Colorizing B&W

[Noahtuck]

My DVD Recorder won't even record in B&W.

So if you feed an old black & white vhs tape into it, does it colorise it like Ted Turner :P

[DereX888]

My DVD Recorder won't even record in B&W.

So if you feed an old black & white vhs tape into it, does it colorise it like Ted Turner :P

me wants that

BTW - why haven't Turner colorised i.e. "Casablanca"? Such a great old film, what a waste in B&W

[spiritgumm]

I was going to make that joke, but I didn't want to derail my own post.

[GreatSinatraFan]

DereX888,

Ted Turner DID "colorize" CASABLANCA. It's not only in "Color", but also in (false) "STEREO".

This version was shown on his network around 1989, exactly ONCE. Due to all the hoopla against colorization, Turner vowed that this version would never be shown on tv again, so; it's never been shown on tv since that time. BUT this version WAS released on commercial video tape. That tape is very rare, it's almost impossible to find any more.

I have a copy of this videotape.

But it was in pretty bad condition when I found it. I had to edit out a few bad (noisy) spots in the tape; not so much that it's noticible, but it made a fairly decent dvd.

The "colorization" of this film IS interesting..the guys who actually worked on it did a bang up job. Out of all the other films that were "colorized" at that time, it's actually the best "colorization" project that was done. The skin tones actually LOOK like skin! The colors are really true, instead of the faded pastels that are the hallmark of those early "colorization" projects. Pretty decent for the late '80's.

With all of the advances in computer video technology today; I betcha that whoever owns CASABLANCA (Ted Turner?) might be able to recreate a great period piece with that early 1940's "technicolor" look.

But.. all things considered; CASABLANCA remains a masterpiece in Black and White. Perfection shouldn't be tampered with.

Still, the 1989 "colorization" of CASABLANCA IS interesting. But I'd rather watch the Black and White version any day. It's great just the way it was made.



Ring-A-Ding-Ding ~!

[Noahtuck]

But.. all things considered; CASABLANCA remains a masterpiece in Black and White. Perfection shouldn't be tampered with.

Yep!!!! any old classic B&W that i have seen colorised SUCKED!!!!!!!!!

They can never get it right!!!!! trying to colorise all the B&W not to mention all the variations of gray they could never replicate in modern tech. trying to make a B&W vid 8)

[DereX888]

DereX888,

Ted Turner DID "colorize" CASABLANCA. It's not only in "Color", but also in (false) "STEREO".

This version was shown on his network around 1989, exactly ONCE. Due to all the hoopla against colorization, Turner vowed that this version would never be shown on tv again, so; it's never been shown on tv since that time. BUT this version WAS released on commercial video tape. That tape is very rare, it's almost impossible to find any more.

I have a copy of this videotape.

But it was in pretty bad condition when I found it. I had to edit out a few bad (noisy) spots in the tape; not so much that it's noticible, but it made a fairly decent dvd.

The "colorization" of this film IS interesting..the guys who actually worked on it did a bang up job. Out of all the other films that were "colorized" at that time, it's actually the best "colorization" project that was done. The skin tones actually LOOK like skin! The colors are really true, instead of the faded pastels that are the hallmark of those early "colorization" projects. Pretty decent for the late '80's.

With all of the advances in computer video technology today; I betcha that whoever owns CASABLANCA (Ted Turner?) might be able to recreate a great period piece with that early 1940's "technicolor" look.

But.. all things considered; CASABLANCA remains a masterpiece in Black and White. Perfection shouldn't be tampered with.

Still, the 1989 "colorization" of CASABLANCA IS interesting. But I'd rather watch the Black and White version any day. It's great just the way it was made.



Ring-A-Ding-Ding ~!

@GreatSinatraFan:
Thank you for the reply. I had no clue there is a colorized version of this great oldie.
I can understand your fascination with B&W, however lets not elevate shortcomings of old technologies (or lack of budget, or whatever the real reasons were to make it in B&W) to the status of perfection
If they had the technology/budget/whatever-the-reason, they would have made it in color from begining, Im pretty sure.
Old people who grew up on B&W don't mind lack of colors, but for people of my generation (and younger) lack of color is simply a lack of color, something that makes the best movie acceptable at best, kinda half-worth.
I have tried to watch i.e. Casablanca many times - I never could stand more than few minutes of it due to lack of color. It simply hurts. I don't know how to explain it to you, perhaps on analogy to music: if its monaural I can't stand it. Its like listening to your favorite music on AM broadcast, even if you like it - you won't let it hurt your ears for too long
Anyway, after many, many tries on one night I have finally seen entire Casablanca; perhaps my mood was more 'forgiving' and I could stand B&W at that moment, I don't know, anyway I did get through it - after half an hour or so you can get used to lack of colors - and I loved the movie. But its not the point. The point is that basically no one from my friends have seen it, and I don't think anyone ever will, even with my best recommendations - unless that Turner Color version will be released and avialable instead. Isn't it sad? Yes, you might say "they don't know on what theyre passing' but its still sad.
IMO very few films should be left B&W. By not colorizing them they are doomed to extinction by being forgotten entirely once the generation that grew on them dies out. Only some movie freaks like me will want to watch them once in a blue moon (and its questionable would they be more popular had they been colorized anyway, but Im sure it wouldn't hurt their 'popularity' either)
Sad but true.

