Color analysis in film is often subjective and personal, but that doesn't mean it's untraceable. For the viewing and experience of a movie, in addition to mobilizing a lot of life experience and perception ability of the audience, it also requires a rich imagination, as well as collecting information, retrieving information, and deducing a reasonable one that can deeply empathize with the director. life" picture.
The movie "Transcendence" tells a story about youth education. Henry, a young substitute teacher, has a very high literary enthusiasm and delicate empathy, but because of his mother's suicide, he is unable to establish a normal relationship with students and even colleagues. Intimate contact. At night, the lonely Henry wandered the streets and met Erica, the girl who finally warmed him...
The tone of the whole story is clear, with strong independence reflected in the scenes of each paragraph. Large, complete and regular solid color blocks often appear in the picture to remind the viewer to pay attention to the intentions and feelings of the film author. At the same time, the color matching ideas in this scene are also honest and will not deviate from the impression of life. It is just the director's more accurate choice of feelings.
For example, the night when Henry first met Erica, the few passengers on the bus and the black night outside the window, let us quickly notice a row of blue seats that represent tranquility and eternity.
In the same way, the white shirts, bookcases, windows, and table tops immediately highlighted the red chairs of Meredith representing the dead enthusiasm, passion and vitality. Reasonable and full of charm, this documentary aesthetic feature effectively strengthens the authenticity of the story and helps to complete the artistic sublimation that is related to the fate of each audience at the end. With such a pure and unadorned use of color, "Transcendence" has become a good research sample for us.
The application of color in movies usually cannot be separated from the three aspects of character building, the atmosphere of the specific plot, and the symbolic meaning. Then, the author will start from the specific color and discuss them separately for the narrative and meaning of the movie. what sacrifices.
1. Black and white
The common achromatic property of the two allows them to appear in multiple scenes with various colors. The clever thing is that although there is a strong sense of conflict between the two, they are always harmonious, so we have many times in the film. Seeing them form a pair, like twins in fate, appear together.
The film begins on the blackboard, with white chalk sketching Camus' words and interviews with real teachers. The beginning of the film repeatedly emphasizes the existence of black and white, which makes us have to pay attention. Black and white here is not right and wrong, maybe it refers to every real person who is complex and harmonious. Black represents our dark, closed side, and white represents our pure, open side.
Henry has been wearing that suit since childhood, with a "black" jacket, trousers, a leather bag and a "black and red" tie, covering the shirt with only a little "white" left. A repressed, guarded Henry who only reveals a little of himself is established in the subconscious of every viewer, and sandwiched in the "white", the tie at the center of his character may be the A dark, unwilling blood-red sad memory.
Looking for evidence for the same reason, first look at Henry. At night, Henry wandering the streets is Henry who unmasks himself and reveals himself. The "white" shirt without a tie on the upper body occupies most of the characters, but the director Miao is still covering or "protecting" the character through the darkness of the night, and the overall tonality has not undergone essential changes. realistic rationality. Afterwards, Henry received a call saying that the grandfather in the nursing home locked himself in the toilet again. Henry arrived to solve the problem first, and yelled at the irresponsible nursing home nurses, so that we can see the opposite of the classroom during the day. , Henry, who was not so polite and suppressed his personal emotions. Including further, Henry took the bus home and remembered his mother crying. Both of these clips show us a Henry who has opened up his inner rich emotions, and what is reflected in the color part is the different proportions of black and white. The same example,
Henry, who devoted himself to the lecture, opened a certain amount of self to the students. Although he took off his coat to reveal part of the "white", he still covered most of it with a "black" jacket.
An example of the other, (left in the picture) Erica, who met Henry for the first time, was still a problem girl. As a prostitute, it was impossible for her to open up her emotions to the other, so even in the dark, she needed all the "black" "Wrap your body without leaving a trace of "white".
Erica (pictured on the right), whose nature is hard to change, still wears black underwear when she is a prostitute, but the white clothes that Henry helps her put on finally completes the transformation of this role from darkness to pure white, which also indicates that the original The pure Erica opened up all her feelings to Henry.
Erica made dinner for Henry, but Henry had dinner with her colleague Madison. The sad Erica was wearing a "black" long dress again. This part explains the "black and white" under the system of this film, It does not mean "good and evil" or "darkness and pure white", but more importantly, everyone's inner isolation and empathy. Interestingly, we can see that Erica is always black and white, she is not that complicated, Meredith is different.
