认识电影——第一章 摄影 PHOTOGRAPHY (5)
1.5 Color
彩色
Color in film didn't become commercially widespread until the 1940s. There were many experiments in color before this period, however. Some of Méliès's movies, for example, were painted by hand in assembly line fashion, with each painter responsible for coloring a minute area of the filmstrip. The original version of The Birth of a Nation (1915) was printed on various tinted stocks to suggest different moods: The burning of Atlanta was tinted red, the night scenes blue, and the exterior love scenes pale yellow.
彩色电影虽到了20世纪40年代才在商业范畴中流行，但在此之前，已有很多影片在色彩上进行试验。例如梅里爱就曾用人工着色的方法，让每一个画师负责一分钟胶片的着色。《一个国家的诞生》（The Birth of a Nation，1915）最早的版本是印在染色的胶片上，借以表示不同的情绪：亚特兰大大火一场戏是红色的，夜景是蓝色，外景的爱情戏是淡黄色。许多默片导演也用这种技巧来表示不同的情绪。
Sophisticated film color was developed in the 1930s, but for many years a major problem was its tendency to prettify everything. If color enhanced a sense of beauty—in a musical or a historical extravaganza—the effects were often appropriate. Thus, the best feature films of the early years of color were usually those with artificial or exotic settings. Realistic dramas were thought to be unsuitable vehicles for color. The earliset color processes tended also to emphasize garishness, and often special consultants had to be called in to tone down the color schemes of costumes, makeup, and decor.
20世纪30年代的彩色片非常矫饰，主要的问题在于色彩会修饰每样东西，对于歌舞片或豪华历史片的效果最适中，因为色彩会增强美感。早期好莱坞的彩色片通常有华丽的人工布景。但彩色不适合用在现实主义的影片上。早期的彩色片也强调添加的装饰，色彩顾问的工作是使服装、化妆及布景的工作能协调。
Furthermore, each color process tended to specialize in a certain base hue—red, blue, or yellow, usually—whereas other colors of the spectrum were somewhat distorted. It was well into the 1950s before these problems were resolved. Compared with the subtle color perceptions of the human eye, however, and despite the apparent precision of most present-day color processing, cinematic color is still a relatively crude approximation.
此外，每部彩色片都有一个确定的基本色调（通常是红、蓝或黄色），因而光谱上其他颜色都被扭曲了。这些问题到20世纪50年代才被解决。不过，与人眼的色彩辨识能力相比，如今电影的色彩无论多准确，仍然十分粗糙。
Color tends to be a subconscious element in film. It's strongly emotional in its appeal, expressive and atmospheric rather than intellectual. Psychologists have discovered that most people actively attempt to interpret the lines of a composition, but they tend to accept color passively, permitting it to suggest moods rather than objects. Lines are associated with nouns; color with adjectives. Lines is sometimes thought to be masculine; color feminine. Both lines and colors suggest meanings, then, but in somewhat different ways.
色彩是电影中的潜意识元素。它有强烈的情绪性，诉诸的不是一时和知性，而是表现性和气氛。心理学家发现，人们喜欢“解释”构图线条，却消极地接受了颜色，容许它象征心境。也就是说，线条常与名词相联，色彩则与形容词相联。线条是阳刚的，色彩是阴柔的。色彩和线条都暗示了意义，但方式不同。
Since earliset times, visual artists have used color for symbolic purposes. Color symbolism is probably culturally acquired, though its implications are surprisingly similar in otherwise differing societies. In general, cool colors (blue, green, violet) tend to suggest tranquility, aloofness, and serenity. Cool colors also have a tendency to recede in an image. Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) suggest aggressiveness, violence, and stimulation. They tend to come forward in most images.
色彩的象征意义事实上自古已存，而且往往与文化有关，虽然在不同的社会中会发现惊人的相似之处。一般而论，冷色（蓝、绿、浅紫）代表了平静、疏远、安宁，在影像上较不凸显。暖色（红、黄、橙）代表了侵略、暴力、刺激，在影像上十分张扬。
Black-and-white photography in a color film is sometimes used for symbolic purposes. Some filmmakers alternate whole episodes in black and white with entire sequences in color. The problem with this technique is its corny symbolism. The jolting black-and-white sequences are too obviously "significant" in the most arty sense. A more effective variation is simply not to use too much color, to let black and white predominate. In De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which is set in Fascist Italy, the early portions of the movie are richly resplendent in shimmering golds, reds, and almost every shade of green. As political repression becomes more brutal, these colors almost imperceptibly begin to wash out, until near the end of the film the images are dominated by whites, blacks, and blue-grays. A similar technique is used in Life Is Beautiful (1-22c).
