LAUAN601 CHAPTER STRUCTURE

CHAPTER STRUCTURE 

Chapter One- Introduction (400)

• Outline the topic- Colour vs Black and White 
• State the specific sub-questions that guide the project 
• Methodology:
•  What type of research is being undertaken (why is it important) 
•  Collecting the data 
• Individual topic (aesthetic)

Chapter Two- Main Body 1: Context and Themes (2000)

• Colour visual vs Black and White story-telling:

• Film Theory and Psychology of Colour
• Camera shots and Camera Angles 
• Mise-En-Scene and Lighting
• Portal Animations:

                               - Wizard of Oz 

                               - Back to the Future 

                               - Alice in Wonderland 

• Films that include black and white and colour and why?

Conclusion:

                  

                       - What case studies I will be studying? 

                      - Is colour more effective than black and white visual story-telling?

Chapter Three- Main Body Two: Case Studies of Practice (1500) 

‘If it’s purple someone is going to die’ by Patti Bellantoni:

• Patti Bellantoni’s investigation of colour 
• Colour schemes: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange and Purple 
• What each colour represents 
• The influence of colour on human emotions, choices, and opinions
• Is colour more effective than black and white visual story-telling? 

                            

‘The Art of Watching Films’ by Joe Boggs and Dennis Petrie:

• An unbiased opinion on colour vs black and white visual story-telling. 

• Black and white keeps the audience focused on the storyline and the characters. 
• Colour causes the movie to become less artistic.
• Colour allows the director to be able to communicate with the audience. 
• How humans visualise colour    
• Is black and white more effective than colour visual story-telling?                                                      

Conclusion:

•                      What these case studies have made me question.
•                      How will I put these theories into test? (secondary research) 

Chapter Four- Main Body Three: Reflective Practice (700) 

• Storyboard artists 
• The storyline of the scene chosen from the storyboard and why?
• Colour script created for the storyboard 
• What colour themes I chose and why 

Chapter Five- Conclusion (400) 

• Fluid explanation about what I learned in each chapter 
• Reflection on my own practice
• Successful/unsuccessful parts of my research 
• Answer the question by summarising what I learned during this process

LAUAN601 FILM THEORY

THE ELEMENTS OF FILM THEORY 

Image from: https://nofilmschool.com/Film-theory-basic-terms

As I was looking into colour and black and white visual story telling, I started to look into film theory and how directors use these theories to control how an audience will emotionally feel when watching an particular scene. As well as, understanding a characters traits. From this website posted by Jason Hellerman, I started to understand that these theories were spilt into different categories, this could be the method that many directors, or visual storytellers, use to make the emotion they want to come across more persuasive to the audience. These elements consist of: types of films, shots, angles, lightening, mis-en-scene, editing, sound,  and colour.

These categories consist of: 

Types of films

Realism- Movies that focus on real life situations or events

Classical- Is between realism and formalism, wants to demonstrates real moments between characters but manipulates with production elements

Formalism- An altered reality that the director/visual storyteller has created

Camera Shots 

Mise-En-Scene

Mise-en-scene means that everything is placed within in a scene to convey a particular meaning in the film. 

You can do this by:

• Placement around the frame 
• Face to the camera:

1. Quarter Turn 
2. Half Turn 
3. Three Quarter Turn 
4. Full turn 
5. Back 

• Territorial space: 

1. Background 
2. Mid-ground 
3. Foreground 

Frame constraints:

• Tight: conveys intensity and an inability to escape 
• Open: conveys freedom and insignificance 

Editing 

• Continuity: 'A collapse of time and space while preserving fluidity' 
• Classical: 'Long shot to medium shot to close up for dramatic effect'
• Radical Subjective Continuity: 'Cuts of different time and space for dramatic effect  
• Thematic: 'Driven by a particular scene' 
• Associative: 'Juxtaposition of two shots that when combined have meaning however, if separate, they do not.' 
• Dialectic: 'Drove by expressing a contradiction.' 

Camera Angles 

• Eye level 
• High angle 
• Low angle 
• Oblique Angle 

Lighting 

Colour 

• Saturated
• Desaturated 

Sound 

• Diegetic- 'voices of characters, the sound made by props, and the music coming from instruments in the film.' 
• 
  
• Non-diegetic- 'Narrator's commentary, sound effects added by dramatic effect, and mood music. 

