Color In Film: The Use Of Color In Film

1568 Words4 Pages

What is color? If someone were to ask you that, what would your answer be? How do you describe yellow without saying its name? You might say it reminds you of sunshine or of school buses or of warmth, but those are all examples. It’s funny how something so integral to our daily lives could be so hard to explain. Could you imagine a world entirely enveloped in grey-scale? A permanent film noir. Color is like sound, all around us, conveying emotion, shaping our world. Without it, our world would be bland; without distinction. Likewise, film is a world of its own, transporting you into its universe, putting you in the characters’ perspectives. Ever since the beginnings of film, filmmakers have looked for ways to put color in film, expanding the …show more content…

Well, in short, it is not traditionally important, but color in this way makes a subtle storytelling tool that affects the viewer on a subconscious level. An example of this would be as follows. If you were to imagine a gritty crime drama, you most likely wouldn’t imagine a warm yellow and orange color palette, rather, you would imagine a cool colored, bleak world, complimenting the story’s darker tones. Now that we have established color as a storytelling tool, we can begin to talk about color for aesthetic reasons. The following information on color palettes comes from the article How To Use Color In Film: 50+ Examples of Movie Color Palettes by Mary Risk. Color palettes are the major colors used in a film. There are five main color palettes; monochromatic, complementary, analogous, triadic, and discordant. Also, although these color palettes are used mainly for aesthetic purposes, that does not mean that there are no psychological elements. Monochromatic means that one color is used paramount to all others. For example, a color palette consisting of only shades of pink, from pastel to neon. Complimentary color palettes consist of complementary colors, colors that exist on opposite ends of the color wheel. Common examples of these would be red and green, violet and yellow, and most commonly blue and orange. Blue and orange color palettes are often seen in most blockbuster

Open Document