Color theory and social structure in the films of Wes Anderson – V.A. Vreeland

Vreeland uses studies into colour and its associations in moving image and relates his own and others thoughts to the ever-distinguishable Wes Anderson films. Vreeland’s journal entry offers a great insight and summary  to these other texts, some of which we have already looked at throughout our bibliography. Vreeland references Yumibe’s Moving Image,

““The use of color over the course of film’s history is both controversial and misconstrued. Dyes and other methods of manual color correction have been used since the advent of the medium itself in the late 1800s” (Yumibe, 2012). Applied coloring in the silent film era as it relates to the correction and control of “natural” color in contemporary cinema is imperative in discerning the high aesthetic value of color in movies. Both applied coloring on acetate film in the early 20^th century and the grading enhancements of digital video are rooted in one common goal: the manipulation of a perceived reality.” (Vreeland, 2015)

Using such references, Vreeland will then examine this with regard Anderson’s uses particularly examining Anderson’s considerations of a social commentary. Anderson neglects reality and ‘projects fantasy’ in his work, ” This notion directly correlates to the reasons why his darker screenplays are treated with brilliant color palettes and humoristic undertones.” (Vreeland, 2015)

Vreeland discusses a childlike optimism in Anderson’s films and proposes the idea that he is presenting what he would have liked to have seen as a child.

“[Color] brings about this fairy tale-like existence in Anderson’s films because his levity often times contrasts grim situations. The hospital room is bright and bustling with family members after Richie Tenenbaum tries to commit suicide. Here Anderson plays with the stress that society places on menial factors–in darkness he presents us with light as a sort of childish optimism.” (Vreeland 2015)

As well as childishness colour being a common theme in Anderson’s work, Vreeland also points out that critics fault him for paying too much attention to setting a scene with colour while neglecting his characters.

Importantly to Vreeland’s text we see he, himself thinks of colour as a directors considered decision, it isn’t just something that happens.

 

Yumibe, J. (2012) Moving color: Early film, mass culture, modernism. New Brunswick: Rutgers university press.

Vreeland, V.A. (2015) ‘Color theory and social structure in the films of Wes Anderson’, Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 6(2). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1360/color-theory-and-social-structure-in-the-films-of-wes-anderson

If it’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die. Patti Bellantoni

“If it’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die. The Power of Colour in Visual Storytelling” – Patti Bellantoni.

Bellantoni’s book is a must-read for those in visual positions of the film industry and those aspiring to be; the text explores the meaning and emotion of colour through people’s response to it. It was inspired by experiments carried out within Bellantoni’s own classroom, conducted because of the popular response to these experiments and because of the drastic and surprising response from the students.

After exploring how the students responded, Bellantoni examines how filmmakers have made use of similar considerations in their own work. She extracts each colour and explores varying films uses of that colour, and what meanings, significance and emotions filmmakers have placed on its importance.

Bellantoni allows the reader to become immersed in filmmakers reasoning and readers more than understand but rather find themselves, through the book, becoming creatively enlightened.

Bellantoni, P. (2005) If it’s purple, someone’s gonna die: The power of color in visual storytelling. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.

Moving Color (2012) – Joshua Yumibe

Moving Color. Early Film, Mass Culture, Modernism – Joshua Yumibe

Yumibe’s text acts as a history of colour cinema, and explores the implications that the past uses and methodologies had on the present ones. Beginning in the nineteenth century readers see how film was striving to be photo-real in terms of the colour choices when tinting the film, and how that theory didn’t necessarily aid story-telling in film making,

“Griffith was extremely interested in using color effects in his films. In the New York Times in 1916 he describes his “impressionistic” approach to color: I do not believe that the reproduction of natural colors is often desirable. That would be carrying realism too far, for the things of life are not always beautiful in color, and reproducing them as they are would often be less artistic than in black and white. (Griffith, 1916) (Yumibe, 2012)

For a period of time Hollywood cinema then digressed to using vivid representations of colour that suited the thought behind the film that was being made.

Yumibe further progresses his thoughts to modern times, stating how cinema is in a similar situation once more, a lot of films are again striving to be more photo-real, which is affecting the colouration and colour choices digital filmmakers are making. As well, this is also arguably having the opposite effect, the more CGI in film and fantastical the themes, the more vivid and unnaturalistic colours are being used.

To address these differences Yumibe poses questions of how that affects an audiences psychology, as he progresses through history, he discuses, the seriousness of colour, in terms of how an audience reacts to it physically and emotionally.

 

Yumibe, J. (2012) Moving color: Early film, mass culture, modernism. New Brunswick: Rutgers university press.

