Colour & Story
"A sunny, hopeful yellow. An introspective turquoise. An arresting, violent red. When you see a color in a film, what you see is no accident — filmmakers carefully compose each frame and make color decisions that affect your experience of watching." (Kate Torgovnick May, 2017)
Following on from earlier research into the use of colour in films, I discovered an article by Kate Torgovnick May, in which she identifies four ways a filmmaker uses colour to deepen the narrative of their films:
- Colour simplifies complex stories
- Colour makes the audience feel
- Colour shows a character’s journey
- Colour communicates a film’s ideas
Colour simplifies complex stories
- Using different tones can help the viewer follow stories that jump between characters and locations.
- Different tones can signal different time periods in films with multiple story-lines.
Colour makes the audience feel
In discussing the impact colour can have upon the way in which an audience feels when watching a film, Torgovnick May refers to the work of Danielle Feinberg, a director of photography at Pixar. Some of the key points that I found interesting are:
- Lighting and colour are the backbone of emotion.
- Colour can be used to hint at a character’s emotion (e.g. dull and grey to convey depression).
- For each film, Pixar creates a ‘colour script’ that maps out the colour hues for each scene, so they fit together in the overall story arc. The aim being to make key moments feel appropriately vibrant or sombre.
- Colour amplifies important moments within a film.
Colour shows a character’s journey
- Colour can be used to show the evolution of a character. If the story is broken up into distinct parts, a different colour can be used for each part to indicate the way in which the character is changing at key moments within the film (e.g. childhood, teenage years, adult).
Colour communicate’s a film’s ideas
- Colour reveals a film’s meaning.
- For example, the repetition of a specific colour is often associated with an idea. When the colour changes, the concept has changed.
I found these I ideas very helpful, because it shows that the use of colour within a film plays a vital role in the filmmaker’s storytelling. It can be manipulated to highlight a character’s emotions, amplify key moments within a film, or reveal the ideas within a film.
I like the idea of using the repetition of a specific colour to communicate a particular idea.
I also like the idea of creating a ‘colour script’ for mapping out the hues for each scene.
References
Torgovnik May, K. 2017 ‘How color helps a movie tell its story’ In: Ted At: https://ideas.ted.com/how-color-helps-a-movie-tell-its-story/[Accessed on 31 May 2018]
