How would you explain exactly what color is? How would you describe the light greens of a summer evening or the warm oranges of city streetlights? How would you describe the muted yellows just before a heavy downpour or the swirls of magenta in oil spots left on concrete? Would those colors be the same to everyone else, or do we all see the world a little differently?
Science defines color as our “psychological reaction to different wavelengths of visible light.” It’s how we visually perceive our reality every day. Color does not exist outside of our minds and in order to see it we need light, an object, and our brain. Whenever light falls on an object, some rays are absorbed and others are reflected. Those that are reflected determine the color.
But beyond its technical definition, beyond simply being rays of light processed by our eyes and our brains, color is also one of the best ways to tell a story.
How can color tell a story?
Since the beginnings of cinema, color shaped the way we thought about the medium. The obvious reason to use color when telling a story in film is to make the scene dynamic and beautiful, something pleasing to the eye that an audience not just passively looks at but wants to look at. But beyond that, color can be used for so much more. Color choice when shooting a scene is a very important part of mise-en-scene, or the arrangement of everything in front of the camera, including set design, lighting, and the actors. Similar to Gestalt theory, mis-en-scene is what makes a scene work as a whole. When properly used, it can take a film from a series of movie images to an art form with a purpose. It’s something that draws the viewer in and holds their attention. Color can affect the audience emotionally, psychologically, and even physically sometimes on a completely subconscious level. So why do we have a subconscious reaction to colors?
Diagram via healthline.com
Robert Plutchik originated the psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion, which categorizes emotions into eight primary emotions and their reactions. The primary emotions are anger, disgust, fear, sadness, anticipation, joy, surprise, and trust. Each primary emotion has a complimentary emotion and a polar opposite. For example, fear and anger or anticipation and surprise. Plutchik argued that the primary emotions are an evolutionary development that enabled organisms to survive when confronted by environmental change. Scientists have found that color preference is adaptive; that is, people are more likely to survive and reproduce successfully if they are attracted to objects with colors that “look good”. So, while no one color universally means one thing, because of evolutionary development humans will always have an innate reaction to certain colors and vaguely associate them with certain moods.
Still from HAXAN
Tinting and toning were the most common methods of coloring black and white film and setting a tone in the early days of cinema. DW Griffith was known to use an array of different tints throughout a single movie to convey the difference between various periods of time. Benjamin Christiansen realized our inherent psychological reaction to certain colors and used that to influence the mood of the scene. Christiansen understood that we feel much more unsettled when the screen is completely bathed in red hues as opposed to the calming effect a scene tinted in soft blue would elicit. These simple yet effective techniques helped making storytelling in the silent era more complex. Tinting was one of the first instances of color actively serving a purpose in a story.
Far before we had the ability to actualize sound in film, people were obsessed with color. Limited to moving images on a screen, film has always been about the visual first and foremost. The very first recordings in the early days of cinema display the lengths directors were willing to go to capture color on film. Before the existence of filters, films were tediously hand-painted, cell by cell, to make the film that much more wondrous. At that time, artists couldn’t afford to make mistakes because “once the color is laid on, it remains on and all the rubbing in the world will not efface the defect.” It was so important to filmmakers that they were willing to ruin an entire film just to have it. Color was initially used to show the dream-like quality of cinema. It was the pinnacle of escapism at the time, so color was used to show how far from our reality it was. It was almost a novelty; it didn’t matter if the colors were realistic or not because the fact that it was on screen in the first place was already a marvel. But it didn’t take filmmakers too long to realize that color was a fundamental element of storytelling.
Like the development of any new technology, people were always looking for new ways to improve upon what we already had. It seemed that new ways to capture images on film were being thought up every day. Companies like Technicolor, which released The Wizard of Oz and Fantasia, began tinkering with a tri-color process system that produced an almost realistic color as early as the 1920s. Their films were bright, bold and saturated. Technicolor remained the gold standard in film coloring into the 1950s until Eastman Kodak introduced motion picture negative films. Once color was something that could be captured realistically on film, the pursuit of realism rapidly advanced this young visual medium.
After 1950, most studios had replaced black and white film with color cinematography.
With cameras being able to record and reproduce exactly what is put in front of them, directors became free to use color however they wanted and began to understand their aesthetics and symbolic use. Once something expensive only used for special productions, color evolved to become a tool for filmmakers to use to enhance their stories. They could go beyond thinking about simply adding colors to a scene to make it look more realistic and could consider what the colors in the film actually represented and meant to the viewers.
Paris is Burning color palette via @CINEMAPALETTES
There are no set guidelines that say to a filmmaker, “This is how you use color, and you must follow these rules.” However, understanding the cognitive effects colors have on the viewer does help get more precise emotions and intentions across to your intended audience.
There are three major elements that should be considered when selecting a color to tell a story: the saturation, the hue, and the value. All these elements work together to create specific color palettes. Change one of these elements and you can change the entire mood of what you’re filming.
The hue is defined as “the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow”. To put it a little more simply, the hue refers to the color you’re looking at. The color wheel is made up of 12 hues: three primary colors, three secondary colors, and six tertiary colors.
The saturation is how intense your hue is. As saturation increases, the color appears purer. When saturation is decreased, the color appears washed out or pale.
Choosing the right saturation helps set the tone of the film. Is your story vibrant and lively, like the comic-based move “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”? Or does it have a more somber tone like Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”? Different saturations of the same color can drastically change the story being told.
