Color%Theory%Through%Time%Travel%Film%and%the%Student

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Color%Theory%Through%Time%Travel%Film%and%the%Student%Film,%Troy%
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A!Thesis!Submitted!to!the!Faculty!of!the!Film!and!Television!
in!Partial!Fulfillment!of!the!Requirements!for!the!
Degree!of!Master!of!Fine!Arts!in!Film!and!Television!!
at!
Savannah!College!of!Art!and!Design!
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Jing!Ge!
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Savannah,!Georgia!
!©!May,!2015!
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Prof.!Michael!Chaney,!Committee!Chair!
Prof.!Andrew!Meyer,!Committee!Member!
Prof.!Bear!Brown,!Committee!Member!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………..1
Abstract………………………..………………………..………………………………....2
Introduction: Color in Films..……..………………………..……………………………..3
Film Color Defined………………………..………………………..……………………..3
Color Symbolism……………………………………………………………………….....5
History of Coloring Technology for Motion Pictures.……………………………………7
Inspirations of Lighting and Color………………………..……………………………..10
Source Code (2011).………………………..………………………………..………..…11
Looper (2012).………………………..…………………………………………..……...12
The Butterfly Effect (2004).………………………..……………………………………..13
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)………………………..……………………………….14
Men in Black 3 (2012)……………………………………………………...…………….15
Color Control and Color Treatment in Troy…………………….……..………………...16
Proposal Scene…………………………………………………………………………...16
Rescuers Taking Helen Away Scene…………………………………………………….17
Achilles Scene…………………………………………………………………………....17
Control Room Scene- Hecht watches Paris’s video……………………………………..18
Board Room Scene………………………………………………………………………18
Cape Canaveral Scene……………………………………………………………………19
Beach-Flashback Scene………………………..………………………………………...19
Conclusion………………………..………………………..…………………..……..….20
Bibliography………………………..………………………..………………………......23
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Sir Isaac Newton's Color Circle, 1704………………………………………….4
Figure 2. The Moses Harris Color Wheel, 1776…………………………………………..5
Figure 3. The Goethe-Schiller Color Wheel, 1798-9………………………………..…….5
Figure 4. Color Symbolism Chart…………………………………………………………6
Figure 5. Frame of Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902)…………………7
Figure 6. Vie et Passion du Christ (Life and Passion of the Christ) (1903).……………...7
Figure 7. Frame of Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)……………………………….....7
Figure 8. Frame of Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924)…………………………………...8
Figure 9. Frame of Good Morning, Eve! (1934)………………………………………….8
Figure 10. Frames of Source Code (2011)……………………………………………….11
Figure 11. Frames of Looper (2012)………………………………....…………………..12
Figure 12. Frames of The Butterfly Effect (2004)………………………………………..13
Figure 13. Frames of The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)……………………………..…..14
Figure 14. Frames of Men in Black 3 (2012)…………………………………………….15
Figure 15. Frame of Troy Proposal Scene…………………..…………………………...16
Figure 16. Frame of Troy Rescuers Taking Helen Away Scene..………………………..17
Figure 17. Frame of Troy Achilles Scene…………………..……………………………17
Figure 18. Frame of Troy Control Room Scene..…………..……………………………18
Figure 19. Frame of Troy Board Room Scene…………………………………………..18
Figure 20. Frame of Cape Canaveral Scene……………………………………………..19
Figure 21. Frame of Beach-Flashback Scene……………………………………………20
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Color!Theory!Through!Time!Travel!Film!and!the!Student!Film,!Troy%
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Jing!Ge!
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May!2015!
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Since 1902, when Edward Raymond Turner created the earliest color film footage, color
has been an important element in movies. All colors have their own emotional or
symbolic meaning, and they can help add literal, visual, and figurative layers to a film. In
addition, color theory helps filmmakers tell the story and helps viewers engage in and
understand the story and meanings. In a treatment that defines color as a filmic
technique, highlights color meaning through symbolism, and surveys the historical
development of color in motion pictures, this thesis takes a closer look at the color
technique in five influential romantic science fiction films with a time travel theme.
Then discussing principles and methods of color control in filmmaking, the thesis
discusses the student film, Troy, using it as an example that demonstrates how five recent
films— Source Code (2011), Looper (2012), The Butterfly Effect (2004), The Time
Traveler’s Wife (2009), and Men in Black 3 (2012)—provided inspiration for the
application of these principles and methods of color control.
