International projectionist (Jan-Dec 1947)

Technicolor Process Today By JACKSON ROSE, A. S. C. Author of "American Cinematographer Handbook and Reference Guide," of which the appended article forms one chapter. THE first Technicolor laboratory was built within a railway car at Boston. In 1917, this car was transported to Jacksonville, Florida, for the production of the first Technicolor feature, "The Gulf Between." This feature had been preceded by one photographed in England by another process. This process photographed the color components by successive exposures, and it was nothing for a horse to have two tails, one red and one green, and color fringes were visible whenever there was rapid motion. Technocolor's idea was two simultaneous exposures from the same point of view — but it called for special attachments on the projector, which were found impractical. Technicolor tried and abandoned spespecial attachments on the projector. It abandoned additive process and turned to imbibition. It developed the two-color process to the point where it was good — but Dr. Kalmus felt that it was not good •enough. Yet this process was a necessary step to present-day Technicolor. In May, 1932, Technicolor completed the building of its first three-component ■camera and had one unit of its Hollywood plant equipped to handle a moderate .amount of three-color printing. This three-strip process, which is nowstandard, has since undergone continual development and improvement. The present-day three-component Technicolor process, which makes use of special cameras, may be described briefly as follows : Technicolor 3-Color Process Light reflected from a photographed •object enters a single lens and strikes a prism. Part of the light passes through the prism and through a green filter to a green sensitive primary negative. The remainder, reflected at right angles, is absorbed by two other primary negatives, individually sensitive to blue and red light. These negatives which have recorded the primary color aspects (red, green, and blue) of the scene are developed to produce negatives which look much like black-and-white negatives, but -each one is a record of the primary colors in the scene. Thus, in photographing a red barn in -a green field with a blue sky, the red record negative would have the image of the barn, the green record negative the image of the field, and the blue record ■negative the image of the sky. From each of ihese three-color separation negatives a special positive relief image is printed and developed. These positives differ from ordinary positives in that the picture gradations are represented by varying thicknesses of hardened gelatine. These positives, which are called "matrices," are used as printing plates. They absorb suitably colored dyes and are then used in a manner similar to color plates for a lithograph, the dye image from each of the three matrices being transferred one after the other upon the final completed print ready for projection. In addition to this well established standard three-strip procedure, Technicolor is now using its Monopack process, which does away with the necessity for special cameras. Technicolor Monopack Process In present methods of motion picture photography where several copies of prints are required, the film which is exposed in the camera becomes the "original" record of the scene. In either blackand-white or color photography this "original" may be a negative or positive, depending upon the type of process. Monopack is a single film which can be exposed in any standard black-andwhite camera with color-corrected lenses, developed as a negative, but is reversed in processing to become a positive color print. It has three layers of light-sensitive emulsions, scarcely thicker than ordinary black-and-white film, but each emulsion layer sensitive to a primary color. The surface emulsion is sensitive to blue; the second emulsion is sensitive to green, and the third emulsion is sensitive to red. After development as a negative, the three images are bleached out and again exposed and developed in ^coupler developers. The resultant images are positive and dyed with colors complementary to the emulsion layers. All three colored images being directly superimposed upon one another, perfect registration is assured. Critical sharpness of the three primary images and the lack of grain of this multi-layered film produce extremely sharp separation results. For additional prints from Monopack, separation negatives must be made by an optical printer in which the Monopack is projected through a filter for each separate color after which the conventional Technicolor imbibition process is employed, as in the case of other type of originals, either three-strip negative or successive-exposure cartoon color photography. Trade Unions in America By JOHN P. FREY President, Metal Trades Department, A III JULIUS CAESAR feared the power of crafts. He issued imperial edicts which put a number out of existence, or forced them to meet secretly and carry on their craft activities surreptitiously. But the loyalty of the crafts to their unions proved stronger than the Emperor's power, and for that matter the Senate's, who upon Cicero's urgent speeches, had enacted laws in substance similar to modern antilabor legislation in this country. Caesar and the Roman Senate for a short while curbed the strength of the unions and limited their activities, but for only a short time. The crafts had already existed for almost a thousand years. Their members had been taught to understand their rights as free men. They possessed inspiring records of accomplishment. They were well disciplined and thoroughly understood the power of collective action. They were also the backbone of the republican tradition in Rome. F. of L. Some of their problems came from the organization of newer unions which they had encouraged. The strength of their movement in the beginning consisted of the thoroughly skilled craftsmen in the metal working and the building trades. The newer unions were composed of workers who in their specialty were skilled, but not in comparison with the older crafts. We find that in Rome there were unions of pearl workers and filagree workers not members of the skilled jewelry workers' unions. There were also unions of perfume makers, ring makers and wreath makers. Craft Union Development Such unions depended for their existence upon the militant strength of the skilled crafts, but contributed little toward their strength. They were more parasitical, depending upon the other crafts for their existence, than cooperative and constructive. There were some non-building trades (Continued on page 30) 24 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST • February 1947