At Charenton Macerations, video is a constant presence. We watch it, produce it, and think through it. At any given moment, multiple screens may be running at once, drawing in images and ideas from across the world. Think David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth.
As access to video continues to expand, and the tools of production become increasingly accessible, its influence only deepens. With platforms like YouTube reaching audiences in the billions, and recording devices built into everyday objects, video has become central to how we interpret our surroundings. It shapes attention, perception, and memory.
Consider how much time is spent with a screen. Television, computers, phones. The number continues to rise. Video is not simply content. It is an interface for experience, a way of organizing how we see and feel. For this reason, we treat it as a tool for thinking through fragrance. It offers another language for expressing what scent can look like, how it can move, and how it can be felt.
A reference point that continues to resonate is the 1985 film Mask, starring Cher, Eric Stoltz, Sam Elliott, and Laura Dern. The film follows Rocky Dennis, a boy living with severe facial differences, and challenges conventional ideas of beauty. In one scene, Rocky describes color to Diana, a blind girl he meets at camp. Through touch and association, she begins to understand color as he experiences it. What emerges is not a definition, but a shared language built through sensation.
This exchange feels closely aligned with fragrance. It suggests that perception does not rely on sight alone, but on translation, trust, and emotional connection. Color and scent both operate in this space. They are felt, interpreted, and communicated through association.
In video production, color plays a central role in shaping that experience. Tools such as the 3-Way Color Corrector are used to adjust tone, balance, and atmosphere. A shift in color can make an image feel more immediate, more distant, more intimate, or more constructed. Even the rendering of skin carries intention. There is always an effort to guide perception, though never complete control over it.
Color remains deeply subjective. It can be measured in hue, saturation, and lightness, yet its meaning is never fixed. Cultural context, memory, and environment all influence how it is received. The same is true of fragrance. Even when reduced to formula, response continues to shift. What remains consistent is its ability to provoke.
Because of this, color has become an essential tool across industries. It is central to branding, identity, and communication. Television networks, for example, invest heavily in defining their visual profiles, understanding that color shapes recognition and emotional tone.
There is much that fragrance can learn from this. In color theory, combinations that create balance and pleasure are described as harmonies. Fragrance has its own systems of classification, often grouped into families. While useful within the industry, these systems can feel opaque to those outside of it. They lack the intuitive accessibility that color seems to offer from an early age.
Color is taught, named, and explored early in life. It invites participation. Fragrance, by contrast, is rarely introduced with the same openness. Its language can feel closed, its categories inconsistent. There is an opportunity here to rethink how scent is communicated. To draw from the fluidity of color and develop a vocabulary that is more inclusive, more flexible, and more widely understood.
When fragrance is considered alongside color, it begins to function differently. It becomes less of an object and more of a lens. A way of shaping how the world is experienced. Its applications expand. It moves beyond the body into environments, into rituals, into shared spaces.
We already understand the role color plays in constructing those spaces. It defines mood, signals identity, and carries value. It informs how we design interiors, how we choose objects, how we present ourselves. It operates both analytically and emotionally, both privately and publicly.
Fragrance holds the same potential. It can communicate, provoke, and position. It can challenge perception and create new forms of connection. Like color, it is capable of making a statement.