Filming in Coloured Environments

During filming there is something that needs to be considered, something that can define a shot and make it stand out and that is the kinds of colours used. Colour can provide subjective meanings and can have multiple connotations of different things within a shot, e.g. red meaning danger or white meaning innocence etc. Colour within a shot can help set the mood and atmosphere of a scene such as bright colours being used to suggest an upbeat positive feel, and this can provoke reactions from audiences.

We tried to film in various different coloured environments to see how colours may change depending on the type of background they are in and what effects they may have. This is a short montage of a few locations that use bright colours in the background or to purposely draw people towards them, such as advertisements or sweets.


Color footage from Lewis Mercer on Vimeo.

The coloured buildings on the street seem to give the area a sense of variety and it makes them all look quite inviting, as while they seem like old styled buildings due to the bright colours they are not too imposing. While the brightly packaged sweets and chocolates seem to try and draw you towards them as an incentive to buy them which shows how colours can affect what people may buy, this is also the case with the small cafe as with it being coloured very brightly it looks like it would have a rather positive atmosphere inside, inviting people in.

OH&S: Occupational Health and Safety

As this was a new area we were filming in there would need to be some precautions as to how we were going to film and where as the area was unfamiliar to us we would need to take extra care when travelling to a location. In this instance it was a rather busy street so we would need to be careful not to get in peoples way or have any of the equipment damaged. some of the risks involved included:

• Risk of falling and causing injury to ourselves/other crew members/ members of the public
• Risk of dropping and/or damaging equipment
• Risk of being mugged/robbed
• Risk of accidentally hitting members of the public with equipment whilst travelling/setting up
• Risk of being hit by traffic
• Risk of getting lost
• Hazards such as objects in the path e.g. broken glass

These risks could be avoided with simple measures and precautions whilst filming in this location and to prevent injury/damage to either equipment or others.

• Travel in groups between locations
• Do not leave equipment unattended, always have one member watching the equipment at all times
• Share the load of equipment to avoid risk of one person being over encumbered and dropping the equipment
• Ensure that when filming either the camera is set up in an open clearly visible manner that will be easily avoidable by members of the public or the camera is set up in a position that is out of the way and will cause minimal disruption to members of the public
• Ensure that whilst filming all crew members stay clear of the road and traffic to avoid getting hit and injuring themselves
• Ensure that all equipment is safely packed away once filming has been completed and while travelling to different locations

These simple measures will help ensure the safety of the crew whilst filming as it is an unknown area and there would be many hazards and risks that we would need to be aware of during the course of the filming session, in order to prevent these risks from becoming a problem these simple precautions must be taken to reduce the risk of any harm coming to any crew members or the public.