彩色片中的黑白片段通常用来营造象征意义。有些导演在黑白片中插入彩色片断，但这种技巧的问题是其象征显得过于表面化。而在彩色片中插入黑白段落的方法有时过于造作及明显。比较好的方式反而是尽量少用颜色，让黑、白色凸显。像德·西卡（Vittorio De Sica）的《费尼兹花园》（ The Garden of the Finzi-Continis）背景是法西斯时代的意大利，电影的前段充满耀目的金、红及各种绿色。法西斯的压制越来越严厉时，色彩就慢慢消褪，末了电影仅剩下白、黑、灰蓝色了。类似的手法也见诸《美丽人生》（见图1-22c）。
In the 1980s, a new computer technology was developed, allowing black-and-white movies to be "colorized"—a process thate provoked a howl of protest from most film artists and critics. The colorized versions of some genres, like period films, muscials, and other forms of light entertainment, are not damaged too seriously by this process, but the technique is a disaster in carefully photographed black-and-white films, like Citizen Kane, with its film noir lighting style and brilliant deep-focus photography (see Chpter 12, "Synthesis: Citizen Kane").
20世纪80年代计算机科技日新月异，可让黑白电影“彩色化”——这引起部分电影人及评论家的抗议。将某些类型的电影着色（如时代片、歌舞片及娱乐片），对影片的破坏并不严重。但如果像《公民凯恩》（Citizen Kane）这样精致的黑白片（其黑色电影的灯光风格及出色的深焦摄影），就是场浩劫了。（详见第十二章）。
Colorization also throws off the compositional balance of some shots, creating new dominants. In the shot from Dark Victory (1-23c), for example, the dominant is Brent's blue suit, which is irrelevant to the dramatic context. In the original black-and-white version, Davis is the dominant, her dark outfit contrasting with the white fireplace that frames her figure. Distracting visual dominants undercut the dramatic impact of such scenes. We keep thinking Brent's suit must be important. It is, but only to the computer.
着色这种技巧也破坏了某些片子构图的平衡，产生了新的支配力量（dominants）。例如在《黑暗的胜利》中（见图1-23c），乔治·布伦特的蓝色西装非常醒目，瑞然他和戏剧的主题没关联。在这部影片中的黑白版中，贝蒂·戴维斯的地位较重要，她深色的衣服和白色的壁炉成强烈的对比。这种削弱戏剧冲击力的方法扰乱了视觉感，我们会认为布伦特的西装一定要很重要，但那仅仅是对计算机而言。
彩色
Color in film didn't become commercially widespread until the 1940s. There were many experiments in color before this period, however. Some of Méliès's movies, for example, were painted by hand in assembly line fashion, with each painter responsible for coloring a minute area of the filmstrip. The original version of The Birth of a Nation (1915) was printed on various tinted stocks to suggest different moods: The burning of Atlanta was tinted red, the night scenes blue, and the exterior love scenes pale yellow.
彩色电影虽到了20世纪40年代才在商业范畴中流行，但在此之前，已有很多影片在色彩上进行试验。例如梅里爱就曾用人工着色的方法，让每一个画师负责一分钟胶片的着色。《一个国家的诞生》（The Birth of a Nation，1915）最早的版本是印在染色的胶片上，借以表示不同的情绪：亚特兰大大火一场戏是红色的，夜景是蓝色，外景的爱情戏是淡黄色。许多默片导演也用这种技巧来表示不同的情绪。
Sophisticated film color was developed in the 1930s, but for many years a major problem was its tendency to prettify everything. If color enhanced a sense of beauty—in a musical or a historical extravaganza—the effects were often appropriate. Thus, the best feature films of the early years of color were usually those with artificial or exotic settings. Realistic dramas were thought to be unsuitable vehicles for color. The earliset color processes tended also to emphasize garishness, and often special consultants had to be called in to tone down the color schemes of costumes, makeup, and decor.
20世纪30年代的彩色片非常矫饰，主要的问题在于色彩会修饰每样东西，对于歌舞片或豪华历史片的效果最适中，因为色彩会增强美感。早期好莱坞的彩色片通常有华丽的人工布景。但彩色不适合用在现实主义的影片上。早期的彩色片也强调添加的装饰，色彩顾问的工作是使服装、化妆及布景的工作能协调。
Furthermore, each color process tended to specialize in a certain base hue—red, blue, or yellow, usually—whereas other colors of the spectrum were somewhat distorted. It was well into the 1950s before these problems were resolved. Compared with the subtle color perceptions of the human eye, however, and despite the apparent precision of most present-day color processing, cinematic color is still a relatively crude approximation.
