COLOURISATION

I've been watching the old 1965 black & white British B movie, 'The Night Caller' which was colourised  a few years ago. I got to thinking is it a good thing to colourise a film that was filmed with black & white in mind, and through the use of subtle lighting using dark and light shades had created suspense and stark contrast?

I've enjoyed this, and many other films in black & white for years and don't have a problem with it
( Even the DVD gives the option to watch the film in it's original format).

The end result was not quite what  I was expecting as it looked to me like flat colours had  been over- laid  over a black & white print giving a kind of washed out look.

I'm no expert and I imagine that colourising films isn't a simple process and very labour intensive , as well as budget constraints. Watching it again it occurred to me that the flat colours reminded me of the old Front Of House photos that you'd see outside the cinema, so maybe that had been the intention all along (I suspect the budget had a lot to with it as well!)

Several Doctor Who stories like the Mind of Evil and The Daemons have been colourised using bits of existing colour information. These and others which were originally filmed in colour, and have now been painstakingly restored.

The end results turned out very well, considering these originally started life on videotape.
I can see the advantage of returning these to colour as this is how things were originally intended.

I can think of quite a few series I'd like to see colourised, Dangerman and Burke's Law would be on the list, but when it comes to Gerry Anderson shows there's two series, Supercar and Fireball XL5 that might benefit from the complete run being colourised.

In the UK both series just don't get shown on TV any more because of theIr monotone look. Stingray, being the first ITC programme with marionettes to be film entirely in colour has managed to appeal to several generations due to repeat showings, plus all that lovely new merchandise!

On Stephen La Riviere's excellent Full Boost Vertical Documentary there is a short piece of specially colourised  test film footage from Supercar.

When you look at publicity photos from both Supercar and Fireball XL5 it strikes me these two series would have looked great in colour. I've seen bits of test footage of Fireball XL5's opening titles and the opening scenes from the Planet 46 episode which looked great, but with Network DVD's specially commisioned colourised version of A Day In The Life Of A Space General we got a chance to watch an entire episode.

Personally, I'd love to see these old series being given a whole new lease of life and the chance for new generations to enjoy them, and as to colourisation as a whole, I'm certainly not averse... as long as I've got them in their original black & white.