COLOUR WHEELS THEORY
Complementary Colours
Complementary colours sit on opposite sides of the colour wheel as they compliment each other and is the most commonly used in film, a common example being blues and oranges that contrast each other well. This technique matches a cool colour such as blue with a warmer colour, orange, to make the contrast strong and vibrant to the visual eye of the audience, allowing the colours to impact them stronger than any other combination. Some of the most popular examples of this can be seen in 'Fight Club' or 'Drive' but can also be seen in the new Blade Runner '2049', being the colour scheme that is mostly found in block buster films.
This colour scheme is normally used when the director wants to show conflict, two colours that compliment each other meeting across the space to show the different sides and to influence the audience to see which is the good and the bad. This is evident in this scene from 'Blade Runner 2049' where the two colours are complimenting each other, creating a vibrant constant. This scene also uses a third colour to make the characters pop out from the background but works alongside with the other two colours, working as an accent to the two main colours shown in the scene.
Analogous Colours
'Analogous colors are easy to take advantage of in landscapes and exteriors as they are often found in nature. Often one color can be chosen to dominate, a second to support, and a third along with blacks, whites and grey tones to accent.'
Analogous colours sit next to each other in the colour scheme, matching well and creating an overall harmony without making anything of the image pop from the background. The colours are normally warmer colours or cooler colours such as brown or grey to make it have less contrast and tension of the complementary colours. This can be seen in films such as 'The World's End' by Edgar Wright and in many of the films of the 'Fast and Furious' series, using the colours to make the landscape blend but using other colours to accent them and to help the characters stand out from the background.
Triadic Colours
Triadic colours are sat evenly spaced from the other colours, one being more dominant and the two others being used as accents to the main colour. This choice of colours makes the scene more vibrant as the colours stand out against each other and don't blend together, making a different kind of feel to the other colour schemes that can be used. This colour scheme can also be seen being used on rare occasions where two colours are more dominant and one accents the frame, a good example of this being 'A woman is a woman.'
'A woman is a woman' has the two main characters wearing colours that sit across from each other, making both of them stand out from the background. The red on the dress is more dominant than the blue on the man's suit, making her pop out more than the male but work well together to create a different kind of feel and to accent the scene around them correctly. This is a rare occasion where the two colours are more dominant, the background being a colour to accent the characters and to make them stand out from the background, adding a level of depth to the shot that may of been missed with any other colour scheme, making it unique and different.
Split Complimentary Colours
Split complimentary has two colours sat next to each other and the one directly across to them, creating a triangle shape on the colour wheel. This colour scheme works similarly to complimentary colours, sharing the same high contrast but has less tension in the shot. Some of the more popular colour choices for this are teal, green and red which make the background blend in or pop out as needed against the characters in the shot.
'A split-complimentary color scheme is really very similar to complimentary colors but instead of using the direct opposite color of the base color, it uses the two colors next to the opposite.'
Tetradic Colour Scheme
Tetradic colours consist of four colors arranged into two complementary pairs, allowing the colour scheme to be wide to allow variety in the shots. Although this scheme allows a wide selection of colours to be used, creating a full pallete of colours to be used, one colour is normally still dominant to the others and the others are used to create a strong contrast against the main colour.
One example of this is the balloons in 'Up', the mutliple colours allowing a wide pallete of colours to be used but in this particular scene blue dominates the scene. The colours are used to compliment each other and to make the scene vibrant, expressing happiness and innocence to the audience as there are mutliple colours being used, creating a child-like feel to the scene presented to the audience. This colour scheme is rarely used in film as it is hard to present correctly, being easier to represent through animation similar to 'Up'.
Monochromatic Colour Scheme
Finally we have the monochromatic colour scheme which is the least common chosen in films, being one of the hardest to perform correctly and to represent in film. Monochromatic colours are all rarely used but is when a shot uses one colour off the wheel in different hues and contrasts. The most common cause of this is blues and browns to create a colour that pops which can either make the character blend into the background or stand out.
A good example of this can be seen in the Matrix, the main colour consistently throughout the film being green and can be found in all of the scenes. The scenes use different contrasts and hues of green to create a differentiation throughout the background and uses black for the costumes, allowing the characters to stand out from the background whilst also complimenting it. It is a technique that can be hard to use but allows you to have a wider range on whether you want to allow the characters to pop for the background or whether to allow them to blend in, the Matrix performing both throughout the film but uses other colours to help compliment the green and to keep the consistency of using the colour.
From researching the colour schemes and analysing some scenes from Edgar Wright films, I can see that wright uses the analogous colour scheme to complete the look of his films. The main colours are browns, blacks, grey and creams, using complimentary colours such as blue, pink, green and red to make the characters stand out from the background. 'Often one color can be chosen to dominate, a second to support, and a third along with blacks, whites and grey tones to accent.', is a statement that can be seen in Wright's films, the main colours being beige, creams and browns which all blend in with each other to give an overall harmony in the colours and the contrast.
Wright uses colours that contrast the main colours used, becoming one of the most vibrant colours for the film and can be seen throughout. For Shaun of the Dead the colour was red, being visible in many scenes and costumes, some examples being on the bus and Shaun's tie. It makes the characters and scenes pop from the mundane colours that surround them from the use of the analogous colour scheme, allowing the audience to focus on the characters more than the background. The colours he uses aren't always directly across on the wheel, using colours such as blue and green in his other two films in the Cornetto Trilogy to make the characters pop out from the background and to add some different contrasts to the scene.
By seeing the colours and the scheme that Wright uses in his films, I can take the colours as inspiration and try to represent them into my own film. I will need to consider the colours of the set before I can determine the costume and the overall colour palette of my own film to represent to the audience and to use the analgous colour scheme to the best of my ability, trying to make the colours create an overall harmony but using some other colours to make certain elements pop out from the background.
References
Cinema5d.com. (2018). Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://www.cinema5d.com/film-color-schemes-cinematic-color-design/ [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
Color.adobe.com. (2018). Adobe Color CC. [online] Available at: https://color.adobe.com/create/image/ [Accessed 15 Jan. 2018].
