Schindler's List

[Luke Pemberton]

The parts in Schindler's list with the girl in the red coat and coloured candles. How did they do have complex shapes moving about in colour while the rest of the film was black and white.

I'm sure it is probably an easy technique today, but way back then, how did they do it?

[gillianren]

I have a hard time thinking of 1993 as "way back then."

[Noldi400]

I have a hard time thinking of 1993 as "way back then."

Yeaaah......  that phrase kind of made my joints ache.

Now what was I going to say? Damn senior moments... Oh, yeah - coming after Tron, the first three Star Wars movies, Ghostbusters, Poltergeist, Aliens etc and so on, it wasn't exactly a ground breaking special effect.

[Luke Pemberton]

Can I ask how either of those posts offered an answer to what was a genuine question on my part?

I'm sure it was not a ground breaking special effect, but I am interested to know as I don't know. I sometimes like to learn new stuff.

My choice of English was slightly tongue in cheek. I don't consider the phrase I used has any bearing on the outcome of the discussion. Please desist with making comments about phrases I use in written form, my choice of words was non consequential to you as people, so consider the impact that you may have on me. You both came across as being mocking, whether it was intended or not.

[Zakalwe]

Can I ask how either of those posts offered an answer to what was a genuine question on my part?

I'm sure it was not a ground breaking special effect, but I am interested to know as I don't know. I sometimes like to learn new stuff.

My choice of English was slightly tongue in cheek. I don't consider the phrase I used has any bearing on the outcome of the discussion. Please desist with making comments about phrases I use in written form, my choice of words was non consequential to you as people, so consider the impact that you may have on me. You both came across as being mocking, whether it was intended or not.

It'll be done in editing. I assume that the movie was either shot digitally or scanned in. A digital editing suite would then desaturate all colours except the red (and shades of red).

[Luke Pemberton]

Can I ask how either of those posts offered an answer to what was a genuine question on my part?

I'm sure it was not a ground breaking special effect, but I am interested to know as I don't know. I sometimes like to learn new stuff.

My choice of English was slightly tongue in cheek. I don't consider the phrase I used has any bearing on the outcome of the discussion. Please desist with making comments about phrases I use in written form, my choice of words was non consequential to you as people, so consider the impact that you may have on me. You both came across as being mocking, whether it was intended or not.

It'll be done in editing. I assume that the movie was either shot digitally or scanned in. A digital editing suite would then desaturate all colours except the red (and shades of red).

Thank you for the reply, it is how I would envisage this effect would be easily achieved today. If I recall correctly similar effects before digital editing would have been performed using a frame by frame colouring technique, but the Schindler effect looks integral to the image.

It made me wonder how it was done in the absence of digital technology. I made various incorrect assumptions about editing capability in the early 1990s. The time line of film editing capability is not my forte.

[gillianren]

You both came across as being mocking, whether it was intended or not.

Bluntly, you're lucky you didn't get a lecture from me on the history of film. 

[Echnaton]

Can I ask how either of those posts offered an answer to what was a genuine question on my part?

I'm sure it was not a ground breaking special effect, but I am interested to know as I don't know. I sometimes like to learn new stuff.

My choice of English was slightly tongue in cheek. I don't consider the phrase I used has any bearing on the outcome of the discussion. Please desist with making comments about phrases I use in written form, my choice of words was non consequential to you as people, so consider the impact that you may have on me. You both came across as being mocking, whether it was intended or not.

A little testy this morning are we?  Friendly banter seems to be well supported traditions around here during slow times.

[Tanalia]

From an article on how Spielburg's cinematographer got certian shots:

Kaminski shot most of the film on black-and-white emulsion, save for the sequences featuring the little girl with the red dress, which were shot in color emulsion and then painstakingly desaturated in a process called rotoscoping, which Kaminski describes as "an old version of CGI, except each frame was done by hand."

[Noldi400]

Can I ask how either of those posts offered an answer to what was a genuine question on my part?

I'm sure it was not a ground breaking special effect, but I am interested to know as I don't know. I sometimes like to learn new stuff.

My choice of English was slightly tongue in cheek. I don't consider the phrase I used has any bearing on the outcome of the discussion. Please desist with making comments about phrases I use in written form, my choice of words was non consequential to you as people, so consider the impact that you may have on me. You both came across as being mocking, whether it was intended or not.

No need to be cranky, but I am sorry if I offended. My main points were that (a) jokingly, thinking of 1993 as "way back" made me feel old, and (b) lots of fancy visual effects were in use back then. This particular effect, as Tanalia said, was done by 'rotoscoping', projecting the sequence frame-by-frame, hand drawing a matte around the part to be left in color, then desaturating the color on the rest of the frame.

Bonus trivia: The rotoscoping technique was used at least as far back as 1937. In Disney's Snow White, live actors were filmed, then animation frames were hand drawn over each frame; this is why the animated characters were so lifelike in their movements. It could be thought of as a predecessor of the motion-capture technique used for Gollum, et al.

Again, apologies if I offended.  We joke around a lot here and that was the spirit in which it was intended.