Greetings!
It has been several months and several more California/US/world catastrophes since I last popped into your inbox. Allow me to distract you with a few updates of additive color projects, but before that, let me tell you a truly small scale story about a paint color.
Subtractive
Flash back to December of 2024. A very exciting time of the year for color nerds: the release of the Pantone color of the year. The color for 2024? Mocha mousse. Brown.
It was the first time in the quarter century of Pantone’s yearly color they picked a brown. And to put it lightly the response was mixed. The swirling abstract images Pantone put out did not help. I mostly pretended to be in on the joke – but I have a confession. I kind of loved it.
I mean sure, the shade of brown they picked is a little indecisive and I’ve seen much livelier shades but this color, by its broad name anyway, is perhaps the most ubiquitous hue on planet earth. The roots of almost all plants, the undertones in skin, the very earth we find ourselves joined in standing upon at this exact moment together? It’s. All. Brown.
I’m sure the deepest nerds amongst you might even bristle at my description of brown as a hue. I know I know, you can’t make brown light, but I think you need to reconsider how much of the human experience is surrounded by this family of colors We don’t exist solely on monitors in additive color (thank heavens) – we exist primarily as fleshy things sensing reflected light from other things and a lot of those things are brown. Isn’t a category that large worthy of its own hue descriptor if for no other reason, than prioritizing lived experience over whitepaper correctness?
In all my experience painting plein air, the one thing that makes a difference between a muddy painting and a clear painting is well mixed, decisive neutrals. Which are almost all. Shades. Of. Brown.
A plot of reflectance vs wavelength will show brown paint as something like the following:
Low reflectance from around 450-575 nm (bluegreen-green), a subtle, graduated increase about 575-700nm (from yellow to red), and in some cases, a little bit higher in lower wavelengths than 450nm (more of true blue). It isn’t just a line – there are lots of little peaks and valleys in these plots.
In my hue chart I have been designing (for woops, the last two years) my absolute favorite swatches (from which the above graphs are taken) are steps exactly halfway between red and green, and purple and orange. The spectral plots for these two mixed browns show a lot of subtle differences.
I will concede looking at the spectral data, it reads like a low energy color, however the mix ingredients for both browns (red and green, and purple and orange) are incredibly energetic. Yes, the spectral reflectance of both browns comes out lower because the power from their mix colors is distributed more evenly over many more wavelengths rather than being concentrated, in say, just red reflectance.
However, in observing these patches in person, and observing other people observing these patches in person, I do believe the viewer senses the energy present in the patch regardless of whether the viewer experiences a giant spike in one specific wavelength.
Appreciating brown is an exercise in subtlety – letting yourself sense smaller spectral changes rather than needing to be banged in the eye with a high powered laser to register something as colorful. Appreciating brown fine-tunes your ability to sense color in a range of hues that is essential for determining human health and appropriate habitats for ourselves. To appreciate brown is to be alive, to be a well calibrated sensing meat machine that somehow carries enough energy to be sentient, to see, and to survive.
I think it is a good color for the year. And I have enjoyed the thought experiment of defending it in your inbox.
Do let me know if this story entertained you and I will follow up with part 2, in which I use a spectrometer to try and color match a wood desk I restored.
Subtractive:
–Night Moves was released by Criterion in March! Restoration color by me. Buy it on bluray or stream on the Criterion channel.
–What’s The Deal With Birds?, a very charming short film by equally charming director Taylor Bakken and shot flawlessly by Elissa Sousza on Ektachrome is doing very well on the festival circuit, having been at/going to four festivals so far! I adored this whole production team, including producers Kari O’Hara and Tori Kotsen, and composer John Shcroeder. I also adored getting to build a custom IDT to put their stop motion material acquired on digital still cameras in cross-processed film space. The hopeful bird balm on your achy soul you didn’t know you needed.10/10, would bird again.
–This Is Spinal Tap, another Criterion restoration title, will be in theaters July 5th! I proudly turned the color up to 11 and will be loudly watching in theaters for the re-release. I may have told Rob Reiner I walked down the aisle to Big Bottom while reviewing color.
–I Live Here Now is a fantastically weirdo horror film that will be premiering at Fantasia Film Festival! It was a colorist’s dream, which in this case translates into a vivid surreal nightmare. I will be visiting Montreal for the festival July 24-26th and hope to catch as many other weirdo horror films as possible, one of my favorite weirdo sub-genres. Directed by a truly talented storyteller Julie Pacino and shot b e a u t i f u l l y on 35mm by the wonderful Aron Meinhardt.
-Awards season voting is here and if you are in voting bodies for cinematography categories, I humbly suggest Clean Slate again for your consideration! I think it is one of the most elevated-edly shot comedies I have seen in quite some time, shot by the always outstanding Sandra Valde, ASC, LPS. Don’t we all just need an excuse to rewatch a Norman Lear show again right now anyway?
Happy summer – may it be a colorful one and may your definition of colorful be full of subtlety (maybe even brown?)
Rory
