’m really pleased with both versions, and that we managed to pull that off successfully.”

“Spider-Noir” is now streaming on Prime Video.

Spider-Noir Darran Tiernan Nicholas Cage Ben Reilly Prime Video cinematography black and white version color version film noir tungsten lighting Pankaj Bajpai IndieWire Bruno? no Brendan Gleeson Karen Rodriguez Li Jun Li noir cinematography Painting with Light John Alton Vertigo Otto Preminger Fallen Angel Touch of Evil The Lady from Shanghai