Cinematic Color in Storytelling | Tomorrow's Filmmakers

Tomorrows Filmmakers

9 Jun 202114:34

Summary

TLDRThis video from TomorrowsFilmmakers.com focuses on how color can enhance storytelling in film. The host explains how filmmakers can use specific colors to evoke emotions, establish symbolism, and guide the audience subconsciously. By setting color schemes early on, such as associating blue with safety or red with danger, directors can subtly communicate moods and key plot points. The video also references popular films like 'The Village,' 'Chernobyl,' and 'Blade Runner 2049' to demonstrate how color influences perception and supports narrative development. Additionally, the video promotes a comprehensive film course offering advanced filmmaking techniques.

Takeaways

🎥 Cinematic color is an essential storytelling tool that influences audience emotions without being overtly noticed.
🟡 Establishing color significance at the start of a film helps communicate subconscious feelings to the audience (e.g., yellow represents danger, blue represents safety).
🔴 M. Night Shyamalan uses red in his films to signify important or supernatural events, while avoiding its casual use throughout the rest of his films.
🧪 In films like *Contagion*, color helps establish disease and safety: yellow signifies illness and danger, while blue signifies health and safety.
☢️ In *Chernobyl*, green is used to represent radiation and danger, while blue indicates safety, with transitions between these colors subtly communicating the severity of situations.
⚔️ Color battles are a key visual element in films, such as *Star Wars*, where red and blue are used to signify good and evil, especially during Kylo Ren's struggle.
🍊 In *The Godfather*, orange is associated with death, symbolically foreshadowing upcoming death or danger.
🧥 Character evolution can be shown through color, as in *Breaking Bad*, where Walt's clothing darkens as he becomes more morally corrupted.
❤️ In *Her*, the color red is tied to the relationship between Theodore and Samantha, with red fading from the film as their relationship ends.
🎨 Filmmakers should establish a consistent color scheme and use it throughout to communicate themes, emotions, and character journeys without the audience being consciously aware.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video?
-The video focuses on the use of color in cinematography and how it can be used to convey emotions and tell a story in films.
Why is color important in film storytelling?
-Color can make an audience feel a certain way without them being consciously aware of it. Filmmakers use color to establish mood, emotions, and even symbolism, helping to tell a story more effectively.
How can filmmakers use color to influence an audience's feelings?
-Filmmakers can establish colors at the beginning of a film to represent certain emotions or concepts, which then subconsciously influence how the audience feels when those colors reappear later in the film.
What example does the video provide about M. Night Shyamalan’s use of color?
-M. Night Shyamalan uses the color red in his films to signify something significant or foreboding. For instance, in his films like 'The Sixth Sense,' red objects indicate an interaction with the supernatural.
How does the movie 'Contagion' use color to represent danger?
-'Contagion' uses the color yellow to represent danger and disease. Whenever a character is infected or exposed to the virus, the scenes are washed in sickly yellow tones.
How does the TV series 'Chernobyl' use color to communicate safety and danger?
-In 'Chernobyl,' green is used to represent danger and radiation, while blue is used to signify safety. This color distinction helps viewers understand the risk level in different scenes.
What is the significance of color in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' during Kylo Ren’s inner struggle?
-In 'The Force Awakens,' red and blue are used to visually represent Kylo Ren's internal struggle between the dark side and the light. As he makes his final decision, the blue light fades away, leaving only red, symbolizing his choice for the dark side.
What role does the color orange play in 'The Godfather'?
-In 'The Godfather,' the color orange is consistently associated with death. Before major characters die, the presence of oranges or an orange hue foreshadows their impending demise.
How does 'Breaking Bad' use color to reflect Walter White’s character transformation?
-As Walter White's character darkens over the course of 'Breaking Bad,' his wardrobe changes from bright colors at the start to darker shades, reflecting his moral decline and transformation into a more sinister figure.
How can filmmakers apply the concept of color palettes to their own projects?
-Filmmakers can apply color palettes by first establishing good and bad colors or symbolic colors at the beginning of the film and maintaining consistency throughout. This can also include using saturation or desaturation to further convey emotional or narrative shifts.

