Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

REEL and SLIDE 17 Natural Color Films and the Educator Achievement of Color Cinematography Opens Wide the Door in Nature Study Experts Getting Nearer Goal After Many Years of Study and Costly Experiment By E. B. Koopman CINEMATOGRAPH pictures in natural colors have been the elusive "butterfly" of the motion picture world for more than a decade. Departing from the hand-colored article with its crude and usually unsatisfactory results, the ideal sought by all experimenters is the attainment of the natural color values on the screen as they are seen in nature by the human eye. There have been many experiments conducted along this line in years past and it may be said with truthfulness that the goal has been gradually coming nearer. Color films which have hitherto been placed on the market have fallen so far short of the standard to which they must attain that the general impression has prevailed that the time is far distant before the color film will become of practical value. As a matter of fact, true nature color cinematography has now been achieved, but it is not within the province of this article to enter into that phase of the subject. We are concerned here with the application of nature color photography to educational moving pictures. Even teachers who have given considerable thought and study to the screen in the class-room cannot without having seen true nature color motion pictures, appreciate the wonderful possibilities which will result from their practical application in connection with teaching. The motion picture is capable of presenting movement correctly; it will present movement with absolute fidelity providing the mechanical functions of the art are properly regulated and operated. That is, if a film is taken with the correct relative speed to the moving object and projected with the same* relative speed, the result will be an exact duplication of nature, as exemplified in a man walking. That we do not always get these ideal conditions is no secret, but it is due to no fault in the principles of the art. Present Limitation of the Camera Nature provides the healthy human eye with marvelous faculties, the most important of these enabling us to distinguish form or shape, color and dimension. If the object, for example, be that of an orange and it be viewed in darkness with a strong light behind it, the form will appear round and flat like a disc; now, illuminate the room and instead of a flat black disc we perceive that the form is spherical, and the color of the object is yellow and that its dimension is much smaller than the table on which the orange is placed. Black and white figures in motion, among black and white surroundings, are far from reproducing what the eye sees in nature. An important element is missing at present which prevents the camera from reproducing objects as nature presents them to the eye and this element is color. Few people realize how important color is to us in every day life. The saying that we only appreciate or realize the importance and value of the functions unconsciously performed by the human organs and senses until one of them becomes impaired or affected, is certainly applicable to color. Imagine what a shock it would be to you if suddenly you lost your sense of color and every person and thing in your range of vision appeared to you as black and white only! The blue eyes, golden hair, pink cheeks and red lips of a laughing baby held in the flesh-colored arms of its smiling, brown-eyed mother all change in a flash, together with the delicate colors and green foliage of the charming garden surrounding them, to cold black and white. Color Plentiful Under Sea The motion picture screen presents to us a shadow world. It is a world of black and white. We must imagine our colors or have them described to us by titles. The public has accepted the black and white images on the screen because they have neither seen nor been accustomed to anything better and for the same reason they accept the lack of true perspective in the standard moving picture image. When natural coloring with the effect of relief and depth, giving the dimensional or stereoscopic quality becomes known to this same public it will demand and be satisfied with nothing less. As these missing elements are added to cinematography, the importance of the moving picture for educational purposes becomes greater, the scope of its applicability enormously extended and its usefulness to the teacher correspondingly increased. Take natural history : Nature is as lavish with wondrous color in the fauna of the sea as with bird life or flora on land. Marine vegetation and the thousands of species of under water life possess some of the most striking and delicate colorings conceivable. We cannot paint them on our film with a brush. No brush could convey these colors and their multitudinous combinations. With painted films the pupil would be apt to get what the colorist believes to be the color rather than what it really is in nature. Hence we would present misinformation and defeat the very end sought after in the projection of the films. The majority of the so-called "educational films" to-day were primarily made and used for entertainment purposes, largely consisting of scenic, travel and industrial subjects. Their use for educational purposes followed as an afterthought and they may be properly termed by-products of entertainment films. To obtain the ideal "teaching" or instructional films will require the enlistment of the professional educator in their preparation, production and use. Natural color films will provide him with a far more wonderful instrument of teaching than he has ever dreamed of. Many Subjects Call for Color In addition to nature's distribution of color among animal and plant life, there is the marvel of "camouflage" color protection or disguise she so generously bestows upon them. Many species are in the colorings of their usual surroundings ; in some types color changes occur with the different seasons of the year. As, for instance, the Rocky Mountain Ptarmigan ; in the summer its plumage matches the gray lichens and mosses, changing in winter to a white garb, which cannot be distinguished against the white snow. The chameleon, a lizard, which at will assumes the hues of its environment. The octopus, besides simulating the color of its shadowy surroundings, can also become invisible by ejecting a dark fluid into the water surrounding it. Some of the many subjects to which nature color films will be of the utmost value are : Agriculture Ethnology History Applied Arts Painting Natural History Architecture Geography Physics Biology Geology Etc., etc. Chemistry Horticulture The improvement in moving picture production has been gradual, but great, and is continuing. Mechanical limitations are being overcome, illumination is being improved upon. The best projectors are almost perfect instruments and as the possibilities of the screen widen and its standards rise, the day when every school will have its screen will come just that much nearer. Venezuelan woman doing the family wash. From one of the Chester-Outing series.