There is a fierce debate raging on CML’s [cml-film] under the thread title “Don’t call it a documentary”. It concerns the colourisation of WW1 archive footage by Peter Jackson in They Shall Not Grow Old. For some the colourised footage brings the soldiers and action to life, often suggesting that younger people can relate more strongly to the coloured lifelike representation. Others disagree and also point out that the original black and white footage is often viewed as extremely poor quality digitised copies.
Adam Forslund wrote: What is interesting to me is when I was a kid my grandmother (Born in 1921) and I were talking about dreams and she said “Sometimes I dream in Technicolor.” To which we had a long discussion about how she normally would dream in B&W. With science and history pointing out that humans have not always viewed colors the same way or at all. With all those that did see the war first hand gone then the war lives on in B&W.
Colorizing film for me is not needed.
Adam Forslund
Former DP turned Lawyer
5/12/18