Multicolor - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about the use of multiple colors in cinema. For multicolor in textiles, see Pied (multicolor).

Multicolor is a subtractive

Subtractive color

A subtractive color model explains the mixing of paints, dyes, inks, and natural colorants to create a full range of colors, each caused by subtracting some wavelengths of light and reflecting the others...

natural color process for motion pictures

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color

Prizma

The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color system, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor...

process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor

Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...

.

For a Multicolor film, a scene is shot with a normal camera capable of bipacking film. Two black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

35 mm film

35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...

negatives are threaded bipack

Bipack

In cinematography, bipacking, or a bipack, is the process of loading two reels of film into a camera, so that they both pass through the camera gate together...

in the camera. One records the color red (via a dyed panchromatic

Panchromatic

Panchromatic film is a type of black-and-white photographic film that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. A panchromatic film therefore produces a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye. Almost all modern photographic film is panchromatic, but some types are...

film), and the other, blue (orthochromatic

Orthochromatic

- Orthochromatic photography :Orthochromatic photography refers to a photographic emulsion that is sensitive to only blue and green light, and thus can be processed with a red safelight. The increased blue sensitivity causes blue objects to appear lighter and red ones darker...

). In printing, duplitized stock

Duplitized film

Duplitized film stock was a type of film available through various companies used in color photography and special effects. It was introduced in the early 1910s...

is exposed and processed with one record on each side. In a tank of toning solution

Film tinting

Film tinting is the process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion...

, the film is floated upon the top of the solution with the appropriate chemical. The cyan record is toned a complementary red with a copper ferrocyanide solution, and the red being toned blue/cyan with ferric ferrocyanide solution. The effect is a duotone color system, lacking the primary color of green. However, to most, the lacking colors do not seem to leave unnatural color, largely due to optical illusion.

Multicolor enjoyed brief success in early sound pictures. The following features included sequences in Multicolor: This Thing Called Love
This Thing Called Love
This Thing Called Love is a US romantic comedy film starring Edmund Lowe, Constance Bennett, Ruth Taylor, Roscoe Karns, Zazu Pitts, and Jean Harlow. Harlow appears in a cameo role, as she was not yet famous....

(1929), His First Command (1929), Red Hot Rhythm (1929), Sunny Side Up (1929), Married In Hollywood
Married in Hollywood
Married in Hollywood is an American musical film. The only known footage to survive is a 12-minute fragment from the final reel in Multicolor at UCLA Film and Television Archive. The film is also known as Maritati ad Hollywood in Italy and Pantremmenoi sto Hollywood in Greece...

(1929), Fox Movietone Follies of 1929
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 was a black-and-white and color American musical film released by Fox Film Corporation.-Preservation status:...

(1929), The Great Gabbo
The Great Gabbo
The Great Gabbo is an American early sound film musical drama film directed by James Cruze, based on a story by Ben Hecht and starring Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson....

(1929), New Movietone Follies of 1930
New Movietone Follies of 1930
New Movietone Follies of 1930 is a 1930 American musical film released by Fox Film Corporation, directed by Benjamin Stoloff. The film stars El Brendel and Marjorie White who also costarred in Fox's Just Imagine in 1930....

(1930) and Delicious
Delicious (1931 film)
Delicious is a Gershwin musical romantic comedy film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, directed by David Butler, with color sequences in Multicolor . The film featured music by George and Ira Gershwin, including the introduction of "New York Rhapsody" ; an imaginative and elaborate set...

(1931). All of these features were produced by Fox Film Corporation except for The Great Gabbo.

A sequence in Hell's Angels
Hell's Angels (film)
Hell's Angels is a 1930 American war film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Harlow, Ben Lyon, and James Hall. The film, which was produced by Hughes and written by Harry Behn and Howard Estabrook, centers on the combat pilots of World War I...

(1930) was filmed in Multicolor, but printed by Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

, as Multicolor could not yet supply as large a demand of printings in such a short amount of time. Multicolor was also utilized in several cartoons of the era.

A 15-second, behind-the-scenes clip in Multicolor of the Marx Brothers

Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...

filmed on the set of Animal Crackers
Animal Crackers (film)
Animal Crackers is a 1930 American comedy film, in which mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding. The film was both a critical and commercial success upon initial release, and remains one of the Marx...

(1930) exists as part of a Cinecolor short subject entitled Wonderland of California. The first feature filmed entirely in Multicolor was The Hawk (1931), which was re-released five years later in Cinecolor as Phantom of Santa Fe. In 1932, the next (and final) all Multicolor feature, Tex Takes A Holiday (1932), was released.

The Multicolor plant closed in 1932 and their equipment was bought by Cinecolor in 1933.

See also