BLOG QUESTION ADV: HOW TO USE COLORS IN FILMMAKING

Explain what each of the primary colors means on screen when you use them. How do they affect the mood and tone of your projects?

Red is a dramatic and intense color, usually evoking feelings of anger. It usually represents blood, and it has an effect on our psychology since we instinctively recognize it as such. Green is commonly used to represent nature or freshness, but it's also associated with a variety of emotions or themes, such as money, jealousy, and youth. It is usually a neutral or positive color that radiates calmness or peacefulness. Lastly, blue usually represents the sky or water. It symbolizes trust, wisdom, and calmness. Blue is often associated with intellect, health, and even sadness. You can use these primary colors in film depending on what emotions, mood, or symbols you want to portray in your projects. 

BLOG QUESTION ADV: USING COLOR TO TELL A STORY IN FILM

How are color palettes used in film? Why is each important?

   Color palettes can be created using three tools: Production design and costume, lighting, and color grading. The production design and costuming is usually decided between the director and the production designer during pre-production. This is an important factor to consider during pre-production because it'll help you decide what subjects/objects you want to pop out or blend into the set of the frame. Lighting can be used by adjusting the color temperature or by adding a specific tint during production. You can either flood the entire image with monochromatic light or light different areas with different color temperatures or hues. This is important because it can create contrast within an image, which is what makes a shot aesthetically pleasing and makes your subjects pop out more. In post-production, you can have a colorist, along with a cinematographer or director, use color grading software to digitally adjust and manipulate the levels of RGB in an image. These adjustments will allow them to determine the saturation or intensity of the color in the image.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: COLOR IN STORYTELLING P. 2

What does this video essay say about the purpose of color? What does the narrator have to say about associative and transitional in storytelling? What is one way you could use color going forward in your filmmaking, considering what you've learned this week?

The video essay talks about how color affects us on a subconscious level, due to how our psychology associates colors with certain emotions and feelings. The narrator says that color is used for two main purposes: associative and transitional. Using colors associatively helps you establish an association between a color and subject/idea, which helps reinforce those ideas to the audience by having them consistently show up through a film. Using colors transitionally is when you utilize the change of color to represent a transition or shift in a story. For example, colors changing throughout the film to match a character's new or changing characteristics. One way I can use colors going forward in my filmmaking is by putting more thought into the color pallete of my film. Based on the emotions I want in a scene, I can start by thinking about what colors I want the wardrobe and set pieces to be, and how they would affect the audience.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: COLOR IN STORYTELLING P. 1

What are three things that you've learned in this video essay? How do these relate to what you've learned so far this week about color in filmmaking?

Color affects us subconsciously and evokes certain emotions. The first thing I learned about are the 3 elements to color: Hue, saturation, and value. Hue is the actual color itself.  (e.g. red, orange, green, blue.). Saturation is the intensity of the color. (e.g. how vivid or pale a color is). The value is how dark a color is (lower= dark, higher=brighter). The second thing I learned is that color schemes are chosen in film for two main purposes: balance and discordance. When a color scheme (e.g. complementary or monochromatic colors) are used correctly, it creates a more balanced look. Color can also be used to highlight subjects that don't fit into a scene (aka discordance). The third thing I learned was that color is used for two main purposes: associative and transitional. By using consistent colors, you establish an association between a color and subject/idea, which helps reinforce ideas to the audience. The change of color can also represent a transition or shift in a story (e.g. colors changing throughout the film to match a character's new/changing characteristics). This relates to what we've been learning about color because it explains the different ways color can be utilized to influence the audience's interpretation of a story/the characters within a film.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: COLOR THEORY FOR VIDEO

1. What are complementary colors? What are tertiary colors? What is the difference between primary and tertiary colors?

2. How can colors be assigned meaning in a film?

Complementary colors are colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel, and when combined, create the color gray. When used together, complementary colors can be visually appealing as they contrast each other. Tertiary colors are colors that are a combination of primary and secondary colors which create a different hue. The difference between primary and tertiary colors are that primary colors are the standard colors that a system starts with, while tertiary colors are a combination of primary and secondary colors (colors made by mixing primary colors). Colors can be assigned meaning in film depending on what feeling you want to evoke for your audience. For example, blue lighting is associated with nighttime. Main characters are often seen wearing color schemes to make them stand out from the rest of the characters and their settings.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: COLOR IN DIGITAL FILMMAKING

1. What are three ways that the video mentions color can enhance filmmaking?

2. What is color sub-sampling? What are the drawbacks or benefits of 8-bit color? What are the drawbacks or benefits of 10-bit color?

