Digital Photo Pro - USA (2020-02)

rrrtttsssyyy. Pretentious. Old fash-
ioned. Boring. Period look.
Outdated. Rich. Simple. Silent movie.
Horror. Film noir."
In the world of film and television
production, those are some of the
adjectives you’ll generally get when you
mention the words “black and white.”
What’s intriguing to note is that often
the types of responses you get depend
on the age of the person talking. (Of
course, the responses also depend on
how much media a particular group
consumes.) In general, younger audi-
ences have much less association with
black-and-white footage, and it may
appear as a novelty to them.
Audiences a bit older will have some
recollections of watching black-and-
white television when they were a kid.
This is the category I fit into. As a kid
in the 1980s, I had a 13-inch black-and-
white television in my room, while my

family had a massive 19-inch color set

in the living room. If you go back to an

older audience, they may have experi-

enced a lot more black-and-white tele-

vision and have seen black-and-white

films in the theater.

But why do filmmakers continue

to experiment with black and white?

One reason is that it can appear more

visually powerful than color footage—

which seems counterintuitive since

color is obviously how most of us see

and experience the real world.

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From a commercial viewpoint, black

and white has been synonymous with

“art house, obscure and novelty” for

quite some time. If you are a commer-

cial filmmaker and mention the words

“black and white” to your executive

producer or distributor, you may see

a look of fear and dread come across

their faces. That’s because black and

white can be a tough sell commercially

for audiences who have never experi-

enced it. Or even if they have, many

audiences regard black and white as a

dated effect.

But you shouldn’t discount black

and white. That’s because it can be a

viable artistic choice and, for certain

projects, black and white can look

exquisite and make a connection with

an audience in a way that a color film

or project never can.

In 2011, the French film The Artist,

which was filmed entirely in black and

white, was nominated for 10 Acad-

emy Awards and won five, including

best picture. In the 1990s, Schindler’s

List was released almost exclusively

in black and white, although it had

limited sequences in color as well.

That film went on to become a mod-

ern classic.

Black and white effectively sets the mood for the

cynicism and violence of such genres as film noir.

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