8mm Forum: 3 Stooges B/W in color print, what is this?

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Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on March 29, 2010, 03:17 PM:

Hi all,

I got these 2 Stooges:

- A Bird in the Head
- Love at First Bite
- Three Dark Horses

after checking with my bare eyes it seems they are in Color. But by visiting IMDB, I found they were originally shot in B/W.

So what is this? and what is the intention to give "colors"?

Are they tinted colors or just printed on color stock?

Finally, who released these sort of films?

thanks

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on March 30, 2010, 04:48 AM:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_colorization
http://www.stmbook.co.uk/oActor_DVD/Moe%20Howard_1.html

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on April 03, 2010, 08:36 PM:

I have projected mine, and it is quite disappointing!

There was no obvious color seen except similar to a B/W image projected with a brownish filter.

If the original idea was to give a color feels like this, why didn't just print in B/W and provided coloring filter??

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on April 06, 2010, 04:20 AM:

Hi,

* at least some Super8-b&w-films (Stan & Ollie, Charlie Chaplin, ...) have been printed onto colour-stock and hence became reddish by now.
* I've got one colour-print that faded/turned red so badly that it looks like a reddish-toned b&w-print when projected. (UFA, "Stoßgebet für einen Hammer")
* there have been some Super8-b&w-films that have been "toned". Your "brownish" sounds like "sepia" which is more or less a standard and hence even available as an extra mode in most digital still/video-cams: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_tone#Sepia_toning

Jörg

Posted by David Kilderry (Member # 549) on April 06, 2010, 06:48 AM:

Winbert, for a time the price of silver made the cost of B & W film stock more expensive than colour. Many companies then began releasing their B & W films on colour stock to save costs.

Scratches in the emulsion would appear green!

I have a red faded Birth Of A Nation; such a shame.

David

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on April 06, 2010, 06:50 AM:

Hi JOerg

Yes exactly, my print is "sepia". I have read through your link but still cannot get the idea to what is the benefit to make a sepia print. Could you elaborate for me please?

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on April 06, 2010, 10:59 AM:

quote:
what is the benefit to make a sepia print

The benefit is that the print is now sepia toned [Wink]

There's no real reason for this for a commercial print of a non-experimental movie - except for the fact that some people prefer sepia over "real" b&w (as it looks less harsh) and that most people think that sepia looks "old / ancient" while b&w looks "contemporary".

There's still a slight chance that it's an unwanted effect caused by the used film-stock: E.g. some of the Orwo-reversal-b&w-stock are reported to have a slight blueish cast.

Jörg

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on April 06, 2010, 01:16 PM:

Thanks Joerg and David,

My last question, if I want to project this sepia tone back to B/W, what fileter no. should I place in front of projector?

(ps: I knew it will decrease the light output)

cheers

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