http://content.answers.com/main/cont...or_colours.jpg`

Colourization example from The Aviator reproducing the effect of 2-stip Technicolor.

Wise decision, sice colorizing in 3 Strip look give full flexibilite to adjusts simulations for 2 strip look. There are several ways 2 Strip can look.

It's possible to choose set colors (or color design in case of colorization) based in how it would look at two strip process. it's alos possible to choose small variantion in the 2 filtes used in the camera (virtual in case of digital filter simulation), and the color dyes used to make the prints, in the contrast of the print, and in the color balance of the final print.

My only complain about Aviator 2 Strip look, not about the colorization scene, is the fact the tried to keep the same 2 Strip adjsuts to all scenes, from ocean, sky or gramme scenes, while in real good 2 Strip production they used to made effort for bether color results.
With this modern approach, to simulate this interesting old color system, audience maybe get impression that was impossible to get more acceptable blues or greeens. The process couldn't get goo Reds, Greens and Blues at same time, but isolated was possible to get bether colors, adjusting to give priority to greens intead of blue, or blue instead of greens, or reds instead of blue.
Perhaps Martin Scorcese or legato hadn't a good 2 color Technicolor advisor. :-)

My other complain about Aviatoir, is the fact the 3 Stipr Technicolor simulatiuon wasn't accurate too. too bright, sharp and oversaturated. But perhaps it was intentional to trycompensate the fact actual teather color prints can't hold saturation like Technicolor prints. So on DVD we see it like exagerated.


Here a interesthing Link: http://www.aviatorvfx.com/index.php?...llery&id=color

Like I said, the process could be adjusted scene to scene in order to give priority to some color. If was a original 2 Strip production, they would adjust the dyes and filter to reproduce bether the greens, since he is surounded by vegetals. Note the reds it's very pure, too much, while what is suposed to be green it's almost blue.
Maybe Martin S did iuntentionaly to enhance the representation 2 Strip technicolor characteristics. Exagerated to my taste anyway.

Barry, what about add to legend's website a comparison, of Aviator's Hells Angels premiere colorization, with the simulation of 3 Strip and the conversion to 2 Strip colors?
Would be nice, don't you agree, Baracine?

Also if you could offer special services, like filter image , a color image, to look like technicolor, re-colorizing some pieces on set if need, since technicolor usewd to add saturated piece on set. I believe it could make the Services Page more atractive.

[girlish scream]I just got my copy of She!!![/girlish scream]

I thanked the lady behind the counter for delving into the black market on my account. She didn't laugh or anything...

Alfred -

I admire Rob a great deal and trust Martin's eye but I personally was not really thrilled with the two strip simulation. I think they might have wanted to exaggerate the effect so it would not be subtle.

BTW: it appears that this has become a public conversation site for three people interested in the esoterics of film processing, restoration and colorization. It's a shame the others have ditched.

Well, I had my first chance to see She in colour and my impression is very positive. The film is a sci-fi classic about the insanity
of (female) vanity, whose graphics have inspired everything from Hergé's Tintin adventures (Temple of the Sun) to Frank Capra's
Lost Horizon (1937) to Disney animation (the special effects, Snow White's Wicked Queen, etc.). I'm pretty sure the ceremonial spears used
by the guards of Kor were recycled in MGM's Wizard of Oz.
And the climactic Fire Ceremony has the most impressive High Strangeness factor of any film of that era.

The black and white film elements used are medium-grainy, well-preserved and mostly scratch-free.
They suffer from some variance in luminosity and the occasional, pesky paler vertical band. These problems are somewhat attenuated by the colourization.

But I am most impressed with the colourization whose colour choices (by Ray Harryhausen) are truly inspired and make the whole,
elaborate production look like a cross between The Ten Commandments (1956) and The Temple of Doom.

The film also boasts one of Max Steiner's most elaborate film scores, which
really comes through in this edition.

The magnificent pageantry of the Kingdom of Kor looks like it was, if not actually filmed in colour, at least conceived for colour. The colour itself
looks like the more subdued and light-diffused British use of Technicolor in such films as The Lady-Killers.

It's a class act all the way. I also liked the Ray Harryhausen featurettes on the colourization process, his interview about the film
and the great trailers for the Off Color Films line of colourized classics.

