lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (09/30/85)
It's time to get up on my soapbox and editorialize against what has to be one of the more disgusting recent practices creeping into television--computerized colorization of old B&W prints. I'm sitting here watching a colorized version of the classic "Topper," and man, it's pretty sad. Unnatural colors and fixed hues. Color smearing and edge effects. Yuchh. The worst part is that you can't really turn it off. Oh yeah, the colorization people tell you to "turn down your color" if you don't like it. But what does that give you? Do you get back the original monochrome shadings? These shadings in many cases were very carefully designed and executed during the original filmings. Well, you DON'T get back the original monochrome, since some peon selects arbitrary color values for colorizations, and that means that the monochrome that results from turning down the color is based on those NEW values. That is, there is a fixed relationship between television monochrome values and color choice/intensity. If you choose arbitrary colors and intensities, the resulting monochrome (when the color is turned off) is also arbitrary-- NOT what was in the original film. It's really pretty disgusting to see what they're doing to these fine old films in the name of "progress" and the view that "The American Public doesn't like watching Black and White..." --Lauren--
jayj@hpisla.UUCP (Jay Johannes) (10/02/85)
I tend to agree on this one. Colorization is not Technicolor by any means. What you get tends to be pastels that give a washed out look. I suspect that brighter colors are not used because they can't handle the shading when using brilliant colors. The good news is that the originals still exist and are available. We don't have to put up with "improvements". I suspect that this is going to be a passing fad, rather than a trend. The unknown THEY have decided that older movies are losing popularity because of a lack of color. If colorization doesn't generate new revenue, then nobody will colorize. BTW, if you dont have access to a copy of TOPPER, you can look at the results by checking out the intro to the new Alfred Hitchcok (sp) series. They colorized and are reusing the intros from the original series. Check out the Sunday evening network schedule. (I am not really recommending the series, just providing data)
speaker@ttidcb.UUCP (Kenneth Speaker) (10/03/85)
Let's here it! Apparently the process does not "sit on top" of the intensity information, as the old hand coloring of prints did as this would be eliminated by turning off the color. I too have seen the results of Hal Roach's efforts and am not amused. But then, how many people use B&W film today? Everyone wants COLOR photographs of aunt Jennie and uncle harry (both with gray hair, she in a black and white dress, he in his "sunday best" black suit standing in front of their white house in the snow of mid- winter in Cincinatti). In a related manner, add my disgust with the "modernization" of old silents, such as Metropolis. Sorry, comparing the copy of the original silent with a the modern Moroder (sp?) update leaves little doubt which set of production personnel understood the film, and which set was on an ego trip. --Kne
larsen@utah-gr.UUCP (Mark Larsen) (10/05/85)
I remember the Silver anniversary special of the Twilight Zone had
portions of the third episode (starring a young Duval (sp?)) colorized
and I thought it was a splendid idea. Now the wholesale colorization
of old B&W movies is another matter...
-lml
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Ma faute! Comment cela? L. Mark Larsen
UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|hplabs|seismo}!utah-gr!larsen
ARPA: oper.larsen@utah-20.arpa
USnail: 4602 So. 600 E. Salt Lake City, UT 84107lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (10/08/85)
The lack of bright colors and the presence of "washed-out" pastels is certainly notable. The Hitchcock show intros don't show some of the more awful "motion" effects, since Alfred doesn't move around too much in most of those intros. --Lauren--
thoth@tellab3.UUCP (Marcus Hall) (10/16/85)
I am not familiar with the equipment used to colorize B&W prints, but it seems that it would be desirable to use the old B&W signal as the intensity of the new colored areas. The operator would just assign hue and saturation values to a field, and the intensity would remain the same as the old intensity. This would provide accurate shading (or at least pretty close) automatically since shading information is already present. If this scheme is used, wouldn't turning the color down on a receiver produce exactly the same B&W image as the original since this was never changed? marcus hall ..!ihnp4!tellab1!tellab2!thoth