Prizma
Encyclopedia
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
. However, Kelley eventually transformed Prizma into a Bi-pack color system that itself became the predecessor for future color processes such as Multicolor
and Cinecolor
.
film in the camera. The colors were red, yellow, green, and blue, with overlapping wavelengths to prevent pulsating effects on the screen with vivid colors. The film was photographed at 26 to 32 frames per second, and projected at 32 frame/s. The disk used in projection consisted mainly of two colors, red-orange and blue-green, adapted to the four-color process by the superimposition of two small magenta
filters over one of the red sectors and two similar blue filters over one of the blue-green sectors. Motion Picture News reported,
, the two frames combined on the screen to form a color image.
The first film shown in Prizma color on 23 December 1917 was the feature Our Navy at the 44th Street Theatre in New York City
. General reception to the system was positive, but the rotating filter wheel technique proved impractical. To counteract the issue of having a special projector with a filter wheel, Kelley began tinting
alternate frames of his film red and green. However, fringing, flicker, and light loss were major issues which plagued not only Prizma, but also all of the other additive systems of the Kinemacolor nature.
In counteracting this, Kelley had filed a patent in February 1917 which proved to be the beginnings of Prizma's second color system.
). Both negatives were processed and printed on duplitized film
, and then each emulsion was toned
its complementary color
, red or blue. The final result was a color image that was subtractive
in nature — no flicker and a bright projection. But as a result of the way the camera was designed, a constant fringe was apparent, as the strips were being recorded side-by-side.
In January 1919, this new process was premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City with the short Everywhere With Prizma. Kelley, based in Jersey City, New Jersey
, was a friend of the Rivoli's manager and music director Hugo Riesenfeld
and so did business with Samuel Roxy Rothafel
's Roxy Theaters chain, which the Rivoli was part of.
In February 1921, another Prizma film, Bali the Unknown was premiered at Roxy's Capitol Theatre in New York. The four-reel feature garnered lukewarm reviews, but enough positive audience response that more films were produced in the system.
The Prizma process only took off in 1922, when J. Stuart Blackton
of Vitagraph Studios
shot his feature film The Glorious Adventure
in Prizma. The film, starring Diana Manners and Victor McLaglen
, premiered in April 1922 to lukewarm success in the US, but much appeal in the UK. With the prestige of a Vitagraph production, Prizma was considered the apex of color photography at that point in motion picture producers' minds.
Prizma sued the Technicolor Corporation
in September 1922 on the grounds that Technicolor was infringing upon Prizma's patents. However, Prizma eventually lost the case.
In April 1923, Robert Flaherty took a both a black-and-white camera and a Prizma color camera to Samoa
, hoping to film part of his documentary film
Moana
(1925) in that process, but the Prizma camera malfunctioned and no color footage was shot. (Moana became famous as the second feature film shot using panchromatic
black-and-white film rather than orthochromatic
.)
feature, The Power of Love, opening 27 September 1922 in Los Angeles
and the December 1922 unveiling of Laurens Hammond
's Teleview
system in New York City
, Kelley used his Prizma camera for stereoscopic
purposes. As his camera took side-by-side pictures, Kelley mounted a set of prisms on his rig, thus expanding his point of convergence, and utilized his red/blue color system to make an anaglyph
ic print of his product. His final product was the first of Kelley's Plasticon Pictures entitled Movies of the Future, which was premiered at the Rivoli on 24 December 1922. The film consisted largely of shots of New York City
, including Times Square
, the New York Public Library
, and Luna Park
.
Based on the success of Movies of the Future, Kelley had his chief photographer, William T. Crispinel, shoot another short film entitled Through the Trees — Washington D.C. in the spring of 1923. The film was not shot with the Prizma rig — which was being used by Flaherty in Samoa — but with one designed by Frederic E. Ives
, a technician specializing in 3-D
photography. Although the short was technically shot better, Riesenfeld rejected it because it did not have the 3-D gimmicks that the recent films of that nature included.
produced Vanity Fair
(1923) in Prizma, and D.W. Griffith utilized the process in a couple of his films, including a scene in Way Down East
(1920). Flames of Passion
(1922), directed by Graham Cutts
and starring Mae Marsh
and C. Aubrey Smith; The Virgin Queen (1923), directed by J. Stuart Blackton
; and I Pagliacci (1923), co-starring Lillian Hall-Davis
, were all UK productions with one reel filmed in Prizma.
