Who remembers the days when the majority of TV was monochrome? I recall that the early part of my youth was spent watching black and white, and being amazed when I went round to a mates house to watch colour broadcasts. At some point my parents rented a TV from Grenada Rentals and I got to share the delights that my friends were enjoying. I think it was when I was about 7 or 8 years old - so about 1972ish. Certainly a good 4 or 5 years after the first UK colour broadcast at Wimbledon in 1967.
Who also thinks though, that we lost something at the same time? Just as the talkie meant that the art of visual narrative was partly lost to cinema, the rise of colour (particularly on TV) led to the parallel decline of lighting techniques. As soon as I introduce the idea of monochromatic photography or cinematography to my students, it is met with almost universal ridicule. Even modern movies like Schindlers List or La Haine are distrusted. Or course this only fuels my desire to educate them. Foreign language films, black and white, musicals - they are all fair game.
I was bowled over when I first saw an HD broadcast and I like the idea of realism as well as anybody, but black and white is still good. Its just that at Wimbledon colour looks so much better.
The Icicle Works - Love is a Wonderful Colour (mp3)
Tom Macrae - Bright Lights (mp3)
Buy The Icicle Works here and Tom Macrae here
1 comment:
The first time I saw colour TV was in 1972 at my grandparents' house...and I was so jealous because they had an early form of cable TV called British Relay, whereby you could get 2 ITV stations instead of one! Oh, the days of regional TV.
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