What is colour theory? And why is colour theory so pivotal to storytelling?

How do filmmakers
use a different colour scheme to associate a colour to an emotion or item? That is what this
essay will be examining! Colour has the amazing ability to grab the audience’s attention and
influence emotions consciously and subliminally. Directors and cinematographers are
consciously including or avoiding specific colours to deepen the narratives while simultaneously
enhancing a pictures overall quality. Every individual shot of a film is planned out meticulously by
the director, cinematographer, and the art department to tell a story.

Filmmakers have engaged with colour theory over the years and harnessed this exciting and
vibrant method of storytelling after spending years being bound to a black and white
monochrome chain. But how did they do this? Since before filmmakers where able to actualize
sound in films, filmmakers throughout history have been obsessed with colour. Film has
always been about the visual storytelling. Before filters and digital cameras existed, innovators
like “Thomas Edison would hand paint on their filmstock to add colour manually to their films.
Colour was originally used by filmmakers to portray colour as “dream” like quality of cinema, the
fictional visual medium was the panicle of escapism. Colour was used to demonstrate a distance
from our perception of reality. But it didn’t take filmmakers too long to discover that colour was an
essential component to storytelling, it seemed that a new way to colorize film was being made
every day. Originally filmmakers would tint their filmstock, so it could be completely tinged to a
certain colour. This was famously done by D W Griffith in his film “intolerance (1916),” in this film
he would use an array of tints to show the difference between various periods of time.
Filmmakers then devolved on this use of colour with Auteur Benjamin Christensen realizing our
inherent psychological reactions to different colours, and how we would feel much more on edge
when the screen was covered in red. Colour soon became a way to symbolize the inner
workings of characters. in Erich von Stroheim’s “Greed (1924)” we follow a man’s wife who
wins the lottery, we see the money as a golden yellow, but by the end of film, the man’s
possessiveness grows, and we see the entire film is engulfed in yellow, symbolizing the man’s
complete consumption of greed. This was achieved just by using the colour yellow. This film
revolutionized the way filmmakers used colour by given them a new way of metaphorically
storytelling; these are just a few examples of how colour was used early on to tell a story.
When the kinemacolor came into fusion, this became an alternative method of colourization by
having each frame shot between a red or green filter, then projected again through an alternating
red and green filter. our perception of vision combined with the alternating colours, resulted in the
image looking remarkably natural. Still these films had a problem with fringing those red and
green trails and the lack of blue was very apparent. This all changed when when technicolor
devolved their three-strip colour technique in the 1930s. Three strip colour had developed a
whole new process for technicolour, by capturing three colour’s Red, Green, Blue (RGB) on three
separate strips pressed together leaving behind a full colour image on a single piece of film, this
opened a brand-new opportunity to the world of cinema. The process of three strip colour, was
famously used in Victor Fleming’s “Wizard of Oz (1939)”, in the moment when “Dorothy opens
the door to OZ “the film’s colour shifted from a dusty sepia look to a rich and vibrant technicolour
wonderland. This was a pivotal moment in cinema history, because for the first-time colour went
beyond just representing the natural world, it became a predominant part of the story. That scene
ushered a whole new ere of filmmaking. The same way Yimou Zhang’s “Hero (2002)” uses its art
direction to show particular stories from different perspectives. films don’t only use colour to
differentiate multiple stories but also use them to set the atmosphere for their film, a technique
that goes as far back as Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)

