Digital Colour Restoration of Applied Colour Silent Era Films: Discussions on Dilemmas, Practice and Digital Presentation (Excerpt from revision)

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!!!Digital Colour Restoration of Applied Colour Silent Era Films: Discussions on Dilemmas, Practice and Digital Presentation (Excerpt from revision) !!!MASTER THESIS Masterstudiengang Konservierung neuer Medien und digitaler Information !!!!!!!!!!Michelle S. Carlos

August 1, 2014

Stuttgart, Germany

!Supervisors

Prof. Johannes Gfeller

Prof. Dr. Barbara Flückiger

!External Advisor

Anna Leippe

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Abstract

Film restoration in general is full of dilemmas. Working on the restoration of applied colour films in particular presents different levels of difficulties. This thesis aims to discuss the challenges met as well as the various methods used particularly in the digital colour restoration of applied colour silent era to provide a reference for the possible current technologies and techniques used in digital colour restoration of such difficult historical films. It will be pointed out that the line between colour grading for enhancement and for maintaining the look close to the original is blurred. Therefore there will be discussions about the ethics involved in colour restoration, the responsibilities of the restorer and the colourist, why having just an eye for colour is not enough and that being informed about conservation disciplines is also necessary when dealing with colour restoration of archival material. This thesis will act as a bridge between two worlds: the archives/curators and the post—to stage that unspoken dialogue between them because of limited understanding on both practices.

!Key Words

colour restoration, film restoration, film digitisation, applied colour silent films

!Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Acknowledgment 3

1. Challenges in the Colour Restoration of Applied Colour Films 1

2. Scope and Limitations 2

3. Methodology 3

4. Applied Colour Silent Era Films 4

4.1. Hand-Painting 4

4.2. Stencil-coloured 5

4.3. Handschiegl Process 5

4.4. Tinting 6

4.5. Toning 6

4.6. Theories of Colour in Silent Cinema 6

5. Colour Restoration Dilemmas 7

5.1. Archival Challenge7

5.1.1. Film Artefact 7

5.1.2. Lack of Records and Documentation 8

5.1.3. Who is the audience? 8

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5.2. Ethical Quandary 9

5.2.1. Why restore? 9

5.2.2. The Concept of Authenticity and Originality 10

5.2.3. Are we doing too much or too little? 11

5.3. Financial Burden: Endangering Facilities 12

5.4. Technical Dilemmas 13

5.4.1. Restoration methods: Photochemical or Digital? 13

5.4.2. Salad Bar of Solutions 14

5.4.3. Communication Between Client and Technician 14

5.4.4. Visual Perception that Affects Colour Matching 15

6. Colour Restoration Practice and Workflow 16

6.1. The Key Players 16

6.1.1. The Client as the Supervising Restorer 16

6.1.2. The Colourist 17

6.2. The Digital Restoration Workflow 17

6.2.1. Inspection 17

6.2.2. Film Scanning 18

6.2.3. Digital Nonlinear Editing 19

6.2.4. Image Processing 20

6.2.5. Compositing 20

6.2.6. Colour Correction 20

6.2.7. Digital Master Output 21

6.3. Colour Restoration Methods and Techniques 21

6.3.1. Duplication through Digital Methods 21

6.3.2. Measuring Colour for Analysis and Matching 23

6.3.3. Digital Simulation of Applied Colour Techniques and Looks26

6.3.4. Emulation of Applied Colour Techniques and Looks: Hand and Stencil-Coloured Films29

6.3.5. The “Digital Desmet” 30

6.3.6. Samples of Digital Simulation of Tints and Tones 31

7. Case Studies on Colour Restoration Workflows and Methods 32

7.1. Significance of Case Studies 32

7.2. Steiff Collection: “Hänschens Soldaten” (1913) 33

7.3. “Le Voyage dans la Lune” (“A Trip to the Moon”) (1902) 35

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8. Technical Criteria Considerations for Accuracy in Digital Presentations 37