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1629/she02sr9.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/615/she03ha2.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1404/she04rv3.jpg

These are home-made screen captures from InterActual DVD player to Paint
and automatically corrected by Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
The originals are more subdued and less contrasted.

The last screen cap shows an interior scene with a single source of light
which was possible in black and white but would have been nearly impossible
in colour with the technology of the time (the wattage needed would have
fried or blinded the actors). The result is stunning and very believable.

One more (double-click for bigger size):
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/2200/she05zd3.th.jpg

The DVD offers 7 minutes of deleted scenes, which don't add much to the story-telling, even if they are elaborate in decor and camera movement. They haven't been colourized and they are in need of some restoration work. I understand that these will be integrated in the film in a forthcoming edition but I couldn't wait that long.

Harryhausen in his interview and commentary says he doesn't like very much the Turner colourization of King Kong, which robs (he says) its matte paintings of their subtlety and believability. I would be very happy if he tackled that project next.

I have to admit that the coloured matte paintings in She are particularly subtle and realistic.

I would go so far as to say that the kind of fantasy spectacular decor and action on display in this film only make sense in colour, Lost Horizon notwithstanding.

Barry:Yes, it's sad. We should go around and invete more people to this friendly discussion.

Barracine: No offense, but it's bether let captures in neutral adjust and away from this horrible Microsoft Office Pictrure Manager. The colors itself seens that was alterated, without talk about the abominable boosting of bright tones.
DVDs don't work on home PCs, no matter what expensive player we get. The video signal don't match Computer signal contrast. The adjusts of contrast on PC DVD Players just boost the brights, and so the silly filter made to correct the contrast of captures.

About the DVD: THe Ray Harryhausen commentary was recorded before the colourization was finished while he was watching the black and white film. Also, the final "Flame of Life" effect was somewhat doctored in the colourized version with the addition of sparks and sparkles to the original "northern lights" effect, which I must admit looks spectacular.

I think most have stayed out because this thread has moved away from actual DVD discussion and has become (mainly) a discussion of colorization techniques (with samples even). This is DVD Talk after all. Maybe if the discussion shifted back to (mainly) DVDs, more people would respond.

Another thing might be the actual title of the thread. Many might pass it by because they either have 1) Discussed the She & Things to Come releases already or 2) Don't own them to begin with. Maybe if there were a general "Offical Legend Films Release" thread, ALL of Legend's releases can be discussed there.

Or....people just don't care for colorization and are morally outraged by it (as baracine likes to say). :)

I, for one, love love love the restoration work put into a Legend release and understand that the money to finance those restorations goes hand-in-hand with the colorization process.

Doesn't mean I have to like it.

BUT I do appreciate the work and effort. And a Legend release looks better than a lot of other companies who claim to "digitially restore" their films.

Here are uncorrected screen captures showing the same scene - but not the exact same frame - in colour and black and white:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2875/she07ci0.th.jpg

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8201/she06ke9.th.jpg

(Click for detail.)

This transformation has been modified in the colourized version with the addition of "electrical" effects. The design and art direction are by Ray Harryhausen but it is probable purists will object for moral reasons.

Modern Sotooges Colorization made twice.
 

OK Let's talk about Legend's realises.

Legend Films colorized The Three Stooges episode Disorder in the Court about a year ago. But Columbia is realising a new set of Stooges colorized, called Stooges on The Run. This Columbia set include Disorder in The Court, but I don't know if is the one colorized by Legend Films or if is another colorization made by West Wing Studios (who colorized the first 2 Columbia DVD sets).

Also there is a colorized unrealised episode from Three Stooges, called Out West, with Old West sets and costums. We can see in one Legend's site clip, as they appear dreesed like that.
This episode was also colorized by West Wing Studios, but I don't know when, and thewre was a small clip onn West Wing website. Was cleary inferior to Legend's colorizatrion, as I remamber.

Maybe Barry can clear-up why those two distint colorizations wasn't realised by any company, Legend or Columbia. And what colorization is used in Stooges on The Run DVD, for episode Disorder in the Court.

Some notes on the colourization of She:

From IMDb Trivia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026983/trivia):
The very elaborate Festival of Fire scene was colourized using documents about the intended colour production. The dark priests' robes (which come off as black in the B&W version) are the same shade of ox-blood red the participants wore on the set.

