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20 Color
20 Color
20 Color
COLOR
CHAPTER RE VIE W
“When a picture is made Growing up, Martin witnessed historical changes in the use of
in color, you also have to color in cinema, beginning in the early 1950s with the switch from
design in color. That means three-strip Technicolor to Eastmancolor and other monopack
systems that followed. To Martin’s eye, colors on monopack
the color means something.
became more muted, and he was partial to the very bright colors
And the color is special...” of early Technicolor. He attributes this in part to the first film he
—Martin Scorsese saw, King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946). The blazing yellow
sun of the opening titles, vivified by three-strip Technicolor,
and the sound of gunshots were overpowering. Though this
SU B C HAPTER S movie terrified Martin at five years old, the use of color set the
• Early Uses of Color in Cinema tone for him. He loved black-and-white films from the late 1940s
that included sequences in color, such as Albert Lewin’s The
• Color Always Has to Be Designed Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and William Dieterle’s Portrait of
Jennie (1948), and especially the scene in Victor Fleming’s The
• The Possibilities of Color Are
Wizard of Oz (1939, rereleased in 1948) when the house lands in Oz
Endless
and Dorothy opens the door to a Technicolor dreamland. He also
admires the technical process that cinematographer Oswald
Morris and director John Huston used to desaturate color in Moby
Dick, which influenced the final shoot-out in Taxi Driver.
In The Aviator, Martin decided to have the color evolve in the film
to reflect the era that was being represented. The film begins in
the late 1920s and early 1930s, when two-strip Technicolor was
the standard, so costume designer Sandy Powell had to create
clothing that would play into this technology. The color
gradually slips into a more saturated three-strip Technicolor,
and then finally into the cooler tones of the 1950s in the final
section. This exploration of color and its relation to the history
depicted in the film was one of the fundamental reasons Martin
decided to make The Aviator. The use of the digital intermediate
(D.I.) was especially important in The Aviator. Yet, while current
technologies supply limitless possibilities, you mustn’t let them
take over and decide for you.
LE ARN M ORE
• In order to learn more about how color works in film read this
article about color temperature.
MARTIN SCORSESE 52
20.
COLOR
LE ARN M ORE CONT.
• Watch Duel in the Sun and Portrait of Jennie, films whose color
had a substantial impact on a young Martin.
A S SI G NMENT
Once you’ve shot your tests, ingest them into your editing
program and use the color correction functions to play around
further with the look of your video. Post a reel of all your test
variations in The Hub and engage your classmates in
discussion. How does the composition change with each
adjustment?
MARTIN SCORSESE 53