(Left in the photo) Before getting to know Mr. Henry, she was a girl who closely protected herself among her classmates. Because of her preference for fat and photography and painting, she was an outlier in the crowd. Facing the surroundings, she chose to wear "black" all over.
(Picture right) After getting along with Teacher Henry for a long time, she wore black and white short sleeves and tentatively released a courtship signal to Henry, but was rejected. When she turned away crying, she left us a pure Black" back.
The next time we meet, we can see that in addition to the "black" skirt, there is also a waist ornament with "red" blood flowing out from the waist, suggesting the follow-up development of the plot.
There is a very interesting point here. The book can be said to be the externalization of the character's heart, and several important books that appear in this film basically satisfy the black "skin" and the white "reality".
Grandpa's book is of the same format as Henry's book, except that when you open it (top left of the picture), there is nothing in it. Grandpa has Alzheimer's and he can't remember anything.
Henry had many notebooks when he was a child. After being opened by Erica (the upper right of the picture), it was filled with Henry's memories, which were all his inner world. At that time, Henry survived the difficult years by writing in a notebook. He understands Meredith's pain, and he hopes that this method can help her, so (bottom left of the picture) Henry gave Meredith a book with a black cover and white paper before Meredith committed suicide .
When we saw that the book was handed out, the "white" part of the book was facing the audience, but at the moment Meredith received it, the camera gave a close-up, (the bottom right of the picture) the book was turned over, with "black" part is displayed in front of the audience.
When I saw this, I immediately clapped my hands and applauded, no matter whether there was a possibility of piercing during the shooting, but during the editing process, the director resolutely chose this scene, which is wonderful.
Two, red, yellow and blue
Black and white form the basic framework for understanding the color of this film, and it is the bone. Red, yellow, and blue fill the flesh and blood of "Transcendence". The three primary colors are the most basic and inseparable extreme colors, red and blue at the extremes of the spectrum and yellow in the middle, objectively and rationally depicting the externalization of characters Emotions. In some episodes, they serve as evidence, helping the viewer enter the character's spiritual world. Among them, the most important and most intense of the film is red.
Red is the first color the director draws the audience's attention to. The film begins with a woman's hand taking out a red tape and drawing on the blackboard. Pens, clocks, radios, national flags, and school gates are all dyed with striking red. Yellow and blue also appear in combination with red. Then, the tape showed a home video of Henry's childhood. The director deliberately made the picture redder and made the red on the tie more obvious. This large section has repeatedly reminded the audience that "red", which represents intense, angry, and expressive life, is an extremely important key emotion.
In most applications, red represents the character's immediate enthusiasm and tension, indicating an imminent crisis, violence, intense emotional conflict, and so on. It was learned that the fired headmistress was wearing a "red" coat, the tape recorder flashing "red" was playing the last words of a black teacher full of hate speech, and the "red" wall was in the background of a cat-abusing boy with blood on his hands with a hammer. , the only small "red" emergency button for life-saving in grandpa's ward, Meredith who committed suicide and the mother in Henry's memory.
Although the above-mentioned "red" shows seemingly negative content, such an understanding leads to a misinterpretation of "red". The first classic picture that can represent the entire film is the beginning of Erica and Henry's relationship. The background is the "bright red" wall that fills the whole picture. The use of red here is ambiguous, and the relationship between the two is also ambiguous. It is not difficult to see that the "red" here is very symbolic. How to understand "red" under the color system of this film?
At this time, it is necessary to introduce yellow to see that yellow is a state where emotions are less than red and slightly uninteresting. The yellow in the film is closely related to Waite, another teacher at the school. (Left in the picture below) Although Waite is in the middle of the picture, he is squeezed by the students in the close-up, left and right. The yellow cabinets in the background blend together, making him even more inconspicuous, and the only thing that makes the audience notice his existence is the "red" sweater he wears under his coat. Teaching is his passion, or teaching is the only thing Let him experience things alive.
We can find evidence from him that (above right) Waite's house is dominated by dark yellow, and the whole space is filled with a depressing, lifeless, and desolate atmosphere. The "red" tomatoes and juice on the table, and the "red pen" in his hand, live in the "yellow" desert, and these "reds" support his life.
