[Leica] Black and White

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

> 
> And as horrifying as the results are, Ted Turner was simply making a smart
> business decision, knowing that most young people equate black and white
> movies with old, bad, dull. As an antidote - anyone seen "On The Beach"
> lately? Wow.
> 
> 
I just saw "Smiles of a Summer night" the only Bergman comedy filmed, a very
early one before Seventh Seal and the only Berman film I never saw probably
previously. Pre Sven Nykvist and his Leica CL but just as good if not
better. A rainbow of 3D looking black and white with chiaroscuro up the yin
yang and every shadow sounded by a highlight no matter where the actor moved
in the room. Dialog as witty as anything made in the last years. Dorothy
Parker. Perry Mason.
Even I, black and white fanatic from hell am sometimes daunted by a black
and white film and will actually shuffle one to the bottom of the deck in
lieu of certainly three strip Technicolor. (GONE WITH THE WIND)
http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/3StripTechnicolor.htm
http://www.reelclassics.com/Techtalk/technicolor-article.htm
But even the more modern stocks which really are amazingly good.
The European films seem to only use Kodak or mainly!
I wish you could put them in your Leica!  :)  (you can I think)

I've been putting together a little screen saver desktop slide show of New
York City as I'm moving there in the spring and previsualizing and
downloading lots of jpg's from the Google image finder source. Amazing how
bad many of these shots look until I desaturate them. Modifying them for my
screen. Huge files mainly I've got the advance search set for "big".
Sometimes I'll sneak a smidgen of color back in with the fade thing so you
can barely tell.
Like Moby Dick!
Call me Ishmael
Then remind me it was my idea.

Most of the time when people would see early "silent" films each scene was
tinted a different color if the whole thing was not hand colored frame by
frame. And they were far from silent you had to bring your ear plugs they
were sound extravaganzas. Especially when shown now on a DVD as people do
orchestral scores for them in lieu of amazing huge pipe organ. You could be
sight impaired and still love to bring them home.
Which brings us to my major modern adage:
It's always what you don't think.

Turner Classics channel with those Garbo films this month and all the other
stuff all black and white not even tinted made me not want to string him up
on meat hooks on sight.


Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/