Film Color Palettes & Storytelling: Simultaneous Contrast

Color is one of the most popular topics in the online film forums, however rarely do people talk about why a color pallet is affective or how to use color pallets to help create or reinforce story. In this series—Film Color Palettes and Storytelling, we are going to look color theory and storytelling by exploring the ways color can be utilized to tell a story.

Simultaneous Contrast was a theory explored by artist and color theorist Josef Albers. Simultaneous Contrast looks at colors not as finite, but rather as ever shifting based on the colors relationship to the colors around them. For example, Color A will look different when next to Color B verses Color C due to their different relationships as show in the images below. How we perceive color is based on how the colors relate to one another within an image.

When looking at the magenta, does it appear to be the same color on both sides? Does the magenta surrounded by green look darker?

When you connect the two magentas, you will see that the two are in fact the same color.

Now look at purples within these two squares. They appear to be the same purple. Is that true?

When you draw the colors towards center, you can see that they are actually different tones of the same hue. Their relationships to the colors surrounding them gave them the appearance of being the same.

This is the magic of Simultaneous Contrast. It changes the way we perceive a color based on its surrounds and mass. Since color is created within the mind’s eye, we can easily manipulate the perception of color to serve our stories.

Ways to Use Simultaneous Contrast in Filmmaking

Simultaneous Contrast is particularly useful with costume or props that go from one environment to another. For example, let’s say you have a character who’s the black sheep of her family. She never seems to fit into the world of her family.

So, she always feels dark and heavy, or out of place. This doesn’t mean she has to be dressed in blacks and dark colors to achieve this. Take this woman, we will call her Maria, for example:

Here’s Maria in the world of her family. She’s the darkest tonal object in the space. If her family is dress in tints, light pastels, and creams or whites, she’s going to feel really dark and heavy.

However, when she goes to the world of her friends, that same dress feels bright and like a beacon of light. She feels lighter in this world, which may be true for Maria if her story is one where she is trying to find a place to fit in. She actively appears brighter. Here’s the funny thing…

Maria’s dress didn’t change! Just its relationship to the world around her changed causing her to appear differently.

This is just one way of using Simultaneous Color within storytelling to show how a character feels different within a new world. When the color story supports the over all action and emotional tone of your film, you end up creating a one-two storytelling punch that will get audiences even more engaged with your work.

For more color theory and how you can utilize it within your filmmaking, check out From Text to Moving Images—an online course all about how to utilize film design to enhance your storytelling.