American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

This battery of optical printers prints the matrices from which Technicolor prints are made. Enlarging 16mm Kodachrome To 35mm Technicolor! By WILLIAM STULL, A.S.C. SIXTEEN millimeter has grown up — literally. For months there have been rumors of experiments in enlarging 10mm. Kodachrome to 35mm. Technicolor. Today, those rumors are confirmed. The experiments have borne fruit: 35mm. Technicolor prints from 16mm. Kodachrome originals are a commercially-available reality. Even as this is being written, 35mm. Technicolor release-prints are being made of the first short-subject filmed in 16mm. Kodachrome by a major studio for theatrical release ! Judged by results screened for this writer, there can be no doubt that we stand at the threshold of a revolutionary change in the making of industrial and documentary films and at least some types of theatrical short-subjects. For the results are astonishing: the enlarged print retains the many desirable optical qualities inherent to 16mm., and offers possibilities of convenience and economy in filming beyond anything possible in 35mm. The first step in making the "blowup" is the making of three selectivelyfiltered 35mm. color-separation negatives. This is of course done optically, with one negative filtered to form the red record, a second filtered to form the blue record, and the third to form the urccn record. Then in Technicolor's printing-process, matrices are made from each of the three negatives — raised-gelatin relief images from which the appropriate dyes are transferred in somewhat the fashion of a rubber stamp to the positive film which comprises the final print. In this operation the red-record matrix prints the cyan (blue) image; the green matrix, magenta; and the blue matrix, yellow. This printing method is, of course, identical with that used in making Technicolor prints from any conventional 35mm. Technicolor negatives. Throughout these processes, a very considerable amount of control is possible, so that in some instances, at least, compensation can be made to correct minor shortcomings in the contrast and color-balance of the 16mm. original. In the printing and development of the enlarged separation-negatives, a considerable degree of control of contrast is possible. In the same way, in the making of the final print, a considerable control of color-balance and density is possible, resulting in a quality quite superior to the writer's expectations. Such control is something heretofore unknown, though greatly needed, in the 16mm. commercial Kodachrome field. The tonal range and gradation of the Technicolor enlargements screened for the writer were a revelation. There was less of the appearance of a dupe than he had considered possible. While no direct J comparisons were available, tonal rang • and gradation in these Technicolor en largements seemed to compare well with both direct 35mm. Technicolor an: 16mm. Kodachrome. Tests on color charts showed very excellent renditioii of both saturated and pastel colors, while gray-scales were reproduced with uncommon fidelity, with excellent black.and uncommonly clear whites. Fleshtones were particularly pleasing. While not on a par with the best possible in major-studio 35mm. Technicolor, the flesh l-endition is definitely the best we've seen in any Kodachrome enlargements, and much cleaner than is general in even the best 16mm. Kodachrome dupes. The optical quality of these enlargements proved another pleasant surprise. The perspective and depth of field given by the 25mm. lenses customarily used for 16mm. are of course retained in the enlargement, and the result, from 35mm. and on a large screen, seemed almost uncanny. There was depth there that could not be approached in any 35mm. without risking the often distorting perspective of a wide-angle lens. What can be done with an enlargement made from a 16mm. Kodachrome photographed through the normal substandard wideangle objectives — 20mm. and 15mm. — should be a revelation on the screen. The steadiness shown in all of the enlarged prints is another amazing thing. We are accustomed to look upon steadiness as something more or less exclusive to 35mm. film and professional equipment : but these enlargements, by whatever process made, prove that 16mm. Kodachrome, filmed in a properly-handled, high-grade 16mm. camera such as the Cine-Kodak Special, is certainly steady enough for most pi'ofessional purposes. Frankly, we've seen less steady films made in 35mm. with some of our best professional cameras. The excellent definition possible in these enlargements explodes another fallacy. Theoretically, it would be expected that definition must naturally suffer through the various duping, enlarging and reprinting processes involved in making these 16mm.-to-35mm. enlargements. But this does not seem to be the case. Where the original 16mm. Kodachrome is adequately defined, the definition of the enlarged print appears to remain entirely satisfactory. As a matter of fact, seeing some of these enlarged prints projected on a screen more than twelve feet wide, we would be inclined to say the definition was at least equal to that which would be obtained projecting the original 16mm. to similar dimensions. In some instances, the definition appeared even to surpass that expectable in the original. Grain-size in the enlarged KodachromeTechnicolor 35mm. color-print is another pleasurable surprise. In conventional black-and-white practice we have been accustomed to think of greatly exagger II I September, I -.Ml \mkku \n Cinkm \t<m,k\phi i: