Vegas meta 2/2

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

Psychological colours
Unlike the self-explanatory action and mood colours, the psychological colours are more open to interpretation.

Black and white

A black and white palette seems to serve two purposes: as the colour combination that defines both the ‘normal’ world, and to show how John views people.

When used in the 'normal' world, it is most often mixed with neutrals:







In scenes, the monochrome palette emphasizes John’s sense of isolation and disconnection from the world around him. This is added to by another trick of set direction that Vegas used: in most scenes where John is in the ‘normal’ world, nobody looks at him or faces in his direction, unless he is engaging them directly:







Where the people present are innocents or the good guys, white is emphasized over black, as in the hospital scene in the picture above. When bad stuff is happening, where people are a bit dodgy, suspicious or outright bad guys, then black is the emphasized colour (see most other scenes).

Black and white are used as narrative colours for four people’s outfits. When John is deeply suspicious of Jennifer in the autopsy scene at the beginning of the episode, she is dressed all in black:



Rodney's suit is mostly black (more on that later).

Woolsey's outfit befits a bureaucrat: drab, black and white, greys and neutrals:



For the disguised-as-a-human Wraith, black and white are the only colours in his entire ensemble:



The exclusion of all other colours is surreal, seemingly implying that he is trying too hard to be ‘normal’.

Purple

The roles of most of the colours discussed here were easy to identify. Purple though... purple is probably the hardest to pin down.
Purple pops up in the most random places, usually as a feature of someone's outfit. There's a spectrum of purples in Vegas:



After some deliberation, my guess is that purple denotes John's personal interest in people and things. Starting with the wrinkled, neutral, heather grey shirt John wears for most of the episode:



Given that John is, frankly, a damned mess for most of this episode - you don't need the washed out purple colour to interpret his non-existent self-interest.
Aside from John's shirt, the purples start off cool and gradually warm up over the course of the case. It starts with Jennifer’s eyeshadow:


And then continues in the casino scene where people accessorizing with lilac:



Warm purples first appear on John's nurse friend:



This scene doesn't quite gel with the 'John's interest' theory. We find out that he has a former association with her *cough*onenightstand*cough*, but he doesn't have any current interest in her personally. Purple here perhaps indicates that she is part of John's world - someone he knows and likes, even if superficially.

The most prolonged and significant use of purple is Rodney's shirt. When John first meets Rodney, the lighting makes Rodney's shirt so dark it's practically black - echoing the use of all black for Jennifer in the autopsy scene. Obviously at this point he doesn't know, and doesn't trust McKay:



After the tour, the lighting makes Rodney’s shirt a rich, dark purple colour that it remains for the rest of the episode:




In general the colour is so intense, all I can guess is that it signifies that John finds Rodney both very interesting, and suspicious at the same time.

This is echoed in Jennifer’s brief appearance in the same scene, where her shirt is almost-but-not-quite as dark purple as Rodney’s:



Atlantis blue

Last but definitely not least. Atlantis blue shows up in the background on and off for most of the episode. Its first proper outing is during the Wraith chase scene:



After that, it turns up on the tour of Area 51:





After John and Rodney talk outside Area 51, in the next scene John is wearing an immaculately pressed, palest, Atlantis blue shirt:





To me, this suggests that John's experiences in Area 51 have woken up something in John, that he's rediscovered himself and rejoined the world as Atlantis' heroic first son.

But you know, probably reading a bit much into it there. *cough*

In the very last scene, the blue of John's shirt fades to the background and red becomes once more the dominant narrative colour:





:(


Conclusion

I hope this was interesting for some of you! Would love to hear other people's views on it.

If you want to watch examples of how specific this process is then I highly recommend watching two scenes: the casino scene where John and the Wraith are playing poker, and the subsequent chase; and the tour of Area 51. Or, you know, just the whole episode. :)

Author's note: I have no idea whether there are official terms for any of this (my google-fu deserted me while trying to find links on similar subjects). As is probably very obvious, 100% of the jargon in this was made up.

Comments

[melagan.livejournal.com]

I find this perspective of treatment of color fascinating. I don't know that I would have given it much thought on my own, but wow, now that you've pointed it out, the use of red especially stands out for me.

Very interesting thinky thoughts here.

[goddess47]

I love people who can do this and take the time to share it... I'm a 'story' person... I focus on the story line and how that shapes up and I miss the subtle use of colors like you've pointed out...

Lovely work and thanks for sharing it!!!!!

{{hugs}}

[em_kellesvig]

Wow, this is really interesting! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[sinaida.livejournal.com]

This is interesting! Thanks a lot for sharing. :)

[mcparrot.livejournal.com]

This is extraordinary. Do film makers really, consciously do this? It seems as if they do.

Wow. Really interesting.

Thanks

[aqualegia.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I've always liked the colours used in the episode.

[popkin16]

I love these kinds of things, because it's definitely not something I notice until pointed out to me. I definitely associate Atlantis with certain colors, now that I think about it. It was super interesting to read about how color plays out in Vegas. I love the things you picked up on, though I'm most interested in how purple plays into the episode (mostly because of the association with Rodney, I am nothing if not predictable), but all of it is...wow.

It's amazing how much thought film people put into this kind of thing. I wish I had coherent, deep meta to respond with, but mostly I just keep thinking: Oooo.

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

I didn't include this because I was trying to keep it gen (I know not everyone on here is a McShep fan), BUT. I totally subscribe to the theory that John was instantly drawn to both Rodney and the chair, and I think the way the colours play out back that up.

