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Something about Black and White

I was in a discussion years ago that just hit me in the head like a brick this hour. It's 12:30am Sunday morning and I'm watching 12 O'clock High on H&I Channel as I do every Saturday night. My mind recalls that discussion because it's happening to me now.

Tonight season 3 started and it's in color.
The 1st 2 seasons were black and white.

The discussion was about black and white pictures showing more detail and contrast in the content than a color picture. This is a matter of how the mind percieves the content.
I realized I'm more focused on the entire picture rather than the characters and story content. I had to pull up the program information to confirm my suspicion it was a new season. It didn't even have the In Living Color notice as so many other programs did as they changed over.
I am actually distracted by what we are all used to seeing.
My brain is telling me this program looks better in black and white and the story is more important than the picture.

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HoeBag · 46-50, F

Whether B&W looks better or not may be debatable but what I think it also is -

There is something more "cozy" and definitely nostalgic about B&W. It just has a certain charm.

When you and GerOttman were talking about a colorizing screen, I never seen one of those but I do not imagine they helped matters.

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HoeBag · 46-50, F

@Gibbon The TV with the colorizer, yeah that just doesn't work. Looks like it started as a joke but then they thought selling it was a good idea.

@Patriot96 @Gibbon I am guessing that isn't June Cleaver?

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HoeBag · 46-50, F

@Gibbon Yeah I wondered what that particular photo was about.

You have a point though, B&W does cause one to focus more on the subject that anything.

GerOttman · 70-79, M

Used to watch that every week, they used the same combat footage every episode! I must have seen the same B-17 go down in flames a hundred times. I do appreciate the old black and white films as originally shown. Did you have one of those "colorizing" screens the went on the front of the TV?

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FreddieUK · 70-79, M

Black and white was so normal as we grew up that I'm sure my brain made up the colours as I watched The Lone Ranger.

There were a few series that went into colo(u)r I seem to remember, but since we only had b/w on TV until 1969 (apart from a few on one channel that not everyone could receive) few of us noticed the switch.

Black and white photography still has an important place and I love to visit galleries where it features.

SethGreene531 · M

I'm fond of 12 O'clock High also, prefering the B&W versions to the colorized. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo is similarly well done.

The film medium is impactful for both motion picture, and photography.
Emotionally compelling, emphasing plot, themes, and visual elements in a scene.

Classics of the 1940s silver screen, likely owe their success - in part- to this dramatic form of presentation.

FreddieUK · 70-79, M

@SethGreene531 A good b/w print is better than a 'colorized' version most of the time. The trouble is that a lot of cheaply run vintage tv and film channels don't always have good definition copies. Occasionally we get showings of good digital versions of classics in a local art cinema and they would rather be burned to the ground than show something inauthentic!! 😂

SethGreene531 · M

@FreddieUK
Agreed.

Like films shot in Technicolor, there's something very wrong with the tone, and definition.

Stations like TCM, film archivists, and industry advocates like AFI thankfully fight to keep quality classic cinema intact.

With its instability over time; digitizing celluloid is critical.
Sad to think images and film are being lost forever to rot. We need more interest, and volunteers for the task.

God bless those cinemas. Holding true to the ideals that made them great in their heyday.

Yes, many would rather burn than show bad film. And thanks to digital, there's fewer canister store rooms waiting to self combust.

I'd like to find a proper vintage cinema, restored; with regular showings of classic films.
We're losing too many to urban real estate development.

Patriot96 · 56-60, C

Only watched once. Last night we all watched the original 1949 movie. A classic

RunTheJulz · 46-50, F

Interesting observation

Iwillwait · M

Some do look better that way.

TheOneyouwerewarnedabout · 46-50, MVIP

Color was modern times CGI..
Irrelevant

Gibbon · 70-79, M

@TheOneyouwerewarnedabout
@Iwillwait
Having been an amateur hobby photographer and developing doing my own prints I had a great appreciation for people like Ansel Adams who could turn a black and white scene into a visual thing of beauty.
I realized tonight my mind overly focused on the color and I think what was happening was I was dealing with something many of us dislike and that is Change.

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