What is colour?
Colour is one of the most powerful tools in filmmaking, used to influence how audiences feel and interpret a story.
- Different colours bring out different emotions and meanings.
- They help filmmakers establish mood and reveal aspects of the characters.
- Colour enhances visual settings, guides the audience's focus, and emphasises key elements within a scene.
Video - colour
Watch this video to see how colour can be used as a powerful storytelling tool.
Colour is part of your visual storytelling. It can be used to create meaning and mood in loads of ways from costumes and props to locations and lighting.
Warm colours, like red, yellow and orange can suggest summer, feel cosy or happy. Cool colours, like blues and greys can feel wintery, calm, tense or serious. A bold colour can draw the audience’s attention to the thing that matters most.
Colour choices can make a character fit into their surroundings or make them stand out. And colours can symbolise different ideas or emotions, like green can suggest growth and nature.
When telling a story colour helps create mood and guide the audience's attention and emotions.
Key points
- Different colours are associated with certain feelings and emotions:
- Red might suggest love or anger.
- Green might suggest calm or jealousy.
- Colours can suggest what a character is feeling, what their personality is, or bring out different emotions in the audience.
- Colours also have cultural associations that can act as a guide to what is going on:
- In western countries, white can suggest a wedding or marriage.
- In India or China, red is traditionally linked with weddings.
- Production design should consider what colour of props, sets, costumes to use.
- , Lighting, camera filters and Part of the post production process in which the colour and tone of footage is changed to make sure different shots match and to give the final film a specific look and feel. can all be used to give scenes a specific colour and atmosphere.
- Colour can be used to enhance your story:
- Similar colours can suggest connections between characters, props and settings.
- Contrasting colours can make a character or object stand out, and draw attention to their difference or importance.
On screen examples - colour
- Image source, Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Pictorial Press / Alamy
Image caption, Colour and emotion
In Inside Out, the emotions of an eleven-year-old girl are each represented by a different character. Each character is colour-coded to link them to the emotion they represent: Joy (yellow), Sadness (blue), Fear (purple), Disgust (green), and Anger (red). Together, they create a bright, balanced colour palette that makes each character easy to recognise and understand.
1 of 5
Try this - colour
Watch this video and give this colour exercise a go!
Colour can completely change how a film looks and feels.
Think of a setting or scene to film.
Choose one colour for your scene and use it in at least one prop, costume item, location or light.
Film a short clip and see what mood it creates.
Then, try changing only the colour and compare the result.
How different does it feel?
Which do you prefer?
Roles/Departments
Director - Thinks about how to use colour as a creative choice to express certain emotions or create atmosphere.
Cinematographer - Works with the director to understand their vision for use of colour and work with the lighting department to create colour effects using lights and gels.
Production designer - Works with the director to use colour in their choices of set and props.
Costume designer - Works with the director to use colour in their choices of costumes.
Hair & make-up designer - works with the director and costume department to use colour in make-up which compliments the costumes.
Colour grader/colourist - uses software in post-production to manipulate or enhance the colours, working closely with the director and cinematographer.
Think about
What emotion do you want the audience to feel and which colours would help achieve this?
Is there a certain colour palette you want to use throughout the story?
How can colour help you focus the audience's attention on key characters or details?
How are you using colour to tell the story?
Things to look for
How can colour set the look of your film - props, costumes, sets and lighting should all work together.
Think about the emotion you want to express in each scene and use colour to bring this out.
Think about how colour can reflect your character’s personality or feelings.
Things to consider
Think about the possible meaning certain colours have when combined;
- how they work together
- what they might symbolise
- the way they can make the audience feel
More on Elements of film and screen
Find out more by working through a topic
- count5 of 11
- count6 of 11
- count7 of 11
- count8 of 11
