All of our summer blockbusters are guilty of looking very similar – fast cuts and explosions are known to please the masses for sure, but I want to talk about something a little different. I want to talk about the look that is making all of our popular movies feel the same. The Orange and Teal look. Some also call it Orange and blue, or Amber and Teal. This look is created by manipulating the overall tone of the shot to be more of a teal color, selectively boosting the saturation in the oranges or skin tones and desaturating the blacks and shadows. There are many different variations of this look but once you’ve seen it a few times, Orange and Teal is a very easy look to pick out. Let me show you a few quick examples.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
This movie should have been titled Orange V Teal: Dawn of Complementary Colors. There are so many different flavors of the Orange Teal look in this movie it was hard to choose images to share.
Captain America: Civil War
This was more of a classic Blue-Gold/Orange grade, and although this look was pretty prominent it was definitely not as in your face as Batman V Superman.
Deadpool
Sticking with the superhero theme, Deadpool had a few great examples of a more green-toned look while still staying within the Orange Teal family.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Like Batman V Superman, this movie went to the extreme with the Orange Teal look. I can only imagine that Sophie Turner’s beautiful hair made this choice very easy.
Edmund Helmer’s 2013 Analysis of Film Trailers
Orange and Teal is by far and above one of the most pervasive color themes in recent cinema. Edmund Helmer did a great job of showing exactly how popular the orange teal look has become in his 2013 analysis of film trailers. This is one of his charts so you can actually see how popular this look is.
For the big summer blockbusters, it’s pretty obvious why Orange and Teal is such a popular choice. If you want the explosion that you just paid boatloads of money for to look its best, make sure it stands out by using complementary or split complementary colors in the background which just so happen to be Blue and Teal. Most skintones are a shade of orange as well so If you want to highlight your cast, all it takes is a little teal or blue.
So much of this look is carefully planned out ahead of time with the Art Department and wardrobe, and is then enhanced in post by the colorist. If you are still curious about what a colorist is and why they are important, please check out a few of my other posts on coloring and color grading:
4 Responses
Another Excellent article. I have noticed myself that many of the movies that come out have issues with colors. The only one that I can say in the last ten years that has the best color and all even across the spectrum is Avatar. If you watch the Blu-ray version of this movie with a good player, it is just fantastic. You can noticeably see the difference between many other movies compared to Avatar, and I think it is because most of it has to do with a lot of CGI. Which if done correctly will look awesome. Great article. Check out this information on how they made the movie very enjoyable. http://avatarblog.typepad.com/avatar-blog/2010/05/learn-about-the-different-special-effects-used-in-the-making-of-avatar-the-movie-.html
Whatever you call it…..
MAKE
IT
STOP
For the love of all that’s holy, and by the sacred name of Herbert Kalmus (the inventor of Technicolor), USE SOME OTHER COLORS ALREADY!!!!!!1!!11!!!
Amen to that!!!!! I don’t even want to see Wakanda Forever as the trailer is all orange and blue!!!! Even TV shows are starting to do it!!!
YES! I cannot stand this style, which was so “in your face” in the tv show, “AP Bio”. I couldn’t stand it.