Stuart Humphryes

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Stuart Humphryes
File:Babelcolour portrait.jpg
Stuart Humphryes AKA Babelcolour
Born Stuart John Humphryes
(1969-12-10) 10 December 1969 (age 54)
Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
Residence London, England
Nationality English
Occupation Colourisation Artist, Local Government Officer
Years active colouriser 2005-present
Website www.babelcolour.com

Stuart Humphryes, (born 10 December 1969) is an English colourisation artist for print, film and television, chiefly known for his work colourising the British television series Doctor Who. He is more widely known by his alias "Babelcolour", a public persona which was created in 2006 with the launch of his YouTube channel.

Film Colourisation

The Daleks' Master Plan

In 2005 Humphryes collaborated with James Russell (one of the founder members of the Doctor Who Restoration Team) to colourise surviving 35mm film from the 1965 Doctor Who serial The Daleks' Master Plan. This colourisation was incorporated into "The Dalek Tapes" documentary on the 2006 DVD release of Genesis of the Daleks.[1]

The Mind of Evil

In 2009 Humphryes and Russell reunited, this time to assess the viability of re-colourising a 1971 Doctor Who serial called The Mind of Evil which only existed in the BBC Archives as a monochrome film print. They worked together to produce a one-minute test sequence of colourised shots from the episode which eventually led to the Doctor Who Restoration Team commissioning Humphryes in 2011 to recolourise episode one of the serial.[2][3] Between 2011-2013 Humphryes was the sole colourising artist working alongside the video restoration company SVS Resources[4] to complete the commercial colourisation of The Mind of Evil for the BBC's subsidiary 2 Entertain[5][6]

The newly colourised Mind of Evil was premiered at the British Film Institute on 10 March 2013.[7] Humphryes was in attendance to answer questions on stage about the re-colourisation process[8][9] The recolourised episodes also received a special screening, with a Q&A panel comprising members of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, at Birmingham's annual Flatpack Film Festival on Saturday 30 March 2013[10] and at the Belfast Film Festival on Thursday 18 April 2013[11]

Clips and details of the serial's recolourisation were covered by a special feature on the BBC evening news on 12 June 2013[12]

Following the release of The Mind of Evil DVD in June 2013 the re-colourised version has become the broadcast default, being subsequently televised in the US on Retro TV on 15 October 2014[13] and KBTC Public Television on Saturday 23 January 2016.

Terror of the Zygons

In 2008 a collection of long-lost film prints from the 1975 Doctor Who serial Terror of the Zygons were returned to the BBC from the estate of the story's film editor Ian McKendrick, consisting of a cutting copy and dub track in mixed colour and monochrome formats.[14] Humphryes was consequently engaged by SVS Resources in February 2012 to recolourise the monochrome sections[15] so that the entire missing scene could be incorporated into the Director's Cut of Terror of the Zygons for DVD release the following year[16][17]

Colourisation Process

Most commercial colourisation processes involve the use of either masks, layers or the segmentation method. The process used by Humphryes however, is unusual in that it does not employ these methods of separating colour to produce each key frame but instead each individual frame is colourised as a single completed image. A consequence of this means that although the finished product can achieve greater realism the work is very labour-intensive, with around 7000 fully colourised key frames required to produce 20 minutes of footage. This equates to an average of 1 in every 4 frames being fully colourised as key frames for PAL video. It consequently took Humphryes 18 months to recolourise key frames for 'The Mind of Evil' episode one[18]

Print Colourisation

File:Doctor Who lost ep collection.JPG
The set of tele-snaps (centre) which were colourised by Stuart Humphryes for issue 2 of 'Nothing At The End Of The Lane' magazine

In 2005 Humphryes colourised a series of Tele-snaps for issue 2 of "Nothing At The End of the Lane" - the magazine of Doctor Who Research and Restoration in which he was interviewed about his colourisation work.[19] He was invited to return to this publication in 2008 to colourise the cover of their omnibus reprint of issues 1 and 2.

