A Reference Library for Poppy

This early morning was spent on the creation of a reference library for our short film project Poppy’s Café for Monsters.

Since I found the use and application of a reference library incredibly helpful and time-saving when preparing the visuality of the Sweeney Todd shoot, I again decided that an image could say more than a thousand words and sat down to collect images and integrate them into my current reference library.

Furthermore, in addition to the easier and quicker communication, I felt that I would learn more efficiently about lighting if I would analyse and attempt to recreate and or adapt certain lighting scenarios and setups, as done by those great cinematographers out there. Either way, it would be a win-win for me.

Since our director Lynley was very particular about the use of strong, saturated and ‘popping’ colours (especially in regard to the colour red), I started out by looking up films that I have either watched or studied and which I remembered to apply saturated colours as striking element of their cinematography. Those films of which I took sample images were (in no particular order):

1. Amélie (2001)

2. Hero (2002)

3. Enter the Void (2009)

4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

5. Sweeney Todd (2007)

6. Memoirs of a Geisha (2006)

7. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

I furthermore looked up a couple of music videos, which I also remembered to contain saturated colours, and took imagese from them. These were (again, in no particular order):

1. OutKast – Hey Ya! (2009)

2. Kiesza – Hideaway (2014)

3. Namika – Que Walou (2018)

4. Robyn – Call your Girlfriend (2011)

Now with this selection, I felt that I had covered a wide range of colours and even variety in saturation. However, with this selection and the reference images thereof, I also quickly realised that my mind was not really adept in remembering colour saturation well. Whilst I was completely convinced that the reds, blues and yellows in Sweeney Todd popped, it was only within a short dream sequence that these colours had a saturated quality:

Sweeney Todd Example Image 1

Sweeney Todd Example Image 2

For the rest of the film was kept in dark, dull, and almost tinted colours, as you can see here:

Sweeney Todd Example Image 3

Sweeney Todd Example Image 4

The same, I quickly realised, applied to the films The Grand Budapest Hotel and Enter the Void, albeit for different reasons each. Whilst I mainly remembered this image from The Grand Budapest Hotel:

Most of the film, depending on the narrated time, either had a brown or a pink/rosy tinge to it, and were rather settled at the pastel end of the colour spectrum:

The Grand Budapest Hotel Example 1

The Grand Budapest Hotel Example 2

With Enter the Void, the effect was similar, although this film – in addition to a pink tinge – also has a grimy tone to the colour palette, which rendered the colours almost dirty:

Enter the Void Example Image 1

Enter the Void Example Image 2

The Different Styles of Colour Saturation: Warm and Cold

After analysing the other films and music videos, I realised that the colour saturation of their images could be divided into two different groups, namely a ‘warm’ and a ‘cold’ one. The differentiation I make here is hereby based on the colour temperature of the key light, namely tungsten (warm) and daylight (cold). However, whilst the colours would be saturated in both settings, with the warm group, the colour saturation would slightly lean to a yellowy tinge, whereas the cold group keeps the colour saturation pure without any tinge.

Warm

This is the group in which the key light’s colour temperature is tungsten. I called it ‘warm’ not only because of the yellow base colour of the key light, but also because the overall effect of the light and the colour saturation gives off a warm, homely feeling. However, if one looks for a strong saturation, they would find that the colour saturation here is neither perfect nor pristine.

Examples for this type of saturation would be:

1. Amélie (2001)

1. Memoirs of a Geisha (2006)

1. Namika – Que Walou (2018)

Cold

I called this the ‘cold’ group not only because of the white or rather neutral base colour of the key light, but also because the overall effect of the light and the colour saturation gives off a clean but sterile feeling. Whilst this may be favourable for the sci-fi genre, ads and music videos, as the colour saturation is pristine, it might be too cold for a comedic short film.

Examples for this group of colour saturation would be:

1. Hero (2002)

1. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

1. OutKast – Hey Ya! (2009)

1. Kiesza – Hideaway (2014)

1. Robyn – Call your Girlfriend (2011)

Discussing the Visual Style

Since I didn’t know what type of colour saturation Lynley envisioned, I sat down with her today and showed her the all options that have also been depicted in this blog while elaborating on the different styles and usages. She immediately fell in love with the warm style of Amélie, even though it would mean bringing down the saturation a bit.

However, since I also felt that the cold style would not fit the overall tone that Lynley wanted to achieve with her film, we both agreed to attempt implementing the saturation of Amélie for the scenes in the café, even though it would also require us to keep an additional eye on production design and to style it accordingly to make the overall style work.

Reference Library

Reference Library

Reference Library

Reference Library

Reference Library

Finally, we furthermore settled that we would try to implement the dark visual quality of Sweeney Todd for the basement scene.

Tall order, I know. But I won’t know if I am capable enough yet if I don’t try, so even for the possibility that I might fail in achieving this style, I’m determined to give it a shot.

References:

Anderson, W. (2014) The Grand Budapest Hotel [DVD] Fox Searchlight Pictures et al. USA and Germany. Images taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/The-Grand-Budapest-Hotel/pages/The-Grand-Budapest-Hotel-010.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Burton, T. (2007) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [DVD] Dreamworks et al.: USA and UK. Images taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/dvd/Sweeney-Todd-The-Demon-Barber-of-Fleet-Street/pages/Sweeney-Todd-The-Demon-Barber-of-Fleet-Street-0348.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Jeunet, J. (2001) Amélie [DVD] Claudie Ossard Productions: France. Images taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Amelie/pages/Amelie-0649.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Kiesza (2014) Kiesza – Hideaway [online] Image taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnoz5uBEWOA [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Marshall, R. (2005) Memoirs of a Geisha [DVD] Columbia Pictures Corporation et al.: USA. Images taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/dvd/Memoirs-of-a-Geisha/pages/Memoirs-of-a-Geisha-571.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Namika (2018) Namika – Que Walou (Official Video) [online] Image taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC9-30wl1cg [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Noé, G. (2009) Enter the Void [DVD] Fidélité Films et al.: France et al. Image taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Enter-the-Void/pages/Enter-the-Void-425.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

OutKastVideoVault (2009) OutKast – Hey Ya! (Video) [online] Image taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Robyn (2011) Robyn – Call Your Girlfriend [online] Image taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ImxY6hnfA [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Scott, R. (2017) Blade Runner 2049 [DVD] Alcon Entertainment et al.: USA et al. Images taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Blade-Runner-2049/pages/Blade-Runner-2049-1749.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]

Zhang, Y. (2002) Hero [DVD] Beijing New Film Picture Company: The People’s Republic of China. Images taken from: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Hero/pages/Hero-353.htm [Accessed on 12 February 2019]