EFFECTIVE COLOUR INTERPRETATION IN NOLLYWOOD NARRATIVES: RE READING OF CHARACTER IMAGES IN SELECT FILMS

Abstract

The use of colour in films goes beyond setting the tone of the film narrative to thoughtfully convey subtitle messages that help the audiences form impressions and connect with the characters on a more visceral level. Colour can play crucial roles in character’s imagery and enhances audience perception of the film narratives. But the effectiveness of colour interpretation in Nollywood narratives as a crucial aspect of cinematic story telling has been underexplored. This is because, evidence of recent Nollywood films does not accentuate on the effective use of colour especially as it concerns characterization, mood and atmosphere, visual cohesion, audience perception, among many others. Thus, issues regarding these inadequacies have been the major drawbacks on this research studies. Based on this outlook, this research investigates effective colour interpretation in Nollywood films and seeks to explore how effectively the colour was to achieve characterization, visual cohesion, mood and atmosphere and interpretation of specific narratives. This research therefore anchoring on cognitive semiotic theory adopts a content analytical and a case study approach of two randomly selected Nollywood films such as- Ernest obi’s Calabash (2015) and Adebayo Tijani and Tope Adebayo’s Jagun-Jagun (2023) to support this claim. The study, however, discovers that oftentimes, filmmaker’s choice of colour application to character’s images are not effective and thereby hinders communication and audiences’ emotional connection to the film narratives. The study however concludes that effective application of colours to character’s images can enhance communication and stimulate psychological connection by the audiences. The study therefore suggests that filmmakers should maximize the use of appropriate colours in their myriad designs.