Kodak color testing from 1922

[nunqual]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RTnd3Smy8&feature=player_embedded

It's very charming, especially with the music. Also sad because you know that the actresses in this film have long since passed away. So please, say what you think about this, from an emotional, technical, or any other viewpoint you may have.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

Also sad because you know that the actresses in this film have long since passed away.

I agree with this. I was recently watching my aunt's wedding footage, it was all very much in the style of that video except it was in black and white. What I found weird though was seeing my great grandfather/mother and all my mum's aunties and uncles who have passed away, it's really quite surreal seeing actual footage of someone who has died. I got the same feeling from that video too, it's odd, quite an interesting video nonetheless. Thanks for sharing! I doubt I would've found this any other way.

 

[nunqual]

Holy crap, that quality is far better than I would have expected for 1922, particularly the vividness of the colours.

Yeah, it's amazing, especially considering this was 13 years before the first full-length motion picture in color.

This seems kind of stupid, but since you only see black and white photos and movies from that era, I kind of forgot they lived in color. It takes this kind of movie to make me realize they had favorite colors and looked at the sunset and saw all of the colors.

 

[The Amazing Tea Alligator]

I really like the... everything about that clip. The colours are really nice, and the contrast is doing nifty stuff. It's cool.

 

[Jark212]

Damn, those could easily have passed for the 1970s...

Beautiful...

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Holy crap, that quality is far better than I would have expected for 1922, particularly the vividness of the colours.

Yeah, it's amazing, especially considering this was 13 years before the first full-length motion picture in color.

This seems kind of stupid, but since you only see black and white photos and movies from that era, I kind of forgot they lived in color. It takes this kind of movie to make me realize they had favorite colors and looked at the sunset and saw all of the colors.

In that thread, even modern recreations of that era paint everything in muted, drab colors. As if the very concept of color itself was just completely forgotten during the turn of the century.

So, yea, thats not stupid. If you look at a black and white photograph enough times, you stop remembering the colors involved in that photograph. Even if you were there. The limitations of the photography of the time (with paint being at best, a very pale imitation of reality) have literally drained all the color away from that period.

 

[Arachon]

That is absolutely stunning, the colours are so vivid, it is hard to imagine that it is almost 90 years old.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Impressive, very. I also really like these old colour photographs from 1940's America [http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/]:

I absolutely love pictures like that, they're like a time machine.

Even more impressive is this collection of early colour photographs from early 1900's Russia [http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/10/21/color-photography-from-russian-in-the-early-1900s/544/]:

Those colours are amazing, fantastic stuff if you ask me. They all belong in the same catagory as that film footage. Maybe a bit less impressive, but still stunning.

 

[icame]

A great achievement in film making i didn't even know existed. Thanks for showing this to us.

 

[nunqual]

Impressive, very. I also really like these old colour photographs from 1940's America
[pics]
I absolutely love pictures like that, they're like a time machine.

Even more impressive is this collection of early colour photographs from early 1900's Russia
[pics]
Those colours are amazing, fantastic stuff if you ask me.

Those are very nice. I love the photos with the people in them. Color can help express a lot of things that black and white can't, in my opinion.

 

[nunqual]

Anyone else? 154 people have viewed this, there has to be more opinions.

 

[Furious Styles]

That's pretty amazing, there's a TV series here called World war 1 in colour. Now that's poignant because you know most of the men in they filmed died not long afterwards, especially when they smiled at the camera. In black and white it somehow separates you from it, like its not real. In colour, it really hits home.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Fascinating. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I've always had a hard time imagining anything from the black & white era of photography in colour, despite vivid descriptions to the contrary. This footage is quite strange in that it turns that whole irrational concept on its head.
Something..There's something you can relate to with these people. Guess it's colour. Sharing that spectrum. Erm.

My God, I'm terrible at putting thoughts down in text.

Edit: This is what I meant to say.

In black and white it somehow separates you from it, like its not real. In colour, it really hits home.

Must teach me how to make sense.

 

[nunqual]

Fascinating. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I've always had a hard time imaging anything from the black & white era of photography in colour, despite vivid descriptions to the contrary. This footage is quite strange in that it turns that whole irrational concept on its head.
Something..There's something you can relate to with these people. Guess it's colour.

My God, I'm terrible at putting thoughts down in text.

You're not alone. I said the exact same thing. It's like you forget that people had favorite colors and could see the colors in a sunset. That sounds kind of cheesy and poetic, but you get my meaning.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

All I could think of while watching that video...

 

[similar.squirrel]

Heh. I just thought of this. Enjoy!

[http://img820.imageshack.us/i/dadbandwandcolour.jpg/]


You've really tapped a seam with this thread, nunqual. I haven't felt this..thoughtful, I suppose, in a long time. Especially on the Escapist.

 

[nunqual]

Heh. I just thought of this. Enjoy!
[awesome calvin & hobbes cartoon]
You've really tapped a seam with this thread, nunqual. I haven't felt this..thoughtful, I suppose, in a long time. Especially on the Escapist.

Oh my goodness, I totally forgot about that comic. That was probably one my favorite examples from that comic strip.

 

[MarsProbe]

That was a fine video. The whole thing - seeing colour footage of these people that lived almost 90 years ago, along with the music - seemed almost ethereal, for want of a better word.

Also, there was something refreshingly innocent about it all. Especially the segment with the woman and the little kid.

 

[octafish]

It looks like a hand toned monochrome print come to life. I actually suspected it was, but then noticed there was no rotoscoping artifacts.

 

[superbatranger]

That was from the 20's? Wow. I am impressed. So the world wasn't in black and white back then. Thanks a lot, Calvin's dad! It's like we're looking through a window into the past.