The Colors of "My Iris"

It's taken me a while to think about it, but I think I have my film opening's title down: My Iris. I knew that I wanted to include my main character's name in it or a concept to be part of it, but there wasn't an abstract concept I could pinpoint to my opening or film's plot. Lots of drama films tend to do this with a character's name: Ladybird (2017), the 2023 Oscar-nominated Best Picture, Tár (2022), and Beau Is Afraid (2023) are a few examples. There are two ways to interpret this title: it's a phrase of endearment Iris wants to hear or what the audience thinks the parent would say at first or this is Iris's life story so this is a film through her eyes, thus, instead of "My Eyes", it's fitting to also say "My Iris". 

In celebration of this progress for my opening, I wanted to talk a little bit about how I want my color schemes to come across in my opening. This is heavily dependent on how I decide to enhance my footage in Adobe Premiere, but I've done color grading before so that isn't the hard part. In actuality, the hard part is thinking of a cohesive color scheme you can have throughout your entire film that also conveys meaning. During the first half of my opening I want the color scheme to feel warm, but not in a summery way. Here's what I'm thinking:

My Pantone-inspired palette

Listen, I know I sound like a hypocrite because one of the colors is "Summer Song", but that's on Pantone's 2023 palette. So anyway, I really love the minimalistic branding of Pantone and of course, their expertise with colors, hence why I think they're the best inspiration for color schemes. I referenced their 2023 New York Fashion week color palette for the spring season. 

A lot of these were too bright for my liking, but I used their softer colors because I don't want my color grading to be too harsh and vibrant. It works for dramatic shows like Euphoria which goes heavy on lighting and color schemes, but for my opening, I just want it to feel subtle and deliver Iris as a low-key soft daughter, which is why the palette I created reflects that. I chose a couple blue colors because in the second half, while she's in her room, the color scheme shifts to be much more plain and dismal because of how she internally feels alone or perhaps at home, knowing that her mother is emotionally unavailable. Once they both come on screen, the color grading will definitely be a desaturated type of blue color to express that sense of melancholy Iris feels, since this is after all, from her perspective. With that, I'll be updating you on the production process more in-depth this week as I film some foley for the very beginning of my film opening. See ya!