Film History & Movements Codexery

Color motion picture film

Color motion picture film records color using multiple light-sensitive layers.

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A gradual transition saw 10% of live-action feature films in color by the early 1950s and 90% by the mid-1970s, with a tipping point in 1967.[1] Additive color systems, like the one Edward Raymond Turner patented in 1899 and tested in 1902, were the earliest form of color cinematography.[2] Digital cinematography had largely taken over from film as the dominant medium by the 2010s.[1]

Quick Facts

First additive color patent
1899 by Edward Raymond Turner
First commercial additive system
Kinemacolor (1909)
First integral tripack films
Kodachrome (1935) and Agfacolor (1936)
Dominant form until
2010s
Replaced by
digital cinematography

Facts from the source article.

Making and release

Georges Méliès offered hand-painted prints of his films at extra cost, including A Trip to the Moon (1902), which was painted frame-by-frame by twenty-one women in Montreuil.[3] Pathé Color, renamed Pathéchrome in 1929, used a coloring machine with dye-soaked velvet rollers to apply up to six colors at 60 feet per minute.[4] A more common technique, film tinting, emerged in the early 1910s, giving a uniform monochromatic color to the image.[5] Eastman Kodak introduced pre-tinted Sonochrome film stocks in 1929, featuring seventeen colors including Peachblow, Inferno, and Candle Flame.[6]

Technicolor's three-strip subtractive system, using a dichroic beam splitter, was first used in the animation Flowers and Trees (1932) and the feature Becky Sharp (1935).[7][8] Segundo de Chomón, working for Pathé Frères, brought the first stencil color process to market in 1905.[4] Dr. Bela Gaspar's single-strip three-color system, Gasparcolor, was developed in 1932 and became the preferred film stock for animation throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.[9]

What the cited sources add

The account of Leon F. Douglass states he patented the first successful process for making color movies in 1916, producing Cupid Angling (1918) as a possible first American feature-length color film.[10] Douglass's process used a camera making twin negatives of red and green values.[10] The Fischinger Archive notes that Gasparcolor prints could be made from any three-color separation negative, either single-strip or three separate strips.[9] Gasparcolor's chemistry allowed brilliant, saturated colors in a complete spectrum, with film stock remaining very stable over time.[9]

The same source states that Gasparcolor's slow exposure required about seven seconds per frame, limiting it mainly to animation.[9] Martin Scorsese described the 1902 Turner test footage as "something very unique and very, very special".[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Follows, "When did colour films eclipse black-and-white films?", 18 March 2024; Hurley, "Studios Abandon Film, Small Theaters Struggle – And There's a Happy Ending", Indiewire, 2 January 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Martin Scorsese on world's first colour film discovery", BBC News, 22 September 2012 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cook, David A., A History of Narrative Film (2nd edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 1990).; Ira Konigsberg, The Complete Film Dictionary Meridan PAL Books, 1987) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cook, David A., A History of Narrative Film (2nd edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 1990).; Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia (HarperCollins, 1994) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ira Konigsberg, The Complete Film Dictionary Meridan PAL Books, 1987) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Monaco, James (1981) (Revised ed) How to Read a Film Oxford University Press. .; Cook, David A., A History of Narrative Film (2nd edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 1990). (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Slide, Anthony. (1990) "Technicolor" The American Film Industry: A Historical Dictionary Limelight pp. 338–340. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Color motion picture film" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hart, Martin (2003). "The History of Technicolor" Widescreenmuseum.com. Retrieved 2006-07-07.; Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia (HarperCollins, 1994) (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Gasparcolor: Perfect Hues for Animation", Fischinger Archive. facts only, no text reused. oskarfischinger.org
  10. Gracyk, Tim. Leon F. Douglass: Inventor and Victor's First Vice-President (Retrieved on 2007-03-26). facts only, no text reused. gracyk.com
  11. "Martin Scorsese on world's first colour film discovery", BBC News, 22 September 2012. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Color motion picture film (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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