{"id":46636,"date":"2021-02-21T22:21:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T04:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/?p=46636"},"modified":"2021-02-24T06:26:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T12:26:46","slug":"historical-film-colors-a-guest-entry-from-barbara-flueckiger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/2021\/02\/21\/historical-film-colors-a-guest-entry-from-barbara-flueckiger\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical film colors: A guest entry from Barbara Flueckiger"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Trois couleurs: Bleu<\/em> (France\/Poland\/Switzerland 1993, Krzysztof Kie\u015blowski). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph of the Agfa Gevaert safety print by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n


\nKristin here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the general film-going public, old films are in black-and-white. They may be vaguely aware that before The Wizard of Oz<\/em> and Gone with the Wind<\/em>, color film was invented.<\/p>\n

The history of film color, however, is vastly more complicated than that. Prof. Barbara Flueckiger, of the University of Zurich, has devoted much of her career to studying that history. With Eva Hielscher and Nadine Wieylisbach, she co-edited the 2020 collection, Color Mania: The Material of Color in Photography and Film\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(Zurich: Eds. Lars M\u00fcller\/ Fotomuseum Winterthur). Barbara has also spent the past decade leading a team who have created a recently inaugurated and invaluable website<\/a> that acts as a boundless resource for information on color processes.<\/p>\n

We are delighted that Barbara has accepted our invitation to write a guest blog entry for us. She describes the website and gives a succinct outline of the history of film color, loaded with beautiful illustrative frames. Most of these were taken from original archival prints that reveal how seldom–especially in this age of digital home video–we see color films as they looked when they were released.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barbara Flueckiger<\/strong><\/p>\n

From their earliest days, films were colored. During the first three decades, most color imagery was obtained by applying dyes to black and white prints, either by hand, through stencils, or as tinting and toning of the filmstrips. From the beginning, however, many ideas emerged to capture colors directly on film as so-called mimetic colors<\/em>. That could be done either by optical and mechanical means, such as colored rotary filters, or by chemical interventions, often in combination with optical configurations of cameras. Several hundred analog color processes and film stocks were invented in the first 100 years of film history. Many of them were never successful commercially.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs<\/em> (France 1902, Ferdinand Zecca). Credit: BFI National Archive. Photograph of the stencil-colored nitrate print by Olivia Kristina Stutz.<\/p><\/div>\n

This history is largely unknown to the general audience as well as to many film scholars and historians.<\/p>\n

To close this gap in our knowledge, in 2011 I started to develop the Timeline of Historical Film Colors<\/em><\/a>, a comprehensive web resource. I wanted to document the development of film colors from their prehistory in still photography in the 19th<\/sup> century to the latest developments in the analog domain. As of 2021, the platform contains hundreds of primary and secondary sources, patents, links, selected analyses, physical measurements and downloads, as well as more than 23,000 photographs of historical film prints and negatives. These items provide film historians, researchers, archivists, curators, film restorers and students easy access to a vast array of information. A tagging system<\/a> connects the entries, galleries, photos and quotes to an underlying thesaurus containing certain topics, persons, aesthetic concepts, technologies, archives, genres, persons or companies. A comparison function<\/a> allows side-by-side inspection of different prints of the same film.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why film color?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The comparison function allows the side-by-side inspection of different prints of the same film.<\/p><\/div>\n

High-resolution photographs displayed in galleries<\/a> are a central part of the Timeline of Historical Film Colors<\/em>. Early on I developed a method to photographically capture and document historical film materials in a standardized way. It uses a modular and calibrated camera set-up based on a DSLR camera with a macro lens and remote control from the computer to adjust all the parameters. It is crucial to show the full range of color processes in an aesthetically pleasing way, one that aims at recreating the visual impression on the bench, including the edge information and color distribution in the perforation area. These elements are vital for the identification of film stocks<\/a> and the genealogy of prints.<\/p>\n

These photos allow researchers and students to examine individual historical prints, since they often have to work with less-than-ideal digitizations on DVDs and Blu-rays that are just a faint echo of the historical source material. In recent years this photographic method has been adopted by my teams in the current research projects. Some archives, such as the Academy Film Archive, have started to use the method, and the BFI National Archive and the George Eastman Museum plan to do so soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Our modular camera set-up in use at the bench.<\/p><\/div>\n

During the last years my teams and I visited many archives in Europe, the US and Japan to take these photographs, such as the Harvard Film Archive<\/a>, EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam<\/a>, National Film Archive Prague<\/a>, Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin<\/a>, the Academy Film Archive<\/a>, the Library of Congress<\/a>, George Eastman Museum<\/a>, the BFI National Archive<\/a>, Cin\u00e9math\u00e8que fran\u00e7aise Paris<\/a>, the UCLA Film & Television Archive<\/a>, Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv Berlin<\/a>, Museum of Modern Art<\/a>, DFF Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum Frankfurt<\/a>, the National Film Archive of Japan<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

