Original subtitles

would you be able to sleep in a room painted bright red

might be hard right

I'm on no sleep no sleep

you don't know what it's like in there

colors elicit emotions

and have a psychological effect on people

so unless you're shooting in black and white

in which case

definitely review our video on tone

this is the video for you

because today we're going to show you

how colors can be used to create mood

but you can go beyond placing a blue tint

over an entire sequence

you can determine specifically

what type of blue you want

there are three factors in determining

they are Hu

which is the color itself saturation

the intensity of the color

and brightness

how light or dark the color is

with just hue

saturation and brightness

HSB for short

you can create a complex color scheme rather simply

and go from being just another director

to being a true visual artist

first up hue

some movies choose an affinity of hue

utilizing a monochromatic color scheme

those are just fancy ways of saying

that a movie is mostly one color

or neighboring colors on a color wheel

also known as analogous colors

the matrix is a classic example of a movie

that mostly uses one color

that color green why

well the movie takes place inside of a digital matrix

and we associate green with code

plus the green in the matrix

has a certain sickly quality to it

reflecting the overall state of affairs in that world

welcome to the desert

of the real next up is the s and HSB saturation

this movie used a post production process

called bleach bypass

which has a deeply desaturating effect

the color is drained out of these images

it gives the world of the movie a cold

raw gritty sort of look

it also becomes reminiscent of the faded photographs

the black and white newsreels of the period itself

it takes us back in time

the final of the three is brightness

earlier in this series

we covered brightness in terms of a film's overall tone

but brightness can be used to affect individual colors

as well sometimes

a movie elects to use entirely bright colors

particularly movies from the Technicolor era

back then bright

vivid colors were a reason to see the movies alone

on the other hand

during darker scenes like this

you can almost forget that this movie was shot in color

now let's see what it's like when one movie does both

when the destiny of a great fortune is at stake

men's greed spreads like a poison in the bloodstream

it's using all darker colors

contrast that with this scene

where all the colors are bright

in both instances

every element you see was chosen for its darker color

or lighter color

to create a contrast within the film wow

so by utilizing hue

saturation and brightness

you can precisely identify the right colors

to create certain feelings in your audience

bright images often seem lively and exciting

darker images often seem dramatic

and on it goes

the rules were made to be broken

I don't make the rules

okay I'll make it as easy for you as I can

you get to decide what the colors mean

it's your movie

it's your world

and so make it your color palette

how do you make a violent red

the color of blood

feel like something else in her

Spike Jones uses red to connote love

he does it by associating the color with the lead

Theodore as he searches for love

and ultimately finds it in his

operating system hello I'm here

oh black is for bad guys

like Darth Vader

right well sure

until it's for Batman

I'm Batman you get to make your own rules

look at how Wes Anderson uses saturated colors

to make otherwise mundane scenes about a family pop

almost like a comic book

while actual comic book films

ground their high concept plots in gritty

realistic tones

with the wealth of options post production now provides

it's easier than ever to control the color palette

of course color grading can be an expensive

lengthy process

and it rarely can make up for a project

that lacked a thoughtful color design strategy

in pre production

want to dive deeper

check the link to grab our free Film Color Theory ebook

for more examples of color schemes

and see how some of your favorite films

design their color palettes to elicit powerful moods

see you in the next video