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From: davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: First Color Films
Message-ID: <1340@shark.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Apr-85 12:05:05 EST
Article-I.D.: shark.1340
Posted: Wed Apr 17 12:05:05 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Apr-85 00:22:59 EST
References: <556@cornell.UUCP> <1315@yale.ARPA> <4651@ucla-cs.ARPA> <1814@zehntel.UUCP> <4792@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams)
Distribution: net
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Engineering Computing Systems
Lines: 46
Summary: 


***REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR TECHNICOLOR PRINTS***
The first Technicolor live action short was produced circa 1930. It
starred Eddie Cantor and was called, "The Bells Are Ringing". The first
Technicolor full length feature was "Becky Sharp", made in 1935.
This picture was recently restored by the American Film Institute.
The previously existing prints were in b&w or Cinecolor, which was
an inferior 2 color process. The first Technicolor animated short
was Disney's "Flowers and Trees" (1932). I dought he had exclusive
rights to the process, rather the economics of producing a color
animated short kept the others from using it immediately. Disney 
was a pioneer and didn't mind taking risks. He also developed
a technique of using multiple layers of cels (celluloid sheets)
held in a special frame at different levels from the camera
to get the illusion of depth. He won an Academy Award for this
in about 1934 for a short titled (I think),"Tulips and Windmills".
The original Technicolor process was expensive to use as it took
a special Mitchell camera using 3 negatives. It also required much
more light to be used on the scene, because of the filters and optical
splitters used in the camera. The lighting also had to be color
corrected to provide the right color balance and at a time when
b&w 35mm prints cost about $.03 a foot, the Technicolor prints cost
about $.35 a foot. The first color animated picture was called
(again I believe), "The Ten Commandments", and was done in the
mid-twenties. The images were actually painted directly on the
nitrate film base. It looked like oil painting. I do not know
if any copies of this still exist.
In another article someone mentioned films that were made in one
color. This process was called sepia. The prints were dyed after
developing. I remember seeing a movie done in the 40's about
a leprechaun. The story moved between Ireland and the U.S.
When the scenes were suppose to be in Ireland they used green sepia.
When the scenes were in the U.S. they were regular, except your
eyes got use to the green and when they flashed back to the U.S.
you got the illusion that they had dyed the scenes in pink until
you eyes got accustomed to the regular light again. Very distracting.
-- 


                                    Dave Williams
                                    Tektronix, Inc.
                                    Engineering Computing Systems

         "6000"
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