WORTH WATCHING

Watch: Lewis Bond's Exceptional Video Essay on Color in Storytelling

by Alex Billington
August 5, 2015
Source: YouTube

If you need an inspirational lesson in visual storytelling - start with this video. Lewis Bond has edited and presented an exceptional video essay titled Color in Storytelling (or "Colour" as they spell it) that looks at the various uses of color in cinema. This isn't a 2-minute YouTube mash-up, this is a very well-researched, intensive deep dive look at color, examining its history and first uses in cinema in the early 1900s, all the way to modern techniques with filmmakers like Wes Anderson and Ang Lee and George Lucas. I love how much explanation there is, and how many examples of actual footage he uses, as it really helps explain and connect so much of what he's saying. As usual, watching this makes me want to see every film he references.

Thanks to The Playlist for the tip on this. From YouTube - "Colour in Storytelling" or "Why is my Lightsaber Blue?". Press CC on the video above to see a list of the movies shown. This was made by Lewis Bond, aka @lewis_criswell on Twitter, or find more of him on YouTube. This is an impressively well researched and edited video, spanning all of cinema history and back. Thanks for putting in the work, Lewis. I really love the early references to D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (tinting / 1916) and Erich von Stroheim's Greed (money / 1924). For another non-video examination on Color in Visual Storytelling, read this piece by Robert Mills.

Find more posts: To Watch, Video Essays

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