Dracula Colorized

[Megotastrophe]

I'm waiting for Dracula 2 full color and cgi Lugosi with epic extended shaky cam jump cut combat scenes...

[Mikey]

Black and white movies have a tendency of putting me to sleep after a while

[Nostalgiabuff]

Black and white movies have a tendency of putting me to sleep after a while

same here. and as already mentioned, Dracula can be rather slow at times. I think a well done colorized version could be really cool.....or not

[Earth 2 Chris]

I will admit that's a vast improvement over the horrible colorization that Turner started in the 80s, but coloring the Uni monsters would kill the atmosphere. As Crimson Ghost said, little attention is paid to actual lighting, etc.

Now something I WOULD be up for, so long as the original is always available, is taking older movies and putting a filter on those day-for-night shots that stick out like a sore thumb now. Hammer films are full of them, and that was obviously not the intention of the filmmakers. In today's ultra HD presentation, the daylight is blatantly more obvious than in the past.

Even a movie as "modern" as Deliverance has problems with this. I was watching it the other night on TCM, and the scenes with Jon Voight up on the mountain, waiting to kill their attacker has some really bad editing, trying to make day for night.

Again, I wouldn't want them changed forever, and I would want the original available, but an "enhanced" treatment with a blue filter over these shots would be nice... if only those involved wouldn't overdo it.

Chris

[Hedji]

How would everyone feel about 3D conversions? It was done very effectively for Wizard of Oz. And since Creature From the Black Lagoon is in 3D, there is precedent for Uni Monsters in this format.

I think with Blu Ray being probably the last stop for restoration of these titles, Universal will one day be looking for excuses to get more people interested in these.

I completely understand the purists who are 100% opposed to tinkering, by the way. But I like to see new takes on things, just for fun.

[cjefferys]

The Creature looks great as it was shot in 3D, but I have yet to see a film shot in 2D and then converted to 3D that really impressed me (this includes both older films and many modern films that aren't really shot in 3D but rather converted in post).

[Hedji]

The conversions are getting better. Thor Ragnarok and the Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man movies are spectacular 3D conversions. Same with Aquaman.

For older films, check out Jurassic Park. Really great conversion.

[enyawd72]

If I had my way, and could oversee the colorization of the Universal monsters I would do something completely off the rails.
I would recreate the entire film, frame by frame to look like an animated Basil Gogos painting.

I think the results would be spectacular and monster fans would go nuts.

[Type3Toys]

I would love to see them all colorized. I would get them all.

[Hedji]

If I had my way, and could oversee the colorization of the Universal monsters I would do something completely off the rails.
I would recreate the entire film, frame by frame to look like an animated Basil Gogos painting.

I think the results would be spectacular and monster fans would go nuts.

I love the way you think. I'd pay to see that.

[MIB41]

I'm not a big fan of altering original expressions on film. Black & White is it's own art form that carry a mood and environment with contrast that color does not possess. Plus you have to keep in mind, much of what was worn (and shot) for black & white film was done to enhance the black & white experience.

Without question technology has come a long way in making these more convincing, but they lose their individuality in the process. For example, that Stooges outtake looks excellent in colorized form. But it also feels like the Monkees or Adam West's Batman could walk right into those scenes with that color palette.

[enyawd72]

I'm not a big fan of altering original expressions on film. Black & White is it's own art form that carry a mood and environment with contrast that color does not possess. Plus you have to keep in mind, much of what was worn (and shot) for black & white film was done to enhance the black & white experience.

Without question technology has come a long way in making these more convincing, but they lose their individuality in the process. For example, that Stooges outtake looks excellent in colorized form. But it also feels like the Monkees or Adam West's Batman could walk right into those scenes with that color palette.

The biggest obstacle that has still never been overcome is that the process is basically applying color tint over the existing grays to create tones. There is no life to the colors...lighting within the scene, reflected colors and natural tones are absent, creating a completely unnatural look which sticks out like a sore thumb. That shot of Lugosi is terrible. His complexion should be much paler and cooler, probably with blue backlighting to convey the nighttime darkness of the crypt. I've painted enough black and white monsters in color over the years to know how they should look. Here is an example of colored lighting applied over a model I painted in black and white...this is the effect that's missing.

[Mikey]

One of my biggest problems with B&W colorizations is the Caucasian skin tones.

This is a problem in early colorizations as well as many modern ones.

The "colorers" seem to think the best way of coloring a white person is in various shades of red -- to be exact, pink.

A real person should be colorized in various shades of brown, from darker browns for Afro Americans to light tans for whites.

[Hedji]

I think Dwayne nailed it. It's got so much to do with subtleties of how lighting reflects unevenly off the skin. It's not a singular blanket tone. The nuances can't be just washed over with color, and expecting the shadows to do the work.

That said, I still would support an effort like this.

[palitoy]

This is where my snobbery becomes questionable I guess, I have issues with colouring Whale's Frankenstein because of it's German influences, black and white was a medium they used in amazing ways.

I have no qualms about Stooges shorts being coloured because they were just cheapies, they'd have been shot on VHS if produced 40 years later.

If any Uni Monster movies got colourized like a Gogos painting, I'd watch it, I'm not going to lie.

PS I'm also the guy who thinks they ruined Star Trek with those CGI effects.