COLOR PSYCHOLOGY: THE ART OF FILMS

Jung quoted “Colors are the mother tongue of the subconscious”

Have you ever heard of color psychology? Well, most people- actually almost everyone know it. Strange, isn’t it? You might think – “I’m familiar with colors but color psychology seems something entirely different.” Or some might be thinking – “I know this but not too much.” Well, you aren’t too off the page either. You might have seen, heard, or searched about it at some point in time. 

Color psychology is the study of the emotional and mental effects colors have on people in all phases of life. Carl Jung was a pioneer in exploring the properties and meaning of colors in our lives. Since then there has been much progress and recognition for it. We can see it being used in marketing and branding. How? Let us dive a bit deeper into color psychology to know!

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions," Pablo Picasso once said. 

Have you ever wondered why looking at the vast blue sky makes you feel calm? Why do some places make you feel irritated? And why do some make you feel relaxed? It is known that colors have the ability to affect the emotions and the state of mind of a person.

People browse through millions of posts and pages in a day. And there are a million more ads in them. Irritating as they are, some catch your eye. While reading a novel on a website or a post on a blog or reading a business page, you might subconsciously stop when you see a bright red ad about a restaurant. When traveling on the road, you might also see the color red used as "stop" signs or as signs indicating "danger." The color red tends to attract attention because of its vibrant and strong nature. Red can be perceived as dangerous, exciting, romantic, and confident. A single color can take on many different interpretations depending on the situation and culture.

“Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of color to express myself more forcefully.” — Vincent Van Gogh

Colors play a major role in our lives, no secret there. It influences our decisions. Whether you are buying a product, painting the walls of your room, or eating, it all depends on the color of it. 

Picture yourself watching a movie, as an example. When you encounter a scene that has a dark gray atmosphere, you immediately perceive it to be mournful and sad. Filmmakers use color to evoke a particular mood in a scene. Colors play an integral role in the expression and interpretation of feelings, moods, or other aspects of our world. Depending on the story, each film has its own cinematic color scheme.

Color Psychology in films:

Red: Love, Passion, Violence, Danger, Anger, Power

The Shining, by Stanley Kubrick

In the film, a family is living alone in a massive hotel without any form of communication with the outside world. The father's sanity deteriorates as a result of the isolation. He was wearing a red jacket at the time that he attempted to murder his family. At this point, the color red symbolizes violence. The film uses varying shades of red to express murder and rage from lust and love accurately.

Pink: Innocence, Sweetness, Femininity, Playful, Empathy, Beauty

Mean girls, by Mark Waters

The color pink dominates throughout this film. It is the story of Cady Heron, a 16-year-old girl who returns to the United States with her family after living in Africa. Cady discovers the struggles of high school cliques after accidentally joining The Plastics. On Wednesdays, the group wears pink, Regina's mother wears mostly pink, and her room is decorated mostly in pink as well. Pink is used in an attempt to play up innocence and purity to mask the cruelties committed by The Plastics.

Orange: Warmth, Sociability, Friendly, Happiness, Exotic, Youth

Coco, by Adrian Molina and Lee Unkrich

It tells the story of a boy, Miguel, who despite his family's restrictions pursues his passion for singing. He accidentally stumbles into the Land of the Dead, where he learns about his great-great-grandfather who was a legendary singer. The road to the land of the dead is filled with orange flower petals of Aztec marigolds which are used to guide the deceased to the living. The scene with Miguel and his grandmother Coco at the end is also filled with orange light signifying happiness. 

Yellow: Happiness, Madness, Sickness, Insecurity, Obsessive, Naive

Inside Out, by Pete Docter

In this film, color psychology is brought to a whole new level. It uses colors to express the five core emotions of humans. The color yellow represents the emotion of joy. It appears that she is always happy and energetic. The other colors include red, which represents anger, green, which represents disgust, purple, which represents fear, and blue, which represents sadness.

Green: Nature, Immaturity, Corruption, Ominous, Darkness, Danger

Maleficent, by Robert Stromberg 2014

In many films, nature is represented by the color green. On the other hand, some films, such as Maleficent, portray green as evil or dangerous. As seen throughout the movie, Maleficent's outfit is dark green and her magic consists of wisps of green and gold. The colors depict her moral behavior - green can be correlated with 'evil', or at least 'meant to harm', while gold can be correlated with 'benevolence'.

Blue: Cold, Isolation, Cerebral, Melancholy, Passivity, Calm

Corpse Bride, by Tim Burton, Mike Johnson

Corpse Bride is monochromatic with a slight blue tint that only appears in the living world. As the viewer enters the underworld, however, it is filled with eccentricity and neon colors. Burton often uses color to create contrasting effects between the feeling of fear and excitement in his films. By using the color blue, he conveys the eerie and mysterious theme of the film.

Purple: Fantasy, Ethereal, Eroticism, Illusory, Mystical, Ominous, Dangerous

Despicable Me 2, by Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

Clearly, there is no better example than the 'evil' minions! The film tells the story of Gru, who has abandoned a life of crime to raise Margo, Agnes, and Edith. He struggles to make ends meet for his family. Amid his struggles to fulfill his parental duties, the Anti-Villain League, an organization dedicated to fighting evil, approaches him. The minions, who are usually associated with joy, hope, and optimism, turn to the color of evil, ominous. 

We can see how colors influence a person’s mood while watching a movie. But what about the personality of a person? How can colors actually talk about a person? 

Colors say a lot about you. In a sense, colors can define our personality traits and sometimes our deepest self. 

Got you hooked? Stay tuned for our next post on Color psychology and find out what colors talk about your personality!