Film colorization

Film colorization is the general term for a film alteration process that involves adding color to a black and white film.

Since the 1980s, this process drew considerable controversy. Defenders of the process claimed that it would allow black and white films to have new audiences of people who were not used to the format. Detractors complain that the process was crude and even if it were refined, it does not take into account that color and black and white photography require different lighting compositions. Thus they argue, the original work of the artists involved is damaged.

DVD releases of Laurel and Hardy movies have included both the originals and colorized versions which were made in the 1980s. Without exception the colorized movies have softer contrast and fairly pale, washed out color. However, the technology has improved since the '80s, and several black and white TV shows have been given what is claimed to be a completely lifelike colorization.

Media mogul Ted Turner was a particularly aggressive proponent of this process until public pressure forced him to reconsider. In particular, plans to colorize Citizen Kane led to major backlash from the film community, with directors such as John Huston demanding that the film be left alone. Partially due to this controversy, all films shown on American television or released to home video in an altered format (including pan and scan and "edited for television" versions), must now display a disclaimer indicating that the film has been modified from its original version.

Other applications

A number of British television shows which were made in colour in the early 1970s were wiped for economic reasons, but in some cases black and white telerecordings were made for export to countries that did not yet have colour television. A notable example is the BBC's 6-part Doctor Who story The Dæmons. Only one episode survived in colour; the rest existed only as black and white film recordings. The only other known recording was a poor quality off-air recording of an abridged American broadcast. In the 1990s the BBC colorized the black and white copies using the off-air recording as a colour reference.

The result was judged a success by both technicians and fans and it is widely rumoured that more sophisticated colorization technology will be used to restore other Doctor Who episodes as well as shows like Steptoe and Son where some episodes only exist in black and white. However, colorization will not be used on BBC programmes that were originally made in black and white.

Colorization is sometimes used on documentary programmes. The Beatles Anthology TV show colorizes some footage of the Fab Four, most notably the performance of "All You Need Is Love" from the TV special Our World (1967). In the documentary this scene begins in its original black and white before dissolving into realistic, psychedelic colour. In this case the colour design was based on stills taken at the same time, so in a sense the colour is "real", yet the use of artificial colour in a documentary could also be regarded as misleading or even fraudulent.

In 2003 the documentary series World War I in Colour was broadcast and released on DVD. There had previously been full-colour documentaries about World War II using genuine colour footage, but since colour film had not been invented at the time of World War I, the entire series consists of colorized contemporary footage (and photographs). The producers claim that their intention was to show the War literally in its true colours, without the air of unreality created by black and white film. Whether this is a valid argument remains debatable.

Colorization is also sometimes used on historical stock footage in movies. For instance, the film Thirteen Days uses colorized news footage from the time of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. Again, the intention is to remove the distancing effect that black and white might have on the audience.