Keywords: Color theory, time travel film, science fiction film
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Introduction:
Color in Films
Color in film engages the senses. It relies upon perceptions and invites thoughtful
and emotional evocation. Color in films is literal and used to depict settings and scenes
as well as figurative in the sense that it can convey emotion, expression, attitude, and
even action. Though extensive studies on the contributions of color in film have been
few and far between (Misek), there have been several articles, many discussions, and a
few books on the technique of colorization that inform this study. In addition, in the
science fiction genre using a theme of romance in time travel contexts, five films with
their own style of colorization— Source Code (2011), Looper (2012), The Butterfly Effect
(2004), The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009), and Men in Black 3 (2012)—have, as
representatives of contemporary colorization, contributed to our understanding of color
technique and have inspired the technique in the making of my thesis film, Troy. This
written discussion accompanies the film, surveys the history of color technique in
cinematography, analyzes the use of color techniques in the five predecessor films, and
offers a justification for the color technique influenced by the five films to make the
thesis film, Troy.
Film Color Defined
As Richard Misek suggests coloring film is like painting with light for while the
human eye can perceive light without color, the human eye must have light to perceive
color. The color form determines the extent to which light is involved, that is surface
color, such as that in a painting, as well as color as pigments and involves pigment-
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additive color mixing; optical color is color as light and involves light-subtractive color
mixing.1 The human eye discerns color(s) depending upon the retina where different
cells have different degrees of sensitivity to wavelengths of color(s)—each which has a
different wavelength frequency and wavelength intensity, as well as a different energy of
light. These are meta meters of spectral power distribution that, according to color
theorists, also vary according to species perceiving them and even to individuals within a
select species.
Color theory and color perception starts to the credit of Sir Isaac Newton, who
discovered the color spectrum and refracted the spectrum to
establish the understanding that light creates color, and not
he other way around: after several experiments with prisms
and light, Newton produced the first color circle—
Fig.%1%Sir%Isaac%Newton's%Color%Circle%
arranging colors so that primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, were situated opposite their
compliments, the secondary colors green, violet, and orange. (Fig. 1)
Fi
Another color theorist, Moses Harris, extended the color circle of Sir Newton by
demonstrating the concept of color range and distribution by way of subtractive color
mixing, whereby the more pigment added means the more light is absorbed, or,
subtracted.2 (Fig. 2)
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1
! Richard Misek, Chromatic Cinema: A History of Screen Color, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd., 2010, p.6.!
2
2
Ibid., p. 7.!
3
Sascha Loske, “Temperamental Roses: On the beauty of colour circles,” The Morning After the Deluge,
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Color Symbolism
A third contributor to color theory was the team of
Jon Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, who
advanced color vision theory by adding to the figurative
study of perceptions as temperaments that aligned with
specific colors. Goethe and Schiller named the study the
Temperamentenrose or, The Rose of Temperaments/The
Fig.%2%Harris%Color%Wheel,%1776
1
%
Temperament Rose, which attempted to align a person’s
occupation of personality characteristic(s) to each of
twelve colors on their own circle or wheel.3 (Fig. 3)
This unique approach lends to contemporary color
symbolism theory. Beyond what the eye senses or
perceives of color in film, individual colors can have
Fig.%3%The%Goethe@Schiller%Color%Wheel,%1798@9
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% representative meaning that contributes to the
theme of a story, poem, or motion picture. Depending upon the culture in which the color
has symbolic meaning, following (Fig. 4) are colors and what they represent:
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3
Sascha Loske, “Temperamental Roses: On the beauty of colour circles,” The Morning After the Deluge,
29 Apr. 2012, accessed April 28, 2015, http://colourlightandshade.blogspot.com/2012/04/temperamentalroses-on-beauty-of-colour.html.!
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Fig.%4%Color%Symbolism%Chart %
Colors associated with the various cultures and traditions around the world. For instance,
black and red is the color of death in Western culture, but white is the color of mourning
in Eastern culture.
