by Susan Patterson

Mostly Links is back and this week it goes colour.  Mostly Links has been pondering why so many films are so blue.  And orange.  If you’re wondering what we mean think CSI Miami.  And then some. Mostly Links first pondered this after seeing  Carancho (dir: Pablo Trapero, Argentina, 2010), and wondering why everyone was wearing a blue shirt, and why all the streets were bathed in orange light, until finally  everything shot from inside a car was steely grey, with not a single other colour in sight.

Typing why are so many films so blue and orange into Google provided this very comprehensive answer. Orange and blue, or rather teal are opposite each other on the colour wheel. And and flesh tones are largely shades of orange. Film making nerd, Stu Maschwitz talks about how using Apple Color changes the colour of images on his blog Prolost.

Another blue teal and orange film is Miss Bala (dir: Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico, 2011). Could it be a South American thing?

 

Or maybe American, because here’s Winter’s Bone (dir: Debra Granik, USA, 2010) doing the same thing, albeit more subtly, and with far more grace and beauty.

 

Danny F Santos gives a fabulous crash course in colo(u)r theory in the Easy Guide to Production.  Read it; it’s great, and Mostly Links is left pondering why everyone blogging about colour in films does so on a black background.

MostlyFilm is back on Monday with a review of 2012 releases by Ron Swanson.

Carancho is released in key cities on 2 March.