Nowadays colour is recorded through a digital camera and uploaded to a computer where it is
adjusted in the postproduction stage. There are two types of colour adjustment colour correction
and colour grading. Colour correction is the technical process that occurs during a film’s
postproduction phase. A Film editor will use editing software to adjust the colour, contrast, and
exposure of light and white balance to make the film feel more natural and unprocessed
throughout the editing stage. Colour correction also corrects technical colour errors for example if
an actor is filmed in compromised lighting, a colour editor will correct the lighting so it appears
coherent with the rest of the film’s footage. A colour editor will work closely with the director and
cinematographer to set the tone of the atmosphere by adjusting the saturation or brightness of
an image. Colour correction is also used to optimize the footage so any added special effects
(VFX) blend in as seamlessly as possible. After you have adjusted the footage next is to Colour
grade. This is process of stylizing the colour scheme of the footage by digitally painting on top of
the footage that has been colour corrected. Colour grading can be used to make both the
technical and creative changes. a colour editor will colour grade for artistic purpose to ensure the
films carefully curated colour palette conveys a specific atmosphere, style, or emotion for
example in Stanley Kubrick’s “A Space Odyssey (2001) While the protagonist Dave is inside the
Ai processor, this otherwise boring room uses a saturated red to build suspense of impending
dread. There are three factors that colour editors while utilize when correcting or grading colour
and this HSB this is Hue, Saturation, and brightness. HSB you can create a complex colour
scheme. Rather simply by utilizing hue, saturation, and brightness, you can precisely identify the
right colours to create certain feelings in your audience. Bright images often seem lively and
exciting whereas Darker images often seem dramatic sinister.

in spike Jonze’s “Her (2013)” this is a perfect example of how films entire meaning can be told
nonverbally using just colour; the movies hero Theodore wears bright red, blue , yellow, and white
shirts throughout the film to communicate his emotional state. As an example, the walls, clothes, and
the computer screen are all in red, this is used to connote the colour red with love. Spike Jonze does
this by associating the colour with the lead Theodore, as he searches for love. “Her ‘is a perfect
example of why colour theory matters in storytelling. Some movies choose an affinity of Hue by
using the monochromatic colour scheme. This is just fancy ways of saying that a movie is mostly
one colour. “The matrix (1999)” is a classic example of a movie that mostly uses a
monochromatic colour scheme That colour is green. The reason they went with mainly green
was because the movie takes place inside of a digital matrix and we associate colour green with
code. But even with the advent of colour in film some filmmakers still choose to shoot in black
and white because sometimes the absence of colour is what’s right for that story. Shooting a film
in black and white can give a sense of seriousness and realism to the film. Director George Miller
always wanted to release his movie “Mad Max Fury Road (2015)” to be completely in black and
white. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper George Miller announced if it wasn’t for that
studio’s intervention, his film would have been monochrome in black and white. He claimed that if
the movie was filmed in black and white, then it would completely change the tone and dynamic
of film by giving it a more terrifying atmosphere, and that was how he originally intended the film
to be but unfortunately, directors don’t always have complete freedom when it comes to
filmmaking, and “mad max” is a prime example of this because George miller was told no one
would watch a black and white movie in today’s era of cinematography and if he didn’t release
the film in technicolour then the studio would just pull production! This is in complete contrasts
with Martian Scorsese’s “the Raging Bull” were he shot and produced the whole movie
completely in black and white. Martian Scorsese wanted to pay homage to Italian neo-realist
film’s “Rome open city” and “bicycle thieves” the choice of shooting “Raging Bull” in black and
white was also inspired by Time’s magazine’s photojournalism of the 1940s and 50s when the
film was set. Shooting the film this way adds a layer of realism and authenticity given the scenes
outside the boxing ring so much more emotional impact making the film more like a documentary
then a narrative film. There is a stigma surrounding black and white films, many audience
members today attribute a lack of colour in a movie with being pretentious, inflated and
sometimes even visually boring but Director’s George miller and Martin Scorsese wanted their
films to be released completely in a black and white monochrome movie. This shows the
influence studio producers have over the creative process of a director.