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History of Coloring Technology for Motion Pictures
Color in cinematography has a rich
history reaching back to the late-nineteenth
and early-twentieth centuries, between 1895
and 1927. At the start, what prompted
colorization as a technique was how black-
Fig.%5!A!Trip!to!the!Moon%(1902)%
and-white (actually black, white, and
sepia) left filmmakers with a feeling that
something was missing: “Like sound,
Fig.%6%Life!and!Passion!of!the!Christ%
color was an absence immediately felt
and a need immediately addressed,”
writes Richard Misek.4 With the
innovations of color modes and coloring
Fig.%7%Mystery!of!the!Wax!Museum%
systems and processes, audiences were treated to such films as Le voyage dans la lune or,
A Trip to the Moon (1902)(Fig. 5), hand-colored for at least four percent of the prints; Vie
et Passion du Christ or, Life and Passion of the Christ (1903) (Fig. 6), colorized by way
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4
!Richard Misek, Chromatic Cinema: A History of Screen Color, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd., 2010, p. 14.!
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of the a stencil and spray paint process; Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) (Fig. 7),
colorized with a green-red two-frame additive process; Wanderer of the Wasteland
(1924) (Fig. 8), colorized with a two-strip subtractive process; and Good Morning, Eve!
(1934) (Fig. 9), colorized by way of a three-strip Technicolor process.
The earliest film coloring techniques
involved the hand coloring or spray painting and
stenciling, two techniques that by 1916, had
evolved into Technicolor processes. These early
techniques influenced the color work on later
films to come,
Fig.%8%Wanderer!of!the!Wasteland%
and with slight advancements have made contributions
to the world of film that continue to influence us today.
Early practitioners began adding color using techniques
Fig.%9%Good!Morning,!Eve!%
that included immersion of film strips into dyes, hand painting film prints, and laying
down stencils atop film to spray paint.5 By the 1930s, advances brought Technicolor to
the art—a technique that allowed for reproducing color frequencies of light directly onto
a film print in a two-color or three-strip process: the first process was a two-color, redgreen process that involved a prism light beam-splitter placed behind the camera lens to
expose two consecutive frames of a single strip of black and white negative film at the
same time, with one frame filtered in red, the other frame filtered in green, and with
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5
Richard Misek, Chromatic Cinema: A History of Screen Color, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd., 2010!
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accelerated camera speeds and dual-aperture projection.6 This first coloring process was
an additive one, which, according to Richard Misek, required three cameras, each with a
filter of a primary color, recording the same scene.7 The second process was a
subtractive coloring process. Originating with filmmakers Daniel Comstock, W. Burton
Wescott, and Herbert Kalmus, this two-strip filming technique also involved a beamsplitter to expose two consecutive frames at the same time, with green and red filters, one
on each frame, with post-development adjustments made to tone in order to align the
complementary colors.8 However, a third process was developed to troubleshoot the
problems of misalignment, the inability to focus equally on the dual frames, and the risks
associated with continuous handling of films, including cupping (warping or
disfigurement). This third Technicolor process, a three-strip process, derived from the
dye-transfer technique originating in 1916, but involved dye imbibition, a colorizing
technique developed by Max Handschiegl whereby colors are displaced: Author William
Y.D. Kelley explained in a 1927 article on imbibition for motion pictures:
This system of coloring is used exclusively for productions already completed.
After a production has been cut and edited, the scenes that are to be colored
should be jointed onto one reel, a positive print made with the same perforations
as the negative, which also should be printed on a registering printer, and from
this print the “color plate” is generated. Once the color plate is made in this
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6
Ibid.!
7
Richard Misek, Chromatic Cinema: A History of Screen Color, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd., 2010,!p. 7.!
8
!Thomas Elway, “The First Successful Color Movie,” Popular Science (Feb. 1923), p. 59.!
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manner, the prints for distribution may be made with different perforations, as the
coloring machines can register independently of the perforations.9
With this third Technicolor process, the production involved making improvements to the
technique that included de-graining in order to achieve greater vibrancy and clarity of
colors, among others.
A fourth version of the Technicolor process evolved, a three-strip Technicolor,
which was used by filmmakers starting in about 1924. This was followed by the
substitute of the three-strip technique with a three-color camera that was developed by W.
Burton Wescott (of Comstock, Wescott, and Kalmus) and Joseph A. Ball. The final
Technicolor improvements allowed for the use of one camera, two beams of light, two
filters (green and magenta), and complimentary color emulsions/dyes (each functioning
to block certain colors at certain extremes of the light spectrum), three strips of black and
white film—creating the matrix three times that would be used to superimpose cyan,
magenta, and yellow dye images and thus result in a full-color projection print.10
Inspirations of Lighting and Color
For many years, coloring technology experienced a significant development in
film history. Color becomes an essential element in the motion picture. Five films—
Source Code (2011), Looper (2012), The Butterfly Effect (2004), The Time Traveler’s
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9
!William V.D. Kelley, “Imbibition Coloring of Motion Picture Films,” Transactions of the Society of
Motion Picture Engineers 10, no. 28 (1927): 238. !
