Color and Symbolism in Donnie Darko

Color tends to be a subconscious element in film. There are many ways in which color is effective and symbolic in motion pictures. For Example in the film we watched last week in class was Donnie Darko the Director Richard Kellie used the lack of bright colors in order to portry the bad, dark and demented actions that he did and the thoughts he during the movie. Also by using colors a timeline can established without actually be told. If you see trees with the leaves that are changing then you can determine that it fall. If there were white flowers on the tree then you could that it was Spring time. If the colors were not used it would just make the film all black and white and very hard to distinguish between exactly what the Director's vision was when he was shooting the film. It also makes the movie look realistic. Color is extremely symbolic in the movies today becuase without it the movies would be the same. Each Director is going to use color as he sees fit. Richard Kellie was the Director of Donnie Darko so that movie is his vision, but if you gave the screen play to Steven Speilburgh he would have his own vision how the movie would turn out and the colors that he used would be different than what Richard Kellie's version was like. The colors can also symbolize the mood of the movie like it was dark, gloomy, and dreary. That would so how the character are and how they are reacting to certain situations. The symbolism and color effectiveness are extremely important in motion pictures.