PUBLICATION

TITLE: Computer Assisted Color Conversion
PUBLICATION: Proceedings of the USENIX
                 Computer Graphics Workshop
DATE: 1986 (Monterey)

 ABSTRACT

         The process of adding computerized color to black and white motion pictures and television programs has been hailed as ''an ingenious technical breakthrough" and derided as "cultural butchery". Businessmen see it as a means of breathing new life into unsaleable media properties while the original filmmakers (who do not share in the new income) see it as "vandalism" of clasic works of art.
         While it is a matter of opinion as to whether colorization is a good idea in and of itself, it is clear that bad colorization is not. The current products available for broadcast and home video have been almost uniformly washed out, over-simple and unsubtle. Film critic Gene Siskel observes,
There's a certain timidity about the colors used, lot's of pastels, as in ... Topper. The coloring of Yankee Doodle Dandy is a visual mess. In some scenes everything is awash with blue except the skin tones, which are the same for every actor. So much for the actors' individuality ... The coloring is even more laughble in the classics It's A Wonderful Life ... And the classic gaffs; look at Frank Sinatra in Suddenly, 'Ol' Blue Eyes' is back ... as 'Ol' Brown Eyes".
His cohort Roger Ebert continues,
They tend to pick light blues, light greens, pinks, violets, yellows ... in the 30s Cagney looked like he was going out to commit murder, colorized he looks like he's going out to play golf.
         The work now being done at commercial colorization facilities does not have to be so poor. The low quality of current colorization services is a matter of economics and poor design, not technical limitations. These defects are not inherent in our patented colorization process - ChromaSynthesis.

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Revision: August 1995 - All text, graphic and design elements TM & (c) 1995 David M. Geshwind
Computer Assisted Color Conversion SM ChromaSynthesis TM David M. Geshwind


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