Color Wash: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:vicky 108.jpg|link=Vicky Cristina Barcelona|frame|[[Scarlett Johansson]] looking orange.]]
This trope applies to films, TV-series, video clips and graphics.
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The director/director of photography/production designer thought it would be a good idea to do something fancy to the colors. This could be saturating the colors so everything looks more vivid than normal. More often than not, [[Orange-Blue Contrast|this means making skin appear orange-y and everything else teal]]. Another example would be shifting the entire color palette - making (almost) everything appear a certain color.
Compare with tropes such as [[Real Is Brown]], [[Unnaturally Blue Lighting]] and [[Deliberately Monochrome]]. The difference between those tropes and Color Wash is that (a) the film uses both or (b) uses another type of visual trick entirely, such as cranking up the saturation of the colors.
See also [[Mood Lighting]], [[Post Processing Video Effects|Post Processing]], and [[Color Contrast]]. Often used to signal a [[Flashback Effects]].
Most of the time, using lots of Color Wash turns the product into something horrible; but other times, it is used in a very clever way.
{{examples}}
* In the Toei first series anime of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', the palette seems to be made up entirely of super-saturated neons that do not go together.
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* In the Toei first series anime of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', the palette seems to be made up entirely of super-saturated neons that do not go together.
* The infamously confusing anime ''Bounty Dog'' takes place on the moon, and everything is colored a shade of sickening yellow.
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== Films ==
* The first film of ''[[The Twilight Saga]]'': Because Forks is a dreary, rainy town, the director decided to desaturate the colors to bring this across. The point is that the colors are also very desaturated when Bella is in another place, such as California, meaning that (a) the director's explanation [[Fridge Logic|does not make sense]] and (b) the whole movie looks bland and boring.
** Done again in the sequel, where everything seems washed with gold.
* Among the many, many reasons that the ''[[Battlefield Earth (film)|Battlefield Earth]]'' movie was awful was the blue filter over many of the shots. The movie also enjoys combining green and purple, using the same logic as movies that use orange and teal - the colors contrast, and putting them together causes them to "pop".
* In ''[[The Matrix]]'', the scenes in the normal world are tinted a cold blue; the scenes set in the Matrix itself are tinted a digital green, like an old monochrome computer screen. In fact, the green tint becomes more and more prominent as Smith takes over the Matrix. {{spoiler|The final scene, after Smith is defeated and the Matrix freed, [[Rule of Symbolism|is completely devoid of this tint]]}}.
* [[Spy Game]] uses different filters for each flashback segment. Vietnam is orange as hell, Berlin is kind of a cool blue, and Beirut is sort of a sandy yellow. This serves to easily delineate between the flashbacks and the central hub of the story.
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* ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'' looks fairly washed out due to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski playing with the shutter speed of the cameras. This also made the images appear sharper and shakier, making it look more like documentary footage than a $70 million Hollywood production.
** [[Steven Spielberg]] and Kaminski have done this at least twice now - ''[[Minority Report]]'' has an icy hue to it, accomplished in the [[wikipedia:Bleach bypass|film processing stages]] of post-production.
* ''[[Clerks II]]'', except for the [[
** The film was originally intended to shot in black and white like the first one but producer Harvey Weinstein wanted the film open wide so director [[Kevin Smith]] chose to desaturate the colors instead.
* ''I Am Sam'' is very blue, both in color and in mood.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' films, the first installment is full of vivid colours, with plenty of warm reds and gold. Each of the films thereafter gets more and more desaturated until ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2]]'' is practically in B&W.
* ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' used a purple wash to give the film an eerie, paranormal feel.
* The theatre release of ''[[Payback]]'' has a stark blue filter applied throughout the whole movie. The Director's Cut however doesn't have this (and changes the whole last third of the plot).
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** Related, ''[[CSI: NY]]'' uses [[Unnaturally Blue Lighting]] (and the crossover with Miami has Horatio Caine bringing his orange light...).
** [[Rule of Three|Not to mention]], ''[[CSI]]'' had a green tint.
*** Not so much. In earlier seasons, scenes set in daylight had a noticeable [[
* On ''[[Skins]]'', scenes that take place outdoors have very saturated colours. This is often seen as very good cinematography.
* ''[[Life On Mars]]'' did this. The entire show was made to look older (took place in the 1970s) by washing everything with yellow during the coma/ whatchamacallit (and that lasted the entire show). The 2006 scenes were, in comparison, almost drained.
* ''[[Cold Case]]'' uses this a lot. Scenes that take place in the present have only a slight blue tinge, or no color wash at all; those in the past, however, have a color wash that 'fits' the time. For instance, scenes in the 1970s have vivid, warm colours to contrast with the present.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* ''[[Charlie Jade]]'' had a different colour wash depending on which dimension you were currently watching. Alpha was green, Beta was Blue and Gamma was red.
* ''[[Jekyll]]'' plays with this to wonderful effect. When Tom Jackman is awake, colors are subdued by means of a subtle blue filter, while vivid colors mark Hyde being awake.
* Similar to ''[[Traffic]]'' above, from season 2 onwards [[Breaking Bad]] would frequently visit orange-yellow-tint Mexico.
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** Used to a lesser extent with normal-Hyrule, which had a faint yellowish tint to most things.
* [[World of Warcraft]] uses different color grading in different areas. The difference is sometimes very noticeable—for instance, Ghostlands looks very different when you're looking in from Zul'Aman than when you're inside and the darker color grade takes hold. It's sometimes so strong (particular with red colored areas like Durotar) that it takes a while for eyes to readjust to another color when changing zones.
* Used in ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' for an accentuated atmospheric sense. Since San Andreas was a really huge state, with contrasting environments, there's a Color Wash scheme that differs from place to place. [[Los Angeles|Los Santos]] had a slightly orangish weather with heat hazes. [[San Francisco|San Fierro]] had a [[Unnaturally Blue Lighting|unnaturally teal lighting]] to convey a mild-to-cold atmosphere. [[Viva Las Vegas|Las Venturas]] went for a less blatant color scheme, but still conveying a [[Captain Obvious|hot weather]]. The contry-sides had a pastel green/brown tint to them, and the deserts took it further with bright white/yellow skies that turned purplish at night.
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