8.1. Colour Space: ACES38

8.2. UHDTV Standard: Rec. 202039

8.3. Digital File Formats 40

8.4. Display and Projection 42

9. Conservation Practices in the Digital Colour Restoration Workflow44

9.1. Research and Analysis: A Re-education44

9.2. Documentation as Restoration Report: A Missed Step 46

10. Conclusion: Changing Cinema48

11. Sources and References 1

12. List of Tables 7

13. List of Figures 7

14. List of Abbreviations 10

15. Declaration 13

16. Appendix 14

16.1. Colour Plates 14

16.1.1. Hand-Painting14

16.1.2. Stenciling 14

16.1.3. Tinting 15

16.1.4. Toning 16

16.1.5. Case Studies Plates 16

16.1.6. Photochemical Tinting17

16.2. Cellulose Nitrate 18

16.3. Cellulose Nitrate Decomposition Stages 18

16.4. IPI interpretation of A-D Strips Results for Cellulose Acetate Films 18

16.5. Cellulose Acetate Decomposition and Photochemical Restoration19

16.6. Proposed Metadata Template for Digital Colour Restoration in Digital Vision Nucoda 19

16.7. AMIA Code of Ethics 20

16.8. FIAF Charter of Film Restoration 2010 20

17. Glossary of Technical Terms 22

!1. Challenges in the Colour Restoration of Applied Colour Films

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Coming from a post production background as a digital intermediate colourist that shifted to film restoration and then studied about media conservation created a cloud of questions on how film should be properly handled in colour grading while undergoing film restoration—what happens to the material when it goes through a series of image processing? One is sure to encounter various materials with different levels of physical, image and virtual characteristics. A colourist trained in commercial work tends to enhance the image, while a colourist who has learned media conservation is torn between that and keeping the “original look.”

Specifically, restoration of applied coloured films—whether by photochemical or digital means is full of difficulties and dilemmas. First is the film artefact: silent era films were produced from the infancy of cinema in the late 19th century until the introduction of sound on film in the late twenties so there are big chances that these films are generally printed onto cellulose nitrates. Also known as celluloid, these nitrate-based films are quite dangerous and “will not wait.” Nitrate films are ticking time bombs and will deteriorate even in the most controlled storage environment. There would be applied colour films on cellulose acetate found in collections, and the chemical instability of these film substrates are 1

also well-known that has severe damaging effects to the content when aggravated.

Secondly, the characteristics and chemistry of applied colour films, which are more artificial and not inherent to the film material itself, hence applied colour, made each frame unique works of art. Colouring did not only give these films their character but also provided clues, evident in surviving coloured film artefacts, on the dyeing technique done by numerous practitioners all over the world, which could either be exquisitely executed or crudely applied. Moreover the once brilliant colours of these films could now be faded or fugitive. These colour deteriorations are also difficult to determine and accurately measure because there are also not enough records of the colour references—if there are, these would be mostly written documents or etchings on the duplicate film as instruction for colouring or again, faded. There are however existing researches that tried to reproduce these dyes using original dye manufacturing recipes, but there is no way to determine the exactness of the chromaticity or even the “original look” of each dye colours. Reproducing them onto modern film stocks will only give a slight resemblance to the colour of whichever reference is used but will never be exactly the same in the chemical properties likewise in colour rendering. The question however is if reproducing the exact colours is indeed the intention in colour restoration when using more recent developing technology: digital methods.

So then we have all sorts of dilemmas that affect the decisions in digitally restoring these types of historical films—decisions that revolve around the endless debate on what is authentic and original. These dilemmas could be technical, archival, ethical and financial in nature—all of which cannot be resolved without affecting one another. Technical because despite of the leaps of advancement in technologies, even with so many solutions, film preservationists still need to settle for a compromise in terms of image quality. Archival because too much information and content has already been lost and will continue to diminish if no long-term archiving solution both for film and data is found. There is ethical dilemma on the very subject of film restoration, which even until now has been an open ground for discussion among everyone involved in restoring films—not disregarding the financial aspects of it. A film restoration project cannot commence nor proceed without sufficient funding that which affects all.

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Research Laboratory Eastman Kodak Company: Tinting and Toning of Eastman Positive Motion Picture Film. Fourth Edition-Revised. Rochester, N.Y.: 1927. Available 1

online: <www.brianpritchard.com/tinting_and_toning_of_eastman_po_4ed.htm> Accessed on 12.1.2014.

Much has already been said about the neglect, ignorance of and even the aversion to colour in silent films. It has been the most misunderstood aspect of early cinema and yet colour has not only been the ultimate goal in capturing the real world through moving pictures but it was also influenced ‘by traditions of fantasy and spectacle, which played as much of a role in the look of early colour film as did a desire for “total cinema” in Bazin’s sense.’ Pioneers in cinematography may have wanted 2 3

colour since the inception of the new art form but were limited by the rudimentary techniques of the time. This led to the development of various mechanical and photochemical colouring processes for films. Processes such as hand painting, stenciling, tinting, and toning, have been very innovative but expensive techniques of colouring originally shot black-and-white nitrate films and yet still lacked that realism aimed by many filmmakers and sought later by ever demanding audience. These applied colours would subsequently suffer much scrutiny and neglect.