Outlines

00:00

🎬 Introduction to Cinematic Color and Storytelling

In this introductory segment, the speaker, Justice from TomorrowsFilmmakers.com, highlights the importance of color in storytelling. He introduces the concept of cinematic color and explains how colors can influence an audience's emotions, whether it's through the color of lights, objects, or the overall atmosphere. He encourages viewers to explore previous lessons on cinematic composition, lighting, and movement and promotes the academy’s filmmaking course, currently available at a discounted price. The segment sets up the premise that color is an essential but often overlooked aspect of film that can be used to convey subconscious messages to the audience.

05:00

🎨 How Color Shapes Audience Perception

This section delves deeper into how colors in a film can be used to create emotional associations. It explains that, while certain colors (like orange or blue) may evoke common feelings, the key is to establish a color’s meaning early in a film. By doing this, filmmakers can evoke feelings such as unease or safety without explicitly explaining why, as seen in the use of warm and cool tones. The section references how directors like M. Night Shyamalan use color purposefully, such as the recurring use of red to signify significant moments, subtly guiding the audience’s emotions without them consciously noticing the cues.

10:00

⚠️ Color as a Subtle Indicator of Danger and Safety

This part focuses on how two specific productions—*Contagion* and *Chernobyl*—use color to signify danger and safety. In *Contagion*, yellow represents danger (disease) while blue symbolizes safety, with even subtle cues like wristbands and environment colors playing into this theme. Similarly, in *Chernobyl*, green is used to signify radiation and danger, while blue indicates safety. By establishing these color codes early, both productions use them consistently to communicate risk and security without the audience needing overt explanations. This discussion emphasizes the importance of consistency in color schemes to subconsciously influence the audience’s emotions.

💀 Symbolic Use of Colors in Iconic Films

This section explores how color has been used symbolically in various films. *Star Wars* is cited as an obvious example of the battle between red (evil) and blue (good). In *The Force Awakens*, colors are used to show Kylo Ren’s inner turmoil. In *The Godfather*, orange symbolizes death, appearing before significant characters die. *Breaking Bad* uses darker clothing to reflect the moral decline of its protagonist, and in *Her*, red symbolizes the protagonist’s emotional attachment to an AI. These examples highlight how different directors use color to symbolize character journeys or impending doom, enriching the storytelling experience.

💡 The Absence of Color as a Narrative Tool

In this paragraph, the absence of color or de-saturation in film is discussed as a way to represent emotional voids or tension. Using *Secret Window* as an example, the faded, colorless clothing of the main character and his wife mirrors their joyless lives, contrasted with more colorful scenes to convey happiness. The discussion further references *Blade Runner 2049*, where yellow represents the truth, and the frequency of yellow increases as the protagonist nears the truth, visually emphasizing the narrative’s progression. These examples show how filmmakers can also use the absence of color or specific hues to convey deeper meanings.

🎨 Practical Tips for Using Color in Filmmaking

In the final section, Justice provides practical advice for filmmakers on how to establish and use color schemes in their projects. He emphasizes the importance of setting a color palette early on, associating certain colors with specific characters or events. He advises maintaining consistency throughout a film to guide the audience’s emotional responses without them consciously noticing. Justice encourages viewers to experiment with color, whether by enhancing the mood with a specific hue or using the absence of color to communicate emotional depth. The section concludes by reiterating the value of color in subconscious storytelling.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Cinematic Color

Cinematic color refers to the deliberate use of color in films to evoke certain emotions and communicate specific messages. In the video, it is discussed how filmmakers use color to influence how the audience feels, often subconsciously, by associating colors with different emotions or themes. For example, a warm color like orange may evoke a homey feeling, while blue might be used to signify danger.

