Graphic Desire

Re:Color in film

minerwerks — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:45:15 GMT

In addition to Traffic, it's interesting to watch Steven Soderbergh cut his teeth on techniques with color on The Underneath. It's not a great movie, but worth watching once if you like noir or you just enjoy Soderbergh or Peter Gallagher.

The introduction of color here is particularly blatant. In one scene, we are dollying through a living room, and the camera comes to shoot through a bookcase/fixture that has some colored glass or plastic, so parts of the shot become tinted. Then you really take notice when some flashes told out of order are also tinted.

Re: Color in film

gothere — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:50:16 GMT

Thanks for the great suggestions - I'll add these to the Color list. What else should be there? What else should go?

Re: Color in film

Risselada — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:25:27 GMT

The only Antonioni film I've seen is L'Avventura, which is great. But since it's in B&W, I can't say too much for the man's use of color.

Re: Color in film

quint — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:15:14 GMT

I love Antonioni, although I can't say I've seen everything and some of it really put me off. I thought Blow Up was brilliant and it remains one of my favorite movies, but then I saw Zabriskie Point and thought it was self-indulgent to the extreme. But then there are so many other great films he's done, everyone deserves some weak ones.

Re: Color in film

vidiocy — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:14:16 GMT

I read a great book in film school called "Cinema and Painting", which explored the influence of 20th century fine art on filmmakers mid-century filmmakers. The chapter on Red Desert is responsible for my life-long obsession with Antonioni. Definitely a must-read for anyone thinking about composition. There's more info here.

Color in film

blakngold — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:12:53 GMT

On the list by gothere of what films use color symbolically, I would like to add a few more important ones. They are Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers, which he uses red on the walls and floors of the house to symbolize the inner pain of the dying woman. The other film is Ozu's color version film Floating Weeds were he uses all kinds of seemingly insignificant objects to symbolize all kinds of emotion. If someone can think of any other ones, go right ahead because color has been used as symbolism for some time now, like in the more recent film Amelie. Color is very important and can create so many emotions within a film without the viewer ever being aware of it's impact. So look back on the films that had some effect on you and try to picture in your mind if they used certain colors to perhaps create a particular atmosphere or just watch those films again, but from a new perspective.