LAUAN601 FILM SHOTS

The Effects of Camera Shots and Angles

Imagine from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/high-angle-shot-camera-movement-angle/

Empire: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles/

Why camera shots are important: 

As well as lighting playing an important role in creating a perfect scene for the screen, camera shots are also an important technique for the director to consider when creating an effective film. Camera shots are important as they allow the director to lead the audience towards the subject, environment or a character. Camera shots enhance the story by telling the viewer what they should be concentrating on. To gain a better insight into the different camera shots out there I came across the website: 'Empire', where Ian Freer explains the camera shots, how they are used, and how camera shots can be used to create a tone. This was important for me to take into consideration because camera shots can be used as a method to create an emotion or mood for a scene without the use of colour.

These are the shots that I learned about:

Aerial Shot 

This exterior shot is used to establish the location and is a shot taken from a high position and can be introduced as a 'birds-eye view'.

Image from: https://rachelclark007.weebly.com/film-term-glossary.html

Arc Shot 

This shot is used to circle a subject.

Bridging Shot 

This shot allows the director to show a shift from a place or in time.

Close-Up 

A close-up shows only the face in the shot.

Image from: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/close-up-shot/

 

Medium Shot 

The medium shot only shows the character or subject from the waist up.

Image from: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/medium-shot-examples/

Long Shot

The establishing shot that shows the character from head to toe. It can also be known as a wide shot.

Image from: https://saraahmedblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/camera-shots/

Deep Focus 

This shot shows a sharp focus that has the foreground, middle ground and background all in focus.

Dolly Zoom 

The camera will been seen as going forward towards the subject while it is zooming out to create a dazed effect.

Dutch Tilt 

The shot is tilted in the scene to express the feeling of disorientation.

Establishing Shot 

The establishing shot shows the audience the setting of the scene.

Low Angle Shot 

This shot shows the character or subject as if the audience are looking up, making the character or subject look bigger in the frame.

High Angle Shot 

Normally used to isolate a character or subject by having a shot that is looking down.

Locked-Down Shot 

The camera is fixed in one position while the action still happens off of the screen.

Over-the-shoulder Shot

This shot is shown from behind a characters shoulder. It is normally used when a conversation is happening between two characters.

Pan 

The camera moves from right to left.

POV Shot 

The point of view shot shows the environment or space seen through the characters eyes.

LAUAN601 LIGHTING TECHNIQUES

'13 Film Lightening Techniques Every Filmmaker Should know' 

Figure 1

This website published by Jason Hellerman explains the different light techniques that directors may or have used when filmmaking. By reading this article I have learned that light plays an important role when setting the tone of a scene, character or environment. As well as learning the importance of lightening within films, I also learned the different types of lightening that exist and the ways to use these techniques when deciding what lightening is the most effective when considering the mood of the scene, colour schemes, and the emotional effect this would have on the audience. 

The techniques that I learned were: 

Natural lightening: 

Natural lightening is when you use the environment or objects that you have around you to create light.

Key Lighting 

Key lighting aims to be a light source that casts light on the form of an subject, object or character.

High Key Lighting 

High key lighting is used to brighten the mood in a scene by showing the audience a more positive and buoyant mood by using white tones and bright lights as the dominate lighting.

Low Key Lighting

Low key lighting is a tool used by directors to cast shadows mainly by using a hard source to create dark tones.

Fill Lighting 

A fill light is used when a director wants to cast out the shadows in the scene. This is created by placing the fill lighting opposite to the key light.

The Three-Point Lighting Setup

The three-point lightening set up is a technique used by a director to have control over how the subject or character is lighten up. By placing the key light, backlight and fill light gives the director full control on how the subject is illuminated and being able to control the shadows surrounding it.

Backlighting 

Backlighting is used to enhance the character or subject to separate them from the background. As well as, making the the scene feel and look three-dimensional.

Practical Light

Practical lighting is used to light the corners and faces in the scene; you mainly find practical light sources from candles, lamps, or it could even be from the light of a television and so on. 

Hard Lighting 

Hard lighting is a direct beam that appears to appear as if it is from a light source or from sunlight. This is used by directors to create shadows and harsh lines to gain attention from the audience to look at the subject in the scene.

Soft Light 

Soft lighting is a method used by directors to create an aesthetic by remove shadows but leave subtle shades of light. As well as creating an aesthetic it can also give an illusion of the light coming from practical sources. 

Bounce Lighting

Bounce lighting is creating by using a white board or white card to bounce light from a light source to indirectly highlight a subject in the scene. This leaves an evenly spread of light and creates a soft lightening from any direction.

Side lightening 

Side lighting is used to add drama or a certain mood to the scene by highlighting both sides of the frame.

Motivated Lighting 

Motivated lighting is a technique used by directors to create an illusion of natural light sources such as, moonlight, sunlight, street lights, car headlights and so on. This helps the scene to appear more natural. 

