Why is the “Rain” b roll footage in color if it was supposedly shot in black and white

[Tony Fortin 1,793]

The story is real... I worked on the project

but I was not selected

[Roy 7,613]

3 minutes ago, Tony Fortin said:

The story is real... I worked on the project

but I was not selected

Yeah. You oversaturated her lips, hun. 

The rest is fine. :D

[deathproof 10,625]

10 hours ago, thegoldencalf said:

Oh please elaborate. I didn’t know this story originated from MTV

I don’t remember the segment, I’m sure someone else might remember it specifically, but I’m pretty sure it was said by Kurt Loder from a Madonna Day special.

[deathproof 10,625]

10 hours ago, thegoldencalf said:

Oh please elaborate. I didn’t know this story originated from MTV

I don’t remember the segment, I’m sure someone else might remember it specifically, but I’m pretty sure it was said by Kurt Loder from a Madonna Day special.

[WeYo 673]

Do a whole shoot B&W and then color it ... to be full color version?? WHY  ...weird as F to even --- 

[Prayer 14,431]

Just now, WeYo said:

Do a whole shoot B&W and then color it ... to be full color version?? WHY  ...weird as F to even --- 

Again, used on the "Rain" video or not, it was done at the time in some projects to get that weird, oversaturated dreamy, unreal effect.

Keep in mind it was 30 years ago, so technology was of course way different back then.

[WeYo 673]

4 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Again, used on the "Rain" video or not, it was done at the time in some projects to get that weird, oversaturated dreamy, unreal effect.

Keep in mind it was 30 years ago, so technology was of course way different back then.

.. still  --- technology or not, that's what's makes me laugh about this all 

[Chris 1,023]

i havent seen any b roll footage yet but i would think that they had to have had plans to use that footage in the final product but ended up getting removed in favour of what they went with?

just my two cents.

[deathproof 10,625]

2 hours ago, WeYo said:

Do a whole shoot B&W and then color it ... to be full color version?? WHY  ...weird as F to even --- 

I can explain it to you, but I can’t make you understand it

[dylanlioncourt 5,783]

6 hours ago, Tony Fortin said:

The story is real... I worked on the project

but I was not selected

Don't give Aldo ideas! LOL 

[Justice 326]

6 hours ago, WeYo said:

Do a whole shoot B&W and then color it ... to be full color version?? WHY  ...weird as F to even --- 

In art, there is a technique called grisaille in which an artist uses a monochromatic palette in greys. After that other colors are applied and the artist only has to focus on light and shade. 

It makes sense they did a similar thing for Rain video. Filmed in black and white, then digitally colored. It really made the colors and the contrast between blue and Madonna's almost white skin pop.

I assume there should be black and white b-rolls, besides the colored ones.

[Homogenic79 142]

Anyone have Icon issues from that era? I could be wrong but I think the b&w/colorization tidbit came from Icon magazine. I definitely remember reading it somewhere back in the day.

[Donna 16,614]

Here is Mark Romanek commenting about the Rain video.  While nothing he says disproves or proves the ongoing argument in how the video was shot, he does mention Madonna originally wanted to make a black and white video with an inspiration of Wuthering Heights. Though Mark explained he wanted to do something more futuristic and Japanese like. 

I don't believe it was shot in black and white, but it doesn't mean they didn't apply some additional digital magic to make the colors pop out like they wanted.

 

[DJ N A 733]

Again:

the more likely story is it was color graded and not colorized from BW. Color grading was a new technique exploding in popularity at the time in 1993.
 

That’s why the colors pop and, generally, the whole video has a narrow specific color palette. This technique and flexibility with color wouldn’t have been available just a few years earlier.
 

It’s pretty common place these days: wonder why nearly every scene in Jerry Bruckheimer action films (Top Gun Maverick/Bad Boys) always look like the sun is perfectly setting throughout the whole movie? Color grading. Wonder why films like Se7en and Saw feel super moody and gritty? Color grading, A lot of movies with many night scenes now shoot “day for night” and then just color grade it in post to make it look like air was filmed at night. 

[Donna 16,614]

37 minutes ago, DJ N A said:

Again:

the more likely story is it was color graded and not colorized from BW. Color grading was a new technique exploding in popularity at the time in 1993.
 

That’s why the colors pop and, generally, the whole video has a narrow specific color palette. This technique and flexibility with color wouldn’t have been available just a few years earlier.
 

It’s pretty common place these days: wonder why nearly every scene in Jerry Bruckheimer action films (Top Gun Maverick/Bad Boys) always look like the sun is perfectly setting throughout the whole movie? Color grading. Wonder why films like Se7en and Saw feel super moody and gritty? Color grading, A lot of movies with many night scenes now shoot “day for night” and then just color grade it in post to make it look like air was filmed at night. 

I agree it was color graded as you pointed out.  Also, the video was shot May 16-19.  The video premiered on MTV June 21st.  That's a month of possible post production, which is typical.  I would think if things were "hand painted" it would take much longer.  As someone pointed out, Janet Jackson's "You Want This" was originally released in black and white.  It took three weeks with a division team of nearly 40 people at Color F/X to create this colored version.

