Colorization: a possible solution to unreleased B/W shows? (2 Viewers)

[Corey3rd]

Once you colorize a scene, you can't merely turn down the color on your TV to watch it in black and white. The contrasts have been completely altered.

I wouldn't want to watch The Untouchables in color. Robert Stack looks best in Black and white.

There are plenty of shows that lost their edge when they went color. Andy Griffith Show being a perfect example. Or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

 

[SD_Brian]

The Andy Griffith Show had an edge? Who knew?

 

[BernieV]

Not really... LOL sadly. Turning down the color level doesn't restore the depth of tone present in the original B&W. The picture looks flat and detail in the shadows is lost. You can't reverse engineer a transfer with digital settings.

 

[Harry-N]

I've stated it before in other threads on the subject and I'll repeat my feelings here.

I have no objections to colorization as long as the original black & white is also available (like the current A CHRISTMAS CAROL ('51) discs). What I cannot stand, will not abide, and will not support is any release of black & white material that's only available in a colorized form.

I'm not anti-choice here. If there are those that have to have everything prettified, that's fine, as long as I can have my pristine original black & white version too.

Personally I'd rather live with fading memories of an old show than to have to abide a colorized-only release.

Harry

 

[TravisR]

Will a show suddenly sell just because it's in color? I just don't see the kids rushing to the stores to get Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Four (for example) if they see it's in color. If there's no interest, there's no interest. I don't think color is going to make a big difference.

And I don't know the cost of colorization but I bet that it's more than a studio is willing to invest in something that they don't feel has a chance selling in black and white. In other words, if they don't think they can sell it as is, why would they invest more money into it?

 

[MatthewA]

False analogy. Pizza is food, not something comparable to a piece of intellectual property. If you were an artist, would you want something you created altered and desecrated by outsiders with no knowledge of (or interest in) your artistic intent, just to make a quick buck?

A DVD is a representation of an original film or television program, like a lithograph of a painting. If it adds new elements it ceases to be a representation of the original.

I'm anti-choice when it comes to artistic intent and proud of it.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

The whole thing behind color in television shows was that "color film" was expensive way back during the 40's 50's and 60's. This was explained by the creators of the Gilligan's Island television series. I think I watched one of the documentaries ... at any rate, it isn't that the black and white versions are inferior, just that, this is the way the shows were originally filmed. The colorization wasn't added to the film prints until much, much later.

 

[SD_Brian]

For those who say all directors would have shot in color if only they could have, and in celebration of the latest re-release of "It's A Wonderful Life" (now in living COLOR!!), I submit a portion of Roger Ebert's Great Movie discussion off the Frank Capra classic. The article is from the early '90s so some of the references are a bit dated but Jimmy Stewart's statement at the end of the last paragraph is pretty interesting:

It's a Wonderful Life
Release Date: 1946

Roger Ebert

The best and worst things that ever happened to "It's a Wonderful Life" are that it fell out of copyright protection and into the shadowy no-man's-land of the public domain. Because the movie is no longer under copyright, any television station that can get its hands on a print of the movie can show it, at no cost, as often as it wants to. And that has led in the last decade to the rediscovery of Frank Capra's once-forgotten film, and its elevation into a Christmas tradition. PBS stations were the first to jump on the bandwagon in the early 1970s, using the saga of the small-town hero George Bailey as counter-programming against expensive network holiday specials. To the general amazement of TV program directors, the audience for the film grew and grew over the years, until now many families make the movie an annual ritual.

That was the best thing that happened to "It's a Wonderful Life," bringing cheer into the lives of director Frank Capra and star James Stewart, who both consider it their favorite film. The worst thing--which has inspired Stewart to testify before a congressional committee and Capra to issue a sickbed plea--is that the movie has been colorized. Movies in the public domain are so defenseless that you could cut one up to make ukulele picks, and who could legally prevent you? And so a garish colorized version--destroying the purity of the classic original black-and-white images--has been seen on cable, is available for local syndication and is sold on cassette.