Information learned from: https://nofilmschool.com/film-lighting-techniques-and-examples written by Jason Hellerman, May 13th, 2019 

LAUAN601 THE ART OF WATCHING FILMS

'The Art of Watching Films'

Dennis W. Petrie and Joesph M. Boggs have written this book to teach students about the art of moving-making and watching. This book touches on how to observe and develop an understanding of the skills needed by a movie-maker to analyse a film in an effective way.

The topics I mainly focused on was the visual design chapter that involved colour film verse black and white. What I learned from this section was a mixture of opinions on what style, colour or black and white, was more effective. For example, some directors believed that colour pulls the focus off of the characters and the storyline, as there is too many things for the audience to consider. Opposed to this, some directors believe that colour creates a more realistic setting for the audience which allows the director to communicate effectively. From reading this section, I will start to look into black and white movies, while starting to consider what techniques the directors may use to convey a tone when colour is not an option.

LAUAN601 'IF IT'S PURPLE SOMEONE'S GONNA DIE'

'IF IT'S PURPLE SOMEONE'S GONNA DIE' 

Patti Ballantoni was influenced by her students to research the effects of colour within films when she noticed that her students were making 'arbitrary color choices in their work'. Beginning her book by explaining in her research that colour is associated with the five senses: smell, touch, sound, taste and sight. Furthermore, she explains that colour can play a big part in influencing humans choices, opinions, and emotions. 

Throughout this book it demonstrates how the tones and shades of six colours can showcase the different effects on human emotions. Demonstrating this by explaining the influence of colour schemes in films and touching on the topic of why a powerful colour scheme is important to a director when visually telling a story: 

Red: 

• Powerful 
• Lusty 
• Defiant  
• Anxious 
• Angry  
• Romantic 

Yellow: 

• Exuberant 
• Obsessive 
• Daring 
• Innocent 
• Cautionary 
• Idyllic 

Blue:

• Powerless
• Cerebral
• Warm
• Melancholy 
• Cold
• Passive 

Orange:

• Warm
• Naive 
• Romantic 
• Exotic 
• Toxic 
• Natural Earth 

Green:

• Healthy 
• Ambivalent 
• Vital 
• Poisonous 
• Ominous 
• Corrupt 

Purple:

• Asexual
• Illusory 
• Mystical 
• Ominous 
• Ethereal
• Fantastic 

I will continue this research by looking into the meanings of these phrases and how they are applied by the director in films. 

LAUAN601 PROPOSAL

Is visual storytelling more effective to an audience in colour than it is in black and white? 

What do I want to research: 

I will be looking at the positive and negative impacts of colour theory in visual storytelling compared to the impact of black and white visual effect on the audience. I will look into this subject by exploring if colour is more effective to an audience in a film or if emotions can be portrayed just as strongly in a black and white. This topic is something I considered exploring because of the movie, 'Pleasantville', directed by Gary Ross and released on the 23rd October 1998. The film is based around two teenagers, the brother is addicted to a 1950s black and white sitcom. The fighting over the remote begins and they end up in the television show themselves.  The sister starts to show the characters the reality of life, and slowly everything that is black and white starts to turn to colour. 

This movie has inspired me to think about the effects of colour theory that directors use within films, in order to control the audiences emotions. Is it possible to show the audience how they should be feeling about an environment, character or particular scene by only the use of colour? My next step was to research the effect of black and white in a movie. If the director doesn't have the option of colour, then what methods can be used to portray to the audience the emotions that the director wants them to feel? I will be answering the question by researching in depth about both, colour and black and white films, and questioning if colour, black and white, or both,  is an effective control for the director to manipulate the audiences emotions.

My secondary research will consist of the following books about colour theory and the insight into black and white movies: 'If It's Purple Someone's Gonna Die' by Patti Bellantoni, a book about a teacher that has a theory about colour controlling human emotions when watching movies. Many investigations are taken throughout her research on her students. The research is then applied to the theory about colours linking to effecting emotions by using examples from fifty different films. 'The Movie Book' by Dorling Kindersley, a book touching on exploring the visionaries of black and white movies. It breaks down each film and implies ways that the director conveyed what emotion the audience should be feeling without the use of colour. Such as, sound and music, light and shadows, camera shots and angles and lastly, tones.

