History Main / ColorWash

* ''Film/PeterPanAndWendy'' features a very, very blue Never Land. In fact, this desaturated, [[RealIsBrown "realistic"]] take on what is supposed to be a very fun and whimsical setting is one of the movie's biggest criticisms.

The methods applied and the reasons for it depend on the intended goals. WarmPlaceWarmLighting helps convey that the characters are sweating it out in a hot location. RealIsBrown may be a variant of DeliberatelyMonochrome with a SplashOfColor. Very popular is an OrangeBlueContrast pushing skin tone to appear orange-y and everything else teal for ColorContrast. MoodLighting often goes along with UnnaturallyBlueLighting. And there are standard {{flashback|Effects}}.

* Similarily to ''Traffic'', from season 2 onwards, ''Series/BreakingBad'' would frequently visit orange-yellow-tinted Mexico.

* Music/TheHaloEffect: The video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeQbC8OYDQA "In Broken Trust"]] is a playthrough of the song on the roof of a skyscraper at night, with a green lens filter.

* ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' is overly fond of [[OrangeBlueContrast lighting everything with orange. Anything that isn't orange tends to be blue.]]
* ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'', like ''Singularity'', is fond of a yellowish-brown color for absolutely everything with occasional blue-lit areas (usually in the Undercity).

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is one of the reddest games ever made, with red menus, red monsters, red zombies, red pulsing hives and building, and red skies.
* The third ''{{VideoGame/Resistance}}'' does this (with a different color every stage) as a compromise between the RealIsBrown of the first game, and the brighter, more natural colors of the second.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'''s Shadow Moses and a good deal of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' are green-blue. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' continued this trend, opting for a green-yellow filter.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', the Twilight Realm was initially designed as [[DeliberatelyMonochrome grayscale]] with some splashes of color. However, the design later changed to an incredibly hyper-saturated color scheme, with gold, brown and magenta being the most prominent colors. Most praised the new design, citing it as more original and evocative of a creepy, alien twilight world.
** Used to a lesser extent with normal-Hyrule, which has a faint yellowish tint to most things.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' uses different color grading in different areas. The difference is sometimes very noticeable; for instance, Ghostlands looks very different when you're looking in from Zul'Aman than when you're inside and the darker color grade takes hold. It's sometimes so strong (particular with red colored areas like Durotar) that it takes a while for eyes to readjust to another color when changing zones.
* Used in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' for an accentuated atmospheric sense. Since San Andreas is a huge state with contrasting environments, there's a color wash scheme that differs from place to place. [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Los Santos]] is orange-ish with heat hazes; [[UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco San Fierro]] has [[UnnaturallyBlueLighting unnaturally teal lighting]] to convey a mild-to-cold atmosphere, reinforced by the city's constant fog; [[VivaLasVegas Las Venturas]] goes for a less blatant color scheme, but with a dash of yellow to convey the desert's hot weather; the forested countrysides of Red and Flint Counties have a pastel green/brown tint to them; and finally, the deserts of Bone County take it further, with bright white sand and yellow skies that turn purple at night. All of this is much more pronounced in the [=PS2=] version; later versions such as the PC port toned it down for a more sober, less in-your-face look, but it's definitely noticeable, especially when the sun is setting.
* Done to the second and third games of the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' trilogy, ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony'', respectively. ''Lost and Damned'', being DarkerAndEdgier, subtly shifts to desaturated, grimy tones, while ''Ballad of Gay Tony'' is LighterAndSofter, preferring brighter neon hues.
* The NES games on the Wii's Platform/VirtualConsole have a filter that not only darkens the screen, but also darkens the colors. This was supposed to emulate the way NES games would look when displayed on a 1980s TV set, but it makes the games look like someone put a gray film over the screen. Ports of the NES games plus emulators don't use this feature, which makes the games look brighter and more colorful by comparison.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' uses color tints on the cosmic comet missions: red for the speed run missions, yellow for the Fast Foe missions, blue for the cosmic clone missions, white for the daredevil missions, and purple for the purple coin missions. The effect is subtle, but it's there.

* ''VideoGame/RedFactionGuerrilla'' does this in a different color for each portion of Mars: Parker is slightly brownish red, Dust is vaguely blue-ish, Badlands is yellow, Oasis is green, the Free Fire Sector is grey, and Eos is white.

* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' has the colors in the prologue very bright and vivid, making everything pop out. When the game actually kicks off, all the colors are muted, with lots of gray tint due to the [[TitleDrop heavy rain]] occurring. The only time the colors become more vivid is inside certain buildings, but the colors there aren't quite as colorful compared to the beginning of the game. The color differences also expresses the mood; the bright colors are during happier times before the tragedy strikes. After said event occurs, the darker colors show how dark and depressing the story has become.

* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'', the forest of Nibel starts out vibrant during the prologue, but appropriately turns to drab shades of brown, gray, blue, and purple once the decay sets in after the defilement of the Spirit Tree. Outlying areas have color washes in varying hues: Thornfelt Swamp and the Ginso Tree are brownish-green, Moon Grotto is midnight blue, the Misty Woods are teal, the Forlorn Ruins are [[OrangeBlueContrast ice blue with glowing orange machinery]], Sorrow Pass is mustard yellow, and Mount Horu, being a LethalLavaLand, is red-orange.
** ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'' has a more varied palette overall, except in the areas hardest hit by TheCorruption, such as [[{{Mordor}} the Silent Woods]], which are blue-gray; [[ShiftingSandLand Windswept Wastes]], which are burnt orange; and [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Willow's End]], which is neon magenta.
* In ''VideoGame/Haven2020'', each biome of the planet Source has a unique color wash. The [[GreenHillZone plains]] are cyan, [[TheCorruption Rust]]-covered areas are magenta, the [[BubblegloopSwamp swamp]] is green, the [[ShiftingSandland desert]] is yellow, and the [[LethalLavaLand lava zone]] is red. Abandoned buildings are generally gray with electric blue TronLines, corrupted fauna have a red-brown aura, and consumable plants are highlighted with their own colors.

* The infamously confusing anime ''Bounty Dog'' takes place on the moon, and everything is tinted in a sickening shade of yellow.

* ''Film/Suspiria1977'' by Creator/DarioArgento is the go-to example as red, green, and blue lighting are both common motifs of this film and played for horror.
* ''Film/TheRing'' series is almost entirely bathed in green to give it is a [[SicklyGreenGlow sickly, ominous feeling]].
* Creator/JamesCameron always uses a strong blue tint when scenes in his films are supposed to be set at night. It allows the scene to be strongly lit so that the audience can see everything, but also to give the indication of darkness.
* The first film of ''[[Film/{{Twilight}} The Twilight Saga]]'': Because Forks is a dreary, rainy town, the director decided to desaturate the colors to get this across.
* Among the many, ''many'' reasons the ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'' movie was considered awful was the blue filter on many of the shots. It also enjoys combining green and purple, using the same logic as movies that use orange and teal - the colors contrast, so putting them together causes them to "pop".
-->'''The Providence Journal''': Battlefield Earth's primary colors are blue and gray, adding to the misery. Whenever we glimpse sunlight, the screen goes all stale yellow, as though someone had urinated on the print. This, by the way, is not such a bad idea.

* ''Film/SpyGame'' uses different filters for each flashback segment. Vietnam is orange as hell, Berlin is kind of a cool blue, and Beirut is sort of a sandy yellow. This serves to easily delineate between the flashbacks and the central hub of the story.
* Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' uses digital color grading, and it becomes blatantly obvious at times. It's especially noticeable in day-for-night scenes, like with Merry and Pippin in Fangorn. There's even a scene in ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]'' where Pippin is searching for Merry that appears as a daylight scene in the theatrical version, but was regraded to night for the extended version. An interesting example occurs with several shots used more than once (Green Dragon Inn exterior, Boromir's last stand, and a certain close-up of Elrond) in different movies; frame-by-frame comparison shows exactly the same image but with drastically different colors.

* ''Film/VickyCristinaBarcelona'' is very golden-yellowy tinted since Creator/WoodyAllen [[SignatureStyle likes warm colors]].
* The movie version of ''Literature/KamikazeGirls'' is really, really yellow.
* In ''Film/TheThirteenthFloor'', one character comments about how the colors are off [[InsideAComputerSystem in the computer simulation]].
* Used far too much in the made-for-TV film ''Jason and the Golden Fleece'', with desaturated colours and hard light.
* ''Film/Avalon2001'' has a ''very'' amber filter, to the point where it becomes monochrome, [[spoiler:until the end, when it's removed to suggest that the main character is now in "the real world."]]
* The Moroder version of ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' used color washes over the whole screen: blue for scenes in the underground Worker's City and reddish tones for surface scenes (although there were some variations).
* The original ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy has a fairly consistent dark blue wash (very noticeable in scenes set on mostly grey spaceships) in the DVD release that wasn't in any earlier version (compare the bonus disc, which has the original theatrical version without the blue wash).
* In the film adaptation of ''Theatre/SouthPacific'', everything appears heavily yellow because the film was filtered through a yellow sheet of cellophane in post. This was overkill of what the filmmakers wanted, which was to make the movie "more yellow", and they hadn't actually intended it to be ''all'' yellow. But they released it anyway.
* Creator/DavidFincher is a big fan of alternating between yellow/green and blue. A big part of this is his use of natural and "practical" light, rather than conventional stage lighting. He did this a lot on his later work.
* In ''Film/TheBookOfEli'', the entire world is brownish as if it's being seen through the sunglasses everyone's wearing.