On the Timeline of Historical Film Colors<\/em> each contributing archive is represented with a header slide that gives access to the film elements from their collection.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lost colors of film history<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most films produced before the mid-1930s have been passed on in black-and-white prints. It was not until the famous FIAF conference in Brighton 1978 that the colors of the first decades of film history began to attract some attention from insider circles focusing on silent film.<\/p>\n

To this day, the lack of awareness of film\u2019s colorful past has persisted. Early applied colors such as tinting, toning, hand-coloring, and stencil-coloring are ephemeral by nature, since each exhibition print was dyed separately, in a variety of shades and hues. Moreover, these prints were produced with highly flammable nitrate cellulose as a base. Many deadly cinema fires in the early decades of the 20th<\/sup> century demonstrated the dangers of nitrate stock. Therefore, many original colored film prints have been hidden in cans sitting on the shelves in archives\u2019 nitrate vaults. These facilities are fitted with special safety measures<\/a> such as break-off walls and earth dams.<\/p>\n

Eventually in the 1950s safety celluloid film stocks replaced nitrate. From that point on, new prints of colored early films were made on safety stock from the black-and-white camera negatives, intermediate negatives, or positive distribution prints. When colored distribution prints were used, the new copies were usually made only in black-and-white.<\/p>\n

In the early 1980s a second threat to the history of colors in film became apparent. Martin Scorsese was among the prominent filmmakers and scholars who rang the alarm bell over the fading <\/a>of so-called chromogenic stocks produced from the late 1930s to the 1980s. Due to the physical decay of mainly the cyan dye in these film stocks, original prints become nearly monochromatic, retaining mainly colors in the magenta to red spectrum. To this day, dye fading has remained one of the most pervasive problems for the search of authentic film colors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Color fading. Blade Runner<\/em> (USA 1982, Ridley Scott). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph of the Eastman Color Print Film by Jo\u00eblle Kost.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Applied colors<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the first three decades, so-called applied colors dominated. Historians estimate that about 80% of film prints were colored by tinting, toning, or hand- and stencil-coloring.<\/p>\n

Tinting<\/a> means submerging black-and-white film positives into dye baths, so that the prints\u2019 gelatin emulsion acquired a more or less uniform, mostly monochrome color. Tinting can be identified by the inspection of the perforation area that is also uniformly colored. Toning<\/a>, on the other hand, is a complementary process whereby the silver image is replaced by colored metallic pigments (metallic toning<\/em>) or dyes (mordant <\/em>or dye toning<\/em>). In contrast to tinting, toning leaves the perforation area mostly colorless.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tinting. Malombra<\/em> (ITA 1917, Carmine Gallone). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna. Photograph of the tinted and toned nitrate print by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Toning. Voyage autour d’une \u00e9toile<\/em> (France 1906, Gaston Velle). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna. Photograph of the toned nitrate print by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

For these coloring processes the individual prints had to be cut into segments that were then dyed in batches and reassembled into the final distribution print. As a result, individual prints can vary considerably in their color schemes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Comparison of four differently tinted and toned distribution prints of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari<\/em> (Germany 1919, Robert Wiene). Copyright: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation. Photographs by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

Whether tinting and toning schemes vary due to cultural norms and tastes has remained a topic of debate. To a high degree it is also uncertain who made the decisions about the coloring, except for cases where scripts, production notes, or film negatives indicate the attribution of colors. In addition to colored prints there were so-called copyright books<\/a> that show the color scheme by single frames attached to the pages of the booklets, deposited at the Library of Congress by distributor George Kleine. Subtle shades emerged that often make it difficult to distinguish between the two, because the black silver image gives way to nuanced interactions with the tinting dyes in middle tones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Copyright book from George Kleine: Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei<\/em> (Italy 1913, Eleuterio Rodolfi). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

In some cases, combining tinting and toning allowed for two colors to appear within a single image.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tinting and toning combined. Sumurun<\/em> (Germany 1920, Ernst Lubitsch). Credit: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv. Photograph of the tinted and toned nitrate print by Olivia Kristina Stutz.<\/p><\/div>\n