What I am hoping to learn from this topic is how to better engage an audience. This leading to my practical element of my essay, as I will use an existing storyline of a black and white film and turn it to colour by creating a colour script; demonstrating all the skills I have learned from my research throughout this process. My aim is to gain a better understanding of how to visually tell a story effectively, and leave a lasting impression on the audience. As well as an answer to my overall question, on whether a visual storyline needs colour to make the narrative effective or if a director can use other methods to gain a certain reaction from an audience?

LAUAN601-COLOUR SCRIPTS

PROFESSIONAL COLOUR SCRIPTS 

The Incredibles Pixar Colour Script

After mapping out my colour script; I started to research what professional colour scripts may look like. This gave me an idea of how I would approach my final piece. These professional colour scripts taught me that they are the most effective to a director when the colour scheme is clearly shown throughout the script. The basic block colours of the characters and the environment produce an image to the viewer  about how the script was approached with  a clear understanding of how the colour scheme is going to effect the characters, environment, and the action.  Each scene explains how the colour scheme changes, depending on the world in which the characters appear or live in. This is the most effective method as the viewer is less distracted by the aesthetic design of the shots and are able to fully focus on how the colour leads the audiences emotions through the use of colour and with the end results of,  showing the audience the tone of the scene based on either the time of day and how the subjects are placed throughout the world. 

I will start my colour script by a simple perspective drawing of each key scene, so I am able to map out the placement of the objects within each world. This produces the thought process around where the light and shadows will be throughout each scene. This is an important atmosphere technique to get right because this will allow the audience to understand the time of day as well as, the tone of the scene. With only using four major key points throughout the script, this means I can focus on producing and effective response to each world. As well as, clearly showing from the audience the how different the worlds are based on the colour themes chosen throughout the script as well as producing designs to make the audience question the coloured doors and what could be behind the doors based on the colour on front of them. 

LAUAN601 PORTAL

PORTAL ANIMATIONS  

A portal animation is a storyline that introduces a pathway to two separate worlds. The portal can be an object, character, or the environment. 

For example, in the movie, 'Coraline' by Tim Burton, the portal from her reality world into her dream world is through a mysterious door found on the wall. This door allows Coraline to travel through each world. By creating a portal, the director is able to portray the two worlds as the characters emotion change from one side of the portal to the other. As well as, the movie 'Coraline', another example of a portal animation is, 'Alice in wonderland. The portal that separates her two worlds is a rabbit hole. This provides the director with the space to explore their imagination and the portal that the character will be given is based around the personality traits that the character may hold.

The Portal from the movie: 'Coraline'

My storyline suggests to the viewer that there may be more than one mystical world that the little boy is yet to discover. This includes numerous portals that I created to separate the two worlds, which will be the five coloured doors. The black and white imagery will enhance the only colour within this scene, leaving an lasting impression on the audience, as they will hopefully start to question what worlds may lie behind each coloured door. I have chosen to use a portal in my storyline because I think it is the most effective method that a director can use to clearly establish what two worlds live within this storyline as well as, using it as a tool to explain to the audience how the character will travel through each world. If the audience are not able to understand how the character ends up in the mystical world, this could confuse the viewer and could result in the aesthetic design not producing the reactions wanted by the director, as there is no clear separation between the two worlds. 

LAUAN601 COLOUR MAPPING

COLOUR MAPPING 

To start the process of creating my finished boards of my colour script, I started by planning the script out onto a colour map. The colour map looks like this: 

Colour Map from The Portal
By Jessica Carter

This colour script has been mapped out into the four chapters created in the script. The first chapter consists of introducing the little boy into the mystical world with an establishing shot, and the low angle shot of the monster to portray what genre is behind the coloured door. The second chapter is the introduction of Grandma's house, this introduces the idea of the reality world and how bored the little boy is, which is portrayed by the black and white imagery. The black and white imagery blocks out all of the colour, other than from the doors in the basement, leaving the atmosphere with a dull feeling throughout this world. Where as, in the mystical world the colour brings it to life and creates a atmosphere of suspension. Going into the third chapter this explores the portal animation idea; this idea was based around finding a way to drastically separate the two worlds. The portal allows the character to move from one world to the other. Lastly, the forth chapter, shows the little boy making it back through his portal into the reality world. One of the other coloured doors is left open as a hand starts to crawl out. The ending was important for this storyline because I wanted to leave the audience in suspense; my aim is to control how the audience feel about the other coloured doors, and question what mystical world lies behind.

