Motion Picture News (May-June 1921)

June I 8 , I p 2 I 3717 Tinting Film Plays with Nature's Colors Is No Easy Matter Inventor of Colorcraft Pictures Explains His Work Nearly eevry man who is interested in motion pictures is interested in color in motion pictures. From their inception the far-sighted producer has known of the tremendous asset which nature held and has tried to reproduce her colors on the screen. At first he was forced to tint and tone scenes by hand to relieve the monotony of black and white pictures. Later the color was produced on the screen by projecting the picture through rapidly moving red and green screens, and recently it has been possible to actually get the color in the film itself. Each method, however, has had its drawbacks and no one has so far claimed perfection. " Colorcraft " is the newest corporation to produce colored pictures. The owners and inventors of this method promise that all the other faults which have marred the perfection of the colored films shall be eliminated in Colorcraft pictures. Following are some of the reasons for their claim: Colorcraft photographs colors as they actually exist and reproduces them on the curtain without any complications or additions to the present equipment. A Colorcraft subject can be added to any black and white reel, replacing any scene or any part of the play. It is not necessary for the producer to sacrifice any fast action, close-ups or combinations of colors when using this process, as everything is photographed the same as it is set before the camera. Color New Connecticut Theatre Open Sept. 15 AIeridex, Conn., June 4. — Arland W. Johnson, of 469 Fifth ave., the architect who planned the new Community theatre, which is being erected in the rear of Esidore Derecktor's West Main street property, just west of Grove street, w-as in town yesterday, looking over the site and giving instructions to Frank Young, superintendent of construction for the Sutherland company, who has established his office on the ground, and will be here until the theatre is finished. Mr. Johnson said the theatre, when finished, will be one of the finest in the stale of Connecticut. The theatre proper will be located in the rear of the Dereckloibuildings, with an entrance through the present store at 99 West Main street, just opposite the head of Butler street. Mr. Johnson said the contract for the erection of the new theatre has been let to the William M. Sutherland Building and Contracting Co., of St. Louis, and the contract for the excavation has been sublet by that company to the L. Suzio Construction Co. The work is going forward with great despatch, and Mr. Johnson said that while it had been planned to open the theatre about October i, it now looks, from craft not only reproduces nature or artificial settings, but prints can be manufactured with the same accuracy as black and white prints and the life of the film is greater than the average black and white film. W. H. Peck, inventor of the new method, says: " Colorcraft film can be assembled in any reel and projected in any theatre without the operator knowing that it is going to be projected until he sees the picture on the curtain. The light is the same, and it is not necessary to make a single change to assist the color projection. The older method has an additional disadvantage which a great many people call prismatic, technically known as fringe, which makes it impossible to take any fast action when same is close to the camera and which instantly eliminates such a method for dramatic production or any close-ups where there is movement. By the Colorcraft method we can take just as fast action as is taken in black and white, with absolutely no fringe. The color blending is exactly the same under fa.st action as it is when photographing still objects. " Optical principles used in the Colorcraft laboratory are patented in principle, but the kind of glass and actual calculations of these optics are kept secret. As the optics for color photography have never been successfully mastered by others we found it not only necessary to design the progress being made, as if it could be opened by the middle of September. — ■ Agard. our own color optics, but to train men to properly make same, as no one could be found to do this work with proper .skill. Our printing methods are radically different from others, and in this way it is possible to register our color values in the film so accurately that there is no blurring or overlapping of colors in the finished product. Our printing methods are purely mechanical, and it does not require extra skilled help. The dyeing method, which selectively picks up the proper dyes to reproduce nature's colors, is purely mechanical and automatic and requires no special handling. For this reason we can turn out duplicate prints without any appreciable variation. Our dyes are fixed in the film in proper position, just as permanent as a dye figure in silk or other cloth. Our colors have been selected for their stability, so there will be no fading or reduction of brightness due to light. " To get a commercially perfect process it is necessary to handle each part of the work in keeping with optical and chemical laws and with methods and processes that are so simplified that each step fits in with every other, and can be duplicated indefinitely. This is the reason Colorcraft has come forward with a workable process in advance of any other and is now opening up wide gates of opportuniity to every one in any way connected with the film industry." A series of articles showing model projection rooms is being prepared. r^S'^'S'v G W A A R g^^"^ THE NOME OF THE ^ ^PLEX WctflNE lVi)ido-iV Display of Lewis Swaab, showing equipment for the new Stanley theatre, Philadelphia