In the earlier attempts of archiving many of these coloured films, colour information has been ignored for many reasons: technical limitations, feasibility, financial, and aesthetics. Upon the discovery that nitrate was very dangerous, the archives were in such a rush to transfer all their nitrate film holdings (or just selected a few) to be able to dispose nitrates from their storage but the only technology available that time to transfer film was by duplicating using a film printer onto black-and-white film stock because color film stocks were either unavailable, too complicated or too expensive and using the telecine (possibly those that can only scan black-and-white or use monochrome CRT light source). Another possible reason was to transfer films into analog video for black-and-white television broadcasting. In the advent of television, film distributors realized the potential of selling their film holdings to broadcast stations to fill in air time gaps, thus became a business opportunity for content owners. 4

Over the years, the the film archiving community’s attitude towards colour in silent films has changed and now acknowledges colour as an important element and history of the media. Conventions, experimentations and researches, as well as publications have taken place in support of this advocacy. And so after a hundred years, remnants of these coloured films are being rediscovered and presented to a much wider audience—thanks to the innovations in modern and global electronic communication. Restoration projects both photochemical and digital have been continuously undergoing but despite advancements in the digital image processing, professionals, experts and including non-practitioners are still left with many challenges in dealing specifically with coloured nitrate films.

An underlying question is, how are these technologies, techniques and practices being communicated to those who are seeking for solutions? There are various types of clients, chances are most of them would be technically unskilled. The choices of solutions nowadays are too many, which was in the past twenty years the opposite. The film industry is again within a rapid and major transitional phase that is affecting all areas of practice—from shooting to the final presentation format. The film archiving community, overshadowed by the demands of a dictatorial commercial film industry in terms of development in technology, is just waiting on the side to see how they could also take advantage of the solutions being offered. The problem is many solutions are made without film preservation in mind.

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From André Bazin, who wrote in 1967 “The Myth of Total Cinema”, that describes the constant desire to represent reality as completely as possible, which he claimed as 2

the root of cinema innovations (both technology such as sound, colour, and widescreen as well as techniques such as more elaborate editing).

Yumibe, Joshua. E-mail interview. 27 April 2014.3

Enticknap, Leo: Film Restoration: The Culture and Science of Audiovisual Heritage. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Digital 12.4

Ironically, film preservation has very high standards in terms of quality and adherence to ethical standards that is proving to be a challenge to most technicians and developers—even to archivists. But the question is, do the technical people really understand the ethics involved in film restoration as well as the practice of film preservation? Is colour restoration more strict in practice because there is ethics involved and the concept of authenticity is always emphasized?

2. Scope and Limitations

The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate the current practices of digital colour restoration specifically of applied colour silent era films to inform professionals in the film restoration field including film archivists, restorers and enthusiasts on what are the challenges met in digital colour restoration of such films. This study will also serve as a reference on the possible technologies and current techniques used in digital colour restoration.

It is also intended to act as a bridge between two worlds: the archives and the post production—to stage that unspoken dialogue between them because of lack of understanding on both practices. The concentration and key discussion will be on the following areas of interest in relation to digital colour restoration of applied colour silent era films: dilemmas, practice and techniques. Discussion on the methods or processes in colour restoration will be more theoretic (citing practical examples) and will not be purely technical because technology improves rapidly and there is hypothetically no standard approach to all projects.

This is not a step-by-step guide and it is never intended that way but rather serves as an overview of what modern methods and practices are usually done and what are the possibilities aided by the current technology. Colour restoration projects will be presented as case studies. There will be secondary discussions on archiving challenges and ethical colour restoration and a brief touch on the subject of the economics of restoration that affects facilities. It may also be noticed that a switch of point of views between a technician and a conservator manifests as certain matters are presented and argued. Except for themes directly affecting decisions in colour restoration, bigger and more controversial issues concerning film restoration and preservation will not be rehashed as there are already a number of recognized literatures with much stronger arguments about it in existence. Although the general digital restoration workflow was illustrated, image processing (i.e. dust and scratch removal, NR), sound and photochemical colour restoration processes were excluded as well in in-depth technical discussions since the main focus is the area of digital restoration that deals with colour.