 The colour for this door into the mystical world was chosen from the answers from my survey through Survey Monkey. The survey questioned how colour theory works within film theory to gain an emotional response from the audience. This was in response to the case study, 'If It's Purple Someone's Gonne Die' by Patti Bellantoni. Each colour causes a particular human response, such as, with the colour red, the survey proved that individuals mainly relate that colour to power or romance. Red can be used to control either emotion by using different tones to create a different atmosphere depending on the genre of the film.  The coloured door behind this chosen mystical world is: purple. I chose this colour because most responses lead back to the idea of purple creating a supernatural genre to this world. The monster will be robotic and will glow as he approaches his fight to protect his home. I would of improved this secondary research by researching deeper into questioning colour and the effects it has on a humans emotional response. I would of done this by creating a questionnaire based around my colour chart. I would of create an opportunity to for the audience to respond to the colour schemes chosen and would of given me the answers as to whether the colours represent the most effective atmosphere within my storyline. 

LAUAN601 BOARD ONE

COLOUR SCRIPT: BOARD ONE 

The first board is the establishing shot of the mystical world. The colour theme is based around the tones of blue and purple. I started this process by creating a rough perspective drawing of where each element was going to be placed within the scene. This allows me to gain the use of shadows and the light from the moon to communicate with the audience the spooky genre of this world.  As well as the spooky tone, the world will also seem calm to the viewer as there is no harsh lightening. Without any harsh or unusual lighting this gains a calming response from the audience, as it appears to the viewer like the world itself is: 'asleep'. I chose this colour theme because I wanted the mystical world to be a calming atmosphere. The night time effect causes the emotional response of being able to relate to this scene as the time of day in which it is set, is when people start to slow down. This will allow the action in the next scene to appear suspenseful as the audience wont expect the loud aesthetic design from the characters within the mystical world. As the establishing shot creates that calming environment. when searching through themes of Adobe Colour the dark blue and purple tones allow the light source to come from the moonlight. This will enhance the character as the characters glow will reflect of the dark tones encasing the world in a dim light that enhances the characters features.

LAUAN601 BOARD THREE AND FOUR

COLOUR SCRIPT: BOARD THREE AND FOUR

BOARD THREE

The third board is the establishing shot of reality world. The colour theme is the tones of the black and white imagery, as the only colour that will appear in the scene is from the doors placed along the wall. The colour tones will also appear as the five different colours from the glow of the aesthetic design of the doors. The allows the colour to be enhanced from the black and white tones within the scene. Portraying the colours as an important element for the audience to consider in the storyline.  As it allows the audience to fully see the effect that colour has on the viewer's emotional state when colour is placed against a black and white background. As well as this, the colours represent the feeling of mystery, as the audience should start to consider if each colour represents a different genre of world. I started this process by creating a rough perspective drawing based on how the boy will be looking at the doors in front of him.  For it to become a powerful establishing shot, the aesthetic design needs to relate to the audience on a personal level, as I want to portray the reality world as dull. If the reality world is perceived as dull then the viewer is more likely to consider what else is behind these doors, as the little boy is the main focus for the audience. This relates to the reason as to why I chose this colour theme because I wanted the dull atmosphere of the black and white reality world, to become more appealing when colour is added into the mix as this portrays to the audience how strong the emotional connect to colour is in relationship to the viewer. 

BOARD FOUR 

In board four,  the same colour scheme will appear. However, instead of the viewer's full attention being on the action behind the coloured doors, the focus will be switch onto what the boys next adventure is going to be. This perspective shot allows the audience to see a hand crawling from the red door as the little boy leaves the basement. The hand coming from the red door, controls how the audience  think when questioning how each colour has the ability to lead how the viewer represents the genre of the world based solely on what each colour represents. This leaves the last scene of the animation in suspense, as the viewer is left to use their imagination. 

LAUAN601 BOARD TWO

COLOUR SCRIPT: BOARD TWO 

The second board is the low angle shot of the monster. The colour theme is the tones of the blue and purple from the mystical world itself and the green tones from the glow of the aesthetic design of the character. The glow enhances the tone of the scene as it allows the audience to fully see the monster from an angle which portrays the monster in a powerful light. As well as this, the colours represent the feeling of an uneasy tone, as the green warns, not only the character, but the audience about the danger that the monster is portraying. I started this process by creating a rough perspective drawing based on how the monster and trees were going to be placed within in the world. For it to become a low angle shot the trees and the monster need to appear as if they are being viewed from the point of view of the e audience looking up at this aesthetic design.  The once calm atmosphere changes into a dangerous mood for the scene. This relates to the reason as to why I chose this colour theme because I wanted the calm atmosphere of the mystical world, to change as well as, to portray to the viewer that the monster is to be feared. This colour scheme allows the glow to create a mist over the world as it lightens up the area making the audience focus fully on the monsters intentions and not on the calm of that the mystical world that it once had.