Color Theory and Wes Anderson's Style — Sad Characters in a Colorful World
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 Published On Sep 7, 2020

More on Wes Anderson's Color Palettes ►► http://bit.ly/anderson-color
How to Use Color in Film ►► http://bit.ly/color-film

Chapters:
00:00 How Wes Anderson's Style Subverts Color Theory
01:15 Color Theory — Hue, Saturation and Brightness
02:10 Color Bipolarity in The Royal Tenenbaums
03:12 Color Bipolarity in The Grand Budapest Hotel
04:18 Associating Color Palettes with Characters
05:00 Chas Tenenbaum and Red
06:14 When Happy Colors Meet Sad Subjects
06:58 Color Psychology in The Darjeeling Limited
07:34 Final Takeaways on Wes Anderson's Style
08:13 Learn More About Color Theory in Film

Wes Anderson — a filmmaker with a completely distinct visual style (aka the "Wes Anderson Style"), and a director with an eye for color psychology. In fact, of all his director trademarks found in films like Rushmore, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, it is his color palette that invites the most praise and analysis. In this video essay, we’ll take a specific look at how Wes Anderson often uses a bright and saturated color palette to balance out the darker subject matter of his films.

Color theory (or color psychology) suggests that certain colors have particular characteristics in how we relate to them. The color wheel, in other words, might represent the gamut of all human emotions. In Wes Anderson movies, he doesn’t typically favor one color over another — but he does use color palettes that pop on screen.

In movies like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited, the production design is a feast of colors. But considering the subject matter of those films (dysfunctional families, revenge, death), the color palettes don’t quite fit. And that’s the interesting part of the Wes Anderson style — the tone is balanced with contrasting color schemes.

With such bright and saturated fairy tale color palettes, Wes Anderson movies can touch on deep, existential issues without bumming people out. And if it weren’t for the dramatic content, the exaggerated colors would be unbearably optimistic and cheerful. In standard film theory, color in film is usually seen to “support” the tone of the subject matter, but Wes Anderson movies complicate those expectations. This is advanced color theory executed by a filmmaker with a complete grasp of the color wheel who challenges our predisposed notions of color in film.

#FilmTheory #VideoEssay #Filmmaking



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