The Cine Technician (1939)

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March-April, L938 T II E C I N E-TEC II NIC] A N 20(5 RENNEHAN TALKS TECHNICOLOR ALL thai is needed to strip the so-called mystery Technicolour scenes with a bit more contrast than I would from colour camerawork is to consider it from the use in black and-white. same practical viewpoint we ordinarily use in <lis A great deal of the contrast as well as the intensity cussing black-and-white. Nut so long ago every ol lighting required lor colour scenes can be governed b\ detail ol our routine black-and-white camerawork was at the cameraman's choice ot set-ups. This is noticeable in one time shrouded in mysterj ; to-day, experience lias black-and-white, but it is still more evident in colour. made them accustomed to commonplace. And that same Often moving the camera a scant lew feet one way or the experience applied to colour will make it commonplace, other can make a tremendous difference in the lighting too. There are main little ways in which we can make required, saving both time and current in notable any kind of camerawork easier or more effective by simply amounts. sidestepping the difficult of impossible things. In black-and-white the cameraman, alter a brief outColour can be approached in the same way. II the hue ot the nature o| the shot, can often very safely leave cameraman will keep alert, he can discover many little the details of camera set-up to his operatise crew while practical tricks, which not only make Ins colour scenes he concentrates on lighting. In colour, this is not the better, but also enable him to accomplish them more case. This is not said with any sense of slighting the easily. abilities el the operatives, but simply because the com Modern Technicolour is photographed under arc light bination ol colour with line, mass and lighting requires ing. This in itself should be no difficulty to the com more precise planning than do the three latter factors petcnt cameraman. Nine years ago the industry took alone. without faltering a sudden change from arc to incandes My personal method is to plan the set-up ver\ piecent lighting. In turning to colour, the reverse of this eisely bv inspection through a detached finder, thereafter transition should be easy indicating to m\ crew the exact position ol the camera to The chief reason for Teclmicolour's use of arc get the desired composit ion— the camera's position, its lighting is in the fact that anv colour process must take height from the floor, the exact angle, and so on. into consideration not alone the intensity, divergence anil In a colour film, the background as a rule plays a diffusion ol its lighting, but also the colour ol the light much more important part than it does in black-and-white. used. It the light varies appreciably from the colourless An area ol some strong colour here, another one rendered w lute standards ol natural daylight, that variation will be too vividly there, can upset an otherwise vers effective reproduced on the screen. The arc Limp is inherently composition. This fact is something the camerman corncloser to that standard than any other type that can be ing newly into colour from black-and-white must learn to used for pictures. consider in detail. Ordinarily, such a splash of colour The high intensity "II I. Arc" spotlighting units. might, in black-and-white, be rendered as an inconspicu since high-intensity arcs produce an inherently more bluish ous neutral grey . In colour, it would be rendered as colour ray, require a very light straw -coloured tilted to match possibly as objectionable colour, this daylight standard. This planning requires careful co-operation from the The matter ol lighting level has been argued too oft n director. If be will really co-operate with the cameraman both in and out of print. Each camerrnan balances Ins and understand bis problems, he can often move his lighting differently, and determines bis own favourite action, and with n the camera angle just that little bit lighting level. -lust as in black-and-white it is impossible to one side, or closer to the wall, farther out. etc.. ami to say that one man is right and the other wrong, because thus do much to greatly simplify this problem of colour they use different light levels to secure comparable effects, composit ion enormously. so it is impossible to say how much or how little light must I have found it ven, helpful to plan my background be used from any one source on a colour shot. Successive (or set) compositions first, quite independent of the prin advances m both emulsions and laboratory technique have cipals, and then to tit the players into the < ompositional brought Technicolour lighting requirements progressively pattern, rather than to strive to co-ordinate two otherwise closer ami closer to parity with comparable monochrome. conflicting units at once. In (his phase, too, we are aided by the lad thai, .nut Closelv related to this is the matter of set dressing. h.r unit, the III. Arc spotlighting units used for |„ monochrome, an over-dressed set is not often notiec rolour are considerably more efficient than most of the .,,,,,._ [n eolour it will be. Actually, the simpler a col. Limps used lor black-and-white. They throw smoother, js dressed, the more effective, will 'be the picture on i loin more controllable beams. Unit for unit, the modem scr7en. Genuine co-operation behveenTamomman'.' set' Technicolour set uses no more light-sources than would dresser and art director both before and d be necessary lor black-and-white; in some cases, thanks to the more efficient light-distribution of our lamps, we can use fewer sources. The fallacy that colour musl he hi flatly has now been pretty well exploded. Some ol the flatness in the earh it,.',.,, ,.,,1, >,,,.,; f ,,,. , l i ji i c ^ ' ,■ I I'act icall\ all ol t hesc del ails, il w ill he seen. ha\ e a lliiee-coloui pictures was due to the' eal'K limitations ol II I I i' I i -, ,■ l,:,,t,, ,. ij .a,, i ,. i ,, I , (i i . ,i , ■ ',, , ,, paretic! in black-and-white camerawork. hvrr\ black tngliei light level and to the tad that in those <la\s the , , , , , • , anil-white cameraman is accustomed lo watchui" than urine shooting is doubly necessary . Colour adds so much to a scene I ha I physical simplification is vital. Elimination of surplus detail actually builds to a stronger and more pictorial scene. almost subconscioush in his dail\ work. Tl nl\ differ present modern lamps were not available. In actual fact. Technicolour scenes can be lit with ,,,,., i, .1,,, . ,, , ,,, ,■ ,, , , .... ,, , , ence is that in colour the\ must he watched more c ose \ 'ouch the same range of flatness or brilliance that would i , i i ,i „• i i i (i , , and at least at first more consciously. oe aesnable lor the same scene m monochrome. In so far as my personal preferences go, 1 would prefer to light (Continued at fool of page mS)