The Psychology of Colour

Colour affects more than just the way things look – it also changes the way we perceive objects by affecting our mood and emotions. Colour can make the people's sense of time confusedly. When people looking at red, they will feel the time is longer than the actual time, however, when they are looking at blue, they will fell the time is shorter. Colour can also make the people feel different weight, for example, compare the same weight of a white box with a yellow box, which one feels more heavy? The answer is the yellow one. In addition, compared with a yellow box and a blue box, the blue one looks more heavy. If there is a black box, it must looks the heavest one.

 

• Red is invigorating and may evoke either warmth or anger
• Orange is energizing and inspires creativity
• Yellow has been shown to stimulate the mind
• Green is soothing and calming
• Blue is calming and spiritual
• Indigo is soothing and promotes introspection
• Violet is uplifting and spiritual
• Pink is warm and soothing
• White is uplifting but stark
• Black is grounding and introspective
• Silver and grey are calming

 

Why colour can affect people’s feeling?

 

Some scientists think that colour comes from the nature world. The skys are blue, the blook is red, the sun is golden etc. When people see the innate colour of through the environment, they will associated it with these natural objects feeling experience, this is the most primitive influence. It is also the main reason that people from different regions, different countries can caue the same feeling of some colours.

 

Reference:
Very interesting color psychology, 2011. [online] Available at: http://www.u148.net/article/30064.html [Accessed 25 December 2012]
The Psychology of Color, 2011. [online] Available at: http://segmation.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/the-psychology-of-color-2/ [Accessed 25 December 2012]

 

Animation: Les contes de la nuit (2011)

"Les contes de la nuit" is a French animation film, it uses gorgeous colour images shows a beautiful and profound story, although those black silhouette just using the computer to make a plane image, but they represent characters is stereo, attractive, character and wise.

 

The French animation director Michel Ocelot, try to use 3D technology to make two dimensional movies, it is really a very special ways to work out the final visual images. The unique pictures present a different temperament visual feeling that is very different with the Hollywood commercial animation. It looks like the film put the Chinese shadow play into a kaleidoscope.

 

This film used a colourful and dazzled background and a lot of pure colour. In contrast, the characters just to use a single bleck outline profile. This seems to be that it can highlight the character's personality and shows the character's figures more clear. This film use such a strong contrast to make the protagonist not hide under the background, it also makes the story more clear.

Color Correction and Color Grading

Colour correction and colour grading is critical when you shoot a film. It can enhance the atmosphere that you want for your images.

People’s eyes are automatic machine, it can change the colour correction and colour grading by itself, no matter it is cool light or warm light, in doors or out doors. White is always white, black is always black. However, camera cannot do it like the human’s eyes. White can be blueish white and yellowish white through the environment. So we need to set that point, in order to get images which we want.

 

In the process of filming, the quality of the sun is going to change through out of the day. In order to make the final images look like happens at the same time, so we need colour grading, otherwise it looks very strange.

 

Another function is to use colour grading to create an atmosphere, to make it looks more real. For example, if you want to make your story that happened in a warm summer, you need set the warm colour, so that the audience can have the sun feel. However, if that happened at cold raining day, you need to set cool light, to let the audience feel cold and wet.
 

Reference:

David Anderson, 2011. Color Correction and Color Grading in Post Production [online] Available at: http://www.agencypost.com/color-correction-and-color-grading-in-post-production [Accessed 22 December 2012]

 

Film "Love Letter"

 

Today I watched the film "love letter again. It was directed by a Japanese director Iwai Shunji. This film tells us about a sad love story.

 

 

 

 

 

This film use a large number of high-light cinematography to make this film looks like a dream. This is also match the theme of the script of the film-the sad story looks like a bad dream. The scene of this film used many white things, for example, white snow, white curtain and white student uniforms, and these white things can express the dream in the student hood. The white visual images of this film also bring a few sad feelings to the audience.

 

 

Use different material to create colour atmosphere -- light

In contemporary society's film. the fantasy colours are often used in the film scene. It can not only increase the film beyond the realistic atmosphere,but also can be  create a new space in the same plane. sometimes, it can bring the future science and technology feeling to audience.

Spot and white colour have often been used to express reverie effect. Such as in dreams or unclear consciousness.

Line of light can also mean velocity and the passage of time.

 

The meaning of colour

Colour as the main thing of visual elements in the film and television, it is a kind of important ways to express stories.Many movies use colour to make different kinds of psychological effect. Some movies in a tone throughout, some movies are in a specific scene to use a specific colour. In a word, there are various ways use colour to lead the audience’s emotion through visual images in films.

As Patti Bellantoni mentioned, Red, it means powerful, lusty and defiant. Yellow means the promise and the warning, however, when it brightness and warmth, it is often associated with happiness. We can feel powerless pinafores and scary through blue, as well as it is the coldest colour in the spectrum. Green is a strange colour, we can see many types of green in our world, however, when it not in a natural state, it can have very negative associations. So in many films, green was often used to describe evil witch. (If it's purple, someone's gonna die : 2005)

Reference: Patti Bellantoni (2005). If it's purple, someone's gonna die. Burlington, MA, USA ; Oxford, UK : Elsevier/Focal Press 1st American pbk.

 

Use Colour To Express Character's Mood

Yesterday I watched a film "A Single Man", which Owen recommended to me. The movie tells a story about a middle-aged English professor George can not extricate themselves immersed in the shadow of death by car accident with his partner Jim who lived 16 years with him. And George decided to commit suicide. This film record the whole day's activities of him.

 

I think this is an art film, the colour in this film is so beautiful. The director use a very hide and deep way to express the character of protagonist. At begining of this film, the colour is grey and bule, it's the best way use this colour to express George's mood is very sad and he miss Jim very much. Audience can feel the distressed from mixed bule and grey.

 

And then, when George meet someone who want to make him happy the colour has been changed. The images become more colourful and vivid. The background changed to warm orange. We can feel the snug from these warm colour. It seems that our mood have been changed to happy through the warm colour.

 

I think the change of colour can make the director to express character's personality and mood. It can support the script to discribe a delicate story.

 

Here the official trailer for  " A Single Man", you can see how the colour changes.

 

Screen Writing Task

On Jools's screen writing class, he gave us a task to write a place.
Evoke that place through writing it
1. evoke it through sounds, smells, size
2. evoke that same place through character
3. evoke thae same place through two characters

Here is my writing:

 

1. An old building in shool. The floor and stairs are made of wood. You can feel the smell of wood mingled with the dust. The space is very quite and dark. Some gypsum portrait and the painter's paraphernalia piled up in the waste of the classroom. It was full of dust, and not many people go into this building.

 

2. A student need to get some sculpture at the second floor of this building. So she went into the building. She push the door slightly, walked slowly to the stairs side. This place is quite dark, she feel a little bit scare about this place. She climbs stairs carefully and she can heard the stair groan from the old wood.

 

3.When she arrived at the second floor, some doves beside windows are fly away. She is so scared. She want to get out of this building. But when she go back to the stairs, it disappears. She run away want to find other ways to get out. So she tried every ways, but it seems that she always at the same place. It make her crazy. She started to cry. At that moment, one dove appears beside her and started to peck her hand and head.

 

I think this is a very interesting and useful way to create a place, we can add elements and characters of this place, so that we can enrich story and character's emotions.