Well brown is inevitable, because skin is more brown, some furniture is more brown, the trees in the shots are going to be brown. So brown is just one of the 3 colors by inevitability. Blue I felt adds a cold grittiness, but I am not sure how else to explain it other than that.

Red just gives a real serious feel of passion so that's what the red is more in contrast to the blue.

You made that up didn't you? Brown is not remotely inevitable. I'm sitting at home - I see nothing brown or even remotely brownish in this room? I see blue, green-blue, white and grey, and yellow. My skin isn't brown either. Confused now!

Well even if nothing is brown in the frame, the actor's skin is still more on the brown side so isn't that inevitable in that sense, that's going to be one of the colors?

youre sort of getting somewhere. cold and passion are at least more concrete than gritty. Now tell us what cold and passion have to do with your story and characters. Im trying to get you to specifically tie these colors to things that happen in your film. what does cold have to do with your story? what does passion?

A director must be able to articulate and communicate things otherwise how will you ever succeed?

Paul, I am positive he got the brown is inevitable thing from one of those three color vids on Youtube cause I’ve seen that video too.

Not all skin is brown, some has pink or red or purple,

yeah that's true. I guess I just meant variance of skin color. So I guess my three colors would be skin color, blue, and red then. Or if skin color doesn't count as a color in the scheme, then just blue and red.

Ryan if you haven't figured it out Josh pushing you to explain your decision and your difficulty in answering them means that your story and characters aren't driving your decisions for things like blue walls. You watch tutorials with the 3 color "rules" and now you are applying them for their own sake.

If you take that video, skim is part of brown, but there are elements that show aspects of brown, because it's part of nature. However, the colours need to be revealing about what going on under the surface.

Blue has been used in up marker perfume commercials, so there's also more going on than just the colour..

I would give ryan an example of what a director/dp might say about why those colors could fit Ryan’s movie but I almost know for certain he would say “yeah thats what I meant” and then use that argument as we continue to talk about making this film for the next ten years and I wont make it that easy for him.

youre sort of getting somewhere. cold and passion are at least more concrete than gritty. Now tell us what cold and passion have to do with your story and characters. Im trying to get you to specifically tie these colors to things that happen in your film. what does cold have to do with your story? what does passion?

A director must be able to articulate and communicate things otherwise how will you ever succeed?

Paul, I am positive he got the brown is inevitable thing from one of those three color vids on Youtube cause I’ve seen that video too.

Yes they say that in the video, and I saw their point about how skin is in the more brownish area, so that will end up becoming a color. But if skin color doesn't count as part of the color scheme then I can just go with blue, and red then.

Ryan if you haven't figured it out Josh pushing you to explain your decision and your difficulty in answering them means that your story and characters aren't driving your decisions for things like blue walls. You watch tutorials with the 3 color "rules" and now you are applying them for their own sake.

Well is the 3 color method bad though, if other movies do it? I actually have six colors in mind. Skin color, blue, red, white, black and grey. Unless white, black and grey do not count as colors and just shades. As for the color of wall, well it's just white walls look bad for some reason and so many locations have white walls. But if I am to recolor the walls, so they are not white, I figure I might as well color them a color that is part of the color scheme I am going for shouldn't I?

I would give ryan an example of what a director/dp might say about why those colors could fit Ryan’s movie but I almost know for certain he would say “yeah thats what I meant” and then use that argument as we continue to talk about making this film for the next ten years and I wont make it that easy for him.
What he never seems to get is that the process is as important as the final decision. No doubt he has taken your question as a challenge find the right answer to support his blue wall decision.

Color can take on different meanings based on it's context. Green in Amelie is peace and nature, where as in the Matrix it is the sinister virtual world of the computer. So this isn't about whether blue is good or bad it's about you creating rules and impediments where none exist. Your movie doesn't need to follow 3 color rule you just made an arbitrary stylistic decision that it must despite not having the ability to pull it off.

Well also the type of blue would determine the mood as well. For example I am going for a somewhat desaturated tone too as far as feeling goes.

There's no point in you endlessly asking questions, it's what up on screen colour wise that counts and if that seamlessly connects with the audience as part of the mise en scene. .

Well if that's the case, should I choose a color scheme for the wardrobe then and the set pieces more so?

You should worry less about color coordination and think about what these characters would wear based on who they are and how the locations should be dressed based how the characters that inhabit them would dress them. How would this lady decorate her house based on her life, back story, likes and dislikes. Same for police station etc. Really, bro. Make this color thing a last priority. You're trying to shoot this in less than six months (we said summer, right?). You don't have a finalized script, actors, locations or crew locked down. You're worrying about color schemes. Get the other stuff sorted first. Prioritize.

Oh okay, but I thought that the choice of their clothes would be based on other things, such as one character may wear a suit, another a leather jacket, etc. So I thought those types of things would tell you who the characters are, but the color of those clothes are for the tone more so.

I still wouldn't worry about it. Unless one of your gritty cops tries to a hot pink pleather jacket that says "JUICY BOI" on it or something, let it go. What they would wear would be a) based on their job b) their personality, just like in real life. Booth on the show "Bones" was an FBI guy so he wore a boring suit but he also had this rebellious streak so he wore goofy colored socks or a goofy belt, always one "off" item just to rebel. This was brought up repeatedly. That's an example, not a suggestion for your movie.

