Colour Grading Blue: AC Mag column
This column, “The Art of Colour Grading: The Colour Blue”, written by Angela Cerasi of Peachy Keen Colour, was featured in the September 2024 issue of Australian Cinematographer Society’s “AC Magazine” (issue 102).
A few years ago in an unprecedented time, I wrote and recorded The Art of Colour Grading podcast from my walk-in-wardrobe. It was the podcast I wanted to hear, all about the visual language of colour (told with some cracking metaphors if I do say so myself)! Episode six is all about the colour of the ocean, water and life. The colour of the sky and most of planet Earth. But also about the passive colour which denotes sadness and melancholy. Here is a taster of this most delicious colour, BLUE.
There are many shades; steel, cobalt, teal, sapphire, aquamarine, eggshell, cornflower, cyan, denim, navy, indigo, ultramarine, sky blue and cerulean. In visual language, blue is the quintessential colour of powerlessness. Examples of where you’ve seen it is in period dramas where women are powerless in the social structure and dressed in a dowdy, pale grey-blue. At the beginning of ‘The Hunger Games’, Katniss Everdeen and her family live an impoverished life dressed in blue rags. Later in the story her character goes through a major turning point – she walks out on stage in a striking red dress, spins around and fire flames from the base of her dress. If blue is powerlessness, red is power.
In terms of colour grading, we can help create a gentle and poignant feeling by making blues more pale, still and calm. Blue-green, turquoise or teal has more energy, so if that is the desired vibe we can enhance those colours, or twist the blues we find in the scene to ones which are more vibrant. Underwater, shades of blue can be played with to create different atmospheres. Gradients coming up from the bottom of the frame from navy to lighter blue can make the water feel deeper while lighter blues like cyan can feel safe and clear.
Another way that blue is used in a colour grade is to signify moonlight. Moonlight is actually warm. But years of movie watching has given us the association that nighttime and moonlight are now blue. This has come about because of colour perception. We are less able to see colour in low-light conditions, because our eyes are using all of their energy to see brightness, so the first colours to go are warm ones, meaning at night we see more of the blue/green, even though they may be of equal brightness. Moonlight as blue is now in our visual language and we often add blue to nighttime scenes to make it look like how we perceive it in real life.
In colour theory, blue has the complimentary colour of orange. So when these two colours are placed together you have the strongest colour contrast and colour separation possible. Both colours will look more intense when placed side by side. This means you will have a very dynamic looking image – good contrast and colour, with lots of energy and the perception of depth.
Blue creates an incredible mood in the TV series starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, Ozark. It has an extremely bold visual look – an eerie blue-green atmosphere across the entire show. The all consuming blue look, full of shadows, darkness and mystery makes us feel claustrophobic, off-kilter and suffocating. In the narrative, the family gets deeper and deeper into the criminal world of the Missouri Ozarks and can’t find a way out. The creative use of the colour blue perfectly mirrors the emotional tone of the series.
As humans we have physiological and visceral reactions to colour, we feel different things from different colours. The audience will emotionally react to colour, even if it’s on a subconscious level. If we appreciate the power of blue in visual storytelling, it can become a powerful tool for filmmakers to subliminally layer a story and add greater depth to a film.
Image from the episodic drama ‘Patricia Moore‘. DOP: Tania Lambert ACS. Colour Grade: Angela Cerasi.
Enjoy this article? If so let me know at angela@peachykeencolour.com.au or DM me at @angela_cerasi.