American cinematographer. (1947)

Ansco s New Film For Use In Color Motion Picture Production A T the recent S.M.P.E. Convention a new Ansco film was described by Harsh and Friedman in their paper “Application of a New One-Strip Color Separation Film in Motion Pic¬ ture Production.” The film, which is designated as Type 155, has the unique characteristic of giving equal gammas for the red, green and blue exposures with the same development time. The following is a summary of the paper: The use of monopack color films such as Ansco Color Film Types 735 and 732 for the original exposure and the re¬ lease printing stock in the production of motion pictures, poses certain prob¬ lems in providing the intermediate du¬ plicates or masters which are necessary for protection of the original, for for¬ eign release or special effects. The specific problem in motion pic¬ ture color photography with monopack materials is the loss of color satura¬ tion when it is necessary to make sec¬ ond, third or fourth generation dupli¬ cates to arrive at a release print as is often the case in black and white mo¬ tion picture practice. Current use of monopack color processes has proven that a direct print from a color original gives color reproduction of satisfactory quality. The primary difficulty in mak¬ ing more than a first generation print is due to the absorption characteristics of the image dyes. If the intermediates are not made in color, but in the form of black and white separation negatives, it becomes possible to obtain accurate records of the color densities as they are present in the originals. After conversion into black and white positives these can be printed upon Ansco Color Printing Film Type 732. A black and white film particularly suitable for this purpose has been pro¬ duced and is tentatively designated as Ansco One-Strip Color Separation Film, Type 155. It has the unique property that for the same development time the contrasts for the red, green and blue exposures remain substantially the same. This is equally true for low con¬ trast (0.50) and for high (2.00). The cyan dye used in Ansco Color Film has a maximum absolution at ap¬ proximately 6800A °. Therefore, the new- material has its sensitivity extended in the red to a maximum at 6800A 0 . This enables the use of a Wratten No. 70 filter to yield a red separation that is practically perfect. It is not feasible to use the No. 70 filter with a normal panchromatic film. The following will describe the prac¬ tical application of the film in the pro¬ duction of Ansco Color Motion Pictures. The scene is photographed on Ansco Color Film Type 735. This is then copied on Type 155 film using a printer which is equipped with registration pins and capable of skip-frame printing. At this stage fades, lap dissolves and other special effects can be included. The type 155 film is then developed to a gamma of approximately 0.65 in a buffered borax developer of the type used for variable density sound film. The re¬ sultant film is now a conformed master containing all the effects and with the color records as successive black and white frames. It will serve as a protec¬ tion against damage to the original. To convert the separation negatives to color prints, they are first printed on standard black and white Duplicating Positive Film on the same optical equip¬ ment for making the negatives, and de¬ veloped to a gamma approximately 1.4. The final step is to print the separation positives onto Type 732 film three times through the appropriate filters. The re¬ sult is a release print equal in color reproduction to a direct print from the original. The film can also be applied to direct photography of animated pictures or used for background projection and process photography. 16mm BLIMP j^or ^lastman^J\ocJaL C^ine Special C^t a m era This Blimp, constructed of Dow Metal (magnesium) is thoroughly insulated for absolutely silent operation. The blimp has these exclusive features: • follow focus attachment for changing lens calibrations while the camera is in operation • viewing magnifier mounted on top of blimp for focusing while camera is mounted in blimp • arrangement for opening camera viewing aper- ature trap for focusing from the outside of the blimp ‘pilot lights to illumi¬ nate lens calibrations and film footage indicator. American Cinematographer • February, 1947 65