The lighting scheme of Say Nothing follows the emotional arc of the show: When Dolours Price joins the Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s, her motives and morality feel clear — the IRA wants to free their homeland from British rule. But by the formal end of Northern Ireland’s troubles, in 1998, she and her compatriots have done things that place them in a moral gray zone.
“We wanted the visuals to become more shadowy to reflect that shift,” says cinematographer Stephen Murphy, who shot the final two episodes of the nine-episode series, based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s nonfiction book. “We often kept the camera on the shadow side of the characters’ faces or bodies.”
Murphy grew up in the south of Ireland, where he wasn’t directly affected by the Troubles. But he knew of the book and had seen Maurice Sweeney’s 2018 documentary about Price, I Dolours. FX on Hulu’s Say Nothing follows Price, who is played by Lola Petticrew in her younger years and later by Maxine Peake.
Murphy, a veteran of Atlanta and Line of Duty, embraces the use of darkness onscreen, and follows the photographic philosophy that has been summarized as “light spaces, not faces.”
“I try to light the space as it would exist in the real world,” Murphy explains. “If there’s a window, I’ll use that as the primary light source. If there’s a practical lamp in the room, I’ll build the lighting around that. It’s about creating a sense of authenticity and giving the actors the freedom to move naturally within the space.”
But, Murphy notes, “reality isn’t perfect.”
“I like to introduce a bit of randomness — whether it’s a misty atmosphere or a flickering practical — to make the scenes feel more alive,” he says.
Light and the Shadow of History in Say Nothing
Murphy’s episodes occur in both the 1970s and 1990s, and he used different lenses to visually distinguish the eras.
“For the 1990s scenes, we used Leica Summilux lenses on the Alexa 35, which gave us a sharper, more contemporary look,” he says. “For the flashbacks to the 1970s, we switched back to Cooke S4s, which have a softer, more nostalgic quality.”
He adds: “It’s not something the audience will consciously notice, but it creates an emotional distinction between the two periods.”
He also used anamorphic lenses for interview sequences that provide a narrative spine. “Those moments needed to feel different — more intimate, more textured,” he says. “The anamorphics gave us that cinematic quality while keeping the interviews grounded in reality.”
In a scene in which Dolours confronts another character in a small apartment, “we didn’t remove any walls or bring in big lights,” Murphy explains. “We just used the daylight coming through the windows and the practicals in the room. It felt real, and that’s what we wanted.”
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The most demanding sequence to shoot was a murder on a stormy beach. Originally, the plan was to use towering cherrypickers to light the scene, but intense winds forced a change.
“We had to drop all our lights below ten feet and figure out a new approach on the fly,” Murphy recalls. “We ended up using soft toplights with compact rigs, and it actually worked better than the original plan.”
While Say Nothing was designed to be cinematic, Murphy was acutely conscious of the streaming audience. Using HDR monitoring tools like SmallHD OLED displays, he ensured that the show’s intricate lighting and shadow work would translate well across devices.
“I always check how something looks on an iPad Pro,” he says. “If it works there, it’ll look great on calibrated screens.”
He is also aware of the common criticism that modern shows and films are too dark.
“There’s darkness, and then there’s darkness,” he explains. “It’s about finding the balance — making sure you can still see shapes and edges, even in the shadows. Some things I do are meant to be true to life, but not how I use darkness. It’s about being cinema-real.”
Say Nothing is now streaming on Hulu.
Main image: Seamus O’Hara as Anthony McIntyre and Maxine Peake as Dolours Price in Say Nothing. Courtesy of FX Networks