Film colouring process in 1900

Numerous types of color processes in film has been witnessed throughout time. It is evident that some color processing has been more successful in some films than others. Probably an essential point to remember is that the evolution in film has been undergoing a gradual transformation since the beginning of its time. A century ago, people thought that color would ruin motion pictures but instead proceeded further to induce visual narratives. From the history of black-and-white film stock to the present history, it is noticeable that celluloid has been manipulated to create color. The history of “moving pictures” to the current days, has shown that film technology has evolved.

 At the beginning of the 19th century, creative photographers could retouch their black-and-white landscapes and portraits to make them realistic (Gunning, 2013, p.1). However, the outcome could be rather surreal.”In the dawn of the age of films, the addition of black-and-white was to bring out the potential for disastrous garish results” (Lafrance:2015). Early in the 1830s, the first photographs were produced and this instilled a desire to create an outstanding color photograph. The images were dyed, painted, and colored with numerous inks for a long period of time before the way to create true color images worked in 1861. The color processes has witnessed a progressive transformation through different phases that entails the Smith and Urban’s Kinemacolor, Prismacolor, Gaumont’s Chronochrome, and the two color versions of Technicolor and KodaChrome.

 Color, to some degree, is a superadded prevailing method of reproduction, an additional sensual intensity which generates its importance at least to reveal the difference between black and white. The essay will take through the journey of the evolution of film technology, moreover in inventions that are concerning color film processes. This paper will define the phenomenon called color in film technology. As explained by Isaac Newton, color is a psychological reaction to a very slight band of electromagnetic spectrum that is called light (Higgins, 2007, p.189). Therefore, the essential reason to event color film processes was to create a psychological reaction for the audiences as well as for exhibiting and photographing motion pictures. The first attempt was made in the late 18th century and brings out a suitable format to display motion picture film that bears images in color (Neale, 2012, p.13).

In the mid-1930s, much faith was put in color when the three-strip Technicolor was invented as well as other color processes that were showcased. Additionally, in the mid-1930s, color had generated excitement in the film industry professionals. Before the introduction of Technicolor, there were various schemes such as tinting, toning, stenciling and hand-coloring of frames to inject pigment into the pictures. The schemes were the earliest history of film shading. “Incredibly, a scheme such as hand-coloring was done precisely as the name suggests” (Neale : 2012, p.14). Therefore, this implied that the processes were labor-intensive technology and were only possible since by then films were very short. “Stenciling was distinctly easier compared to hand-coloring but still was labor-intensive technology. In stenciling, etched glass plates were attached to the main photographic shapes to cover the portion of the film. This helped to apply dye to the relevant sectors of each frame. Early in 19th century, the most popular coloring process method was tinting as it was inexpensive and a less labor-intensive technology of producing color in the film stock. The process involved dyeing the whole frame of a sequence that helped to match the sequence’s mood or activity” (https://goo.gl/0nRKb1) . Toning included dying the black parts of the frame by using a chemical (Neale, 2012, p.14). Toning and tinting were the most advanced technology and was liked by many since they enhanced the psychological mood of the film. In the 1920s, 80-90% of most American, currently known as Hollywood movies, were using some form of toning or tinting techniques. “However, the methods could hardly be considered an accurate rendering of a color image and were cumbersome” (https://goo.gl/0nRKb1). Therefore, this gives time for curtain rising to articulate the whole story of the durable and best color film processes ever used on a commercial basis.

 In the 19th century, there were two primary methods of creating color, the additive color, and subtractive color. This increased the sprouting of many companies holding color patents. The additive color process referred to mixing colors on the screen’s surface itself, instead of dyeing the film strip. On the other hand, the subtractive color process involved coloring the film itself, and removing some color from respective three pieces of film. Afterward, when the resultant image is projected simultaneously, it mixes to give a wider and more realistic experience of color. The techniques behind additive and subtractive color processes marked the form classic Technicolor took. Both subtractive and additive color were applied to produce color camerawork. In 1908, the Natural Color Kinematograph Company and Charles Urban tried the first endeavor into capturing color naturally in the film. Another color film process was the Kinemacolor system which was an invention that was innovated by George Albert Smith (Jackson, 2015, p.2). The technique was successive of a good example of the color additive process. In the Kinemacolor technique, the camera had one frame that would capture with a red filter (Neale, 2012, p.13). On the other hand, the other frame was to be captured with a black and green filter. A projector having a red and green filter flywheel was used to play the film. As a result of audience persistence of visioning a red and green following images would “add” together. The outcome of the movie was unanticipated good color image regardless of being only a two color system and was screened around the world.

 Kinemacolor proved there was a market for color film. However, the technique of additive color film process was very expensive by then since the processes required extensive labour. Other various schemes of additive methods included Cinechrome, British Raycol, and Chronochrome though, addictive color systems for the film showed to be much technically challenging to implement (Jackson, 2015, p.10). After a short period, two-strip subtractive Technicolor was the first genuinely fruitful color system for film.