10
Martin Hart, “Technicolor Three-Strip Photography,” Wide Screen Museum, 2003, accessed 29 April,
2015, http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor6.htm!
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Wife (2009), and Men in Black 3 (2012)—provided inspiration for the application of color
principles and methods in the making of my thesis film, Troy.
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Fig.!10!Frames!of!Source'Code!(2011)!
The shots of Source Code (2011) (Fig. 10) were shot in oversaturated colors, to suggest
the dark artifice of a future time. The effective use of green delivers technological
eeriness. Moreover, many shots, such as the frame three above, with Colter Stevens in
videoconference with Doctor Rutledge from Colter Stevens’ pod are shot in a red cam,
which according to Feargal Norton “…successfully lends a dirtier look to the cinematic
image.” 11 At the same time, while panoramic shots are muddied for smog effect of the
big city, other scenes including flashbacks that allow more lights are much brighter.
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!Feargal Norton, Duncan Jones and his exploration of profound philosophical and scientific theories
through his own highly derivative take on science fiction cinema, which is aided by the application of
digital technology [Master’s thesis]. Huston School of Film and Digital Media, National University of
Ireland, Galway, p. 23.
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These scenes—such as when Colter is on the train or when Colter is having a dream—are
colored less, or are brighter, to show the dimness of reality as it is contrasted with the
vivid, colorful, and bright state of the protagonists’ dreams.12
Most of the scenes of Looper (2012)(Fig.11) are bright and crisp. However, when the
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Fig.%11%Frames%of%Looper%(2012)%
character Joseph “Joe” Gordon-Levitt transforms from young Joe to older Joe, when
there is a transition as a looper, the color saturation is altered as well. There is a
romantic, wasteland quality in these moments of transformation that is supported by the
35mm G-Series Panavision anamorphic lens.
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12
!Daniel Müller, “Chapter Five: Narrations of Trauma in Mainstream Cinema: Forgetting Death in Duncan
Jones’ SOURCE CODE (2011),” in Michael Elm, Kobi Kabalek, Julia B. Köhne (Eds.), The Horrors of
Trauma in Cinema, 108-124 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), p. 111.!
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Fig.!12!Frames!of!The'Butterfly'Effect!(2004)!
The blue saturation of opening scenes of The Butterfly Effect (2004)(Fig. 12) is a tease, as
the blue of stability and serenity (notably contrasted with its complimentary color in
image one above) are replaced with saturated browns for much of the sets and
backgrounds. Even the blue hues of loyalty or peace and quiet that can be seen in
clothing of the protagonist become hues of grays and blacks of the prison garb. This
saturation or absorption of light in the movie seems to be about shifts in time—as it is for
the color technique in most of the other inspirational movies discussed here—and
transitions of reality for the characters. The variation of effects is enormous, to the credit
of the digital intermediate (DI) tool used to create everything from bleached bypass
effects (with heavy silver retention) to realistic character visuals against augmented
backgrounds.
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Fig.!13!Frames!of!The'Time'Traveler’s'Wife!(2009)!
The coloring of The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)(Fig. 13) is predominantly done in
desaturated tints of brown to suggest antiquity or vintage time. However, there are a few
scenes with vivid yellows (shown in the montage of frames, image three above, with
Clair and Henry), suggesting happiness like that of a person on a sunny day. Moreover,
there is an intentional use of red props and clothing in the movie, filmed against not just
green but greens and yellows of the meadow, for example (as shown in the last image
above). The contrast is visually striking, but the symbolism is important, too, as the red
symbolizes death: in an interview with Steve Weintraub, Director Robert Schwentke
addresses the red:
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It depends on what you look for, I suppose…. We color coded
characters. We color coded certain situations. There’s one thought,
it’s kind of an obscure thought but since you’re asking, the color
red is sort of connected with the connotation of death. It comes out
first during Christmas and of course she has, the little girl has in
the meadow a red blanket. To me, yes he did travel to the meadow
because of her, because she was going to be the most important
person in his life, but also because it was going to be the locust
[sic] of his death. So, to me – do I get to say that here? The color
red here definitely has that same meaning. It’s not a lapse in our
judgment….13
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Fig.%14%Frames%of%Men!in!Black!3%(2012)%
As the movie title indicates, there is a lot of monochrome in Men in Black 3 (2012). (Fig.
