Colours are an incredibly versatile way of communicating; each culture has their own conventional understanding of colour signifiers, and in Storyboarding there is a means with which we can apply and manipulate this for narrative purposes.
The Wizard of Oz perhaps is one of the most notable examples of Colour usage in film, to signify conventional understandings of those hues.
The main difficulty is in exploring the significance of certain colours, and how they can change from one culture to the next. Depending on who your Storyboard's narrative is aimed at will dictate those sorts of decisions.
Whilst it may not entirely be the duty of a Storyboard artist to establish a colour 'set' for an entire narrative (the Cinematographer comes into his own here), it is still useful to have a methodology with which boarding can quickly communicate the same ideas.
Borrowed entirely from Marcie Begleiter's fantastic book 'From Word to Image', I believe this methodology is the clearest and most easily applied to Storyboarding. It's broken down into a three-part method: Juxtaposition; Direct Reference; Inference.
Juxtaposition.
Juxtaposition in this context refers to the usage of colour that are within the same colour 'families', and can be vividly eye-catching and/or be used to make one subject stand out in stark contrast to its frame. It is also a useful signifier in showing an opposition simply through the visual impact of this. West Side Story is a great example of Juxtaposed colours being used.
Direct Reference.
This method manipulates conventional understanding of colour sets. Red for anger/love, green for nature, etc. With characters, often the way they are dressed and, more importantly, the colour of their outfit is a direct reference to their nature, personality, and moral alignment. Wizard of Oz once again offers us two great examples of this.
The White Witch dressed in the appropriate colours to signify her kind ways.
And the Wicked Witch, clad in full black.
Inference.
This method is a much more subtle application of colour, often enhancing a mood or ambient vibe of a narrative. It's chief use however is its ability to thematically foreshadow a turn of events in the story. This ability to infer something can be an extremely useful tool even in Storyboarding. Below is an example from the film Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
In this scene, the hues are deliberately shown to be warm, in the reds and oranges, signifying comfort, contentment.
Cutting to a shot of Nicole's character, we see that the bathroom is lit in a vivid yet deep shade of blue. This frames her deliberately, and in fact was meant to infer that their conversation- and by extension their relationship- was about to turn sour. Blue signifies a bleak foreshadowing, in this context.
These three easy methods are a great means of both categorizing and managing whatever particular colour signifiers you may be choosing in your Storyboarding. Though there is a clear distinction between these three, they often co-inside with multiple colour meanings. Below are examples of how either of these could fit into the above methodologies.
Application.
Previously I had explored the implications of light value to a Storyboarding, by selecting my favourite scene from Michael Mann's 'Heat'. The cafe scene illustrates the true dynamic and relationship both Pacino's Hanna and De Niro's McCauley. It was only fitting then that I re-visited this sequence. I digitally sketched out the scene again, and this time applied block colouring as part of an exercise in Juxtaposition, Direct Reference, and Inference.
Both men are wearing near identical suits, in a somewhat neutral ambient setting. This is not dissimilar from the film's original scene. This could signify that both men are alike, and the conceit is that this is a 'casual' conversation between two friends.
This infers that, despite their social and lawful opposition, they are in fact kindred spirits, as alluded to even strongly in the film's closing act.
A revision of the colours here is aiming for Direct Reference. Our Protagonist (Pacino) is dressed in conventionally signified hues of 'good'. This suggests his moral compass is aligned for the best intentions.
Alternatively we see De Niro's character dressed in the conventional signifiers of 'evil' or an immoral outlook: black and red. This significantly waters down any subtext between the two characters, and simply shows them at face value. This is in contrast to the true inference in the previous example.
Juxtaposed colours can be a more subtle way of showing opposition, without signifying the morality of either. Here we see that the two are dressed in warm and cold hues. This does not denote good or bad qualities of their nature; but rather connotes an element of their personalities, or could perhaps foreshadow a dynamic in their relationship. Pacino's character is significantly warmer to De Niro's upon meeting him in the Cafe. Even admitting that if and when the time came to shooting him down, he's "not gonna like it". This can be suggested in his warmer choice of colours.
These three methodologies compliment my principle of Storyboarding Tonal Value, as it certainly offers an alternative means of applying tone and colour to a scene, whilst giving it a narrative value. Colours are not simply there to add colour. They have a purpose; to suggest, signify, denote, connote. They can be part of the themes that a script can otherwise not describe through text.
Below is a breakdown of the three-part method.
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