[drivebitch 1,860]

11 hours ago, Chris said:

i havent seen any b roll footage yet but i would think that they had to have had plans to use that footage in the final product but ended up getting removed in favour of what they went with?

just my two cents.

B roll is just all the raw footage they had to work with. 

[scion 3,123]

5 hours ago, DJ N A said:

Again:

the more likely story is it was color graded and not colorized from BW. Color grading was a new technique exploding in popularity at the time in 1993.
 

That’s why the colors pop and, generally, the whole video has a narrow specific color palette. This technique and flexibility with color wouldn’t have been available just a few years earlier.
 

It’s pretty common place these days: wonder why nearly every scene in Jerry Bruckheimer action films (Top Gun Maverick/Bad Boys) always look like the sun is perfectly setting throughout the whole movie? Color grading. Wonder why films like Se7en and Saw feel super moody and gritty? Color grading, A lot of movies with many night scenes now shoot “day for night” and then just color grade it in post to make it look like air was filmed at night. 

Colour grading has always been around - it wasn’t new in 1993. Halloween (1978) was heavily colour graded to instil the autumn visual, and Twin Peaks (1990) was entirely colour graded to give the warm, soap opera, ‘American’ feel. 
 

Not sure why so many people in here are saying colour grading was new in the early 90s. Perhaps there were advancements around that time, but the process was decades old by that point. There won’t be a single Madonna music video that hasn’t been colour graded to a certain extent. 

[WeYo 673]

19 hours ago, deathproof said:

I can explain it to you, but I can’t make you understand it

Well I get the technology part and so on ... @Prayeralready shortly told it -- but still, that wasn't my point --  but all good 

[wtg1987 10,177]

I think originally M maybe wanted it to be in black and white ( which is what mark says on the commentary ) but then probably decided against it as it would have been too much like vogue or oh father - anyway I think we can close this rumour as horse poop 💩 🥰

[DJ N A 733]

8 hours ago, scion said:

Colour grading has always been around - it wasn’t new in 1993. Halloween (1978) was heavily colour graded to instil the autumn visual, and Twin Peaks (1990) was entirely colour graded to give the warm, soap opera, ‘American’ feel. 
 

Not sure why so many people in here are saying colour grading was new in the early 90s. Perhaps there were advancements around that time, but the process was decades old by that point. There won’t be a single Madonna music video that hasn’t been colour graded to a certain extent. 

You are partially correct. Halloween used color timing to grade the film. Digital color grading was not available yet. Twin Peaks may have experimented with digital color grading - I'm not sure.

You are correct that color grading has been around for some time. However, the technological advancement of digital color grading, which emerged in the 1990's, was a completely new way to do post-production work and revolutionized the industry.

Old-school, non-digital methods to grade film were quite limiting compared to digital grading. In brief, non-digital options pre-early 90's could only control RGB (red, green, blue) by using photochemicals on the film itself.

With digital grading, you could now control each color in the spectrum - red, green, blue, purple, pink, orange, etc. along  with the tone and shade of each. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities. You could also grade on a computer without striking new film for each color change so the process was less costly and much faster.

Color grading has even advanced past that in more recent years with digital intermediates but that's a whole other story....

That's a simplistic way to put it but if you want to read more here you go:

https://colourgradinglondon.com/history-of-cinematic-colour-grading-cinema/

https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/4/20/the-evolution-of-color-in-film

 

 

[into the erotico 979]

thank you fot this topic!

[Blue Jean 15,319]

On 7/18/2023 at 1:12 AM, DJ N A said:

You are partially correct. Halloween used color timing to grade the film. Digital color grading was not available yet. Twin Peaks may have experimented with digital color grading - I'm not sure.

You are correct that color grading has been around for some time. However, the technological advancement of digital color grading, which emerged in the 1990's, was a completely new way to do post-production work and revolutionized the industry.

Old-school, non-digital methods to grade film were quite limiting compared to digital grading. In brief, non-digital options pre-early 90's could only control RGB (red, green, blue) by using photochemicals on the film itself.

With digital grading, you could now control each color in the spectrum - red, green, blue, purple, pink, orange, etc. along  with the tone and shade of each. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities. You could also grade on a computer without striking new film for each color change so the process was less costly and much faster.

Color grading has even advanced past that in more recent years with digital intermediates but that's a whole other story....

That's a simplistic way to put it but if you want to read more here you go:

https://colourgradinglondon.com/history-of-cinematic-colour-grading-cinema/

https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/4/20/the-evolution-of-color-in-film

[hyperballad627 78]

i think it was the show Pop Up Video from years ago that said it was black and white then painted.
I always wondered the same thing as this thread, glad we have all agreed its bogus.

 

[hyperballad627 78]

i think it was the show Pop Up Video from years ago that said it was black and white then painted.
I always wondered the same thing as this thread, glad we have all agreed its bogus.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by hyperballad627
please delete (see edit history)

[hyperballad627 78]

i think it was the show Pop Up Video from years ago that said it was black and white then painted.
I always wondered the same thing as this thread, glad we have all agreed its bogus.