The Kinemacolor Company, in 1910, perfected the approach of synchronizing a camera to capture red and green alternating frames. The system introduced the way of recording the actual colors in form of motion pictures. Since kinemacolor was flickery and needed a special projector, it was abandoned within no time. The problem with kinemacolor is that it failed to produce an attractive color spectrum and was showing instead greenish and washed out-skies. On the other hand, the Chrono chrome process invented by Gaumont provided a short- term solution by making film shredding smaller, and this made it a sustainable three-color process although it never proceeded until the 1920s.

 In the year 1912, the Technicolor process began when the film of Comstock and Kalmus was formed (Haines, 1993, p.4). Technicolor implies the digital innovation of series of color motion picture processes. A milestone that is still celebrated and that changed visual narratives forever. Technicolor has been improved to updated versions over several decades. The Technicolor technique was second to the key color process of Kinemacolor. In early 19th century, it was hard to abandon color additive processes, and therefore the very first Technicolor process was a technique from an addictive with conjunction to Kinemacolor and Chronochrome (Street, 2010 p.54).

 In the 1920s and 1930s, Technicolor was still experimental to the extent of being absurd. This is because the art was a two-color process and, therefore, it could not capture the entire spectrum (Haines, 1993, p.2). During this Dawn of Technicolor, there were so many errors that needed to be corrected, particularly in the early days of the 1920s, where the films could not get proper blues, yellow or purples. In the year 1915, The Technicolor Corporation was established, intended to adventure a two-color additive process. Though the technique was incorporated in the year 1915, It was not until after World War II that full-color films started to be acknowledged by viewers (Street, 2010 p.56). The first film produced by the Technicolor Corporation in fact appeared to be a failure. Therefore, the company changed direction and began employing a technique of a two-color subtractive process. In 1922, a new process was patented, and the company used a beam prism in its camera to help them split the light into two white and black film stocks. During this process one of the frames was dyes orange and the other green. Subsequently, the dyed positive images would be bonded together for an ultimate color positive image. The resultant image would be performed back in the approved projectors with no exceptional equipment. In the year 1922, The Toll of the Sea was the first motion picture to receive the Technicolor two-strip subtractive process (Haines, 1993, p.2). Two-strip Technicolor was an immediate hit. In mid-1920s, Technicolor advanced the process with a step known as Imbibition or IB. IB helped in joining together the color separations onto a third black gelatin coated movie which made Technicolor a beautiful autograph.

In the beginning, Technicolor prioritized certain colors for naturalness. For instance, sometimes it could take red color for the skin tone while the green color could go for foliage. Which meant skies and water would never reproduce accurately in the movie. This was a wakeup call for the Technicolor, and there was a need for improvement and the first three-color subtractive system was innovated (Neale, 2012, p.20). The process helped in introducing a third primary color that is blue color into subtractive color technology. Theoretically, the technique was capable of incorporating a visible spectrum much more accurately and widely into its technical and aesthetic domain.

 In 1917,” William Van Doren introduced the very first successful subtractive color process at the American Museum of Natural History. Its name was Prizma, which had begun in a year earlier as an additive system. The discovery of Prizma resulted in a succession of similarly printed color processes” (Street, 2010, p.60). The mechanical techniques of Prizma were different from that of Kinemacolor. It used two separate strips of film meant for running through the camera, one of which was recording blue-green and the other recording red light. On the duplicated film, black-and-white negatives were being printed. Meanwhile, the outcoming images were toned red and blue, and this created an efficient subtractive color print. Another breakthrough of two-strip Technicolor in the theater was made in the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, two-strip were used primarily for individually selected scenes and only rarely for entire features. For example, in a film like Hell’s Angels (1930) had two-color sequences, but for a movie like Universal’s King of Jazz (1930) was notable full length all color film. In the year 1933, the number of productions that used Technicolor had reduced, and the only notable film produced with all color features was Doctor X (1932) (Kalmus, 2006, p.4). This was because the interest was fading due to the limited range of colors and seemed to be a gimmick rather than an artistic choice. An additional problem of two-strip Technicolor techniques had apparent grained that was caused by improperly exposed matrices and the reels had an inconsistent color balance that makes the techniques mediocre in quality control. The success of Technicolor has been visible throughout the advancement of color process techniques. In 1938, a showcase of Technicolor from Warner Bros won three Academy Honors for having the best artistic application of color in the film The Adventure of Robin Hood (1938). This marked the golden era for Technicolor and it flourished even more with the release of The Wizard of Oz (1939) that demonstrated the incredible richness of Technicolor for the magical Land of Oz.

