Didja Ever Notice?

Now that movie studios have everything digitized, they are altering colors. Today's movies are washed out in order to emphasize flesh tones. Teal and orange are the predominant colors these days.

Picture from Ace of Spades "Overnight Open Thread"

Technicolor is closer to reality than today's color palette.

It's bad enough when horror, sci-fi and fantasy movies seem to slavishly adhere to this unpleasant template, but even mainstream adult dramas like Up In The Air and Fair Game (both of which are films that I would otherwise like) are being drained of all their colour in post-production. This unfortunate trend in dreariness also lessened my enjoyment of last year's Best Picture winner, The King's Speech.


Recently, I did some searching on Google to find out whether others are equally disturbed by this ugly trend in today's films. Sure enough, I turned up this article that helps to explain what is going on. It's interesting to read the numerous comments afterward, as there are many, like me, who abhor this unpleasant trend, while others defend it as being true to the director's "vision". Though they may like to think of themselves as unique visionaries, most directors working today merely conform to one basic template of mediocrity that the Hollywood studios all decree must be followed. Because of this trend toward the drab and ugly, I find myself seeing fewer and fewer films with each passing year. Perhaps Hollywood should realize that many older moviegoers are used to far richer looking movies from the more glorious past - today's films just turn us off. BLECCHH!!

After reading the various posts linked to above, it seems even my favorite new movie of the last year or two True Grit is guilty as well - it sure seems to be a sepia kind of tone, perhaps to convey the idea that the events took place in the past, where the pictures we see from that period look the same. And the latest Harry Potter movie was almost unwatchable on my television - I was working over the brightness and contrast just to see detail that was obscured by the intentional cutting out light. After I'd fooled with those settings, the rest of television land was overly bright and sharp.

Hollywood doesn't seem to listen much to the actual people who pay to see their products. They all jump on bandwagons that only they, in their insular world, have any use for. I've got enough gripes about the endless copying, the predominantly liberal mindset (and if you know what's good for you you'll agree with whatever mindset they're pushing, because after all, they are the beautiful and cool trendsetters), the advent of short attention span theater quick cuts (remember when a long shot was art?), shaky and disoriented camera work and, and - well, you get the idea.

And now we get dulled and dark movies that look depressing. Yeah, color me not so entertained. No wonder I end up watching old movies these days.

H/T Ace of Spades, who linked to Boing Boing, who linked to this article and this article.