Breaking Bad – Vince Gilligan Interviews

Vince Gilligan, the creator of ‘Breaking Bad’ and many other well know television shows has the reputation of having a keen eye for colour and detail. Lengthy thought is put into each scene’s colour palette and done so in such a way that it assists the story-line so seamlessly.

In an interview with GQ magazine, Gilligan talks about his colour process,

“At the beginning of every series we would have a meeting in which I would discuss with the production designer and the costume designer about the specific palettes we would use for any given character throughout the course of the year.

We did this in microcosm in the pilot episode: for instance in the pilot, it was intentional that Walt start off very beige and khaki-ish, very milquetoast, and he would progress through that one hour of television to green and thus show his process of evolution as a character. We started to do that in macrocosm throughout particular series: we’d start Walt for example one year in red and take him to black. The one character we did not do that with was Marie, who stayed very consistent in her colour palette: she would always wear purple, to the extent of being quite monomaniacal about it. But there’s quite a number of man hours spent discussing colour usage, and assigning colours to different characters and thinking in those terms.” (Gilligan, 2013) (Franklin-Wallis, 2013)

fig.01 – Marie

Gilligan’s process of meeting to discuss colour scripts reminded me of how Maurice Nobel set up his colour scripts for animated scenes. Like Noble, Gilligan wanted his characters to be recognisable through their colour, and like Noble these charcters needed to fit well into their scenes without jarring, all the while being considerate of what their colouring was saying about their mood and the overall story-line. However compared to Noble, Gilligan’s script is much more mature and therefore Gilligan needs to utilise his colours in a more subtle and mature manner.

The meetings also suggest Gilligan and his team had a set of colour rules to work by, from reading Gilligan’s interview with Vulture, he suggested that keeping ‘Marie’ in purple said something of of her personality rather than what he thought the meaning of purple to be, “Marie would say purple is the color of royalty”, by stating that this is something that Marie thinks shows that Gilligan is getting inside the mind of his character, he isn’t dressing her in purple so that the audience believe her to be of importance but rather because she perhaps sees herself that way.

Further in the same interview with Vulture, Gilligan speaks also about how the lead character was named ‘Walter White’ because of what he believes its colour association to be,

“Character names are a situation where you know it’s right when you hear it, and “Walter White” appealed to me because of the alliterative sound of it and because it’s strangely bland, yet sticks in your head nonetheless — you know, white is the color of vanilla, of blandness.” (Gilligan 2011)  (Flaherty 2011)

The colour white has its connotations as being a bland, pure colour and this is how Gilligan wanted his Western audience to view Walter, as the average-Joe, could-be-anyone type character. Gillian in his GQ magazine interview suggested that he changed White’s clothes to suit the arc of the story throughout the series’s, khaki to green and red to black. Obviously he couldn’t change the name of the character but through keeping his ‘bland’ name, the audience is reminded of to White really is or who he was at least.

fig.02 – White’s clothing colour though season one and two

The interviews I’ve looked at prove how Gilligan thoroughly thought out his colour choices regard character, although little is documented on the overall colouration from scene to scene to suit the story. From watching extracts from the show however, the colours do appear to reflect the situation, and a lot of colour symbolism is used in the way the frames were colour treated.

Breaking Bad in my view is undoubtedly one of the most colour considered pieces of moving image art and television of the 21st Century.

fig.01: Http://Scstylecaster.Files.Wordpress.Com/2013/09/Marie-Schrader-Purple.Jpg. 2016. 

fig.02: http://www.telltalesonline.com/15676/mind-blowing-things-you-never-noticed-in-breaking-bad/

Villapaz, L. (2013) ‘Breaking bad’ color theory: The subtle symbolism and meanings behind the colors in AMC’s hit series [PHOTOS]. Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/breaking-bad-color-theory-subtle-symbolism-meanings-behind-colors-amcs-hit-series-1411632 (Accessed:12/11/16).

Flaherty, M. (2011) The Showrunner transcript: Breaking bad’s Vince Gilligan on season Four and his experiences on the x-files. Available at: http://www.vulture.com/2011/05/vince_gilligan_showrunner_tran.html (Accessed:12/11/16).

Pinson, L. (2015) ‘Breaking bad’ and colors: A comprehensive guide to the theories, costumes. Available at: http://stylecaster.com/breaking-bad-colors-theory/ (Accessed: 12/11/16).

Franklin-Wallis, O. (2013) Breaking bad creator Vince Gilligan on colour theory, the hardest scene to write and the looming finale. Available at: http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/vince-gilligan-breaking-bad-final-season-interview (Accessed:12/11/16).

