slartabartfast
 
On the other hand, why should  a movie made for entertainment look "realistic." When all film makers had was black and white they did some amazingly inventive things with plain old light bulbs. The luminous quality of some of the most respected black and white films is highly praised by people who never felt the need to ask, "Where the heck is that light coming from?" 

I absolutely agree that realism isn't the only option, nor is it mandatory. 
 
The problem is that most of the time it's not so much a matter of creativity as it is a simple matter of applying a formula. As long as it's part of a statement, I'm okay with it - but when it becomes a fashion, with no other purpose than to conform to the current trends, it becomes an automatism and a mere question of tools and processing power. We're so saturated that there's nothing inventive about it.
 
That's not to mention that the largest part of the movies coming out these days seem to consist of re-boots of series that were re-booted not even 10 years ago, and spin-offs and remakes. I feel like I've been hearing about "the new X-Men movie" for 15 years now - there's always one. They're constantly remaking the same darn bunch of movies. 
 
And most of the time, the only thing new is that CGI allows to "improve" special effects. They mistake technical means and special effects for actual ideas.
 

I can say without doubt that visual entertainment is amazing.
I don't know how they do what they do, or care, but I know they've been
blowing me away with one fantastic movie after another.
( my movie collection is probably three times bigger than my audio...sheesh...I remember when audio was great and video sucked)
 
Their abilities and the quality have been amazing me for years.
I'm glad that for a relatively small investment my family can enjoy a fantastic movie
experience anytime we choose.
 
Maybe liking orange and teal helps me in ways I never imagined :) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rain
 
I absolutely agree that realism isn't the only option, nor is it mandatory. 
 
The problem is that most of the time it's not so much a matter of creativity as it is a simple matter of applying a formula. As long as it's part of a statement, I'm okay with it - but when it becomes a fashion, with no other purpose than to conform to the current trends, it becomes an automatism and a mere question of tools and processing power. We're so saturated that there's nothing inventive about it.

I expect that most of what comes out of contemporary music studios could also be characterized as a rendering of a fashionable distortion of reality. When was the last time you heard a pop song without compression, reverb or equalization. We may not agree with the decisions made in tweaking the colors of video, but it is highly unlikely that the directors and effects specialists who have created this stuff consider themselves to be just applying a formula.

So this is also why Christmas colors pop, ya?  Green's opposite is red...

Some other colors here:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/w..House_of_Flying_Daggers

If you're looking for realism, you may want to check out films that are part of the Dogme 95 movement.  
They're minimalist in nature and mostly from Danish directors.  
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95
 

See?! If they'd just stayed with B&W like I insisted they should 50 years ago, none of this would have happened!

bitflipper I ran across this 4-year-old blog entry recently, and it's ruined movie-watching for me. ... Now I see it everywhere, how digital TV and movie production has drifted further and further from reality. ... an obvious analogy here to the evolution of music production in the digital age.

 
See a film called "Visions of Light". It is a documentary featuring several Oscar winning cinematographers, and then you will re-evaluate things a bit.
 
The better film makers and folks that are in the history of film, DID use some coloring and such, but it was not exactly haphazard and neither was it, just another DAW and you make sure you make your song not miss a single beat in 78906454 measures of music! That's perfection, I guess!
 
Color, is no different than "light" or "dark", in its ability to tell you something, and has been a part of stage design for hundreds of years, but this is not something that we are familiar with here in America, because we don't have a Beyruth, with some incredible sets, and the only thing we know is the crap that Broadway constantly re-hashes in musicals! You do not get to see some really far out and experimental stuff that gives you some nifty views into other worlds.
 
This is what a lot of foreign music does for me, that some folks, I am not sure they are capable of handling as well, and get defensive about their favorite "method" or "style", when music itself, has less to do with that when created than it did anything else, up to and including how much breakfast you had or not! The further extent of this, will always be Jean Luc Godard, who does not do things with colors as much as he does with camera movements that throw you for a loop. Hollywood uses a shot/crossshot for conversations (look at soap operas), you see him, you see her, you see him, you see her (always twice!), and this is impractical from a literary point of view because YOU are the 3rd person on the outside, and you can't be one of those people. Therefore/thus, the camera is creating an ILLUSION that makes you think that you are supposed to feel like this and like that and have this emotional response.
 
Now, after that exercise, you realize that Hollywood manipulates you even better, than the so-called artsy film makers and their work. But those film makers, specially in Europe, are much more aligned and aware of literature and the history of the arts, than people are in America, and that makes a difference! There they have a history of arts that is thousands of years old, and is very visible in many buildings. Here, they have nothing! The indian culture was nearly all wiped out, the black culture was almost all wiped out, and the culture that the new westerners brought was already a left over thing from Europe, that had been rejected by many people's there because of their own history! How is that for different "color"?
 
Now comes the best one, and what's his name that likes Godard, and always copies him, Uma looked like Anna Karina for example, but he is not man enough to play around with the camera that Godard does, which displaces you even more. All of a sudden you go ... what am I supposed to pay attention to? AND THAT IS THE POINT! If you don't know, or care, now things are even more confusing! One famous example is his "pendulum" done from behind a guy and a girl discussing their relationship sitting on a bar in the stools, and the camera behind them. The camera doesn't bother with them, and does a complete tracking to the far left, and you see other folks and such, and then to the far right and you see other folks, and you realize, how much the film manipulates you. All of a sudden ... wait a minute! ... I didn't pay attention to their conversation ... I was watching whatever else was going on, which was nothing, of course!
 
Now, you can see why "color" alone, is not the "only" thing that tricks you. And by the time you see a Gaspar Noe film, you are either going to throw up 3 times, or you gonna think that guy is insane and amazing at the same time! "Je Suis Seul" was an utter assault on your senses complete with sound effects out of place that sent people away from the theater, and "Irreversible" is the ultimate acid trip and then some. But these films are NOT RECOMMENDED to people that are used to top ten and popular pulp crap! If you are discussing the artisitc merits of Harry Potter, or King Kong, or Godzilla, then leave the rest of film alone! IT WILL NOT HELP YOU!

Rain
... 
That's not to mention that the largest part of the movies coming out these days seem to consist of re-boots of series that were re-booted not even 10 years ago, and spin-offs and remakes. I feel like I've been hearing about "the new X-Men movie" for 15 years now - there's always one. They're constantly remaking the same darn bunch of movies. 
 ...

Rain, now you know why I tell you guys to check out different things!
 
Because everything else you are hearing and seeing is exactly the same format, just a different note and lyric!
 
There is so much out there in foreign film, and not one sees it! It's the same thing in music, art and literature! Sometimes, this country is no different than Putin and his own. It's top ten only for the good of the idea of the country and nothing else matters!
 

+1 for foreign films! They're more likely to not follow North American / European norms. Plots and characters are less-predictable, and cinematography relies more on technique than post-production gimmickry. I especially love Chinese, Japanese and Korean films for that reason. 
 
Unfortunately, foreign films are becoming more and more alike as the market for them becomes more global. Everybody wants to emulate the American style, even the French. The biggest moneymakers in French cinema have been American-style movies such as The Fifth Element (talk about your bright contrasting colors!). A Thai or Korean movie can only make so much money in the domestic market (the Korean film Shiri made more money in Korea than Titanic, but chances are you haven't seen it).
 
Sometimes that cultural cross-polonization works. Check out some of the Chinese and Korean Westerns such as "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird" (Korea) and "A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop" (China). Two of my favorites and highly entertaining. Both feature classic cinematography techniques from both Asian and American influences.