15/03/2015 5 Common Film Color Schemes ­ Cinematic Color Design

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5 Common Film Color Schemes – Learning Cinematic Color Design

by Richard Lackey (website) | 5th March 2015

Being able to use color to create harmony, or tension within a scene, or to bring attentionto a key visual theme can be used to spectacular effect. In this article we look at 5common  film color schemes that can help you  understand how cinematic color designworks.

This industry of ours is great. I truly love it, the people, the gear, the creativity and energy. Atthe same time, as your experience grows and your expanding network of connections allowsyou to move up the ranks, you also find the expected, assumed level of knowledge increases.This is logical, but I have found the assumed knowledge is often rarely discussed, because,

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15/03/2015 5 Common Film Color Schemes ­ Cinematic Color Design

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well, it’s assumed that you already have it.

I want to share a few of my “ah ha!” moments that I assume some (most) of you alreadyknow, because of course it’s “assumed” knowledge, but the truth is maybe it will help morethan a few of you to connect some dots of your own.

If you’ve never really come to grips with why certain colors or combinations of color evoke orinduce a emotional response, or simply just look pleasing, this explanation of basic practicalcolor theory may suddenly cause the puzzle pieces to fall together or spark some interest inresearching it further.

Planning the look

In post of course, a colorist can only work with what he (or she) is given, and so it can beargued that the overall look and feel of the image is the responsibility of the productiondesigner. This is carefully planned by art department as a whole in consultation with thedirector and cinematographer long before cameras roll. While this is true, how many of usregularly work with a professional production designer?

Sometimes perhaps, but certainly not for every project. Many times I’ve brought on someonein a junior role, or simply used a stylist to quickly set dress a location with found existingobjects, or to bring some selected items in with them if needed. The basic knowledge I amabout to share helped immensely in those situations.

The Effect of Color

15/03/2015 5 Common Film Color Schemes ­ Cinematic Color Design

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Color can affect us psychologically and physically, often without us being aware, and can beused as a strong device within a story. Knowledge gives you control, and control means youcan manipulate and use color to give your work a powerful and beautiful edge.

Being able to use color to create harmony, or tension within a scene, or to bring attention toa key visual theme can be used to spectacular effect.

In the sense of the work of the world’s greatest cinematographers we admire so muchnothing is accidental. A strong red color has been shown to raise blood pressure, while a bluecolor has a calming effect. Some colors are distinctly associated with a particular location orplace, while others give a sense of time or period.

The Color Wheel

First of all we’ll look at some fundamentals that will apply equally to both design, and post.

It all starts with the color wheel. This should look familiar to anyone with experience of a 3way color corrector.

The color wheel is the common tool you will see when it comes to color control, and it isstandard in color theory in defining a number of combinations that are considered especiallypleasing.

In a simplified form the color wheel comprises 12 colors based on the RYB (or subtractive)

15/03/2015 5 Common Film Color Schemes ­ Cinematic Color Design

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color model.

In the RYB color model, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue. The three secondarycolors are green, orange and purple, and can be made by mixing two primary colors. A furthersix tertiary colors can be made by mixing the primary and secondary colors.

Let’s make some sense of this. Firstly you’ll notice warmer colors on the right side, and coolercolors on the left. Warm colors are bright and energetic. Cool colors give a soothing and calmimpression.

We will quickly define the common color harmonies or color chords, each consists of two ormore colors within a specific pattern or relationship on the color wheel.

All of the frame grabs used to illustrate the 5 most common schemes were created bygraphic designer Roxy Radulescu from her site www.moviesincolor.com. It’s worth takingsome time to look through all the work she has done.

5 Common Film Color Schemes

1. Complementary Color Scheme

Two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel make a complimentary pair. This is by far themost commonly used pairing. A common example is orange and blue, or teal. This pairs awarm color with a cool color and produces a high contrast and vibrant result. Saturation mustbe managed but a complimentary pair are often quite naturally pleasing to the eye.

 

Orange and blue colors can often be associated with conflict in action, internally or

15/03/2015 5 Common Film Color Schemes ­ Cinematic Color Design

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externally. Often a internal conflict within a character can be reflected in the color choice inhis or her external environment.

