Discordant Colors Explained: How They Work and Why Filmmakers Love to Use Them

Although black-and-white movies still crop up every now and then, anyone who has paid attention to the last century or so of cinema history knows that movies in color are here to stay. Therefore, it is important for filmmakers to learn about how every possible permutation of a project’s color palette can impact the story they’re telling.

When it’s deployed by creatives who know what they’re doing, color can accomplish so much more than merely making a movie more true-to-life. Take, for instance, the great storytelling feats that many filmmakers have accomplished using discordant colors.

What Is a Discordant Color Palette?

In cinema, a discordant color palette is in use when a particular moment features an object or character that is a noticeably different color from the rest of the frame or scene. This can be anything. A bright blue phone sitting on a brown desk. A character in a pitch-black tuxedo standing in a bright pink bedroom. A red and black checkerboard with a green lizard crawling across it. And so on.

When crafting a discordant color palette, it can help if the standout color is at the opposite end of the color wheel from the main color(s) used in the scene. These colors tend to either clash or complement each other.

A color wheel on a white backgroundCredit: OpenClipart-Vectors

Filmmakers use opposing colors in a wide variety of ways. For instance, teal and orange color grading used to be all over major blockbusters, thanks to the colors providing images with strong contrast. While this particular technique fell out of vogue after being overused, similar approaches to crafting images can be found throughout cinema history.

However, contrasting colors are just the technical element at play in a discordant palette. When filmmakers in the know deploy them, they accomplish something more nuanced than simply crafting an image with strong contrast.

Why Use Discordant Colors?

Typically, discordant color schemes are used to draw the audience’s attention to the object or character that is standing out.

It’s the cinematic equivalent of the Woman in the Red Dress from the training simulation in The Matrix. She is designed to be eye-catching and distract trainees from being vigilant for potential danger. In doing so, she proves to be an excellent example of discordant color in and of herself.

‘The Matrix’ (1999)Credit: Warner Bros.

Note that the color palette behind the Woman in the Red Dress (Fiona Johnson) isn’t uniform. She isn’t simply wearing a red dress and standing in front of a flat, white wall. There is a whole bustling street behind her, full of businesspeople (AKA potential distractions). However, her dress and lipstick stand out against the background because there isn’t any other red in the frame. The Wachowskis and their cinematographer, Bill Pope, have filled the frame with neutral blacks and whites, allowing the bright primary color to catch the eye.

The background is also subtly color-graded to be slightly green-blue (which is a color scheme used frequently in The Matrix for many reasons, including the fact that it evokes the green “code” that brings the computerized world of the titular Matrix to life). Because greens and blues are on the other side of the color wheel from reds and oranges, this helps the red dress pop even more.

What to Do With the Audience’s Attention

So a filmmaker has caught a viewer’s eye with a discordant color palette. Now what?

Typically, discordant colors are used when the audience’s attention needs to shift. There are many potential reasons for this, including an important new prop or piece of information being introduced. For instance, master of cinematic color Pedro Almodóvar uses this device early on in his 1988 movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ (1988)Credit: Lauren Films

This early shot from the film shows a small table in Pepa’s (Carmen Maura) apartment. There are quite a few objects on the table, including a lamp, pens, note cards, and an answering machine. However, despite the clutter, the thing that stands out the most is the red phone. In addition to the phone being more brightly colored than the other objects, the primary color in the frame’s palette is green, which is - say it with me, kids - on the opposite end of the color wheel from the color red.

Almodóvar clearly wants us to notice the phone, even though he hasn’t told us why yet. Quickly, the scene reveals that Pepa is waiting for a call from her former lover, so the phone is looming large in her mind. By drawing our attention to said phone early on, Almodóvar instantly puts us in the character’s headspace, before we even know we’re there.

This particular device can be utilized in all kinds of ways. It can draw viewers’ attention to threats in the background of seemingly innocuous scenes, alert them that an important new character is being introduced, and increase the dramatic potential of an image (think bright red blood on a white shirt), among many other uses.

Discordant Colors Also Help Viewers Focus

While discordant colors are often used to highlight new information for audience members or shift their focus, they can also help keep viewers’ attention trained on what they’re supposed to be seeing.

This device is most commonly used when audience members need to keep track of which character is the main focus of the scene. Think back to the Woman in the Red Dress. If her dress were black or white or grey, that would make it much harder to pick her out among the crowd (in addition to making her name nonsensical).

While filmmakers can use many tricks to keep audiences’ eyes locked on the main character of a scene, including centering them in the frame and drawing the eye toward them with lighting, it will almost always benefit a scene to give them a costume with a color that stands out from the crowd.

A movie that uses this trick often is the Oscar-winning musical La La Land. Even though the frame is often bursting with vibrant colors and dancing bodies, it is always easy to tell exactly who we’re meant to be looking at during any given moment. Try not to find Emma Stone in either of the following images. I dare you.

‘La La Land’ (2016)Credit: Lionsgate

‘La La Land’ (2016)Credit: Lionsgate

While discordant colors are incredibly useful for a multitude of reasons, it’s important to remember that this particular palette is just one tool in a filmmaker’s kit when it comes to colors. For those looking to learn more about the others, we have breakdowns of other ways to wield color, including analogous colors and monochromatic color.