many filmmakers have a pretty good utilization of color theory bright and saturated for a happy tone or dark and desaturated for something more grounded but there's one filmmaker who chooses to blur the lines between joy and darkness she and our infant son would be killed two years later by the prussian greek and absurd little disease god god not enough smoke and the snow was too loud we'll go again right away [Applause] making movies while on the surface wes anderson's movies look vivid and vib
rant the colors are often actually at odds with the subject matter so why does wes anderson complicate our ideas of color theory so much let's dive into his style [Music] remember to subscribe and click the bell icon to stay in the loop for more filmmaking videos first let's talk hsb the dna of color it stands for hue saturation and brightness [Music] hue refers to the color family wes anderson gravitates towards primary colors like reds and yellows saturation refers to the intensity of the colo
r anderson typically uses a high saturation so that these primary colors really pop when he does switch to a desaturated color palette it usually marks a shift in tone lastly brightness which is how light or dark a given color is his worlds are bright and colorful but that's just the facade why'd you try to kill yourself don't press him right now to suicide now what's not obvious is the effect of combining these colors with anderson's dark subject matter [Music] is it dark of course it's dark it
's a suicide now and yes it is dark though it may seem light can we read it no can you paraphrase it for us [Music] addison's is a storybook world colored in this way to give it a childlike perspective [Music] but this aesthetic carries over to his live action films as well let's look at the grand budapest hotel a picturesque elaborate and once widely celebrated establishment throughout the film we're exposed to vivid colors in a whimsical world [Music] even though these characters live in a wor
ld similar to our own complete with death wrap this stuff in a tablecloth we're going to bury him at sea this isn't reality after all [Music] what kind of bird are you for wes anderson whimsy feels right at home i'm a raven but the themes of his films would seem to be at odds with his color choices masculine i've been spaced out all day did you say you're on mescaline this combination shouldn't work right here i come eli just crashed his car into the front of the house oh my god much like storyb
ook characters wes anderson's characters are often connected to a single color where are we is purple suzy is pink chaz is red let's look at that last color red it comes up a lot in wes anderson's films [Music] the crew and life aquatic wear red beanies the brothers in the darjeeling limited drive a red car in rushmore max wears a red hat i like your hat oh thank you chas and his sons in the royal bombs wear red track suits but let's look deeper at the characters themselves they will have issues
progressing past a regressed adolescent state chaz tendon bomb suffers from immense trauma from his father leaving his family at a young age do you still love mom yes very much but your mother's asked me to leave and i must respect her position on the matter and his wife tragically died in a plane [Music] crash [Music] as a result chaz is overprotective hey are you listening to me yes i am i think you're having a nervous breakdown i don't think you recovered from rachel's death chaz is in a sta
te of arrested development which is why he comes across as childish throughout the film four minutes 48 seconds we're all dead burned to a crisp all these characters who wear red have some kind of trauma they're trying to overcome and in chaz's case the only time we see him shed his red palate is when his chance to finally reconcile with his father already passes so when designing color palettes for your characters consider what colors you can associate them with [Music] wes anderson's films are
not afraid to deal with serious subject matter but why does he use colors associated with happy tales or cartoons for such serious stories was he a good dog who's to say but he didn't deserve to die [Music] his films find the humor in these dark places don't point that gun at him he's an unpaid intern so using hopeful colors in depressing scenes makes sense for the bipolar tone consider the contrast in the funeral scene from the darjeeling limited a young boy has died but the scene is punctuate
d by bright whites and golds people grieve openly and celebrate the boy's life it's a stark contrast to the flashback we get in the next scene where the brothers are on their way to attend their father's funeral they're dressed in black and we don't even see the funeral this isn't gonna work let's put the cover back on let's go many of wes anderson's characters repress their emotions which is a shame because they live in such beautiful worlds filled with wonder so consider the central truth of y
our next film if things are meant to be bleak then be bleak but don't be afraid to show how lively and filled with color the world can be his characters often deal with childhood traumas in this way his films are told from a childlike perspective they take place in these whimsical worlds but there are still serious issues amongst all the bright colors it creates a bipolar effect where we as the audience are forced to reconcile the darkness with humor and light make sure to read our blog post on
color theory where we dive deeper into wes anderson and other filmmakers color palettes to create unique cinematic experiences and how you can too links in the description [Music] what are your favorite color palettes from other films why do you think the hues and saturation work as well as they do do they communicate something unexpected to stay in the loop subscribe and enable [Music] notifications [Music] bye
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