Color or Color
(The Psychology of Color)
by Walter Graff

Looking at the title of this article, do you like the color of one of the two words better than the other? Looking at each by itself, think of what word comes into your mind when you ‘feel’ the color and what it means to you. You’ve just touched on color psychology.

Every now and then I include a bit about color perception in my lectures. My last lecture proved that folks really want to understand it more. So I am going to touch on it so that you to can start thinking about how color has an incredible influence on your viewer.

I take it for granted as I study color psychology in school and use it all the time when selling products or making someone’s message come across on TV. And sometimes I even subconsciously make you dislike a person more as a result, but you only dislike THEM and never realize it might be due to me.

Color has an incredible effect on you mood, your perception, and your likes and dislikes. It’s programmed into you, and you really have little to say about it. Your reptilian mind is the part of you that is programmed to survive. It’s what makes you instinctively know that fire is bad, that red is danger, and that green is comforting. Humans developed over millions of years and color is a big part of our perception. It’s why orange is often used to make products that are high priced look more inviting because psychologically it makes them seem more affordable. And it’s why red is the most prominent color in fast food logos –red stimulates appetite. And it’s why you will have trouble eating food that is blue. What food is blue? Exactly! Okay, maybe blueberries but how about some blue mashed potatoes with blue meatloaf and blue gravy? See what I mean?

 

Corporations spend millions of dollars testing colors on consumers every day. Why? Because they know color has a huge affect on how you perceive their products.

And color also has an effect on how you perceive people. Hence, color is invaluable to making pictures that get your message across. Ever notice that luxury cars in commercials are gray? The reason is we know from studies that gray is associated with affluence, so when you see the Lexus in the commercial they don’t even have to use the word affluence in the script, but simply have to show the car and they get across the message. You’ve heard the term “ A picture’s worth a thousand words”? Well 99% of those words meaning is in the color of that picture.

I’ll give you an example. I am casting a part of rich villainous women -a women who gets her way. She is mean to her underlings and rules with a sharp mouth. Here are the options;

#1 I am going to dress her in a blue outfit for the part. It’s one of those old style suits women wore in the fifties. If you don’t get what I mean think the tube-ish looking skirt with the tight fit, matching jacket. It’s kind of like what I remember Loius Lane wearing in the old Superman TV series of the fifties.

#2 I am going to dress her in a red outfit for the part. It’s one of those old style suits women wore in the fifties. If you don’t get what I mean think the tube-ish looking skirt with the tight fit, matching jacket. It’s kind of like what I remember Louis Lane wearing in the old Superman TV series from the fifties.

So the options are a blue outfit or a red outfit. Which color seems more like it would fit the mean, nasty bitch role? Most of you said red. Why, because red creates feelings of aggravation in your mind. Red clothing is uplifting and conveys power and energy but causes confrontation. Blue on the other hand portrays solitude, wisdom, loyalty, trust, security, and order so it doesn’t fit the role of a nasty bitch. Some of you might have heard authority in what I described her as and may as a result picked blue.

The point is that colors in your shot from what colors folks wear to what colors you use on the walls have a tremendous effect on credibility, like-ability and, how well you message is received. Did you know that you’ll remember things you wrote down better when they were written in blue? So how might blue work for you when shooting? Say I wanted to give off the message of trust, and reliability. If I wanted to ease the American people about my stance on the country as a president and try to non-verbally say that you can count on me how might blue help?

 

Take a look at the two photos below:
 
Of course the photos above are not exactly the same, but if I ask you which president you trust more, odds are good you’ll pick the president in the blue tie. In fact the president wears cloths and especially certain color cloths depending on the event. Why? Because the folks that dress him know how important color is. So when it’s a tribute, he has on primarily blue accents for strength and leadership. When it’s a meeting with the EU, where he wants to get his message across, and demonstrate the power of the US, its red for power and aggression (photo #1 below).