Color can be used as a tool to contribute more depth to a story. For example, in the movie, "The Matrix", the actual matrix takes on a more green hue to mimic the "green" associated with early computers in the 90s, whereas the real world uses more natural coloring in order to differentiate the two worlds. Color can also be used to emphasize themes, which is shown in American Beauty with their red, white, and blue color scheme. Color sub-sampling is the process of reducing the color resolution while keeping the luminance resolution the same. 8-bit is fine for playback, but some drawbacks of 8-bit color are that it "breaks" when there's not that much color data available. 10-bit is able to hold about 4x as many levels of color compared to 8-bit.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: THE HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF COLOR FILM P. 2

1. What led to Technicolor taking over color filmmaking? What films really drove the adoption of the process?

2. How did Eastman's color affect the development of color filmmaking? What were some of its pros? What were some of its cons?

Technicolor was known for its rich and vibrant look. The original version utilized arc lights and two-color strips to get its bright look, later adding a third to create red, green, and blue. Musicals in the 1930s were a big genre during the time of Technicolor, which perfectly suited the coloring. However, in 1932, the production of 2-strip Technicolor films had ended due to a lack of audience interest and because of untrained cameramen. Then came Eastman's panchromatic film stock, which had taken over instead, which was a black and white film that produced beautiful images under normal incandescent light. It was also significantly cheaper than having the arc lights that were needed to produce the Technicolor 3-strip. Following that, Eastmancolor came out, which broke the Monopoly of 3-strip Technicolor. It was cheap, didn't require special lights or lab processes, and worked on conventional film cameras. It didn't have as rich a color as Technicolor, but it still dominated.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF SILENT FILMS IN COLOR

1. Why do you think modern-day people perceive early film as ONLY black and white? What do you think has led to this perception? How do you think color was perceived by audiences back in the dawn of cinema?

I believe modern-day people only perceive early film as black and white because many of the popular films during that time are currently shown in black and white, due to them not being properly preserved. Because of this, many people believe that older films were only shown in black and white. I also believe there's a lack of history being taught about filmmaking in the older days, and many people aren't aware of processes like tinting/toning, or they don't know the technical names for them. I believe color wasn't perceived realistically by the people watching films, but it probably did add a nice touch and emphasized certain scenes. Paired with live music and sfx, color can be used to influence the audiences' emotions.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: THE HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF COLOR FILM P. 1

1. What is color? What principle did James Clerk Maxwell discover?
2. How was color used in early filmmaking? What were the two major types of colorizing film?

Color is our psychological reaction to a very narrow band of electromagnetic radiation aka light. To create any color of light, you only need 3 primary colors: Red, yellow, and Blue. James Clerk Maxwell discovered the principle that you could create colored photography by shooting something in these primary colors and layering them to create a colored photograph. One of the first uses of color in film was hand-tinting, where color was painted onto the film itself. The two major types of colorizing in film was tinting and toning. Tinting was when an entire frame of film was put into dye which would in turn make the entire frame that color. Toning only colored the dark parts of the frame by chemically converting the silver in the film to colored silver salts.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: THE HISTORY OF FRAME RATES P. 2

1. What were two reasons why 60Hz interlaced frames chosen for over the air broadcasting? How did the introduction of color factor in?

 2. How do you convert a film to television? What is 3:2 pull down?

60 Hz was chosen for over the air broadcasting because they wanted to eliminate the intermodulation (beating distortion caused by the hum generated by an electrical current). The AC power in the United States runs at 60 Hz which results in 30 FPS. With the introduction of color, the UHF TV system needed to come up with a color system that would be compatible with black and white TVs. The system they discovered broke down the colors into Chrominance and Luminance. The 3:2 pull down is when the first frame from a film strip is captured into the Upper, Lower, and then Upper fields, the second is captured in the lower and upper field, the third is captured in the lower, upper, and lower fields, and the fourth is the upper and lower fields.

BLOG QUESTION ADV: THE HISTORY OF FRAME RATES P. 1

1. What were three reasons why 24 frames per second was chosen as the modern standard frame rate for filmmaking?

24 fps was chosen as the modern standard frame rate for filmmaking because of many factors. One of the biggest is the theory of persistence of vision. We knew that films would have to move between 16-26 fps to have the appearance of motion. However, sound also changed that standard. Since sound ran alongside the film strip, playing back a role required a strict and even frame rate. This also made it easier for editors to know how many frames equated to one second, and so forth. 24 fps was chosen instead of something higher (like 30 fps for example) because it was the cheapest, most easily divisible number that would work for sound.