Codes and Conventions - Use of Black and White

Black and White

These two base colours play a vital role in the thriller genre. Black and White have been used in many iconic thriller films and to great effect. Often these colours are used to deliver important connotations to the target audience. Many connotations comes with these two colours and they can be used to create many different moods and provoke important reactions from the audience.

White - Information and connotations

The colour White is typically used to portray 'good' characters or objects within a thriller film. White can be used through out all aspects of film - Mise en scene is the main element White has a great effect in - characters, objects and maybe even locations can have a very strong affect on the target audience when this powerful colour is used.

There are many connotations that come with the colour White, and because of this it makes it a perfect base colour to use throughout film. When the audience see the colour White many connotations will be brought to mind.

Some examples:

White - Pure

White - Holy (Church wedding, wedding dress "The Virgin Bride"

White - Clean 

White - Peace - Surrender  'A White Flag'

White - Happiness 

White - Innocence - New born baby, "Wrapped in White blankets

And so on...

White is a very effective colour to use, delivering us many positive connotations while at the same time it proceeds to give the audience an aid in reading important characters, objects and locations. In future pieces I will be going in more detail to how the colour White is used in thriller films.

Balck - information and connotations

The colour Black - White's binary challenger - is commonly used throughout many thriller films. The colour Black can be seen in many different elements of film - it has relations to shadows aka lighting and costume - these elements play a vital role in the thriller films genre.

Black (being a binary opposition to White) delivers the connotations of 'Bad'. This in the genre of thriller is of vital importance as it fits in with one of the most important conventions of thriller films (the fact they always look at the world in a negative way). Black shows the audience the bad within the film within characters, objects or locations. The colour Black comes with many important connotations

Some examples:

Black - Shadow (the unknown we're all scared of)

Black - pain and suffering 

Black - Death - everyone where Black at a funeral

Black - Mystery 

Black - filth - Things that are Black can be viewed as dirty or unclean

Black - Satan - To religious people "the spawner of evil and darkness in the world"

And so on...

Black is very effective within films, but it doesn't work without a vital binary opposition, and contrasting, opposing force. Black working in contrast to White is very successful, and this is why many film makers will always involve these two colours together as binary opposition. The effect of this contrast in of vital importance when it comes to thriller films.

"Without the dark, how could we see the light? Without the light, how would we notice the Dark?"

These binary oppositions highlight the contrast between the colour connotations that come with both White and Black, if you don't have an opposing force to confront your connotations.

With these to colours working in conjunction with each other has a great impact on a thriller films target audience. I will be talking about the use of this convention in my textual analysis of thriller opening and will be highlighting why and how it's been used to affect the audiences thoughts and feelings during the films opening sequence.