Have you ever been watching a film made by a company in the United States that displays all other countries as ‘third-world’ through adding a yellow/orange filter over the scenes that take place in those said countries? For instance:
I can’t even count the amount of times I have watched films made by American companies about countries (like Mexico for example) that attempt to display these completely normal and developed cities as being outdated/dangerous/underdeveloped by adding a yellow haze over the screen. Many film companies claim that this sort of editing is useful in “adding character” and a vintage feel to your footage, but many would argue that it is misconceiving to the actual state of foreign countries. There is a technique that has been explained in this use of colors for distinguishing setting in movies – using white and blue tones for colder areas (like when movies take place in northern/Eastern Europe) and yellow/orange tones for warmer areas (such as Central/South America, The entirety of Africa for some reason and the Middle East) – all according to the perspectives of the filmmakers. However, this sort of repetitive technique in movies ends up creating this sort of perception of these ‘foreign’ countries, making it feel as though the countries are stark and different to the United States. “You reduce the entire experiential scope of being in a place to this one visual queue, which is queued to make you never feel comfortable and never feel safe there.” (Mashable 2021). American movies in general seem to love pushing stereotypes – Central and South American people as entangled with drugs, Middle Eastern people as “dangerous”… all wrapped together neatly with this doomed filter so you know it’s coming. Even the trend for movies taking place in Japan to be extremely neon and vibrant. “Meanwhile, blue—the direct opposite of yellow, in terms of color theory—represents futuristic, vibrant and progressive societies.” (Ullmann 2020).
While I do think that stereotyping in movies can be harmful, I think adding a yellow layer will make the screen look warmer and that is the ‘feel’ they want to go for. I’m not saying it’s not harming anyone, I just don’t think the movie creators are trying to give the country a negative look through a colour filter.
This is really cool information to have for future perspectives. Its an interesting piece of information to try and analyse because there shouldn’t be anything inherently wrong with warm tones, but the brownish tone of the filter does i think make it feel dirtier and older than the blue tones.
I have to show some appreciation for the uniqueness of this post Carla! The ‘third-world’ color grading is something I believe I was always subtly aware of but never questioned until this moment, so thank you for opening my eyes to it. I wonder to what extent our preconceived notions about certain cultures effect our perception of the color theory involved as opposed to the inverse (our knowledge of color theory/psychological inclinations towards certain colors impacting our mindset about the cultures being portrayed) because this post really hones in on the latter, but would you see the same ‘stratification’ if the use of color was inverted? Maybe the specifics of what colors are used doesn’t matter as much as the fact that there is a distinction in the first place? I don’t necessarily believe this is the case but it’s food for thought and I wonder what everyone’s take is!
This is a very recognisable phenomenon indeed. Of course movie makeers use a lot of these kind of tricks to create certain vibes or atmospheres, but in some cases this might have negative effects. Films often draw on stereotypes, but when the same picture of a certain country or certain group of people is painted over and over again this may have very negative effects on people’s perceptions.