Brunton 1

James Brunton

Dr. Guenzel

ENC 1102

March 4, 2019

Color grading effects in Film

Dossier Introduction

Everyone has a different journey regarding collecting research and knowledge. My

journey so far has been very diverse and consisted of many paths. I started with choosing my

initial topic. I have always had a huge passion for film, visuals, and movies, so I knew I wanted

my research to be within this topic. I currently work with film and photography, and researching

into film would not only be fascinating, but also beneficial to me, serving as an opportunity to

learn more about my field of work. I am very excited to be starting my research journey into this

field of research. I first chose to write on how a filmmaker communicates with the audience. I

was not sure on the specifics of my topic, however I knew I wanted to focus on that area. Since

our topic had to relate back to communication, I thought that this would be a perfect way to

explore a different area of communication. Instead of focusing on speaking or writing, I wanted

to see how to communicate using visuals. This is where I started my research. I started with the

research memo, where I outlined my topic and gave some background information on the

subject. As I was researching for this, I was using basic google searches to find my initial

information for the memo. After finishing this, I was having some struggles trying to keep my

research from being too broad. After hearing some feedback from my professor, I decided to

change my topic. My professor advised my to switch to research how people communicate on set

of a film. I went with it and decided to change my current research.

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The next step in my research was the research map. For this I gathered more in depth

research questions. This was based off prior knowledge that I already knew. My main research

question was, How do people with different roles communicate on set of a film. It was here

where I noticed I was straying away from the original reason why I choose to research film. I

wanted a diverse and fresh take on communication, not simply the same thing. However, I went

on with the research map and gathered more information. I created a research schedule for

myself, so I would not get overloaded with my work. I learned how to use the library database,

and get better sources for my paper. The next step was to use this new knowledge and create my

digital paper trail.

As I was creating my digital paper trail I ran into some problems. I realized that there

simply was not enough information to pursue this topic, I could not come up with thirty sources

to fill my digital paper trail. To add to this, I started to think back to my previous topic, and how

I wanted to focus on visual communication. With this in mind, I decided to meet with my

professor. I brainstormed some possible topics that I had in mind before meeting with my

professor, so we could come to an agreement and work out what would be best. After talking, we

decided on a new topic. We talked about the Rogerian method, and that I needed to use different

perspectives in my paper. I came to the decision to research a film technique used to

communicate emotion to the audience. Finally, I had my new topic. I am now researching how

different color communicates emotion and mood to the audience. I could then use the Rogerian

method and use three different movies, three different perspectives. I am going to compare and

contrast how these movies use color in different ways, to portray a different tone or mood. With

this, I created my Digital paper trail, and was ready to start my drafting.

Research Map
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Research Questions:

How does color in Film makes the audience feel different moods/emotions?

Keywords:

● Film
● Color science
● Emotion through color
● Movie tones
● Mood portrayed in movies
● Communicating through visuals

Types of Evidence:

● I will be using sources mostly from scholarly research and internet research, however I
will try to include field research as I know people who do work in my area of research. I
hope to find how different movies make use of different color grading, and how that
affects the emotion/tone/mood of the film.

Research Schedule

February

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

13: Research
map

20: Digital 22:

Paper Trail Reading
response

25: 27: Peer review 1: reading

Workshop workshop 1 response 14
draft,
research
dossier
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March

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

4: Final draft 6: reading

research dossier response 16

18: reading 20: reading 22: Reading

response 17 response 18 response 19

25: workshop 27: Peer review

draft rhetorical workshop 2
analysis

April

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

1: Pitch ted talk 3: Final draft

rhetorical analysis

10: Workshop draft 12: Peer review

1 workshop draft 1

15: workshop 17: workshop draft 19: Final draft

draft 2 3 TED student
Peer review lounge
workshop draft 3

22: workshop 24: extra credit 26: course

draft, self evaluation
assessment

29: TED talks

E portfolios
Feedback

Annotated Bibliography

Bleakney, Gregg. “How to Make Your Audience Feel Something.” World Nomads, 24 May
2017, www.worldnomads.com/create/learn/film/how-to-make-your-audience-feel-
something.
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Content: This article describes how to add emotion to a film or any visual media. It is divided
into subtopics that detail different ways to make the audience feel emotion. Understanding your
own emotion through visuals, Being aware that your emotional state effects others emotional
states, and anticipating are all strategies that are talked about in this article.

Author: Gregg Bleakney is a visual storyteller, producer, director, and photographer. He has his
own Visual storytelling company and works as a creative director out of Columbia. He has also
given many public speeches about what he is passionate about.

BEAM: This article is subjective, the author tells stories about his own personal experiences and
describes his topics using his own opinions and bias. This is an important base for my research as
it allows me to begin my paper before going into depth on color. This also provides examples of
a filmmakers experiences with these strategies, and allows for me to elaborate on them in my
work.

FLUECKIGER, BARBARA1. “A Digital Humanities Approach to Film Colors.” Moving Image

(15323978), vol. 17, no. 2, Fall 2017, pp. 71–94.
https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=5abc817e-cf78-4156-b870-
3e2e2b19c74a%40sdc-v-
sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=131
179190&db=asu

Content: This journal is the basis for the authors project FilmColors. It goes into depth on the
history of color in films, from black and white films, to color today. It is a “comprehensive
resource for all topics related to film colors”.