The color palette of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” is a great example of a complementary

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pairing of red and green.

Orange and Teal are readily apparent in this scene from “Fight Club.” Teal is often pushed intothe shadows, and oranges into highlights.

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A similar look in this scene from “Drive.”

A complementary pairing isn’t always so obvious and the contrast between the two colorsused is often relative. Another shot from “Fight Club” which at first appears just to have astrong overall teal tint to the entire image, but a closer look reveals there is still a orangetouch to the skin tones relative to the deep blue green.

2. Analogous Color Scheme

Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel. They match well and can create aoverall harmony in color palette. It’s either warmer colors, or cooler colors so doesn’t have thecontrast and tension of the complementary colors.

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Analogous colors are easy to take advantage of in landscapes and exteriors as they are oftenfound in nature. Often one color can be chosen to dominate, a second to support, and a thirdalong with blacks, whites and grey tones to accent.

Reds, Oranges, Browns and Yellows in this scene from “American Hustle” fall next to eachother on the color wheel forming a warm overall feel with very little tension in the image.

3. Triadic Color Scheme

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Triadic colors are three colors arranged evenly spaced around the color wheel. One should bedominant, the others for accent. They will give a vibrant feel even if the hues are quiteunsaturated.

 

Triadic is one of the least common color schemes in film and although difficult, can be quitestriking.

Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1964 “Pierrot Le Fou” makes use of a triadic color scheme of red, blue andgreen.

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4. Split-Complementary Color Scheme

A split-complimentary color scheme is really very similar to complimentary colors but insteadof using the direct opposite color of the base color, it uses the two colors next to theopposite. It has the same high contrast but less tension than a complimentary pair.

 

A split complimentary color scheme in this scene of the Coen Brother’s “Burn After Reading”of red, green and teal.

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5. Tetradic Color Scheme

Tetradic colors consist of four colors arranged into two complementary pairs. The result is afull palette with many possible variations. As with most of these color harmonies, one color isusually dominant.

 

“Mama Mia’s” colorful party scene falls into the example of a tetradic choice of colorscreating a well balanced and harmonious palette in a scene that could otherwise have lookedlike a bad disco.

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Some common general looks that can be created in post pretty much regardless of whatcolors are in the image are the orange/teal look where orange is pushed into the highlightsand upper-mids of the skin tones and teal (or blue green) is pushed into the shadows.

A scene from “Magnolia” showing another example of Hollywood’s love affair with orangeand teal. Blue/green has been pushed into the shadows, and orange in the midtones andhighlights specifically in skin tones.

I hope that this basic breakdown can help give you control in making planned and purposefulcolor choices either on set when working with a designer, or purely in post in order to setyour work apart.

Of course I assume you all knew this already… but this was just in case you didn’t ;)

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Minco van der Weide March 5, 2015

Awesome post, thank you Cinema5D!

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Dave March 5, 2015

Fantastic post. Really enjoyed reading it and being able to put real world examplesalongside the descriptions.

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Bart van der Gaag March 5, 2015

Brilliant post.

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Tags: color, color theoryUnder: Cameras, Filmmaking, Post Pro

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Niklaas P. Hoyng March 5, 2015

Brilliant Post! Very helpful!Thanks a lot Cinema 5D.

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Simone Gandolfo March 5, 2015

great article, may thank’s

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Editt Lab March 6, 2015

Good one

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GLenn Stillar March 6, 2015

An excellent post. Thanks so much.

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Julien Beydon March 6, 2015

Excellent ! But it is “Pierrot Le Fou” (mad) ,not Le Feu ( fire )

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Sebastian Wöber March 6, 2015

Thanks for the hint. Corrected.

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Arnaud Trouvé March 9, 2015

Great article! Thanks

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Margarita Smith March 10, 2015

neat!

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facebook_user March 11, 2015

Great post

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Giacomo De Biase March 11, 2015

Very interesting article, one question: is it right use subtractive wheel to achievecomplementary colors? I think it’s right for paintings but for video I use additive wheel toestablish a complementary color. What do you think about this?

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