Why do some movies originally shot on film have notably vivid reds and skin tones?
Many older movies seem to have vivid reds and particularly realistic or noticeable skin tones (they certainly seem to stand out from typical skin tones on TV or the majority of movies). This applies even in DVD or online versions and is not, given the range of material I've noticed the effect in, an artifact of special post processing or deliberate colour manipulation.
All the movies I've noticed the effect in are from the film era, especially from when colour became common to the late 1960's. I used to think it was just Technicolor but I've seen things recently that don't claim to be Technicolor that also show the effect.
This site claims the effect was due to the final print being constructed late in the process for separate black and white film strips for each primary colour allowing the final dyes to be very vivid and clear:
The rich colors that the Technicolor process gave came in part from the fact that the color was not added to the process until the final stages. The color information was recorded and processed as separate black and white images which were relatively easy to control and preserve.
Is this a good explanation?
Best Answer
Many kinds of film stock have used color dyes which were notoriously unstable. Consequently, the colors shown on the films today may have little relation to the colors the films showed when they were first released. If the colors in a DVD appear unnatural, it may be either that
- the film's colors looked that way when it was released,
- during the years prior to the DVD release the colors have shifted to those shown on the DVD, or
- the colors shifted in ways that may have been even worse than what's on the DVD, and the producers of the DVD have attempted, not entirely successfully, to correct them.
Some movie producers shot film of color reference charts and stored those films with their movies; if the filmed color reference charts were shot on the same type of film stock as everything else, and stored in similar conditions, someone wishing to transfer the film to a new medium will likely be able to use the color-reference footage to determine how dyes have shifted and compensate for that. Without such reference footage, however, color correction is often a matter of guesswork.
Pictures about "Why do some movies originally shot on film have notably vivid reds and skin tones?"
What does the color red mean in film?
In film, red is the color of love, passion, excitement, desire, violence, blood, danger, anger, fire, war, heat, and rage. Red captures a viewer's attention and is one of the most visible colors. This is why red is used on fire trucks and stop signs.Why are movies shot in two colors?
They do this for every set in the film, and the production designer along with the director comes up with a plan for the entire movie. A color story. The second color adds depth and actually enhances the primary color, so it can carry the responsibility of the mood of the story at that point.How did early film makers add color to their films?
The early days of color in film Many early filmakers and innovators employed the use of stenciling, or hand coloring film images. The movie Trip to the Moon (1902) required an entire assembly line of workers to color every frame. Just take a look at the footage of the film and you can see how laborious this task was.How did they add color to movies?
With computer technology, studios were able to add color to black-and-white films by digitally tinting single objects in each frame of the film until it was fully colorized (the first authorized computer-colorizations of B&W cartoons were commissioned by Warner Bros. in 1990).Color Theory in Film — Color Psychology for Directors: Ep5
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Answer 2
I think you're referring to Color Grading, these days it's much easier to enhance and mix colors in moving pictures than it was years ago. Hence Color Grading was not done years ago because its not cheap, flexible and easy as it is today.
Answer 3
The way you describe this effect makes me think about Film Colorization by Hand. It is an older technique than the era you're suggesting. Here is a description of the technique from this site:
Painters colored each part of each frame of each copy of the reel by hand. This labor-intensive technology was only possible because the earliest films were very short (...)
Here is an example of a movie colorized using this technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZbPUPtapU
As you can see the reds are more vivid than the rest of the colors.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Daniel Maforte, Ricardo Esquivel, Daniel Maforte, Daniel Maforte