Coloring of old, black and white films has become more and more popular lately. Not all paintings benefit from such a transformation. So the expediency of coloring is questionable.
Should you watch colorized films?
The weakness and strength of coloring old films is in technology. The fact is that the tapes, of course, are not painted by hand, since it would take an awful lot of time, all the work after the layout and calculations are done by computers. And this is where the problems begin.
Really old films that were shot in black and white because it was cheaper or easier usually don't have much detail in the frame. The picture is so well thought out and licked (to level out the imperfection of technology) that it is quite easy to paint it using computer technology. That is why the old "Cinderella" in color simply came to life. After all, all the plans for this film were made for those old cameras that simply "stammered" about excessive detail. This means that the work of coloring or coloring in this case was quite simple.
"Gone with the Wind" was one of the first pictures shot in color using the most sophisticated technology using color filters, three different films and other tricks.
Painted cinema problems
It is quite another matter when the films that were filmed in black and white according to the director's idea begin to paint. This, first of all, concerns "Seventeen Moments of Spring". The black-and-white image, as conceived by the director, was to "bring" the viewer closer to the events. At the same time, the technique at the time of filming was much more perfect than in the situation with the same "Cinderella", so the frames are saturated with shadows and details. This TV movie in its black and white version is visually close to ideal. Its colorization, even on modern equipment, is replete with inaccuracies, strange decisions and blunders. As a result, the integrity of the picture is destroyed, the impression deteriorates, the magic of cinema does not work.
In the past, when a movie was painted by hand, the cost per minute of colorizing a film was at least three thousand dollars, that is, about fifty thousand for today's money.
However, colorization has its advantages. At a minimum, when processing a tape, its digitization, specialists clean the film from noise, scratches, restore sound, and update the sound track. In addition, the authors of the project for the colorization of old cinema believe that in this way it is possible to attract the attention of a young viewer to old films. Indeed, modern children accustomed to bright colors are quite difficult to impress with the old, black-and-white "Cinderella", despite the many advantages of this film, the color version is much more interesting for children.
