Those of you who watch a lot of Hollywood movies may have noticed a certain trend that has consumed the industry in the last few years. It is one of the most insidious and heinous practices that has ever overwhelmed the industry. Am I talking about the lack of good scripts? Do I speak of the dependency of a few mega-blockbuster hits to save the studios each year, or of the endless sequels and television retreads? No, I am talking about something much more dangerous, much deadlier to the health of cinema.

I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this… now I won’t be able to un-see it.

18 replies on “Teal + Orange = Perfect”

  3. Nothing wrong with digital color correction, just when it’s used poorly. After Amilie, I feel like everything got really golden in color there for a while. Before that, I think cross-processing was creeping in as the prominent mood cliche.

  7. Personally, I really like the teal+orange combination, and I just assume that EVERY FRAME of EVERY MOVIE has had SOMETHING done to it by a computer.

  12. This is petty. We’ve endured worse, like the brown-turquoise rage that lasted far longer than it needed to, while other film mavens lately bemoan the desaturated look of the digitally processed flics coming out these days.

    I prefer film over digital, sooooooo me so dinosaur.

    As colour theory goes, orange/blue are contrasts, but they are not nearly as clashy as, say, cyan and candy red seen side by side (think 3D glasses). That colour combination thankfully died by about 1982.

  13. @2: Really? Are you a yellow-blue dichromat or something else?

    (see above about my love for colour theory and the way our eyes see light)

  14. Oh so THAT’S how the Coen Brothers got O! Brother to look that way? The things you learn from teh internets!

    Telsa, I did have to giggle when you labeled this as a petty concern—because I have known you to be quite vociferous about issues closer to your heart. I love color theory too, but I get bored with the same palette over and over. I mean, Rembrandt used a lot of brown, but that’s because it was cheaper than blues, right?

    (BTW, I think our Pancetta Pussy was making a joke about dogs and color-blindness)

  15. @14: It’s possible he’s not colour-blind, but I wouldn’t be stunned if he were.

    As to your comment, colour theory, as applied to entertainment or product, isn’t really a human condition concern. In art? Maybe you’ve a good case — hence the “petty” comment, as it’s questionable where the line between product and art is drawn with a Hollywood film.

    As with Rembrandt, a Kodachrome photographer uses lots of reds, blues, and browns, as these are three hues in which that emulsion excelled. A Fuji Velvia photographer uses lots of greens and pinks and oranges for many of the same reasons. Digital photographers? They just use HDR and the Photoshop sliders. 🙂

    Lest people forget, other periods had their colours: 1986 was black and carnation pink. 1987? Primaries coupled with black and white. 1988? Crazy surfing colours like coral reef pink and sea surf blue. 1989? A tangle of jewel-toned rainbow hues against a dominantly white negative space.

    Why did I choose those years? For year-to-year perspective on colour, that’s why. 🙂

  17. I’m watching “Juno” (for no particular reason) and sure enough, the scene where Jason Bateman and Ellen Page have an argument after dancing is totally teal & orange (and Reitman, in the director’s commentary, brags about how the lighting director came up with this awesome look of warm indoor light combined with harsh outdoor lighting…)

    Meanwhile, the actors look like Oompa Loompas.

  18. A giant chunk of Alice in Wonderland has it: the Mad Hatter’s hair and Alice’s dress. It was all I could focus on for a while.

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