5. Color

Key Terms and Concepts:

dominants: that area of the film image that compels the viewer's most immediate attention, usually because of a prominent visual contrast
Color started by hand tinting and didn’t become commercially widespread till the 1940’s
Early color use in the 1930’s was garish and still remains crude
Most famous color films tend to be expressionistic…Antonini’s Red Dessert….spray painted sets, ugliness of industrial waste and age…. Yet red gives sexual tension.
Color tends to be a subconscious element, strong emotional appeal, expressive and atmospheric rather than intellectual.
Lines masculine and color feminine
Color used for symbolic purposes
Cool colors (blue, green, violet) = tranquility and serenity
Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) suggest aggressiveness, violence.
Color can be exploited for its natural garishness
Black and white is also used for symbolic purposes.
film noir: emphasizese low-key and high-contrast lighting, complex compositions, and a strong atmosphere of dread and paranoia
Colorized means adding color to an original black and white film. The main issue with colorization is that it creates new “dominants” in the composition.

Review Questions: (Minimum of 5 critical thinking questions)

What was the reason that filmmakers used different tinting techniques?
How has color been used for symbolic purposes?
How has allowing black and white movies to be colorized provoked "a howl of protest from most film artists and critics"?
In a color film, how has black and white photography symbolic?
What does colorization throw off?

Reference Films: (Include Title and year of production and reason for reference.)

American Beauty (USA, 1999): used as a reference to how color is being used symbolically, like how red is often linked to sex
Savage Nights (France, 1993): color being used symbolically like how red represents danger
The Age of Innocence (USA, 1993): color affecting mood like how bright colors tend to be cheerful
The Godfather (USA, 1972): color used to bring attention to an object like how low-key lighting with made an emphasis on one bright red rose
Life is Beautiful (Italy, 1998): color emphasizes mood by how it started out with warm colors which begin to pale when the hero of the story gets arrested
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Britain, 1994): color emphasizing feelings like how the blue color represents shivers, chills, shudders
Dark Victory (USAA, 1939): "colorized"-questions of whether the suit is too blue or not

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_photography: This link lays out the basic history of film and how it developed into different

types and techniques that are used to be able to enhance a photo or a film.

dbigue	Latest page update: made by dbigue , Sep 29 2006, 11:35 AM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by dbigue 1 word added 1 word deleted view changes - complete history)
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Understanding Film