Using Colour To Tell A Story In Film

INTRODUCTION

Cinematography is all about light. 

Light is a complex thing. It can be shaped, it can come in different qualities, different strengths and, importantly, it can take the form of different colours. 

So, let’s examine this idea of colour by going through an introduction to colour theory, look at how filmmakers can create a specific colour palette for their footage and check out some examples of how colour has been used to aid the telling of different stories.

WHAT IS COLOUR THEORY?

Colour theory is a set of guidelines for colour mixing and the visual effects that using different colours has on an audience.

There are many different approaches to colour theory ranging from ideas all the way back in Aristotle’s time up to more contemporary studies on colour such as those by Isaac Newton. But let's just take a look at some basic ideas and see how they can be applied to film.

When different spectrums of light hit objects with different physical properties it produces a colour, which we put into a category and ascribe a name to.

Primary colours are a group of colours that can be mixed to form a range of other colours. In film these are often, but not always, used sparingly in a frame. A splash of red in an otherwise green landscape stands out and draws the eye.

An important part of colour theory in the visual arts space is knowing complimentary colours. When two of these colours are combined they make white, grey or black. When the spectrum of colours are placed on a colour wheel, complimentary colours always take up positions opposite each other.

When two complementary colours are placed next to each other they create the strongest contrast for those two colours and are generally viewed as visually pleasing. Cinematographers often combine complimentary colours for effect and to create increased contrast and separation between two planes in an image. For example, placing a character lit with an orange, tungsten light against a blue-ish teal background creates a greater feeling of separation and depth than if both the character and the background were similar shades of orange.

When it comes to the psychology of using colour, cinematographers generally fall into two camps - or somewhere in the middle. Some cinematographers such as Vittorio Storaro think that certain colours carry an innate, specific psychological meaning.   

“Changing the colour temperature of a single light, changes completely the emotion that you have in your mind. I didn’t know at the time the meaning of the colour blue. It means freedom.” - Vittorio Storaro

Other filmmakers rely more on instinct and what feels best when lighting or creating a colour palette for a film. The psychology of colour can change depending on the context and background of the audience. 

As well as being a means of representing and expressing different emotions, deliberate and repeated uses of colour can also be used by filmmakers as a motif to represent themes or ideas.   

Another important part of colour theory is warm and cool colours. The Kelvin scale is a way of measuring the warmth of light, with lower Kelvin values being warmer and higher Kelvin values being cooler.

Warm and cool colours can have different psychological effects on an audience and can also be used to represent different physical, atmospheric conditions. Using warmer colours can be used to emphasise the feeling of physical heat in a story, while inversely cooler colours can be used to make the setting of a story feel cold or damp. 

CREATING A COLOUR PALETTE

Now that we have a basic framework of colour theory to work with, let's look at the different ways that filmmakers can make a colour palette for a movie. Colour palettes in film can be created using three tools: production design and costume, lighting and in the colour grade.

The set and the clothing that the characters are dressed in is always the starting point for creating a colour palette. In pre-production, directors will usually meet with the production designer and come up with a plan for the look of the set. They might give the art director a limit to certain colours they need to work with, or decide on specific tones for key props. The art team will then go in and dress the set by doing things such as painting the walls a different colour and bringing in pieces of furniture, curtains and household items that conform to that palette. 

Since characters are usually the focus of scenes and we often view them up close, choosing a colour for their costume will also have a significant impact on the overall palette. This may be a bold primary colour that makes them stand out in the frame, or something more neutral that makes them blend into the set.

With a set to work with, the next step in creating a movie’s colour palette is with lighting.

Traditionally, film lighting is based around the colour temperature of a light which as we mentioned could be warm, such as a 3,200K tungsten light or cool, such as a 5,600K HMI. On top of this, cinematographers can also choose to introduce a tint to get to other colours. This can be done the old school way by placing different coloured gels in front of lights, or the modern way by changing the hue or tint of LEDs. 

DPs can either flood the entire image with monochromatic coloured light, or, as is more common, light different pockets of the image with different colour temperatures or hues. In the same way that we create contrast by having different areas of light and shadow in an image, we can create contrast by having different areas of coloured light.  

Once the colour from the set and the lighting has now been baked into the footage, we move into post-production where it’s possible to fine tune this colour in the grade.

An image contains different levels of red, green and blue light. A colourist, often with the guidance of a director or cinematographer, uses grading software like Baselight or Da Vinci Resolve to manipulate the levels of red, green and blue in an image.

They can change the RGB of specific values of light, like introducing blue into the shadows, or adding magenta to the highlights. They can also create power windows, to change the RGB values in a specific area of the frame, or key certain colours so that they can be individually adjusted. There are other significant adjustments they can make to colour such as determining the saturation or the overall intensity of the colour that the image has.      

USING COLOUR TO TELL A STORY

“It’s a show about teenagers. Why not make a show for the teenagers that looks like how they imagine themselves. It’s not based on reality but mostly on how they perceive reality. I think colour comes into that pretty obviously.” - Marcell Rév

When coming up with a concept for the lighting in Euphoria, instead of assigning very specific psychological ideas to colour, Marcell Rév used colour more generally as a way to elevate scenes from reality.

He wanted to put the audience in the emotionally exaggerated minds of some of the characters and elevate the level of the emotions that were happening on screen. In the same way that the often reckless actions of the characters continuously ratcheted up the level of tension in the story, so too did the exaggerated, brash, coloured lighting.

To increase the potency of the visuals he often played with a limited palette of complementary colours. He avoided using a wide palette of colours, as it would become too visually scattered and decrease the potency of the colours that he did use.

Along with his gaffer he picked out gels, mainly light amber gels which he used with tungsten lights and cyan 30 or 60 gels which he used with daylight HMIs. They also used LED Skypanels, which they could quickly dial specific colour tints into. 

“That light…that colour bouncing off the screen and arriving at us we don’t see it only with the eyes, we see it with the entire body…because light is energy. I’m sending some vibrations to you, to the camera, to the film…unconsciously.” - Vittorio Storaro

When photographing Apocalypse Now, Vittorio Storaro was very deliberate about his use of colour. He wanted the colours to be so strong and saturated that the world on film almost became surrealistic.

He wasn’t happy with Kodak’s 5247 100T film stock at the time, so he got the film laboratory to flash the negative to get the level of contrast and saturation which he was happy with. 

In the jungle scenes he didn’t want to portray the location naturally. He sometimes used filters to add a monochromatic palette which was more aggressive, to increase the tension. 

“I can use artificial colour in conflict with the colour of nature. I was using the symbolic way that the American army was using to indicate to the helicopter…They were using primary and complementary colours. I was using those kinds of smoke colours to create this conflict.” - Vittorio Storaro

He also described how the most important colour in the film was black, particularly in the silhouetted scenes with Kurtz. He felt black represented the unconscious and was most appropriate for scenes where the audience was trying to discover the true meaning of Kurtz, with small slithers of light, or truth, emerging from the depths of the unconscious.