I was visiting a friend the other day, and we were having a conversation about current movies and TV, and he discussed how upset he was at the “Orange and Teal” effect on the show Gotham. I don’t watch Gotham, because I usually don’t watch Batman shows that don’t have Batman in them. My friend warned me about having my eyes open to “Orange and Teal”, and I can see why.
See those movie posters there? Why do you think that the dominant colors are orange and teal? Part of it is because that orange is a color that stands out, and a lot of people say that this trend began with the Coen Brothers’ film O Brother Where Art Thou. I would recommend this film, as it has a sepia tone look to it to creates something that was unique for the time. Nowadays, most films are done digitally, and it is easy to hit a few keys to create the sepia tones with orange on them.
It is also easy to make shadows darker through digital processing as well. This is why a lot of films come out looking kind of bluish. As a result of this blue look, the orange objects, like people, tend to stand out all the more.
As a result, this creates a lazy digital processing technique so all films look alike. It is even planned to have orange and teal objects, which means that it is just easier to do that rather than giving your film a unique color look.
Personally, I don’t like this effect, because I enjoy watching films that have a color effect that is unique. Now, Orange and Teal can work on films like Mad Max: Fury Road, but the biggest culprit of this two-color fad is the Transformers movies. With Bumblebee being orange-ish in color and many background colors were blue.
But hey, everyone on the Internet makes fun of the Michael Bay Transformers movies. Now there is another reason why with this Orange and Teal effect. Let’s hope that this fad passes, and Orange of Teal will just date older films.
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