Year book of motion pictures (1951)

COLOR DEVEL0PME0T8 ★*★*★***★★**** *★*★*★**★★*★*★ By LOUIS PELEGRINE The Film Daily Staff ROSPECTS FOR WIDER USE OF COLOR developed last year as more meritorious color processes than ever before bid for the attention of film makers and the increase in competition promised to bring down costs to the point where more and more producers would be tempted to go for tinting. The year was marked also by impro\emerits in existing as well as new processesimprovements that not only were calculated to boost the quality of color films but to make them cheaper to turn out. An important development in the field of color photography which introduced a new photographic system operative with its improved three-strip cameras was announced by Technicolor. "The new system will permit the use of uncorrected incandescent illumination and will decrease lighting requirement to a point within the range of that now used for black and white photography," according to Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, president ancl general manager of the company. It was said that "this will residt in shorter shooting schedules and lowered production costs." Major studios tested the new Technicolor system during the latter part of 1950, and, in the words of Kalmus, "the results in all cases received high praise." .Although a program to make the system available to the industry "to the full extent of the Technicolor capacity" was reported by Kalmus to be "well underway," it was not expected that the system would be in general use in the industry before this summer. Eastman Kodak's three-color process, a newcomer, was further improved in 1950. While no features using Eastman Kodak color negative and color print proce-^s were released during the year, experimental work was carried on at a number of studios and laboratories, and it was anticipated that some features using the process would be released in 1951. The fortunes of the Eastman Kodak process were considerably advanced as result of the formation of Tri .\rt Color Corp. as a subsidiary of Du Art Laboratories of New York for the purposes of processing the EK color positive film, designated as Tri .Art color. Ansco made preparations in 1950 for introduction this year of 35mm negative and positive color film. It was expected that the new type color film would supplant the reversal type upon which Ansco had concentrated in earlier years. Experimenting with the Ansco process and aiding in its development was M-G-M. The Ansco color can be used in a standard black-and-white camera ancl processed in the studio's laboratory with essentially the same facility as black-and-white film. M-G-M, in its development program, installed special laboratory equipment to handle experimental single-film color processes. Cinecolor, Inc., went all-out in the promotion of its new three-color Supercinecolor, experimentation in which was carried to successful conclusion last year. It spent a sizeable sum to change over its Burbank, Calif., plant to the processing of Supercinecolor and to expand its facilities there. Several features employing the new process were completed while others were contracted for. It was announced that 65 percent of the laboratory's capacity woidd he devoted to Supercinecolor and 35 percent to Cinecolor. Plans call for turning out this year no less than 25 pictures in Supercinecolor and between 15 and 20 in Cinecolor. The dream of bringing three-color Trucolor into being was realized at the Consolidated Film Laboratories plant in Fort Lee, N. J., early last year. Immediate use of the process commercially was ordered by President Herbert J. Yates of Republic Pictures, of which Consolidated is a subsidiary. Du Pont in 1950 was still making intensive efforts to develop its own color negative stock. The company recognized the importance of color when it made new development processes for color film one of the primary objectives of studies pursued at its new photo research laboratory in Parlin N. J. During the year 20th-Fox pursued its efforts to come up with a lenticulated film color process. *******★**★★★★* *★*******★★★*★* 121