Colourizing B&W shows

[Aussie Bloke]

Hi all. I've noticed in recent years there's been digital colourization of B&W shows and movies. Recently I've caught the arse end of the pilot of Gilligan's Island which was in colour and firstly I was fooled to believe it was originally filmed in colour but after about 10 seconds of watching I noticed the skin tones looked pretty monotone (one colour) and the monotone green of the vegetation was a dead giveaway that this show was originally B&W and has been digitally colourized. Another example was the Supremes "Come See About Me" performance on Ed Sullivan show 1964 which I initially thought was originally colour but now I know is definitely B&W and been colourized which they did a great job on the skin tones of the Supremes but Ed Sullivan looked fake with the single skin tone, and the black haloing is another dead giveaway as TK-41s generally give violet/mauve halos. Also I've seen a 40s film think entitled "Christmas In Conneticut" which the colour job didn't look as realistic as Gilligan's Island.

Anyways I was wondering if there's been attempts to colourize B&W videos or kinescope films of the 50s?

Cheers
Troy

[Celt]

Ted Turner colorized many classic MGM and WB movies in the 80's and took major heat for it. In black and white, the focus is on light and shadow, making sure the scene has the greatest impact by their use. Colorizing B&W is an abomination IMO.

[botrytis]

I agree Celt, the last thing I want to see colorized in Casblanca!!

Dave

[old_tv_nut]

I totally agree that colorizing is an abomination - but the secretary in our department, who is old enough to remember B&W movies, volunteered that she would not watch any old B&W movies because "color is so much better".

I call this "kissing the cow", from something my aunt used to say:
"'Everyone to their own taste,' said the old lady as she kissed the cow."

Not sure if she realizes that some movies have been colorized and received a negative reaction, and I didn't want to start a discussion in the face of her firmly stated opinion.

[Celt]

Oh, well. She wouldn't want to look at any of Ansel Adams photography work then!

[old_tv_nut]

also see the "Calvin & Hobbes" dialog I posted in the early B&W forum

[Sandy G]

Yeah, colorisation is pretty much an abombination. One good thing is that they don't seem to do much of it anymore. I remember seeing a VERY early silent film being "hand-colorised"-they literally painted EVERY frame-and it was kinda neat, in a 4th grade sort of way.-Sandy G.

[colortrakker]

I'll reserve my venom for the artistic side of the debate for some time later. Mean time I'll say that the quality of the colorizing left a HUGE amount to be desired. Flesh tones were always pinkish-orange, and dark green always looked funny - like it was glowing or something. Nickelodeon used to run colorized Looney Tunes back in the day and they looked just as bad as the colorized feature films. Glad that craze is over.

[Eric H]

The first season of Gilligan was in B&W, some genius decided to colorize it to make it more appealing, BOOOooooo!
I know someone who teaches a college film class and the number of students who don't want to watch B&W is amazing, and depressing.
Oh well there young, maybe they'll learn in time.

I bet fully half the films I watch are in B&W! many had a budget that wouldn't cover lunch on a big studio production (Roger Corman anyone ) and I enjoy them much more than many 100 million dollar "blockbusters"

[old_tv_nut]

Just as a balancing note - I read somewhere that many of the ancient statues that we enjoy as plain marble would have been painted to portray natural colors - and don't forget all the Egyptian tomb art. But certainly, works originally in B&W are optimized for that and shouldn't be second-guessed!

[Chad Hauris]

I prefer to watch b/w movies as actual films when possible (like 16mm films) because it seems more life-like than watching b/w films on TV...the increased quality of the film image seems to make up for the lack of color.

Also you can turn down the color level to eliminate color on colorized b/w programs...it does not seem like there is any adverse affect by the colorization when this is done. Was watching the Absent Minded Professor DVD...this appears to be colorized as i'm sure this was originally a b/w movie. It seems like they did a good job with the color, though....however I did turn down the color so I could watch it in black and white.

[Celt]

True. You can always turn the color down. But I have at least one "colorized" movie that the image seems smeared by comparison to an earlier, worn B&W print. Maybe the clean up process caused the smearing. I'm not sure. All I know is that I don't like it.

[Dave A]

In the beginning, colorizing was done to a partially bleached B&W print which allowed color to show through dark suits, shadows, etc, but that gives them that very flat look. The very early ones also repeated the colorizing for 2-3 frames to save costs. Look closely and you will see movement under the stationary color.

I have heard of a Three Stooges release that was done digitally (I'll call the bleach method analog) and is supposed to look spectacular. Even to the point of the digital studio finding some of the old props (an old yellow stove in particular) to get some reference for colors.

I would be curious to see it...and I am a television director who has not lost sleep over this. Just grab that color control.

Dave A

[mbates14]

You know what would be hilarious. Colorizing the show I love lucy. That show is awsome and funny enough, it would be kinda even more hilarious if it were in color. hehe.

[Steve K]

If I remember correctly there was one episode of an "I Love Lucy" show that was colorized. It was a rarely seen Christmas episode. It was shown about 15 years ago.

Steve