I did a little The Force Awakens color analysis.

Here you go:

http://color-rant.blogspot.ch/2015/06/they-did-it-star-wars-does-now-look.html

(Beware of the strong critical thinking! If you can't take it don't read the analysis.)

When I saw that new screencap from TFA on makingstarwars.com, which clearly shows a unaltered image straight from the movie, the truth was no longer to be ignored.

You can browse the blog for more information on modern movie-looks.

I'll never understand the logic behind teal-and-orange colour grading.

Hollywood likes to use it because the two colours are ostensibly complementary, that they make the screen pop when they're put together. However, the complementary colour of teal is coral, not orange. Hell, I'll bet teal-and-coral grading would actually go over better than teal-and-orange since coral's closer to natural skin tones than orange is.

Hollywood is run by colour-blind idiots.

The talk about "complimentary colors" is a joke.

Those colors are simply contrasting. You will see the colors as a strong contrast, therefore the brain sees a strong pattern, thats what the brain usually goes for first.

White and Black are perfect contrast.

Teal and Orange as you noted are strong contrasts, not even perfect though.

But I really find the teal and orange strange and so forced. In the nineties the two main colors were simply red and blue. I'm almost sure those two primary colors are the ones that occur more often or naturally.

But then you can of course say "it's just a movie". That's the point that drives me mad. Because it's just a movie, seriously? Does one even care about the movies he's watching? I mean stating that, you could literally go watch a porn, because it's still a movie right?

I just hate the ignorance. Those teal and oranges looks are NO WAY a artistic choice.

Thanks for looking into it.

That's another ignorance here.

The picture is bad quality, but as I stated one can read the information out of it. It is not a coincidence the colors teal and orange are dominating.

You can't also really say the color-grading is not final. Because movies are not a production that works in incremental steps, as the color-grading will be upgraded to the final look and become better. The initial look is right there. The only thing changing will be minimal cleanup in various elements. Not the general look.

Pandering a defined look over a final movie is not what I would call a creative process.

Let me throw an analogy in here. If a ugly girl uses makeup just like a beautiful girl, they will both look similar but the former girl will look beautiful in an artificial way.

The same argument is made about cgi effects. They do not upgrade them as if it's some kind of a software. The final composition of a movie or scene should be there right from the beginning. Software solutions to clean up and alter images are, or should, only be additional tools to be used if they are appropriate.

But in modern movies I guess the color-grading and post-processing is already strongly integrated and pre-calculated, going from that how can you even have any dynamics in the process? No the look is basically pre-calculated from the beginning. Because there is too much money involved to be dynamically. This is a bad thing right, because movies are always a dynamic process and not a stiff production enterprise.

BuddhaMaster said:

Let me throw an analogy in here. If a ugly girl uses makeup just like a beautiful girl, they will both look similar but the former girl will look beautiful in an artificial way.

 Casual misogyny: the strongest tool in any argument.

Anchorhead said:

Jonno said:

BuddhaMaster said:

Let me throw an analogy in here. If a ugly girl uses makeup just like a beautiful girl, they will both look similar but the former girl will look beautiful in an artificial way.

 Casual misogyny: the strongest tool in any argument.

That's what stood out to me as well.  It also took away from the point trying to be made.  

 And I think there is a point to be made. Or, there likely will be once the film is released. Some of these are good calls. That one of Finn's orange armour is indeed highly suspicious. But the camera phone shots obviously shouldn't be judged yet. Lets wait a bit on those until we see the upcoming trailer. And calling out a campfire lit scene for being orange?

 But misogyny and calling people ignorant for not being 100% on board with some of these early criticisms? Really classy. This is not surprising, though, having seen the user's previous obsessive rants. Err, 'critical thinking', which one is only doing when they agree with buddhaguy. Otherwise it's ignorance.

I know I'm in the minority here but I find most calls for color correction to be highly unnecessary.  In general, this need to make things look "realistic" is something I simply don't care about.  I'm watching a film, not walking around outside.

TV's Frink said:

I know I'm in the minority here but I find most calls for color correction to be highly unnecessary.  In general, this need to make things look "realistic" is something I simply don't care about.  I'm watching a film, not walking around outside.

 Films from different eras have different looks. Though I agree with many that orange and teal is overdone these days and that it would be nice to move on.

