# Colour vs B&W **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419 "2006-02-28T05:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/21 "2006-02-28T17:37:03Z")
**Johnny** : I’m not saying it’s already gone, only that there are fewer places to buy and process B&W film today than there were 10, 20, or 30 years ago. And that the situation will continue to get worse until eventually all film work, B&W or color, will be a rare and expensive boutique process, kind of like making dye transfer photo prints. I know people in the film business who are worried that all the guys at the labs who really know the processes and know how to produce high-quality images are near or at retirement age, and that there aren’t nearly enough young people interested in learning this dying art. As demand for shooting and printing on film drops, manufacturers will make less, labs will close, and it will be difficult and expensive to work in film. Digital cinema – converting movie theaters from 35mm to digital projection – is expected to really take off in the next couple of years. As many as 4,000 digital projectors may be in place by 2008, out of about about 30,000 screens in North America. The savings to distributors from not having to make and ship film prints is driving the process. Once studios are no longer ordering thousands of prints for hundreds of films every year, labs will close, Kodak will shut down production facilities and getting a 400-foot roll of 125T will be as hard as buying a buggy whip. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/22 "2006-02-28T21:37:23Z")
Another TV show that popularized color? POW! The 1963 Batman. It really wasn’t the same without it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/23 "2006-02-28T21:48:42Z")
Was that the one before the [1966-1968](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0059968/) _Batman_? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/24 "2006-02-28T22:10:11Z")
Yeah, that was the one in which Batman fought aliens in a museum of giant cash registers. Didn’t work. 🙂 Color television was long established by then, of course, and smart executives made the switch much earlier because they saw the future. The [Adventures of Superman](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0044231/) started filming in color in 1954 and created a hugely profitable rerun niche, even though the show itself suffered from the cost: > [@](#): > > With the switch to more expensive color film in 1954, there was a mandate to shoot no more new effects scenes than absolutely necessary. Most Superman-in-flight footage was filmed right-to-left. When the plot unavoidably required Superman to fly in the opposite direction, the footage was “flipped,” as can be detected by the reversal of the “S” chest emblem. ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/25 "2006-02-28T22:45:28Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I saw “Good Night and Good Luck” recently. At the end there’s a credit: > > “Color and prints by Technicolor.” > > So I guess if you really wanted to be picky you can say there are B&W films in Technicolor. Could the movie have been shot in color then converted to black and white in the processing (or however they would do that)? ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/26 "2006-02-28T22:46:00Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I saw “Good Night and Good Luck” recently. At the end there’s a credit: > > “Color and prints by Technicolor.” > > So I guess if you really wanted to be picky you can say there are B&W films in Technicolor. Could the movie have been shot in color then converted to black and white in the processing (or however they would do that)? Hence the Technicolor credit? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/27 "2006-02-28T23:22:15Z")
Interview with director-star George Clooney: > [@](#): > > t’s funny. We shot it on color film because you can use so much less light. I mean, if you’re shooting in black and white, it would take us twice as long to light it. So we have a color print of it that we’ve seen and it is freaky looking. I mean, it looks like a sitcom. It looks so wrong. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/28 "2006-02-28T23:55:27Z")
Ahem. 196\_7\_ Batman show. My apologies. Still, that was still a transitional time, and I suggest it did help move color into greater importance. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/29 "2006-03-01T00:56:31Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > **Johnny** : I’m not saying it’s already gone, only that there are fewer places to buy and process B&W film today than there were 10, 20, or 30 years ago. That is true. But for now it’s still readily available. Still, I’m going to sell my Arri 35 BL and my Arri 16S, as well as a couple of Bolexes anf the Krasnagorsks. (I’ll keep a couple of Bolexes and my Éclair.) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/30 "2006-03-01T01:29:27Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > My favorite line about B&W is from [_The Big Picture_.](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0096926/) Idealistic young director Kevin Bacon wants to make his artistic film in B&W. One of the studio execs he’s pitching it to tells him that he can’t, because modern film projectors can’t project B&W. What’s the line? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419/31 "2006-03-01T15:20:21Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > What’s the line? Unfortunately, the IMDb doesn’t have the exact quote, but it’s just to the effect that projectors can’t show B&W movies any more. Okay, it’s not the actual _line_ that’s so funny, it’s the idea that studio execs would be so clueless about how a film projector works as to think that could even be possible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colour-vs-b-w/346419.md?page=1)