BTW - I apologize to the OTP for hijacking his thread!

[mats.hogberg]

@GreatSinatraFan, DereX888, Noahtuck:
You should all know better than to hijack a topic. The OP quite rightfully feels his thread ruined by a quite unrelated discussion. Please feel free to continue discussing colorizing movies in OT.

/Mats

[offline]

I've split this thread so you may continue to discuss the merits, or lack of, in turning bbw films into color.

[lordsmurf]

I like to turn color films B&W. Does this count as a threadjack?

[offline]

No you are safe LS. Mats is a nice guy and he let them off; which is ok as they are mostly very helpful. Me; I would have sentenced them to dub three years of colorized Here's Lucy episodes, by analog capture card.

[Noahtuck]

I was going to make that joke, but I didn't want to derail my own post.

Oh please!!
He even said he was gonna make that joke, then about it 8)

I like to turn color films B&W. Does this count as a threadjack?

Hang em!!! hang em high i say!!!!!

Me; I would have sentenced them to dub three years of colorized Here's Lucy episodes, by analog capture card.

Doesn't that fall under cruel and inhumane treatment

@GreatSinatraFan, DereX888, Noahtuck:
You should all know better than to hijack a topic. The OP quite rightfully feels his thread ruined by a quite unrelated discussion. Please feel free to continue discussing colorizing movies in OT.

/Mats

I'm sorry, my fault, i started it by making that little joke to hech54
(which you left there)

[GreatSinatraFan]

Hey ya'll;

Sorry; but I had NO idea that I was "hijacking" anything. I was just adding my two cents regarding "Casablanca" and the "colorization" of that film; since DereX888 mentioned it in passing.

But let me quickly add that DereX888 is missing a great deal by only watching films made in color. Some films, like Casablanca for instance; are simply gorgeous in Black and White. B&W photography can be truly an art form.

Sorry guys for doing anything against the rules.



Ring-A-Ding-Ding !

[DereX888]

Well, honestly, I thought the matter was resolved (by OP himself iirc) and even though I added small apology for hijacking the thread I still thought like there is nothing else to add in the original subject (obviously his machine's behaviour is by design, there's nothing to correct it) thus IMO it was free to continue OT anyway.
Sorry if it hurt anyone

My God, offline, you are so CRUEL!!!!
and, umm, smurf - it is threadjacking :P therefore you are hereby sentenced by offline to 100 hrs of voluntary de-colorizing work on MSNBC programming using only your ati all-in-wonder and windows paint.exe :P


GreatSinatraFan - there is plenty of great oldies, I agree; but you misunderstand me - all Im saying is that it would be better to have choice of original el-cheapo B&W and colorized versions of the old masterpieces (and not only).


PS: thx for splitting the threads

[Doramius]

If you're color blind, does it matter if anything is colorized anyway? It probably would be better in B&W anyway. Less distracting. As for colorizing the movie. I say "WHY THE HELL NOT?" As long as you keep the B&W version available, you're good to go. I have "it's a Wonderful Life" on a 2 DVD disc set. One disc is B&W and the other is color. I'd rather watch the B&W version, though. My son is young, so the colors are more appealing to him. That's where I see color having it's advantages. Most older movies are not as harsh as todays movies. The B&W versions just won't hold his attention like color. I'm sure as he gets older and takes a stronger understanding towards movies, that may change.


Now here's something interesting. Imagine people who have nothing but a B&W TV and watched "The Wizard of OZ". I'm betting it didn't catch as strong of a meaning on the other side of the Rainbow. But I can't help but wonder what it would be like if they colorized the B&W parts. I'm sure it'll look crappy, but interesting.

It also annoyed me in the "Return to OZ", that the whole movie was made in color. Honestly, the movie bothered me altogether, but It lost meaning when it was in color before and after crossing over the rainbow a second time.

