American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

108 American Cinematogropher • July 1934 VOCABULARY OF COLOR The Language of Color by L. O. Hu33ins, A.S.C. N PREVIOUS articles we have considered the "Longuages" of Line, Tone and Design, with the idea of showing how the lines end tones in a still or motion picture may emphasize the mood or emotion of the scene to enhance the values of the story. There yet remains another "Language" of great importance, and that is — Color. Imagine yourself standing on the Mohave Desert watching a flaming sunset. The red sun is sinking behind gold and orange clouds. The purple hills are tipped with crimson,— a thrilling sight. Again imagine yourself beside the shore of a mountain lake where the water is green, and violet mist fills the hollows under the blue-green pine trees,— a restful picture. Perhaps you do not realize how much these colors affected you. Certain hues in the sunset instilled the feeling of excitement; other colors in the mountain lake gave you the feeling of peace and rest. If you had seen the sunset, devoid of color, in varying shades of grey, you would have felt little elation from its spectacle. If the colors of the mountain lake were changed by some magic into the flaming colors of the sunset, you may be certain that your feeling of peace and calm would have disappeared instantly. The total absence of color also has its effect upon you. Can you imagine living in a house which is painted black inside, with grey furniture, and not a single spot of color to break the monotony? You could not live happily in such surroundings of somberness and gloom. To show the importance of color in our daily life, let us picture a world without color. A white sky, grey hills and foliage, black rocks and tree trunks, — and as for ourselves,— light grey faces and grey clothes. It would be a drab world. Now odd color, and the whole scene takes on life and vitality. Golden sunlight greets us as we step out of doors, the green of fields and trees cheers us with its freshness, the violet shadows soften the outlines of the hills. Whether or not we realize the fact, all colors have a definite effect upon us. With the interest being shown in color by the producers at the present time, and with the knowledge that in the very near future, full-length features in color will be the rule rather than the exception, we feel that this is an appropriate time to discuss the "Language" of Color. But first let us consider some of the properties of color. The first is "Hue." This is the effect on the eye of a specific wave length of light which results in the impressions we have named Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Purple and Magenta. The term "Hue" has nothing to do with the brilliance or brightness of a color. For example, HUE EMOTIONAL REACTION Red. Aggressive, triumphant, material, hot. Pink. Love, happiness, joy, youth, daintiness. Orange. Jolly, energetic, ambitious, progressive. Gold. Ostentatious, proud, powerful. Brown. Conservative, sedate, warm. Yellow. Cheerful, gay, light. Green. Fresh, fruitful, free, vigorous. Blue-green Exotic, mysterious, vague, cool. Blue. Spirituol, noble, true, steadfast. Violet. Dignified, serious, patient, mystic. Purple. Regal, haughty, magnificent, exalted. Magenta. Showy, materialistic. White. Light, pure, truthful, peaceful, clean. Grey. Gloomy, retiring, judicious, indefinite. Black. Severe, impenetrable, frightful, sophisticated MEMORY REACTION Flame, blood, war. Babies, roses. The sun. Money, riches, palaces. The earth. Sunlight, daffodils. Leaves, trees, outdoors. , Sea, ponds, jade. Sky, heoven. Violets, far hills. Amethyst,"Royal Purple." Rubies, wine, scarlet. Snow, "flag of truce," hospitals. Rainy days, old oge, mist, ashes. Death, funerals, night, grief, crime. Colors mixed with white Colors mixed with grey Colors mixed with black Youth, gaiety, informality. Subtlety, refinement, charm. Strength, seriousness, dignity. light-blue, slate blue and navy blue all exhibit the same hue. The next property of color is "Value." This term refers to its lightness or darkness. Light-blue is a high value, because it reflects a high percentage of light; slate blue is a medium value; navy blue is a low value because a very small amount of light falling on this color is reflected back to the eye. The third property of color is "Chroma" (technically termed Saturation) which indicates the purity of a particular hue. A brilliant red is of a high chroma, a brick-red is medium, and a reddish grey is of a low chroma. The nearer a color approaches grey, that is, the less pure it is, — the lower is its chromatic value. White, grey and black are, strictly speaking, not colors OS they exhibit no predominance of a specific wave length of light, but we shall include them in the "Language" of Color. Each color in the spectrum has its effect upon us. It may be restful or otherwise, according to its hue, value and chroma. Colors also suggest to us certain objects and emotions. Red, for instance literally shouts at us. It is an energetic and aggressive color, at times brutal and angry. Whenever we see a brilliant red color we are reminded, consciously or subconsciously, of fire, blood, war, passion. Orange is another active color, it is gay and jolly, suggesting ambition and progress. Gold is ostentatious, proud. The "language" it speaks is very definite. It always reminds us of money, riches, palaces. Brown is conservative, sober, and reminds us of the earth. Yellow is a cheerful, bright color, reminding us of light, sun, spring flowers. Green is a daring, vigorous hue. It is youthful, hopeful, free. It is associated with vegetation, woods, fields, spring and summer, the out-of-doors and freedom. Blue-green is much more sedate. It is exotic, mysterious and suggests the sea, pools of water, peacocks, jade, turquoise. Blue always reminds us of the sky. It is noble, pure, loyal, steadfast. Violet is serious, solemn, patient, sometimes mystic, melancholy. Purple is pompous, gorgeous, triumphant, regal, being Continued on Poge 117