Advancement in technology means advancement in the ways color can be used. Directors can now build a story around a more complex color palette. Color can be used to show a story from different perspectives. For example, the movie Babel uses differing amounts of value and saturation to differentiate between the four concurrent storylines in the movie. Scenes that take place in Morocco have a warmer, more saturated palette than scenes shot in a lonely Japanese penthouse. The use of color differentiates between the different stories and is also used to set the mood.
Palettes, similar to the WED aspect of journalism, are a way to plan a film from start to finish. Basic color theory dictates that some colors work better together than others so it’s important to have a plan for the colors being used. Palettes can be sorted into two categories: balance and discordance.
Balance is any combination of colors that compliment one another. Monochromatic, triadic, analogous and complimentary combinations are all schemes that create a balanced look. Using these schemes correctly will result in a balanced image. For example, David Fincher usually works with a combination of different color palettes in his films. In The Social Network, the monochromatic palette provides strong visual cohesion. A monochromatic palette has a single base hue with varying shades, tones and tints. The range of tones allow the viewer to better focus on the subjects in front of them. When Zuckerberg states, “I don’t want friends,” the dark, miserable tones of the cramped bar reflect that sentiment.
Still from The Social Network
In Fight Club, Fincher uses complimentary colors to represent conflict. Complementary palettes evoke feelings of dueling opposition and tension. As Jack and Marla stand side by side cast in blue light at the end of the film, explosions of orange not only indicate the immediate danger that they’re in but also the characters’ destructive relationship and the uncertainty of their future together.
Another color palette Fincher uses is a discordant palette. Discordance is when a color that doesn’t fit within a scheme is introduced. Discordant colors are those almost opposite one another on the color wheel. Using discordant colors can be as simple as a single object that doesn’t fit within the scene. It’s an easy but extremely effective way of drawing the audience’s eyes to a specific focal point.
In Se7en, the neon orange of John Doe’s prison jumpsuit clashes with the dark tones of the detectives’ jackets and the muted landscape, adding to the unnerving energy of the scene. All attention is drawn to John Doe and what he is going to do next, keeping the anticipation and suspense high.
Still from Se7en
But color can be used for more than just setting the mood or the tone of the film. Using different types of color schemes can be one of the most effective ways to create symbolism on the screen. A movie’s scheme is another place where a storyteller can create conflict and drama, color can be used to represent characters, ideas, and overall themes.
Associative color is when consistent, repetitive colors are used throughout a film to represent a theme or character, connecting the visuals to the emotional. If a color is associated with a character, the audience will know that when they see that color in the future that scene is in some way connected to that subject.
The Bride in the Kill Bill series is always seen in bright yellow, a caution sign to anyone that has wronged her, and is more often than not covered in bright red. The audience associates these vibrant colors with The Bride’s passionate quest for revenge.
Colors can represent the obvious, like Darth Vader’s red light saber representing the dark side and Luke Skywalker’s green light saber representing the “good” side of the Star Wars universe, but the association can also be arbitrary. One of the most famous examples of associative color use is orange representing death in The Godfather. It’s not widely accepted that orange is universally linked to death, but audiences could determine that whenever a character was in or near something orange, they were about to kick the bucket. This is to show that repetition of certain colors in a scheme show interrelation to an idea.
Still from The Godfather pt. 1
If consistent colors represent an idea, then a change in color represents transition. If a color that has been associated with a character for most of the movie suddenly changes, it represents a change in the character. The change can be something as simple as their location or the time period, or something as monumental as the character’s mental state. In the Wizard of Oz, we know what location Dorothy is in throughout the movie based on what colors play across the screen. Jumping forward in time, The Matrix employs the same use of color; everything in the matrix itself is tinted green while outside the world has more of a muted blue hue.
In a show like Breaking Bad, the use of transitional color is a little more complex. As the audience watches a mild-mannered science teacher become a power-hungry drug lord, White’s color palette transitions from soft greens and yellows to much darker blacks and reds. He even begins wearing a black hat, a call back to the early days of black and white westerns when, because of the limited use of color, the protagonist would wear a white hat and the villain would wear a black hat.
Color transitions usually happen gradually over the course of the film. In Blue is the Warmest Color, Adèle is surrounded by varying shades of blue that symbolize her relationship with Emma. As the two grow apart, the blues become muted and scarce until the only blue that’s left is the blue of Adèle’s dress in the final scene, symbolizing her love transitioning to being no longer requited.
However, if a color represents a change is circumstance or environment, then depending on the tone of the film the transition can be instantaneous. In the film Mandy, once Mandy Bloom is kidnapped by the Children of the New Dawn and the violent horrors of the rest of the movie unfold, the cool tones are abruptly thrust into neon reds. Fantastical elements whiplash the movie from realistic to a psychedelic color trip, rHowever, if a color represents a change is circumstance or environment, then depending on the tone of the film the transition can be instantaneous. In the film Mandy, once Mandy Bloom is kidnapped by the Children of the New Dawn and the violent horrors of the rest of the movie unfold, the cool tones are abruptly thrust into neon reds. Fantastical elements whiplash the movie from realistic to a psychedelic color trip, reflecting the suddenness and seemingly randomness of the plot.
Still from MANDY
As you watch movies and television shows with an eye towards not just the story and the characters, but the visual decisions directors and producers make, you’ll realize that there is a reason behind every color choice in a film or a series. It’s important to pay attention to specific color choices and what they add to the story. What do these colors make you feel? What do they tell you about the characters? Maybe that’s what you might answer when asked to explain what color is: colors are a visual cue that shows us deeper meanings, both in art and in everyday life. Color is all around us, and when it’s done just right, color can even tell us a story all by itself.
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