Black & White Video? Why Not.

Unlike, the advent of sound films that was kicked off by The Jazz Singer in 1928, there seems to be no definitive date when “color” movies began. William van Doren Kelley’s Prizma, was an early color process that was first introduced at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in February 1917. Then there was two-color Technicolor used for Toll of the Sea (1922) and three-color Technicolor that was used in Walt Disney’s Flowers and Trees (1932.)

Yet while color was in use for movies such as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939,) many classic films such as The Maltese Falcon (1941,) Casablanca (1942,) and my all-time favorite, The Third Man (1949) were made well after color movie film was widely available yet these films show the special capabilities that black and white movies have for creating a mood.

What’s the point of all this? Sometime, black and white better matches the mood of a film or in the case below, video clip, shot by Mark Toal shot in Monochrome mode on the Panasonic Lumix GH4 with a yellow filter and a little sepia—all in camera. Mark ways, “This was shot at low resolution to use online only.”—Joe Farace