This paper also follows the already established definition of terminologies in the field of film preservation. cinematography and post production. Methods in colour restoration include duplication via digitisation, simulation and emulation of applied colour techniques through digital methods.

Finally, highlighted areas are research and colour analysis, image quality that adheres to accurate representation of the historical film pertaining to its colour characteristics, presentation of the digitally restored film, and practices and discipline of technicians.

Definition of Terms

The terminologies and definitions used here are contextual to clarify the surrounding idea or concepts in this paper, as these words will be repeatedly encountered throughout the discussions. Some

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definitions were derived from already accepted archival conventions defined by the archival community via FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) and later, some noted authors of the subject, which will be written verbatim. It will not attempt to redefine norms nor will engage in the open debates about some of these terminologies.

Applied colours (a.k.a. arbitrary, autonomous, artificial, unnatural) pertain to manually applied colouring techniques using aniline dyes onto films that were produced and popularised during the silent era between 1896 until late 1920s. These are hand or stencil-coloured, tinted and toned films. (See Chapter 4.)

Film artefact is the source film material that was chosen as the version to digitise and/or used for analysis or as reference during the restoration process, but not necessarily the original camera negative, unless otherwise specified.

Preservation is a set of activities that ensure the safeguarding and protection of film material from damage, destruction, and loss.‑ 5

Film preservation is a branch of archival science covering cinematograph film and its properties, magnetic carriers and their properties, storage buildings, film storage procedures and conditions, film restoration, and film handling. 6

Restoration involves research, followed by the retrieval, repair, and preservation of elements of a film work for the purpose of saving that work.

Reconstruction is a further stage of restoration, of which the goal (in an ideal case) is the (re) creation from different elements of an original version of a film work. 7

Digital restoration/reconstruction is the process of repairing a digitised version of a film work including its other elements by means of digital technologies and techniques starting from duplication through film scanning to image processing, grading and mastering to various deliverable formats, which can be both analog and digital.

Digital colour restoration is a stage of digital restoration/reconstruction process that aims to restore and correct the colours (including white and black) of an archival film work that exhibits anomalies such as fading, colour casts or low densities as well as recreating the colours on black-and-white film that was originally coloured through colour grading/timing in the digital intermediate (DI) workflow.

Client collectively pertains to restorers, archivists, private individuals, groups or companies who initiate and/or fund the restoration project.

Supervising restorer is either the client or representative of the client who is facilitating the restoration and who is directly working with the post production or laboratory on a digital restoration project. This person is normally a film conservator, archivist or restorer.

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Boarini, Vittorio, Opela, Vladimir: Charter of Film Restoration. In: FIAF Journal of Film Preservation No. 83, November, 2010. pp. 37-38.5

ibid.6

ibid.7

Technician/Operator refers to the person controlling the specific programs or machines used in digital restoration, unless otherwise specified, i.e. colourist

Technologists pertains to the developers and manufacturers of the systems.

3. Methodology

A descriptive research methodology was primarily used for this study. Data was gathered from related bibliographic and Internet references and interviews conducted to respondents personally and via E-mail correspondence. Since the topic of the thesis is very specific and is targeted to a niche group of professionals, a survey was not necessary for data collection. Instead key personalities with relevant expertise to the subject matter and whose works have contributed in this area of practice such as post production industry experts, colourists, colour scientists, film archivists and conservators, entrepreneurs and authors of related literature were contacted for an E-mail interview to avoid conflict in schedules and provide convenience for respondents based in distant places as suppose to conducting face-to-face interviews, with exception to onsite visits and video call sessions. Therefore correspondence was made quite early in the project-planning period to allow the respondents enough time to reply.

The questionnaires were especially formulated to match the level of expertise and experience of the respondent. Questions were addressed to colourists with experience and knowledge in film restoration, moving image archivists and conservators, restoration facilities and film laboratories, product specialists of software and hardware used in colour grading, restoration and film scanning, and sales representatives of related products.

The themes of the questionnaires revolved around the responsibilities of the professional in a restoration project, the decision-making involved in such projects, the dilemmas encountered in restoration projects, and especially the methods on how the project was accomplished. The final product of this research intends to reflect these different points of views of the professionals interviewed.

