Technicolor

What is "Technicolor?"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technicolor)

• Technicolor is the "trademark" for a progression of color film processing that was pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation which is now a division of Thomson SA. (The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation was founded in Boston, MA in 1915 by Herbert Kalmus, Daniel Frost Comstock, and W. Burton Wescott)

The name "Technicolor" actually has 4 usages:

1. Technicolor process/format - the several image origination systems used in film production which eventually became the "three-strip" process. (1922-1954)
   
2. Technicolor dye imbibition printing (also referred to as dye transfer) - a photolithographic system used for the creation of color prints, originally created for the Technicolor format but was also discovered to be compatible with standard mompack film. (1928-2002)
   
3. Technicolor labs - film laboratories across the world owned and run by Technicolor for post-production services. This is why film credits may say "Color by Technicolor" even though the actual technicolor process was not used on the film. (1922 to present)
4. Technicolor - the umbrella company encompassing all the above as well as the other services provided by the company. (1915 to present). (Check out Technicolor's website)
   

• This was the 2nd major color film process, after Britian's Kinemacolor and ended up being the most widely used process in Hollywood between 1922 and 1952.
• It is known for being "hyper-realistic" with very saturated levels of color.
  
• Some of the most memorable/popular films that took advantage of this processing include: The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, Joan of Arc and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (animated).

How does it work and how has the system progressed?
(http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor1.htm)

Process 1: Additive Color (1917-1922)

• Technicolor originally existed in a two-color red and green system.
  
• Process 1 used a prism beam-splitter behind the camera lens exposed to adjacent frames of a single strip of black and white negative film simultaneously, one behind a red filter, the other behind a green filter.
• Because two frames were being exposed at the same time, the film had to be photographed and projected at twice the normal speed.The first and only camera made for this process can be seen below:
  





• Exhibition required a special projector with two apertures (one with a red filter and the other with a green filter), two lenses, and an adjustable prism that aligned the two images on the screen. Technicolor itself produced the only movie made in Process 1, The Gulf Between. The near-constant need for a technician to adjust the projection alignment doomed this process. The following images display how both the camera and projector were able to accomplish process 1 technicolor:
  

System 2: Subtractive 2 color system print (1922-1927)

• The camera used in system 2 (and later system 3) was updated and its film negative results were different than the camera used in the first system. The newly built camera can be seen below:
  

• However, the real change came from the new subtractive color process.
• As discussed above, the earlier additive system which used black and white images projected through color filters (which could result in the loss of light absorbed by the filters). In contrast, this new system carried the color information in the image itself with no need for colored filters. The picture registered on screen as good as the original film maker was able to create and the new system also allowed the colors to be reproduced a bit more accurately.
• The camera negative carries both the red and blue-green records of the originally filmed scene. Both prints were made on half thickness matrix films. The blue-green was upside down and mirror image compared to the red so that they could be placed back to back after the color dying process.
• The film used was much like the normal black and white film of that day with light sensitive silver halides and a gelatin layer. When the film was developed and the silver was removed in the processing, the gelatin remained as a "contour map" of the image. Using system 2, when the matrices were developed they were then floated on a dye bath of a color complimentary to the original color record.
• The two film strips were then cemented together for the projection print.
  
• This system was not without it's deficiencies. The think film cause a great deal of grief in the projection machines and splicing the film was very problematic.
• The first feature film made using this process was Toll of the Sea:

Technicolor Process 3 (1928)

• Process three is VERY similar to process two; however there was a update called dye-imbibition used in the final stages of film processing. After the two strips of film were processed and dyed with their complimentary colors, they were then placed with a third blank strip of film (coated with a substance to absorb the color/image) and the dye was transferred to the new film strip.
  
• This made the finished product much less bulky and made for less incidents with projection of the film.
  

Technicolor Process 4 (1932-1955)

• The magic of Process four is the new three-strip camera built by Technicolor. The camera $30,000 in a day when the average wage was 50 cents per hour.





• The camera now captured three different strips recorded in the primary colors red, blue, and green. During processing the strips were again dyed with their complimentary colors. The red with cyan, the green with magenta and the blue with yellow.



• After each strip of film was prepared with was transferred to the receiver strip using high pressure. The depth of the gelatin impression was exaggerated for illustration.
• Even though he had already started filming, Walt Disney decided to take advantage of the new 3-strip process for his movie Flowers and Trees. The film turned out to be a hit and a 5 year contract was made between Disney and Technicolor for the use of the new system on animated films. This soon became a one-year process when Kalmus was pressured by other studios who refused to use the 2-color system process.