Colour within film

The importance of colour within film

Colour in costuming

For costuming we found that all black, blue and white was suitable for our genre of social realism. Due to the more variety of colours of the costume, we were able to manipulate emotions of the audience via the use of colour.

Natural colour

The more we researched into films, the further the knowledge on the importance of colour increased and we promptly came to a conclusion that colour played a large role in film production and film development. Light and colour often accompany one another, seeing as colours are the components of light. Colours portray emotions usually either subtly or very explicitly. Anything that is a source of light or reflects it has an effect on what it's seen on and on the colours of the scene. We thought about our scenes we were going to film in and the lighting that they were going to be in. After some serious consideration we decided that we would use colours like blue, navy, some black and pink. The way we could implement these colours is via costuming and the setting we was in (The seaside, the gym). Colour is vital as it can guide thinking or generate certain reactions.

Colour in editing

Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930) Widely known icon of social realism 

The most effective way to establish a mood was actually post-production editing by editing the contrast, hue and saturation of the scene to generate a 'film type look'. This film look allowed the film opening to maintain a continuous professionalism. Several people were asked about the opening with or without the change in contrast and saturation and they said that they preferred it with the low contrast and saturation. Changing the saturation can make the scene more graphic or dull.

Poster Deconstruction - This is England

This is England

Colour

• The first thing I chose to focus on was the use of colour. The prominent colour scheme is red, white and blue which are the colours of the Union Jack. 
• Due to the subtle association of these colours with skinhead groups such as the English Defence League and Britain First, the colours coupled with the film's title indicate to the audience the general thesis of the film.  
• The general colour palette of the poster is a collection of blue, grey and red hues. Continuing the colours of the union jack, the poster is aesthetically pleasing. Below is a colour chart I made depicting the various hues used.

Mise en Scene

• The characters are dressed in stereotypical 'skinhead' outfits - combat boots, bomber jackets and Ben Sherman shirts - giving away details of their character.
• High rise flats are in the background of the shot - indicates the film is set in a poor area.

The Tagline

• The tagline "Summer 1983. A time to stand out from the crowd." gives away when the film is set.
• The notion of standing out from the crowd relates to the mise en scene of the character's costumes and hair/makeup.

Post Production

• It is possible that the actors were positioned alongside each other for the photograph, however it is likely that they were placed individually against a green screen in order to be edited onto the background.
• Film festivals and award logos are placed horizontally along the top of the poster - they are placed against the blue sky in order to stand out.
• The text is placed carefully in order to not obscure any of the buildings or characters.
• The film's website address appears on the poster.
• Critics' reviews of the film appear at the top of the poster, persuading the audience that the film is worth watching.

Typography

• The style of the 'THIS IS ENGLAND' main title is the largest and boldest text on the poster.
• The typography is styled as thought it has been painted onto corrugated metal - indicating an urban setting for the film.