In 2015 Humphryes was commissioned to colourise a portrait of Robert Quarry as Count Yorga for the front cover of Mark Iveson's biographical reference book "Cursed Horror Stars", published by Telos Publishing[20]

Critical Reception

His on-line colourisation and video editing work has received recommendations from BBC America,[21][22] SFX Magazine,[23] The Guardian[24] and the Official Doctor Who Magazine[25]

His work on The Mind of Evil was also commended in reviews from the Radio Times,[26] Starburst Magazine,[27] Doctor Who Magazine,[28] Doctor Who Online,[29] DVD Talk,[30] Nerdist[31] and an array of on-line genre sites and blogs[32]

His colourisation work was recommended by the Doctor Who showrunner, head writer and producer Steven Moffat who cited Humphryes in 2015 as one of "the next generation of creatives"[33]

Other Works

His YouTube channel BabelColour has 17,500 subscribers and 6.3 million hits (as of April 2016)[34]

His on-line video output has involved collaboration with a number of creatives; amongst those credited over the years are the voice artists John Guillor, Jonathon Carley and Peter Walsh and the video FX artists Mert Karaca and Andrew Orton. Credited contributors also include the researcher Simeon Carter and the writers and media historians David J. Howe and Richard Bignell.[35]

In 2012 his essay 'Teatime and an Open Mind' was published in the Doctor Who anthology book "You and Who" by Miwk Publishing[36][37]

Background Information

Humphryes graduated from Suffolk College with a BA(Hons) degree in Design Communications. After 14 years with the British Red Cross he became a Local Government Officer for the London Borough of Merton[38]

In 1996 he appeared as a contestant in two episodes of the UK Gold TV quiz series 'Goldmaster', presented by the DJ Mike Read. He answered questions on his specialist subject Doctor Who[39] His role as fallback contestant for BBC1's 1999 prime-time evening game show 'Whatever you Want' was reported in Doctor Who Magazine issue 276, which ran with a photograph of Humphryes in costume alongside the other on-screen contestants.[40]

Between 2006-2008 he produced work for the BabelFish Colourisation Website on kostamojen.com.[41] In 2012 he established his own colourisation website at babelcolour.com

In 2014 Humphryes assisted researchers of the BBC2 documentary series ‘The Secret History of My Family’, which was broadcast on Thursday 10 March 2016. Episode one chronicled the family and descendants of his 4 x Great-Grandfather Robert Gadbury, tracing their lineage from 1830’s London to present-day Tasmania. Humphryes is second cousin (twice removed) to former Tasmanian premier Albert Ogilvie[42][43]

References

  1. ↑ BBC DVD "Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks". Catalogue Number BBCDVD1813. Release date 2006-04-10
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Doctor Who Magazine issue #488 August 2015. UK: Panini. Retrieved 15 February 2016
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ BBC DVD "Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil". Catalogue Number BBCDVD3269. Release date 2013-06-03
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Robert Fairclough, BFI Premiere. SFX Magazine Issue #234 April 2013. UK: Future plc. Retrieved 15 February 2016
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Richard Bignell, "Recovery of the Zygons". Nothing At The End Of The Lane Magazine Issue 4
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ BBC DVD "Doctor Who: Terror of the Zygons". Catalogue Number BBCDVD3482. Release date 2013-09-30
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ 'Cursed Horror Stars', Mark Iveson Telos Publishing ISBN 978-1-84583-113-4 accessdate 2016-01-25
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ SFX Magazine Issues #June 2008; #November 2009 and #March 2010. UK: Future plc. Retrieved 11 February 2016
  24. ↑ Dan Martin, "Doctor Who The Power of Three: 'The legendary Brigadier'". The Guardian Publication date 2012-09-22
  25. ↑ Doctor Who Magazine Issues #430 February 2011; #431 March 2011; #433 May 2011; #435 July 2011; #441 December 2011; #444 March 2012; #450 September 2012; #451 October 2012; #476 September 2014; #479 December 2014; #480 Winter 2014/15; #484 April 2015; #496 March 2016. UK: Panini. Retrieved 18 March 2016
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Doctor Who Magazine Issue #488 August 2015. UK: Panini. Retrieved 23 March 2016
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Steven Moffat interview Doctor Who Magazine Issue #484 March 2015. UK: Panini. Retrieved 13 March 2016
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ YouTube video credits. Babelcolour Channel. Retrieved 06 April 2016
  36. ↑ 'You & Who' Miwk Publishing ISBN 978-1-908630-25-4
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Gallifrey Guardian Doctor Who Magazine Issue #276 April 1999. UK: Panini. Retrieved 24 March 2016
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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