Many filmmakers have a pretty good utilization of colour theory, bright and saturated for a happy tone
or dark and desaturated for something more grounded. But there is one filmmaker who chooses to
blur the lines between joy and darkness and that is Wes Anderson. His utilization of colour is often
the context to his stories. While on the surface his movies look livid and vibrant the colours are often
at odds with the subject matter. Anderson’s use of vibrant colours gives his films a childlike
perspective, but the themes of his films would seem to be at odd with his colour schemes, he
uses saturated colours to make otherwise mundane scenes about a family pop, almost like a
comic book! Wes Andersons characters are often connected to a single colour - Musee Gustave
is purple, (The Grand Budapest Hotel) Suzy is pink, (Moonrise Kingdom) Chaz is red, (The Royal
Tenenbaums). Red is a common feature in Wes Anderson’s films, the crew in “Life Aquatic
(2004)” wears a red beanie, the brothers in the “Darjeeling limited” drive a red car and Caz and
his sons in “the Royal Tenenbaums” wear red tracksuits. All his characters who wear red have
some trauma that they are trying to overcome. In Chaz case the only time we see him shed the
red palette is when his chance to finally reconcile with his father already passes. Wes Anderson’s
films are not afraid to deal with serious subjects matters with conflicting colour schemes, In his
movie “The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)” Gene Hackman does terrible things but because of
his pale pink clothing we know not take anything he does too seriously as the colours render
him silly, the same is in the “The grand Budapest Hotel (2014)” throughout the film we are
exposed to vivid colours and whimsical world, even though these characters live in a world
similar to our own, surrounded by death and war you can tell by this childlike world that is
nowhere near the same as our reality, all you must do is look how colorful the images are.
Wes Anderson’s use of vibrant colours in his film proves to us that not much here carry’s too
much emotional weight and not to take it too seriously. In Wes Anderson’s “moonlight kingdom
(2012)” he used green, browns and yellows in this film, so that the colours don't greatly contrast
one another, and its pleasing on the eyes to watch. His use of analogous colour scheme for this
film was because it’s a calming atmosphere and suites the movie’s nostalgic tone. In Denis
Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049 (2017)” the use of the colour yellow is represents “truth” throughout
the movie. During officer kay’s investigation the colour yellow appears on screen whenever he is
getting closer to uncovering the truth! The colour yellow first appears in sapper’s house, then when
kay picks up the yellow flower, and again on Joy’s jacket when they find out the identical twins are
fake and finally, we see yellow during climax in the Las Vegas scene where kay finds Deckard. Wes
Anderson’s and Denis Villeneuve’s attention to detail in their movies, separate them from an average
filmmaker.
in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Emilie (2001)” we see how his use of complementary scheme colours
affects the overall tone of the film by using colours that are on the opposite end of the wheel
complement one another, so you will often see red and green, blue, and orange or yellow and
purple throughout the film. Adding balance to the image means nothing disrupts the flow of
colour and in another example of this is that it doesn't mean balance of colour cannot be used to
make a dark atmosphere. In Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse now (1979)” he used a balance
scheme in “Colonel Kurtz's compound” where the orange mist gave a toxicity in the air. adversely
a film like Jean-Luc Godard’s “Pierrot Le Fou (1965)” may appear to have no set colour scheme
but uses a Triadic colour scheme where all the colours in the film have equal distance from each
other on the colour wheel, this playful balance creates the atmosphere of the film, however when
you throw something in that doesn't fit the scheme this creates discordance. Sometimes all this
means is to have one saturated colour that doesn't quite fit in and this can give the audience's
eyes a Focus and a resting point or intentionally draw the audience's eyes towards an object.
One of the most important things to note about colour is that the audience will notice something
in which it doesn’t fit in, hence why game developers use bold saturated colours for important
objects. by introducing a new colour to an established scheme this can be an effective method in
showing that the mood of the film has been unsettled. Colour’s effect on us is a psychological
anomaly and we may not know why it affects us, but it does, that’s how we know by the looking
at the colour of the lightsabers in George Lucas’ “Star Wars” who is good and who is bad. we
know colour is a psychological process and using it can create certain atmospheres. Creating a
scheme around that colour can than emphasize that atmosphere.
Whether the tone is cold and hopeless or gritty and dangerous, the colours serve as a purpose.
humans will always have a psychological reaction to certain colours, therefore particular colours