* ''Film/ClerksII'', except for the [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment dance scene]]. The film was originally intended to shot in black and white like the first one, but producer Harvey Weinstein wanted the film open wide so director Creator/KevinSmith chose to desaturate the colors instead.
* In ''Film/IAmSam'', a blue filter is used in certain scenes, portraying bad times for Sam, like in court or in the hospital.
* The first ''Film/HarryPotter'' film is full of vivid colours, with plenty of warm reds and gold. However, every subsequent entry in the series becomes more and more desaturated until ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'' is practically in black and white.
* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'' used a purple wash to give the film an eerie, paranormal feel.
* The theatrical release of ''Film/{{Payback}}'' has a stark blue filter applied throughout the whole movie, but the director's cut doesn't have this (it also changes the whole last third of the plot).
* ''Film/TheWrongGuy'' uses a bland mix of grey and blue-green in the early "corporate" scenes. After the boss is murdered and Nelson discovers his corpse, color begins to seep in, starting with the red blood. By the time Nelson meets Lynn, the palette is brighter and a broader spectrum.
* ''Film/TheRaid'' is very blue.
* For some reason, the HollywoodDarkness in the ActionPrologue of ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' wasn't considered dark enough, and it was suddenly given a dark blue color wash in the Ultimate edition DVD.
* ''Film/{{Kontroll}}'' is set in the Budapest Metro (underground railway), and most scenes have a green-yellow cast. When we see these scenes being filmed in the "making of" feature, they all have natural colors and are brighter.

* The film ''Reflections in a Golden Eye'', directed by Creator/JohnHuston and starring Creator/MarlonBrando and Creator/ElizabethTaylor, was originally tinted with a golden color. However, there were so many complaints from audiences that the film was pulled from distribution to reprocess the color back into a conventional palette for re-release.

* The film adaptation of ''Literature/DoloresClaiborne'' jumps back and forth between blue filters for the present day and orange filters for 20 years earlier.
* ''Film/{{Fury 2014}}'', set in Germany in April 1945, has a cold blue/grey tint.
* The director of the film adaptation of ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'' wanted the film to be shot in earthy tones, and the director of photography noticed a woman wearing nylons in the exact shade of brown he wanted, so he asked for them right then and there. The film was shot with the nylon over the lens, and the weave of it can even be seen in parts of the film.
* The ''Film/Underworld2003'' franchise is almost entirely colored in shades of black, white and blue.
* The opening and closing scenes of ''Film/TheDayTheEarthCaughtFire'' are in yellow-tinted monochrome, while the rest of the film is in standard black and white. The tinted scenes are in the story present, and the untinted scenes are a long flashback leading up to the present.
* Most scenes in ''Film/{{Morgan}}'' have a cold [=grey/blue/green/overcast=] color palette, with flashbacks in sunny natural color.
* In ''Film/NocturnalAnimals'', scenes in the present day tend to be cold and desaturated, flashbacks are natural, and the film within the film is more saturated and harshly lit.
* Not every scene in ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' is orange, but it's the way to bet.
* In ''Film/SeasonOfMiracles'', the colors look desaturated for a while after [[spoiler:Rafer is diagnosed with a [[LittlestCancerPatient fatal blood disease]].]]
* ''Film/TheGolem'' is a silent film from 1920. Every scene is tinted, in a variety of colors. The strength of the tint varies between restorations.
* ''Film/IKnowWhoKilledMe'': In a nod to the works of Dario Argento and Creator/BrianDePalma, every scene with Aubrey has a form of blue lighting, and a similar case occurs with Dakota and red lighting.
* ''Film/TheRover'' is set in Australia, "ten years after the collapse." Bright colours seem to have been the first thing to run out after the collapse. The overall colour palette is muted, with a lot of beige landscapes and hazy skies.