The skin tones are especially varied. Men's skin tones are differentiated by elements such as length of beard, griminess, exposure to the elements, paleness (due to disease), racial origin, light diffusion, face paints, etc. Women's faces have an individual made-up look, the Helen Gahagan character being the palest in the land.

Each scene is a distinct colour composition. There is no predominance of a decorative colour over another like there was "in the old days" of red, green and brown.

Some effects are spectacular in their work-intensive realization, like the upward moving cloud of fine white luminous sparks projecting out of the fire pit in front of an out-of-focus coloured, animated and moving background at the start of the Festival scene, during a rapid and elaborate downward panoramic scan from the ceiling of the hall to the fiery pit.

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/3971/she08ut5.th.jpg
(Sorry, Alfred, I had to raise the contrast on this one to show the sparks in all their glory.)

This is the kind of maniacal precision and attention to detail that, in a perfect world, would deserve an honourary technical Academy Award!

It is difficult to find a single scene that isn't a stunner or that wouldn't give pause to someone trying to tell a colourized film from a colour one.

Barry,

There's a discussion brewing over your upcoming Little Rascals set over at the HTF (starting at Post 49):

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...=186563&page=2


Are you including any of the silent shorts?

Three-year old article on Legend Films from the Toronto Star: http://www.temple.edu/ispr/examples/ex04_11_11.html

That's a good article and nice to see where the company's at since then.

A lot of questions about the upcoming Little Rascals set over at the HTF.

The listing of the individual releases:

The Best of Our Gang 5 Rare & Uncut Episodes with "Kid From Borneo," "Hide & Shriek," and More! Plus Bonus Extras.

The Best of Spanky 5 Rare & Uncut Episodes with "Shrimps for a Day," "Choo Choo" and More! Plus Bonus Extras.

The Superstars of Our Gang 5 Rare & Uncut Episodes with "Free Wheeling," For Pete's Sake" and More! Plus Bonus Extras.


One of the inquiries:

I can't discuss them until their release but I feel confident in saying the Legend Films DVDs are the best restored black and white versions available and the color versions are extremely well done, providing a unique viewing experience of these timeless kid classics. I grew up watching them on TV in black and white and now new generations of audiences will love them in color.

Well I can't wait for this release. 3 discs for $14.99 (from Amazon)? Definately a good deal.

With this and the upcoming Swing Parade, I can't keep up! I still haven't picked up She, March of the Wooden Soldiers or Things to Come yet.

Barry, I can't understand one thing. You have the best colorization technology, the best cost return, since can sell by fine prices very old restored and colorized TV series. So why Columbia Pictures don't signe with you to colorize other episodes of Three Stooges. Why they still work with West Wing Studios, which obviously have inferior colorization technology?
Seens Columbia spent a lot of money colorizing the 3 DVD sets, since was selling a expansive DVD.

While you are alone, have limitation to public domain titles mostly.
How is the the big studios executives today about colorization? Are the Studio executives today more pro-colorization or againt colorization than several years ago.

The Mike Nelson Riff of Swing Parade is hilarious. You might also check out our other title line, Rifftrax.com. Legend Films has the entire cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 doing their thing with current films.

"We Don't Make Movies, We Make Fun Of Them!" Rifftrax

It's a mistake to think that we only do PD films. We are releasing both black and white and color product that is copyrighted. We've entered into revenue sharing relations with the likes of Shirley Temple Black, Terry Moore, Jane Russell, Ray Harryhausen and some other film owners that will become known over the next 6 months.

I don't think the studios are necessarily pro- or con- colorization. However they are always interested in increasing the valuation of their film and TV assets and restoration plus colorization creates increased valuation on many genres of those titles.

Hey Barry,

Do you have an update on how the next 'John Wayne In Color' box set is coming along? According to the insert in the forst volume, there was another set coming in Spring '07. Is this still on target?

Thanks...

Hi all

Check out this original shot in color Still for Cleopatra: http://www.eastman.org/ar/strip89/ht...40002_ful.html

I imagine what beautifull imagine there are in archives, from real shot in color Still from famous B&W films.
Barry. Do you often got impressed while reserching original color Still for vintage films?

Is it Demille's Cleopatra (1934) film you would like to colorize, Barry?

Samples from restored footage: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRev...collection.htm

Can you tell us if and when more Little Rascals DVD's are planned, or is this set a one shot deal?