There are hundreds of movies that make it to the box office every year. Every year you get to see a masterpiece by some brilliant director who knows how to deliver great scenes. The success of movies, dramas, and telefilm series is relative and directly links to the audience and its viewers. It’s not the movie that makes it to the Oscar nomination, it’s the love of the people that get many views and the hype people create about it. Above all the fundamental variants, color psychology plays a pivotal role that helps a film project to thrive.
Color Psychology in Film Production
Among many other factors that make a film outstanding, color psychology and set designing play a vital role in playing to the audience’s mood and emotions. The depiction of color by the film directors and producers is set before the production according to how they want the scene to come off and how they want people to feel about it.
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Movies often get us emotional, happy, sad or even hyped about it. What we think is that the scene itself is independent of any other factor to make itself feel worthy. However, this is not the case. The color setting in any scene is what gives you the feel of it. The psychology of colors boosts your interest in any movie. Without the perfect depiction of colors and stage setting, any scene alone will not help you feel anything about it.
Colors and Human Psychology
Color plays to the psychology of people. It predefines the scenario before any action occurs. It helps you feel the way you feel. Often when you are watching a new movie, the colors used in different scenarios can help you predict what is about to happen. Many times, filmmakers also leverage this certain human behavior and successfully create an unpredictable movie. By giving signals through colors, they make you analyze certain outcomes. However, they will completely change the climax to catch you by a surprise.
Different Colors and the Connection With Color Psychology
The connection of colors psychology with emotions is very much similar to how you feel in general about them. For example, when surrounded by nature, greenery around you will make you feel comfortable and usually gives a soothing sight. The blue in the sea and river creates a pleasant environment just as the blue sky does in the evening. Any sign in red makes you realize that something is dangerous or harmful about it whether you know the sign or not.
Colors in movies are very much like that and help in making you feel certain emotions about a scene. Let’s see how colors are used to make you feel certain emotions about it.
Red
The red color in a film delivers a different feeling as per the scene. Sometimes it gives a mix of certain emotions. Directors often use red settings in a movie where they need to show a powerful character or when they want to create a dangerous situation to keep the audience on their toes while they watch it. Contrary to this, the romantic setting utilizes red where directors need to show affection between the casting actors. Red also signifies passion or violence.
Blue
Blue in real life gives you a soothing and peaceful effect. It symbolizes peace, truth, or sophistication. In the world of film production and color psychology, it has several feelings attached to it. It does help in creating a peaceful setting but it also helps with isolation. When a moviemaker wants to show a person as a loner, an outcast, or someone with a calm personality, they will use a blue color setting.
Interestingly, it also comes in handy for cerebral scenes or scenes that involve high-tech machinery and Autobots. Yes, we all have seen all the sequels of Transformers and Terminator. See how they leverage blue color in all the scenarios where they want to show the intensity in technology.
Green
Directors and filmmakers have been using green in the past for the obvious. To show nature, greenery, or forests. This motive behind the color still prevails as we can see in Jurassic World or any other movie that has something to do with animals and jungles. However, over time, set designers and DOPs of the movies have started green to show evil and danger as well. The visualization of green color for evil villains with supernatural powers makes it a brilliant scene and the character looks more interesting than usual. Take Maleficent for example. Along with the dark shades of other colors, green is very prominent to show Maleficent’s power and evilness.
Yellow
Yellow is the leading color in basically all animated movies because it brings joy to people. Even animated movies always carry a good lesson with them. The yellow color setting makes it fun to watch. The color is a mood changer and its setting in the scene leaves you amused.
Yellow also shows naivety or insanity. When a director wants to form a character that is not mentally stable or has serious health issues, they portray it by aiding it with the help of a yellow color setting.
Pink
Pink in color psychology is often associated with beauty, innocence, and sweetness. In a nutshell, it is interlinked with femininity. Recall all the movies where a guy falls head over heels for a girl. The girl comes out in a pink color setting to add to her glamour. People also use pink in contrast with other light colors to convey a sense of love and passion to the viewers. You can observe white and pink color settings in most romantic-comedy movies.
Orange
Orange itself is a vibrant color. It is prevalent in the cinematic world in the same way. All those high school scenes will have an orange setting unless it is a spooky movie and there happens to be a 13-year-old spirit to haunt the students. Nevertheless, orange portrays a sociable scenario and creates a friendly and warm environment where everyone gets along.
Orange also relates to youth. Directors use this particular setting on the set when there are youngsters involved and the movie explicitly needs to show the younger generation. It ultimately represents happiness, peace, and sociability.
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Purple
Purple is a very mysterious color and that goes along in the set settings as well. When directors want to set a mystical tone for a scene, they opt for a purple color setting. Moreover, this color setting also comes in place when you want an illusionary effect.
You will get to see this color extensively used in the fantasy genre where filmmakers leave much to the viewer’s imagination.
Dark Colors
The dark color setting takes place in your average to an extraordinary horror movie. All the movies that involve ghosts, dead bodies, graveyards, lost souls, are set in dark shades. The dark colors set the tone for the scenes to convey fear, thrill, or hopelessness to the audience.
The film industry however has seen drastic changes over the past few years. Now a horror movie does not necessarily have to be set in a darker tone. Now directors have successfully managed to furnish fear among the audience in the daylight setting. In the modern movie era, Jackson and Freddy can chase their victims during the day and you will still be in fear.
Black in color psychology is also associated with sadness, hopelessness, pity, and disgrace. Film producers and directors have experimented with black in different moods and stage settings. Black and grey in combination also help to portray suspicious acts and thrilling scenes.
Over time, all successful filmmakers have managed to utilize colors in the best way they can. Without the correct usage for the correct mood, they would have failed to achieve outstanding products. You would be surprised to know that the world of colors psychology is still open to exploration. Creative minds still achieve great results by experimenting with various shades and colors. You are sitting happily on your couch, grabbing your popcorn to watch this movie on Netflix, only to cry over it after the very five next minutes.
It is crazy how the film producers know how to play to your emotions and get you all excited just through a few seconds or minutes of a scene. If not for the psychology of colors and stage setting, you would not be watching those amazing movie reactions in cinemas on YouTube.