Filmed in black and white, not colour?

Good Night and Good Luck is a film directed by George Clooney. Now he's known for his Acting, so does that mean that it was pretentious show his film in Black and White?

Scorsese does something similar with the Aviator, which uses the old, basic colour that you can see in the earliest colour films, where the green looks blue.

Then, there's the current trend with directors of using darkening filtres on their films to a very large degree. For example, Tim Burton or the recent Harry Potter films for those who don't know Burton.

Is it sensible? Is it artistic? Is it pretenious? Is it overly popular? Does it deserve the credit it gains for making a film seem more suspenseful?

I won't vote because it doesn't bother me. I can watch either black and white or colour, it genuinely makes no difference but obviously if a film was shot in black and white that's the version you watch it in as most re-colourised stuff looks naff.

Now directors and filmmakers do it for artistic reasions. Clooney particularly wanted to shoot Good Night and Good Luck in black and white so that it matched the TV footage of the time. Spielberg shot Schindler's List in black and white because he did not want to bring anything remotely colourful depicting the holocaust. Scorsese to a more advance degree than the Aviator, shot Raging Bull in black and white which was a stylistic decision. The way Tim Burton shoots things I like, it doesn't bother me that he uses blue filters and tones things down to muted colours, I think Burton as a visual stylist is one of the best in the business and if anything he knows how to shoot a film and make it look impressive even when the script is a bit of a shambles *cough*Planet of the Apes*cough*. It's also wrong to assume he always uses dark filters, look at Big Fish, look at Pee Wee's Big Adventure, look at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, look at Beetlejuice. He isn't just a TURN THE LIGHT ON director that most people think he is.

Nowadays shooting in black and white is mostly to do with style and the way something looks obviously because we are so used to shooting in colour, shadows and lighting are easier to create with a simpler palette. However some films fit black and white and some do not.

Can I imagine Schindler's List in colour. Meh probably. Could I imagine Lord of the Rings in black and white. No.

Black and white does not make a film more suspenseful, Rear Window is the most suspenseful film Hitchcock made and it was shot in colour, No Country was the most tense I've seen in years and it was shot in colour. So I generally don't care, although if you want to make someone look better than they do, black and white is very kind to a person's face.

@Will_Chadwick

I wasn't moaning about it btw, I was just wondering what you and everyne else thought of it.

I like the black and white, but do think that this grim filtre fad is a bit annoying since the good directors have had it stolen by the naff ones.

bert vimes wrote:

I like the black and white, but do think that this grim filtre fad is a bit annoying since the good directors have had it stolen by the naff ones.

Examples??

I wasn't implying that you weren't moaning just giving an answer.

willchadwick wrote:

Examples??

you tell me, but I was thinking of Transformers which from the ads is a very visually dark film.

Also that really bad one with Vin Diesel in it which I was moaning about a couple of months ago.

bert vimes wrote:

willchadwick wrote:

Examples??

you tell me, but I was thinking of Transformers which from the ads is a very visually dark film.

Not really.... I can't think of any that's why I asked you.

Again, it doesn't bother me that much. If it genuinely adds to the film then I can't see a problem, unless it is used OTT, then it may spoil it in some ways. It all depends on the film, and context really.

Dr. Peripheral wrote:

I can't see a problem, unless it is used OTT, then it may spoil it in some ways.

That's totally what i'm saying, what films use it ott? I think a lot do.

bert vimes wrote:

what films use it ott? I think a lot do.

Examples?

I like black and white as i fell it is just simply beautiful if used correctly, however i dont mind if a film is shot in either colour and black and white. I mean most the animation i watch i wouldn't imagine being in black and white like the ghibli films but then Persepolis is stunning and thats all in Black and White besides a few minutes at the end and beginning.

I like the atmosphere of Tim Burton's films and other films that appear to use a darkening filter. As for black and white the only one I can think of is Schindler's List which I thought was very good due to the symbolism you could find in it thanks to the black and white filming.

Have voted black and white because when thinking about it, everything looks better in it. Now I'm not saying that all colour films should be black and white because vibrant, colourful films such as Slumdog Millionaire or Lord of the Rings would look rubbish in black and white. But it all comes back to Citizen Kane, which has the most perfect visual of any film ever and in black and white. Despite being in two (well three) colours there is so much versatility with the lighting and the shadows you can create.

willchadwick wrote:

Despite being in two (well three) colours there is so much versatility with the lighting and the shadows you can create.

Is this not where film noir came from? I think you're rihgt in that sense, but what I dislike is the overuse of filtres. To be honest I think more films should be shot in B&W, but I think that with the exception of the top quality directors like Burton who can actually use a filtre without it being just for the sake of it, directors should let it lie.

bert vimes wrote:

but what I dislike is the overuse of filtres.

Examples??

willchadwick wrote:

bert vimes wrote:

but what I dislike is the overuse of filtres.

Examples??

The fact that every single coen film uses them, the fact that just about every film set in the victorian era uses them, the fact that action movies like transformers use them to make them appear arty, batman, bond, cloverfield, etc etc etc etc etc

bert vimes wrote:

The fact that every single coen film uses them

Whilst that is a fact they have never used darkening filters, in fact either the colours are very bright or the colours are very dour and cold. That is production design and costume design. I don't think that's a bad thing either.

bert vimes wrote:

the fact that just about every film set in the victorian era

Yeah good point

bert vimes wrote:

the fact that action movies like transformers use them to make them appear arty, batman, bond, cloverfield, etc etc etc etc etc

Transformers doesn't, Batman doesn't (well the Burton ones did), Bond does, Cloverfield didn't.

When you say darkening filters, I think you mean saturation which washes out the colour, there are only very few films which use filters which saturate the film. In fact Sweeney Todd was the last film to use them all the way through.