13-06-2012, 12:54 PM
Film Colourization
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INTRODUCTION
Film Colourization:
“Film colorization[1] is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images.”
It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films. Examples date from the early 20th century, but colorization has become common with the advent of digital image processing.
Colorization is a computerized process that adds color to a black?and?white movie or TV program. The process was invented by Wilson Markle and was first used in 1970 to add color to monochrome footage of the moon from the Apollo mission. In 1983, Markle founded Colorization, Inc. The word "colorization" soon became a generic name for the adding of color to black?and?white footage.
Most of the classic black-and-white movies have been "colorized," mainly so that they can be shown on television in color. It turns out that the process used to add the color is extremely tedious -- someone has to work on the movie frame by frame, adding the colors one at a time to each part of the individual frame.
To speed up the process, the coloring is done on a computer using a digital version of the film. The film is scanned into the computer and the coloring artist can view the movie one frame at a time on the computer's screen. The artist draws the outline for each color area, and the computer fills it in. The original black-and-white film holds all of the brightness information, so the artist can paint large areas with a single color and let the original film handle the brightness gradients. This means that the artist might only have to add 10 or so actual colors to a scene.
Early techniques
Hand colorization
The first film colorization methods were employed before effective color film processes were developed: each projected copy was individually colorized. The process was done by hand, sometimes using a stencil cut from a second print of the film. As late as the 1920s, hand coloring processes were used for individual shots in Greed (1924) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) (both utilizing the Handschiegl color process); and rarely, an entire feature-length movie such as The Last Days of Pompeii (1926) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1925).
During the late 1960s and the early 1970s, black-and-white Betty Boop and Looney Tunes cartoons were redistributed in color—the colorization process was done by tracing the original black-and-white frames onto new animation cels, and then adding color to the new cels. With computer technology, studios were able to add color to black-and-white films by digitally tinting single objects in each frame of the film until it was fully colorized (the first authorized computer-colorizations of B&W cartoons were commissioned by Warner Bros. in 1990). The initial process was invented by Canadians Wilson Markle and Christian Portilla and was first used in 1970 to add color to monochrome footage of the moon from the Apollo program missions.
Digital colorization
Computerized colorization began in the 1970s with a process developed by Wilson Markle. Movies colorized using early techniques have soft contrast and fairly pale, flat, washed out color; however, the technology has improved since the 1980s.
Digital colorization typically begins with a monochrome film print from which a high-quality digital video file is made. Technicians, working by computer, identify the grey level of every object in every shot and note any movement of objects within shots. Likewise, any variance of light levels frame to frame are corrected, if the budget permits. A computer adds color to each detail of a depicted object, while keeping grey levels the same as in the monochrome original. This technique was patented in 1991.
Benefits of using Film Colourization:-
Completely 'lifelike' color
After crayons became colorful in the late 1950's, they began to be used for such things as 'color-by-number' books. It wasn't until nearly 25 years later that people took notice of it's colorizing power on paper, and decided to translate it to film. The results were largely successful, financially. As the original product was (eventually) aimed at children, the crayon colorized films were usually children films, such as Laural & Hardy's 'God Awful Toy Movie' (right). The technique was not too disimilar from Acidtripnacolor, which is discussed below.
Disadvantages of Film Colourization:-
Colorization is an expensive and time?consuming process. Popular Mechanics reported in 1987 that it cost more than $3,000 per minute of running time to colorize a movie. The economic justification for such an expenditure lay in audience demand. Variety estimated in 1988 that while it cost $300,000 to colorize an old movie, the revenue generated by the release of the colorized version was $500,000. This revenue came mostly from television syndication, although videocassette release was also important in some cases. Another important consideration was the opportunity to claim new copyrights on old films, thus extending the film's potential life as a profit center for the owner.
Contervercies on Film Colourization:
Colorization became extremely controversial in the late 1980s, especially with regard to "classic" monochrome films such as Citizen Kane (which ultimately was not colorized), Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and It's a Wonderful Life. With some exceptions, the dispute pitted film directors and critics (who opposed colorization) against copyright owners (who favored it). Among its opponents, TV critic Eric Mink viewed colorization as a "bastardization" of film. The Writers Guild of America West called it "cultural vandalism."