colorizing deserves another shot

[NipkowDisc]

 

[slaytonf]

I agree.  I'll shoot it.

[TopBilled]

It doesn't look right, Nip. Bogart's skin color looks peach. That's not how human flesh photographs in Technicolor, or in any color. They really aren't doing it right. It's better to keep it in black and white.

My opinion.

[scsu1975]

I sometimes watch "America In Color" on the Smithsonian Channel, which uses colorized footage.

And I have to admit ... it's lousy.

[Dargo]

1 hour ago, NipkowDisc said:

 

Wait! How come in this clip Cagney's not saying to Bogie, "I'm shocked, shocked to find you have gambling going on in here"???

(...oh...wait...different movie and different actor, huh...sorry) 

[TikiSoo]

COLORIZING DESERVES ANOTHER SHOT

Really? Why? You don't give any reasons to back up why you said that.

My reason NOT to colorize: not only does it look weird, it just panders to narrow thinking, prejudice attitudes against B&W movies.

Hey, let's colorize Ansel Adams & Man Ray photographs while we're at it!

[Sepiatone]

9 hours ago, scsu1975 said:

I sometimes watch "America In Color" on the Smithsonian Channel, which uses colorized footage.

And I have to admit ... it's lousy.

Sometimes, the HISTORY CHANNEL shows something called "WWII in Color", which isn't colorized,  but originally shot in color.  That works OK, but if the color was added, it might look like any other "colorized" movie/cartoon.  Which BTW, most colorized movies REMIND me of.

Sepiatone

[Janet0312]

Hand me my shootin' iron...

[TopBilled]

5 minutes ago, Janet0312 said:

Hand me my shootin' iron...

I think he's going to regret putting the word "shot" in the thread title.

[NipkowDisc]

10 hours ago, TopBilled said:

I think he's going to regret putting the word "shot" in the thread title.

I thought it would go good with the clip.

[NipkowDisc]

some movies shot in color look kinda colorized. tell me Life with Father shot in technicolor doan look colorized.

[Arsan404]

Colorizing movies doesn't do justice to the work of many people involved in the making of a black and white movie, like the cinematographer, costume and set designers, makeup artists, etc.

[sewhite2000]

Boy, if any image ever made Nipkow's pants go crazy, this is it!

[slaytonf]

3 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:

some movies shot in color look kinda colorized. tell me Life with Father shot in technicolor doan look colorized.

I've also wondered about how bad that movie looks.  Early Technicolor movies like Becky Sharp (1935), or Nothing Sacred (1937) might be excused by the newness of the system.  But Life With Father was shot in 1947.

[Ray Faiola]

10 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:

 tell me Life with Father shot in technicolor doan look colorized.

Are you looking at an original 35mm print? There are tons of bad public domain dupes out there that look awful.

[Sepiatone]

The fact remains that a movie, ANY movie that sucks eggs and is horribly written, acted and/or directed WON'T be improved if colorized.

Colorizing PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE won't put it any higher on the AFI "best" list. 

Sepiatone

[NipkowDisc]

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House was colorized and syndicated and I enjoyed it immensely especially when Muriel was laying out the colors.

the same for Chain Lightning. I enjoyed it more seeing Brennan shoot up to the stratosphere in the experimental JA-3 that was colorized. I loved the delightful blue tint colorizing gave the meteor dust through the cockpit window.

 

[Sukhov]

12 hours ago, slaytonf said:

I've also wondered about how bad that movie looks.  Early Technicolor movies like Becky Sharp (1935), or Nothing Sacred (1937) might be excused by the newness of the system.  But Life With Father was shot in 1947.

Well the film is in the public domain so that may explain why it looks so bad. Maybe Criterion or some other company will "touch it up" someday. 

[thomasterryjr]

I use to hold the opinion it would be nice to colorize black and white movies.  I received a two-by-four verbal beating on this message board for holding that opinion and I saw the error of my ways. 

I really do not believe colorizing would be a good idea.  Film Noir classics such as "The Spiral Staircase," "Murder, My Sweet," "The Big Heat," "Out of the Past," "Detour," "Gun Crazy," and so many other Film Noir titles would lose that certain edge of suspense and drama if they were presented in color.  One film which I believe was great as a color semi "Film Noir" film but would have been even better if presented as a black and white film was "L.A Confidential" released in 1997.  I assume the Director and others in power felt they could not really sell a black and white film to a 1997 audience use to watching a film in color but the film came out fine and it was appreciated by the the public and critics. 

[cigarjoe]

1 hour ago, thomasterryjr said:

I use to hold the opinion it would be nice to colorize black and white movies.  I received a two-by-four verbal beating on this message board for holding that opinion and I saw the error of my ways. 

I really do not believe colorizing would be a good idea.  Film Noir classics such as "The Spiral Staircase," "Murder, My Sweet," "The Big Heat," "Out of the Past," "Detour," "Gun Crazy," and so many other Film Noir titles would lose that certain edge of suspense and drama if they were presented in color.  One film which I believe was great as a color semi "Film Noir" film but would have been even better if presented as a black and white film was "L.A Confidential" released in 1997.  I assume the Director and others in power felt they could not really sell a black and white film to a 1997 audience use to watching a film in color but the film came out fine and it was appreciated by the the public and critics. 

They also couldn't sell fedoras, which should have been prevalent in that time period. 

[TikiSoo]

As a professional "colorist" I can tell you 98% of my customers cannot picture described colors in their mind. I would venture to guess that is why some people like colorized movies, they have little imagination.

When I watch B&W films, I "sense" color anyway - just from shade and texture. It was very early that I realized satin clothing makes the wearer look slimmer due to the high contrast tones of the fabric.

[TopBilled]

17 hours ago, Gershwin fan said:

Well the film is in the public domain so that may explain why it looks so bad. Maybe Criterion or some other company will "touch it up" someday. 

Yes, I'm surprised they haven't restored BECKY SHARP, as it would be a perfect project for them.

[TopBilled]

7 hours ago, thomasterryjr said:

I use to hold the opinion it would be nice to colorize black and white movies.  I received a two-by-four verbal beating on this message board for holding that opinion and I saw the error of my ways. 

I really do not believe colorizing would be a good idea.  Film Noir classics such as "The Spiral Staircase," "Murder, My Sweet," "The Big Heat," "Out of the Past," "Detour," "Gun Crazy," and so many other Film Noir titles would lose that certain edge of suspense and drama if they were presented in color.  One film which I believe was great as a color semi "Film Noir" film but would have been even better if presented as a black and white film was "L.A Confidential" released in 1997.  I assume the Director and others in power felt they could not really sell a black and white film to a 1997 audience use to watching a film in color but the film came out fine and it was appreciated by the the public and critics. 

Four years earlier SCHINDLER'S LIST had been made, all in black-and-white. And it earned over $300 million at the box office. 

[Sepiatone]

And I too, don't think colorizing would "improve" movies like THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and PAPER MOON.

And don't forget either, when in the process' early days, the complaint STAN LAUREL's daughter raised when the "colorizers" got both his eye AND hair color all wrong!  At one point, she said, "All they had to do was CALL me for verification, and all would have been OK." 

Sepiatone

[Janet0312]

On 1/15/2019 at 10:03 PM, Arsan404 said:

Colorizing movies doesn't do justice to the work of many people involved in the making of a black and white movie, like the cinematographer, costume and set designers, makeup artists, etc.

No kidding. What would James Wong Howe say?