Spider-Noir could have come out a year earlier if it hadn't had to be in color

Spider-Noir is a series that has had a convoluted development. This is something we have discovered thanks to the fact that, after its publication, those involved have wanted to talk about the problems they faced during its development. And the problems boil down to a very simple issue: making a series in both color and black and white is much more difficult than it seems.

A series with problems

The series is available on Prime Video in two versions, in color and in black and white, but the production of the two versions was not done in parallel. As explained by K.C. Lauf, the second camera assistant on the series, the series was originally filmed in black and white and then color was added in post-production. With one problem. Many of the scenes were not viable for colorization, requiring them to be re-filmed directly in color.

According to Lauf, “the sets were all painted green, brown, and pink to complement the gradients of gray in black and white,” which is how films of this kind were shot at the time, as each of the colors provided a different gray gradient when recorded on camera. But the problem is that “the color pass was not originally planned and required reshoots that lasted almost a year.”

All of this informs us of two things: that there was no thought of colorizing it until after it was finished filming and that the director’s version is in black and white. As Lauf himself confirms, “the way to see it is in Noir —black and white— to have the director’s authentic vision.” So, if you haven’t seen the series yet, but were thinking about doing so, now you know the optimal way to do it: in black and white and with your best fedora.

Amazon Prime Video DOWNLOAD