Color & Film Bibliography

Color & Film Bibliography

8/9/2012

Arthur, H., Johnson, G., & Young, A.

(2007). Gender differences and color: Content and emotion of written descriptions. Social Behavior and Personality, 35(6), 827-834. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728909990046

In this study gender language differences in the written description of color were analyzed. The total number of words used, number of tertiary level terms used, and normative emotionality were assessed. Women were found to use more words to describe color than men. An interaction effect among gender and age was found for the number of tertiary level words used. A main effect of gender for total mean emotionality was found that was not ameliorated by age or education level.

Askari, K.

(2009). Early 16mm colour by a career amateur. Film History, 21(2), 150-163.

Batllori, J. M. M.

(2009). Segundo de Chomón and the fascination for colour. Film History, 21(1), 94-103.

Segundo de Chomón was one of the major figures of early cinema, and throughout his career he showed a particular dedication to colour. As early as 1902, in Barcelona, he tinted a copy of Méliès' Barbe bleu. Between 1902 and 1904 he also tinted several movies for Pathé. In 1905, when he joined Pathé in Paris, he became one of the finest specialists in the cinema of attractions: trick films and phantasmagorias, in which colour was used as an added element to attract and fascinate the spectator. From 1908 or 1909 Chomón began integrating his attractions into more elaborate narratives, and the function played by colour started to change.

Brown, S.

(2009). Colouring the nation: Spectacle, reality and British natural colour in the silent and early sound era. Film History, 21(2), 139-149.

Christensen, T. C.

(2009). Restoration of Danish silent films -- in colour. Film History, 21(1), 61-66.

This paper addresses some of the practical and aesthetic decisions made during the restoration of a number of Danish silent films, including whether or not to retain the authenticity of a specific film print (in the case of multiple copies with individual variances), electronic distribution priorities, access, and colour duplication technique (Desmet, colour stock, etc). The restoration of the 1913 Danish feature Atlantis, which was restored in colour in high definition for DVD, and in black and white for 35mm prints, provides a case study for understanding how curatorial interpretation and laboratory intervention impact the restoration process

Colour plates.

(2009). Film History, 21(1), P1-P8.

Cook, D. A.

(2004). Color technologies: A brief overview. In D. A. Cook, A history of narrative film (4^th ed.). New York, NY: Norton.

Dana, J. (Trans. N. Kolaitis)

(2009). Colour by stencil: Germaine Berger and Pathécolor. Film History, 21(2), 180-183.

Denny, J. T. L.

(2004). Color vs. black and white in filmed historical footage: The difference in emotional impact. Unpublished masters thesis, Department of Communication, Cleveland State University.

This study looked at the difference in emotional impact experienced by viewers when watching film in color versus black-and-white by utilizing the concept of presence and Burgoon’s expectancy violations theory. Presence is the feeling of “being there” in a mediated environment and can lead to greater emotional impact. Expectancy violations theory posits that if a person is violated by an attractive source that it will lead to a positive evaluation of the violation and lead to a positive emotional impact. Expectancy violations theory has been used as an interpersonal theory, and it was of great interest to learn whether it could be applied to mass communication.

Detenber, B. H., Simons, R. F., & Reiss, J. E.

(1999). The emotional significance of color in television presentations. Simons Psychology. Retrieved from rsimons.psych.udel.edu/color3.htm.

A within-subjects experiment was conducted to investigate the emotional effects of color in film and television clips. The study involved obtaining physiological measures (skin conductance, heart rate, and facial muscle movement) during the presentation of 54 short (6 s) film clips to the study’s 34 participants (16 women, 18 men). Self-report measures of the participants’ emotional reactions were also obtained. Results indicate that the influence of color appears in the self reports of emotional experience, but in none of the physiological measures. These results suggest that people feel, or consciously believe they feel, that color pictures are more pleasing and exciting than monochrome versions of the same images, yet there is no difference in their visceral reactions. The implications of this dissociation of emotional responses are discussed.

Fine, G. A., Montemurro, B., Semora, B., Stalp, M. C., Claussen, D. S., & Sierra, Z.

