Colorization

"Colorization has been around for years. I remember reading in the 1950s about how WWII documentary footage had been colorized for inclusion in a WWII movie. So the concept has been around for some time. In fact some early films had some scenes in them that were colorized by hand because at the time that was the only way to get color.

"When each frame was colorized by hand the process was very expensive. The 1925 version of Ben-Hur has some color scenes filmed in a two-color process. There were plans to colorize the entire movie by hand but the cost eventually caused that aspect of the production to be dropped.

"Computers have made the process affordable. But computers do not do it as well as humans, and I think it is this aspect of colorization that has a lot of people against it.

"Recently I saw She Wore A Yellow Ribbon on TV. I first saw it years ago on a B&W TV and had always assumed that it was in B&W. My initial reaction was that it had been colorized, but the color was too good. I looked it up on IMDb and found that it was indeed a color picure.

"Some classic movies were shot in B&W for no other reason than the studio would not spring for color. Laurence Olivier said that he shot Hamlet in B&W because he was 'having this terrible row with Technicolor.' But having been forced to work with B&W, a lot of directors made the most of it, including its dramatic possibilities. I do not argue with the remake of Psycho being shot in color (remaking it at all is another story), but it would be a travesty to colorize the original."

Actor

HDTV

"I am holding off getting DVD until I see what happens with HDTV. In case you are not familiar with HDTV (High Definition Digital TV), it is a new system which is supposed to be in place (by FCC decree) by May 2002. It offers a picture resolution comparable to 35 mm film. The aspect ratio is 9:16 instead of 3:4, the same as used in most theatrical movies. If you letterbox 9:21 movies on 9:16 the black lines at the top and bottom will be much narrower, and even pan and scan should be much less objectionable.

"Between May 2002 and December 2006, HDTV and NTSC (the present system) will coexist via simulcasting. FCC is slated to order all NTSC stations off the air after 2006. This order may be delayed if enough HDTV sets have not been bought by the public.

"I saw a demonstration of HDTV last week and it is absolutely fabulous.

"1. It's a digital process with 1080 pixels vertically and 1920 pixels horizontally. That makes the aspect ratio 9:16 or about 1:1.78.

"2. It's about double the quality of the current NTSC analog system, which is 525 lines (not pixels).

"3. The FCC has mandated that the new system be available in all markets by 2006. I have heard conflicting reports about whether NTSC is to be discontinued at that time.

"4. Present HDTV sets cost $5000 or more. Hopefully by 2006 the "economics of scale" will get this down to $200-$500.

"5. Convertors which will adapt the new signal to your NTSC set will supposedly be available. (I bet they will cost so much you may as well get an HDTV set.)

"6. According to Roger Ebert, Lucasfilm is pushing HDTV to be used in theatres instead of film.

"The advantages of HDTV:

"1. Picture quality equal to, or nearly equal to, what you get in a movie theatre.
"2. For about half the movies being made today no letterboxing is required.
"3. For the rest, minimal letterboxing is required.

"At present HDTV is prohibitively expensive (Sony sells a set for about $8500), but I expect that price to come down quickly once the industry gets tooled up to produce the new sets and demand grows. HDTV may fizzle if industry cannot get the price down and/or people do not buy the new sets. But right now I do not want to purchase DVD and invest in a collection of disks with a quantum leap in technology in the offing.

And, in another post:

"My feeling is that prices will start to come down in 2-3 years and level off about 2006. For the present I don't think DVD is that much better than VHS for movies and Hi8 for my camcorder. DVD is impressive, but HDTV is even more impressive. My wallet says to wait.

"For right now receivers are $7000 Plus. VCRs will be along in about a year at the earliest and camcorders about a year after that.

"Even Hollywood is going to go HDTV. Even though no less a worthy than Roger Ebert is backing a new film system called MacroVision or some such. Even if HDTV fizzles as a consumer item. Film is simply on the downward part of the curve in its technological life. Video is on the up curve and has a long way to go.

"I have aspirations of being an independent filmmaker and have been looking into options. I have been studying film and video, both production and post-production. From a production standpoint, video is the superior mode. You can shoot and what-you-see-is-what-you-get. You can edit in a computer and what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

"The only down side to video is the quality of the final product. HDTV removes this objection. When I saw HDTV it simply blew me away. There is no contest. I'll wait."

Actor

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