Red Film

How this film came about

This film started with the idea of filming everyday, brightly coloured objects and editing them together into an experimental documentary to become a rainbow. However, I quickly became infatuated with the colour red and its connotations. Red is known as a very emotionally intense colour, which I can relate to as I am a very emotionally intense person. It is commonly associated with passion, anger, danger, and other such intensities.

Passion

Red is very commonly associated with passion and especially sex as not only is it thought that sex is the most intense way of showing love/attraction, but also on a very basic level, sexual organs will turn a darker red colour during sexual stimulation and is therefore on an unconscious level associated with sex. Furthermore, red has often been associated with sex work/sex workers in the past solidifying this even more. Putting sex on screen is nothing new, however many people find it uncomfortable to watch as we have been socialised to see sex as something private and intimate but this film would encourage people to watch and take pleasure in watching something so primal.

Anger

Red is also commonly associated with rage and the fight side of the fight or flight reaction. this again connects to how red is linked to very primal emotions. Also, through proper contrasting light, angry faces can be shown in an artistic and exaggerated way, due to shouting and yelling faces often involving deep lines and shadows

Danger

Finally, red is associated with danger, again on a primal level as blood is red and exposed blood unconsciously alerts to others that there is something dangerous that can cause harm. Through film, danger can of course be shown through visuals such as blood but also through the editing; as rapid editing, or editing that gets progressively faster throughout the film, will signify danger to the audience and will keep the audience on the edge of their seat. As you can see, Red is a primal colour and therefore by mixing emotions together with the common connection of a colour, it forces the viewer to indulge in their base needs.