Using Colour To Tell A Story In Film

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Let’s examine the idea of colour in filmmaking by going through an introduction to colour theory, look at how filmmakers can create a specific colour palette for their footage and check out some examples of how colour has been used to aid the telling of different stories.
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0:00 Introduction
0:44 Colour Theory
3:47 Creating A Colour Palette
6:45 Using Colour To Tell A Story
9:44 Sponsored Message
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[@romanpul]

First rule of Hollywood color theory: As soon as you cross the Mexican border an intense warming filter has to be applied

[@Isaac_Rogers]

especially in breaking bad

[@lukepeter8513]

@@Isaac_Rogerslol

[@DiamondWoodStudios]

Also the Indian border

[@judichristopher4604]

@@Isaac_Rogers That is NEW Mexico... not Mexico ... Here in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA is where "Breaking Bad" was Filmed...

[@iconstarlight3738]

😂😂😂

[@robertobuatti7226]

I love the chiaroscuro look to Apocalypse Now where Brando's face is lit against a dark background which really show's how his character has lost his mind.

[@AlexanderHernandez-sb7lq]

The cinematography looks fantastic but I can't bring my self to watch a show that mainly has teen girls as an audience.

[@AlexThe1Menace]

@@AlexanderHernandez-sb7lq They're talking about Apocalypse Now, not Euphoria lol. Also, that sounds like a really dumb reason not to watch something.

[@AlexanderHernandez-sb7lq]

@@AlexThe1Menace than why not instead have apocalypse now as the thumbnail, because the thumbnail of a hit show will get more views wich is smart. I'll probably watch this show at some point, maybe. What I do see is videos that people calling the shows photography innovative but the shots I've seen are beautiful but nothing new in terms of composition, lighting or movement.

[@AlexThe1Menace]

@@AlexanderHernandez-sb7lq you were literally replying to a comment talking about Apocalypse Now though

[@thiagoandrade6933]

@@AlexanderHernandez-sb7lq Not everything needs to be new, but it needs to be well used and that's what Euphoria has been doing for the last two seasons (and two extra episodes). Yesterday I was wondering that this show is capable of offering some artistic creation to an audience that is not familiar to it and that's great. Maybe someday, these people will be watching Wong Kar Wai or Francis Ford Coppola and they may recognize the influences that shaped their favorite show, but before that they need to start somewhere. And yes, Euphoria is a great start.

[@TheNegative]

Joker is another great example of the color contrast and separation. I really like what Wally Pfister did with the colors and lighting in that film.

[@Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle]

There is a good Vanity Fair film on youtube with Lawrence Sher where he discusses the colour used in Joker if you'd like to look for it.

[@fedorbrockmann1698]

No matter what you think about the story, Euphoria has some of the best and most creative cinematography in TV history. Great video as always

[@iamamith_k]

That's another level !!!

[@baronvonbeandip]

*cautious weeb noises*

[@theowlfromduolingo7982]

Yes?

[@wahyuramadhan1161]

Agree!

[@MyMomDrank]

Euphoria is easily the best produced show in years. Not just visuals, but sound and characters too. Even if you don’t like the story and/or you hate the characters, they all have depth and motivation. The soundtrack is dynamic and works with the visuals to really turn it from just a show into true expressionism.

[@zacharyantle7940]

I think a vid on low budget methods for lighting would be a great topic, like can you use regular house lights as a film lights if that’s all you have? DIY rigs etc. also the discord server misses you ;)

[@tatehildyard5332]

LED wall strips are also a handy resource to go a little out the box with since they’re already so cheap and commonplace

[@SkeletonCreeper03]

the problem with regular house lights is that it tends to flicker in camera, and it usually has a low CRI value (especially cheap LED strips)

[@m.i.andersen8167]

Old tungsten light is superior to LED and is not as expensive as most LED lights. They have wider color gamut and flickering is rarely an issue. I recently bought quite a few 100 Watt bulbs (Eq. 13-15 Watt real live LED) for 1 € / piece. If you use the same type of bulb, there are no problems with color temperature. The only downsize is heat and power consumption, turn them off when not shooting.

[@IDuBStepSZ]

@@SkeletonCreeper03 you can get led strips with a very good CRI, a Guy made a video for a DIY lighting setup. DIY perks was the channel.

