Serious good films = less colour?

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jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Its a classic film trick. Look at Spielberg's choice for Schindlers list.

Also, you are missing the more subtle choice of film stock, many period films are captured on a filmstock that washes out the colour and generates a dated feel (flashbacks in stories are often made lighter to infer ageing or date change)

Mono-chrome is used to show somber tomes and serious nature, but hardly ever comedic moments
 

marinyork

Resting in suspended Animation
Location
Logopolis
jonny jeez said:
Its a classic film trick. Look at Spielberg's choice for Schindlers list.

Also, you are missing the more subtle choice of film stock, many period films are captured on a filmstock that washes out the colour and generates a dated feel (flashbacks in stories are often made lighter to infer ageing or date change)

Mono-chrome is used to show somber tomes and serious nature, but hardly ever comedic moments

Quite a few modern films use all kinds of subtle tricks it's just that if you're watching it at home it's really hard to pick up the extent of it unless you're watching it in high definition. A lot of it is lost by idiots demanding razor sharp images and the oppressive lighting regime of many late 2000s films.
 

Norm

Guest
Not quite film but I like the way that they use a similar trick for the various versions of CSI.

CSI Vegas is pretty neutral / natural, except the crime lab which is always dark. CSI NY is sombre and grey whereas CSI Miami is in screamingly vivid colours.

Sorry for the interlude, back to the art-house flicks. :smile:
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
A lot of the films I like are B&W, and some others use muted colours really effectively (eg Godfather Part 2). However, sometimes I think directors go way too far, and it gives the film a faintly pretentious feel... There Will Be Blood springs to mind. A load of utter cobblers IMVHO.
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Norm said:
Not quite film but I like the way that they use a similar trick for the various versions of CSI.

CSI Vegas is pretty neutral / natural, except the crime lab which is always dark. CSI NY is sombre and grey whereas CSI Miami is in screamingly vivid colours.

Sorry for the interlude, back to the art-house flicks. :smile:

not off topic at all I think...all of those deliver a subconscious effect on your brain and make you "feel" a certain way about what you see. I remember Band of Brothers/ Saving Private Ryan which was all filmed in a washed out stock that made everything look how I imagine the 40's to look, when in reality everything looked the same colour as it is today...just with less variety
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
slowmotion said:
I think directors go way too far, and it gives the film a faintly pretentious feel... There Will Be Blood springs to mind. A load of utter cobblers IMVHO.

That was one of the most beautifully photographed and soundtracked films of recent years (IMEMHO!). It certainly wasn't easy-watching, but then why should everything be dumbed down?
 

Haitch

Flim Flormally
Location
Netherlands
From Der Stand der Dinge, directed by Wim Wenders:

Mark: You know, I take pictures, photographs, but I never really thought in black and white before I saw our rushes. Do you know what I mean? You can see the shape of things.

Joe: Life is in colour, but black and white is more realistic.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Flying_Monkey said:
That was one of the most beautifully photographed and soundtracked films of recent years (IMEMHO!). It certainly wasn't easy-watching, but then why should everything be dumbed down?

You know, FM, I have a faint suspicion that we are not going to agree on this one....

Yes, I agree it was beautifully photographed. Time prevents me from listing its many and glaring faults.
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
jonny jeez said:
Its a classic film trick. Look at Spielberg's choice for Schindlers list.
Anyone else remember Lindsay Anderson's "If.."? Shot in the 60s partly in B&W and partly in colour. Anderson was a bit of an Art House director - and that's a cracking film - so there was much learned discussion amongst the nerds about his choice of colour for critical parts of the film.

He later revealed that they had shot it out of sequence and switched to B&W because they had run out of money. :blush:
 
OP
OP
Andy in Sig

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
marinyork said:
I did think Good Night and Good luck was quite good. On the topic of classic feel I don't think it's always good, I found it very irritating when the opening sequence of Casino Royale was shot in black and white.

I loved that bit of Casino Royale: loads of glittering chrome in the office. Just goes to show that you can't please everybody.
 

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
Didn't the Coen brothers say that the reason they filmed The Man Who Wasn't There in black & white was so that the viewers would know how important it was.
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Yellow Fang said:
Didn't the Coen brothers say that the reason they filmed The Man Who Wasn't There in black & white was so that the viewers would know how important it was.

Fooled the critics anyway. I thought it was one of their weakest films of recent years.
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Alan H said:
I always thought that was a Benny Hill joke!
I did hear Lindsay Anderson confirm it on the South Bank show, but he wasn't beyond the occasional joke himself. Apparently it may or may not be true -
Much is said of the film's use of black and white sequences. In the audio commentary to the 2007 DVD release, Malcolm McDowell confirmed that lighting the chapel scenes for colour filming would take much longer than they would if they were lit for black and white. The time they could use the school chapel was limited, so Anderson opted to shoot those scenes not in colour. Liking the effect this gave, he then decided to shoot other sequences in black and white to improve the 'texture' of the film. As a child, he was impressed watching a gangster film which started in black and white and then turned to colour.
The other disputed reason for the mixed use of black/white and colour was due to the film's limited budget, therefore requiring shots towards the end of filming to be done in black and white
 
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