International projectionist (Jan 1963-June 1965)

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST Volume 38 December, 1963 Number 12 A Neglected Asset: TINTED RELEASE-PRINT FILM By ROBERT A. MITCHELL PART I Tinted-base release prints have only seldom been used since the advent of talking pictures, and to the best of this writer's knowledge, not at all during the past twenty years. What a contrast to silent-picture days when every available trick of the trade was pressed into service to beautify the screen and amplify — or even over-amplify, if possible, — the emotional and atmospheric values inherent in the dramatic photoplay! All monochrome prints of the present day are a stark and unexpressive black-and-white — the black of the silver image and the white of unfiltered arc illumination on a chalk-white screen. The effect of plain black-and-white, while of great visual clarity, is sometimes harsh and nearly always pictorially monotonous because of the unrelieved absence of dramatically suggestive or emotionally contextual color. Experience has demonstrated that dominant color tone, especially when appropriately varied from sequence to sequence, enhances in a powerful manner the mood and feeling of each individual scene of a motion picture. The dramatic technique of tinted film was utilized at a very early date. At first, plain black-and-white footage was colored by dye solutions which were readily and uniformly absorbed by the gelatine emulsion. So widespread did the use of colored film become that the manufacturers of film offered, as an improvement, tinted-base positive raw stock in a wide variety of colors. Eastman Kodak, for example, supplied seventeen standardized colors of film, millions and millions of feet of which were consumed by the industry. In fact, fully 90 per cent of all feature-film footage was printed on tinted positive during the 1920's. Old-Style Photocell Rejects Tints It is entirely probable that effective dramatic use of tinted release stock would have continued into the days of sound pictures had it not been for the "blindness" of the old-style potassium photoelectric cell to the broad infrared region of the spectrum freely transmitted by most dyes. In other words, tinted film stock seriously interfered with optical sound reproduction when the potassium photocell was used. The old-style metallic cesium cell, unlike the modern cesium-oxide and silveroxide cell, was similarly afflicted with this sort of "color-blindness." The early potassium cell, like the modern blue-sensitive photocell having what is called a "type S-l re sponse," is affected only very feebly by green, yellow, and orange light, and not at all by red light and the invisible infrared radiation to which the modern S-4 cesium-silver-oxygen photocell and the silicon photodiode are most sensitive. With a blue-sensitive photocell in the soundhead, use of green, yellow, or amber-tinted film attenuated the sound output to such an extent that a compensating boost in fader setting unpleasantly decreased the signalto-noise ratio of the system. Use of deep red film cut the sound off entirely! It is understandable, then, that movie producers resorted to exclusive use of clear-base stock as the best way to avoid unnecessary trouble with a method of sound reproduction which, even at its best during the infancy of talking pictures, left much to be desired. But things have changed. Except for the isolated instance of a few European equipments, blue-sensitive photoelectric cells have now been completely replaced by infrared-sensitive photocells and phototransistors to which all colors of tinted-base film "look" very nearly as transparent as clear-base film. Accordingly, tintedbase release positive can now safely be used indiscriminately, with as many color changes as may be desired in a single reel, or even intercut with clear-base stock, without noticeable attention of optical-track reproduction. Tinted Film for Monochrome This assertion can be proved: and this we intend presently to do to the satisfaction of all concerned — directors and producers as well as projectionists, — but first let us attempt to dispose of two questions which are surely uppermost in the minds of many who may wish to re-examine the dramatic potentialities of tone-coloring the screen. First, doesn't the prevalence of natural-color filming preclude the need for tinted-base prints? No one can be more enthusiastically appreciative of natural color than we are; but the fact remains that there will always be a place on the screen for monochrome ( represented at present only by plain black-and-white ) . As Bette Davis says in her autobiography. The Lonely Life,* "I have always thought color robs an emotional story of power, and most of my work was of an emotional nature. History, however, is usually enhanced by color." Not history only, as Miss Davis may agree, but musical International Projectionist December, 1963