[@kozykev]

Euphoria has the best cinematography that I've seen from a tv show.

[@MountUpMedia]

“Game of thrones has entered the chat”

[@mayak6843]

@@MountUpMedia naaah... naah really not. no. just no xD

[@mayak6843]

GoT only did what films have been doing before, in a good way, Euphoria introduced a whole new vision for lighting and purpose of lighting

[@josendrado]

wtf

[@alechall7082]

@@mayak6843 ??

[@chriskingcreative]

Just wanted to say that I really appreciate your content. It's well thought out, well edited, and very helpful. I love seeing when one of your videos pop up on my feed! Thanks!

[@TheNegative]

I honestly wasn’t sure how season 2 would stack up against Euphoria season one since the first season was large format but there were so many breathtaking shots in S2. Was not disappointed at all. Glad to see you include some of them here.

[@SkeletonCreeper03]

they seriously took the cinematography of s2 to another level

[@TheNegative]

@@SkeletonCreeper03 yeah! Such a great surprise and a new source of great cinematography to look to for inspiration.

[@SkeletonCreeper03]

@@TheNegative i completely agree! i strongly think euphoria’s lighting is something everyone should study

[@bashmutumba]

These always come in times when I need them the most.

[@MoviesRemastered]

Your production value is so engaging. Thanks!

[@venvatpictures]

Please do a brief video on T stops. Please.

[@Jadesfishing]

Thanks for including those Euphoria scenes and excerpt from Marcel Rev! I loved that shows cinematography.

[@juanmanuelsolano2336]

Thank you for all your content. I really enjoy it

[@nifeisdead5815]

this was fantastic honestly! i learned so much

[@papi9527]

these contents are so calming

[@Pantheragem]

There's great use of warm colors in the movie 'Equilibrium'. They're sparing. The scene I'm thinking of is when John Preston pets the dog for the first time and smiles. The trunk light is warm against the stark background and illuminates Preston's face. To reinforce the warm motif, he puts his coat on the dog.

[@Lumithell]

You work is amazing Thank you ❤

[@romanpul]

OMG, this channel is a goldmine for cinematographic nerdome. Ver nice videos. Keep it up

[@shreeshsawant9907]

Can you do a cinematography style video on Robert Richardson?

[@tatehildyard5332]

He’s already got one

[@alessandrovalentino3406]

Wonderful! Thank you!

[@lawagyei]

Thank you so much for this video! Can you go another in depth video about colorists and choices they use while coloring and such. Thank you.

[@innatemusic]

Very nice, as usual. Thanks!

[@razijukes9435]

This guy has really been dropping bangers every week!

[@Jonas-iz7rj]

I just want to say that I love your work🙂

[@ljdobles8104]

Excelente. Gracias

[@RyanAnthonyDigitalMedia]

9:21 “He also described how the most important color in the film was black, particularly in the silhouetted scenes with Kurtz..” - especially cuz Brando showed up to set way overweight & they had to use shadows to hide it lol

[@BJENKY2012]

Love the vids!

[@roberthipolito1351]

Tips on low budget lighting and color plse

[@jayfolk]

Benn thinking on this a lot recently, Id like to go into color solely on the RGB model. When Galileo named 7 colors he did so arbitrarily to get 7 names because its a holy number in the christian tradition, going so far as to invent the word indigo. From there the RoygbiV model goes into the world of painting and eventually photography and cinematography: red contrasts green, blue to orange, and yellow to purple. Those are fine to some extent, but the human eye works with red green and blue light, those are the 3 colors of the cones in your eyes, who's primaries in print would be cyan, magenta, and yellow. red contrasts cyan, blue to yellow, and green to magenta, and when you see it, it really pops. that color wheel should be taught the same as the light temperature spectrum, and yet I went 10+ years in art classes stuck with roy g. biv - which gets disproven by mixing magenta and yellow pigments to get red, meaning it isn't really a primary color. Red Blue and Yellow I think just get the strongest emotional reaction, and you can condition an audience to feel any emotion, motif, or theme: yellow is fear in the west but courageous in japan; so on and so forth for any color in the MRYGCB spectrum.

