Yellow in Film

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The Use of Yellow in Film
Yellow is the most luminous color in the color wheel. It is the first color the human eye processes on the color spectrum. When used in film, filmmakers are very intentional when they use it because of how known and drawing the color is.

The color yellow can express:

Frenzy

Action

Vitality

Energy

Madness

Disease

Yellow can also inspire the soundtrack of a film or scene. In the film Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Tarantino, 2003), there is a scene where Uma Thurman is dressed in yellow on a yellow motorbike and serenading the scene are ringing trumpets.

Wes Anderson uses yellow to exaggerate a scene and create a contrast between what the scene looks like visually verses what the actual story is about. Yellow can make a scene feel fun and inviting when the actual story is a lot darker and colder. Sometimes yellow can provoke fond memories of childhood. It can also paint someone as insecure, obsessive, or innocent. The film Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022) uses yellow at first to symbolize cowardness. To an American audience, this would make sense, as yellow is usually associated with cowardness or lack of bravery. It is not until it is revealed later in the film that the yellow represents courage, which it actually represents to a Chinese audience.

Because there are so many ways to interpret the use of yellow, it is known as a contradictory color as it expresses multiple different ideas. This can cause risk to use yellow as a way of giving the audience insight without outright telling them through dialogue or even through acting, because it is a guess as to what yellow truly means to that filmmaker.

Filmmakers That Use Yellow
Wes Anderson

Quentin Tarantino

David Fincher

Films That Feature Yellow
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012)

Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)

Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)

Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, 2013)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quention Tarantino, 2003)

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009)