Oh okay, but in planning the clothes, I thought I still had to plan the colors of the clothes befores shooting.

Ryan you like to talk big, how you're hiring this person, renting these location, buying this gear, but none of it ever materializes. How are you even going to get police uniforms, let alone ordering specific color clothes for everyone. This will most likely regress into actors having to wear whatever matches closest.

Is your next thread going to be on costume design and how to sew suits from scratch? Or will it be on how to apply make up? Maybe you can brush up with a quick Youtube tutorial on fashion, cosmetology or set design. What's to stop you? You've tried your hand at every possible job in movie making.

Look no one would blame you for not having the money or not wanting to throw away the little you have on such a risky endeavor, but why must you play these charades?

Ryan you like to talk big, how you're hiring this person, renting these location, buying this gear, but none of it ever materializes. How are you even going to get police uniforms, let alone ordering specific color clothes for everyone. This will most likely regress into actors having to wear whatever matches closest.

Pete - Very good point.
Costumes cost money and getting them so they all fit the cast properly will be time consuming. Also, not all our volunteer or budget cast would necessarily “look the part” (well groomed hair, tattoos, etc.). Even the leather shoes and other leather items, police badges, name badges, matching shoulder web cams and radios, etc. will be costly. Thanks for bringing this up. This is where PLANNING is helpful.

We’ve got a good solution for THAT problem - we’ll change the script to read Police “plain clothes” DETECTIVES so they will be wearing whatever helps them blend in with their “clientele”. All the actors will feel more comfortable in their everyday dudes. Maybe even have a skateboard for show. Speaking of those black shiny leather shoes, those can be expensive and need to be polished. How many of the cast know how to polish a leather shoe???

Being Plain Clothes Detectives, they won’t need to be showing their badge all the time so only need to buy (or borrow) one and share it, if needed, in different shots. Remember, eBay fake ones cost around $4 ea, so the budget for several of them adds up. With budgeting, “the devil is in the details”.

Police cars? Hey, the Plain Clothes guys drive incognito, so no fancy black-’n-white needed.

Think of Mannix (TV circa 1970s, the private eye who lived in a trailer near the beach and wore a sport coat). Detective cars use a single magnetic flashing light they reach out the window and put on the roof.
Edit: If a detective wants to dress more up-scale (Mannix-style), pick up a used sport coat at the Goodwill (second hand store).

Think of Mannix (TV circa 1970s, the private eye who lived in a trailer near the beach and wore a sport coat).
I'm not familiar with this show but sounds a lot like James Garner in The Rockford Files. Which came first? Come to think of it used the same setup for Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon

Funny there's a whole private eye genre. Sort of died out a bit. But there are so many iterations. In my era we had Tom Selleck in Magnum PI but he traded in his sports coat for a Tiger's baseball cap, causal attire, and a red Ferrari. I'm still not sure how he was able to sneak around undetected in a flashy sports car. lol

We need a new, modern, "gritty" PI show...one where each episode is just the guy sitting in his 30 year-old car, eating junk food, trying to get photos of a cheating husband, while arguing on the phone with his ex-wife about alimony payments and child support for their three kids.

And Selleck left the private investigatory life to go public and become police chief or commissioner or something, spending most of his time presiding over large family dinners with Wahlbergs. Until Blue Bloods was cancelled.

We need a new, modern, "gritty" PI show...one where each episode is just the guy sitting in his 30 year-old car, eating junk food, trying to get photos of a cheating husband, while arguing on the phone with his ex-wife about alimony payments and child support for their three kids.

And Selleck left the private investigatory life to go public and become police chief or commissioner or something, spending most of his time presiding over large family dinners with Wahlbergs. Until Blue Bloods was cancelled.
I always had a private chuckle that lackadaisical Hawaiian PI would one day become the respected commissioner for the NYPD

Don't forget that period in between, probably during his midlife crisis, when he was a pediatrician who dated one of his former patients who was half his age, and hung out with her annoying 20-something Friends.

Don't forget that period in between, probably during his midlife crisis, when he was a pediatrician who dated one of his former patients who was half his age, and hung out with her annoying 20-something Friends.
I lost interest in him between islands.

Badump ch!

I’ve always thought British detectives as in real ones always look like policemen, whereas US ones just look normal.

I have it on good authority they also say "What's all this, then?" a lot.

No - it's "ello, ello, ello, What's all this, then?"

It's only recently they were encouraged to speak normally in court. For years there were stock phrases. The uniformed constable giving evidence in court would be asked a question by the wig wearing prosecution or defence barister. He or she would turn to the judge and ask" May I refer to my notes, M'lud?" They would be told yes, and would produce their pocket book - a small notebook, bound and numbered. They would open it and start by saying something like this. "On the evening concerned I was proceeding in a northerly direction in the performance of my duties when I saw the acused pick up a brick, and throw it through the greengrocers window. I arrested the accused and cautioned him. He replied saying "It's a fair cop, governor, but society is to blame". I then detained him and took him into custody." My father-in-law was a policeman and they really could speak like this. However, in the 70s we had some new quite violent Police drams on TV - Google "the sweeney" - Sweeny Todd, Flying Squad in Cockney Rhyming slang. They would throw the criminals down the apples and pairs (stairs) and sometimes they'd be brown bread (dead) or more likely just have a cut lip on their boat race (face). In the Sweeney, the favourite phrase was "you're nicked, you scroat" and embarassingly, people from the US were often septic tanks.

