Project 3 — Color Theory in Breaking Bad
For Project 3 were tasked with analyzing a tv show or movie. We would analyze the show or movie for a couple weeks picking apart the skeleton to see what we found interesting in from. Another aspect of this project was to work in groups and my partner was Bella. When we first started the project we met to discuss what we wanted to do, whether we were going to make a shared project or individual ones but most importantly we had to figure out what show or movie we were going to do. The 2 shows that came to mind for me were either the Chernobyl HBO miniseries or Breaking Bad while Bella was think of The Wire or Casino I believe. We ended up deciding on Breaking Bad and The Wire because we felt that those two shows would have some interesting comparisons and contrasts to each other. We also ended choosing to do individual projects on both shows respectively.
The Beginning
Now I hadn’t a clue where to start because we basically had to analyze the show for something and I just was confused and felt overwhelmed by pretty much having to choose something with no direction. So after bouncing ideas off each other, I decided to break up my first set of artboards into characters. I started with Walter White, the main character and then began making mood boards for the rest. Obviously if I chose to make mood boards for every character I would have way too many so what I did was group them. I made one board dedicated to Walt but then there was Walt’s family, secondary characters, main antagonists, secondary antagonists, and so on. This allowed me to kind of see what I was working with and where I wanted to go from there. After our meeting with James and the “critique” of our mood boards and discussion of concepts, the idea of color in Breaking Bad was brought up. I don’t remember who said or even if I did but that’s where I decided to go with it because it something interesting to unpack.
Finding Colors
As I began doing some research on the colors found in Breaking Bad, I was almost immediately disappointed and worried. The reason being is that Breaking Bad is set in New Mexico in the desert, so a lot of the show is very tan or yellow and has a lot of Earth tones that kind of dull the appearance of the show. The reason being is that it is a series crime drama so I am sure it was to help set the mood. I was worried because I wanted to find color in it and it turned out there was barely any colors. That is until I found the following “timeline” graphic.
The reason this graphic was so pivotal to me was because gave me a direction. I was looking for color in the wrong places, I was looking at locations or environments or rooms when I should’ve been looking at the characters for it. This graphic shows what color the main characters wear throughout the series and how it reflects their personality during certain events. The quote in the bottom corner also gave me hope because it confirmed that the colors of the characters were a planned important detail and not just done for the costuming.
Indexing the Colors
So having found this direction I needed, I began finding images and screenshots and character cards from Breaking Bad. This time for the second set of mood boards, instead of grouping characters I grouped them by the color of their outfits. I was able to pull about 12 main colors plus no color and multicolor outfits. This became monumental in my research because it was this point when I really saw that the color of the outfits that the characters were wearing reflected their development and personalities and moods. It was something that was eye opening and added a whole new layer of depth to the show I hadn’t noticed before.
I then created a mind map of Breaking Bad but specifically made the web string out from the concept of color in the show. This allowed me to narrow down where I wanted to go with my project but also helped me find the key points for next iteration of mood boards.
The Final Iteration
So before I began the actual process of curating my project, I went through one filtering of mood boards. This time with the mood boards I built upon my last iteration. I took the ones that were separated by color and I firstly added images to some but I also had small descriptions of what the colors represented in the show. This was helpful to provide a theming to each color so that I know what to do with it. From there I also added some more boards focused around the typography of the show, some locations, a breakdown of Los Pollos Hermanos sign and then both the first and last scene of the show as well. This helped me paint a larger picture of the show but also provided me with a ton of information and content to use and pick from when I began my curation. Now after reaching this point I ran into another problem which was I didn’t know what to do with all my content and information. I had proposed the idea of maybe making some sort notecard or index card thing similar to a box of recipes, where for example if you wore green you could sift through and pull that card out and it would have all the information relating to the show and the color on it. However, I had gathered almost too much information to the point that that wouldn’t have been interesting and honestly probably overwhelming. I remember that at the critique meeting for this iteration it was suggested to perhaps follow through with something indexical to convey this information but to make it enjoyable and interesting for the viewer. I had a lot to think about and review before presenting the beginning of my curation for next week.
The Curation Begins
After weighing my options and information that I had gathered, I determined that the best and perhaps most practical way to present my research would be through an interactive website. So I began cutting down my research to what I actually wanted to use and what wouldn’t be overwhelming. This left me with still quite a bit but I believe the right amount to remain interesting.
I created very rough art boards of different website pages and on each page had all the content I wanted to share. This included images of characters in specific colored clothes as well as information on the meaning of the color and how it reflects the character and story arc and even when it would appear in the show. I had also wanted to build my site around a color wheel as navigation and the theming that tied the site all together. I thought I had a pretty solid idea for a final curation but once I brought it to the critique I got some better opinions on it. Rather than try to make a website per se, I would try to make a prototype mobile experience through Adobe XD. This would force me into some constraints that I was not used to working in such as the mobile sizing but also I had to learn a whole new program. It was a daunting task but one that actually excited me so I wasn’t too worried about its undertaking. I also got advice to completely drop the color wheel idea because it was potentially creating too many conflicting ideas and undermining the color theory of Breaking Bad. So instead I focused on color blocking and then even adding some scientific breakdowns of the colors to help tie into the science aspect of Breaking Bad.
Final Thoughts
Overall I am quite happy with how my curation came out. I was a bit wary of having to a learn a new program so quickly but I think it ended up turning out quite well. I also really enjoyed learning about the color theory within Breaking Bad and that it’s something that often goes unnoticed. I will attach a link here at the bottom for anyone who would like to view my project and explore through it.
