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Orange-Blue Contrast (view source)

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{{quote|''"All of [[Castlevania 1986 (Video Game)|Castlevania 1986]]'s level palettes incorporated orange in some way. And often incorporated shades of blue, which is orange's complement. A.k.a., it makes orange 'pop out'"''|'''[[Egoraptor]]''', "Sequelitis Episode 1"}}
 
Basic complementary color theory states that when two contrasting colors are put together, they "pop", so the natural technique is to color films to have a strong, contrasting palette.
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More [http://www.cracked.com/article_18664_5-annoying-trends-that-make-every-movie-look-same.html here], [http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-hollywood-please-stop.html here] and [http://theabyssgazes.blogspot.com/2010/03/teal-and-orange-part-2.html here]. Games have (relatively) recently also picked up on this trend, and you can find some of the worst offenders on [http://orangeandtealgames.tumblr.com this Tumblr].
 
Subtrope of [[Mood Lighting]] and sister trope to [[Unnaturally Blue Lighting]], as well a very specific and common form of [[Color Contrast]] and [[Color Wash]]. Not to be confused with [[Blue and Orange Morality]] (even when it overlaps with [[Good Colors, Evil Colors]], as in ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]''). Ties in with [[Hollywood Darkness]], which is usually blue or teal.
 
Has a vague resemblance to the [[Loudness War]]; in both cases, something is pushed [[Up to Eleven]] in post-production, removing all subtlety from the sound or picture. Can be a factor in [[Digital Destruction]].
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== Films -- Animation ==
* ''[[The Return of Hanuman]]''
* ''The Adventures of [[Tintin (Comic Book)]]'' has this prominently on the poster.
* The Blu-Ray [[Digital Destruction|"restoration"]] of ''[[Fantasia (Disney)|Fantasia]]'' uses this, most prominently in the "Night On Bald Mountain" sequence, where everything that was originally black is now blue.
 
 
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* The carbon chamber from ''[[Star Wars|The Empire Strikes Back]]'' is dimly lit with orange lighting and surrounded by blue-tinged darkness, providing an eerie contrast for the first showdown between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. It also predates the modern "Blue and Orange" phenomenon by about two decades.
* ''[[Blade Runner (Film)|Blade Runner]]'' features this in almost every scene. It's part of its distinctive [[Cyberpunk Withwith a Chance of Rain|visual]] [[The Future Is Noir|style]].
* ''[[The Bourne Series (Filmfilm)|The Bourne Identity]]''
* ''[[Night At the Museum (Film)|Night Atat the Museum]]''
* ''[[G.I. Joe: theThe Rise of Cobra (Film)|G.I. Joe the Rise of Cobra]]''
* ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transformers]]'' (live-action movie)
* ''[[Spider -Man (Filmfilm)|Spider-Man 2.1]]'' (''Spider-Man 2'' DVD release)
* ''N.E.X.T.''
* ''Secretariat'', though to a lesser degree than most.
* ''[[The Transporter]] 2''
* ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]'': The actual movie itself consists mostly of this. This movie could have been grandfathered in, the original ''[[Tron (Film)|Tron]]'' was mostly black-and-white with Red and Blue glow-lines. For the sequel they kept the Blue glow intact, but then they went and tweaked the Red to be various, mostly Orange-ish shades.
* ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]] 1'' & ''2''
* The later movies in ''[[The Fast and Thethe Furious]]'' series exhibit this trope:
** ''The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift''
** ''Fast & Furious''
** ''Fast Five''
* ''Feast of Love''
* ''[[The Hangover (Film)|The Hangover]]''
* ''[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]'', one of the first to do this the way 2000s movies are doing it
* ''[[Limitless]]''
* ''Rabbit Hole''
* ''[[The Last Airbender (Film)|The Last Airbender]]''
* In ''[[Hollow Man]]'', invisibility serum is blue and counterserum is orange. Also, in thermal vision living organisms are mostly orange/red and the environment is mostly blue.
* ''[[Cowboys and Aliens (Filmfilm)|Cowboys and Aliens]]'', might as well be called ''Orange and Teal''.
* ''[[The Doors (Music)|The Doors]]'' by [[Oliver Stone]] uses this a lot, especially in the drug use scenes.
* ''[[Easy A (Film)|Easy A]]''.
* The Indian film ''[[Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi]]'' is strong with this -- but more with yellow-blue than specifically orange-blue.
* ''[[Drive (Filmfilm)|Drive]]''. In the opening sequence, the only colours (with the exception of the pink title) are the blue and orange coming from the lighting in Los Angeles at night.
* ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' -- in places you would swear you're looking at a race of orange humans.
* The song and dance number in ''[[Om Shanti Om]]'' called Dard E Disco has lovely orange blue contrast with gold tones for about 3/4 of the song.
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* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' uses this all the time too. Watch out for Michael's orange skin, paired with a light blue shirt. Happens almost every other scene
* ''[[Instant Star]]'' used a blue filter for the school interior sequences, to better match the late 19th/early 20th century stone [[High School]] building they used for exteriors and [[Hey, It's That Place!|disguise the interior sets]] built for the midcentury-modern [[Degrassi]] school building.
* Interesting use in ''[[Awake (TV series)|Awake]]'', where the two different universes that the show alternates between each get their own color pallete: Red/orange for the reality where Britten's wife is alive, and green/blue for the one where his son is. It actually serves a purpose in making it obvious to a careful viewer which one the scene is taking place in.
 
