Scribd
Upload
61 views14 pages

Color and Cinema

The document discusses the significance of color theory and psychology in film, emphasizing how color influences the tone and mood of a scene. It outlines three key factors in color determination: hue, saturation, and brightness, and describes various color palettes used in filmmaking. Additionally, it illustrates how specific color choices can convey emotions and narrative elements, using examples from films to demonstrate the impact of color on storytelling.

Uploaded by

arshiajamshidi9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
61 views14 pages

Color and Cinema

The document discusses the significance of color theory and psychology in film, emphasizing how color influences the tone and mood of a scene. It outlines three key factors in color determination: hue, saturation, and brightness, and describes various color palettes used in filmmaking. Additionally, it illustrates how specific color choices can convey emotions and narrative elements, using examples from films to demonstrate the impact of color on storytelling.

Uploaded by

arshiajamshidi9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Color Theory and Color Psychology in Film

Color sets the tone and mood of the film in every composition. “[…] The power of a
shot is centrally controlled by light quality, direction, source, and color. The filmmaker
can manipulate and combine these factors to shape the viewer’s experience in a great
many ways. No component of mise-en-scene is more important than what Sternberg
called ‘the drama and adventure of light’.” (David Bordwell in Film Art, 131)

There are three factors in determining color: hue (color itself), saturation (intensity of
color), and brightness (how light or dark the color is)

Warm colors in “the red-orange-yellow range tend to attract attention, while cool colors
like purple and green are less prominent.” (David Bordwell in Film Art, 144)

Bright colors could be used to portray serene moments, peacefulness, or optimist vibe of
some certain sequences of a film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lINVnA3rVIE

Color Palettes
In most fiction films and even in many documentaries, the color palettes of every mise-
en-scene are pre-arranged before the onset of shooting in a film. The choice of color, and
color manipulation through costume design and lighting is undertaken by the director,
cinematographer, and production designers (set designer, costume designer and
makeup artists).

Some possible options of color palettes:


1. Monochrome color palette: Using different schemes of one color in a scene

2. Analogous colors (groups of colors that are next to each other in a color wheel)

3. “limited palette involves a few colors in the same range” of either the cooler or
warmer spectrum of colors (David Bordwell in Film Art, 145)

4. Unlimited color palette involves more than three colors of different range to
show chaos, contrast, comic situation, and so forth
In the following images, how can color tell you the story?

Predominant Grey color in the second half of About Elly shows a changing environment
in the story.

The grey, bluish, or greenish ‘Limited Palettes’ portray a troubled Sepideh. Most likely
Farhadi implemented a post production bleach bypass (and re-saturation for certain
parts) in the following parts of the film. The color is drained, showcasing a cold and
dreary atmosphere:
A palette of warm colors with daylight lighting represents happy moment in the film. The
positioning of performers in a half circle shows a balanced and harmonious relationship among
the group:

The iron bars are hindering their freedom of movement in an otherwise ideal environment by the
seashore:

Grey filtering, cool colors, lack of bright lighting, and unbalanced positioning of characters
portray troubled moments in their relationship:

You might also like