The Two Color Process - Technicolor 100

Technicolor’s two-color subtractive camera was designed by 27-year-old Joseph Arthur Ball in 1921. It used a beam-splitting prism behind the lens to divide light into two paths; half was filtered red and the other half green. These two color records were then captured onto black-and-white film one above the other, vertically flipped. Because this technique used only two color separations, the process was incapable of replicating accurate blues, purples, and yellows, although pleasing results could be obtained with careful color coordination.
In making the film prints, the two color records captured by the camera were printed onto separate rolls of film, which were then treated to remove the silver image. These film strips were glued together, back-to-back, by a special cementing machine, creating a film stock with emulsions on both sides. Either side of this new thicker film was dyed the corresponding color: the red record was dyed green and the green record dyed red. This created a subtractive color print because the dyes removed certain colors from the projector’s beam of white light. These new cemented prints could be run on any standard projector around the world.
This video was produced by George Eastman House as part of the eastmanhouse.org/technicolor100 website that celebrates 100 years of Technicolor through highlights from related collections at the museum.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant number MA-10-14-0234-14. www.imls.gov/

[@hebneh]

Technicolor also required much more light when it was being shot, because the light coming into the camera was going through colored filters. This extreme light caused Jean Harlow to suffer burns to the surface of her eyes when she was starring in "Hell's Angels" in 1930.

[@user-uy2pq2je5g]

I’m flying out to Rochester tomorrow to visit the George Eastman house. So excited 🙂🙂🙂

[@rhodrimayer3127]

I wasn't even intending to come here, but I'm glad I did. This is so interesting.

[@ddkoda]

Excellent explanation of the Technicolor Two Color Process. The choice of red and green as color records was good because of the realistic flesh tones it produced. I've heard that the developers at Technicolor knew to reproduce accurate, natural color a three strip process would have to be their eventual goal and that the Two Color Process was a required step toward that end. I also thought that at that point in time blue dyes were not very stable and that this was also a factor in deciding not to include blue as one of the color records. Although there are probably very few of them in existence the more I see of these Technicolor Two Color Process films the more enamored I become of them.

[@hebneh]

Two-color films were made even into the 1940s, although not by Technicolor. Outdoor shots of real landscapes, which appeared in travelogues, never looked as good as the controlled costuming and lighting of indoor shots on sets.

[@sarpsarp8987]

You mean Cinecolor?

[@hebneh]

@@sarpsarp8987 Among others, yes. There were multiple two-color processes.

[@rosco9660]

Thank you so much for this video and especially for the subtitles!

[@uslines]

The George Eastman museum is fantastic ! Best thing going in Rochester. Wish I could get back but is a long way from France. Keep up the good work.

[@zybch]

Really enjoying these videos. Things I knew a tiny bit about are far more understandable now.

[@TashasTattoos]

I used to imagine the film itself was hand painted. Thanks for the knowledge!

[@suzannederringer1607]

No - but from early Silent Film days, there were hand-tinted Films. Frame by frame! They can be very lovely.

[@damiendarkstar7278]

I just luv technicolor!

[@michaelbauers8800]

wow, great explanation

[@donnal.carlkuchinski1394]

so interesting!

[@cesardominguez]

Magic!!

[@gunier.j.kintgenanimations]

I have an idea: The cemented prints lose their green dye over time, leaving just a orange-ish red image, right? Why not just re-dye the green side?

[@flaggerify]

Cool. Just watched Mystery of the Wax Museum.

[@SalZam150]

Why not show a video of the film? Why did you just show pictures..

[@michaelmcgee8543]

That surviving print of the black pirate look like it just made it.Douglas Fairbanks j.r. took his father print and had it restored in 1969,but , the colors were not accurate to the original red and green ,due to the way it the Restoration process went,but,it was better than nothing

[@jknuttel]

I believe a major restoration of _The Black Pirate_ is underway under the supervision of French film historian Serge Bromberg.

[@michaelmcgee8543]

@@jknuttel a second time? Musta digital restoration. The Chemical version was done excellent ,just look at the kino lorber print.The out takes had faded to orange and kino printed them in b and w

[@TheGuardy]

That orange, faded film strip with the short-ish dude and the lady is from Buster Keaton's "Seven Chances" (1925). Really fun movie. There's a restored version up on youtube, if anyone wants to see some early technicolor in action: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpi3maNmprBkp80

[@buddyclem7328]

"Blocked on copyright grounds." So much for preserving history.

[@uslines]

Keaton's best ...IMO

[@RaymondHng]

@@buddyclem7328 It's available at kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZ_JnYeEip2WmKM

[@SnowmansApartment]

where could one obtain a prism similar to whats describes in 2:11?

[@shelltheobjectthingy2ndcha916]

Tell Me The Instructions to Convert B&W Videos to Technicolor and Photos Too! Because I Need This Tutorial Video

[@ron101346]

How were the final 2-strip process Technicolor movies made in the period 1929 to 1933? Some of these movies were fully restored unlike the earlier processes.

[@TheMastermind729]

Got this mode in Cuphead and wanted to know more about it.

[@Deathtank75]

I knew about it in cuphead too but I haven't get it yet.

[@patrickjdoody]

​@UCzBTnZHrDrDM74yeHx0vqeA Wow, that's exactly why I came here too! I knew the basics, but I wanted a better explanation to my son who kept asking me about it since he plays the game.

[@josephwolfe7586]

According to my research, sound wasn't recorded for these films. Instead a musician, or even sometimes in the larger theaters an orchestra, played compositions alongside the showing of the film. A decade later sound was recorded on a reel of film separate of the camera, thus the need for clapper boards still used today.

