Once You See It...

Hollywood sure loves its trends. From remakes no one asked for, to sequels no one asked for, and films unnecessarily offered in 3D, more often than not, the trend exists because it's either another way to make more money, or a systematic abuse of new technology. Sometimes it's both.

The trend I am about to discuss is of the latter; a certain abuse of a digital effect that surprisingly goes unnoticed and unmentioned most of the time. But trust me, once you see it, you will not be able to unsee it. You will notice it or look for it in every film you watch from this moment on.

Often referred to as "teal and orange", it is a digital color-grading process applied to an entire film that adds in or intensifies the hues of, you guessed it, teal and orange, but to extremely asinine levels. 

Color grading, in general, is the process of enhancing or correcting the initially captured color in a film and the process is as old as color film itself. Thanks to current technology though, it's no longer used responsibly to properly correct a scene or further an artistic theme of a film. Since it is so quick and automatic to accomplish now, it has become nothing more than a convenient visual trick to force an audience's attention onto exactly what the filmmaker wants.

The majority of most films consist of having a human face present on the screen and since flesh tones exist in the orange range on a color wheel, one would need its opposite, complimentary color to make the flesh tones "pop" more. Hence matching it up with the color teal, which is flooded into the background surrounding the characters, creating a contrast that forces the audience to focus on nothing else but the actors and their orange, spray-on douche-tan-like faces.

It's also not just films that do this; the teal and orange scheme can be seen in plenty of posters, as well as in all kinds of advertisements and public spaces. Like I said, now that you are aware of this phenomenon's existence, you won't be able to ignore it.

Here's a blog that has explored the teal and orange strategy in greater depth, with numerous examples of the horrendous concept:PART 1 and PART 2