Color Schemes

Research: Color schemes 

Color schemes in films help set the mood and tell the story without using words. Filmmakers use colors to show emotions, like making a scary scene dark and shadowy or a happy moment bright and colorful. Sometimes, certain colors are connected to specific characters to make them stand out or show their personality. By using color in movies, the audience can know more about the story or character without explicitly saying anything. 

Different colors/tones give off different moods, here are some examples: 

Red: passion, danger, love, appetite, anger 

Orange: happy, confident, oppressive heat 

Yellow: playful, youth, happiness, optimism, caution 

Greens: health, finance, freshness, jealousy, nature 

Pinks: innocence, femineity, calmness, comforting 

Blues: male, intellect, honesty, loyalty, sadness, peace 

Purples: royalty, luxury, wealth, eroticism, fantasy 

Black: prestige, fear, elegance, negative power 

White: Purity, innocence, emptiness, angelic 

Gray: Neutrality, sadness, dullness 

For our opening scene, we wanted to start with a shot of a high school on the last day of school. Where everyone is happy under the bright sun ready to start their vacation and spend it with friends. Because of this, we need to include bright summer colors like yellow, orange, and red to highlight everyone’s excitement. Then, for our main character, who is sad and indifferent about the last day of school we would use colors like muted blues, greys, and whites in her outfits to show her emptiness and lackluster look. For the character’s room, we want to further develop this contrast between the outside world and her room so the lighting will be soft, and the room will be dull to highlight the depression she is going through. For some elements in her room, like the old pictures with friends, we will use bright colors to represent the happiness of those times that are now gone. 

Here are some examples of my favorite color schemes in movies: 

The Matrix (1999) - the film uses a greenish tint that makes the Matrix world feel artificial and goes with the color of computer programming from that time. The real world has cooler, more natural tones, emphasizing the difference between reality and illusion.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) - the change from the sepia tones of Kansas to the bright, saturated colors of Oz highlights Dorothy’s transition from her mundane life to the magical world.