The Colors of Motion and The Godfather: Mostly Black

After Arturo briefly showed us the website The Colors of Motion in class today, I had to give it another look. The website basically breaks down the color palate of a film, making a sequential gradient that follows the color design of the film shot-by-shot. Of course, if you are just absolutely in love with a particular color breakdown, the website has poster-sized prints for sale. Oh, America. Anyways, I chose to take a closer look at one of my all-time favorite movies, The Godfather:

At first, it doesn't really seem to make much sense. Its just a bunch of colors. But you are able to click on each specific color, which brings up a still from that particular shot of the film. Pretty sweet.  It doesn't just have major shots or major scenes of the movie, it has every shot in the film. It takes into account every establishing shot, every cut away, and every close up. 

Just like the subject matter of the film, the color design of The Godfather is very dark. A lot of "earthy" tones come through in the films. Browns and greens dominant the color scheme, all very drab and unsaturated to mirror the somber mood of the traditional family crime syndicate stuck in a time of change in American culture. Oh, and of course all of the laundering, bribing, and murdering that takes place over the course of the film. 

 The iconic opening scene, mostly for its use of chiaroscuro lighting and slow rhythm that help to build tension and a sense of dominance in the scene. As far as the color design, it sticks pretty true to the overarching dark, earthy theme, except for the blood red rose positioned almost dead center in the frame:

Another example of the earthy, drab colors in The Godfather:

While The Godfather  might have its brief moments of color, it is clearly dominated by these heavy, dark tones that we associate with a crime drama. Even the portions of the narrative that take place in Italy, the farthest we ever get away from all of the murdering and crime have light browns and greens, consistent with the old Italian world in which the main character Michael is hiding in. 

The Colors of Motion website has a range of movies on it, from The Lion King to Se7en, each broken down by shot just like The Godfather. Seeing these color breakdowns lets you visual the color of a film in its entirety, and truly see how this subconscious element really does help to shape the story. Going forward,  I hope that the production design in Doll House will be an active element of the storytelling process. While not always blatantly evident, color certainly helps to tell the story. 

Binception: The Post Production Struggle.

I am a very organized person. My room is impeccable, my backpack is laboriously and strategically packed to optimize convenience, my calendar is color-coded, and I always know what is on my schedule for at least the next few days in advance. This organization carries over into my post production work, which is one of the reasons I think I initially gravitated towards the post process. 

I edit out of Premiere, which allows for an immense amount of organization as well as customization. You can arrange the window panels in any conceivable way, customizing the size and location of every window and tool imaginable. and don't even get me started on the bins. I LOVE bins. I have bins for everything. I have bins for my clips. I have bins for my sequences. I have bins for my bins. My Premiere projects are complete Binception.

So far, I have only found use for my obsessive organization within the post production process, however, in this class I am trying to push myself and  be involved more with the pre prodoction and production aspects of our projects. At first I wasn't sure if I could find a role that suited my organizational skill set, however, on Monday we watched a short interview that described the Script Supervisor/Continuity position, and I think I found what I've been looking for. Having never been a script supervisor on a project before, I cannot say whether I would actually  like this position, but just from the short clip we watched, I could see a lot of overlap from my post production skills.

Notes from a 'scripty'

Basically, the script supervisor is responsible for keeping the project alive during the production process, which involves a significant amount of work in pre production through script breakdowns, which ensures that the production, which is often filmed out-of-sequence, always makes verbal and visual sense. It also requires an intense attention to detail, making sure that actors motion and wardrobe stay continuous throughout different shots, ensuring nothing will break the moment of the film. The script supervisor gets to work with many different departments on set, making sure each is doing their job correctly and consistently between takes. 


 That being said, I will be working as the Assistant Director during our project for this class, but I still think my organization and attention to detail will certainly come into play, whether it is from script breakdowns,scheduling, or general on set management. Either way, I am excited to take a step out of the dark editing room and into the light during the production process.