This week our color grading palette is “PULP FICTION COLOR GRADING PALETTE”. Extracted from one of the great scenes from Pulp Fiction I dedicate this article to a special friend whom I worked with on many occasions over the last 8 years. His name is Arturo Hoyos film Director at OPTIMAX GROUP.
The weekly color palette articles are for everyone interested in seeing how colors are used and combined to help tell the story in a specific scene and how these colors support the story being told. Every color tells a story after all.
Pulp Fiction, the 1994 American crime film was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman and was produced by Lawrence Bender.
Color Palettes are often used for set designs (filming, videos and even photography). When used in set design they are also great to use in the post production color correction and color grading process.
Besides creating custom made palettes for clients I just love doing these weekly articles, they are a lot of fun, especially when you see so many likes and views from different platforms. Too bad there are only 2 left to go to complete my total of eight articles.
Feel free to contact me for more information on creating or extracting color palettes, color correction and color grading:
Adeep Oberoi, Award winning Di Colorist.
“THE PULP FICTION COLOR PALETTE”
Pulp fiction uses different color palettes for many different scenes,quite some actually. This is often done to support the narrative structure of the movie. I picked the scene from the cover photo of this article and extracted the color palette.
Even though considered a great success it is very interesting to see that Pulp Fiction does not use the what is called the modern ‘Blockbuster Look’ (also referred to as the Teal and Orange look). Notice for instance that in this scene there is no teal nor blue background. This scene is actually very colorful.
Colors are used to tell stories, thew support the story being told. How ever great an beautifully colors are, in general they will “not” work if they do not contribute to the story being told.
John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson
THE 1994 PULP FICTION COLOR LOOK.
The Pulp Fiction Colors:
Garments (neutral colors).
Props (blanket on the floor) details and designs.
Props, pillow on sofa, soda cup.
Skin tones.
Window shades, book, blanket on sofa and sofa design.
Background wall and blanket on the floor.
GREAT LOOKING SKIN-TONES
Good looking skin tones are always very appealing to the eyes, even though this color palette does not use the Teal and Orange Color technique, the skin tones in this Color Palette are very pleasing (opposed to for instance a Dracula skin tone).
ADJUSTING A COLOR PALETTE
When using color palettes, you can always adjust the Saturation and the Brightness but NOT the hue.
For a Di colorist its great working with pallets especially when they where used during set design, because in the color correction phase the colorist can pull up the palette and adjust accordingly.
For more information please see Di colorist: adeepoberoi.com
COLOR PALETTES tell a story and are very useful for getting all your colors great and matching. After all, every color tells a story. Di colorists love working with palettes for color correcting and color grading. I have seen many cinematographers, producers and directors work with their own custom made color pallets to support the story being told.
Great for using in set designs for filming, videos and photography.