One of the last films using Prizma was Venus of the South Seas
(1924), starring Annette Kellerman
, where Prizma was used for one reel of a 55-minute film. Venus was restored by the Library of Congress
in 2004.
In 1928, Prizma was bought by Consolidated Film Industries
and was reintroduced as Magnacolor (and later Trucolor
). Kelley, who held many patents in color photography, sold his patents and equipment to Cinecolor
, which benefited from Kelley's advanced printing techniques. Ironically, Cinecolor was co-founded by Kelley's former photographer, William T. Crispinel.
Additive color
An additive color model involves light emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red, green and blue light to produce the other colors. Combining one of these additive primary colors with another in equal amounts produces the...
, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...
. However, Kelley eventually transformed Prizma into a Bi-pack color system that itself became the predecessor for future color processes such as Multicolor
Multicolor
Multicolor is a subtractive natural color process for motion pictures. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
and 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...
.
Experimental
Prizma gave a demonstration of color motion pictures in 1917 that used an additive four-color process, using a disk of four filters acting on a single strip of panchromaticPanchromatic
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 in the camera. The colors were red, yellow, green, and blue, with overlapping wavelengths to prevent pulsating effects on the screen with vivid colors. The film was photographed at 26 to 32 frames per second, and projected at 32 frame/s. The disk used in projection consisted mainly of two colors, red-orange and blue-green, adapted to the four-color process by the superimposition of two small magenta
Magenta
Magenta is a color evoked by light stronger in blue and red wavelengths than in yellowish-green wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light...
filters over one of the red sectors and two similar blue filters over one of the blue-green sectors. Motion Picture News reported,
- The results by this process are characterized by extreme delicacy of color, and subdued shades are most admirably rendered.… The blue-green element of the projecting filter appears to favor the blue rather than the green, and as a result, skies and water are well reproduced. We have not noticed anything approaching a true green in any of the subjects so far exhibited, although this is probably by reason of the fact that no prominent greens existed in the subjects photographed. Yellow is not in evidence in the current Prizma films, although a wide variety of warm tones are apparent, ranging from chestnut-brown to a deep red-orange. Colors in full saturation are hardly within the scope of this process.
Prizma I (additive)
The first commercial system of Prizma was similar to Kinemacolor in that the camera took alternating frames of red-orange and blue-green colors through color filters placed within the camera's shutter. Projection involved running a colored disc again in synchronization with the black and white color record film, and through persistence of visionPersistence of vision
Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina....
, the two frames combined on the screen to form a color image.
The first film shown in Prizma color on 23 December 1917 was the feature Our Navy at the 44th Street Theatre in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. General reception to the system was positive, but the rotating filter wheel technique proved impractical. To counteract the issue of having a special projector with a filter wheel, Kelley began tinting
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...
alternate frames of his film red and green. However, fringing, flicker, and light loss were major issues which plagued not only Prizma, but also all of the other additive systems of the Kinemacolor nature.
In counteracting this, Kelley had filed a patent in February 1917 which proved to be the beginnings of Prizma's second color system.
Prizma II (subtractive)
On 28 December 1918, Kelley announced that Prizma would release a color film (usually a short) every week, a film which would be projectable on any standard projector. Kelley's idea was two years in the making, but was a valid one which became the springboard for all future color systems to follow — two films were filmed simultaneously with a camera of his own design. One strip was sensitive to red-orange, the other to blue-green (cyanCyan
Cyan from , transliterated: kýanos, meaning "dark blue substance") may be used as the name of any of a number of colors in the blue/green range of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the...
). Both negatives were processed and printed on duplitized film
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...
, and then each emulsion was toned
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...
its complementary color
Complementary color
Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are of “opposite” hue in some color model. The exact hue “complementary” to a given hue depends on the model in question, and perceptually uniform, additive, and subtractive color models, for example, have differing complements for any given color.-...
, red or blue. The final result was a color image that was 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...
in nature — no flicker and a bright projection. But as a result of the way the camera was designed, a constant fringe was apparent, as the strips were being recorded side-by-side.
