Colorizing Old Movies

[HadleyH]

Ah, a fan of Pathechrome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cCCcXzguSk

Yesssss

anything that was colorized in the 1930s I love! :eusa_clap ... But it must be strictly 1930s! Otherwise no good!



[YOUTUBE] <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uAwvAuSWCr8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uAwvAuSWCr8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Chas]

Great clip. The guy in the lime green suit has got to be gay.

That being said, I like that colorization; but I'd have to agree. Leave the old prints alone!

 

[Atomic Age]

I'm with you on the dislike of pan and scan. What's even worse to me now is the 120Hz HDTV's that have what Samsung calls "Auto Motion Plus", but is basically an effect to reduce motion blurring. When I was shopping for my first HDTV a year or so ago, I couldn't figure out why the cheaper 60Hz TV's looked better to me than the 120Hz TV's that the salesmen assured me were much better. If the 120Hz ones were showing a movie, it didn't even look like film. It looked like really high resolution videotape. After doing some research, I found out that the 120Hz HDTV's had the "Auto Motion" effect, and that you can turn it off. I ended up going with a 120Hz Samsung, and the first thing I did was turn off that dadblamed Auto Motion. It looks wonderful, and film looks like film. I'm sure most people don't even notice the Auto Motion effect and think it looks just fine, but I can spot it right away. It's sort of like the difference between film and videotape, and a surprising amount of people can't tell the difference between those either.

The main advantage of the 120hz TV, is that it can display a 24fps film with out having to do 3:2 pull down. In other words, when you watch a movie on a regular 60hz TV they have to show the first frame 2 times, and the second frame 3 times, and on it goes. This is because 24 doesn't go into 60 evenly. So when you watch a film on a 60hz TV there is a slight stutter. However on a 120hz TV, every frame of a 24fps film is displayed 4 times, so you basically have true 24fps playback.

Now the crappy thing is what you point out about auto motion. Most TV manufactures have some variation on this feature. Basically what it does is creates new frames in between the real frames, to try and "smooth out" the action. All it really does is make the images look like they were shot on video tape. Not to mention creating all kinds of digital artifacts. It really is the frame rate that makes film look like film, and video look like video.

So if you know whats good for you, take Mr E Train's advice and turn off the auto motion feature.

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

Ah, a fan of Pathechrome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cCCcXzguSk

Some of the old 2 strip Technicolor films have an interesting look also.

Doug

 

[Feraud]

There is nothing "dead" looking about this noir montage.

This 6 minute short was screened at the Seattle Noir City festival last night. The Film Noir Foundation members were so impressed they created a new "Endless Night" award for aspiring noir film makers and awarded the first one to the author of the piece.

[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xOgBa2Oij1A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xOgBa2Oij1A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]​

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some of the old 2 strip Technicolor films have an interesting look also.

Doug

One critic at the time compared 2-color Technicolor to a "hand colored Coney Island postcard circa 1910," but despite that it wasn't actually colorization: it was a genuine form of color photography using filters to generate black and white negatives that contained the color information, which was recovered during the printing process. Its main shortcoming was that it couldn't accurately reproduce blue or yellow -- problems solved by the 3-color process.

Hadley's clip above is an early example of 3-color Technicolor -- like two-color, it also used black-and-white negatives shot thru filters, with the color information recovered during printing.

Pathechrome, however, was true "colorization." It used a regular black and white print of the film, which would be run thru a system of precision-cut stencils, which added dyes to produce the desired colors. It was a very popular process in Europe, where it had been used since the turn of the century, but didn't make much headway in the US, where overall color tinting of scenes was more popular.

 

[Atomic Age]

One critic at the time compared 2-color Technicolor to a "hand colored Coney Island postcard circa 1910," but despite that it wasn't actually colorization: it was a genuine form of color photography using filters to generate black and white negatives that contained the color information, which was recovered during the printing process. Its main shortcoming was that it couldn't accurately reproduce blue or yellow -- problems solved by the 3-color process.

Hadley's clip above is an early example of 3-color Technicolor -- like two-color, it also used black-and-white negatives shot thru filters, with the color information recovered during printing.

Pathechrome, however, was true "colorization." It used a regular black and white print of the film, which would be run thru a system of precision-cut stencils, which added dyes to produce the desired colors. It was a very popular process in Europe, where it had been used since the turn of the century, but didn't make much headway in the US, where overall color tinting of scenes was more popular.

There is an excellent book on Technicolor called Glorious Technicolor: The Movies' Magic Rainbow. If anyone is interested in early color cinematography I recommend it.

I was aware of the Pathechrome process, but I'd never seen any examples of it. I knew it was not a true color photography system, but the end result reminds me of the pastel look of 2 strip technicolor.

Doug

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Colorization depends upon the director, the genre and the story being depicted. I view an original version of a movie as I do an original version of a song; merely an interpretation of that which has been written by another person in many instances. Therefore, I will view a colorized version of a classic with an open mind. Sometimes it presents a better view of the story being told and sometimes it does not.

However, when it comes to certain directors such as Alfred Hitchcock whose technique included plotting out every angle and every scene and he used the camera to guide the story and build tension, I do not believe it would add to his films.

Another issue may include whether the filmmaker would have used color of it were available such as in extravaganzas like musicals or epic films which has natural scenery. In these cases I would like to have colorization.

Here is “Reefer Madness” (1937) juxtaposed to compare the B&W version with the colorized version. I prefer the colorized version.


[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Azf320JDdqU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Azf320JDdqU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE][YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QxdEV28_TgA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QxdEV28_TgA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]