The Technicolor Legacy, Color Consciousness and Hammer Horror by Paul Frith University of East Anglia, UK

Citation

Elliott-Smith D (2019) The Technicolor Legacy, Color Consciousness and Hammer Horror by Paul Frith University of East Anglia, UK. [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies, 6 (3). http://mediacommons.org/intransition/technicolor-legacy-color-consciousness-and-hammer-horror

Abstract
First paragraph: Paul Frith’s videographic essay, ‘The Technicolor Legacy, Color Consciousness and Hammer Horror’ builds upon the longstanding academic work looking at Technicolor in relation to Classical and Post-Classical Hollywood which has often remained focused upon the 50-60s melodrama. Frith’s essay is a short but, often breathtaking, consideration of colour aesthetics in Hammer Horror film. Applying the same approach to ‘color consciousness’ from Technicolor’s chief color advisor Natalie Kalmus as a set of aesthetic rules, the video analyses the adoption of these same practices by competitor Eastmancolor in relation to how the use of colour in filmmaking can have an impact upon the spectator’s emotions, can establish mood, and develop symbolic and narrative value. Frith’s work contributes to the turning around of previous academic considerations of colour as ‘relegated to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential or the cosmetic.’ (Batchelor, 2006: 64).

Journal
[in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies: Volume 6, Issue 3

People

Dr Darren Elliott-Smith

Senior Lecturer in Film & Gender Studies, Communications, Media and Culture