(1998). Social order through a prism: Color as collective representation. Social Inquiry, 68(4), 443-457. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-682X.1998.tb00479.x

Although color has rarely been examined as a sociological topic, the meaning of color is linked to numerous social domains and serves as a collective representation. Color contributes to social meanings in institutional orders, stratification systems, and identity. While color has some meaning separate from its linkage to particular objects, in most cases colors are situated. We perceive not color, but colored objects. Any given color has multiple meanings that are understood in context. Through our examination of a range of domains in which color has social significance, we suggest that the examination of this field has considerable promise. We conclude by linking the analysis of color to the model of cultural formation suggested by Schudson (1989), focusing on retrievability, rhetorical force, resonance, institutional retention, and resolution.

Gage, J.

Any Semiotics of colour must be historically contingent, and is largely the local historical contingencies which the studies here seek to identify. But an assessment of historical Contingencies must rest on a judgement of the immanent character of the colour under examination-that is, on a phenomenological approach to colour questions, and this is what several recent philosophers of colour, as well as the older school of Koloritgeschichte have offered.

Hanssen, E. F.

(2009). Symptoms of desire: Colour, costume, and commodities in fashion newsreels of the 1910s and 1920s. Film History, 21(2), 107-121.

Jiang, J., Zhao, Y., & Wang, S.

(2012). Color correction of smartphone photos with prior knowledge. In Q. Lin, J. P. Allebach, & Z. Fan (Eds.), Imaging and printing in a Web 2.0 world III, Proceedings IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Science and Technology (pp. 8302-8317).

Human visual system has the property of perceiving the object color to remain constant regardless of the prevailing illumination. However, digital cameras usually lack this capability, and the captured images are digitally corrected to discount the color of the scene light based on the estimated illuminant. Illumination estimation might be erroneous in some artificial or chromatic lighting conditions. A method was proposed to correct digital photos captured with a smartphone camera using the smartphone owner’s face as the reference. Taking the advantage of the latest smartphones with two build-in cameras, we could use the front camera to capture the smartphone owner’s face and compare with the saved reference face image in order to estimate the scene illuminant. After that, we could properly adjust the capture setting for the main camera in order to take a decent target image; or we could automatically correct the target image based on the estimated illumination by comparing two face images. The method was implemented on the iOS mobile platform. Experimental result shows that the adjusted images using the proposed method are generally more favorable than the pictures taken directly by the default camera application.

Kaya, N., & Epps, H. H.

(2004). Relationship between color and emotion: A study of college students. College Student Journal, 38(3), 396-405.

Ninety-eight college students were asked to indicate their emotional responses to five principle hues (i.e., red, yellow, green, blue, purple), five intermediate hues (i.e., yellow-red, green-yellow, blue-green, purple-blue, and red-purple), and three achromatic colors (white, gray, and black) and the reasons for their choices. The color stimuli were referenced from the Munsell Color System. The results revealed that the principle hues comprised the highest number of positive emotional responses, followed by the intermediate hues and the achromatic colors. The color green evoked mainly positive emotions such as relaxation and comfort because it reminded most of the respondents of nature. The color green-yellow had the lowest number of positive responses because it was associated with vomit and elicited the feelings of sickness and disgust. For the achromatic colors, white attained a large number of positive responses, followed by the colors black and gray. The masons for the color-emotion associations are discussed and future research areas are suggested.

Keating, P.

(2010). Hollywood lighting from the silent era to film noir. New York: Columbia University Press.

Kilzer, C.

(2012). True colors, branded colors. Daily Infographic. Retrieved from http://dailyinfographic.com/true-colors-branded-colors-infographic

Color is best used when integrated throughout the company, making appearances in the logo, landing pages, websites, products and more to ensure maximum continuity. The most popular branding colors used by successful brands are red, blue, grayscale and yellow. As the marketing intern at LIVESTRONG, I have affinity to yellow, feel the impact of a strong brand and see what it has done to the community. According to the infographic, yellow is associated with hope, optimism and motivation. This is seen in their promotional work, striving to empower those affected by cancer, LIVESTRONG uses this color to compliment their efforts. Are there any other brands that successfully use color to promote their products or compliment their efforts?