are used in certain ways; in Quentin Tarantino’s “kill Bill (2003)” Uma Thurman’s outfit not only
becomes iconic for its colour use but also gives a strong subconscious reaction to the character,
“her madness” is portrayed through this intense yellow outfit that evokes a feeling of hazardous
or warning, whereas in Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011)” this film
features very violent themes but all most zero violence, this is because of the constant
appearance of the colour red throughout the film acts as a reminder to the audience that
“violence” is the undercurrent to this entire story. In this instance red is associated to blood. But
this doesn't mean colours are exclusive, for example red seems to be the colour we have the
strongest reaction too, thereby one person may use the colour red to display hate or violence
whereas another person will use it to show passion and love. The same applies to other colours,
green for example, when we see a green field or a forest, we get the impression of peace and
nature however a green location can be shown as mundane and lifeless. green shown on a
person can represent envy or corruption in a person’s life and in Victor Fleming’s “wizard of oz
(1939)” green is represented as dangerous and portrayed as a villain.
Despite colours’ stereotypical associations, it doesn’t mean film makers have to follow the social
constraints of a colour’s cultural connotations. Colours can be used in association with something
entirely different if the filmmaker chooses to do so as part of that film’s individual vocabulary, for
instance in Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013)” the colour blue is prevalent
throughout this movie, literally nearly every scene has something blue in it. When Adele meets
Emma, her hair is blue, so the colour is representing Adele freedom to express herself as well as
the love between her and Emma. The social connotation of colour is not set in stone because in
this film they represent the colour blue for love instead of red. As we progress through the
different stages of Emma’s and Adele’s relationship the colour scheme reflects this. During the
happiest parts of their relationship blue surrounds Adele and is very saturated, showing the
intensity of her love. When she is at her lowest, she is surrounded by a lot paler shade of blues
representing that her love is failing but she is still consumed with love. When she fails to reignite
her romance with Emma, the only blue we see from now on is her dress in a world engulfed in
grey! it is associating that monochromic colour with an item or an emotion. In Francis Ford
Coppola’s “The Godfather (1972)” orange is associated with death. This is to show the repetition
of single colours in a scheme, shows some interrelation to an idea, if certain colours are recurring
throughout a story, If a colour has been associated with a subject and that colour suddenly
changes throughout the movie, this is known as a “colour transition”. This can be something as
simple as a change of location or a character’s state of mind; in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last
Emperor (1987)” as the main character begins to discover the world around him the colour pallet
shifts. The world of tradition in the character naivety is displayed in the world as red, however as
he begins to learn more about his people and the world, the colour changes from red to orange,
yellow and then finally once he has become fully comprehensive of his surroundings, his world is
bounded to green. The colour transitions along with the main character’s characteristics, this
effective method of colour transition becomes even more unique, when it’s examined on the
colour wheel, because red, orange, yellow and green are consecutive. To go from red to green
shows both the character and the wheel have turned 180º A social association is something we
associate with a subject that is universal. Take the pride flag of instance “the rainbow”, when we
see a image of a rainbow nowadays, we immediately associate it with the social movement of
“Gay Pride”, as the rainbow is known for its universal iconic flag representing the LGBT+, but if
you go back 20 years or so, the rainbow would have been associated as a kid’s drawing or
nursery rhyme. But because now it is represented as the Pride flag, we immediately associate it
with the iconic rainbow colours. And this is the same thing we do with colours when we see a
colour, we immediately associate that colour with something familiar to us, red is for anger and
blue is sadness. That is how filmmakers have used colours to associate emotion in their films
either by using associated colour scheme or transitional.

Conclusion -
I have learned a lot about film theory and how associated colour is used to gain a phycological
reaction to its audience and the importance and brilliance of colour in film cannot be stressed enough
although coloured films are now the normality, its power too potential influence emotions should not
be taken for granted! I will take what I have learned and use colour theory to drive my final project
using the techniques this essay has taught me.

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