14) This is used to convey secrecy (of the men in black who are government agents, like
Agent J and Agent K), to contrast with white (and to represent night versus day), and to
contrast seriousness of the men’s work with the chaos of aliens or the raucous crowds,
parades and Coney Island people and attractions. In combination, the use of the three
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!Robert Schwentke, interview by Steve Winetraub, Collider, August 10, 2009.
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types of lighting—traditional three-point, high-key and low-key lighting—allowed for
realism, lighter or cheerful scenes, and the building of suspense, respectively.14
Color Control and Color Treatment in Troy
The story of Troy begins during an unusual meteor shower. Helen is driving when
the meteor shower hits, and a smaller meteor crashes into her windshield. Paris, an
astronomer, is driving by and stops to help. He and Helen fall in love. A wormhole in
deep space, “Troy”, is discovered, and Paris suspects aliens to be the cause so Paris and
his colleague, Hecht, initiate a research project. Paris and Helen grow closer, isolating
Hecht, until she is killed in a lab accident. Paris disappears—eventually resurfacing with
data proving the existence of extraterrestrials. Paris blasts off towards the wormhole,
while Hecht learns the secret truth behind the “Troy” Project, which is that Paris traveled
back to the past and saved Helen by making it, so they had never met (so instead of
getting killed, Helen could go on to meet someone else and be happy).
Proposal Scene
For the Prototype Cabin
proposal scene (Fig.15) we set up
12 Kino Flo Lights (daylight) on
the top of the Prototype Cabin.
There were more than 10 LED
Fig.%15!Frame!of!Troy!Proposal!Scene%
Practical lights around the Prototype Cabin. The colors are significant to the point of
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!natajavi2008, “Men in Black III Cinematography,” January 9, 2015, accessed May 1, 2015,
https://natajavi2008.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/men-in-black-iii-cinematography/ !
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equalizing Paris and Helen, who is now in a uniform of her own. The muted colors of the
suits and the gray tint of the walls are ironic, or in contrast with what should be a happy
moment. This hints at the reality to come—that the proposal will not be all beaches and
wildflowers but will be impacted by the mission of the space lab and Paris.
Rescuers Taking Helen Away Scene
For the Rescuers Taking
Helen Away Scene (Fig. 16) we
used the same Prototype Cabin
scene lighting setup: 12 Kino Flo
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Fig.!16!Frame%of%Troy%Rescuers%Taking%Helen%Away%Scene%
Lights (daylight) on the top of the Prototype Cabin with more than 10 LED Practical
lights around the Prototype Cabin. The lighting combinations and the use of the Digital
Intermediate process for color grading enabled us to develop scenes of high resolution
that appeared both very upbeat and cheerful and very sterile, clinical, and austere at the
same time as they allowed for realism of muted uniform colors of Helen contrasted with
the sterile, pure white of the Hazmat suits.
Achilles Scene
For the Achilles Scene (Fig.
17), which was set at the same
location as the Prototype Cabin, we
set the Kino kit to light Paris’s face
Fig.!17!Frame%of%Troy%Achilles%Scene%
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and to mimic the lights coming from outer space as well as the hologram’s reflection. The
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many hues and shades of blue and the blue tint cast on the environment around Paris were
meant to convey a persistence of truth.
Control Room Scene- Hecht watches Paris’s video
For the Control Room Scene,
when Hecht watches Paris’s video,
we set an HMI and Kino Flo kit on
the top, to light the environment. A
Fig.%18%Frame!of!Troy!Control!Room!Scene—!Hecht!watches!Paris’s!video
tungsten lights three-quarters’ of Hecht’s face to mimic the screen light reflecting on his
face. Some practical lights were also placed strategically around the control room. As
noted above, the use of light and the manipulation of light and color help to establish
darker shots such as the one that helped to convey the darkness of Hecht’s feelings when
Paris tells him the truth (by video cam).
