> erilar wrote: > > In article <he20nf$50...@news.eternal-september.org>, > > "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> >> Never said I WON'T watch B&W movies, just that they must have a hell of > >> a lot to make up FOR being B&W.
> > "It Happened One Night" is far far better than the general run of color > > comedies.
> Alas, for me that's like saying it's better than the general run of > beers. Not *quite*, because there are a few, a VERY few, comedies I've > liked, but they are so rare as to essentially be the "exceptions that > prove the rule".
> To be worth watching in B&W for me, a comedy would have to be not > merely far better than the general run of comedies, but far better than > any comedy seen elsewhere, ever, probably.
Ah, but I'm a weird person who had only a black and white TV for many years after everyone else around me was watching things in color. Like switching from dial-up to a fast internet connection: inertia and not really knowing what I was missing. With the TV, though, I've never become enslaved, whereas the internet is working at it.
erilar wrote: > In article <he2bs3$56...@news.eternal-september.org>, > "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>> erilar wrote: >>> In article <he20nf$50...@news.eternal-september.org>, >>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>>> Never said I WON'T watch B&W movies, just that they must have a hell of >>>> a lot to make up FOR being B&W. >>> "It Happened One Night" is far far better than the general run of color >>> comedies.
>> Alas, for me that's like saying it's better than the general run of >> beers. Not *quite*, because there are a few, a VERY few, comedies I've >> liked, but they are so rare as to essentially be the "exceptions that >> prove the rule".
>> To be worth watching in B&W for me, a comedy would have to be not >> merely far better than the general run of comedies, but far better than >> any comedy seen elsewhere, ever, probably.
> Ah, but I'm a weird person who had only a black and white TV for many > years after everyone else around me was watching things in color.
So did we, but once I got stuff in color, I wasn't ever going back.
> erilar wrote: > > In article <he2bs3$56...@news.eternal-september.org>, > > "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> >> erilar wrote: > >>> In article <he20nf$50...@news.eternal-september.org>, > >>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> >>>> Never said I WON'T watch B&W movies, just that they must have a hell of > >>>> a lot to make up FOR being B&W. > >>> "It Happened One Night" is far far better than the general run of color > >>> comedies.
> >> Alas, for me that's like saying it's better than the general run of > >> beers. Not *quite*, because there are a few, a VERY few, comedies I've > >> liked, but they are so rare as to essentially be the "exceptions that > >> prove the rule".
> >> To be worth watching in B&W for me, a comedy would have to be not > >> merely far better than the general run of comedies, but far better than > >> any comedy seen elsewhere, ever, probably.
> > Ah, but I'm a weird person who had only a black and white TV for many > > years after everyone else around me was watching things in color.
> So did we, but once I got stuff in color, I wasn't ever going back.
Funny thing about that. Happens to almost everyone. But the mind set of people in the black and white days cannot be recaptured. The techniques of making the films look good in black and white are probably lost too. But TV is a low res medium certainly when the transition was made.
And B&W film has an inherently greater dynamic range (from black to white) than color film and that is an important advantage, which I suppose does not come across on even the best flat screens of today.
Color does somethings wonderfully well anything dependent on scenery and so forth is a natural for color, for example.
And one final word. "Rosebud"
-- A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
>Color does somethings wonderfully well anything dependent on scenery and >so forth is a natural for color, for example.
>And one final word. "Rosebud"
You needn't resort to the highbrow stuff to make this point...Popeye cartoons were better when they were black and white than the later ones made in color (the only color Popeyes that compete are the features)...this, granted, is less a fault of color than of turning the creative reins over to people who didn't have the same emotional stake in the property....
But color itself can also be used to screw things up royally...there was an episode in the third season of "My Favorite Martian" (the only season aired in color) that comes to mind...Tim and Martin travel back in time to the 1920s to prevent Uncle Martin from appearing in a silent movie that's scheduled to be aired that night on television (when people in the 60s see it and recognize him, they'll realize he doesn't age like Earth people)...when they return to their own time, they sit down to watch the movie with the star who ended up taking Martin's place...on their little portable TV set, the silent movie is in full color....r
-- A pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this?
In article <hebu6j0...@drn.newsguy.com>, R H Draney <dadoc...@spamcop.net> wrote:
> You needn't resort to the highbrow stuff to make this point...Popeye cartoons > were better when they were black and white than the later ones made in color > (the only color Popeyes that compete are the features)...this, granted, is > less > a fault of color than of turning the creative reins over to people who didn't > have the same emotional stake in the property....
The cognoscenti say that Betty Boop etl. all were much better in the black in white, and in fact the color ones are not part of the canon.
-- A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
>In article <hebu6j0...@drn.newsguy.com>, > R H Draney <dadoc...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>> You needn't resort to the highbrow stuff to make this point...Popeye cartoons >> were better when they were black and white than the later ones made in color >> (the only color Popeyes that compete are the features)...this, granted, is >> less >> a fault of color than of turning the creative reins over to people who didn't >> have the same emotional stake in the property....
>The cognoscenti say that Betty Boop etl. all were much better in the >black in white, and in fact the color ones are not part of the canon.
I'm just glad nobody tried to do Our Gang in color....
R H "apart from Penelope Spheeris, of course" Draney
-- A pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this?
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