[@warsboerse5866]

That hasn't really got anything to do with whether the film is in colour or not though.

[@vikingsong2068]

It's still interesting though

[@gloriahanes6490]

0:16 ....The first screen the Great Late Clara Bow - America's "It" girl popular and a hot commodity on the silent screen as a well known flapper girl. Her fans adored her and sent fan mail on a regular basis even after she retired from Hollywood due to bad press. She is now being rediscovered thanks to KZbin and a whole new generation of followers.

[@WitchKing-Of-Angmar]

That's not exactly how this works. What determines how one string of pearls appears red, and the other a goldish like green. Shoving a red and green dyed film clip together doesn't just make the final result. The camera has to be taken over light were it is shown through and takes a copy of exactly what is in front of it (the green and red dye just accentuated this filter of color) However Autochrome did not, it crushed down potato starch that was dyed and each of those dyes caught the figure of light in the spectrum to match up with the scene in front of it. They were identical to the original as proven by the color charts next to it that were barely off at all, red was perhaps slightly pinked but only by like a shade and purple was a bit warmer.

[@robfriedrich2822]

Two bad examples for 2 color process: The Cinderella cartoon with Betty Boop ignored the limitations, had an wonderful incomplete rainbow and angry faces turning gray. The Rhapsody In Blue segment was mend to show the blue color, but they deceloped and duplicated the film so, that it was the Irish Rhapsody and the faces looked red.

[@shelltheobjectthingy2ndcha916]

George Eastman Museum, I'm going to Tell you What software we are using to convert B&W Images and Videos with Technicolor, So Here's a Request: How to Convert B&W Videos & Images & GIFS to Technicolor. Upolad this video for the next week. Got It?

[@AlfonsoGeneroso]

Really nice, quite interesting how those companies achieved that beautiful ilusion whit chemicals, optics and light. How was the audio records back then? Once again thanks and keep bringin us these masterpieces.

[@GreebleClown]

There was an orchestra and sound effects player in the theater playing as the movie went on. There were even special theater organs designed specifically to play that could reproduce an entire orcestra and the sound effects. The clack of hooves, the buzzing of a telephone, the ring of a bell, the impact of a fist, the crash of lightning, etc... and then the background music bringing the emotion to a scene! I'm training to be a tour guide at the Tampa Theater and we have one of the last working/existing Wurlitzer organs we use for showing silent films. Its amazing to hear! None of the sounds are recorded, they are all produced by actual instruments and tools powered/triggered by air valves controlled by the organist. Its an experience I highly reccomend!

[@Tmanaz480]

Sound came a little bit later, and has it's own interesting history. You can start here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKPIhqKwid6Wd68

[@creepyloner1979]

cyan (green and blue), not just green

[@rositaclaro5773]

I just watched the Ch256 Ted Turner Old Movies (King Of Jazz) 1930 movie (abt 2 hrs) & think the color related to scenes was very good (Two Color).

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

I don’t get it. So if you pass a black and white film in a projector through filters, you’ll get a proper coloring film? Could I do this with Kodachrome or tri-x.

[@GeorgeEastmanMuseum]

No, what the video doesn't show is that the film used in Process #1 was recorded through red and green filters, capturing that particular information of the pan-chromatic stock. Upon projection, these filters were swapped, as in Process #2, so that the color information would be re-introduced to the projected image. Simply putting filters in front of black-and-white film shot in the standard way will produce an overall effect closer to the tinting of the 1910s and 1920s, not reproduce what Technicolor was trying to do with full-color images.

[@buddyclem7328]

Only if the original film used a color process, using 2 or 3 frames of film, or 2 or 3 strips of film, using colored filters recorded simultaneously. You can't recover information that was never recorded in a B&W film.

[@suzannederringer1607]

Kodachrome IS a color film. Does anyone still use Tri-X?

[@joseseminarista]

Legal.

[@theproanimator8447]

Hand painted film > 2 color technicolor

[@arfansthename]

But yellow is reproducable, since red and green make yellow.

[@buddyclem7328]

Maybe the colors were really red and cyan, since I see white tones, or red-orange and cyan-blue.

[@artistmac]

They managed to put yellow into the two-strip 1934 British musical number, "There's no excusing Susan." But just one segment for about 15 seconds. Everything else: shades of red and blue-green.

[@sarpsarp8987]

I prefer 3 strip tecnicolor. It is better.

[@SMGJohn]

Oh my God you fucking moron!

[@BestPlayedLoudLtd]

thats like saying you prefer an iPhone to 2 pieces of string with a can at each end cos its better..

[@BestPlayedLoudLtd]

of course its better, it was an upgrade

[@michaelmcgee8543]

Sure it was not full color, but if your open to history you will accept the limitations of the past.You're obviously not much into film history.

[@sarpsarp8987]

I watched too many movies shot in 3 strip Technicolor.

[@selenajarv8763]

Color blind movies

[@moeinkasraei2114]

اساسا لزومی نمی بینم سر به سر کسی که از محض اندیشی دور است ،بگذارم مگر اینکه فرق بین درو پنجره را نداند و خود را مثل ملا مرکز عالم بداند البته ملا شرط دوم است ساده اندیش داریم تا ساده اندیش اهل مدرسه منطق مصادره به نفس را خوب اموخته اند

[@CgPiDaTa]

All you gotta do is get 17 A's or higher on each boss. Then talk to the fork and he'll hook you up.