Opening. I am wondering if this trope is underused because coloration - like camera shots - is one of the less noticeable patterns in filmmaking.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Scrapyard
How sweet it is
Cut it.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
Adding in an assent to cut it: about half the examples don't even seem to be valid.
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Merge into Monochrome Past, which is similar but doesn't require the "fade" aspect.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
she/her
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Let's analyze the examples.
- Clerks II used this at the end of the movie as a nod to the black and white origins of the first. The first movie was made in the 90s, not the 50s.
- The ending of Ransom. Zero-context.
- Dutch film Het meisje met het rode haar (The girl with the red hair), about a resistance fighter in WW2 Holland, deliberately fades almost everything to monochrome as a visual reminder of the grim nature of life under German rule. The only part of the picture to remain red, or at least in Dutch national orange-red, is the long hair of the titular character, Resistance fighter Hanne Schaft. Nothing about this is supposed to be a stylistic nod to 50s cinema.
- In The Simpsons episode $pringfield (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying), Jasper and Abe are visiting a movie parlour back in their day as young men, watching a short film about the successes of Springfield. This is shown in black and white before fading to colour, revealing them as hypocritical old men. The current events movie they watch also contains a few Department of Redundancy Department jokes. Valid.
- The Simpsons also did this in an early issue of Simpsons Comics, wherein a tale Grandpa was telling of his past, the pages would randomly turn black and white. Bart complains about this. This is Monochrome Past, not Fade To Gray. Also, this is bad indentation.
- The last colour to remain visible as daylight fades to night is red. Even when comparatively dark, red is often still visible in a sort of bleached-out faded way. Try this for yourself. Dutch film Het meisje met het rode haar (above) uses this effect as a visual metaphor for the "dark night" of occupation by Nazi Germany. What is this even saying? I honestly have no idea how this relates to the trope.
And the one wick (technically two, since it's a pothole in a crosswicked example) from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
- The Stinger: Young Link once again finds Zelda at the exact moment that she's spying on Ganondorf's meeting with her father. She turns to face him, followed by a Fade To Gray. note This is not a nod to cinema at all. It's just part of the game's Freeze-Frame Ending.
We have 1 valid, 1 questionable, 1 zero-context, and 4 misused examples. Definitely cut this mess.
Seems like a legit concept (I'm reminded of the video example I added to Deliberately Monochrome) but not a lot that's worth keeping in its current state. Cut.
Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 8th 2020 at 5:56:04 AM
Cut. Any good examples can be moved to Monochrome Past.
Cut. This is redundant with Deliberately Monochrome and Monochrome Past.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
Maintenance?
(Oops, wrong thread.)
Edited by LaundryPizza03 on Sep 12th 2020 at 8:16:31 AM
I'm back!
There is also Monochrome Deactivated Mode
to be considered before removing an example.
How sweet it is
Got a lot of votes for cut, so let's do it.
Move any example accordingly.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope ReportAll done! I wish more tropes were as easy to fix as this one.
I'd like to apologize for all this.
How sweet it is
Only six on-page examples (one of which is a ZCE), and six wicks (two indices, two maintenance pages, and two in copies of the same off-page example). Is it Too Rare to Trope?
Edited by LaundryPizza03 on Sep 7th 2020 at 10:57:15 AM
I'm back!