Colour can subconsciously affect an audience emotionally and physically often assisting build harmony or tension within a scene as well as brining attention to key themes. Additionally colours can:
1. Elicit psychological reactions with the audience
2. Draw focus to significant details
3. Set the tone of the movie
4. Represent character traits and more
5. Show changes or arcs in the story
This conveys how colour is a significant attribute in film and how our colour palette has to be chosen carefully to maximise emotional and visceral effect.
The Psychological Effect of Colours in Film
In order to evoke the correct mood and tone for my music video, I will need to consider the three main components of colour which is shown below:
As mentioned in the colour theory video at the top of the page, many audience members will have a predictably similar reaction to certain colours. For example, a blue colour triggers a calming effect whereas a strong, red colour has been shown to raise blood pressure.
The colour red also helps to evoke feelings such as fear and tread, for instance within The Sixth Sense trepidation is expressed through the red tent and the sinister red lighting (press HERE to view clip). On the other hand, in Pleasantville, Gary Ross uses the hue of red to signify love, hope and sensuality.
I researched more into this and discovered a video entailing other various psychological effects that colour can cause.
Moreover, different colour schemes also help to insinuate certain feeling and emotions:
Monochromatic: Monochromatic colour schemes come in hues of just one colour. The Grand Budapest Hotel have a monochromatic colour palette, often using sides such as reds and pinks which create a deeply harmonious feeling that is soft and soothing.
Traffic (2000)
Complementary: Complementary colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel which makes them very useful for creating contrasting drama (warm vs. cool). A popular example of this are the colours orange and blue - these dulling colours are often associated with dispute. Additionally, complimentary colours merge warm and cold tones to produce a high-contrast vibrant picture in the film.
Triadic: Triadic colours often refer to the colours red, blue and yellow as they are three colours evenly arranged around the colour wheel. When triadic colours are used in film, one is aways dominant whilst the others are accented. Although this is one of the least common film colour schemes, when used it can create a striking, powerful image even when tones are unsaturated.
Superman (1978)
Discordance colours are any deviations from the films deliberate colour scheme which is usually used to refocus the audiences attention to a specific person, place or thing as well as making a moment stand out from the rest of the film.Amelie (2001)
Transitional Colours In Film
A change in the characters story/themes can be represented the the shift of the colour scheme - a transformation. For instance, within the film Up there is a significant colour transformation: the lead up to having a baby and the news of having a miscarriage. Before the news of the miscarriage, there are mainly shades of yellow to represent hope, happiness and the start of a new life, however, after the couple are informed about the loss of their child, the colours become dimmer and have a higher contrast to signify their misery.
Colour In My Music Video
By researching into the importance of colour, I have discovered that it is vital to include meaningful colour in my music video in order to show changes and arcs in the story as well as setting an overall mood to the film.I want to include both cold and warm colours within my music video; warm tones representing the past when the couple were harmonious and then cold colours to signify the present, expressing the break down of their relationship. These shade would work best in a monochromatic colour scheme in order to reinforce a powerful message and would also make the difference between past and present even more obvious. The shift of colour scheme will highlight the transitions as well as the change in theme - love/heartbreak.
I have experimented with different filters ranging from warm hues to cool tones. I then asked my target audience which colours worked best in symbolising love and heartbreak in order to chose the correct tint for my film.
My target audience unanimously decided that the pink filter was best at representing the couples love for each other, saying that it created a calming effect that helped emphasise the feelings that they both felt for each other. The pink colour was also referred to as 'cute' and 'sweet' on multiple occasions, therefore I feel as though this colour will gain the response that I intend from the audience.
They also believe that a blue filter was effective at representing the heartbreak present in the video. My target audience members associated this shade with depression and misery, effects that are common after a break-up.
I want to aslo incorporate this colours, pink and blue, within my magazine advertisement and my digipak design to introduce an element of continuity over all of my products.
In the above video, I have put the original and filtered versions side by side in order to decide whether the tint is effective or not. I believe that the blue filter creates a cold atmosphere, making the scene more sincere and tense. Additionally, it generates miserable, depressing connotations within the shot. Secondly, the pink filter helps to make the the scene warm and soft, signifying a happy and loving relationship. The filters act as an exaggeration of the emotions that are present in the raw footage.
These are the shades that I selected. I decided to go for a deep blue to emphasise the solemn ambience during the present scenes. To highly juxtapose this, I chose a hot pink hue - a colour often associated with love and lust.
As pink is a more vivid and prominent colour when compared to blue, I had to decrease the opacity of the tint so that the shade wasn't overwhelming. In turn, I had to make the amount to tint for the blue shade 10% higher than that of pink as the hue was more subtle.
