British Kinematography (1951)

17') BR] 1 l.sll KIM.-MAKM.KAI' Vol. 1«J, No. G ,uto those ireas thai had been matted out during the previous exposure. rhe red and blue records were similarly exposed, using the masters from the red and blue negative and the appropriate tricolour A colour print was made from these composite dupe negatives. Soft-edge Matte It a soft-edge matte is required, this is obtained by placing a white card of the required shape in an out-of-focus position approximately twelve inches in front of the lens, A black velvet is hung in front of the painting and the white card illuminated for printing through the required area of the master. The master is then taken out of the camera and the raw stock rewound ready for the second exposure. The black velvet is taken away, the lights switched on to the painting, and the lights switched off from the white card which acts as a soft-edge matte \\ hen photographing the painting. When setting-up for making dupe matte -hots it ;> necessary to balance the exposure ratio of the three records by mounting neutral densities with the tricolour filters. These neutral densities are adjusted until the same densities are obtained on all three dupe negative, when they are then exposed under identical conditions either to the white backing or to a white card placed on the painting. The three dupe negatives are exposed so that they each produce the desired gamma when exposed to an H & D chart through the appropriate tricolour filter. The three raw stock records are all placed emulsion facing the lens. It has been agreed that the red record given by this method can be spliced celluloid to celluloid with the normal red record negative exposed in a Technicolor camera ; this, as is known, is reversed left to right as a result of being exposed to a reflected image from the beamsplitter. Special optical masters with a reversed Left to right red record are used for this work so that the emulsions of the masters and the raw stock can be in contact during the printing operation. These masters are made to a special contrast determined from tots made on the camera set-up and evaluated by Technicolor. Exposure of the Dupes The exposure of the dupes is controlled by adjusting the lens iris to a scale setting suggested by Technicolor, who check the densities of the masters before they are delivered. The dupes are developed by Technicolor and this liaison of control ensures that the dupes have an acceptable density and quality. The painting is exposed at the same lens iris setting used for printing the dupes and LOADING DEV. BACKING WNN-HMG [~q1 h*to« & PRINTING 5TL _ ' 1 ICAMERA DIO *m F^^^^"^" ■VERTICAL ■ ENLARGER RECORDS OFFICE J , ' / 4T1U. [ — r~1 Mtojtcjoa. MMU ART ROOM Fig. 5 Plan of well-designed matte shot department the exposure is controlled by adjusting the opening of the camera shutter until the density on the painting negative matches that of the duped part of the frame. Most matte shot studios have now adopted the suggestion of matching the tones and colours of the two parts of the composite picture by using a method of additive colour projection. Black and white prints made from hand developed tests of the dupe negatives are placed in three film-strip projectors fitted with their respective tricolour filters, and the three coloured images are projected in register on to a small white screen (Fig. 6). The relative intensities of the three projectors are then varied until a satisfactory colour balance is obtained on the duped part of the scene.