International photographer (Jan-Dec 1930)

Eight T h, INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER February, 1930 The Influence of Qolor -BY P. F. L. RICE Natural color photography has revoltionized practically every phase of motion picture making. By providing the screen with a new element possessing dramatic, emotional and pictorial possibilities, it has brought important changes to the work of every production unit. These sweeping changes extend from the scenarist's office to the cutting room. All along the production line, cognizance is being taken of a new and powerful element, with every effort being bent to make full and intelligent use of it. The writer must employ color with understanding in fashioning his stories. In selecting players for an all color picture, the casting director is forced to give unusual attention to hue of complexion, hair and eyes. The wardrobe designer, the art director who plans and supervises the building of settings, the drapery maker, the set dresser, the makeup artist, the cameraman all find their work influenced by the color angle. These individual and departmental efforts require expert unified direction toward the one aim of using color to cause audience emotional and mental reactions in keeping with the spirit of the production. This direction was placed in the hands of a "color committee" during the preparations for, and the filming of, Paramount's musical romance, "The Vagabond King." The Technicolor process of natural color photography was employed in the making of this Dennis King starring, all-dialogue and song picture. Members of the committee were: B. P. Schulberg, general manager of west coast production; J. G. Bachmann, associate producer; Ludwig Berger, the director; Herman Mankiewicz, author of the screen adaptation from the stage operetta; Hans Dreier, unit art director; Travis Vanton, wardrobe designer; and Mrs. Natalie Kalmus, the Technicolor Corporation's color advisor. Henry Gerrard, cameraman, assisted on photographic details. The part that color was to play in the production was first discussed in general and then planned to the most minute detail by this committee. Among other things, the color schemes of each of the fifty-five settings and the several hundred pieces of wardrobe were evolved. With this expertly planned course to follow, so far as their work was affected by color, the various production units carried out their tasks. Dressing the players in colors to meet the mood and dramatic spirit of the action was the new problem brought to the wardrobe department. Style and harmony through contrasts of light and shadow are the sole concerns of the wardrobe designer for black and white pictures. For "The Vagabond King," the fashion creator was required to clothe the players in "warm" colors for joyous scenes and to garb the menacing characters in warning hues such as bright scarlet or deep black. Symbolic and suggestive meanings of colors were used throughout. Never were colors selected without some definite dramatic, emotional or pictorial purpose. The art department was faced with another phase of the same problem. Constructing settings for a black and white picture is largely a matter of building rooms in which action can be played; different sorts of rooms ami elaborate structures, it is true. For a color production, the art director must not only construct rooms; he must also paint them so they form a pictorial background for the action. This background must be harmonious and in keeping with the dramatic spirit of the action played against it. For "The Vagabond King," settings ranging from the magnificent throne room of Louis XI of France toi the meanest and dingiest streets of Fifteenth century Paris were constructed. Rich blue and gold, with its suggestion of cold majesty, was the color scheme used in the great throne room setting. Somber grays and browns were employed in the gallows setting and the mean sections of Paris. Warm tones of red, pink and green characterized the rose garden and the palace festal setting. Purple, with its symbolism of royalty, was used effectively in the monarch's bed chamber and warm tints predominated in the boudoir of Jeanette MacDonald, the golden haired leading woman. The drapery and set dressing departments had their own distinctive parts in completing these harmonious color arrangements. Over in another section of the studio, the makeup chief and his assistants shaped their work to the changes brought by color. Entirely different makeups from those used in black and white pictures are required for Technicolor productions. Face rouge is employed in preparing players to face the natural color cameras and the principles of correct street makeup are followed closely. The transition from dealing with lights and shadows to working with natural colors is most marked in the photographic and laboratory processes. Special cameras are required for filming pictures in Technicolor. One path of light enters through the lens of the Technicolor camera, where it is divided into two paths of equal length by a prism. One passes through a red filter onto the negative film. The other penetrates a green filter. Thus two color corrected negatives of identical size are obtained. An ordinary strip of motion picture film shows a series of black and white reproductions of the images before it. The Technicolor negative shows first a red recording, and then a green recording of the same figures. The negative is sent to the Technicolor laboratories where it is first developed so that all the red recordings are on one strip and all the green on another strip. The positive films are then printed much the same as are the colored sections of a newspaper. The red recording are printed with the green recordings on the same film. The film is then rolled through a series of color presses until it has taken the hues as recorded in the delicate Technicolor camera. The present Technicolor nlm is of exactly the same thickness as the ordinary black and white film. It requires no special projection apparatus, running through the standard machine without difficulty. Lighting requirements for Technicolor and black and white pictures are different, and that brings a slight change to the work of the electricians on the setting. The amount and quality of illumination is governed by the cameraman, who must understand thoroughly the medium with which he works. Even the property men and members of the "grips" force are affected by natural color photography. They had to pass color tests before they could work with "The Vagabond King" unit. One color blind workman might have caused considerable mischief. (Layout on Page 10) t-a. ■ ■ £ OUR PRESIDENTS Nearly everybody worth while was born in February. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Saint Valentine and Joseph Biroc, William Clothier, Lloyd Combs, Ned Connor, Robert DeGrasse, Peter Denie, Albert DeSart, George Diskant,, Max Dupont, Ross Fisher, Harry Flenner, Harry Gant, James Giridlian, Charles Glouner (withdrawal), Harvey Gould, Arthur Grant, Sol Halnrin, T. F. Jackson, Joseph Johnson, Wallace Kelly, Donald Keyes, William C. King, Matthew Klucznik, Milton Krasner, Robert Kurrle, Joseph List, Bert Longworth, Cecil Love, George Lyng, John McBurnie, Carl Meister, Milton Moore, Al Myers, Harry Neumann, Henry Polak, Leonard Poole, George Richter, Donald Sargent, Fleet Southcott, Arthur Todd, Glenn Twombly, Homer Van Pelt, Fred Westerberg, William Wheeler, A. E. Williams. They have no birthstone and don't need any, for they know early in life that they will be presidents of the United States. If you believe in re-incarnation better begin to arrange to be born in February next time. You can bring this about by talking to your subsconscious self about it every time you think of it. If you are persistent and nice to Sub he'll put it over for you. M