'COLORIZING' FILM CLASSICS: A BOON OR A BANE? (Published 1986) (2024)

Movies|'COLORIZING' FILM CLASSICS: A BOON OR A BANE?

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/05/movies/colorizing-film-classics-a-boon-or-a-bane.html

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By Leslie Bennetts

'COLORIZING' FILM CLASSICS: A BOON OR A BANE? (Published 1986) (1)

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August 5, 1986

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Opponents charge that it degrades important works of art, comparing it to putting lipstick on a Greek statue.

Advocates, however, see it as a potential gold mine that enables them to recycle old films for maximum profits through new technology.

The subject is ''colorization,'' a technique in which vintage black-and-white movies are transformed into color by computers. As the process grows more widespread, dozens of famous films are being ''colorized,'' and the trend is provoking a fierce debate on both sides of the Atlantic.

A coalition of British directors has already protested what they called the ''vulgarization'' of classic films, and several American directors - including Woody Allen and John Huston - are now considering a similar move. But even as film makers denounce the alteration of black-and-white movies, commercial interests are proceeding with plans to color such classic films as ''The Maltese Falcon,'' ''Casablanca,'' and ''Citizen Kane.'' Already colored are ''It's a Wonderful Life'' and ''Yankee Doodle Dandy,'' among others.

A computerized process by which black-and-white film is transferred to videotape and then, frame by frame, transformed into color, colorization is expensive and time-consuming. The average cost ranges from $2,000 to $3,000 per minute of film, depending on the complexity of the footage. Although a full-length feature may cost $250,000 to $300,000 to color, many see that as a good investment.

''The reason we're doing it is monetary,'' said Wilson Markle, president of Colorization Inc., a Toronto-based center specializing in the technique. ''People don't like black and white. They do like color, and when we color it, they buy it.''

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'COLORIZING' FILM CLASSICS: A BOON OR A BANE? (Published 1986) (2024)

FAQs

How accurate is colorization? ›

A challenge that still plagues colorization efforts is the fact that the colorized black-and-white film may not match film shot originally in color; Randal Kleiser, the director of Grease, wanted to edit the scene back into the film but found the colors between the scenes did not match well enough to do so.

How much does it cost to colorize a black and white movie? ›

The average cost ranges from $2,000 to $3,000 per minute of film, depending on the complexity of the footage. Although a full-length feature may cost $250,000 to $300,000 to color, many see that as a good investment.

How is black and white footage colorized? ›

A method that is still used these days consists of digitally painting the image with different layers of colors until the entire film is colorized. In the early days of digital editing, the video editor needed to paint each image frame by frame on a video or photo editor and then export the images as a video.

What old movies have been colorized? ›

TitleYear producedYear colorized
Angel and the Badman19471991
Angels with Dirty Faces19381989
The Angry Hills19591993
Annie Oakley19351991
30 more rows

Is film colorization accurate? ›

Are colorized movies accurate? Most likely the colorized movies are not accurate to what was originally filmed. That's because the sets, makeup and costumes were designed at the time to look good in black and white. So it doesn't really matter what the colorized versions today look like.

How accurate is colorization of black and white photos? ›

However, it's important to keep in mind that while the colorization process can be quite accurate in many cases, it is still not a perfect science, and there will always be some level of interpretation involved.

How can I colorize old photos for free? ›

With Colourise.com, you can colorize black and white photos online for free without any spending. There is no limit on the number of images you upload. Moreover, it won't cause any charge when you colorize photo online or download the colorized photo.

What is the free software to convert black and white photos to color? ›

Img2Go.com. Img2Go is a free AI colorizer solution for turning black and white images into colorized ones with realistic colors. This tool uses AI colorization techniques and deep learning algorithms to do wonders for your images.

What software is used to colorize movies? ›

Colorize Black And White Video with Alternatives
  • Pixbim. PixBim Video Colorizer is the first alternative to Repairit AI Photo Colorizer. This is an auto-colorizer video tool that uses AI to colorize black-and-white films. ...
  • DeepAI. Another alternative online video colorizer tool is DeepAI. ...
  • Neural. love.

What was the first color movie? ›

The first commercially produced film in natural color was A Visit to the Seaside (1908). The eight-minute British short film used the Kinemacolor process to capture a series of shots of the Brighton Southern England seafront.

Was The Wizard of Oz the first color movie? ›

The Wizard of Oz was not the first movie in color, but it revolutionized the use of color in film and set a precedent for future movies. The first color movie in film history was "The World, The Flesh, and the Devil," a feature-length work of fiction filmed using the Kinemacolor process.

Why were old movies black and white? ›

Color added a sense of spectacle to films — that's why so many of the musicals and Biblical epics from the 1930s to the 1950s are brightly colored. Black and white, which remained less expensive, was often used for more serious films or those that weren't thought to benefit from the spectacle.

What year were most movies in color? ›

In the US, it seems like colour movies were coming in by the mid-late 50s ; you have movies like Some Like It Hot (1959) filmed in black and white, but most Hitchco*ck movies were colour by this point, as was The Magnificent Seven, for example.

What was the first movie in color what year? ›

The first film (short film, at least) to be credited with natural color is the aforementioned 1908 A Visit to the Seaside. This was achieved with the Kinemacolor process, which generally used red and green alternating filters.

What year did movies turn to colour? ›

Hand coloring came to the rescue, the first colored ribbons appeared, but natural colors were still far away. In 1902, when the first colorized film A Trip to the Moon appeared on the screen, the earliest example of true color cinema appeared. This technology was invented by Briton Edward Turner in 1899.

What is the most accurate method for evaluating color? ›

Spectrophotometry-In the modern day industry, the best and most accurate method of color analysis is the method of spectrophotometry using different color measuring devices. These devices yield the best analysis and help the manufacturers in ensuring the best quality of the products.

How effective is color in picture recognition memory? ›

In the test phase, half were presented in the same color mode as the study pictures and the other half in the other mode. In immediate and 1-week-delayed tests, the recognition performance was highest when color pictures were used in both the study and test phases.

Is color real or just perception? ›

Color is perception, and this picture drives that home. It makes us consider something altogether nonintuitive: that there's no such thing as white or gold or blue or black. “A color only exists in your head,” Lotto said. “There's such a thing as light.

Is the color wheel we see accurate Why or why not? ›

For paint mixing, I prefer the 12-color wheel where red is the complement of green; blue is the complement of orange; and yellow is the complement of purple. Even with a color wheel, paint mixtures don't always turn out as predicted. The color wheel is still just an approximation. Human color vision is not symmetrical.

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