💡Subconscious Messaging

This concept refers to the way filmmakers use color to convey meaning without the audience explicitly noticing. The video explains that the use of certain colors throughout a film can make the audience feel a specific way without them realizing why. For instance, the consistent use of red in M. Night Shyamalan’s films signals something significant, conditioning the audience to expect important events when they see red.

💡Color Palette

A color palette is the selection of colors used throughout a film to create a cohesive visual style. The video stresses the importance of choosing a palette early on to establish themes, moods, and associations with certain colors. For example, 'Contagion' uses a sickly yellow palette to signify danger and illness, while contrasting blue is used to signify safety.

💡Establishing Color Significance

This term refers to the practice of assigning meaning to a specific color early in a film and maintaining that meaning throughout. The video highlights how, by establishing a color as dangerous (like green in 'Chernobyl'), the audience begins to associate that color with danger without it being explicitly stated. Once the association is established, the audience responds to the color accordingly whenever it appears.

💡Color Contrast

Color contrast involves using opposing or different colors to highlight differences between scenes, characters, or emotions. In the video, examples like 'Contagion' and 'Chernobyl' show how yellow (danger) is contrasted with blue (safety) to visually indicate shifts in danger levels. These contrasts create visual cues for the audience.

💡Character Color Association

This refers to the practice of associating a particular color with a specific character, helping to visually represent their emotional journey or role in the story. In the video, an example from 'Breaking Bad' shows how Walter White's colors grow darker as his morality worsens, signifying his transformation through his wardrobe choices.

💡Absence of Color

The absence of color or the use of desaturation in films is another way to tell a story visually. The video discusses how in 'Secret Window,' the faded, desaturated clothing of characters represents their emotional state and bleak circumstances, showing how the lack of vibrant color can communicate a loss of joy or vitality.

💡Emotional Tone

Emotional tone refers to the overall mood or feeling a film conveys, often influenced by its color scheme. The video emphasizes how filmmakers like M. Night Shyamalan use specific tones—like the presence or absence of red in 'The Sixth Sense'—to evoke emotions such as tension, fear, or significance in a subtle way that affects the audience emotionally.

💡Visual Storytelling

This concept refers to using visual elements, such as color, to tell a story without the need for dialogue or explicit narration. The video repeatedly touches on how color can serve as a storytelling tool, guiding the audience through the emotional and thematic undercurrents of a film, such as how yellow in 'Blade Runner 2049' represents the truth the character is searching for.

💡Color Psychology

Color psychology is the study of how colors affect human behavior and emotions. In filmmaking, it plays a crucial role in evoking specific emotional responses from the audience. The video discusses how different colors, like blue and red in 'Star Wars,' are used to represent good and evil, tapping into universally recognized emotional responses to these colors.

Highlights

Introduction to cinematic color and its importance in storytelling.

Using color to evoke emotions and how even small elements like the color of a jacket, light, or car can communicate a message.

Color establishes emotional cues without being noticed directly by the audience.

M. Night Shyamalan uses red to signify important events in his films, such as in 'The Sixth Sense' and 'The Village'.

Color symbolism can vary, but once established in a film, it consistently guides the audience's feelings, such as warm colors being unsettling or blue being safe.

Examples of color use in 'Contagion', where yellow represents sickness and danger, and blue symbolizes safety.

'Chernobyl' establishes green as a dangerous color representing radiation, while blue is used for safety.

Directors can visually signify danger or safety simply by the presence of a specific color, as seen with hazmat suits or hospital curtains in 'Chernobyl'.

Color can communicate danger or safety subconsciously without explicit recognition from the audience.

The color battle between red and blue in 'Star Wars' visually communicates the struggle between good and evil.

In 'The Force Awakens', the red and blue lights on Kylo Ren’s face visually represent his internal conflict.

In 'The Godfather', the color orange symbolizes death, subtly woven throughout the film.

Color change in characters, such as Walt's clothing in 'Breaking Bad', reflects their transformation over time.

The relationship in 'Her' is represented by the color red, showing how it influences the protagonist's life.

Directors can remove color saturation in costumes or props, as in 'Secret Window', to represent emotional voids or lifelessness.