the use of color in daechwita - a cinematography thread

disclaimer: i’m not formally educated in film production. i’m just someone who really enjoys cinematography and color theory in film so please be gentle with my observations.

note: these arey screenshots from the mv. i didn’t change the coloring or saturation of anything.

the music video uses a lot of monochromatic palettes, meaning one color is used and various shades of that color is scattered to add depth.

green is the color one should pay attention to in the music video. here is every single frame of the mv compressed together to show how significant the color green is. however from the mv frames you can see there is a scattering of reds and that is the other color to look out for

red and green are complementary colors, meaning they sit on opposite sides of the color wheel. so in the mv, red and green represent opposing forces. they could mean many different things, but in my opinion green means corruption while red means change or revolution

we are first introduced to the green hue after the pan out of the throne room and into the courtyard and we see decapitated bodies on the floor and the frame has a slight tint it didn’t have in the previous one. this is where the king mostly resides and the saturation of the-

green will only increase as we get to know the king’s character more.

and then we cut to the first cut of agust d. his entire outfit is very neutral except for the stark red of his lips and scar.

now this is where agust d enters the market place of the kingdom and suddenly a green hue is over the frame because that is agust d’s first interaction with the corruption of the land.

i mentioned earlier that the green will only continue to saturate as we get to know the king’s character and it peaks in this scene where he is running around jumping on court officials.

i mentioned that red and green are complentary colors and notice here when the two first meet the king is surrounded by red while agust d is dressed in green, a switchoff of the themes the colors represent. i think this was intentional irony on the director’s part

also !! the complentary colors are very balanced in these frames and complementary colors represent tense opposition, which one can see from the differing ideals each one of yoongi’s characters seem to have.

the saturation of the green receeds until this scene, where agust d is captured by the king to be executed. yet, the red of the flame is small but it is there constantly through the second half of the mv and this will continue to grow until-

the red here i think is used as a transitional color, which is a change in color scheme to indicate a change in the theme or story. this is the turning point of the story of the king and agust d.

when you watch the mv in this part of the scene the music is right about to cut off and enter an bridge with instrumental to create suspense.

the green is almost all gone in this frame right before the instrumental part of the song and there is a frantic air around the king as if he was scared, as if he could feel the change that was about to come. it can also be seen as foreshadowing for his d/eath

and then the execution has begun and yoongi is brought out to face the king and the king’s face is illuminated in green while the fire colors agust d’s face in warm tones, once again showing the contrast in ideals the two have.

note the setting and its coloration too. how the green seems to overpower the reds of the fire, as if the fire is on the edge of going out and it is to cause a sense of helplessness in the audience to convince them that agust d is about to be executed.

also note when agust d is ‘executed’ the light shines on his hands, painting them red and i think this is to show how these are the hands that shoot the king in the end and cause an end to corruption.

and when yoongi finally gets up in the end where the mv is brightest with the colors of the flame is when he finally shoots the king in the chest and ends the king’s corrupt reign.

agust d’s face is now illuminated in both green and red in the final shot, showing how the by k/illing the king the corrupt power he tried to extinguish is now on his shoulders to bear.

end of thread ! i’m sorry if i made any mistakes. i wrote this at 2am because i just really love daechwita’s cinematography. reminder this is all my interpretation and you don’t have to agree with it.

stream daechwita, dynamite, blueberry eyes, and savage love !!

here is a turkish translation of this thread if anyone is interested https://twitter.com/macutieyunki/status/1312855554948313089