[@_GhostGarden_]

Thank you for all these videos you make, as someone who didn't go to film school but works in production this channel has been an invaluable resource to me and I'm sure many others. I'm not sure if you've done a video about this already, but maybe consider a video going over common mistakes non film school people make on sets, I am consistently embarrassed and humbled haha. Something that I do feel is often gatekept by not going to film school, it feels impossible to make that step from videographer to camera assistant or DP when I don't get to work on feature sets. Thank you again, you are a massive help to my education!

[@LOTUSARTSTUDIO-gx8yf]

Beautiful, this video is like magic for me 👌😇

[@seBcopTer]

Best movie channel ever!

[@deskreanimation]

good info

[@urbanoasi]

Hi, great video! can I ask you where did you find the interviews of Vittorio Storaro? Is there an interview available online? Thank you 🤝

[@vittorbadboy]

How interesting 👏🏻

[@skinnersweet1263]

“Teenagers how think they are” is the best way of explaining that anybody made about that particular show !!! Kek

[@tanaykumar1043]

The Batman had some pretty gritty dark colour to portray the gothic city of gotham and the environment

[@iforgotthenamemate]

The Marvels Defenders are perfect example where a character is aligned with certain color.

[@thirumaalvasumana1727]

What's the film shown at 7.46?

[@Dir_anbu]

2:53

[@mahanth2045]

hey can anyone say please 0:53 movie is plssssssssssssssssss?????

[@kkfaerber]

As good as it looks etc. I’ll be glad when people finally get over Euphoria tbh. It will be nice when we can acknowledge that other things exist again.

[@satish8889]

Great

[@user-kq2qy8nj4b]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@bdkurt]

What is the film at 4:04? Would like to know

[@familygonzcartwright]

Do the right thing by Spike Lee

[@tsayr]

what's the film called at 4:26? looks familiar but cant quite remember

[@joegamer6914]

do the right thing

[@storywala88]

💯

[@bobbydrake8965]

i wonder what would've happened if Vittorio Storraro DP'd Euphoria

[@jjandorliadul]

Blue means freedom?

[@skinnersweet1263]

Getting the lab to flush the color saturations within the single frame is what the genius comes up with !?!?!? That is what the dammed about the film stock ! Thanx god I live in the era where everything is possible beyond the keyboard. Kek

[@LycanVisuals]

Happy final Euphoria day.

[@stinkystealthysloth]

There are plenty of introductory colour theory videos, we need "in-depth" colour theory.

[@jackofblades6736]

I thought 5500k is on the warm side. Cinema film opposite from photography?

[@Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle]

5500K is the theoretical temperature of the sun at noon on a clear day. If anything, it's on the cool side (emotionally). In still photography it is the unmodified temperature of a decent flash system operating at full power. I actually use 5500K as the default on my Nikon. There is often some confusion over the way white balance works in camera. As you move the camera to a higher K value the image warms up but the value you enter on the camera is the temperature of the light you are compensating for so 5500K set on the camera will warm the image when compared to 3200K when obviously 3200K is the warmer (again emotionally) value.

[@1001Hobbies]

At 1:19 you talk about "PRIMARY COLORS" and show blue, red, and green. Green is not a primary color. You are missing yellow. Green is a combination of yellow and blue.

[@judichristopher4604]

EXACTLY>... Holy Moly... You are Right!!!

[@1001Hobbies]

@@judichristopher4604 - Sometimes being a nerd makes one unpopular. That's ok though. ;)

[@sugamotokiwa3685]

What is the film at 1:45 ? Would like to know😃

[@ruben_3018]

That's the tv show Euphoria

[@judichristopher4604]

1:20 IS WRONG... Green is NOT a Primary Color (Yellow + Blue = Green) Primary Colors are: Red... Blue... Yellow

[@DonReichSdeDios]

? some .. okay

[@guguigugu]

you can use any color but everyone uses blue and yellow exclusively and its so overused

[@neamraven]

Color theory is the bane of good looking images. At least the way it's used. Everything ends up looking the same because people start treating it as if it's science. When everything is teal and orange, color theory has failed.

[@petersolomon5227]

I disagree with the almost evangelical approach to orange and teal colour grading; whether it is employed in broadcast and streamed series or film screened in cinemas. This is an over mannered, over used colour trope that far from integrating film, and carrying a viewer’s attention along with the story, can look artificial, arbitrary and imposed.