Color scheme research

I plan to use lighting as a significant way of developing my character in my opening. Therefore I did some research on how lighting is used and what colors to go for in my film to develop my character just enough.

The feeling I'm going for

For my opening I'm trying to make the audience feel connected to the main character and feel his emotions. The main emotion im trying to convey will be sadness since that will be how the main character will be feeling. I will primarily use cool colored tones and maybe desaturate them. Cool colored tones can convey sadness as well as hopelessness, then making them desaturated can convey the feeling of confusion and the feeling of being lost. 

There are three colors I'm going to stick with, that is blue, purple, and black. I will be using a shade of these colors and other colors will probably be used but majority of the opening will contain these colors somewhere. 

The color blue

- Blue can sometimes signify cleanliness and organization, however it can also convey the feeling of being depressed. I'm going to mix a deep blue to signify the character's sadness along with a desaturated blue and black in some scenes. The reason I'm mixing desaturated blue is to create emotional depth during certain moments, however I feel the use of black along with blue can also create a similar feeling since black can signify unhappiness or emptiness.

- Another way I plan on using blue is to contrast other colors such as orange. Blue and orange are on opposite ends of the color wheel and if put together in one scene they can convey inner conflict and feelings between multiple characters. For my opening I plan on using orange to represent how my main character feels towards others and blue to represent how he feels internally.

                                             The color blue to represent the character sadness

The color purple

- Purple is a mix of blue and red. The reason I point this out is because blue and red both can give off two opposing feelings, for example, red can give off the feeling of aggression and energy, meanwhile blue can give off the feeling of tranquility and depression. Thus a mix of the two, purple, can represent confusion and inner conflict.

- I plan on using purple to represent the conflicting emotions that my character is feeling, I think pairing purple with blue could also work well since blue can represent the strong feeling of sadness and purple represents his feeling of loss and confusion.

                                             The color purple used for a "lost" soul

The color black

- While I researched I didn't find anything that stated what I was thinking, black can represent the feeling of not belonging, however I thought it would be cool if the reason that is was because black isn't necessarily a color and is technically a shade, therefore it being called a color is technically incorrect, thus it doesn't really belong when grouped with actual colors. I don't think this would work well if I used it but it's just some food for thought.

- Black is often used to invoke the feeling of sadness, unhappiness, or create depth. Therefore I intend to use it only with other colors for the sole purpose of creating depth in scenes. 

                                              black used to create depth and represent sadness

References

Fusco, J., & Hellerman, J. (2023, August 30). The Psychology of Color in Film (with examples). Nofilmschool.com. https://nofilmschool.com/color-psychology-in-film#

Koby-Reddy, H. (2023, May 23). Psychology Of The Color Purple And What It Means For Your Business. FatRabbit Creative. https://www.fatrabbitcreative.com/psychology-of-the-color-purple-and-what-it-means-for-your-business/

Wells, C. (2024, April 3). Mastering the Art of Emotional Impact with Colour in Film. Lwks.com. https://lwks.com/blog/mastering-the-art-of-emotional-impact-with-colour-in-film