Colour

The first use of color was in films such as Voyage a Travers L'impossible(An impossible voyage) by the Pioneer George Melies in 1904.

Here, the film was hand painted frame by frame. http://moria.co.nz/sciencefiction/an-impossible-voyage-1904-le-voyage-a-travers-limpossible.htm








The next development was the wax museum in
1933. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024368/

The first full three strip Technicolor was Becky Sharp in  1955. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-P_Ira6kgE


From the 1930s to the 1940s black and white represented reality and color represented fantasy and mystery. However, today it is the opposite.



Denotation and Connotation

Denotation is the literal description of an idea, concept or object.
Connotation is what we associate with a particular idea, concept or object. Color works on the subconscious mind to create mood.

For example, we associate color with different concepts. e.g when we see the color red we think of love, romance, danger, anger, stop, blood or hot.  However when we see blue we think of cold, distance, cold love, cold heart, the sky or water.

- 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' trailer. In this film they use a lot of red which suggest the danger and fear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEfyfcEdW4Y- 'Eyes Wide Shut' trailer.
Unlike 'We need to talk about Kevin' this film uses a lot of blue shades and tones which suggests the distance and coldness in the relationship, and this is what the director wants to convey to the audience.

Here we can see examples of how color is used in different situations to portray different meanings to the audience.