anyways, about the colors in the village. I think the reds and the yellows are a bit too much at points. this might just be because the colors serve a narrative purpose as well as a thematic one, and that makes it seem a bit heavy handed sometimes. what i was more interested in were the subdued colors of everything else. the yellow-greens, grey-whites, all those dark earth tones, and the faded sky blues.
I'm guess these colors were made like this to make them push back in the visual plain to make those bright reds and yellows even more obvious, and though visually pleasing, mentally abrasive. The light colors also speak to the townspeople's innocence and overall "simple-mindedness". I am unsure of the blues though, they only pop up like a few times and on all sorts of characters.
BLUE!
any thoughts on the blue???
The Blue was an interesting as it was only shown in the film a few times. If I remember correctly, The first time we see Ivy consoling her sister, she was wearing blue. Perhaps blue means that we are in control, and that we are calm. Blue IS the last part of the RED, YELLOW, BLUE triangle.
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree that the red and yellow are a bit much, but I also think the fact that it was so overwelming, it lets him play with the idea of color toning which adds a lot of emotional pulls to the piece.An example of this is some close up shots of IVY's right hand. I've noticed this at least twice, but one particular scene was when she reaches out and touch the monster costume in the forbidden shack.
If you notice her hand, the sun light goes through her skin and reveals some red. This made me think immediately of danger, and made me nervous. I don't know if I would have felt that way if they didn't push the idea to the extent they did of red being the bad color.
I think Rita Repulsa would agree, but not lord zed.
Ivvy also wears the same light color blue that she wore when she talked to her sister that she wears when she talks to Noah about hitting. She makes a deal with him that as long as he promises to never hit anyone again he will not have to go into the quiet room. Thus it seems that whenever she tries to council someone she wears this color. As Chinh states it seems to be a calming color as well as I think a soothing color.
ReplyDeleteI think that the red is not too much. I find it very effective as the bad color because as soon as you see even the tinniest bit of it your eye is drawn to it. This is what red does and so in that sense it is the perfect color because it stands out just as the bad element of the story do. When red enters the frame the audience immediately feels uneasy, so it is very effective in getting the audience’s emotional connection with the story going. So I think red is used quit well through out the film but I would agree that the yellow is a bit much. I did not see the point in the villagers painting a small stripe of yellow onto the poles on the outer edges of their village yellow. I think the yellow tint of the lights and the yellow cloaks are enough to show us that yellow is the safe color.
The red is intriguing because in this world it's both a manufactured color as well as a color found in nature, not to mention the color of grief and horrible memories of violence. I have seen those shrubs full of red berries all over the Northeast and they really do look surreal when you come across them in the woods.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of what Chinh Le said about red shining through her skin when the sunlight hits it. I did not notice it during the film, but when thinking about it it strikes me as very interesting. Sunlight is yellow, yet as it strikes human skin the bad color shows through. This may be thinking a little too deep into it, but this could make you wonder, are we ever really safe? Red may be "the bad color," but it runs through each and everyone's veins. The "bad color" keeps us alive. Even though the villagers are trying hide from the real world in their innocent naive world they've created for themselves evil can still exist.
ReplyDeleteThe use of red in the rest of the film really worked for me. You get so used to the dull earth tones and yellows that the red kind of wakes you back up and is quite unsettling. For me, when she finds herself surrounded by those red berries it's probably one of the most unnerving scenes in the film for me. I think that's the most red that's shown on screen at one time and it's overwhelming in comparison to the rest of the color scheme, especially while she's walking through the woods where everything else is lifeless and brown.