“We’re biologically wired to care about color. It’s a useful cue for telling us about people’s social condition and our environment.” Wellesley College neuroscientist Bevil Conway tells Fast Company that color impacts the way we feel and the way we interact with visual stimuli. Color is a way for artists to translate their ideas to their audience. Film and TV are media known for their use of color with the hopes of manipulating the audience’s perception of what it is they are seeing and, in turn, feeling. It is the colorist’s job to alter and correct the colors that appear on your screen, frame by frame, shot by shot, making an attempt at aligning the footage itself with what we would perceive these colors to look like in the real world. Dave Markun, a colorist in film and tv, talks about this “rulebook of emotions” in which he believes that every color serves a different purpose and when used correctly can evoke a particular emotion within the viewer.

Think of the color red. What emotions come to mind? Passion? Anger? Love? Red is a bold color choice. It makes you pay attention. Imagine you are watching a motion picture. The opening scene is shot on a busy street in Midtown NYC. Truck loads of people running around trying to get home. Everyone has on their work attire so think khaki colors and navys and an abundance of black. Hundreds of people and yet your eye is drawn to just one. A woman. In a red dress. The filmmaker has increased the saturation of her red dress just enough for you to want to know more. Not because she’s attractive. Not because she’s behaving strangely but simply because she is in red. That is how important color is.

You can manipulate a scene in such a way that it will force your audience to pay attention to what it is you want them to pay attention to and ignore what is not important. Quentin Tarantino uses yellow in Kill Bill as a way of conveying instability and hope within the protagonist. In The Shining, Stanley Kubrick plays with warm colors making the viewer feel welcomed in this fictional world and by adjusting saturation accordingly reminds them that there is something a bit off happening. But perhaps one of the most famous directors known for his meticulous color palette is Wes Anderson. From the calming blues of The Life Aquatic to the pastel yellows of Moonrise Kingdom and the bubblegum pinks of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson has never been one to shy away from color. Robert Yeoman, his tried and true Director of Photography has been able to transform ordinary scenarios to extraordinary worlds.