Board Room Scene
For the Board Room Scene
(Fig.19), we used Tungsten lights
in this scene. In addition, our
motion media designer designed a
company advertising logo. We played
Fig.%19%Frame!of!Troy!Board!Room!Scene%
the logo on a TV, so the blue reflection of the TV created a beautiful blue light when the
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doors of the Board Room opened. This in effect works with the contrast between yellow
and blue. Where the scene takes place in the corporate headquarters boardroom, the dark
suits of the investors represents a sober, austere tone or mood as it is juxtaposed with the
blue light shining on the boardroom conference table each time the door opens, with blue
suggesting loyalty and truth and with the repeated reflection emphasizing this truth and
the persistence of Paris to convince the investors.
Cape Canaveral Scene
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For the Cape Canaveral
scene, we were shooting with
natural lights. We used a matte
painting in the background,
Fig.%20%Frame!of!Cape!Canaveral!Scene%
composed by a visual effects artist.
The grays and oranges were intended, to hint at a more foreboding outcome, or, a
bittersweet one: the orange conveys energy, enthusiasm, warmth, vibrancy, and of course
expansiveness. However, the gray intruding throughout injects conservative and practical
nature and sadness to come.
Beach-Flashback Scene
And for the Beach-Flashback scene, we also used natural lighting, doing color
grading in post-production. The footage is more gray and cold, as would be the wanted
tone for a romantic but mournful flashback and concluding bittersweet emotion. The
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colors are soft, the lighting
romantic, and the imagery is a
starkly contrasting one to other
scenes where the two are lovingly
embracing. And, in afterthought,
the audience might even note that the
Fig.%21%Frame!of!BeachKFlashback!Scene%
actual loving scene had an absence of
saturation of the warm orange, the happy yellow, and the passionate red.
Conclusion
The main purpose for my thesis film’s shot design was to use color to convey
different information and emotions to the audience. This is supported by several reasons.
Firstly, color (in conjunction with lighting) is a very important way to convey basic
information such as time (of a day) and temperature. For instance, when telling a story
from a different period, each should be different color. Through the use of this technique,
audiences can literally understand where the characters are and what part of the story they
are watching. In the making of Troy, we used traditional three-point lighting for realism
and outside daytime scenes and kept the colors realistic but symbolic once the characters
were in uniform: so, for example, in scenes where Paris and Hecht are in uniform, the
blue is representative of loyalty—to science and to each other as astronomers. We used
high-key lighting for exciting and happier moments inside the prototype cabin and used
the Digital Intermediate process for color grading. These enabled us to develop scenes of
high resolution that appeared both very upbeat and cheerful and very sterile, clinical, and
austere (as in the first frame, the proposal scene inside, and the scene with the “men in
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white” or Hazmat suits taking the dead Helen away), at the same time as they allowed for
realism of muted uniform colors (such as inside the lab, onboard the ship) in contrast
against white walls or a clear blue sky. Depending on which control was used, color also
can leave a cold or hot feeling for the audience.
Secondly, color also conveys emotions. From one scene to another, we changed
color to establish different moods, which can greatly affect the scene. As was noted
above, the use of light and the manipulation of light and color to establish darker shots
such as the one that helped to convey the darkness of Hecht’s feelings when Paris tells
him the truth (by video cam), for example.
Thirdly, color is associated with a character’s perspective. Even if a film has a
realistic environmental color, a certain color can still be assigned to characters. Color has
an important psychological effect on the audience. Again, the color of the uniforms was
important, so, for example, when the scene takes place in the corporate headquarters
boardroom, the dark suits of the investors is juxtaposed with the (blue) light shining on
the boardroom conference table each time the door opens, or when the two colleagues,
Paris and Hecht, are outside right before Paris takes off.
We brought a unique shot design to our film by designing colors for each scene,
when we considered locations, when we were dressing sets, and as we designed lighting.
This ambitious project was a great opportunity to not only improves my production skills,
but also to improve all filmmaking skills I have learned from school. Many talented
people were involved in this project and had a passion for it, so we had the right people in
the key crew positions. We designed color to show time and space, to convey emotions,
and to do so from the characters’ perspective. Building the set and designing lighting
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were based on our shot design. The transitions of color from scene to scene not only
showed the audiences the changing of time and space but also the deep inner world of the
characters of Troy. We borrowed from the theme of giving up love to keep that person
alive and happy by traveling back in time from several of the inspirational films. We also
borrowed techniques, such as the use of the Digital Intermediate tool from The Butterfly
Effect (2004), and the use of different types of lighting for different effects on color
control from Men in Black 3 (2012). But all of the movies and all of the research and
practice that went into making Troy have been invaluable.
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23!
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