Colour Theory: BLUE JEAN

Blue Jean is a gorgeous film (we briefly looked at its use of mirrors, and more extensively about how it uses J-Cuts), and its bold application of colour theory are a big part of that; it clearly put a lot of planning into those details early, and they pay off big here.

In this piece for rogerebert.com, Monica Castillo talks about Blue Jean’s use of colour to underscore its themes

[Jean’s] eyes are blue, but soon we notice that so much of the world around her is also blue. Her bathroom is a pretty pale blue, and so is her jacket, the P.E. uniform at the school where she teaches—which also has blue walls. Her car is a darker shade of blue, and the lights of her favorite club are mostly blue. The palette gives the movie its title but beyond its creative premise, Georgia Oakley’s “Blue Jean” uses its melodic visual aesthetic as part of the story.

The blues exhibit Jean’s situation, and also contrast with pinks (more on that later) as the film explores societally enforced gender roles and their stereotypes.

We’re not here to dig into gender binary; but to look at two ways Blue Jean practically applies its blue/pink colours: in fixed/solid ways, and moving/changing ways.

Fixed and Solid Colours

For our purposes this is the colour theory applied throughout the set, props, wardrobe, and static lighting of a scene.

Near the end of the film there’s a celebration at her ex-girlfriend’s lesbian co-op, Jean steps outside for a smoke (and to avoid, you know, people). The imagery of balloons and partying women is certainly baby-shower-esque, and all of those bits of imagery involve blue.

This tableau is one of my favourites, especially as one of the film’s undercurrents is how Jean is good with kids — as a teacher, an aunt, and in general — but since her divorce can’t dodge questions about whether she wants any of her own. How can she reply? She dodges, or she runs, but even when by herself as she is here, she’s surrounded by the colours and concepts she can’t escape.

Moving and Changing Colours

Sometimes you only want a colour to be in part of a scene, and when that colour moves or changes it brings even more attention to itself. For example, if you have a group of characters wearing white sitting in the grass, someone coming in wearing a pink shirt will draw a lot of attention; if most of a scene painted is purple, but a yellow spotlight picks out an element; if someone in a dimly blue room turns on a flourescent light; then it’s the contrast, movement, and change, or some combination, which makes something ‘pop’ and draws our attention to a colour.

It’s a scene at the dive bar which perhaps best exemplifies this in Blue Jean, along with what Monica talks about as secondary, contrasting colour:

Other than blue, from blue grays to saturated deep blues, the color that makes the second most notable appearance is pink, as if emphasizing the rigid gender expectations society, her co-workers, and relatives have for Jean. Her much more feminine coworker and sister wear shades of pink with ease, but Jean is off in her blue world and its blue hues. The two colors contrast, yet Victor Seguin’s cinematography incorporates them flawlessly into a dreamlike vision shot on 16mm.

First we see Jean wondering and longing, then a moment brings conflict into Jean’s world which plays out over the rest of the film; specifically, her worlds collide, as it’s the first time a character from her public world (teaching) enters her private world (the gay bar).

During all this, the primary ones lighting her are blue and pink, as well as her blue sport coat. Other coloured lights flash across the bar and sometimes Jean, but they always pass, leaving her in her two primary colours.

Meanwhile the two women she watches kiss are lit entirely in yellow; not just in contrast to Jean’s colours, but literally a golden, hazy ideal she can’t seem to reach.

Takeaways

Colour theory isn’t just wardrobe, or lighting, it’s how every element from set dressing to makeup to colour correction in post works together.

While washing an entire scene in one colour can be effective (like the party shot above), using a different colour or two in your scheme can make your focus colours pop even more; consider which one best fits what you’re trying to accomplish a scene.