 
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]''. Also on a meta level, the first game used a lot more clean blues and whites in game and the user interface was blue, while the second switched to [[Real Is Brown|gritter oranges and browns]] and the user interface turned orange.
* ''[[Too Human]]''
* ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' is a walking orange-blue contrast.
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* ''[[Tomb Raider]] II'' - Some of the level with the Maria Doria are strongly orange/teal. Surprisingly for a non-realistic PC game from 1997.
* ''[[Vagrant Story]]''
* ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]''
** Not the game or the packaging, but the two portals you can shoot are orange and blue. In ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'', the Propulsion and Repulsion Gels are orange and blue, and the Excursion Funnel is blue when pushing and orange when pulling.
** ATLAS and P-Body, the two co-op robots in ''Portal 2'', have blue and orange colouration respectively.
** Also, the two main A.I. have opposite coloured optics. GLaDOS' is orange, and Wheatley's is blue.
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* The giant clock venue in ''[[Rock Band]]'' has [[A Worldwide Punomenon|shades]] of this, more so in the second game than the third.
* ''[[Jagged Alliance]]''
* ''[[Outland (Videovideo Gamegame)|Outland]]''. At least it served a gameplay-important purpose....
* The video game adaptations of ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Harry Potter]]'' use practically only blue and orange shades throughout the game.
* Every boxart for the classic ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' series features this.
* ''[[Metroid Prime (Video Game)|Metroid Prime]] 3: Corruption'' used this for box art and other artwork, but not quite as much for the game itself -- while blue ''is'' rather prominent because of Phazon becoming more abundant, orange is largely limited to Samus and her gunship.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'' exaggerates it for the [[Dark World|Silent Realm]] in order to emphasize [[Eldritch Location|how alien the alternate dimension is]]. However, everything turns red whenever Link is spotted.
* The new ''[[Mortal Kombat 9 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat]]'' has this on the cover and, to a lesser extent, on the main menu background; both achieve this by putting Scorpion and Sub-Zero opposite each other.
* The [http://www.msxrepository.org/Aleste_2/Aleste_2-Screenshot-2.jpg title screen] of ''[[Aleste]] 2'' features redhead Ellinor Waizen and the title in red-orange lettering against a deep-blue background.
* ''Singularity'': only in the time-warped alternate-2011, though. In 1955, a more normal color palette is used. This is to help show off the unnatural state of the world in 2011.
* Sonic and Tails of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series, where the titular hedgehog and his fox companion are colored blue and orange respectively.
* As noted in the page quote, the original ''[[Castlevania 1986 (Video Game)|Castlevania 1986]]'' for the NES had most, if not all, of its foreground scenery orange, complete with many blue backdrops throughout the game. Even Simon's sprites were a yellow-orange to help him pop out. Averted in ''Vampire Killer'' for the [[MSX|MSX2]], which used a color palette of more subdued browns and shades of gray.
* ''[[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X3: Reunion]]'s'' [http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/2/927012_65785_front.jpg boxart]. Also, many ships are rendered in blue-gray, and many sectors are lit in red.
 
 
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== Website ==
* ''[[Cracked (Website).com|Cracked]]'' calls it the #4 [http://www.cracked.com/article_18664_5-annoying-trends-that-make-every-movie-look-same.html annoying trend that makes every movie look the same].
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' gives the orange Applejack and the teal Rainbow Dash a friendly rivalry in-series. While this is mostly a bonus for the [[Merchandise-Driven|toy box art]], this has rarely been used due to miscommunication between the animation and toy divisions.
* ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball (Animation)|The Amazing World of Gumball]]'''s Gumball and Darwin.
* ''[[Hey Arnold (Animation)|Hey Arnold]]'' uses this in their credits, popping the yellow names of the crew out of the blue backround. And in the Halloween special, it was actually orange.
* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the [[Grand Finale]] has two determining fights happening in parallel: Aang/Ozai and Azula/Zuko. Both were red, or a kind of orange, versus blue. But in one fight, Blue was good, in the other, blue was evil.
 
 
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