Mad Max - Black & Chrome

[Bruno Mansi]

I just managed to get to see the Black and Chrome edition of Mad Max Fury Road, which was supposedly director George Miller's preferred version.

Normally, when I see these director's cut/alternative versions, I never make it through the whole film, but I did myself watching through to the end of this movie. I guess this was partly to see how the various locations translated in B/W, but also because I did feel I was watching the story with a different sense of emotion. Having grown up in the 1960's, where I had my own home B/W processing equipment, I find old monochrome films evoke emotions very difficult to replicate in modern movies.

I think the Mad Max team did a great job of creating the genuine look of B/W film, especially in the highlight areas, where I was convinced I was seeing real film halation.

I've managed to grab a few stills from both versions of the movie for comparison.

 

 

[Thomas Singh]

Great thoughts and example images Bruno. I think that it looks like the movie was shot with a vivid color palette in mind. In a film noir there is a stylized simplicity to the aesthetics with hard lines between black and white. I know Miller is fan of 'chrome', but my personal opinion is that it would have worked better if the scenes were staged and lightened for that. 

[Bruno Mansi]

15 hours ago, Thomas Singh said:

but my personal opinion is that it would have worked better if the scenes were staged and lightened for that. 

If I'm being really picky, I would say the night scenes worked less well for me. Interestingly, these scenes were not pure black-and-white, but had a magenterish-blue hue to them. I've attached some screen grabs with histograms to illustrate the point. I did a check on some daylight scenes and they all showed identical RGB values.

Does anyone know if Eric Whipp worked on the chrome edition? There's no mention of it in the case studies article.

 

[Nicolas Hanson]

A B/W translation of a movie shot for color print could miss the depth and isolation found in old B/W movies, because of less extreme lighting set-ups, character and element blocking. I think the images above looks great, but more contemporary than film noir.

Edited December 12, 2016 by Nicolas Hanson

[Tom Evans]

2 hours ago, Bruno Mansi said:

Interestingly, these scenes were not pure black-and-white, but had a magenterish-blue hue to them. I've attached some screen grabs with histograms to illustrate the point. I did a check on some daylight scenes and they all showed identical RGB values.

The human brain fills in colors of B/W images, according to an fMRI study from the University of Tübingen. Don't know if that theory applies here  Would be interesting to know why they went for the magenta hue.

[Frank Wylie]

I have noticed that when I grade a monochrome image from a classic B&W film, I need to put a touch of color into the image to make it feel more realistic. Pure mono is unrealistic in that film has an emulsion that is based on animal proteins (gelatin) which is tanned during film development.  Depending on what type of developer used in which era, and the amount of age (patina) in the emulsion, the "cast" can be from warmish tan to faint cyan. You need to add some small amount of base color to the grade for it to be realistic to me.

 

[Bruno Mansi]

1 hour ago, Frank Wylie said:

You need to add some small amount of base color to the grade for it to be realistic to me.

When I was a technician in a School of Photography (back in the late 1970s) I remember some of the lectures talking about the chemistry behind the deterioration of film. One of the things I learned was that as the cellulose acetate base starts to break down, it releases acetic acid. This in turn attacks the anti-halation coating, causing it to turn pink or blue.

In any case, apart from the night scenes, the rest of the chrome edition seems to be pure B/W. I grabbed some stills from various scenes and Photoshop confirms that the R, G and B levels are identical. I'm guessing this was a conscious decision by the director and colourist.

 

[Stig Olsen]

On 12.12.2016 at 11:09 AM, Bruno Mansi said:

Does anyone know if Eric Whipp worked on the chrome edition? There's no mention of it in the case studies article.

There are some misleading information out there. The DI was done in-house at Warner Bros and not by Eric.  

[Andrew Webb]

On 12/12/2016 at 3:09 AM, Bruno Mansi said:

If I'm being really picky, I would say the night scenes worked less well for me. Interestingly, these scenes were not pure black-and-white, but had a magenterish-blue hue to them.

I agree. The odd tint pulled me right out of the movie and had me wondering what had gone wrong with my equipment.

I felt that, in some cases, contrast created through color was not replaced with contrast created through brightness. The shot-to-shot matching was not as good in the B&W.

[Nicolas Hanson]

On 12/13/2016 at 7:56 PM, Stig Olsen said:

There are some misleading information out there. The DI was done in-house at Warner Bros and not by Eric.  

So IMDB is wrong?

"The film is here in its entirety but has been carefully processed in black and white by Miller and chief colorist Eric Whipp. Max’s desolate world of the future looks even bleaker and less welcoming in two colors but, interestingly, the grays, the in-between tones actually allow you to assess characters and situations through fresh eyes. - Robert Greenberger"

[Stig Olsen]

4 minutes ago, Nicolas Hanson said:

So IMDB is wrong?

"The film is here in its entirety but has been carefully processed in black and white by Miller and chief colorist Eric Whipp. Max’s desolate world of the future looks even bleaker and less welcoming in two colors but, interestingly, the grays, the in-between tones actually allow you to assess characters and situations through fresh eyes. - Robert Greenberger"

I don't know who told Robert this, but it's wrong.

[Jose Abreu Santos]

The b&w DI was done at Warner Bros by Matt McFarland.

[Zach Schrock]

Finally got around to watching this. I was expecting more contrast and harshness (in a good way), but was bummed to see it more flattened out, mostly grey feeling, IMO, however the scenes are very inconsistent shot to shot, some better than others.

I also felt whoever made the decision to do the night scenes in a color tint and not true B&W made an absolute egregious mistake—completely took me out of the film and sort of ruined it for me.

I was hoping for a version without dialog, as when it was first described. At least they got around to any B&W version. It was nice to see it in both.