I remember the first time I was introduced to lighting we were in this big space, lights everywhere, and the guy running the show started lighting different people. He lit them all in different ways focusing on key lights, back lights and how you would light a dramatic scene, a scary scene, an interview. He showed us the shadows and the highlights. Then hard lighting and soft lighting and filters. Then he grabbed the one black guy in our group and was so excited and said "Now this...this is your filter..." I can't remember what filter it was but it made his skin look so gorgeous. He was absolutely right. It was "his" filter and it didn't have nearly the same effect on lighter skin. He pulled a couple more people - one with pale pinker skin and one that was more tan and demonstrated how differently you needed to light each person based on not just the color but the underlying tone of their skin. It's a really, really really detailed skill to develop - one that takes many years, a ton of practice and an insane attention to detail to fully master. If you are learning in an environment when you are almost exclusively lighting white people, you are going to find what works and doesn't work for them much more quickly. You are going to know 3 point lighting and filters for that like the back of your hand by the time you finish film school. Every film class I've taken has mostly revolved around lighting and exposing correctly for lighter skin tones because 90% of my class was white and we learn by shooting ourselves. It's a pity but it's just how it is right now. You can't become brilliant in something until you practice your balls off. I'm glad to hear that someone took the time to capture the details and different tones in this film.
I find this fascinating, as it's something I never thought of before. I do remember finding the "flesh" colored crayon in my box of Crayola and after ascertaining what "flesh" meant, wondering why it didn't look like my flesh. In general I find jobs or roles that involve color selection to accentuate things to be very interesting as the field of color is something so intrinsic to how we experience and perceive the world around us and yet we take it for granted. My dad is a resource economics professor and when I was a kid, I really had no idea what he did. I'd go to work with him sometimes and wonder how those charts of curved lines could predict the future. I remember one study he mentioned or was a part of where people were trying to boost milk sales and so were experimenting with different colors of milk in an effort to appeal to kids. Apparently, kids really like the colors blue, green and red, but absolutely do not want to drink milk that color. Pink is ok. Yellow, also acceptable, but not orange. It seems so silly and unimportant, but so much research goes into the colors of our every day lives. In a completely constructed universe as in a film, color is even more important. Cool stuff.