Another family, the headmistress who was fired and caught in anger was wrapped in "red" wallpaper, the red anger was a manifestation of her emotions, and her husband in a "yellow" tie broke the vase representing their once love, their love Dead, "yellow" is a "red" that has lost passion and temperature.
Going back to Erica and Henry, this is a bigger panoramic shot than before, Henry is on the yellow wall on the other side of the picture, and the advertisement on the wall has a touch of red. It can be inferred that at this time, he was carrying a bit of disgust but mixed with excitement and a vague mental state. But as Henry approached Erica, the mood heated up, and the yellow gradually disappeared until it was completely "red", which coincided with the direction of the relationship between the two in the story, thus completing the symbolic purpose of the scene.
After getting the emotional references to "red" and "yellow", we can repeatedly scrutinize and collect evidence in more details. (Left in the photo above) Henry took the bus to school for the first time, and he couldn't stand still, but the words he wrote in the notebook last night reverberated in his mind, and he took out the book he cherished from his bag to read stand up. Words are his passion. The billboard on the left uses bright red and yellow to help viewers subconsciously establish the character image of Henry who loves reading and literature.
(Above right) Anxious Henry looks flustered. Would it be a wrong decision to leave Erica, who he just met, at home alone? Henry was at a loss for this unexpected relationship. It was still a billboard, with dark yellow flowers, boys and girls skillfully depicting Henry's self-evident complex heart at this time. This time the billboard appears on the right side of the painting, which does not break the previously established "red" character image for Henry, and completes the purpose of creating a more complex character.
In addition, there is another part in this film that is similar to the usage of the previous paragraph, this time it is "blue".
Although just starting out with these difficult students, Henry's calmness and restraint in dealing with conflict demonstrates his unique communication skills as a teacher. Henry comforted the students with just a few words. The "blue" on the black classmates reflected the "blue" in Henry's heart. The students' bodies blocked the "red" of the American flag, showing its "blue" part.
Blue usually brings people a feeling of tranquility, indifference, ethereal, and eternity. Throughout the whole film, blue is always hidden in the corners, very inconspicuous, and we need to look carefully before we realize its existence. In the movie, blue only appears quietly in the outer space that the characters cannot reach.
"Blue" is like a ghost, silently and eternally watching people's joys and sorrows. Thinking of the opening wedge of the film, "I have never felt so deeply that I am so far away from my soul, yet my existence in the world is so real. - Camus". Our soul is "blue", we are one with the soul when we are born, but at some point it will leave us. But what does the "blue" emotion refer to?
mother's relic.
Grandfather's relic.
"Blue" is pain, or the world is pain itself.
When it's one with me, I don't see it, I can't perceive it. When it leaves our body, "Blue" is silent in the distance, waiting for us to touch and fall into the trap of growing up. And only pain can make the world so real.
Looking at the second picture that can represent the entire film, "black and white", "red", "yellow", and "blue" converge in this ruin of human spirit, and I can't explain how I feel at this time. I just want to elicit "green" and turn all dreams into real detached power.
3. Green
The post-gradation of the whole film is greenish, and green is the core tone of the whole film. The film begins with a deciduous tree, which turns into a book, and its leaves turn into words on the book. This abstract fragment has already told the whole of "Transcendence" to the viewer, and the concrete green plays the role of harmony and simple symbolism most of the time.
Green usually represents hope, nature and warmth, and "green" is a touch of tenderness in the world. Throughout the film, green performs a similar function. Although the above two pictures are complex, they are relatively neat and not cluttered. The picture on the left is Henry entering the school for the first time. The green is the middle shot, which separates and hides the red school in the background and the black and white protagonist in the foreground.
The picture on the right is a long-range shot of the police car and ambulance dispatched to remove the body from the school after Meredith committed suicide. In the place where the tragedy happened, the school with "red" brick walls was hidden behind the shade of trees. In addition to the role of coordinating the beauty of the picture, after the cruel incident, "green" still made it show a clear and bright side.
"Green" also helped "Black and White" to complete the symbol of harmony and twin concept in this part, covering the pain of reality with warmth and positivity.
In "Transcendence", "green" never has a two-way emotional expression. For example, "red" is both passion, vitality, violence, and death, and "blue" is calm, peaceful, and pain itself. And green always represents hope, conveying the director's ideological core that is both disappointed and grateful.
Although the human spiritual world has long been in ruins, the deceased will eventually be turned into nutrients for future generations.
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