Expert: Mel - 1/18/2004

Question
Hi ,
My name is Naglaa , I am recently intrested in Cinema technology , I am intrested in a very
specific field which is concerned with the coloring of black and whites classic cinema movies , I've heared that this process was done some time ago but was not a very succesful process due to media pressure for conserving the hertitage of the cinema history .
In fact what I am intrested in is the process itself , how is it being done ? what companies around the world can possible do that now ? and the cheapest options while keeping a good quality .
I hardly have any idea about the subject , so if you kindly provide me with where I can start to have those questions answered, few web links would be handy too .

Kind Regards
Naglaa

Answer
Hello Naglaa,

This is not a subject that I personally have a great knowledge of, but I found the following on the Internet for you.

Colorization - The computer process by which black and white film images are converted to color. Engineer Wilson Markle was one of the high-tech wizards responsible for creating the colorization process. During the 1960s and 1970s  his company, Image Transform put color to black and white NASA space footage to add more interest to the lunar missions. In 1982, his company Colorization, Inc. of Toronto Canada (a subsidiary of Hal Roach Studios) devised the trademark "Colorization" process. Their leading competitor in the field was Color Systems Technology of Marina Del Rey, California headed by Ralph Weinger, another pioneer of color conversion. The Colorization process breaks down each frame of film into 525,000 dots which then are examined by an art director who assigns colors to objects, backgrounds and figures in the film. This new technology ruffled the feathers of some famous film directors and actors who believed that tampering with the integrity/legacy of the black & white films was tantamount to "cultural butchery." In October of 1986, the Directors Guild of America filed a 27-page brief with the US Copyright Office arguing against awarding copyrights to Colorization. The Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), owned by the controversial media millionaire Ted Turner, purchased a large number of old MGM films with the specific goal of colorizing  them. He reasoned that younger audiences wouldn't watch black & white films but they would if these same films were in color. On the release of the colorized version of The Maltese Falcon (1941) in 1986, John Huston, the film's director stated "It's as though our children have been sold into slavery." Director Martin Scorsese compared colorization to defacing a Rembrandt. Milos Forman said "It's like putting aluminum siding on a 17th century castle" and Woody Allen remarked it was "Mutilation...criminal and ludicrous." One of the first uses of Colorization on television was the updated version of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS/NBC/1985 (later on the USA Network/1987). The original storylines from the black and white episodes, which first aired from 1955-65 on both the CBS and NBC networks, were updated/re-filmed in color and edited together with colorized versions of the original black and white opening and closing segments which featured the droll host Alfred Hitchcock. This gave him the unique honor of being the first deceased TV personality to star in his own series. In the spring of 1987, US Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D., Mo.) moved against "those who would tamper with our American heritage" by proposing legislation to halt the controversial practice of converting black and white movies into color. (c. TV Acres).

So, although colour processes and experimentation began in the earliest days of film-making, the colour process was not affordable in many mediums. Because of this, many films and TV shows were filmed in black & white. Colorization is a computer aided technology that can convert black & white mediums to colour. In the mid-1980s the colorization process was highly advanced and began to come into wide practice. It met with severe resistance, however, from filmmakers who wished to maintain the integrity of the original artistic products. Other problems include cost effectiveness and technical difficulties.

Here are a few sites that might be of interest for you:

http://web.uvic.ca/philosophy/sophia/sophia2002/lodto.htm

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/colorization/colorization.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0412/4_27/59599089/p3/article.jhtml?term=

http://www.reelclassics.com/Articles/General/colorization-article.htm

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/amia-l/2003/10/msg00043.html

http://www.occ.cc.mi.us/moviepage/menustructure/cr/moviemyths/moviemyths20.htm

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/amia-l/2000/06/msg00029.html


Glad to be of help. Cheers........Mel.