DIRECTIONS UNIT: (Research) The Importance of Colour

Due to my idea of focusing on colour as one of my key directorial stylistic approaches, I decided to do a bit of research into how colour affects film.

Colour helps to tell a story. It can evoke emotional, psychological and even physical feelings without the audience even being aware that this is happening [1]. Colour can:
- elicit psychological reactions
- draw focus to details
- set the tone and mood
- represent the characters and their personalities
- shows changes / story arcs

Colours can be altered in a variety of ways. The hue, saturation and value can all be altered in order to produce a specific look. The more vibrant the colour, generally the more happy and exciting the scene. In contrast, if the colours used are more dull, then the scene is often trying to portray a melancholy atmosphere. However, this is just stereotypically, many films break these codes and conventions in order contrast moods and emotions.

As I wanted to use red as the main colour in my production, I needed to be clear what emotions it might evoke and what mood and tone it sets. I need to be careful with my use of red because (as well as conveying love and romance) it can convey feelings of danger and anger. I will therefore lighten the value of the red in order to make it slightly more pink in tone. Pink often connotes innocence, sweetness, femininity and beauty. These are all character traits that are associated with my character Juliet. Therefore by making the red have a slightly pink hue, it will help to create the correct tone of love as well as innocence and beauty.

During my research I also discovered how balancing colours affects the overall look of the product. This thought had never occurred to me before, I didn't realise that the balance of the colours could make such a difference to the overall outcome. When films often use different variations of the same colour, this creates a monochromatic look. This monochromatic colour scheme helps to create a harmonious, soft feeling. This is the sort of look that Wes Anderson's films portray. I had originally wanted to take inspiration from Wes Anderson and create a visually striking product that focused a lot on colour. However, after analysing some of his films, I still couldn't figure out how exactly he managed to achieve that unique look to his films. Now that I have conducted research into colour, I can see that I was missing how he balanced the colours within his productions - this is a major aspect of what gives his films such a unique look.

I would go for a monochromatic look for my product, however I feel that using too much red would start to convey the wrong mood and atmosphere. I wanted the romance to be subtle to represent Mark's underlying love for Juliet. I will therefore stick with just adding splashes of colour, however in future I would love to experiment with filming in a monochromatic colour palette.

[1] INC, S. (2016) How to use color in film: 50+ examples of movie color Palettes. Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/ (Accessed: 11 February 2017).