COLOR PLAN
Lots of spoilers ahead!
From the pre-production notes: “Overall, everything should accentuate the contrast between Danny & Luther’s world, and Isabella's world. The former is simple, cold, gritty and stagnant, while the latter is mysterious, warm, sensual, romantic, dynamic and more stylized. None of these stylistic differences should be so overt that the audience would really notice them and be distracted. Just enough to evoke different feels and moods.”
THE COLOR DESIGN PLAN:
1. Danny & Luther’s “world” should be cool – primarily blues and greens. Minimal contrast or shadow. Naturalistic lighting. The only real warmth should come from Danny’s red hair. (He’s meant for Isabella, after all.)
2. Isabella’s “world,” in contrast, should be warm and more saturated – heavy on reds and oranges, some yellows, plus black. Strong shadows and areas of darkness, for she is mysterious. Lighting will be more stylized. Still somewhat naturalistic, just heightened.
3. Joe Danzer walks between both worlds, so at first we’ll see him in cool blues, when his focus is primarily on Danny & Luther. But later he’ll wear warmer colors, as his focus is, ultimately, entirely on Isabella.
4. When Danny & Isabella are in the cooler, they haven’t come together yet, so production design should continue to accentuate that they’re from separate worlds. Cooler-colored items will be on Danny’s side, warmer-colored items on Isabella’s. Between them, neutral gray.
5. The final scene in Danny’s apartment should be subdued earth tones. It’s warmish now that she’s come into his world, but it’s not her usual saturated reds and oranges because it’s his place. HOWEVER: we'll see cool light outside the window, to foreshadow Luther’s surprise appearance.
Opening title
Foreshadowing Isabella, with her rich reds and blacks, and mysterious silhouette.
Danny & Luther intro…
Cut to Danny & Luther's contrasting cold world of blues & greens.
Danny & Luther intro 2
We even painted the pitching machine tube blue. Most of their clothes are also, of course, blue.
Approaching Isabella 1...
As they approach Isabella, the first hint of red appears -- in the corner of the neon sign. (A digital addition, both here and when we see the whole sign, courtesy of Joe DiValerio of Space Monkey.)
Approaching Isabella 2...
A bit more red in the frame, framing Danny as he enters the location -- a touch of foreshadowing.
Approaching Isabella 3...
Red becomes more prominent in the composition, with a small yet solid block outside the club's service entrance.
Approaching Isabella 4...
As they transition from their outside world toward her inside world, we see a bigger block of solid red. It's also a deeper red than the orangey one outside.
Entering the club
Here are two frames showing Danny and Luther moving from cool to warm color, as they enter the club and Isabella's world. Note Danny's face.
First glimpse of Isabella
Finally we see her world -- warm tones and blacks. But more blacks and shadows at first...
Danny & Luther in Isabella's world
Danny & Luther are now bathed fully in warm light. This light and the colors behind them are mostly yellow-orange, which still separates them somewhat from the redder colors around Isabella.
Isabella
Finally we see her fully. All warm hues and some blacks/shadows.
Joe Danzer's introduction
As noted, Joe's in both worlds. He's in blues now because he's almost exclusively focused on Danny & Luther here. This also accentuates the fact that Isabella doesn't belong with him. He's staged so that the color behind him is the same yellow-orange that's primarily behind Danny & Luther, further tying them together.
Back to the cold world
Danny & Luther are tossed back out of Isabella's warm world to their cool one.
Farther from Isabella’s world
They walk farther from Isabella's world, the only warmth in the frame being the muted terra cotta building back in her direction. All else is blue, even the truck under the bridge in the background.
Back in their element
Danny & Luther nearly die in their bleak, cold blue world.
Back in from the cold
Danny transitions back from his world to Isabella's, the last of the cool light higlighting his hair as his face is bathed in her warmth.
Just Isabella
Isabella in her element, without Joe: all red, orange and black.
Joe returns
A hard cut back to blue, as Joe returns. Much black in the frame as well, connecting it with Isabella's palette.
Joe intrudes
The seductive mood is broken, as Joe's bright blue jacket clashes with the scene's warm tones and blacks. Staged right in front of Danny, their blues overlap and feel more connected, further pulling Danny back to his world, breaking the connection with Isabella.
Danny's side of the cooler...
In a neutral gray no-man's land, Danny is surrounded mostly by cool colors on his side (with just spots of warm tones)...
...Isabella's side of the cooler
...while Isabella is mostly surrounded by warm colors on her side -- thanks to production designer Elizabeth Van Dam (who built this set in a flash). Their clothes still reflect this as well. Though as a first step of coming together, Isabella dons Danny's dark blue sweater for a while.
Getting warmer in there...
These three successive stills illustrate something subtle going on here, that one is hopefully not consciously aware of (unless the scene is viewed at high speed): as Danny and Isabella grow closer, the light in the cooler very gradually gets warmer. (Note their faces and the wall behind them.) But when Luther bursts in, it drops back to the cool light of their world. That tears it.
Back again in their world
Outside Danny's apartment, all cool colors. (We couldn't shoot at a blue apartment like we'd hoped. This exterior wall was actually pink... but a bit of color correction in post fixed that.) As they walk to the car, the blue sky above adds to the coolness of the greens.
Back to Isabella's element for the climax
Reds, blacks and shadow.
Approaching the club again
Moving from the cool greens of mercury vapor streetlight to the warm red glow of the club's neon sign. (We actually shot this in bright daylight near no streetlights or neon, but a cocoon of flags and our great cinematographer Stephan Dalyai and gaffer Josh Davis made magic.)
Isabellla & Danny together on stage
Surrounded completely by reds and blacks. Even Isabella now wears all red, down to her shoes, and Danny has covered up most of his blue with black. They're coming together.
Seeing red
We see almost entirely rich reds and blacks in the club this time, with almost none of the yellow-oranges we saw before. They're in much deeper now.
Joe, different
Because he's ultimately focused almost exclusively on Isabella in this scene, Joe wears mostly warm tones. Costume designer Dakota Keller found this wonderful fabric that's mostly reds, oranges and blacks with just a hint of cool green in the pattern, since Joe is still part of both worlds. (And that's a green Buddha pin we put on his tie.)
Worlds coming together
Finally Danny & Isabella come together, in a setting of primarily subdued earth tones. It’s a compromise between their two worlds: her warmth, but without her saturated reds and oranges. Instead of a patchwork of strong cool and warm colors, which would have suggested they're still separated, this is meant to suggest something new and comforting formed by their coming together.
Danny's world creeps back...
The stark blue of his work phone interrupts the mood. In more ways than one.
Luther's return
Luther's return is foreshadowed by the cool light outside the window. Once he's gone, the angle is reversed and we only see the comforting earth tones.
End Credit Sequence
For the animated epilogue showing Danny & Isabella's future, we're back to solid reds and blacks.