Well many of us truly ARE septic tanks...

I just making a dumb joke but now thanks to you Ive learned something.

Think of Mannix (TV circa 1970s, the private eye who lived in a trailer near the beach and wore a sport coat).

That sure sounds like the Rockford Files to me. And don't forget the gold Firebird!

And Tom Selleck's latest gig is long commercials that push reverse mortgages to senior citizens. When the tag line of your commercial is "Look, a reverse mortgage isn't some kind of scheme to take away your house", then you know you have finally hit bottom. :-D

That sure sounds like the Rockford Files to me. And don't forget the gold Firebird!

And Tom Selleck's latest gig is long commercials that push reverse mortgages to senior citizens. When the tag line of your commercial is "Look, a reverse mortgage isn't some kind of scheme to take away your house", then you know you have finally hit bottom. :-D
That ad leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Does he really need the money that bad to be the spokesperson for predatory lending?

Speaking of BBC Private eyes, I really enjoyed "Case Histories" outstanding short series

Probably not. Maybe he just loves to work,,.ANY work. Hes also an avocado farmer.

Hey Pete ---
I'm not familiar with this show but sounds a lot like James Garner in The Rockford Files. Which came first? Come to think of it used the same setup for Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon
You're right! It was James Garner. Don't know why I remember Mannix but there was some connection. It's been a long time ... (Mea Culpa: please give me a break)

Probably not. Maybe he just loves to work,,.ANY work. Hes also an avocado farmer.
He also grows mustaches

Hey Pete ---

You're right! It was James Garner. Don't know why I remember Mannix but there was some connection. It's been a long time ... (Mea Culpa: please give me a break)
That era is a little before my time. I only know Rockford Files from reruns.

Yes it's true that I am a long way off from the color grading process and from the shooting process. But I am making the storyboards and shot list now. In the storyboards on frameforge, it's all colorized already. Therefore, should I choose colors that will be closer to the final product to avoid confusion when I show the storyboards to a DP and PD for example?

No. If your DP doesnt know the boards are at best a loose guide and thinks the colors in them are exactly how you intend the movie to look, that person is a braindead moron and should be fired immediately

https://youtu.be/-AV_YKqDu-4

Well it was said before that I should am trying to emulate a look of movies that is too high budget and I should look to other low budget movies for inspiration. Are there any other microbudget movies to be inspired by where they do not have a color scheme in mind?

Every movie I watch almost seems to have one in mind, so are their any that do not then besides El Mariachi, where the movies are still good of course?

Unless you have a good story and good actors - nobody will even notice your silly colour scheme ideas. You are spending time and money on storyboarding - this is really poor use of your funds, because all that effort to colourise a working document helps nobody at all!

Should I just draw out the storyboards with a pencil then?

Sure, why not?

I highly recommend the Ticonderoga Soft No. 2 Pencil. It feels good in the hand.

Is there a demo of if? I dont know if I want to spend money on a pencil without trying it first.

Well it's just I want to attract possible funding and a DP, and I was told by two filmmakers that it makes a good impression if I have the storyboards ready to go in the plan I present. But if the drawings don't look good because they are drawn by me, I was worried it would make a more poor impression, and that every little bit helps.

How many times do we have to tell you that you must stop asking people, grow a set and learn to make decisions based on your gut.

You are also totally unable to read people properly, and often misinterpret totally what people actually say.

Do these people know you? Do they know how you confuse people? If they do, their advice is tempered by them trying to help you. Maybe they got confused by your verbal attempts to explain, so figured your only way to get an idea across is a picture, because you can’t do it well in speech?

You say good impression? To whom? Which of your available pool even know how to read a storyboard? The camera people mainly. I’m not really a mega capable camera person, but I can read anything from a scribble to a photo if, and only if, it contains enough info. My own view of storyboards, or longhand explanations, or 2D diagrams and plans is that they all work if they contain what people need so they don’t need to ask. The more questions they generate, the worse they were.

Oh so you are saying if I make the storyboards in frameforge or something like that, they could raise more questions?

The people are just a couple of filmmakers I have helped with on their projects before.

No - not at all what I'm saying.

In fact if they are real filmmakers - then they would understand almost anything.

Oh okay, but I thought that the storyboards clarity would be for the producers and funders sake, rather than the filmmakers, or so that's what they were telling me.

Storyboards aren't for fundraising. A funder isn't interested in that level of details. This type of production wouldn't attract investors. You'd be lucky to get friends, family and participants donating a small amount so they can be in a movie. Seriously be realistic this is a passion project and treat it as such. It's not going to make money, it's hey I made my own movie on a micro budget. You should try to curb your delusions of grandeur and set achievable goals.