Author: Professor at the Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich, since February 2007.
In May 2015 she was awarded the prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research
Council ERC for her project FilmColors.

BEAM: This source is the research from Barbara Flueckiger project, therefore the research does
not have much bias in it, it states the facts and history. It has different perspectives through
history, however its main focus is to research color in film.

Foss, Bob. Filmmaking : Narrative and Structural Techniques. Los Angeles : Silman-James
Press, 1994., 1992. EBSCOhost,
login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?auth=shibb&url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
?direct=true&db=cat00846a&AN=ucfl.027965394&site=eds-live&scope=site.
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Content: This book is about different techniques used by filmmakers including narration,
cinematography and more. It serves as a more broad source to begin my research with.

Author: Bob Foss is a writer who is credited with four movies on IMDb. He as also written other
scholarly articles on the topic of boundary scan.

BEAM: This source is mainly unbiased, however Foss does give his opinion on certain topics,
creating a subjective source. I will be using this as a base for the intro and beginning of my
paper, when I discuss different techniques used by filmmakers, before diving into color.

Hurlbutasc, Shane. “Cinematography | How to Use Colors in Filmmaking.” The Hurlblog:

Create. Innovate. Educate., 24 Oct. 2018, www.thehurlblog.com/how-to-use-colors-in-
filmmaking/.

Content: This article goes over great depth what the color palate is for film. It describes every
color and what mood they portray. This source will be great for using as a base to research color
in film.

Author: Shane Hurlbutasc, creator of the Hurlblog. He is also an American cinematographer. He

studied film at Emerson College, graduating with a degree in film and television in 1986.

BEAM: This article does not have any bias. It simply goes over information on color in film, not
by using any personal emotion or bias. Shane Hurlbutasc keeps it very objective when describing
the information.
May, Kate Torgovnick. “How Color Helps a Movie Tell Its Story.” Ideas.ted.com, TED, 6 Apr.
2017, https://ideas.ted.com/how-color-helps-a-movie-tell-its-story/

Content: This TED article goes into detail on how color affects specific aspects of a story. It talks
about how color can simplify a film, show a characters journey, portray emotion, and much
more.

Author: Kate Torgovnick May is a writer at TED.com. She writes multiple articles for TED and
is a journalist. She has also written her own book CHEER! May also works with her production
company Compass Rose and recently finished a short film.

BEAM: This article once again does not show any bias towards the subject. The article is split
into different sections that describe a different way that color ‘helps a movie tell its story” as the
title implies.
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Pribram, E.Deidre. Emotions, Genre, Justice in Film and Television : Detecting Feeling. New
York : Routledge, 2011., 2011. EBSCOhost,
login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?auth=shibb&url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
?direct=true&db=cat00846a&AN=ucfl.PDA003716489&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Content: This is a book about emotion in film and television that also touches on genre. One of
the main points within the book is that Emotion is action. It talks about how emotion is used in
the “justice genres”, however I will mostly be focusing on what the book says about emotion for
my research.

Author: Deidre Pribram is a writer and professor at Molloy College. She has taught many
communications classes and written three books.

BEAM: This book is mainly unbiased, however it is subjective. As this is a book not an article,
there is more room for Pribram to express how she feels on certain topics, and give her
subjective feedback. I will be using this source mostly for when she discusses emotion in film
rather than genre.

Renée, V. “Watch: How Filmmakers Make Emotions Visual.” No Film School, 26 Oct. 2016,
nofilmschool.com/2016/10/how-filmmakers-make-emotions-visual. (Links to an external
site.)Links to an external site.

Content: This article provides a link to a video, then discusses it and uses specific examples from
movies to explain its topic of “How Filmmakers Make Emotions visual”. It references the movie
Room from 2015, and a scene of visual emotion.

Author: V Renee is a writer/director and “Nights & Weekends Editor”. She has a B.A. in Cinema
history/theory/aesthetics.

BEAM: This article does not contain any bias, it uses specific examples from movies to explain
its main idea. It uses a video that explains three examples of when emotion was visual in movies,
and then discusses this topic further by using an example from Room (2015).

Sampson, Rachael. “The Power Of Colour In Film: Storytelling Through Chromatics.” Film
Inquiry, 1 Aug. 2017, www.filminquiry.com/power-colour-storytelling/.

Content: This is a very detailed and informative article on Color in film. This article goes over
different kind of styles movies tend to use for color and provides examples of each in different
movies. It also talks about what kind of emotion or feelings each of these color techniques have
on the audience.
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Author: This article is written by Rachael Sampson. I could not find much information on her,
however she is a writer and has written many articles for Film Inquiry, as well as reviewing
many movies on rotten tomatoes as a certified critique.

BEAM: As with most of my articles used, this does not contain any bias. It uses specific
examples from film and gives the facts, instead of opinions. It goes over different examples of
color and backs them up with a numerous amount of examples from films.