Right, it might not be aesthetically pleasing to some eyes. Moreover, to the modern eye it might look strange even if you enjoy the look of Two-strip, or "two process," Technicolor. Nonetheless, it was a necessary step to arrive at full color photography, so it's not like J.A. Ball & team were completely satisfied with the results of the two color process, otherwise Ball and Wescott would have never strived for something greater. The same can be said for pretty much any advancement in technology. Just don't think I'm writing this as a lecture. You simply gave me some extra room to think, because I had originally written dates, above, that are broad strokes for each process, but really the two-color process dates back to about 1912, and Two-strip Technicolor was iterative, in that it took three seperate processes (1, 2, and 3) to arrive at what we see in Doctor X and King of Jazz (Process 3). Three-strip Technicolor was "Process 4."
Hi Steve, now you have me wondering - which film did you have in your collection? Glad to see you gave it to the Academy regardless.
This book provides a really good overview of the development of the 2 color process. Lots of pictures and a complete filmography of everything shot in that era. https://www.eastman.org/technicolor/book
Since we've gone down something of a 2-strip Technicolor rabbit hole, here's a video on the restoration effort behind the color version of "Dr. X." Fascinating stuff, and amazing what can be accomplished now. Shame the negatives didn't survive, but this is pretty impressive nonetheless. Wish they showed the actual film elements. dan c
But wasn't TruColor a 2-strip process? At least initially... Maybe by the time of Johnny Guitar, it was 3-strip...
Well, it was a double coated film, a "subtractive" color process, like Magnacolor (or however it's spelled.) Early Cinecolor.. I hear there is a restored Johnny Gee-Tar that is supposed to be damn good.. A camp classic.
I like big buts, and I cannot lie, butt how about The Wizard of Oz? Does it have the "black outline?" How would one identify the presence or absence with the naked eye?
Well, the B&W sharpining image was initially used starting in 1934-5 because the dyes bled a bit and made the picture softer focus than a monochrome film. The black and white "underimage" helped fool the eye by making it seem sharper creating a certain "look". With that being said, its not essential for a digital restoration to work, but if you've seen a lot of old nitrate IB Tech prints, you get used to the look and when you don't see it, it's missed. Even on Oz.. Doesn't mean they aren't doing wonderful restoration work these days, because they really are doing great things..
Barry Salt wrote: "The well-known peculiarities of the Trucolor process, which were poor definition, high contrast, and restriction of the gamut of hues to rather saturated primaries and orangey-brown neutral colours, as in Johnny Guitar (1954), were probably due not so much to the deficiencies of Dupont print stock as the unsatisfactory intermediate positive and negative stages between the initial negative and the final print, a problem that had been solved elsewhere by Eastman Kodak in 1953."
Well, in the spirit of "Everyone Strip," Johnny Guitar, indeed, has a BD release from 2016 (don't buy the one prior to that), where they did a 4K restoration, supposedly correcting most issues with the film. Apparently this is a restoration from Martin Scorsese's collection. The film does fall within that colorful range of Hollywood pictures. I haven't seen it. No need to start a seperate thread for Ansco color, Metrocolor, Trucolor, Magnacolor, Warner Color, etc.
I love watching stuff like this. What's amazing is that there are some films from the '80s that have to go through these restoration rigors. It's a good thing that Jack Warner had this in his personal collection. I'll take any Two-strip Technicolor color film I can get. I'm hoping for a restoration of The Viking (1928), which has already been partially restored and broadcast on TCM. WB holds the rights. It would make a good package to have the silent version and the talkie version in one go.
Funny, I cannot STAND two-strip Technicolor. It always detracts from the actual picture, makes me wince at the "always green" tint and (if truth be told) if Dr X had been filmed in black & white, it would still have a good negative or lavender to make a pretty restoration from. Don't mind me, I'm just grumpy.
No, I get it. It often boils down to what's pleasing to the eye. There's no right nor wrong to it. I guess in my mind I see past the technical limitations, because I taught myself to do it over time, starting in the early '90s when I became aware of Autochrome photography. That lead me down the path to other photography and moving pictures. You know, Doctor X was filmed in B&W, with a different film crew. Rennahan's work was the best with the color photography, but there's a handful of shots in the B&W version that I find more appealing. It's all subjective though.
Not really an important issue here but it's a timely thread to me. I have been following another thread about the current restoration and release of The Little Rascals/Our Gang on BluRay. I was interested in videos that dealt with The Little Rascals and stumbled across this interview with Tom Snyder from 1974. It's with four of the most famous surviving members (at the time) of the Our Gang films. One of the participants was William Thomas who played "Buckwheat" in the Our Gang films. At around 16:30 in the interview, Thomas talks very briefly about his later adult career as a film lab technician for the Technicolor Corporation. It's a cool thing that William Thomas might have been involved in the process of some notable Technicolor films.
This was pretty cool. Not a lot of Technicolor talk, but damn, William Thomas was only 43 then, and boy did he look rough. Some of that talk was a little awkward there.
I had done a bit of googling about some of the Our Gang actors before I saw this. Mr. Thomas was a decorated veteran. In the interview he comes across as a bit of a stealth bad a$z IMO. Kind of quiet and low key but definitely with that "F around and find out" vibe going on. Mr. Thomas was also the only one of the four that wasn't capitalizing on his childhood fame at the time. He probably had some interesting experiences as a film lab technician. I doubt anyone ever asked about those things. He was probably only asked about what he did as a child.
The incomparable Lena Horne singing "Can't Help Lovin' 'Dat Man" from 1946's unreleased 'Till the Clouds Roll By. She's so gorgeous in Technicolor. Fred Sanford's instant heart attack.
Last dye transfer prints made for movies by lab US - The Godfather Part II, Swiss Family Robinson (1975 reissue) UK - Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) Italy - ? (it's not Suspiria; perhaps The Beyond made it in the nick of time since it's Techniscope?)
Oh wow. For some reason I thought Technicolor made their dye transfer prints into the 80s. It’s gorgeous technology but going from camera neg to IP to B&W separations to print is an awful lot of steps and generation loss. Did I mess a step? dan c
