Extract from ABC News
A scene in Georges Méliès's Joan of Arc (1900) illustrates the effects of hand colouring films in the 1900s. (Supplied: Creative Commons Attribution)
Can you imagine watching a classic movie like Psycho, Citizen Kane or even To Kill a Mockingbird in colour?
The technology exists to make it happen, but does that mean it should?
As manager of film digitisation at the National Film and Sound Archive, and a purist with a preference for black-and-white film, it is a question Neil Richards wrestles with.
"I've seen a lot of black-and-white features, and we've done work on them, and I think you can make them look amazing, and I love that," he said.
"But I understand if colourisation creates a way to access films, that's probably a good thing, and it gets archival footage out that may not otherwise be seen, so it's a double-edged sword."
Australia in colour
Photographer Neil Richards has a rich history of working with film prints and digital files at the NFSA. (Supplied: National Film and Sound Archieve)
Until 2017 the National Film and Sound Archives (NFSA) ran an analogue film lab, copying film onto film for preservation.
But by 2012 it had moved into digitisation, creating video files from high-quality preservation film files.
Partnering with SBS in 2019 they produced Australia in Colour, a four-part TV series colourising historical black-and-white film.
"We did the analogue to digital file capture and the grades of that black-and-white material, then we supplied those files to a company in France that did the colourisation," Neil Richards said.
"My recollection is the response was really huge, it rated very well, so in terms of that sort of work I don't think it's going to go away."
A Passion project
A still frame from George Méliès's film Joan of Arc, which was produced in 1900. (Creative Commons Attribution)
The Corrick Collection on the NFSA website contains references to hand-coloured films such as French filmmaker Georges Méliès's Joan of Arc (1900), a 10-minute silent film shot in black and white employing toning, tinting and stencilling techniques.
Now, 125 years later, a studio in Woonona in the Illawarra is using cutting-edge technology to colourise The Passion of Joan of Arc, a silent black-and-white film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, a Danish film director, in 1928.
Both films are free and available on YouTube.
"We've taken a badly damaged black-and-white film with no sound and enhanced the quality, coloured it, and added sound effects," Distruptor Post CEO and director Corey Pearson said.
As pioneers in the Australian colourisation industry, Mr Pearson said they were mindful of the heritage and legacy of the projects they worked on.
"Our slogan is colour with care," he said.
"We're paying respect to the creator, we don't change the editorial, but we give that film all the things the filmmaker might not have had at that moment in time, the obvious one being colour."
Mr Pearson said they had also added a musical score by Thomas Norgen and "interactive sounds with life-like movement and clothing'".
"It is like chalk and cheese but it's the same film and that's what we love," he said.
"If the creator was here, he'd go, 'Oh my God, I'm so happy with that.'"
The care factor
Focused on establishing itself as a world leader in the colourisation of black-and-white films, television and archival footage, the studio works with its own software and tools.
"We've built our own library of colours and shapes, starting with a blank canvas and over time taught it, so it has learnt what skin colour looks like under different conditions," Mr Pearson said.
Corey Pearson is a key creative at Disruptor Post, where his studio creates, publishes and distributes films. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
Acknowledging there will always be anomalies, staff check for quality control, flagging shots, and use visual effects tools to fix them.
"Frame by frame, that's the care part," Mr Pearson said.
"We could easily just go, 'Who's going to notice that?' But we saw it and if we don't do something we're working against our own motto, our own slogan, our own ethos."
A regional hit
A grassroots film studio in Woonona employs a dozen digital artisans to create world-class media. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
The studio is expanding in what is a turbulent time for the sector.
Operations manager at Disruptor Post, Mitch Palmer. (ABC Illawarra; Sarah Moss)
"The film industry is going through such seismic change right now in terms of AI completely disrupting visual effects, script writing and the filmmaking industry," operations manager Mitch Palmer said.
"But we've employed university graduates and will start more staff soon. We're growing that rapidly with our systems and it's great to say it's regional."
World class
Corey Pearson works in post-production on the colourisation of The Passion of Joan of Arc, a film produced in 1928. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
Distruptor Post is in discussions with several European rights holders and has submitted The Passion of Joan of Arc to the 76th Berlin Film Festival 2026.
"What teenagers watch now is bright and fast paced, but this is like going to the Louvre and sitting in the Master's section,"Mr Pearson said.
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