In early 1940, Technicolor introduced a new technique referred to as Monopack. This method revealed to be successful as it combined the three different layers into a single reel that was loaded into conventional cameras. The technique was based on the subtractive color system with the aim of using superimposed cyan, yellow and magenta dye to filter colors from white light. The new color process generated imaging from records of the amount of red, green and blue lighting at each point of the picture formed by the camera lens. The moment at which one of the additive primary color, either blue, red or green is removed from the spectrum, the result is a subtractive primary color which can be either cyan, magenta or yellow. Eastman Kodak, a Monopack color film, incorporated three different layers of color sensitive emulsion into a strip of film. Here, one of the layers records on the additive primaries and its processing produces a dyed image with the matching subtractive primary color. Kodachrome, perhaps the earliest successful multilayer film was introduced in mid 1930s.

 The color consciousness resulted in a difficult transition from black-and-white to the modern cinematography. “The invention was intended to make color work conveniently, illustrating the perception of the world as well as replicate the field of vision in an accurate way. The invention of motion pictures resulted in the necessity and desire for color images. Technicolor was invented to bring a change from black-and-white vision to at least simultaneous green and red images” (Haines, 1993, p.6). This generated excitement on the audience and made Technicolor the first genuinely fruitful color system for film. “In the 1930s, Technicolor resulted in a three-color camera that was the first viable full-color system” (https://goo.gl/eurTdd). This was a smashing success, and it speeded Technicolor into profitability. The vibrant color and rich hues made Technicolor’s looks fantastic. However, this made it require specialized equipment and eventually became expensive.

 “The color transition took decades since each process had its advantages and disadvantages” (https://goo.gl/eurTdd). The reasons why some color film processes were more successful than others are based on economic, technological and aesthetic facts.” In the mid-1930s, the heart of the difficult adoption of color in the film industry was as a result of technological problems”(Haines, 1993, p.5). At this period, the color film process techniques were perceived as default, and making changes to a process was seen as unsteady and tricky. Consequently, the growth of three-strip process in the year 1932 was not successful since the elaborate process was much more time-consuming (Haines, 1993, p.7). Additionally, the technique failed to breakthrough since the cameras were considerably big. This limited transportation considerably and excluded outdoor shooting. Another technological problem that led to the downfall of Technicolor was a little beam of light that the technique produces. It is a necessity for a film to have clear color images throughout the whole movie and this becomes the biggest problem. Those who tried using the Technicolor techniques when shooting realised that the process was slower even though keeping the lighting consistent was a necessity.

 Another issue that has restrained the full expansion of color processes was certainly its being overall expensive. The color transition had become laborious due to the commercial awareness. “The cost of color production of Technicolor was too expensive, and the audiences could still be in love with black-and-white and monochromes cinematography”(https://goo.gl/eurTdd). The psychological, aesthetic and ideological impediments shared among the public, critics and artists were the aspects that made color partly difficult to adopt. Since the beginning of filmmaking, several attempts were made to devalue and eliminate color from the culture. In the ancient era, color was perceived as an extreme bias in Western civilization and was removed from the higher matters of thinking since it was related to the primitive, the feminine and superficial. The transition to color cinematography was impacted due to the objection for color and seemed to be a rooted phenomenon. Besides, the downfall of color also occurred because either visually or stylistically, screen color did not persuade everyone.

 Bi-pack was introduced in 1901 by A. Gurtner. He invented a front element sensitive only to the blue. Gurtner argued that there was a possibility to place two films emulsion to emulsion, and at the same time ensure that their edges were pasted together to develop a single pack. Nonetheless, Monopack stripping was invented in 1903 by J.H. Smith. The emulsions were coated directly on top of the others so as to offset the possible effects of poor contact between the different elements of the tripack. The process was successful since Smith used an insulating layer of collodion. In the process, a compact pack was obtained because the collodion layers could be made as thin as preferred. On top of the insulating layer, the filter dyes were placed to provide insight to the likely interaction between the sensitizer and the filter dye. The ability of the intermediate dyed collodion layers ensured that the component emulsions part was stripped and placed individually (Friedman, 1934 p. 86).

In conclusion, the rise of color in film technology has taken decades to be in the current era of the pixel. The journey of black-and-white cinematography to the present screen has been full of obstacles. However, this did not interfere with the invention of color film processes, and film industries worldwide have ultimately,fully accepted it. As decades passed by, skepticism of color disappeared and the technology kept on advancing and becoming more accessible and efficient. The best thing to be remembered about the invention of color in the movies is that critics and artists withdrew their psychological barrier against color technology and they all learned to praise and appreciate it. The journey of the invention of color has shown that the technology, as well as the invention, was all about  creativity and, ultimately, the design has given the film industry more freedom to widen the aesthetic palette that gives a greater diversity of technique to the viewers.