Colorization of classic movies

[verdantheart]

A new process is getting some press. Here's a blurb from the IMDb:

The Return of Colorization?
A new process to colorize black-and-white movies for television and DVD release has produced such realistic results that Martin Scorsese employed it to colorize vintage footage for his upcoming Howard Hughes biography The Aviator, the Toronto Star reported today (Monday). Barry Sandrew, president and CEO of Legend Films, which developed the colorization system, told the newspaper: "In one case, Technicolor engineers could not believe their eyes when they saw our colorization." Sandrew said that the process allows the use of a much larger palette of colors than those employed in the 1980s, when a cruder form of colorization was largely condemned by cinephiles. Examples of the new technique are posted on the company's website: www.legendfilms.net.

Still don't know how I feel about it, but this process certainly is an improvement. I think that they should restore/preserve the films--including the soundtracks, and especially for earlier films.

 

[SiriCerasi]

I don't know... I think part of what older movies are is the fact that they are black and white. I think it might destroy part of that...

 

[Natalia]

Well I hope it's better than the kind of colouring we have seen in the past. I think it should be available black and white and in colour. As long as the colour doesn't look garish.

 

[Nad]

There are some films I wouldn't mind in black and white, but then there are others, Citizen Kane, for example, that would not have nearly the same effects in color.

 

[SkyGirl5]

yeah i dont mind black & white movies staying black & white
because even tho the process has improved i think it would still look kinda wierd...