The Grass Is Always Greener.

I was having a wonderful conversation with my friend Laurence Grayson who is the Managing Editor at Frame IO Insider. If you haven't already then absolutely take some time out and see what they have got going on over there, it is honestly very cool and is a wealth of information that might help you out! Laurence motivated me to put some words on a page about something I am quite passionate about; Grass. No, not that kind of grass but specifically the perceived color of grass.

Here are my ramblings.

As a colorist for film and television, there are often three common colors that clients have vastly different opinions on; Skin tones, Ocean, and Grass. I’m going to focus on grass. We can talk about skin tones and the ocean another time.

What color is grass? Green? I have a five-year-old girl. If I asked her that question she would answer green. Probably. Green is the right answer, or at least it can be the right answer. There are some variables to consider though, and I think they are good ones. This is exactly why I wanted to have this conversation and why I want to ‘dig into’? the color of grass. So sit back, and get comfy.

I am taking my writing assignment seriously so I have done some research. Someone told me that that is what writers should do. Indeed, my research isn’t very complex, I looked up the definition of grass in the dictionary and it does vary from dictionary to dictionary. Essentially, they all say something like this:

Grass?Noun A very common plant consisting of large numbers of thin, spiky, leaves that cover the surface of the ground. ‘Small things stirred in the grass around the tent’?

Synonyms:?turf,?lawn??

No mention of color here. I think the dictionaries that didn’t mention color were quite clever because the details concerning grass color are potentially a can of worms. Was that a pun? Borderline.

That’s an English definition but what does science say about the color?

Grass is, for the sake of argument, green because of the presence of chlorophyll throughout the leaves and stems. Chlorophyll is a pigment that allows plants to capture energy from the Sun in order to power the process of photosynthesis. You can do your research about photosynthesis later if you want to but let us all agree that it plays a fairly large role in us being alive. This is the nerdy piece of information I love: Chlorophyll absorbs light at two wavelengths, both red and blue while reflecting green. Did you know that if grass is kept in complete darkness it will turn white? It will die as well but I’m trying to keep this upbeat. If you stick with me you’ll see I do a full circle in regards to life.

English language definitions and a little bit of science paint a pretty good picture of grass but from there, things can get more complicated, and, this gets to the heart of why so many of us have a different opinion about the color, the specific color, of grass.

There are physical variables that affect the color of grass and there are psychological ones that influence our perception of the color of grass.?Let's start with the physical variables.

I trained as a colorist in Australia. One of the most common requests I had from clients was to make the grass look green. In many parts of Australia, it is hot and in some places there is drought. All of that beautiful green grass now looks very brown and dried out. It’s hard to sell the notion of an idyllic barbecue with a backdrop of brown grass, it goes against our belief about what a nice day is but we’ll be getting to beliefs shortly.

My Australia example demonstrates that our own experiences, which are informed by geography and climate, are going to affect our perceptions of color. The greens in Auckland are very different from those in, say, Arizona or Shanghai. These results are related to climate and the quality of light. The latter can vary considerably in different parts of the world. The position of the sun in the sky is influenced by the Earth’s tilt and its orbit around the sun. This can result in differences in the angle and intensity of sunlight at different latitudes and, as a significant result, affect colors. I mentioned Auckland, New Zealand and whenever I visit there I am instantly struck but the vibrancy of the greens. A perfect combination of climate and the quality of the light provides you with the lushness of Hobbiton - which was, of course, filmed in New Zealand.?

The quality of light can be influenced by many other things as well. As I write this there is a brutal storm passing through Los Angeles and with such thick cloud cover and torrential rain the greens that surround my studio are electric. Many of you would have experienced how the light changes drastically if there is a forest fire, the impact on colors is eerie and all of the greens get a warm wash and don’t quite feel real.?

You may have noticed that I have already used quite a collection of verbs such as ‘variables’ and ‘differences’ in an attempt to get across the point that there are many factors that can affect color. I find this quite satisfying, and not just as a colorist, but as a human being that there are so many reasons that colors can vary all of the time.

I mentioned our beliefs and this has a huge role to play. Remember how I used the example of turning brown grass into green grass to support the idyllic image of the perfect BBQ? Well, I would spend the time making that grass look green as a colorist only to have many back-and-forth conversations that included: Does it still look natural? Maybe it’s too green now? It needs to be more of a yellow-green, not a green-green. Can we put a little bit of brown back into it? You see that everyone's perception of what grass should look like comes from, in part, their geographical upbringing as I explained earlier but also from their beliefs.?

What you believe is informed by what you have seen, what you have read, what you are taught, and the experiences you’ve had in your life, especially in your early life. Our memories are linked most strongly to smell but vision is rolled in there as well. I think back to those wonderful memories as a kid rolling down hills until you were so dizzy you couldn’t walk or going for beautiful walks with my Wife through Central Park. Those memories are painted with green grass backdrops so that I have a specific idea of what color I think grass should be. There are also books that I’ve read that explain with visual prose the delicate blend of hues of the grass fields that the hero is running through or films and paintings I have seen. All of these make up my beliefs. If everyone has a different experience and belief about the color of grass then who is right? Great news, you don’t need a ‘right’ in artistic endeavors and I encourage you to avoid it.?

With all of these different opinions about what color a color needs to be, you would think it must drive a colorist crazy, and maybe from time to time it does. The reality is though, at least in my experience, that it’s quite the opposite. I get genuinely excited when people have different opinions about color and even more so when they get passionate about it. I don’t want to jump into the ‘what is art’ conversation, well okay I kind of do, so I’m going to at least tip-toe around the edges of it. The reason I enjoy a conversation, or argument about color, and specifically the color of something that we all have a strong belief about is that it reflects the individuality of people. It gives me an insight as to how they see things and who they are. If you are going to propose a reason for the existence of art then this has to be a contender.?

Did I just make an argument that the perception of grass color is an artistic expression of who they are? Yeah, I think I did and I'm going to run with it.

The role of a colorist is many things. Some clients have a very specific idea about what they want and how to convey that. Others either don’t know or they can’t express it. A fundamental skill of a colorist is to recreate the color requirements for a client and/or get inside their brains to see what they see. I often say, that when a client is struggling to convey what they want or if they say ‘I’m not good with color’ I remind them that it doesn’t need to be their job and they can take that off their shoulders a little. It is my job to see what they see, it is my job to make that grass the color it needs to be for them or their project.

A final question for you; Why do we like grass to be green??

Have you ever seen a science fiction film where the humans land on a planet and the grass is red or blue? It feels unnatural, or unfamiliar, which is what it’s supposed to do to serve that story. Back on planet Earth, we like our grass to be green for a few simple reasons. Green grass is familiar and it’s comforting, we think of happiness and warmth.?Fundamentally we associate green grass with life and I think you’ll agree that that is something we should all have a passionate opinion about.