Color Theory / Теория цвета

Red:

This color is associated with power, passion, aggression, love, and danger. In films, red is often used to convey strong emotions — from romantic passion to anger or violence. It can symbolize both physical and emotional intensity.

Blue:

Represents coldness, calmness, loneliness, and melancholy. In dramatic scenes or films with deep psychological elements, blue can emphasize a character’s sense of isolation or depression.

Yellow:

A dualistic color that can evoke both warmth and happiness, as well as anxiety and tension. It symbolizes energy and optimism but can also represent danger or illness (e.g., a toxic shade of yellow can be associated with toxicity).

Green:

Associated with nature and renewal but also with jealousy, artificiality, or even death. In films, green often indicates something eerie or alien, especially when paired with dim or eerie lighting.

Purple:

Symbolizes mystery, luxury, and intrigue. In cinema, it can emphasize elements of magic or something unusual, enhancing the sense of mystery and enchantment.

Black and White:

Black represents power, mystery, and death, but also elegance and evil. White, on the other hand, symbolizes purity, innocence, light, and freedom, but in certain contexts, it can also convey coldness or sterility.

Using color to convey mood

Color doesn’t just work within a single scene—it can serve as a leitmotif throughout an entire film, creating a cohesive emotional canvas. Many directors use color palettes to set the overall tone of their films:

Monochrome Palettes:

Using a single dominant color or similar shades for an entire film or scene. For example, blue can evoke a feeling of coldness or detachment.

Contrasting Palettes:

Strong contrasts in color can create tension or highlight conflict. Red and green, for instance, are often used to portray opposing forces or drama, as they sit opposite each other on the color wheel.

Warm and Cool Colors:

Warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) evoke feelings of closeness, energy, or aggression, whereas cool colors (blues, greens) suggest calmness, isolation, or sadness. These contrasts help clearly distinguish emotional states or time periods within the story.

Color can carry not only emotional but also symbolic meaning. For example, in Wes Anderson’s films, pastel colors are often used to emphasize the delicate balance between comedy and tragedy, creating a whimsical, almost fairy-tale-like world.

Color symbolism can also be seen in the works of Stanley Kubrick. In his film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the color red is associated with danger and the mechanical threat posed by the artificial intelligence HAL 9000, while the white, sterile spaces of the spacecraft symbolize a lifeless, cold utopia of technology.

Color as a storytelling tool

Directors often use color not only to create atmosphere but also as a storytelling tool. Changes in the color palette within a film can reflect a character’s mental state, emotional growth, or descent into chaos. For example, in Requiem for a Dream (2000), director Darren Aronofsky gradually darkens and intensifies the colors to depict the decay of the characters’ lives due to drug addiction.

Color as a transition symbol:

At the beginning of the scene, the blue lighting symbolizes a cold, detached atmosphere, representing a phase where the characters have not yet realized the full danger of their obsession with fame. Blue is often associated with something calm and rational but here conveys a sense of detachment and false security.

As pink and red lighting appears in the scene, it serves as a visual metaphor for passion and danger. Red is a classic symbol of temptation, power, and threat, emphasizing the narrative shift where the obsession with fame grows more dominant and destructive.

Impact on emotional perception:

This lighting transition highlights the emotional state of the characters. Pink conveys ambiguity — something between passion and innocence, but with a growing sense of anxiety. Red, appearing in the climax, heightens tension and danger, reflecting the culmination of their emotional struggle with the “seductive lover” — fame, which, as the song warns, cannot truly love and will ultimately bring destruction.

Thus, the transition from blue to red is not just a visual effect but a crucial part of the video’s storytelling, reinforcing the song’s core message — fame attracts and destroys simultaneously, leaving only emptiness and pain behind.