[Cobra]

I don't know about anyone else, but if I start watching a film in black and white it sort of becomes colour anyway. You get used to seeing in black and white and it all makes perfect sense. Unlike me, probably.

[Doramius]

I don't know about anyone else, but if I start watching a film in black and white it sort of becomes colour anyway. You get used to seeing in black and white and it all makes perfect sense. Unlike me, probably.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? :P

[Cobra]

Don't know, Doramius. Could be anything at this time of night.

[DereX888]

I don't know about anyone else, but if I start watching a film in black and white it sort of becomes colour anyway. You get used to seeing in black and white and it all makes perfect sense. Unlike me, probably.

I want what youre taking!



BTW: we just found out a very great subject overlooked by all politically correct wh*res!
In all politically correct schools food/snacks containing peanuts is banned (because statistically one child per school or per region may be alergic to peanuts and pcw's rather ban it than force kids parents to teach their kid proper behaviour and not to eat *someone elses* food).
Therefore all kids tv productions and movies should have been by law forced to be in B&W, because there is probably same or similar percentage of color blind kids in every school or region, right?

[guns1inger]

I showed my youngest the original King Kong when he about 4. He wanted to know if all the colour had worn off because it was so old.

One of the problems with colourising B&W films is that things like costumes and sets were coloured to make the black and white photography look good. If they had been filmed in colour at the time using the same costumes and sets they would look hideous. On top of that, all the blood in gangster films would be brown because it looked more red that red.

Perhaps the colour blind kids should only watch turner's colourised versions. They probably look alright to them, given, I suspect, that the colourisation artist was also colour blind.

[Doramius]

In Hitchcock films the blood would have been thick brown. Heshey's syrup was far cheaper than fake blood and gave a better likeness in B&W. :P

[offline]

In early tv broadcasts, bright green makeup was sometimes used as it afforded the best contrast for close up face shots. Other tricks of the trade included large marbles in soup commercials, to make soup appear more "chunky", contact adhesive sprayed on food to give it "luster" and the famous early use of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to make models appear more youthful.

[Doramius]

Muddy puddles were often made with cold coffee as it offered easier stage clean-up and splashed better when stepped in. The wardrobes were ugly contrasted colors and were often thrown out anyway, so the stains were not a worry.

[DereX888]

Yeah, I saw somewhere an old orange/green skies backdrop painting in the studio storage. It must have been some B&W-times original background remnant.

Anyway, even if good ol' B&W flicks were made with green-skin aliens pretending to be a black-skin africans, it doesn't matter.
I'm pretty sure modern software can correct that to anything we want, including flesh tones, wardrobe and anything else, during the colorization work on a computers.


I rather see badly colorised old movie, than best grey-tones B&W old original.
Same goes for sound - I rather have it badly mixed in stereo at least, than best monaural original.
Sorry, but thats just my opinion.

The only exceptions are films where B&W parts are required - Wizard of Oz in example.
But except for those few the rest of them would have been shot in color if they had the technology or a budget back then, so I don't understand whats the opposition to colorising them good old masterpieces?
Most of old records were monaural. Because they didn't have technology to record spacious sound we should still keep their works unenhanced to stereo? (GreatSinatraFan - pls don't tell me you prefer original monaural recordings of your favorite singer? I won't believe it )
Go further: 100+ years ago they weren't able to mass-produce books with color illustrations. Just because our ancestors didn't have the means to do it, we should forget our advances in technology and still keep printing their works without color too? (Imagine i.e. kids books of old writers like Grimm bros, Andersen's etc LOL).
Thats stupid IMO.

[Doramius]

Not all of that is necessarily true. Even after colorization, films were still made in B&W to prove a point. Before & after, B&W films had a way to set a certain artistic desire. Had color been there, they would have even created the movie and directed it different, rather than change the scenery & wardrobe colors. The same with silent to audio films. They wouldn't have a need to exaggerate their actions to show emotion or tone. Color did the very same thing. Color does add a warm feeling, but it can take away the initial artisitic point of view that was intended.

I personally feel they should add color to old films, but still allow the original B&W version to be available. Why the heck not? I wanna choose wether i liked it better as a color or B&W version, or maybe get both depending on my mood. JUst like I said before, I have "It's a Wonderful Life" on a 2 Disc set. One is B&W and the other is color. Sometimes I watch the color, others I watch the B&W. Most of the time I prefer the B&W because I have a deeper understanding of the films artistry. That, and the fact that I think they poorly coordinated some of the peoples clothes at points.