International projectionist (Jan 1963-June 1965)

wore such a dress ; and its effect was to accent her blonde beauty, to heighten the tones of her hair. In another scene in Nothing Sacred, a sad, lugubrious effect was desired, and both Miss Lombard and Frederic March wore dark, dull-brown clothing. The predominating colors of the scene were browns and blacks. On the other hand, a night-club sequence in this same picture was a veritable rainbow of warm, gay colors — reds, purples, and gold. They conditioned a happy, joyous mood. "Our conclusions anent color mood-conditioning are based on the average norm of amny reactions. In such a survey as we could undertake, it was impossible to consider individuals except as they influence mass calculations." It is Mr. Wellman's belief that the color preference of an individual has nothing to do with his reactions to color on the screen. If this condition obtained, it would be impossible to formulate an emotional scale of colors for screen use. Conditioning moods with color appears to be dependent largely upon instinctive color reactions and to color symbolism based upon psychological and physical associations. A very large book could be written on the subject. Black, gray, and brown are rather negative colors in Wellman's color chart: white is affirmative (which it would not be in China, as white is the Chinese color of mourning! ). The four saturated hues in his list — blue, green, red, and yellow — are accorded positive connotations. This indicates a rather limited appraisal of the effect of color, however, inasmuch as an older evaluation compiled by Dr. Lloyd A. Jones as a guide to the use of tinted-base films takes account of the ambivalent character of certain colors — positive and uplifting in certain dramatic and scenic contexts, negative and subduing in others. Ambivalent Colors The strongest examples of emotional ambivalence are to be found among such "transitional" colors as lemonyellow and chartreuse (yellow-green), cyan and turquoise-blue, and purple, amaranth, and magenta. A yellow-green, for example, may suggest, on the positive side, springtime freshness, youthfulness, gladness, joyous expectation, etc., or, on the negative side, squalor, sickliness, hopelessness, loathing, etc. It is significant that a greenish yellow or yellow-green corresponding to the hue popularly known as chartreuse was absent from the colors supplied in the otherwise inclusive range of Eastman Kodak tinted-base positive films. This may have been due to their strong ambivalence and the resulting uncertainty of their application in motion pictures, but Dr. Lloyd A. Jones of the Kodak Research Laboratories pointed out that colors of the yellow-green range have been found to be the least agreeable or least preferred in all surveys conducted to determine color preferences. Be this as it may, the writer remembers that the old Universal Film Co. frequently dye-tinted scenes a bright greenish yellow (lemon) in the days of silent pictures to express the sunshiny, joyous moods usually associated with a warmer yellow, and also that this choice of film color was generally disliked by color-conscious projectionists. Dramatically Versatile Colors The emotional ambivalence of colors does not necessarily limit their usefulness on the motion-picture screen. The bluish greens and greenish blues, for example, or, 6 more important, the purples and amaranths (magentapurples) . Vivid aquamarines and cyans are handsome and useful colors in the art of tone-coloring the screen, and possess many positive dramatic connotations — summery calm, repose, tropical seas under clear skies, tranquility without depression, etc. However, there is an unsavory quality about aquamarine and cyan ( and to a lesser extent about turquoise) which is well expressed by the popular term "poisonous green." ( Could this be an unconscious association of the color with the coldly beautiful, but intensely poisonous, arsenic-containing pigment emerald green or Paris green?) This ambivalence creates confusion and somewhat restricts application of these particular colors. Purple, amaranth, magenta, and to some extent cerise ( red-magenta ) are also ambivalent, though much more versatile and of wider usefulness. The tints of magenta and cerise, for instance, are the ever-popular cool pinks and rose tints without which the user of tinted-base prints would feel severely handicapped. Purple may be described as violet with a touch of magenta or pink, and is undeniably a dangerous color to use on the screen. In certain context it suggests royalty, dignity, pomp, and opulence, and in other contexts it admirably creates an atmosphere of luxurious revelry, abandoned sensuality, degradation, and sexual depravity in the haute monde. Magenta and cerise, together with their rose-pink tints, suggest refined luxury, an elegant way of life, and a romantic mood. At lower screen brightnesses or in stronger color saturations they tend toward connotations of violent passion. In fact, if we pass on through cerise to red, wc arrive at the most intensely violent of all colors. The use of red film in the heyday of tinted-base positive was usually confined to scenes in which the color had a physically objective association, such as fiery holocausts, night battles in which artillery fire flashes violently, and the like. But red film has been employed many times to intensify a mood of violence and excitement, unbridled passion, active evil, and many varieties of destructively strong emotion. The family of amber tints ranging from vermilion through orange, pyridian, and saffron, together with their peach and soft-amber tints, gained the widest use of all. In fact, most silent-film features were printed in their entirety on amber film; but this thoughtlessly indiscriminate use of just one color tended to diminish the atmospheric potentialities of tinted film. At any rate, the amber tint "settled" the audience in a dramatic mood more effectively than plain black-and-white film, and it also increased viewing comfort by softening the cold glare of unfiltered projection lighting. To be most effective, the color of tinted-base film should be judiciously matched to (1) the mood of the scene or to (2) the time of day or the season depicted or, closely connected in physical context. I 3 ) the locale, interior or exterior. It is well-nigh impossible to correlate the physical association of colors (time, locale, and depicted objects) with their emotional connotations ( mood, mental state, or that indefinite psychic "feeling" called "atmosphere"), or to classify the emotional characteristics of ambivalent colors which depend so largely upon dramatic and scenic International Projectionist January. 1964