Another vehicle used for gathering data was through participation in online forums of professional groups in the field of colour grading, colorization and restoration of films as well as moving image archiving community. Questions connected to the subject matter were posted on these forums to get relevant information and individual perspectives. In this manner, the validity of the issue thru the reaction and participation of the group to the questionnaire was also examined.

Sample materials were gathered to support the research. This included colour grading samples—from both advertising and commercial film grading, colour restoration grading, applied coloured film plate samples (hand-painted, tinted, toned and stenciled). These samples will be collected from bibliographic materials, websites, and actual physical object sample from film archives, film facilities and laboratories with corresponding permission for usage.

Case studies were used only as an exploratory tool to illustrate example of projects where the coloured films were recovered using digital technologies. The purpose of this part of the research method was to examine contemporary real-life situations in digital colour restoration and provide the reference for the application of ideas and execution of restoration techniques. Two projects were cited in this study, one is “Hänchens Soldaten” tinted nitrate film from the Steiff collection of the Landesfilmsammlung

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Baden-Württemberg that was digitised and restored in ARRI and George Méliès’ hand-painted masterpiece, “Le Voyage dans la Lune” (“A Trip to the Moon”) in coordination with Technicolor and Lobster Films. Further analysis between the two case studies was done through presenting the differences and similarities in their restoration processes.

Actual colour restoration was also executed using gathered digitised applied colour film samples for testing techniques achievable through the use of a stand-alone colour corrector software, DaVinci Resolve. Other solutions such as the Nucoda and Phoenix were also referred to in some cases not only because of the researcher’s familiarity to these programs but also because it is one of the few colour grading programs that combine sophisticated restoration tools. These practical experimentations were aimed to test some techniques in digital colour restoration. In addition, current developments in colour space, digital imaging and cinema projection were also studied to see the viability of using such technologies in future colour restoration projects.

4. Applied Colour Silent Era Films

Cinema traces its roots to series of still images that when viewed through a slit on a rapidly rotating cylinder or device creates the illusion of a moving picture—owing to the natural phenomena of “persistence of vision”. During the Victorian Period, the development of projectors, transparent celluloid roll films and film cameras further advanced the art and technique of movie making. Numerous experiments and machines were developed to record the real moving world but very few achieved the main processes that would constitute a motion picture: that is recording, printing and projecting. One of the earlier successful inventions was that of Thomas Edison and his assistant William Dickson, who in 1891 created the Kinetographic camera that recorded instantaneous pictures onto a 35 mm wide film strip, manufactured by Eastman Kodak. In 1893 Dickson also designed an apparatus that can rapidly project these exposed film, that when viewed through a peephole, looked like a moving picture. This was called the Kinetoscope that became a fascinating attraction to many a curious queueing audience. However being able to view the movies only one person at a time made the Kinetoscope impractical as it became even more popular. In December 1895 the french brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière presented their invention to a much bigger audience in one room, the Cinématographe, a camera, printer and projector of film in one device. The reception of the Cinématographe signified the birth of a new form of entertainment and later on, art. By the turn of the 20th century, cinema was becoming quite popular from its humble beginnings as intermission acts in carnivals and vaudevilles and a truly profitable industry. The earliest films were so far different from what we are now used to seeing in the theaters and were rather curious musings of inventors of that time who have just discovered a way to record human motion onto a flexible cellulose film base using devices that can capture and project the moving picture. These early films would belong to the era of silent movies (1895-1929) since the movie making technology in that time did not allow the recording and synchronizing of sound onto the film print. Sound was incorporated afterwards as a live musical performance inside the theater through an accompaniment of an orchestra, a piano, or even the actors themselves speaking behind the curtains as the film is projected. As the movies grew in length, intertitles would be inserted in between scenes to narrate the story points as well as dialogues.

This period of movie making would be the most experimental of all since pioneering filmmakers were only just beginning to explore what possibilities they could achieve given the crudeness of the mechanisms employed. Nearly all imaginable subjects were filmed—from a sneezing man to dancing

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ladies to westerns to fantastical adventures and science fiction. It was also in this time that colour in cinema would be explored.

