Use of Color in the Film Opening

     Honestly the use color is one of my favorite aspects of filmmaking and film in general. Between its ability to draw out certain emotions from audiences and how it can sometimes complement other visual techniques in the most powerful and unique way. For instance, red may convey a feeling of love or even anger, while green can convey one of envy or greed. My group and I didn't really focus on the use of color per se, in our film opening, but there were a few occasions in which color does symbolize something of meaning.

    The very first scene, Betty's bedroom, includes a use of color that definitely expresses the kinds of emotion that our main character, Betty herself, is feeling. Betty's room is more or less dark, has the blinds closed, and the colors have a very dark blue, almost purple tone to it. I think that this represents the melancholic, sort of, well, blue emotions that Betty is currently feeling due to her heartbreak over James, the boy she loved, cheating on her with someone else. Betty is supposed to feel different things ranging from sad, mad, lonely, conflicted, and dejected. Although, my group members were not there to direct Tori or to see her filming this scene in action, I believe she did do this on purpose since we had discussed the mood that we wanted this scene to convey. This scene was supposed to take place in the morning but the natural sunlight coming from outside that would have ultimately created a bright, yellow-ish look simply would not have matched the mood we were going for, so props to Tori for filming it in the creative way that she did.

    Betty's outfit in the film opening, at least the colors she's wearing, also represent who she is as a person. She wears mostly light pink which is often used to symbolize femininity, love, and youth. These symbols all fit with who the character of Betty is and also with the plot of the story, considering that it revolves around a young teenage girl, her first love/heartbreak, and all the characters who are teenagers. In addition, James wears a red sweater, and red is able to represent love as well as danger, so I think that this is also fitting of James because he literally means those things to Betty; someone she should look out for and someone who she still has romantic feelings for.

    Then there's August's clothing, which can be interpreted in different ways as well. August wears a white top with a green dragon on it in our film opening. White can be representative of perfection, purity and even innocence. For August, she mostly represents the first thing: perfection. This is mainly because most people, including Betty (but maybe not James anymore), think of her as perfect, privileged in several ways, and therefore easily gets what she wants 90% of the time. Meanwhile, the dragon on August's top may symbolize the envy that both Betty and August feel toward each other, as James now wants to be with Betty and because Betty is the one who was at a time, James' second choice. The dragon itself, although not especially associated with color, also represents the big, bad intruder of the story who comes and ruins everything (Betty and James' relationship).