In recent years, with the rise of animated films, in addition to the online plot, exquisite pictures also constantly update our cognition, which also makes us often think more about the visual category beyond the film itself. Film is the art of light and shadow, and color plays an indispensable role in visual narrative tasks in films, whether animated films or live action films, Color plays an equally important role in any art form. Today, we will explore the role of film color in the creation of overseas works of film art!

Every good film has the color carefully designed by the film art:

[Lion King] Restore the fiery feeling of African grassland with real colors

[The origin of the white snake] combines the most delicate colors in Chinese ink painting

[Nezha] set off a new peak of 3D animation visual effect in China

What is the role of film color in the creation of overseas works of film art?

Tell stories with colors

As an art form that only appeared in the 19th century, film has developed rapidly in this short century, and like other art forms, it has developed into many categories and styles, and color is one of the elements that can reflect the best style.

When we recall Wong Kar wai's films, the pictures in our mind are like a filter with a faint yellow tone. These imaginative colors and lens combinations constitute the unique color aesthetics in Wong Kar wai's films and become representatives of his style.

Film - "Spring Festival" Source: Douban

Film color also has some conventional "rules" in order to match the style. For example, comedies often use bright and jumping warm colors, movies with tragic colors are always cool and quiet colors, and scenes recalling the past are always dark. Although these color laws derived from human psychology are fixed, how to use them depends on the imagination of the creators.

"Simulation" is not the only purpose of color design. The "real lion version" of The Lion King, which was released a few days ago, has aroused heated discussion. In fact, many of the reasons are also "too real". The fine and grand visual effects created by Disney using superb CG technology seem to put us in the real scene.

Film The Lion King Source: Douban

However, many people also gave such a comment - "Only Zhao Zhongxiang's voice is needed from the animal world", because it is too real, the audience lost the "atmosphere of entering the play". In contrast to the 2D version 25 years ago, the two versions have almost no change in plot and story, but the Lion King 1994 has established a strong "emotional link" with the audience by using different visual styles.

If the color matching of the "real lion version" refers to the real African prairie, the color matching of the "Lion King 1994" refers to the psychology of the audience. The main color of the whole film is bright yellow, symbolizing the vibrant tropical grassland. Along with the growth of Simba, its color has also changed from young and reckless bright yellow to stable combination of khaki and brown yellow.

With the change of different plots, the color will also change. When the little Simba faces the evil "scar", it also symbolizes the arrival of danger, and the color will become dark and cold; When Simba and Simo fall in love, the background color adds a red tone to create a warm and romantic atmosphere.

Film The Lion King 1994 Source: Douban

The Lion King 1994 is a cross era work. It is also Disney's first animated film for different age groups. From the perspective of the story, it is complex and shows many changes in psychological activities. However, it has achieved a balance by producing rich color changes in line with the needs of the plot. It shows the imagination of the creator, which is still worth learning today.

Custom color package

　　 Studying abroad in film major Film creation is the work of a team, and the color of the film is not just post production, it includes equipment, photography, lighting and other links. Therefore, many films need to develop a complete color scheme to determine the tone of the film before the official shooting.

The right color scheme can not only set off the atmosphere of the film, but also deepen the audience's impression. The color scheme also has some different forms. Some films use a single color scheme, such as the pink color of the big movie Budapest Hotel. This rich emotional color also establishes the artistic atmosphere of the film;

Film Budapest Hotel Source: Douban

In order to create a harmonious visual experience, many movies use similar color systems. For example, the Diary of the Sea Street directed by Zhi Yuhe uses a series of low saturation colors. Each element of the sea breeze, fireworks and green plum wine in the movie also constitutes the color of summer in our memory.

There are also some films that will develop thematic color matching schemes. For example, the most surprising domestic animated film at the beginning of this year, "The Origin of White Snake", is the most amazing because of its beautiful visual effect, which also breaks the belief that "Chinese style" color matching is the red gold matching with thick ink and heavy color.

Film - Origin of White Snake Source: Douban

The whole movie reveals a thick ink and wash style. The magnificent scene color matching and the overall image and details of the role match both real and dreamy. The choice of color is very unified, highlighting the regional characteristics of Hangzhou, the place where the story takes place. The overall picture is like a gray texture under the misty rain.

The choice of colors is more realistic. According to the director, the color scheme of the whole film comes from the special colors extracted from the local ancient villages, karst caves, Kast landforms, etc. during the early stage creation team's field inspection in Guizhou, China. Therefore, no matter the colors of mountains, plants, flowers, birds, fish and insects, or pavilions in the film are close to reality, It is more artistic than reality.

The whole story of "The Origin of White Snake" is derived from the ancient Chinese love legend. The aesthetic style of "ink painting" also fits the romantic theme of the film very well. For us, if we choose the color scheme of the same theme, the sense of harmony they create is also very suitable for highlighting the cultural characteristics of the theme of the work.

Focus on details with color

In addition to the overall color matching in the film we mentioned above, which can establish the style and tone and show the character characteristics of the protagonist, the color change of individual scenes can also guide the audience to focus on important details and enter into the situation preset by the creator in advance.

This is also like when we watch horror movies, we usually choose "bullet screen protection" in order to predict the emergence of emergencies in advance. But this "sudden situation" actually means that the creator is also trying to "spoiler" with us through the change of color. In the development of the story, the conventional color matching has suddenly changed, which actually indicates to us that the role and story are changing.

In the recent film "X-Men Black Phoenix", the black phoenix was hit by mysterious cosmic forces from an ordinary person, during which she finally transformed into a powerful mutant after struggling with her own inner demons. When the protagonist Phoenix changes, the color of the picture slowly changes from cool blue and black to hot red, which also symbolizes that the story will have a huge change from then on.

Film - X-Men Black Phoenix Source: Douban

This kind of change is most vividly displayed in The Devil Child of Nezha Comes into the World. The little devil child experienced various life changes during his growth into a great hero. In order to highlight the "burning" of the final transformation, the treatment of the picture is also sparing no effort;

Film - The Devil Child of Nezha Comes to Earth Source: Douban

The strong color changes in the film also bring the audience gorgeous visual enjoyment. The devil child Nezha represents the hot fire, and the spirit child Ao Bing represents the cold sea water. Each character of Taiyi Immortal, Dragon King, and Li Jing also has a color trend corresponding to their full personality characteristics. At the same time, each character is constantly changing in resistance to fate, and the color tone of the picture is also changing again and again.

Film - The Devil Child of Nezha Comes to Earth Source: Douban

The most magnificent scene in the film appears in the scene where Taiyi Immortal leads Little Nezha to play in the picture of the country. It is said that the inspiration comes from China's "bonsai art". The designer's unconstrained imagination and the color elements extracted from Chinese paintings lead the audience into a world of fairy tales full of ups and downs and fun.

Most of the cases we use to analyze color today are animated films, which is also because the most important test of color presentation in animated films is the design ability of the creators themselves, which is also more referential to our production portfolio. The color matching methods we learned from these excellent films today, such as how to use color matching to reflect the theme and style of works, can be directly used for reference in our own color scheme. In addition, the artistic creation process needs to be accumulated. Today's success of Nezha is no accident. Its design team spent three years to produce it. There are more than 5000 shots in the film, and each frame is the result of continuous refining by the designer. The same is true of the film color and the creation of the film art collection for studying abroad. Dreamschool will see the efforts and time we have devoted to it sooner or later!

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