✩colors! smile

I've been wanting to talk about this for a while because it's a big part of my concept, and that's colors.

Two blog posts I kept talking about how things I noticed in the short films I watched did or didn't match the vibe of my concept. A large portion of that has to do with colors. Specifically, orange.

Orange is the collor I associate with summer time, spontenaiety, and adventure, along with high energy and excitement. I also think about those creamsicle popsicles from my elementary school days, and the University of Tennessee (my Dad's college, he has UT orange everywhere).

(These were so good and I stand by that)

(Its such a specific color of orange that I will never be able to forget about)

I also researched a few articles about the orange and here are some facts I found out about the color.

(article 1, article 2, article 3, article 4)

• stimulates our appetite
• increases energy level
• warning of danger, excersice caution (traffic cones, road work signs)
• "saucy, vibrant, and fun"
• also characterized by flamboyance, determination, warmth, and success
• cheerful, optimistic, creative
• "attention-getter without being too aggressive" 
• in the US its used for prison uniforms
• in the UK its the color of the Liberal Party
• in the Netherlands, its associate with their royalty
• in China and Japan, it represents happiness, love, good health, and courage
• reminder of fall and the changing of the seasons, transformational color
• strong association with summer
• warm color, has associations with fire and the sun
• "a crackling campfire is the perfect illustrative definition of orange"
• calm yet lively
• the most extroverted color (I disagree, yellow is right there)
• associated with freedom and risktaking
• either you love it or hate it, very polarizing
• used to heal the lungs
• royalty and spirituality on other countries
• 2018 study found it made studying harder (thats tough for UT and UF, both Tennessee and Texas)
• playful and friendly
• used often in advertizing
• shoppers associsate it with inexpensive products

Apologies for the long list I did get a little carried away. Theres definetly more notes I could put, but I think I have plenty. I am pretty pleased that a lot of my initial assumptions about orange that I listed above are all common for orange, lets go.

I would like to draw your attention to the two underlined notes, "transformational color" and "either you love it or hate it, very polarizing." Both of these notes are probably a very important reason for why I've been so attached with using orange as a major color for my film. As a reminder to this blog post where I first describe the feeling I want to highlight, these two fatcs I feel match up with it perfectly. The polarizing feeling with the fear of change, not to mention the symbolism of a sunset and golden hour as one day transforms to the next, all are represented by orange. When I first came up with the idea to make a short film based on the polarizing feelings about change, I had a lot of thought about using orange lighting, including golden hour and orange tinted shots that make the shot feel like a memory, and now I know why. Strange to have the thought and then do research but hey, it works out in the end. I don't doubt I'll do some more color exploration later on, so stay tuned for that.

Also, I made a pinterest board with a visual for the lighting and look I want my film to have. You can check it out here. I added some nighttime images because of the idea I described in my voice memo in my previous blog post and many of the scenes in the short film "Night Swim".

I thinks thats all I have for today, have a wonderful rest of your day!

Song for 2/20

"Tangerine" by Glass Animals (listen, I had to)