What Color Was Technicolor Film?
Steve Kraus
digital restoration. It's about the 2004 4K work and unlike the Wizard BD
which also carries an old doc this one is clearly labeled as such.
Anyway, in that documentary they show a 3-strip camera laced up with what I
think is color negative film. It has a beige emulsion. I got to thinking
that while B&W film is generally gray I actually don't know if that would
hold true for the specially sensitized films used by Technicolor. The
sensitizing is, after all, a dye and it seems likely that would change its
appearance and be different for the 3 strips. Plus the matter of the front
bi-pack film which of course would have a clear base, not covered in rem
jet or whatever they used back then. And maybe has a thinner, more
transparent emulsion? Does anyone know what the Technicolor raw stock
looked like? We have the rest of the year to figure this out! :)
J. Theakston
wrote:
> Anyway, in that documentary they show a 3-strip camera laced up with what I
> think is color negative film. It has a beige emulsion. I got to thinking
> that while B&W film is generally gray I actually don't know if that would
> hold true for the specially sensitized films used by Technicolor. The
> sensitizing is, after all, a dye and it seems likely that would change its
> appearance and be different for the 3 strips. Plus the matter of the front
> bi-pack film which of course would have a clear base, not covered in rem
> jet or whatever they used back then. And maybe has a thinner, more
> transparent emulsion? Does anyone know what the Technicolor raw stock
> looked like? We have the rest of the year to figure this out! :)
Keep in mind, if it were a new shot, it might be any type film they
had loaded up just for show.
The green record was normal Pan stock, and the bipack in later years
was 5234 or 5236, depending on interior or exterior shots. The front
strip was orrtho film with a red-dyed emulsion, and the film behind it
was pan. Both were face-to-face, natch.
J. Theakston
spacecadet
to make a grey base look beige without making the whole picture look odd.
Paul Penna
spacecadet <nos...@spacecadet.com> wrote:
My recollections from my b/w still photography days in the mid-50s to
mid-60s are that the unexposed emulsion side of Kodak b/w films were
beige in color.
Martin Hart
scr...@SPAMBLOCKfilmteknik.com says...
I don't know what the colors were, though it's a good question. I
needled John Sittig about a decade ago when he brought a Cinerama camera
up to Seattle for the showing of HTWWW and TIC. In order to make people
understand how the camera worked he loaded a magazine with film that was
just conveniently located in the warehouse. It was fullcoat magnetic
recording film. So it's possible that the film shown threaded through
the Technicolor camera wasn't exactly the same stock that they normally
used. But now that I think of it, the Tech camera that used to be on
display at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel did have one of the films with
a red coating, or maybe it was a red base. Hmmm. Makes me wonder.
Marty
--
The American WideScreen Museum
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/
spacecadet
>
> My recollections from my b/w still photography days in the mid-50s to
> mid-60s are that the unexposed emulsion side of Kodak b/w films were
> beige in color.
You might be right- thinking about it I haven't used Kodak B/W since
college. Fresh Ilford is grey in colour. Of course it darkens with
fogging. I'm not sure it signifies much apart from the formulation of
the gelatin.
Scott Dorsey
A lot of it has to do with the sensitizing dyes and the antihalation
layer in the back.
Most B&W film stocks are purplish red, with a red backing. Some are
grey. Some (like 7366 which has no antihalation layer, and 2615 which
likewise has no antihalation layer) are bright yellow.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Peter
<scr...@SPAMBLOCKfilmteknik.com> said:
> Does anyone know what the Technicolor raw stock
> looked like? We have the rest of the year to figure this out! :)
I would check-out the docu-drama which was supplied with at least one
of the recent Criterion Powell-Pressberger DVD releases.
Specifically, the one which interviews Jack Cardiff.
Several views of the Three-Strip camera are shown, complete with the
specially prepared negative rolls.
Perhaps a recreation, but the ends are identified as to their purpose.
--
CinemaScope�: The Modern Miracle You See without Special Glasses!
Paul Penna
klu...@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
In addition to the beige emulsion side memories, I also remember when I
first saw some with the red backing and asking about it; that was when I
learned about anti-halation. I only saw it rarely, though. Most b/w
films were black on the base side. My 50-year-old recollections are that
I encountered gray unexposed emulsion less frequently. When I summon up
a memory of a new roll of 135 film, the leader sticking out from the
cartridge is beige on the emulsion side.
cin...@hotmail.com
In late 1938 early 1939 when TECHNICOLOR introduced their new High
speed process
which was effectively 8 weston (10 ASA) TECHNICOLOR introduced 3 new
films which were
different to the new bi-pack Zelcra films which were introduced about
the same time(code numbers
1234, 1235, and 1236) The new Technicolor films were given the code
numbers 1237, 1238 and 1239
which were the red, green and blue sensitive emulsions respectively.
The 1237 film was Eastman Plus X Film 1231, wearing another hat. The
1238 was not a Panchromatic
film but a highly green sensitive orthochromatic film which was used
in combination with a yellow filter(to absorb
the blue) and the 1239 was a purely blue sensitive film(it had no
sensitivity to green or red) and it ran in
bi-pack with the 1237(red sensitive film) but the original magenta
filter was eliminated as it was no longer required.
TECHNICOLOR continued to use this process with occasional
modifications until 1951 when the Tungsten
Balanced system using Dichroic beam splitters came into operation.,
Does anybody know the code numbers for the three new films that
TECHNICOLOR introduced circa 1950?
Regards,
Peter Mason
J. Theakston
> TECHNICOLOR continued to use this process with occasional
> modifications until 1951 when the Tungsten
> Balanced system using Dichroic beam splitters came into operation.,
> Does anybody know the code numbers for the three new films that
> TECHNICOLOR introduced circa 1950?
I stand corrected. Thanks for that very interesting information!
J. Theakston