Colour theory in modern cinema – Dorukalp Durmus

Durmus in his article discusses his views and thoughts on colour theory and how it has progressed with cinema. He acknowledges the traditional assumptions surrounding human connotations with colour, and then discusses films that have made much more clever use of colour, referring to  Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993),

“There is one scene that shows a little girl wearing a red coat. This coat is seen later in the film as an indication that the little girl is dead. According to the director red was used to symbolize the bloodstain (of ignorance) of the Holocaust.” (Durmus, 2012) (Anker, 2005)

Schindler’s List was a colourless film that had accents of colour where there was true meaning and necessity for it. In my view using colour in this way to aid the story-telling should always be how colour is considered in film. As Durmus points out with digitalised film today we can easily manipulate colour, and so it is important to consider when reviewing colour in film whether it was shot on an analogue or digital camera.
Of course in modern times digital shooting is much more common because of the amount of post work that can be done to the production, particularity with recolouring. In my view this ‘get out of jail free card’ as it can be seen has made some film makers lazy in their approach to colour. Particularly when we think back to my post on Maurice Nobel, working in the 20th century every scene’s colour was carefully thought of, both for story advantage and for technology advantage.

“Another distortion to the traditional view is the way night-time is rendered. It is portrayed in a spooky green hue with explosions of orange on the side. Further on in the movie, the audience feels unsettled at the sight of warm colours and subconsciously expects danger.”…”Another intentional misuse of traditional colour theory can be seen in Sam Mendes’ search for beauty in a modern American family, American Beauty (2001)”…”The scene is tilted towards blue, but in this case blue does not reflect serenity, but rather the stress and discomfort experienced by the main role.” (Durmus 2012)

Durmus vaguely references throughout his article colour terminology that allude to a set of rules, here he speaks of a misuse of colour theory, implying that he knows the rules of it. Personally, I don’t think that the film-makers he’s talking about are breaking rules at all but are simply, and rather cleverly, knowing how their audience will react to certain seemingly unnatural combinations, which if your story is leading toward the unnatural should be an obvious enough correlation.

Durmus concludes by talking about how colour has helped us to grasp the story and how modern cinema lacks a fixed framework for colour,

“We grasp the morals of a story much more clearly or in a much more sophisticated fashion with the assistance of colour. Although modern cinema lacks a specific style in general or any fixed framework…” (Durmus 2012)

I think a considered use of colour should consciously or unconsciously aid the storytelling more than an audience should even realise. However, it’s his final point on modern cinema lacking in a framework that interests me, I think this loosely touches on what O’Connor talked about in her paper, how modern colour theory has become out of date.

From reviewing modern texts to those written by practitiones from an older generation I am beginning to consider that it is our digital world that has simply made us as artists lazy with colour.

O’Connor, Z. (2010). Black-listed: Why colour theory has a bad name in 21st century design education. Available at: http://connected2010.eproceedings.com.au/papers/p4.pdf (Accessed: 30 October 2016).

Durmus, D. (2012) ‘Colour Theory in Modern Cinema’, Plda Magazine, Gutersloh (https://www.academia.edu/12304327/Colour_theory_in_modern_cinema), (85), pp. 44–46.

Anker, D. (2005) Steven Spielberg (TV) Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust. AMC.

Black-listed: Why colour theory has a bad name in 21st century design education – Zena O’Connor

O’Connor speaks openly about the problems with how we perceive outdated colour theory in the modern day and about how because it is seen to be outdated therefore isn’t taught. Her paper, which was presented at a design education conference in Australia, talks about the problems we have with colour theory frankly and honestly. I found myself completely agreeing with her views.

O’Connor regards there as being three key reasons for colour theory not being taught in higher education; the diversity among theories and their origins, that the theories have not evolved to fit modern times and as her final point she states that,
“colour theories represent a jumbled maze of explanatory, normative and predictive colour theories coupled with colour manifestos and personal opinions masquerading as theory, plus a host of colour creation and colour combination techniques.” (O’Connor 2010)

O’Connor is requesting a shake-up in the digitalised colour world, we cannot continue to believe our texts which state a fixed meaning for a colour, but rather we should always be thinking that colour terminology is polysemic. She also states that constructs are often recycled without reevaluation, ‘neutral’, ‘primary colours’, ‘colour harmony’, 