Photo#1

 
And when the president needs the countries support, or wants to show strength but compassion, you'll see blue tones in how he dresses because blue is a color of stability and loyalty. Fashion consultants often recommend wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty. (photo #2 below)

Photo #2

 
And in a situation where he is going as an in between, say to Israel for meetings with Palestine and Israel, its brown so that he comes off as everyone’s friend because brown is a none threatening color. (see photo #3 Below)

Photo #3

 

You should get three distinct feelings from the three pictures above and color would be one of the reasons you conclude what you do about how they make you feel.

 

So how does all this fit in with you and what you do? Let me show you some examples and then give you some of the science on colors and leave you at that for now. First. Let’s look at these two photos:
 

At first you might say the upper picture (all blue) is more pleasing, but look again and you should start to realize that it’s like a head in a field of blue. I’d rather have some color contrast, so I’d probably what to use a warmer color for a backgrounds than a cool tone like her shirt. What I’m getting at is that there is more to lighting than setting up a few instruments to look good. Color and how you use it from the background to what the talent wears is important.

In some cases, you have no control over what your talent wears. In that case you still have plenty of control over the background and how that appears, so understanding how color contrast works and how color creates an emotional mood is useful.

I often use color to create subliminal moods in a scene. And sometimes I just use color to help create a better look. Let’s look at two more examples:

 

Ask me which of the shots above I like more and I’ll say, it depends. It’s about what I want  to achieve. Both work for me, but the blue background makes her more trusting than the orange background which might be better if I want the information she says to be more believable.  How?

It’s all about color. And color has a very definable effect on us. It’s one of the reasons why most fast food colors are orange and red and why the color yellow makes babies cry. We know through many scientific tests that red causes us to feel hungry and we know that yellow makes babies think they are in the sunlight so thy cry to tell their moms that they don’t like it.

All colors have two effects on us. In many ways colors have bi-polar effects. Red symbolizes passion, love, warmth, power, and excitement –all positive traits.  But it also symbolizes aggression. In studies red elevates blood pressure and respiratory rates. It stimulates hunger as I mentioned. We know that it also has the effect of stimulating people to make quick decisions and increase expectations. That’s one of the reasons why it’s a favorite color scheme in casinos. It’s an attention grabber. Words and objects in red get people 's attention immediately. When it comes to cars, there is a positive correlation between the color red and theft rate. So as you can see there is so much more to red than it just being red. Understanding more about how to use it in television an help you to create a mood or feeling, sometimes subconsciously.

In the previous pictures I talked about blue and the warm orange and how it might affect my audience. Let me explain more.

First the bi-polar-ness of blue. On one end blue represents solitude, sadness, and depression. On the other end, wisdom, trust and loyalty. So wearing blue to job interviews could help you because it shows dedication and loyalty. And it might be a good color for a talent to wear if you want his words to convey that feeling too.

 The trust factor I mentioned in the earlier photos has to do with how blue relaxes our nervous system. It has a sobering effect on the mind and can cause people to be more contemplative. So blue is for when you need a your audience to feel good about what you are saying and you want them to feel like they can trust you.

Brown, or what I see in that dark orange background in the earlier photo represents earth. Earth tones are about reliability. Its similar to blue but more about neutrality credibility, solidity, strength and maturity. Where might I use brown as a background? A perfect place is with a tape I’m making showing sales people telling me why the company they work for is great. I might use a brown cloth background for such. Doing so creates a sense of solidarity amongst the speakers. It makes what they say credible. And I would use blue for a CEO that was telling his staff that while times have been tough, he has a plan that will help everyone feel safer about their jobs and about the future of the company. I could use brown also for the warmth factor, but I find that blue leans more towards authority and trust and brown is more of color that represents unity amongst headshots better. Ever wonder why most police forces developed wearing blue uniforms? What was it I said about authority? Next time I‘ll get more into color and how to use it for TV effectively.

 

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