resources on color theory

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randomname

Well-known member
After listening to a lecture from a successful production designer, I realized that I don't pay nearly enough attention to the color paletes in my movie or really put much effort into achieving great color in post, are there any good resources online or in books for color theory in relation to cinematography?
 
randomname said:
After listening to a lecture from a successful production designer, I realized that I don't pay nearly enough attention to the color paletes in my movie or really put much effort into achieving great color in post, are there any good resources online or in books for color theory in relation to cinematography?
Click to expand...


Personally, I have not read this book but I plan on getting it very soon. It is also recommended by David Mullen.
I've also seen but not read the Storaro books and they would no doubt be good as well.

http://www.storarovittorio.com/inglese/index.html

Click menu and click "writing with light"
They are very very expensive.
 
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I think color theory is the same for art in general as it is for movies, innit?

complementaries pop/create depth (talent in red against green walls for example)
Saturated colors leap forward against neutrals (not saturated)
color schemes- warm, cool, neutral/desaturated, complementary, analogous

its all out there- youll piece together in a few months if you work at it; its not rocket science. Main thing is to understand how colors"relate"- get a color wheel, and look up the main color schemes- primary, analogous, complementary, etc

I wouldn't worry about the difference between light and color made by pigments- the "pigment"color wheel is how we relate to color ( in video the primaries are red green and blue, but you should be concerned more with the Red yellow blue wheel which explains how colors "work" together-- once you know that orange is opposed to blue for example, you figure out how to get what you need from your NLE).

keep you going until you buy your dooky expensive book at least.

no offense the book looks like pretentious self absorbed flim flam, again, art is art and color theory is color theory (i learned it because I used to want to be a painter)


http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm
 
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memento515 said:
I think color theory is the same for art in general as it is for movies, innit?

complementaries pop/create depth (talent in red against green walls for example)
Saturated colors leap forward against neutrals (not saturated)
color schemes- warm, cool, neutral/desaturated, complementary, analogous
Click to expand...

That's what they call 'an art major'... but yes as far as I can tell, film 'art direction' is based on what one would learn in a art program about 'color', and 'color schemes/pallets', etc.

Then there's Shirley you're Joking Dr. Feynmann lectures on 'color'... and similar related engineering issues of 'color' and in particular 'human color perception'...

And there is also 'color grading' which adjusts the look of the film even from whatever the art direction came up with...
 
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