I think the main time that color correction by fans is important, is when films have been modified from how they looked originally. Matrix, LOTR, the film about the lazer swords with a name that escapes me, etc. 

Obviously, TFA is an interesting case, because JJ seems to have an interest in returning to the OT style in a few ways. Some seem to be taking this to mean that they are going to be able to mistake it for a film made in the 1970s. These people are going to be very, very disappointed. But some fans seem to thrive on being disappointed. 

TV's Frink said:

I know I'm in the minority here but I find most calls for color correction to be highly unnecessary.  In general, this need to make things look "realistic" is something I simply don't care about.  I'm watching a film, not walking around outside.

I don't really care about realistic colours myself -- Hell, I'd love to see more non-natural colour gradings experimented with. I just hate how overused teal-and-orange has become.

Didn't Abrams make the claim that he's filming this sequel in 35mm to better match the original movies?

It just seems that he's wrecking his own vision for this movie by indulging in modern colorization techniques which weren't seen in the originals.

Ryan McAvoy said:

BuddhaMaster said:

That's another ignorance here.

You can't also really say the color-grading is not final. Because movies are not a production that works in incremental steps, as the color-grading will be upgraded to the final look and become better. The initial look is right there. The only thing changing will be minimal cleanup in various elements. Not the general look.

The same argument is made about cgi effects. They do not upgrade them as if it's some kind of a software. The final composition of a movie or scene should be there right from the beginning.

 That's a bunch of arrant nonsense ^. Wrong in every respect.

Watch this video comparing what you would describe as the "Final" colours and "Final" FX in the Hobbit trailer, to the "Actual final" colours and FX...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi94JM3zkxk

Also, as anybody who has ever watched a Deleted Scene before will tell you, the colour grading can be vastly different.

 CGI changes dramatically throughout production. The sea dinosaur thing in Jurassic World received updates with each trailer. Color grading can also occur as a near final step. I lost track of the ignorances. 

towne32 said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

BuddhaMaster said:

That's another ignorance here.

You can't also really say the color-grading is not final. Because movies are not a production that works in incremental steps, as the color-grading will be upgraded to the final look and become better. The initial look is right there. The only thing changing will be minimal cleanup in various elements. Not the general look.

The same argument is made about cgi effects. They do not upgrade them as if it's some kind of a software. The final composition of a movie or scene should be there right from the beginning.

 That's a bunch of arrant nonsense ^. Wrong in every respect.

Watch this video comparing what you would describe as the "Final" colours and "Final" FX in the Hobbit trailer, to the "Actual final" colours and FX...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi94JM3zkxk

Also, as anybody who has ever watched a Deleted Scene before will tell you, the colour grading can be vastly different.

 CGI changes dramatically throughout production. The sea dinosaur thing in Jurassic World received updates with each trailer. Color grading can also occur as a near final step. I lost track of the ignorances. 

 The first trailer (I think that was the superbowl one), had a strong green tint. The later trailer was more teal. Thats interesting. The same happened with Mad Max, previously shown it had less strong oranges before the release. This same thing happens to countless movies, I can't name any else right now, but it happens endless times.

And then someone said a trailer does not represent a final look of a movie. That is to say they do additionally re-grade a trailer to show off? They do show a movie-preview with a different color than the final release?

Seriously that is questionable.

Why so much pandering? Is everyone so insecure.

How do they decide for what kind of color-grading to go? The only thing I can think of is a chart like that:

First global release = have a balance of 40% teal, 20% yellow and 40% orange. Official movie release = 45% teal, 15% yellow and 45% orange?

This all sounds way too forced. How can you even have some degree of creativity with those forced ways of looking at things.

As someone other said. Yes I would like to see a movie with a different color-grading, strongly if that.

I.e. What about strong reds and strong blues, or greens? Why must it always be teal and orange? Doesn't that sound like forced restriction?

How do you go about the fact that one movie would probably profit from a different color-palette if the only one at disposal is teal and orange?

Stormtroopers preparing for war?

The same image with natural colors:

It might be that the trailer footage was all given a quick and dirty grade by those putting the trailer together. Probably not anything to do with the actual movie grading. They might have had completely different sensibilities to those actually grading it.