“Two examples of constructs in need of review include “colour harmony” and “primary colours”. In regard to the former, it has been suggested that an “almost infinite” number of colour combinations is possible, making it impossible to define or predict colour harmony using prescriptive or predictive formulae irrespective of the context (Hard and Sivik 2001, p4). Despite the inherent logic of this, colour theorists continue to present predictive colour harmony formulae and guidelines” (O’Connor 2010)

In another of her papers, ‘Colour Harmony Revisited’, O’Connor proposes a mathematical model for colour harmony,

“Colour harmony = f (Col 1, 2, 3…n)*(ID+CE+CX+P+T)

The model describes colour harmony as a function (f) of the interaction between a colour combination (Col1,2,3…n) and the various factors that influence positive aesthetic response to colour:

 Individual differences (ID) such as age, gender, personality and affective state;

 Influential cultural experiences (CE);

 A broad understanding of context (CX) that includes setting, placement, ambient lighting, etc;

 Intervening perceptual effects (P);

 The impact of time (T) in terms of the effects of time as well as prevailing social trends ” (O’Connor, 2010)

I found O’Connor’s papers to be compelling to read in light of my research for this blog. I too have been finding a lot of older literature and it does seem that even colour terminology is confused between texts, proposing in a way you should pick one teacher and stick with it because otherwise you’ll become baffled by the variation out there.

O’Connor concludes her paper by bluntly answering her proposed question,

“In summary, the jumble of extant colour theories provide little or no clear direction for those involved in practice, or for those attempting to teach colour theory in higher education.” (O’Connor, 2010)

O’Connor, Z. (2010). Black-listed: Why colour theory has a bad name in 21st century design education. Available at: http://connected2010.eproceedings.com.au/papers/p4.pdf (Accessed: 30 October 2016).

O’Connor, Z. (2010). Colour harmony revisited. Color Research and Application.

Hard, A., and L. Sivik. 2001.A Theory of Colors in Combination—A Descriptive Model Related to the NCS Color-Order System. Available at: http://www.lacambrecouleur.be/pdf/A_Theory_of_Colors_in_Combination.pdf
(Accessed: 30 October 2016)

Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow – Scott Higgins

Higgins discusses the three-colour technicolor technology that impacted how colour could be used in film in the early 1900s and beyond, taking us through the lives of Herbert and Natalie Kalmus, Robert Edmond Jones and other influential characters of the era. The book is a deep insight into how colour featured and found its place in story telling in early cinema. Initially filmmakers were hesitant and careless around using colour,

‘‘many producers chose to film in the gaudiest colors, simply proclaiming that their product was in color instead of black-and-white’’ pg 31 (H.Kalmus) (Higgins 2007)

this led to innovators, like Natalie Kalmus to drive the artistic colour wing of technicolor’s use, she headed the technicolor colour control department, which was set up to allow hesitant filmmakers to understand the correct use of colour,

“According to [Natalie] Kalmus, the department reviewed scripts and generated a ‘‘color chart for the entire production,’’ accounting for ‘‘each scene, sequence, set and character.’’ The goal, wrote Kalmus, was to produce a color score, like a musical score, that ‘‘amplifies the picture’’ by matching color to the ‘‘dominant mood or emotion’’ of a sequence, thus ‘‘augmenting its dramatic value.’’” pg41 (Higgins 2007)

I found this passage particularly of interest; I once had a professor teach me to think of colour as musical chords and to always create colour harmonies for my scenes. It seems entirely possible that these theories on how to use colour correctly that Kalmus and her team established are still seen as the rules today. Perhaps the limitations of technicolor are still mentally limiting digital artists or even influencing audiences into thinking in a certain way because of seeing certain colour combinations.

Kalmus and her team developed an aesthetic that filmmakers were drawn toward, rather than steered clear of, it both competed with and cohesively complemented contemporary film making of that era, all the while adding to the narrative of the script in its own, non-abrasive manner.

 

Higgins, S. (2007) Harnessing the technicolor rainbow: Color design in the 1930s. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

(Higgins, 2007)

The Language of New Media – Lev Manovich

The Language of New Media is Manovich’s exploration into the past and present of cinematic technologies, with particular attention to documenting the present. He points out that the technologies are changing so rapidly, even our culture is affected by its change and that the results are not being specifically documented. For me it’s important and key to recognise that this book was written in 2001, before the rejuvenated current technological emergence of virtual reality or augmented reality, recognising how far our own technologies have advanced in that relatively short period proves his point.