In January 1919, this new process was premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City with the short Everywhere With Prizma. Kelley, based in Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, was a friend of the Rivoli's manager and music director Hugo Riesenfeld
Hugo Riesenfeld
Hugo Riesenfeld was a Jewish Austrian-American composer. As a film director, he began to write his own orchestral compositions for silent films in 1917, and co-created modern production techniques where film scoring serves an integral part of the action...
and so did business with Samuel Roxy Rothafel
Samuel Roxy Rothafel
Samuel Lionel Rothafel, known as "Roxy" was an American theatrical impressario and entrepreneur. He is noted for developing the lavish presentation of silent films in the deluxe movie palace theaters of the 1910s and 1920s.-Biography:Born in Stillwater, Minnesota, Samuel L. Rothafel was a showman...
's Roxy Theaters chain, which the Rivoli was part of.
In February 1921, another Prizma film, Bali the Unknown was premiered at Roxy's Capitol Theatre in New York. The four-reel feature garnered lukewarm reviews, but enough positive audience response that more films were produced in the system.
The Prizma process only took off in 1922, when J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an Anglo-American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation...
of Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios
American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York. By 1907 it was the most prolific American film production company, producing many famous silent films. It was bought by Warner Bros...
shot his feature film The Glorious Adventure
The Glorious Adventure (1922 film)
The Glorious Adventure is a US/UK feature film directed by J. Stuart Blackton, written by Felix Orman.-Production background:The film was made entirely in Prizmacolor, and starred Lady Diana Manners, Gerald Lawrence, Cecil Humphreys, and Victor McLaglen, and was released by United Artists.Neither...
in Prizma. The film, starring Diana Manners and Victor McLaglen
Victor McLaglen
Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor.Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.-Early life:...
, premiered in April 1922 to lukewarm success in the US, but much appeal in the UK. With the prestige of a Vitagraph production, Prizma was considered the apex of color photography at that point in motion picture producers' minds.
Prizma sued the Technicolor Corporation
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...
in September 1922 on the grounds that Technicolor was infringing upon Prizma's patents. However, Prizma eventually lost the case.
In April 1923, Robert Flaherty took a both a black-and-white camera and a Prizma color camera to Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, hoping to film part of his documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Moana
Moana
Moana is a documentary film, the first docufiction in the history of cinema, directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North . Moana was filmed in Samoa in the villages of Safune on the island of Savai'i...
(1925) in that process, but the Prizma camera malfunctioned and no color footage was shot. (Moana became famous as the second feature film shot using 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...
black-and-white film rather than 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...
.)
Work in 3-D Film
With William K. Fairall and Robert F. Elder's 3-D3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
feature, The Power of Love, opening 27 September 1922 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and the December 1922 unveiling of Laurens Hammond
Laurens Hammond
Laurens Hammond , was an American engineer and inventor. His inventions include, most famously, the Hammond organ, the Hammond Clock, and the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord.- Youth :...
's Teleview
Teleview
Teleview was a process for producing stereoscopic motion pictures, invented in 1922 by Cornell University graduates Laurens Hammond and William F. Cassidy...
system in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Kelley used his Prizma camera for stereoscopic
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
purposes. As his camera took side-by-side pictures, Kelley mounted a set of prisms on his rig, thus expanding his point of convergence, and utilized his red/blue color system to make an anaglyph
Anaglyph
Anaglyph may refer to:* Anaglyph image, a method of encoding a three-dimensional image in a single picture by superimposing a pair of pictures* Ornament carved in low relief...
ic print of his product. His final product was the first of Kelley's Plasticon Pictures entitled Movies of the Future, which was premiered at the Rivoli on 24 December 1922. The film consisted largely of shots of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, including Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
, and Luna Park
Luna Park, Coney Island
Luna Park was an amusement park at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City from 1903 to 1944. A second Luna Park was opened on the former site of the nearby Astroland amusement park...
.
Based on the success of Movies of the Future, Kelley had his chief photographer, William T. Crispinel, shoot another short film entitled Through the Trees — Washington D.C. in the spring of 1923. The film was not shot with the Prizma rig — which was being used by Flaherty in Samoa — but with one designed by Frederic E. Ives
Frederic Eugene Ives
Frederic Eugene Ives was a U.S. inventor, born at Litchfield, Connecticut. In 1874–78 he had charge of the photographic laboratory at Cornell University. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where in 1885 he was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia...
