Why Does Hollywood Hate Color?
1,198The history of Hollywood is one of evolution by means of invention; as new equipment and methodology have been invented, its use (and therefore the resulting movies) have evolved.
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After color film was invented and then improved, filmmakers began to see that color didn't just look pretty, it could be used to create an atmosphere, convey a sentiment, and help them to tell the movie's story.
Color Grading.
Color Grading is also known as color timing because it involved changing the amount of time the film was exposed to light through different filters during the film's development process.
This process involved someone called a Lab-timer who would watch the film with the filmmakers and take notes of which areas of the film to expose to different colors of light for different periods of time in order to achieve the required result.
Nowadays this process is done digitally and is used for a variety of different reasons:
Color Psychology.
Different colors affect us differently psychologically.
Red can depict anger, passion, danger, or violence.
Pink feels innocent, playful, sweet, and feminine.
Orange is warm and friendly.
Yellow can be sick, obsessive, mad, and naive.
Greens feel natural but can also be ominous and corrupt.
Using certain colors in a scene can change the tone and feel of it before anyone even speaks!
Color Schemes.
There are a lot of different types of color schemes, colors that combine with each other, colors that complement or oppose each other, and you can use these color schemes to help tell your story. In The Godfather they associated orange with death, so every time orange was the dominant color in the scene, the audience sensed that something violent was about to happen. In The Dark Knight, blacks and grays are associated with Batman and purples and greens with the joker.
Changes in these color schemes can also be used to change the mood or tone of a scene like that did in Up. or to show a change within the characters themselves, as they did with Walter Whites' transition from science teacher to a drug kingpin in Breaking Bad. so if color is such a useful tool, why do most modern movies use desaturated complementary colors orange and teal and virtually no vibrant colors? Well, there are basically three reasons why Hollywood's romance with color is over.
1. Skin is Orange.
Orange and teal are on opposite sides of the color wheel and are therefore complementary colors, when placed together they make each other "Pop".
Human skin color is in the orange color range and so, in order to make the characters in a movie stand out in the frame, filmmakers use blue and teal tones in the background.
2. Color is Unreal
The first Digital cameras naturally captured a more overly saturated color, so for a while after their invention, virtually everything that was filmed had intense colors.
In advertising these intense colors were used to grab people's attention.
In cartoons and animation, they are used to capture children's attention and make things seem wacky and fun.
Toys, candy, and playgrounds are also brightly colored, this has led us as viewers to associate bright colors with childish things, advertising, or fantasy.
Nowadays in order for something to look and feel real and lifelike, it has to be pastel, dirty, and drab.
3. VFX
Almost every modern film has visual effects of some kind, and to be honest, if you have the time and the money, you can do virtually anything with VFX.
Unfortunately Hollywood is a land of budgets and deadlines and there is not always the time or the funds to do things perfectly.
Visual effects are easier to pull off in a black and white environment because you don't have to deal with color and vibrancy.
Think of a monster movie, were the fight scenes set at night or in the dark?
Water splashes, explosions, fire, dust, and smoke are all used to cover and simplify VFX shots, limiting what is seen and therefore, how much work needs to be done and how much money and time need to be spent. The Film Industry is just that, an industry, and as an industry, it needs to make money. It has to have a product that it needs to make as good as possible and it needs to produce it as cheaply as possible.
Color... is just too expensive.
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