It is a great irony that the colorized version has been copyrighted, and so many stations are paying a great deal for the rights to an inferior version of a movie that they could show for free in black and white. If I were a local television program director with taste and a love of movies, I would find out when my competitor was going to air his colorized version, and counter-program with the original black-and-white movie, patting myself on the back for a public service. Maybe it could be promoted with a clip of Jimmy Stewart telling Congress, in his inimitable way, "I tried to look at the colorized version, but I had to switch it off--it made me feel sick."

 

[Tory]

Chaplin looked back at his old films and chopped them up, adding audio over The Gold Rush. I consider any artist looking back with the intent to alter for modern sensibilities and colorization along the same lines of disaster and destruction.

 

[Corey3rd]

There was a strange edge to the black and white shows. Mayberry had shadows to it. Same thing happens when you go from the black and white to color episode of the Avengers. Color takes away. Film Noir does not work in Technicolor.

 

[Elena S]

This is exactly how I feel. I'm astonished that anyone would say "I'd never buy it if it was colorized." You'd rather it be shelved forever than to be released in color? I say if it would motivate the studios to put out the product, I'm all for it. It's easy enough to turn off the color on your set if you want to watch it in black and white. Personally I don't care if it's b&w or color as long as it's available.

 

[SD_Brian]

It's easy enough to throw on a pair of red-and-blue 3-D glasses to make black and white movies and TV shows look like they're in color. As an added bonus, it looks just as good as colorization and is less expensive too!

 

[MatthewA]

Colorization alters the contrast. Turning the color/chroma on your set to zero will not restore it to the original, just present a desaturated version of the colorization. If it's not available in its original form it's not available as far as I am concerned. That's the same attitude I take towards editing of TV shows. Why are people willing to compromise this so they can "have it"? Having it in an altered form or not having it at all is a false dichotomy.

People who are not going to buy Father Knows Best in B&W will probably not buy it in color.

 

[Elena S]

Well, that's not true. I bought the colorized "Bewitched" episodes just because I wanted to see what they would look like, and the color was simply outstanding. You couldn't tell they weren't filmed that way. And I watched the first two seasons in black and white like everybody else. It's not an issue to me unless the colorization is horrid.

 

[LCD22]

I won't support any color releases of a classic B&W series, and my most-requested, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (and licensing rights issue aside), better not come out colorized. Dobie in front of Rodin's Thinker is meant to be seen in black and white. Colorization is not the answer; licensing these series to independent companies is (though that's often easier said than done).

And "I Love Lucy's" episode in the complete series set is a rare exception that doesn't need to imply to every B&W series (no disrespect intended to Legend Films or Charles who started this thread).

 

[Mark Talmadge]

You know, these guys and gals screaming for colorization versions of classic black and white programs, without getting verbal about it, are probably the same ones who are satisfied with edited content and edited music.

If it was produced in black and white it doesn't deserve to be colorized.

 

[SD_Brian]

I will freely admit that my prejudice against colorization has probably blinded me to the technological advancements made in the field since Ted Turner first unleashed this cinematic abomination on the movie-loving public back in the 1980's.

To each their own, I guess, but the notion that people actually prefer colorization has the same fingernails-on-the-blackboard effect on my psyche as when I hear people asking where the pan-and-scan copies are in the video store.

Today's colorization techniques may be amazing but I just can't bring myself to knowingly watch a colorized show. As Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) said in Pulp Fiction, "Sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie but I wouldn't know cause I'd never eat the filthy motherf-er."

 

[Scott-S]

Using this quote I would say that faced with a choice between starving to death (show not released at all) or eating sewer rat (colorized show), I would eat the rat.

 

[Brian Himes]

I agree. Dark Shadows for example. I think the show had much more 'atmosphere' to it when it was in B&W. It really lost that spooky quality when it went to color.

As for colorization of TV. No. I'm against it and I won't support it. I bought seasons 1 and 2 of Bewitched in B&W because they were in B&W. I'm so glad Warner didn't give folks a choice with season 1 of Gilligan's Island. You either bought it in B&W or you didn't buy it at all.

 

[SD_Brian]

Bon Appetit!