Re: color ref? and Technicolor
Richard Knoppow (dickburk@ix.netcom.com)
Sat, 14 Jun 1997 12:33:14 -0700
At 08:11 AM 6/14/97 -0500, Satre Stuelke wrote:
>Hi All!
>
>[RK wrote]
>>
Some snipping.....
>>The look of old Technicolor films comes partly from the
>>laboratory practice and partly from the conventions of lightling, makeup
>>and costume design advised by Technicolor.
>
>This is fascinating! Can anyone provide me with a reference to Technicolor
>recommendations to cinematographers?
>
>
>
>> Unfortunately, it is very difficult to see an original issue Technicolor
>>print these days.
>
>Fortunately, I work in a film archive for a living and project films as
>well. In Chicago, it is not uncommon to see Technicolor films on occasion.
> The original Technicolor process was used in Hollywood until 1974 and is
>still used today in China. Technicolor is a 3-color dye transfer process
>and looks very much like the old magazine ads I mentioned in my earlier
>message. I was not aware that dye transfer for still imagery was a
>subtractive process b/c I am only familiar with the additive Technicolor
>process. RK was probably right that the originals for these old ads were
>dye transfer photos.
>
>Anyway, my eventual goal is to have large color prints that have the same
>color qualities as a Technicolor (dye transfer) film.
>
>Later,
>Satre
>
>
Some references to the Technicolor process will be found in the
_Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers__
I don't have a list of references handy but a search through the
indexes will find them. Herbert T. Kalmus wrote a several part anectodal
history of the company in the late 1930's or early 1940's with a title
something like "Technicolor Adventures in Movieland" (in the JSMPE). I had
the chance to talk with some of the old Tech executives in the seventies
and learned some of the inside stuff. Technicolor was _very_ secretive.
Employees had a designated entrance and exit to the plant and designated
workplace and were fired on the spot if they wandered into anoher area.
One of the tricks was controlled washing of the matrices after dying but
before transfer, Tech called it "washing back".
I don't know how much of the Technicolor recommended lighting and other
practices survive. I will have to check with the Academy Library to see
what they have in their archives.
Technicolor was _not_ a perfected process, they did not use any masking,
for instance, and had to be very careful about lighting contrast ratios and
color rendition in shadows. Low-Key scenes were difficult to shoot. The
original color separation cameras were very slow, probably around ISO 4.
This was increased to about ISO 12 by the time these cameras were
discontinued. Set lighting was primarily done with white-flame carbon arc
at avarage levels of about 1000 ft/lamberts. White shirts had to be a sort
of cream color and other colors had to be chosen for the way they would
reproduce. One convention was the use of a lot of blue backlight for
low-key or night scenes. Partly to suggest moon light partly to overcome
the poor color tracking into the shadows. Makeup was also chosen for its
reproduction and, of course, the conventions of the day; no one in movies
had pores until about 1965. The original process used a black or gray key
in addition to the three color layers. I have had conflicting statements
from retired Tech people about how long this was continued. Some say the
key was used only at the very beginning, some say it was continued for many
years. From observation of a great many original prints (mostly at the
UCLA film library) I rather think the key was in use until the color
seperation cameras were discontinued in 1951.
Technicolor is a subtractive process, just as multi-layer color film is.
The three layers are cyan, magenta and yellow. One starts with white
light and removes the colors not wanted. Color television is an additive
process, with red, green and blue primaries, each supplied by an
appropriate phosphor. There were some very early experiments with additive
color for motion pictures but none were sucessful.
Tech recently made a some dye-transfer prints for a movie, which I did
not see and don't remember the title of (oh, dear, its age). This must
have been done in a pilot plant of some sort, the original Hollywood plant
having been completely dismantled many years ago. Technicolor is an
economical method where very large numbers of prints are to be made. At
the time the Cole Ave. plant was closed down the industry was printing on
the order of 200 or 250 prints for release. At this quantity Tech could
not compete with multi-layer film. It is now common to print 2000 to 3000
copies for release so the old imbibition process may be with us again.
----
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles,Ca.
dickburk@ix.netcom.com