EARNEST - Colour schemes

After watching the 2002 movie adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest, I noticed that colour schemes were very important to the aesthetic of the movie.
Rich colours were primarily used, as everyone in the movie is very rich themselves. Reds and golds were used in Lady Bracknell's house, whilst dark greens were featured in Jack's home. Jack's clothing became more colour when he became 'Ernest', in comparison to dressing in head-to-toe black during his 'mourning'. The original play relies heavily on the overly dramatic and flamboyant to set it apart, so makes sense that the movie adaption is colourful and packed with visual delights.

I want to make sure our movie is just as entertaining to watch, even if it will be little simpler. We wouldn't have huge Victorian mansions or elaborately dressed ladies of stature, so our clothes schemes are going to be subtler. We've set it in our own modern context, so we need to work with relevant clothing the boys will be in. We're setting our movie outside city hall, which has a subdued, natural colour scheme of whites, greens and pale blues (on a sunny day), and seeing as we want the boys to stand out, it'd be best if we put them in very bold colours, not necessarily bright, but rich.

We decided as a group that Jay will be reds whilst Ali will be in blues as their main colours. We don't have much time to elaborate our characters, and seeing as our plot is very character driven, this is unfortunate, so we're using colour to translate aspects of our characters we'd only be able to elaborate with a longer film.

Reds represent passion, romance, anger and royalty, so we decided to use it for dressing Jay. The false identity was his idea, and he is utterly devoted to his love interest right form the beginning. Of the two boys, Jay is the quicker to flare up, as he is in the original play, getting angry at his friend for stealing his idea and courting his cousin. Red is also the colour of extremes, which suits the fact that instead of finding some way to honest with Gemma, he starts off his relationship by lying about himself. The boy doesn't do anything in half measures. It's also a colour of warmth and fire, which is something that Gwendoline finds attractive in 'Ernest' in the original story, so it works well for us in our adaption. Jay isn't royalty, not even close, but his family is in the public eye, which is his motive for creating a false identity. Red also symbolises danger, and this means the danger the boys don't see of lying instead of being honest and, well, earnest. Instead of a bright, angry red, I'd prefer to have Jay in a dark red, maybe even maroon, as it's not as obvious and it's also classier than just a neon splash.


Blues represent tradition, authority, and 'blue blood' which suits Alistair. His family is full of NHS doctors, and of the two boys, he tends to take control more, eg. he doesn't apologise for being late, snatches Jay's phone from him, demand answers, doesn't hesitate to message Chelsea as soon as it crosses his mind. In comparison to Jay's red, it's quite cold but also represents calmness and intelligence. In the original play, Algernon, who Alistair is based off, he is the character who thinks least of how other characters would feel, being a dandy, devil-may-care character. A rich blue reflects that dandy nature and selfishness. In the end, Algernon is willing to go out of his way to make up for the lies he told, so he's not wholly egotistical, but he is fairly vain, and I think a dark, decedent blue reflects that nicely.