SKAM’s mains & colour palettes

I’ve seen a few people talk (and gotten a few asks) about what could the stark blacks and whites in Sana’s season could possibly mean. So far, I haven’t seen any opinion on this I really agree with so I’ll add my personal interpretation to the mix.

Each season has a different colour palette (and filter added in post-prod) that corresponds to its main and, by extension, their personality and how they see the world.

I picked a selected pictures from each season to illustrate my point. Sometimes, the main isn’t in the picture, so as to show you how much they influence (because it’s their season and their POV) the characters around them.

Eva’s colour palette is very earthy with yellows, greens, greys, creamy whites… The type of clothes she (and the people around her) mostly wear are wintery, cosy, and soft. The whole season’s picture seems quite dimmed/faded (probably a filter) that goes with Eva’s self effacing personality and how she feels she blends in the background. The only times she dresses in all black with heavy makeup is when she’s out of her comfort zone: namely, at parties.

Noora’s colour palette is saturated (but the colours/filters dim when she’s not feeling well, like when the stuff with Niko happens) with pop-y blues, yellows, oranges… The colours (and clothes) go with Noora’s joyful and spirited personality. The types of clothes she (and the people around her) mostly wear are quite fashionable. As for the filter, to me it looks like a cold yellow but people have also suggested that the filter might “just” saturate the colours.

Isak’s colour palette is dark with army greens, burgundy reds, dark greys, … To me, it goes with how low (and even depressed) Isak is feeling during most of his season. The types of clothes he (and the people around him) mostly wear are very casual and unremarkable. This goes to contrast with how different Isak feels from the people around him, how he feels that (ultimately) he doesn’t fit and has to blend as much as possible and mimics the “normal” attitudes around him (ultimately he embraces who he is, that he doesn’t have to behave or dress one way or another to fit his true self, that he is his own “blend”). A bluish filter is used. Blue usually indicates sadness and melancholy (”feeling blue”).

And now we have Sana…

Sana’s happy colour is black. Her season’s colour palette is black&white with, obviously, blacks and whites but also colours “in between” like greys and browns. The clothes she (and people around her) wears are casual and sporty. She wears lighter/warmer colours and makeup the more comfortable she is. And her makeup gets darker and heavier, as her clothes get darker too and less personable, when she is uncomfortable and closed-off. This goes with Sana’s badass and active personality (as well as her love for basketball and hip hop music). The filter used is warm earthy yellow.

So yeah: to me, not everything has to be just symbolic for the sake of. TV shows and movies are visual arts and colours are, as a result, very important. You don’t need to dig deep into symbolic to get a feel about a character based solely on the colours used. A character dressed in white doesn’t automatically mean goodness and purity. Sometimes, when a character is in white and all the others around them are in black, it’s just that the director wants us to focus even more on that character in white.

Special thanks to @imagineisak who helped a lot with the colour lingo and who you should go harass so they write us a deeper meta on the use of colours in SKAM. Lots of thanks to the skamily discord chat as well. <3

Isak’s eyes in 3 season

Elias “brother of the year” Bakkoush

isak valtersen      ↳ season 1 | season 2 | season 3 | season 4

#SomeoneHugSana2k17

Norway’s biggest local newspaper is Aftenposten and they have something called Si;D which is a site where they publish article written by anyone between the ages 13-21. In 2015 and 2016 many of their most written about themes was Skam, especially Noora’s sexual assault was a case that they got submitted many articles about. 

In 2016 one article was called “Vi er de skamløse arabiske jentene” meaning “We are the shameless arabic girls”. The article inspired other articles by Norwegian minority girls. The first article brought up Sana as one of the reasons they wanted to speak up. 

The three girls that became the spokeswomen for the moment Sofia Srour, Nancy Herz and Amina Bile ended up winning the “Fritt ord” award celebrating freedom of speech in Norway. 

And to create a nice circle the three shameless arabic girls became one of the main sources for Sana’s season.

isak’s nose doing the Thing™

#i don’t know what flirting straight non-sense tactic is this #but i am so here for it

mahdi disi + smiling (requested anonymously)