Unfortunately, in addition to being a tad on the McShep side it's possibly reading too much into it. Another reason I kept that to myself. ;)

(mostly because of the association with Rodney, I am nothing if not predictable)

Can I just say that I'm soooo glad you commented (I was hoping you would - so maybe a little predictable but in a good way! ;)). It gave me an excuse to ramble about McShep! :D I absolutely love their chemistry in this episode. There's just so much mutual fascination going on.

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

:D I'm really glad you found it interesting! Yeah, the colours were well done IMO. They fit the Vegas theme very well - both CSI and the city itself, and the use of red was very noir.

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

I'm the first to own up that a lot of this is conjecture on my part. However, there used to be a lot of meta in Supernatural about this kind of thing. And the history of using colour like this in films goes back a long way. It certainly seems to me that the SGA crew were employing a lot of the same tricks.

I wish I could have found some links from industry sources using discussing this! No doubt they're out there, I just couldn't get the right google keywords.

Very glad you found it interesting. :) Yw!

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

Yay! :D Yw. Glad you found it interesting!

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

Yw! I'm really glad you thought it was interesting. :D Thanks for commenting.

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

I confess that I watched Vegas quite a few times before I started paying attention to what they seemed to be doing with colours. Originally I was just going to write about Rodney's purple shirt, and then I went back and watched the episode to fact check.... Heh. ;)

Thanks! And you're totally welcome. Any excuse. ;)

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

Yeah red is a strong theme throughout the episode. I have no idea how much of this I got right. Really wish I could have found some interviews with crew or something talking about this! Ah well.

It really is fascinating. I think people would be surprised how often tricks like these are employed in television and film production.

I'm really glad you found it interesting. :)

ETA: I meant to say! Thanks for giving it a once over for me. :)

[popkin16]

Rodney certainly seemed fascinated by John - he meets an alternate!John and seems really, weirdly fixated on it. So there's definitely some mutual interest there, even if it's colored with some suspicion on John's part. Plus, Rodney really didn't have to give John a tour of the facility, but he did.

I'd say there's plenty of evidence to support McShep :P

Eh, lots of meta and analysis can be dismissed as "reading too much into it". It's still really enjoyable and can lead to some fantastic discussions.

Aw, it has made me ridiculously happy to know you were hoping I would comment :P I do try to comment on everything, lol. Please know you can message me about McShep ANY TIME, I could talk for days about them, seriously.

[selenic76.livejournal.com]

This was amazing! I know that people making the series think about colours and such, (sometimes using them nice and subtle so I don't notice, sometimes in ways that seem a little stupid to me, like making almost everything overly colourful, which is one for the reasons shows like CSI Miami kind of annoy me...) but your posts really opened my eyes to see just how much can be done with them.

The notes on different colours were really interesting, especially the Atlantis blue and the purple (which offered great insight into Vegas!John), and I'd love to see such analysis of different episodes, maybe from another character's POV too.

Thanks for sharing this!

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

CSI is a very, very stylized show! To be fair, the colours they used in Vegas were most likely used as an homage to CSI - the original that is, not Miami.

Atlantis episodes don't tend to be quite so overt normally. There are a few episodes that use colour subtly in the background. For instance, in 'This Mortal Coil' in Season 4 (highlight for spoilers) .

Not sure I could find another episode that uses the technique quite so thoroughly, I'm afraid. Which is a shame, because I had way too much fun doing this and would loved to have inflicted another one done another one. ;)

I'm really glad you found this interesting. I wish I could find some proper industry sources for you guys!

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

There's definitely plenty to support McShep. *affixes sparkly tinhat* :D

Eh, lots of meta and analysis can be dismissed as "reading too much into it".

That's true. I confess, I was taking a stab at guessing what the production crew were actually trying to achieve with this (and I really want to know how close I got! Alas.) But yes, most meta is definitely more of a discussion and less trying to guess what was going on behind the scenes. :)

Please know you can message me about McShep ANY TIME, I could talk for days about them, seriously.

Thanks! You may regret this. ;) Actually, are you doing sga_santa this year? Would you be up for chatting about how it's going?

[selenic76.livejournal.com]

Oh I enjoyed the original CSI very much, at least the first few seasons that I've seen of it, and I liked the style of it! Which is probably why Miami annoyed me even more, all the fake sunset colours in the sky at nearly all hours and all that.

Spin-offs are a tricky business :)

Interesting point about 'This Mortal Coil' hope I remember to take note of that next time I watch it.

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

Me too. I wanted to like the spin offs but... eh. Like you say, difficult business! ;)

I didn't notice it until after I spent like, twenty hours rewatching Vegas for this post! I am doomed now forever to notice all the colours in the backgrounds of Atlantis episodes LOL!

[popkin16]

Oh, definitely :D Whether they meant to or not, TPTB gave us McSheppers plenty to work with :D

In exchange for this fantastic meta, I offer some of my own. Not that I wrote it, but it's super interesting and part of my headcanon for John :)

I'm not doing sga_santa this year. I've only done it once and I stressed about it so much, lol. But you can message me and tell me how things are going for you :) I'm open to talk about anything~

[resqueln.livejournal.com]

Whether they meant to or not, TPTB gave us McSheppers plenty to work with :D

Oooh yes. In Atlantis in general!

Thanks for the link to the meta! It was an interesting read. I can't say it convinced me - off the top of my head I can think of four or five scenes from canon that negate her theory but it's definitely an interesting take on it. :) As you say, interesting to read people's takes and definitely opens up interesting discussions.

Thanks, I may well take you up on that! Shame you're not doing sga santa but I can totally understand. :)

[popkin16]

No problem! I enjoy sharing old meta :)

Take me up on talking at any time! I gave serious thought to doing it, since it's the last, but I remember how stressed I was the last time...but I eagerly await all the fic!