The range and variety are even greater in the case of hand<\/a> and stencil coloring<\/a>. These techniques generally required the application of\u00a0 up to six dyes on each individual frame, either by hand through tiny brushes or by cut-out stencils. These laborious processes were demanding, given the small image area and the huge number of frames, generally 16 to 18 per second of running time. Hand-colored films show an uneven application of dyes with soft transitions between individual colors. For stencil coloring, each dye necessitated a separate, colorless print from which the stencils were cut out by needles or metallic styluses<\/a>. As a result, shapes appear more or less sharp-edged. It was a mechanized version of hand coloring that allowed the coloring of feature-length films and higher numbers of distribution prints. Over the years, improved techniques were introduced to transfer the shapes from projected magnifications onto the film prints with the help of pantographs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hand coloring: M\u00e9tamorphoses du papillon<\/em> (France 1904, Gaston Velle). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph of the hand-colored nitrate print by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stencil coloring. Cyrano de Bergerac<\/em> (Italy\/France 1923, Augusto Genina). Credit: EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam. Photograph of the tinted, toned and stencil colored nitrate film by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

Needless to say, stencil and hand coloring were reserved for more ambitious or luxurious films. However, they also allowed for the creation of a higher reality effect in documentaries, travelogues, or fashion films by anticipating the development of mimetic colors. Exotic places, ethnicities, or historical settings were among the prevailing topics of stencil-colored films.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Documentary. La mangouste ou rat des pharaons<\/em> (France 1914). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna. Photograph of the stencil-colored nitrate print by Noemi Daugaard.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fashion film. Modeflitsen<\/em> (France 1918). Credit: EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam. Photograph of the stencil-colored nitrate print by Bregt Lameris.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Travelogue. Coiffures et types de Hollande<\/em> (France 1910, Alfred Machin). Credit: Cineteca di Bologna. Photograph of the stencil-colored nitrate film by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, the richness and scope of stencil-colored films can be fascinating to the modern viewer. That holds true for both the bolder color in the first decade of the 20th<\/sup> century or the more nuanced pastel shades that became increasingly prevalent in the 1920s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bold colors in early film. L’Amour d’esclave<\/em> (France 1907, Albert Capellani). Credit: Library of Congress. Photograph of the stencil colored nitrate film by Barbara Flueckiger.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Subtle pastel shades in the 1930s. Elstree Calling<\/em> (Great Britain 1930, Andr\u00e9 Charlot; Jack Hubert; Paul Murray; Alfred Hitchcock ). Credit: BFI National Archive. Photograph of the stencil colored nitrate print by Olivia Kristina Stutz.<\/p><\/div>\n

A special case of applied colors is the Handschiegl <\/a>process, a printing process developed by Max Handschiegl and Alvin Wyckoff, often used in Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s films, especially for title cards. It produces highly detailed and precise colors with stunning effects.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Handschiegl. Joan the Woman<\/em> (USA 1916, Cecil B. DeMille). Credit: George Eastman Museum. Photograph of the tinted, toned and Handschiegl nitrate print by Olivia Kristina Stutz.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mimetic colors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Already in France in the 1860s, Charles Cros and Louis Ducos du Hauron separately wrote descriptions of many of the principles for achieving mimetic colors in still photography. As it turned out, however, it was a much more demanding task to develop solutions for moving pictures. Some of the problems related to the high throughput during projection of 16 or more single frames per second. Other problems resulted from much higher requirements for image size on the big cinema screen, where resolution and registration were paramount. Due to the rapid succession of frames necessary for the illusion of movement, minute deviations occurring between frames created disturbing amounts of flicker or color fringing. Contemporary commentators often labeled the result as \u201ccolor bombardment\u201d that caused \u201ceye strain\u201d.<\/p>\n

To this day, mimetic colors combine two to four color components either in additive or subtractive admixtures. In the 19th<\/sup> century their development followed psychophysical insights into the human visual system by Thomas Young and Hermann von Helmholtz. They showed that color impressions are the result of physiological sensors in the human retina sensitive to three different spectral ranges of the visible light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additive colors<\/em><\/p>\n

Additive admixtures operate with colored light where the sum of the three additive primaries red, green and blue results in white light. The earliest attempts to create colors on the screen by optical means employed additive principles by rotary filters<\/a> in front of the camera and projector respectively. These included the three-color Turner Lee and the most successful additive two-color process Kinemacolor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rotary filter in front of the Kinemacolor projector used for David Cleveland’s and Brian Pritchard’s reconstruction. Credit: Brian Pritchard.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kinemacolor positive from the Kodak Film Samples Collection. Credit: National Science and Media Museum Bradford. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger in collaboration with Noemi Daugaard.<\/p><\/div>\n

In Kinemacolor,\u00a0<\/a>rotary filters in red and green spinning in front of camera and projector recorded and transmitted the color information by temporal synthesis. The impression of color was created in the eyes of the spectators. Based on contemporary reports and digital reconstructions, the poor quality and limited color spectrum were readily apparent. Due to the temporal shift between the two successive frames with the red and green color separations, Kinemacolor and all processes operating by the same principle created color fringes and a headache-inducing amount of flicker.<\/p>\n