, a technician specializing in 3-D
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
photography. Although the short was technically shot better, Riesenfeld rejected it because it did not have the 3-D gimmicks that the recent films of that nature included.
Decline of Prizma
The last few years of Prizma were somewhat fruitful. Samuel GoldwynSamuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
produced Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (1923 film)
Vanity Fair is a silent feature film directed by Hugo Ballin and released by Samuel Goldwyn.-Production background:The film included one sequence filmed in color by Prizmacolor. This silent film was a version of the novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray...
(1923) in Prizma, and D.W. Griffith utilized the process in a couple of his films, including a scene in Way Down East
Way Down East
Way Down East is a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. It is the best known of four film adaptations of the melodramatic 19th century play Way Down East by Lottie Blair Parker...
(1920). Flames of Passion
Flames of Passion
Flames of Passion was a British silent film drama directed by Graham Cutts, starred Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith, and is now considered a lost film....
(1922), directed by Graham Cutts
Graham Cutts
Graham Cutts was a British film director who was one of the leading British directors in the 1920s. His fellow director A. V. Bramble believed that Gainsborough Pictures had been built on the back of his work. His daughter was actress Patricia Cutts...
and starring Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years.-Early life:...
and C. Aubrey Smith; The Virgin Queen (1923), directed by J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an Anglo-American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation...
; and I Pagliacci (1923), co-starring Lillian Hall-Davis
Lillian Hall-Davis
Lillian Hall-Davis was a British actress during the silent era.The daughter of a London taxi driver, her films included a part-color version of I Pagliacci , The Passionate Adventure , Quo Vadis , Blighty , The Ring and The Farmer's Wife , the latter two both directed by Alfred Hitchcock...
, were all UK productions with one reel filmed in Prizma.
One of the last films using Prizma was Venus of the South Seas
Venus of the South Seas
Venus of the South Seas is a feature film starring swimmer Annette Kellerman and one of the last films made in the Prizmacolor process....
(1924), starring Annette Kellerman
Annette Kellerman
Annette Marie Sarah Kellerman was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star, and writer...
, where Prizma was used for one reel of a 55-minute film. Venus was restored by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in 2004.
In 1928, Prizma was bought by Consolidated Film Industries
Consolidated Film Industries
Consolidated Film Industries was a film laboratory, and film processing company, and was the leading film laboratory in the Los Angeles area for many decades. CFI processed negatives and made prints for motion pictures and television...
and was reintroduced as Magnacolor (and later Trucolor
Trucolor
Trucolor was a process used and owned by Consolidated Film Industries division of Republic Pictures. Trucolor was originally a two-strip process based on the earlier work of William Van Doren Kelley's Prizma color process. It later became a three-color process.Republic used Trucolor mostly for its...
). Kelley, who held many patents in color photography, sold his patents and equipment to 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...
, which benefited from Kelley's advanced printing techniques. Ironically, Cinecolor was co-founded by Kelley's former photographer, William T. Crispinel.
List of films made in Prizma Color
- An Afternoon With Nanki San (1921)
- Arabian Duet (1922)
- Artist's Paradise (1921)
- Bali the Unknown (1921)
- Beautiful Things (1920)
- Bird Island (1919)
- Broadway Rose (1922)
- Butterflies (1921)
- Canoe and Campfire (1919)
- Capetown (1922)
- Catalonian Pyrenees (1919)
- China (1919)
- Children of the Netherlands (1919)
- Color Sketches (1922)
- Color-Land Review (1919)
- The Cost of Carelessness (1920)
- Danse Arabe (1922)
- Danse du Ventre (1921)
- Dawning (1921)
- Everywhere With Prizma (1919)
- Fashion Hints (1922)
- Flames of PassionFlames of PassionFlames of Passion was a British silent film drama directed by Graham Cutts, starred Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith, and is now considered a lost film....
