it is not often that i read an article & immediately think I SHOULD POST THIS ON MY COLOR BLOG, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WOULD BE AWESOME. in fact, this may be the first time i have had that reaction. but i did, so here it is.
the article in question is from into the abyss & is called teal & orange - hollywood, please stop the madness.
not too long ago, i'd found a bunch of video and audio clips that aimed to prove that the record industry was blowing out the sound on all contemporary music recorded today. it was all about 'winning the loudness war', they said. since i don't listen to a lot of pop music, i couldn't possibly be as enraged as those who adjust the loudness of 'smells like teen spirit' to mimic what it would have sounded like had it been put out today, but i could see their point. the trend in entertainment in the last 10 years has been to make it loud and bright and short, designed to grab our attention quickly and keep it [short as it is assumed to be] as sustained as possible, with quick cuts every three seconds, etc. we've grown out of mtv & commercials, & this is the next step.
but what i find most interesting is that movies [or, probably these specific examples] are co-opting these philosophies. especially at this time, there seems to be a definite trend towards media that tells a story instead of enducing seizures, that is itself somehow sustained instead of short & choppy. it also seems to me that movies don't need to grab their audience's attention the same way music videos do. their audience is already captive in their $15 seats [if they're in the theatre] or at home on their couch, where they are perfectly comfortable & generally don't intend to get up. unless they are aiming for the television-movie market, they don't have to worry about their audience changing the channel. so why are they so intent on blasting the cyan-&-orange colors on-screen?
i don't know. maybe it has something to do with color trending: last year's pantone color-of-the-year was mimosa, a variant of yellow close to the transformers' shade; this year, it is turquoise. seems suspicious, don't you think?
the article in question is from into the abyss & is called teal & orange - hollywood, please stop the madness.
Those of you who watch a lot of Hollywood movies may have noticed a certain trend that has consumed the industry in the last few years. It is one of the most insidious and heinous practices that has ever overwhelmed the industry. Am I talking about the lack of good scripts? Do I speak of the dependency of a few mega-blockbuster hits to save the studios each year, or of the endless sequels and television retreads? No, I am talking about something much more dangerous, much deadlier to the health of cinema.while i laughed at the article's seemingly over-the-top frustration, especially when backed by visual examples of michael bay's 'transformers 2' movie [who can take anything about that movie or michael bay seriously?], when it began to expand to other recent or upcoming films, like iron man 2 or wolfman or, uh, tron—or even hot tub time machine, which is decidedly not an action movie—i saw i was facing the truth.
I speak of course, of THE COLOR GRADING VIRUS THAT IS TEAL & ORANGE!!!
not too long ago, i'd found a bunch of video and audio clips that aimed to prove that the record industry was blowing out the sound on all contemporary music recorded today. it was all about 'winning the loudness war', they said. since i don't listen to a lot of pop music, i couldn't possibly be as enraged as those who adjust the loudness of 'smells like teen spirit' to mimic what it would have sounded like had it been put out today, but i could see their point. the trend in entertainment in the last 10 years has been to make it loud and bright and short, designed to grab our attention quickly and keep it [short as it is assumed to be] as sustained as possible, with quick cuts every three seconds, etc. we've grown out of mtv & commercials, & this is the next step.
but what i find most interesting is that movies [or, probably these specific examples] are co-opting these philosophies. especially at this time, there seems to be a definite trend towards media that tells a story instead of enducing seizures, that is itself somehow sustained instead of short & choppy. it also seems to me that movies don't need to grab their audience's attention the same way music videos do. their audience is already captive in their $15 seats [if they're in the theatre] or at home on their couch, where they are perfectly comfortable & generally don't intend to get up. unless they are aiming for the television-movie market, they don't have to worry about their audience changing the channel. so why are they so intent on blasting the cyan-&-orange colors on-screen?
i don't know. maybe it has something to do with color trending: last year's pantone color-of-the-year was mimosa, a variant of yellow close to the transformers' shade; this year, it is turquoise. seems suspicious, don't you think?