Manovich talks about colour in his book by making reference to William J. Mitchell’s notions on digital photography,
“As Mitchell points out, this inherent mutability erases the difference between a photograph and a painting. Since a film is a series of photographs, it is appropriate to extend Mitchell’s argument to digital film. With an artist being able to easily manipulate digitized footage either as a whole or frame by frame, a film in a general sense becomes a series of paintings.” (Manovich, 2001)

Editing digital film allows it to become like a painting, which shows how colour theories cannot only be relevant to 2D art pieces and that the same rules, are equally important in digitalised work.

“We usually think of computerization as automation, but here the result is the reverse: what was previously automatically recorded by a camera now has to be painted one frame at a time. But not just a dozen images, as in the nineteenth century, but thousands and thousands. We can draw another parallel with the practice, common in the early days of silent cinema, of manually tinting film frames in different colors according to a scene’s mood.” (Manovich, 2001)

In 2014 I attended a lecture given by Manovich who spoke about patterns in current merging technologies and about his more recent publications, he was then still trying to give an artists perspective of the modern new media surrounding him, playing particular attention to pattern at that time.

 

William J Mitchell (1982). The Reconfigured Eye. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Lev Manovich (2001). The Language of New Media . Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press pg 255-258.

Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation – Hans Bacher

Dream Worlds is a fantastic read for any artist, digital or otherwise who wants to consider the scene where they are working as a whole. It covers all elements of bringing a harmonious scene together. Often I live by this publication’s views on composition and staging, however after rereading its chapter on colour theory, it reads much weaker than the other chapters.

I don’t particularly agree with having hard and fast rules when it comes to believing that there are only certain ways to think, and moods you should feel when seeing certain colours, however Bacher explores that idea as if true.

Bacher claims to be discussing the ‘scientific background’ of why we use certain colours, and then goes on to say how “nearly everywhere around the world the same colour rules can be applied”, hot colours create aggression, cool colours are calming etc.
Personally, I think this is far too much of a generalisation and that there are massive cultural differences between the connotations of colour. Quickly jumping to an online article on colour symbolism,  (http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/color-symbolism-and-meanings-around-the-world) you can immediately see, blue symbolises healing, depression,  immortality, good health, love and divine joy in different cultures and parts of the world. These opening paragraphs of the chapter made me question if we can trust Bacher’s views on colour theory.

However sketchy his views on colour symbolism and its ‘meaning’ may be I do appreciate some of his ‘rules’.
“…there are rules that have been created over the past eighty years. And it is best to study these rules so as not to repeat past mistakes.” (Bacher, 2007. pg 139)

Bacher discusses using ‘color-chapters’ and ‘color-transitions’ to move between scenes:

“Normally, transitions are designed to be smooth; however; contrasting colors next to each other (from one sequence to the next and even from scene to scene) help indicate dramatic story changes that may occur and also helps create the correct emotional response” (Bacher, 2007. pg 140)

This type of response to colour in moving image is fantastically thought provoking, he is thinking not about two solid colour compositions cutting from one to the next but rather what story that transition can tell. Bacher continues, discussing ‘colour-curves’ and how it is important that colour builds up the suspense of the story and that the colour climaxes at the point the story does.

We see time and time again in animation colour changing per sequence and holding a close emotional-curve with the story but I had rarely considered that this colour emotional-curve was also building to a climactic point.

Although I have mixed opinions on Bacher’s writing on colour theory, he has certainly made me think about the use of colour continuously throughout a moving image as well as how that colour should play to all the strengths and emotion arcs in the story.

Wang, C. (2015) Symbolism of colors and color meanings around the world. Available at: http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/color-symbolism-and-meanings-around-the-world (Accessed: October 2016).

Bacher, H.P. (2007) Dream worlds: Production design for animation. Oxford, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Colour Deconstructed -Tricia Guild (2013)

When surfing my personal bookcase for publications on colour theory, I came across a book I couldn’t help but buy a few years back, partially because of my deep interest in colour and partially because of all the magnificent imagery. Tricia Guild’s, ‘Colour  Deconstructed’, is primarily a book aimed at interior designers but I was interested to see what moving image artists could learn from her colour theories.

“White is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black” G.K. Chesterton

Guild, through having included this quote from a great poet and philosopher is relating white, black and red to being accent colours, just as Maurice Noble did in my previous post, although here, she considers interiors and the world around her while he concerned himself with the imaginary world he was creating on film.

The book is laid out in seven colour titled chapters exploring decorative themes and how to balance colour, pattern and atmosphere in a room. There is merit to looking at how Guild sets up her ‘scenes’ although I found this to be most helpful if exploring use of pattern with colour in a space methodically as opposed to considering the emotion of colour and lighting that digital artists think about.

Guild, T. (2013) Colour deconstructed. London, United Kingdom: Quadrille Publishing.