Colour Version of "The Daleks" coming 23rd November

[Qonundrum]

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I know purple and yellow are great on the color wheel, but the sandy beach and water don't quite look what you'd expect. This isn't a criticism as such, as - in 198x-whenever when colorizing was done - this was HUGE for the time and genuinely awesome. But it's not quite accurate that it is seamless next to seasons 2 and 3, then or now. Especially as season 2 and 3 have plenty of color references to go on, season 1 is still out of place despite it all.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gilligan's+island+colorized
Many more here, there's a screencap of the Skipper and Gilligan where it's clear it's a colorized frame due to brightness levels or lack thereof reducing skin tones to zombie grays.

It was great for the time, but it's still pretty wild and fairly extreme in some scenes. Bold bright water yet the dullest green trees and sand... it's surreal but not in a 60s trippy way.



But don't take my word for it:

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=321732
One of them even did a tweak to color-correct the shirt, even at the expense of skin tones - though the skin tones looked mostly like undefined pancake batter to begin with.

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=182801
More "clear" examples of pancake tones, under a periwinkle purple sky, etc, hehe. Not bad for the time, but, that's how it looked and it's not quite exaggeration.

 

[Christopher]

This isn't a criticism as such, as - in 198x-whenever when colorizing was done - this was HUGE for the time and genuinely awesome.

Ted Turner thought it was awesome, but those of us with respect for the original creations found it misguided and pandering to the lowest common denominator. And even at the time, it looked pretty bad to us.

 

[N-121973]

I see no need for everything to be in color. I mean, a book is black ink on white paper, and that's enough.

I've yet to upgrade my DVD copy of 1941's The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power to Blu-Ray, because as far as I'm aware the colourised version isn't available. In all the years I've owned the DVD set I've never watched the B&W version. I know, some will probably say 'blasphemy'.

 

[CaptainCalvinCat]

Can't disagree for sure. But, yeah, when all is said and done, it's a delicate process and my second footnote poses the ultimate question. That said, comparing - of all things - "Gilligan's Island"'s first season to the proper color of seasons 2 and 3, it's both a technical marvel of the time (late-80s) as well as being just as hideously bad with mismatched colors* and **, non-colorized areas that quickly distract from what is***, and so on. Wasn't there a Simpsons clip of a parody of some show's colorization or something and it gets every single tone so hilariously wrong?

* Such as a lovely purple sky, overly-bright sky blue water that also turns puke teal as it fades into the background****, Skipper's shirt being very dark blue rather than the normal medium blue (it's quite pronounced), skin tones so oversaturated that look like they were simmering at 425 degrees in an oven next to a glazed chicken, then conversely when the colors were somehow undersaturated of all things, or anything in between where the colorization isn't done right with the result that the cast now look like blotchy gray/beige zombies that detract and create an unwanted comedy of its own as a result, and so on**.​

​

** Most video/graphic design instructors will say any number of things about the concept, which isn't bad but still leaves so little room for error because the human eye invariably picks up on things that "don't look quite right", whether it's a color tone or set perspective/scale, substitute material (e.g. should look like metal but is plastic), and so on. IMHO, it was made with what was available and the goal was to have the story and characters sell what the technology of the time could not. Is it really that much different today compared to back then?​

​

*** Bewitched, despite having been done decades later and was really well done, still had occasional goofs. My favorite involves Uncle Arthur's head under a covered serving platter - ostensibly silver, there are two problems: 1. no color casting or reflecting is a dead giveaway as everything reflecting from it is pure grayscale, and 2. it looks like LEAD because the black and white film process required other translations other than just RGB application (also think of Skipper's too-dark blue shirt for what might allude to the same cause and reason.)​

​

**** being made in the 1960s doesn't quite explain the unintentional groovy psychedelia imposed, and - side note - I'm just glad that all of the original broadcast Star Trek still exists in color, since colorization would never ever be done right, especially given the intricacies applied in its original filming for lively hues and livelier shadow detail​

I saw something like this in an episode of "Sledge Hammer!" - the one, where a policewoman is crazy about Hammer. In the wrap-up, they had a title card, saying "We shot this scene in black and white and recoloured it later. You'll notice no difference." And of course, this show being a comedy, one saw lots of differences. Hammers face had a different colour one time, just to name an example.

By the way, I own all Seasons of "I dream of Jeannie" - and Season one was in black and white, but for the release, it was recoloured... and while it didn't look awful, one definitely saw, that they did something.

 

[JD]

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I know purple and yellow are great on the color wheel, but the sandy beach and water don't quite look what you'd expect. This isn't a criticism as such, as - in 198x-whenever when colorizing was done - this was HUGE for the time and genuinely awesome. But it's not quite accurate that it is seamless next to seasons 2 and 3, then or now. Especially as season 2 and 3 have plenty of color references to go on, season 1 is still out of place despite it all.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gilligan's+island+colorized
Many more here, there's a screencap of the Skipper and Gilligan where it's clear it's a colorized frame due to brightness levels or lack thereof reducing skin tones to zombie grays.

It was great for the time, but it's still pretty wild and fairly extreme in some scenes. Bold bright water yet the dullest green trees and sand... it's surreal but not in a 60s trippy way.



But don't take my word for it:

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=321732
One of them even did a tweak to color-correct the shirt, even at the expense of skin tones - though the skin tones looked mostly like undefined pancake batter to begin with.

https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=182801
More "clear" examples of pancake tones, under a periwinkle purple sky, etc, hehe. Not bad for the time, but, that's how it looked and it's not quite exaggeration.

OK that is worse than I thought, I've mostly watched the black & white versions on the other channels, so I don't know the colorize versions that well.

 

[Chakoteya]

Well, I know I've taken my time on this but...

The advantage of doing a Dalek story is that you can change their dialogue easy-peasy to fit in with later character development.
Fire! is swapped out for Exterminate!, for example.
I just wish they'd given the principal Daleks different colours though. As confusing in blue as they were in B&W.