20.
COLOR
“When a picture is made
in color, you also have to
design in color. That means
the color means something.
And the color is special...”
—Martin Scorsese
SU B C HAPTER S
• Early Uses of Color in Cinema
• Color Always Has to Be Designed
• The Possibilities of Color Are
Endless
CHAPTER RE VIE W
Growing up, Martin witnessed historical changes in the use of
color in cinema, beginning in the early 1950s with the switch from
three-strip Technicolor to Eastmancolor and other monopack
systems that followed. To Martin’s eye, colors on monopack
became more muted, and he was partial to the very bright colors
of early Technicolor. He attributes this in part to the first film he
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
movie terrified Martin at five years old, the use of color set the
tone for him. He loved black-and-white films from the late 1940s
that included sequences in color, such as Albert Lewin’s The
Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and William Dieterle’s Portrait of
Jennie (1948), and especially the scene in Victor Fleming’s The
Wizard of Oz (1939, rereleased in 1948) when the house lands in Oz
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
• Learn about the history of film color here.
• 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.

• Interested in reading some analysis on the use of color in film?

Check out Color: The Film Reader and Color and the Moving Image:
History, Theory, Aesthetics, Archive. These two books contain
essays on the history of color technology, color in television,
and the colorization of black-and-white films.

A S SI G NMENT

• Take some time to experiment with color by shooting some

test video. How you experiment with color will depend greatly
on the functions of the camera and editing software you plan
to use. Below are some variations you can try, depending on
your equipment.

First, choose a subject. This could be something as simple an

object on a table, or a person sitting in a chair. Create a
simple composition that you can replicate in different
locations. Experiment by shooting this same composition in
different lighting conditions—inside, outside, and in a location
that mixes daylight and lamplight. You can also play with the
white balance and color temperature function on your camera.
You can purchase some color gels and place them in front of
lights to further augment the color of light. Try to capture at
least four different variations in your tests.

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