(UK, 1922) - Florida Sports (1919)
- From the Land of the Incas (1920)
- Gardens of Normandy (1921)
- The Gilded Lily (1921)
- Glacier Park (1919)
- The Glorious Adventure (1922)
- Hagopian the Rug Maker (1920)
- Hawaii (1919)
- Hawaiian Islands (1920)
- Heart of the Sky Mountains (1920)
- HeidiHeidiHeidi is a Swiss work of fiction, published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel and Heidi makes use of what she has learned.It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps...
(Heidi of the Alps) (1920) - Here and There (1919)
- The Heritage of the Red Man (1922)
- I Pagliacci (UK, 1923)
- Ice Fields, Glaciers, and the Birth of Bergs (1919)
- The Impi (1922)
- In Nippon (1920)
- In School Days (1920)
- An Indian Summer (1921)
- Japan (1921)
- Japanese Fishing Village (1920)
- Kilauea-The Hawaiian Volcano (1918)
- The Land of the Great Spirit (1919)
- Lest We Forget (1922)
- A Little Love Nest (1922)
- Lure of Alaska (1919)
- Magic Gems (1921)
- Marimba Land (1920)
- May Days (1920)
- Memories (1919)
- The Message of the Flowers (1921)
- Mining in Alaska (1919)
- The Mirror (1923)
- Model Girls (1919)
- Moonlight Sonata (1922)
- Neighbor Nelly (1921)
- OahuOahuOahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
(1919) - Oases of the Sahara (1923)
- Old FaithfulOld Faithful GeyserOld Faithful is a cone geyser located in Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Old Faithful was named in 1870 during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition and was the first geyser in the park to receive a name...
(1919) - Our Navy (Our Invincible Navy) (1918)
- Out of the Sea (1919)
- Picturesque Japan (1919)
- Pinto's Prizma Comedy Revue (1919)
- A Prizma Color Visit to Catalina (1919)
- The Refreshing Riviera (1920)
- Rheims (1921)
- The Sacred City of the Desert (1921)
- The Sno-Birds (1921)
- So This Is London (1922)
- Sunbeams (1923)
- Sunshine Gatherers (1921)
- Swaziland South Africa (1920)
- Teddy in Glacier Land (1922)
- Vanity FairVanity Fair (1923 film)Vanity Fair is a silent feature film directed by Hugo Ballin and released by Samuel Goldwyn.-Production background:The film included one sequence filmed in color by Prizmacolor. This silent film was a version of the novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray...
(UK, 1923) - Venus of the South SeasVenus of the South SeasVenus of the South Seas is a feature film starring swimmer Annette Kellerman and one of the last films made in the Prizmacolor process....
(1924) - The Virgin QueenThe Virgin QueenThe Virgin Queen can refer to:* Elizabeth I of England* The Virgin Queen , starring Bette Davis* The Virgin Queen , 2005, BBC...
(1923) - La Voix du Rossignol (France, 1924) directed by Ladislas StarevichLadislas StarevichVladislav Starevich , born Władysław Starewicz , was a Russian and French stop-motion animator who used insects and other animals as his protagonists...
- Way Down EastWay Down EastWay Down East is a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. It is the best known of four film adaptations of the melodramatic 19th century play Way Down East by Lottie Blair Parker...
(1920) directed by D. W. GriffithD. W. GriffithDavid Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera... - Way Up Yonder (1920)
- Where Poppies Bloom (1923)
- Wonderful Water (1922)
External links
- List of Prizma films at the IMDb (incomplete)
- U.S. Patent: Method of Producing Colored Photographic Images, filed 1914. The patent describes systems using two-color or three-color filter wheels.
- U.S. Patent: Film or the Like for Color Photography, filed 1914.
See also
- CinecolorCinecolorCinecolor 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...
- Color motion picture film
- Color photographyColor photographyColor photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors, which are traditionally produced chemically during the photographic processing phase...
- KinemacolorKinemacolorKinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson. It was launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co. of...
- List of early color feature films
- List of color film systems
- List of film formats
- List of motion picture film stocks
- MulticolorMulticolorMulticolor is a subtractive natural color process for motion pictures. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
- TechnicolorTechnicolorTechnicolor 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...
- TrucolorTrucolorTrucolor was a process used and owned by Consolidated Film Industries division of Republic Pictures. Trucolor was originally a two-strip process based on the earlier work of William Van Doren Kelley's Prizma color process. It later became a three-color process.Republic used Trucolor mostly for its...