Comparative Analysis of Colour Film Style by Computational Means

Abstract

This paper uses two different colour versions of the early film The Life and Passion of Christ (La Vie et la Passion de Jésus Christ, 1907) by Ferdinand Zeccato demonstrate how computer-based techniques for analysing digitized film materials, using a combination of close and distant readings, can facilitate the ‘text’-critical, comparative analysis of colour film styles as practised in the fields of both film studies and film archives, a process that ultimately benefits their different research and knowledge interests. The case study illustrates the use of the annotation and visualization software VIAN, as well as the VIAN WebApp, by focusing mainly on its automatic colour analysis tools and its computationally produced colour film visualizations, which function as epistemic images. VIAN thereby becomes the scientific framework that provides the examiner with an objective, evidence-generating system for comparing colour films. The strategy of using contemporary digital humanities tools in these fields thus makes the invisible visible and the impossible possible.