History of Hollywood glamor project

Looking for some help here. I am doing a portfolio/publicity project along with my dept head at MAD TV, We are doing a series of photos covering the history of Hollywood glamor throughout the ages. We are using actresses (not models!) and creating the looks of the silent era, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s as the stars looked in those eras. I think I am well on my way to figuring out how the look of the classic glamor b&w stills of the 20s' 30s and 40s were achieved. I even bought an old screw mount 50mm Elmar lens uncoated from 1931 for the M6 to recreate that look (still waiting for the adaptor to arrive). I am not having any luck so far in finding out how to recreate the unique look of color stills from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Each era had a very distinct look that I don't think can easily be recreated with modern color film. The 70s and 80s pretty much look like modern Ektachrome film was used and modern studio strobes were used in pretty conventional setups. If anybody has any ideas on recreating those distinctive looks of color stills from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s or any idea where I can get useful info I'd really appreciate it.

 

I am trying to avoid going to 8X10 plates. That would really change the practicality of this project in a big way. But if I can't get the results I want with the Leica/uncoated 50mm Elmar lens then we do plan to use an 8X10 with the old uncoated lenses. That will be quite a pain in the old rear end though. Back in the day 8X10 was used because anything smaller would noticeably degrade the image due to film stock grain and primitive enlargement equipment and techniques. But with modern film stocks and digital scanning I *think* I can recreate that look with 35mm film. The thing that distinguishes the classic b&w portraits of the 20s, 30s and 40s is that magic euphoric beauty. Diffusion filters don't do the same thing. The old portraits had a glow around the highlights and a loss of detail in the shadows (a technical flaw by modern standards) but an extraordinary wealth of detail in the midrange. My research suggests that this was due to the use of uncoated lenses and long exposures. The films were also under exposed and over developed. So, hopefully that will work with modern fine grain b&w film stock, long exposures, under exposer and over development. I will be doing some preliminary tests before we dive in with the actual photo shoots. The color stills are still the big unknown though. Even if we used the 8X10 equipment we will never get matching film stock or processing from those eras. At least with b&w the variables are pretty basic, film grain and dynamic range. Distinctive color characteristics are a whole different ball game.


This is shaping up to be a very exciting project. So far, the research alone has been a blast. The editor of Makekup Artist magazine has expressed an interest in publishing the work depending on the results of course. And if our schedules work out, it will likely mean an opportunity to establish a working relationship with one of the most talented up and coming actresses in the world. Sorry no names until it happens for sure. Yeah I know, that is a nasty tease. It will also bring better balance to my portfolio which is dominated with prosthetic makeups of various genres.