THE MOVING IMAGE SOCIETY An Illustrated History of Colour Film Grant Lobban looks at the historical background and the technologies of colour film Hand-crafted - the A previous article in thi s slides was soon extended versions of Georges series looked at over a to moving pictures, using Melies' trick and fantasy making of a masterwork century of making 'black fine brushes to apply films [2], and the hand­ Grant Lobban spent the best part of and white' movies. Thi s transparent colour dyes to coloured gun flashes in two years compiling this 'masterwork'. time, it's the turn of each frame. The earliest The Great Train Robbery Eschewing the 'modern' tools of colour, the various ways surviving example is (1903). computer and scanner, and rightly that colour films have probably the Kinetoscope concentrating on acquiring the content been photographed, 1896 subject, Th e Stencil Colouring and not its eventual form, the results processed and printed Serpentine Dance by To speed up the process, of Grant's labours and diligent archive over the years, and the Annabelle-the-Dancer. stencils were sometimes searches were eventually presented to type of original material [Frame 1- facing page. cut to colour areas which the Editor as some 60 pages of closely remained the same shape type-written (yes, not wordprocessed!) which may still be Other numbers in square pages, heavily annotated with second available for making new brackets refer to and size over a large thoughts and reference numbers, plus copies and if necessary subsequent frames]. number of frames. Thi s a couple of dozen A4 pages onto may be restored to ensure Some of the black and sk illed, but laborious task, which 'millions' of precious film clips its future survival. was later fully had been stuck, together with a mechanised, with up to sizeable collection of mounted 35mm Historical six different colour tints sl ides, quite a few of which Grant had Background and applied through 'moving ' carefully assembled from two halves to Technology stenci ls . Each of these was provide side by side comparisons. From the birth of motion cut by an electrically pictures, colour films have powered stylus guided by Putting the article together, working existed alongside those in an operator tracing with all this precious material, left me black and white, although Hand coloured 'Butterfly around the chosen area feeling like those who worked on the the earliest would be Dance' (1907) on an enlarged image of 'Dead Sea Scrolls' must have done. better described as each frame. A single set Some of the images are, not 'coloured'. white prints were coloured of stencils could then be surprisingly, less than perfect and by the wife of one of used to colour a large betray traces of their 'cut and paste' Hand Pa inting Edison's associates, who (literally) origins, but I do hope that The established method hand painted all 800 Image Technology has managed to do of hand-painting lantern frames of the 50 foot reasonable justice to Grant's 35mm films . Other films remarkable work. We are expecting from the early l 900s, that some of the material, published in which can still be seen several parts in Image Technology, will today, include coloured also eventually find its way onto a new BKS.TS wallchart. Grant's piece is one of those unique articles that only a An early method o f Society-supported magazine like adding colour is shown in Image Technology could publish - a this tiny clip of a cartoon real benefit of belonging to the · loop for a toy proiector Moving Image Society. Our thanks are that was printed in colour by lithography, a method due to Kodak for funding the From a hand coloured Hand cut stencil used to that wasn't suitable for publication of this booklet. Jim Slater print of 'The Great Train speed up the colouring longer cinema films Robbery' ( J 903) process 2 the film was used as a source to make the matrix. The areas chosen to receive the colour were painted out 1 w ith opaque ink and a duplicate negative printed. This was developed in such a 2 way to produce an image Colour sequence from 'Elstree made up of differentially Calling'. One of the last hardened gelatin. The examples of stencil colouring blocked out unexposed areas by Gaumont ( 1930) were softer than the rest of printed films for sale or loan the emulsion and able to to the home cinema absorb the dye which was showman. Stencil colour then transferred in register survived just into the start of 3 onto the final print. Up to 40 the sound era. prints could be coloured with The British all-star revue, the same set of matrices. Elstree Calling (1930), had some of its musical numbers Pathecolor remained the coloured by Gaumont, in an most successful method and attempt to rival the many many films were stencil Hollywood musicals of the 4 coloured up to the end of the Stencil colour (top) and time which included (above) its modern equivalent, 1920s. A regular user was Technicolor sequences. colorisation Pathe themselves, who added colour to many of their The practice of colouring number of prints, with the dramatic films, together with local areas of black and dyes applied through the cut white films has been revived outs using dye soaked from time to time since then, ribbons. Pathecolor [3] often for its shock effect. Red 5 (known as Pathechrome in has proved to be the most the U.S.A.) was the best popular colour, as in Jack known system of this type, The Ripper (1958 ), used when with Gaumont [4] offering a the villain is crushed under a similar service. lift, complete with a spurt of red blood. The Tingler 6 Mechanical Colouring ( 1959), went one better w ith Mechanical colouring began a whole bath full. around 1907, making the Also memorable, was the process more practical as gun shot flash in Hitchcock's films were becoming longer. Spellbound (1945) and, more A different approach to recently, the little girl's red adding the colour was the coat in Schindler's Li st Handschiegl system, (1993). For most of these 7 introduced in 1915, which Stencil colour fashion item later films, the effect was transferred the dyes via a from a Pathecolor short topical usually created on modern separate 'matrix' film, acting film ( 1920s) colour stock and joined into like a printing plate. For each its Pathe Revue, a the black and white print. In colour, up to four, a print of supplement to its newsreel. the cose of the British 8 Popular subjects included feature, Jack The Ripper, fashion and travel items and some colour short-ends left they are available again in over from a previous colour from the present Pathe t , . I• production were used to give News library. the film its oozing red blood .'·, (~~ : finale. Unfortunately, it was Back in the 1920s, Pathe all too gory for the British 9 I!!'\ • also managed to stencil censor, so only appeared in colour some of their 9.5mm the American prints. When Clip using Handscheil process 3 shown on TV over here, there either wholly or partly supplies used up printing is no sign of the colour coloured in one way or adverts, announcements and ending. If it still exists, tracing another. During the heyday trailers, in usually arbitrary and reinstating it would of tinting, chemical chosen colours. The fact that make an interesting project companies satisfied the high a trailer was tinted didn't for a film restoration student. demand from the film mean that the actual feature industry by supplying special was too. Those that were had Tinting a nd Toning 'cine' dyes w ith exotic names fewer changes of colour, or Hand and mechanically like fireglow, azure, nocturn, were tinted the same colour coloured prints cost between Dye -toning peachglow and inferno. The throughout, which could be two and five times that of the practice rapidly declined done in a continuous equivalent black and white after the introduction of processing machine. Among Dye-toning first bleaches the copies. A simpler and the few examples of its silver image, which will not cheaper alternative to put continued use were the sepia accept a dye, and converts it colour up on the screen was toned or amber tinted B­ to a new form which can tinting and toning, with the westerns from the 1930s and then be coloured using any colours chosen to match the 1940s. MGM's exclusive of a wide range of basic mood of the subject e.g. blue 'Sepia Platinum' process was dyes. Tinting and toning for night scenes and red for used to tone the entire The could be combined, fire. Tinting [5] produces an producing a two tone effect, Sonochrome tinted stock for overall uniform veil of colour, w ith the overall tinted colour sound films being more apparent in the sound, as many of the highlights [7]. A popular methods which were combination was a blue employed interfered with the toned image, together with a optical sound track. Tinting pink tint, ideal for the 'we was still occasionally used for say farewell to .. ' sunsets at sound films, some printed on the end of many travelogues. Interesting method of adding special pre-tinted stock, such Other techniques which colour at the proiector. 'Colour a Ea stman 'Sonochrome', extended the art, included your own' with an in front of which offered a range of 16 dissolving back and forth the lens multi-colour filter tints, chosen not to upset the from one colour to another, attachment.