Koleini, M., Monadjemi, S., A., & Moallem, P.

(2010). Automatic black and white film colorization using texture features and artificial neutral networks. Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 33(7), 1049-1057. doi: 10.1080/02533839.2010.9671693

This study represents an innovative automatic method for black and white films colorization using texture features and a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network. In the proposed method, efforts are made to remove human interference in the process of colorization and replace it with an artificial neural network (ANN) which is trained using the features of the reference frame. Later, this network is employed for automatic colorization of the remained black and white frames. The reference frames of the black and white film are manually colored. Using a Gabor filter bank, texture features of all the pixels of the reference frame are extracted and used as the input feature vector of the ANN, while the output will be the color vector of the corresponding pixel. Finally, the next frames’ feature vectors are fed respectively to the trained neural network, and color vectors of those frames are the output. Applying AVI videos and using various color spaces, a series of experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed colorization process. This method needs considerable time to provide a reasonable output, given rapidly changing scenes. Fortunately however, due to the high correlation between consecutive frames in typical video footage, the overall performance is promising regarding both visual appearance and the calculated MSE error. Apart from the application, we also aim to show the importance of the low level features in a mainly high level process, and the mapping ability of a neural network

Landau, M. B.

(1989). The colorization of black-and-white motion pictures: A grey area in the law. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 22(4), 1161-1187.

In an attempt to exploit new markets, and to resurrect and allegedly revitalize many old black-and-white films, several firms, through a process known as “colorization” or “color conversion,” are adding color to hundreds of old black-and-white films.’ Highly computerized, the process is expensive, arduous and, according to those who do it, artistically creative. Some of the films that have been colorized, the firms admit,are classics, while others are not. In either case, major commercial interests view colorization as a monumental profit-making opportunity.

Lechner, A., Simonoff, J. S., & Harrington, L.

(2012). Color-emotion associations in the pharmaceutical industry: Understanding universal and local themes. Color research and application, 37(1), 59-71. doi: 10.1002/col.20643

The strong shift toward operating in global markets has posed enormous adaptation challenges for product marketing especially with regard to universality and consistency of brand design decisions. The color-inproduct design decision is also susceptible to this global– local tension. A pharmaceutical lm coating formulator supplier to leading local and global pharmaceutical companies was interested in developing a solid validated global color preference database to enable informed brand decision making for its customers. The following study reports results from a global survey that examined the color–brand attribute associations within the global pharmaceutical industry. Data were collected from a multigeography gender and age balanced sample of 2021 subjects, revealing a strikingly powerful color language comprised of universally consistent associations and local contextual patterns that are each critical to global brand decision makers within this industry.

Løken, H.

(2007). Colour grading: Art or science? An exploration of the use and effects of colour in films and television programmes. Unpublished Honors BA dissertation, Bournemouth University, UK.

This thesis is an exploration of the practice of colour and colour grading in film and television. I ask the question whether colour grading is an art or a science and through this question I will explore how colour grading is currently undertaken and how and why certain choices are made during the grading process.

Mazzanti, N.

(2009). Colours, audiences, and (dis)continuity in the 'cinema of the second period'. Film History, 21(1), 67-93.

The essay confronts the issue of the relationship between silent film colour and its audience during the 'second period' of early cinema (approximately 1909 to 1917) by analyzing the practice of producing multiple versions of any given film. It also addresses the overall status of colour within the cultural context of the first decades of the twentieth century. The formal and narrative structure of these films, and therefore their implications for the study of early colour, are found to be unstable. It is shown that the use of applied colour in the cinema can be studied through a systematic analysis of the work of Film d'Arte Italiana in the years 1907--1917, because, as is not the case with most surviving films of the period, we possess unambiguous information regarding their colour schemes. The author outlines the complexity of these issues and suggests some possible interpretations and hypotheses -- a rough map into what has been a largely uncharted territory. 

McKernan, L.

