Production Glossary
Technicolor
Technicolor, a color film process, was first seen in silent films starting in 1922. The Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation invented and improved upon the process of adding vibrant, rich color to regular film stock. The founders of the corporation, which was established in 1914, were Daniel Frost Comstock, Herbert Kalmus, and W. Burton Wescott.As the popularity of Technicolor increased in the late 1920s and early 30s, the Great Depression caused a cut-back in the number of films released in Technicolor. The most popular Technicolor films are the musicals of the late 30s and 1940s. The use and popularity of Technicolor began to decline when many film studios chose a rival (Eastman Company) and their color film stock. The Eastman process was fast and cheaper, but the quality still did compare to that of Technicolor. The 1960s saw the end of the dye-transfer technique. The longer running times of films made using the Technicolor process far too expensive. The last film released prior to the Technicolor dye plant being shut down was The Godfather, Part II.
The Process
The process of Technicolor was originally a two-strip format. Later innovations introduced a third strip, but the overall technique of filming in Technicolor was the same. In order to film in Technicolor, film productions had to rent the specialized Technicolor camera. These heavy cameras came with their own technicians and color supervisors to make sure that the film’s production elements were in line with the abilities of the Technicolor system.
In order to film in Technicolor, the inventors created a beam-splitter capable of splitting the original image into two (or three) different images that would then touch two separate strips inside the camera. Two filters, one red and one green, are laid between the individual film strips and the beam-splitter. To the human eye the strip would still be black and white, but actually the stages of gray are paired with colors on the color spectrum containing yellow, red, and blue. Once the film was ready to be processed, a film stock with dye-saturation, created from a type of gelatin, would comprise the negative. Finally, the two strips of color, both green and red, would be glued together and set on top of the blank and white footage. Once the film was passed through a projector, the bright light would shine through all three layers, resulting in the trademark enriched color of Technicolor.
Each version of the Technicolor process contained both differences and disadvantages that motivated continued improvements. In Process 1, the need for a projection specialist to continually tweak the slide alignment proved to be too costly and time consuming. This was a huge motivating factor in moving on into Process 2. Process 2 eliminated the need to a special projector to view Technicolor films. This was accomplished by using subtractive color prints instead of additive ones. However, an expensive result of this process was the ‘cupping’ of the thicker film stock as it passed through the projector. The extremely hot projection lamp would cause the stock to bulge. Multiple copies of the film stock would have to be produced so that the ‘cupped’ versions could be sent off and fixed. Process 3 utilized techniques in the lab to improve Technicolor. A gelatin film was used, on which alternating frames were stamped. Every other frame was a red record, leaving the others as green. As the gelatin was placed under light, it hardened, leaving a ‘relief’ image on the non-gelatin frames.