* Platform/GameBoy games that were compatible with the Platform/SuperGameBoy tended to feature this, since the Game Boy could only display objects in four shades of gray, with the games being programmed to reflect this. While certain static areas of the screen could be given individual color palettes, mobile areas of play (such as stage backgrounds and characters) all used single, unified palettes, sometimes changing these palettes from stage to stage. Two notable examples of this were ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', which used a different "tint" for the game depending on what world/area the player was in (which was also present in the world selection map in ''Kirby's Dream Land 2'', where hovering to a different world immediately changes the game's tint). Games that weren't compatible with the Super Game Boy could also use color washing thanks to the various palettes the player could create and/or choose from, with certain titles having default palettes pre-coded into the SGB's hardware. For example, ''VideoGame/{{Alleyway}}'' used a primarily lavender and yellow palette, ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'' used a reddish-pink palette, and ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' used a near-psychedelic red, green and yellow palette.

* When played on a Platform/SuperGameBoy, ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' defaults to using a red, black, green, and yellow palette, befitting the "alien" nature of [=SR388=]. Because it was released before the Super Game Boy went into development, however, this default palette is precoded into the SGB's hardware (as with numerous other pre-SGB games), and doesn't feature any of the more advanced color trickery seen in SGB-optimized titles.

* The NES games on the Wii's UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole have a filter that not only darkens the screen, but also darkens the colors. This was supposed to emulate the way NES games would look when displayed on a 1980s TV set, but it makes the games look like someone put a gray film over the screen. Ports of the NES games plus emulators don't use this feature, which makes the games look brighter and more colorful by comparison.

* UsefulNotes/GameBoy games that were compatible with the UsefulNotes/SuperGameBoy tended to feature this, since the Game Boy could only display objects in four shades of gray, with the games being programmed to reflect this. While certain static areas of the screen could be given individual color palettes, mobile areas of play (such as stage backgrounds and characters) all used single, unified palettes, sometimes changing these palettes from stage to stage. Two notable examples of this were ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', which used a different "tint" for the game depending on what world/area the player was in (which was also present in the world selection map in ''Kirby's Dream Land 2'', where hovering to a different world immediately changes the game's tint). Games that weren't compatible with the Super Game Boy could also use color washing thanks to the various palettes the player could create and/or choose from, with certain titles having default palettes pre-coded into the SGB's hardware. For example, ''VideoGame/{{Alleyway}}'' used a primarily lavender and yellow palette, ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'' used a reddish-pink palette, and ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' used a near-psychedelic red, green and yellow palette.

* When played on a UsefulNotes/SuperGameBoy, ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' defaults to using a red, black, green, and yellow palette, befitting the "alien" nature of [=SR388=]. Because it was released before the Super Game Boy went into development, however, this default palette is precoded into the SGB's hardware (as with numerous other pre-SGB games), and doesn't feature any of the more advanced color trickery seen in SGB-optimized titles.

* ''Film/{{Avalon}}'' has a ''very'' amber filter, to the point where it becomes monochrome, [[spoiler:until the end, when it's removed to suggest that the main character is now in "the real world."]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'''s Shadow Moses and a good deal of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' are green-blue.

This trope applies to films, TV series, video clips and graphics.

So the director/director of photography/production designer thought it would be a good idea to do something fancy to the colors, like saturating them so everything looks more vivid than normal. More often than not, [[OrangeBlueContrast this means making skin appear orange-y and everything else teal]]. Another example would be shifting the entire color palette, making (almost) everything appear a certain color. Color wash is usually done in post-production on "naturally" shot footage, but some directors use physical filters on the camera either as a stylistic choice or due to technical constraints of a particular shot.

SuperTrope to WarmPlaceWarmLighting, where this is used to denote a hot setting. Compare with tropes such as RealIsBrown, UnnaturallyBlueLighting, DeliberatelyMonochrome and SplashOfColor. The difference between those tropes and Color Wash is that (a) the film uses both, or (b) uses another type of visual trick entirely, such as cranking up the saturation of the colors. See also MoodLighting, [[PostProcessingVideoEffects Post Processing]], and ColorContrast. Often used to signal a {{flashback|Effects}}. OrangeBlueContrast is a common result.

-->-- '''WebVideo/{{Phelous}}''', ''Pulse (2006)'' [[https://youtu.be/2zsi5104WGs?t=47 review]]