(2009). ‘The modern elixir or life’: Kinemacolor, royalty and the Delhi Durbar. Film History, 21(2), 122-136.

Read, P.

(2009). ‘Unnatural colors’: An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies. Film History, 21(1), 9-46.

'Natural colour' was the term coined for genuine colour photography to separate it from colouring or 'painting' monochrome images, hence the use of the contrasting term 'unnatural'. The intention of this paper is to provide a guide to the technical literature on the subject. It reviews where the technologies originated, the principle literature of the time, and later, that describes the 'recipes', techniques and chemistry, summarizing the image dyes themselves in a database. Additional content is provided from associated technologies such as the subsequent use of the same techniques for natural colour, analogue coloured film restoration techniques, and an excursion into the technological cul-de-sac of Sonochrome.

Ruedel, U.

(2009). The Technicolor notebooks at the George Eastman House. Film History, 21(1), 47-60.

This survey of the Technicolor Corporation notebooks held by the George Eastman House is presented as an example of the value of scientific research and engineering records in the study of early colour and film preservation. An overview of the collection and examples of its holdings are given, and three of the notebooks are explored in detail. The development of the Technicolor process is discussed within the context of early additive and subtractive colour technologies, and of competing two and three colour systems. Examples are given of other artifacts in the collection, notably film frame clippings and a business correspondence index

Salmon, S.

(2009). Tinting and toning at Pathé: The Jacques Mayer notebook. Film History, 21(2), 177-179.

Seitz, D.

(2010). 5 annoying trends that make every movie look the same. Cracked. Retrieved from http://www.cracked.com/article_18664_5-annoying-trends-that-make-every-movie-look-same.html.

Hollywood: the dream factory, the place where joy is made and everybody craps rainbows and cocaine. But underneath the glitz is a bunch of working stiffs who are either just trying to get the job done, or hacks who get their original ideas by ripping off other hacks.

Sherman, B. L., & Dominick, J. R.

(1988). Perceptions of colorization. Journalism Quarterly, 65(1), 976-980.

Colorization using a computer to add color to films that were originally black and white - is one of the more controversial technical issues to surface in film and video. Some of the first films to appear in a colorized version were The Maltese Ealcon. Topper, It's A Wonderful Life. Yankee Doodle Dandy and Miracle on 34^th St. many others followed. Not everybody is pleased with this process. The American Film Institute, the Directors' Guild, the Writers Guild and several leading directors have come out in opposition,' On the other side are those who argue that colorizing films will increase their appeal and expand their audiences.^ To date, there has been no research that has systematically compared the reactions of audience members to colorized versus original black and white versions of films. Consequently, the current project was designed as a pilot study to provide some preliminary data about audience perceptions of this new media phenomenon.

Sonnier, I. L., & Dow, M. G.

(1985). The right hemisphere: Seat of emotion colors. Education, 105(4), 373-375.

The functional relationships between HUMAN EMOTIONS and the real and imagined COLOR VISIONS, both processes of the right hemisphere, probably play a major role in determining the quality of a learning environment in each lesson plan and strategy. While the degree to which education and the environment interplay in these right-left hemisphere relationships remain debatable, an attempt was made to funnel more concern toward research and a better understanding of the affective quality in mass education. It was suggested that HOLISTIC EDUCATION strategies more fully and completely orchestrate the processes of both cerebral hemispheres in and learning environment.

Tomadjoglou, K.

(2009). Introduction: Early colour. Film History, 21(1), 3-6.

The article presents an introduction to several articles appearing within this issue of the journal, including "Restoration of Danish silent films in colour,” by Thomas C. Christensen, “The Technicolor Notebooks at the George Eastman House,” by Ulrich Ruedel, and “Unnatural Colours: An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies,”

Yumibe, J.

(1974). Moving color: Early film, mass culture, modernism. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Color is a very important part of cinema that enhances the emotion of the viewers; However, toning/tinting or inserting color “fakes reality” and often degrades the scene (Mostly concerning Black and White films). Only natural color allows for the most realistic scene that immerses the viewer.

Yumibe, J.