此外，每部彩色片都有一个确定的基本色调（通常是红、蓝或黄色），因而光谱上其他颜色都被扭曲了。这些问题到20世纪50年代才被解决。不过，与人眼的色彩辨识能力相比，如今电影的色彩无论多准确，仍然十分粗糙。
Color tends to be a subconscious element in film. It's strongly emotional in its appeal, expressive and atmospheric rather than intellectual. Psychologists have discovered that most people actively attempt to interpret the lines of a composition, but they tend to accept color passively, permitting it to suggest moods rather than objects. Lines are associated with nouns; color with adjectives. Lines is sometimes thought to be masculine; color feminine. Both lines and colors suggest meanings, then, but in somewhat different ways.
色彩是电影中的潜意识元素。它有强烈的情绪性，诉诸的不是一时和知性，而是表现性和气氛。心理学家发现，人们喜欢“解释”构图线条，却消极地接受了颜色，容许它象征心境。也就是说，线条常与名词相联，色彩则与形容词相联。线条是阳刚的，色彩是阴柔的。色彩和线条都暗示了意义，但方式不同。
Since earliset times, visual artists have used color for symbolic purposes. Color symbolism is probably culturally acquired, though its implications are surprisingly similar in otherwise differing societies. In general, cool colors (blue, green, violet) tend to suggest tranquility, aloofness, and serenity. Cool colors also have a tendency to recede in an image. Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) suggest aggressiveness, violence, and stimulation. They tend to come forward in most images.
色彩的象征意义事实上自古已存，而且往往与文化有关，虽然在不同的社会中会发现惊人的相似之处。一般而论，冷色（蓝、绿、浅紫）代表了平静、疏远、安宁，在影像上较不凸显。暖色（红、黄、橙）代表了侵略、暴力、刺激，在影像上十分张扬。
 |
The Age of Innocence《纯真年代》 |
Black-and-white photography in a color film is sometimes used for symbolic purposes. Some filmmakers alternate whole episodes in black and white with entire sequences in color. The problem with this technique is its corny symbolism. The jolting black-and-white sequences are too obviously "significant" in the most arty sense. A more effective variation is simply not to use too much color, to let black and white predominate. In De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which is set in Fascist Italy, the early portions of the movie are richly resplendent in shimmering golds, reds, and almost every shade of green. As political repression becomes more brutal, these colors almost imperceptibly begin to wash out, until near the end of the film the images are dominated by whites, blacks, and blue-grays. A similar technique is used in Life Is Beautiful (1-22c).
彩色片中的黑白片段通常用来营造象征意义。有些导演在黑白片中插入彩色片断，但这种技巧的问题是其象征显得过于表面化。而在彩色片中插入黑白段落的方法有时过于造作及明显。比较好的方式反而是尽量少用颜色，让黑、白色凸显。像德·西卡（Vittorio De Sica）的《费尼兹花园》（ The Garden of the Finzi-Continis）背景是法西斯时代的意大利，电影的前段充满耀目的金、红及各种绿色。法西斯的压制越来越严厉时，色彩就慢慢消褪，末了电影仅剩下白、黑、灰蓝色了。类似的手法也见诸《美丽人生》（见图1-22c）。
In the 1980s, a new computer technology was developed, allowing black-and-white movies to be "colorized"—a process thate provoked a howl of protest from most film artists and critics. The colorized versions of some genres, like period films, muscials, and other forms of light entertainment, are not damaged too seriously by this process, but the technique is a disaster in carefully photographed black-and-white films, like Citizen Kane, with its film noir lighting style and brilliant deep-focus photography (see Chpter 12, "Synthesis: Citizen Kane").
20世纪80年代计算机科技日新月异，可让黑白电影“彩色化”——这引起部分电影人及评论家的抗议。将某些类型的电影着色（如时代片、歌舞片及娱乐片），对影片的破坏并不严重。但如果像《公民凯恩》（Citizen Kane）这样精致的黑白片（其黑色电影的灯光风格及出色的深焦摄影），就是场浩劫了。（详见第十二章）。
Colorization also throws off the compositional balance of some shots, creating new dominants. In the shot from Dark Victory (1-23c), for example, the dominant is Brent's blue suit, which is irrelevant to the dramatic context. In the original black-and-white version, Davis is the dominant, her dark outfit contrasting with the white fireplace that frames her figure. Distracting visual dominants undercut the dramatic impact of such scenes. We keep thinking Brent's suit must be important. It is, but only to the computer.
着色这种技巧也破坏了某些片子构图的平衡，产生了新的支配力量（dominants）。例如在《黑暗的胜利》中（见图1-23c），乔治·布伦特的蓝色西装非常醒目，瑞然他和戏剧的主题没关联。在这部影片中的黑白版中，贝蒂·戴维斯的地位较重要，她深色的衣服和白色的壁炉成强烈的对比。这种削弱戏剧冲击力的方法扰乱了视觉感，我们会认为布伦特的西装一定要很重要，但那仅仅是对计算机而言。
还没人转发这篇日记
