Telling a story in pictures. How do you communicate narrative, mood & setting without resorting to dialogue, sound or music? How, in short, do you communicate visually?
“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.”
- Stanley Kubrick
Colour
By Tristan Schumacher
Any filmmaker will agree that there is a certain magic to the filmic medium. The way a film can act upon individuals, generating real empathy, emotion, and feeling is what keeps the medium alive and motivates a director to tell stories to responsive audiences. A challenge (and joy) of making films is experimentation; practicing new techniques which facilitate this all important emotionally, intellectually or visually stimulating resonance with theatre goers. Since the advent of colour into mainstreem cinema during the 1930s (The Wizard Of Oz being the first hollywood feature to be filmed in colour) the task of a director, production and costume designer and cinematographer has been to utelise this element of visual storytelling to its greatest advantage in emphasisting characterisation, plot, mood and style.
1.a
1.b
Manipulation of colour during both pre and post production stages of a film’s creation allows for audiences to more easily respond to a film, however Eisenstein raises an interesting debate about the use of colour in a film, noting that some filmmakers feel that, “in a good colour film you are not conscious of colour.” (Nichols, 1976, pp.381) Observe images 1.a and 1.b. According to the theory mentioned by Eisenstein, the first picture is the ideal. While it does contain symbolic red patches and photographs of tomb stones, the image, while evocative lacks a certain edge/mood, which the second image evokes. This image (1.b) has been edited during the post production stages, the blue filter and reduced exposure utelised to add depth and mood to the shot. A sinister sense of doom has been created, accented by the red, which, although present during the production stage, now works in a visual contrast with the blue, feeding upon the purple emphasis placed upon the gravestones in the photograph on the table. Colour has been used well in this instance to create a mood, Eisenstein maintaining that “the first condition for the use of colour in a film is that there must be, first and foremost, a dramatic factor” (Nichols, 1976, 383) Due to the highly stylised colour in the shot and audience would likely become consious of the use of colour in 1.b than in 1.a, yet this does not decessarily detract from the storytelling ability of the film (stylised colour used in films such as Amelie, Chicago, American Beauty, Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow etc), Eisenstein stating that “keeping film components ‘unnoticeable’… is a reflection of creative impotence, of inability to master the complex of cinematice expressive means needed to make an organic film.” (Nichels, 1976, pp.381-383). The shot takes on a quirky, whimsical quality of a dark fairytale. Audiences realise it may not be real, however a skilled directer is able to create a film which works cohesively in all elements of production, making the enhanced colour a seemless and organic aspect of a unified work.
2.a
2.b
Colour may also be manipulated to completely alter the meaning of a shot during the storytelling process. 2.a shows a pair of hands in a gaol cell, reaching for light, and freedom. The the colours in the shot are bland and dull, perhaps emphasising the need for the prisoner to escape into the wide world, yet manipulation of colour allows for 2.b to tell a very different story. The reduced exposure and reduced saturation not only create a more dark and desperate shot, but the arms reaching for the light are no longer just those of an imprisoned person, but those of acdark skinned person, symbolising racial discrimination and opression. The hands become a stronger focus, contrasted against the white wall, their desperation conveyed effectively to viewers, whilst a more muted colour spectrum further adds to the bleakness of the image. Clearly colour plays a substantial role in the creation and communication of meaning in a film.
3.a
Finally observe 3.a. Immediately glancing at the photo allows the use of colour to work as a tool of visual storytelling. Here emphasis is on characterisation, however dialogue and acting are not being embloyed here. The utelisation of colour here is through costume design; the adornments on the character’s bag. Bright pinks, yellows, greens and blues fill the frame, demonstrating the vanbrant nature of the character. This instance of utilisation of colour as a storytelling tool is in a the production stages, with little post production colour manipulation. This use of colour allows for the colourful, frivolous nature of the character to be conveyed to the audience in merely one shot, adhering to Eisenstein’s words, “Colour is good where it can most fully express or explain what must be conveyed, said, or elucidated at any given moment” (Nichols, 1976,pp.383)
Eisenstein presents a notion a ‘balance’ in the elements of visual story telling in film, “The mastery is ability to develop each element of the expressive meants to the utmost… preventing any particular element from undermining the unity of the ensemble.” (Nichols, 1976, pp.382) Essentially colour is a crucial element in visual storytelling as it opens a host of symbolic and visual opportunities for innovative filmmakers to explore.
