sga_squee | Vegas meta 1/2

Hi guys!

I got carried away and wrote some rather long meta on Vegas and colours and Vegas!John. I don't know if it will be interesting to anyone, but I hope so. :)

Warning: both parts are image heavy.

This meta came about because of Rodney's purple shirt. Well, that and because I love John Sheppard’s character and find Vegas Sheppard endlessly fascinating. Actually, it also came about because I’m a massive geek about set design too. ^_^

So this is some meta on how colour is used in Vegas, what it tells us about Vegas!John, and the colour purple.

Introduction

Colour is a language in and of itself. It evokes emotion in us. It can be linked to people, places and things.

All modern TV shows use colour as part of their set design specifically to evoke emotions and associations. Some TV shows use this more heavily than others, using deliberately-introduced colour to tell the story and build tension, in the same way as a soundtrack. Supernatural is one such show, as is CSI.

Atlantis has its own palette for regular features. The most consistent of these is the narrative colour I’m terming ‘Atlantis Blue’. In its purest everything-is-okay form, it looks like this:

In fact there’s a spectrum of blue that follows our heroes around, tending to range from Atlantis Blue to We’re-in-Deep-Trouble Blue.

Deep trouble blue:

The Wraith colours in Atlantis tend to be more organic – oranges, yellows and occasionally green:

Other regular enemies, such as the Replicators and the Genii, have their own palettes.

Aside from the colours discussed above, Atlantis is not formulaic in using colour in storylines, so far as I can tell. Narrative colours seem to vary from episode to episode, even between episodes with similar themes. Outside of the colours identified above, the most consistent way in which colour is used in Atlantis episodes is to build impressions of planets, societies or people. These are usually concomitant, for instance the Genii palette is a mix of industrial neutrals (browns and greys) that ties in with their Soviet-stylized uniforms.

In Vegas, colour is used differently; it is used to tell the story in a very precise, very deliberate way. In fact narrative colours are used in Vegas almost to the point of excess. Most importantly, some of them are used to help tell the story from John Sheppard’s point of view.

Colours in 'Vegas'

In Vegas we are following Detective John Sheppard as he solves a case. The story is mostly from his point of view, and therefore the colour palette is largely focused on Sheppard’s reactions, emotions and his relationship to the alternative universe he inhabits.

Vegas’ palette can be broken down into three categories – action, mood, and psychological.

Action colours

Red

Red has a basic purpose – it is used when John is on the case. It is often used in conjunction with other narrative colours, or against a background of neutrals. Red is both the first narrative colour we see, in the form of a lens flare in the opening shot:

And the last narrative colour we see (discussed later). It can be an insipid orangey-red when the trail is luke-warm:

Or a deeper, blood red when John is hot on the chase:

It is also used as accents in scenes where John is working on the case, but not actively hunting down leads:

Wraith blue and green

You may recognise Wraith blue:

Yep, it’s deep-trouble blue – repurposed in this episode as a Wraith colour.

This is Wraith green:

Both are used in scenes where Wraith are present, suspected to be present or are indirectly involved. Sometimes they are used together:

Mood colours

Mood colours are super simple, so we'll just fly through these:

Suspicious green

As the name suggests, suspicious green is used when something suspicious is going on.