4.1. Hand-Painting

At that time the only available material was cellulose nitrate, also called celluloid, which was already used in photographic processes as in collodion binders to replace heavier and breakable photographic substrates such as glass. Because of the transparent qualities that allow light to pass through when projected, synthetic or aniline dyes (acid dyes dissolved in acid solutions that were usually made and sold for wool dyeing ) were used to colour these films, borrowing from the techniques used in lantern 8

glass slides colouring. Each frame was meticulously hand-painted using fine brushstrokes directly onto the film stock, usually executed by young women colourists in specialized ateliers. The head colourist initially selected and arranged the colours for the film and then passed the instructions onto about 300 women to lay down the final hand-colouring for mass production. Each girl specialized in one colour in an assembly line style. Some films required more colours that then demanded time and patience to finish an entire film even if the films in that time were shorter in length (10-12 minutes). Thomas 9

Edison used this technique for his dancing ladies (Fig. 1) movies and so did George Méliès who was well-known for using this process for most of his films. Although hand painting required meticulous hand work of artisans, smeared brush strokes couldn’t still be avoided and that each area painted would exhibit varying amounts of dye applied, hence giving the moving pictures a certain fluttering texture when projected. These films resembled an ‘animated series of popular 19th century block-10

coloured wood-cuts.’ 11

4.2. Stencil-coloured

As the demand for coloured films increased together with the length of the film, hand-colouring was becoming too difficult and so it had to be industrialized. Developed by Méliès and Gaumont in 1904, the stencil technique was introduced. In 1906 Charles Pathé put up a colouring workshop in Paris with 200 women colourists where the work was mainly done using stencils. To produce the stencil a positive copy of the same film was cut by hand using a scalpel and then washing away the emulsion afterwards. Each colour required a separate series of film stencils and then sponged onto the film with the stencils used as masks of the areas that will not be coloured. This process was very slow and

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Read, Paul: ‘Unnatural Colours’: An introduction to colouring techniques in silent era movies. Film History: An International Journal 21.1, 2009. pp. 9-46. Available online: 8

Project MUSE. January 21, 2014. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/film_history/summary/v021/21.1.read.html>. p. 14.

‘A Trip to the Moon’, The Extraordinary Voyage [documentary extra, DVD] Dir. Serge Bromberg and Éric Lange. Steamboat Films and Lobster Films, Paris, 2011. 64 9

mins. 00:26:42 - 00:27:18 [Park Circus PC0053 DVD, 2012].

Read. 2009, p. 14.10

Salt, Barry: Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis. Third Edition, London: Starword, 2009. p. 48.11

Fig. 1: Hand-painted Serpentine Dance— Annabelle by W.K.L. Dickson (1894). Source: Women Film Pioneers Project

expensive and so in order to accommodate a growing business that expanded throughout world, Pathé developed a more mechanical technique in applying colours, called the Pathécolor introduced in 1908 (Fig. 2). Each single frame was enlarged onto a piece of glass and traced by an operator who used a pointer attached to a pantograph that precisely cut the stencil. The stencils, one for every colour, were attached to a positive copy and by using a colouring mechanism that pulled both films together in contact by the sprocket holes the colours are applied. A velvet ribbon functioned as a brush that was continuously replenished with dye solution. The process was repeated until all required colours were applied. Compared to hand-painted films, the colours of surviving copies of Pathécolor were paler 12

and has the effect similar to that of ‘carefully hand-tinted photographs or postcards quite common in the early twentieth century that had come to life.’ 13

4.3. Handschiegl Process

The Handschiegl process, devised by Max Handschiegl in 1916, was one of the most popular and commercial mechanical application of colour on films in America in the twenties. Unlike stenciling, this process used opaque paint to cover the areas where colour was to be applied. After cutting, a separate black-and-white film was made for each colour—usually a maximum of three colours. From these painted prints, a dupe-negative was made and developed in a tanning developer that hardened the exposed gelatin layer, which left the blocked-out areas soft enough to absorb the acid dyes. The dyes were accurately transferred onto the print after several passes through the dye transfer machines

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Read. 2009, p. 16.12

Salt. 2009, p. 85.13

Fig. 2: Pathécolor stencil process demonstrating the different cut out areas for colouring with the corresponding hues. Source: Coe, Brian: The History of Movie Photography. 1981.

Fig. 3: Handschiegl process. Source: George Willeman, Library of Congress

Fig. 4: Rose-tinted film. Source: Brian Pritchard

during an imbibition process. With this process there is a subtle blending of colours contrary to the 14

hard edges typical of the stenciled colours. (Fig. 3) 15

4.4. Tinting

Tinting is another applied colouring process, which involves submerging the processed black-and-white film base into a bath of acid dyes (same dye formulas used in stenciling and hand-painting), where an overall colour is uniformly applied onto the film. The colours could range from red, blue, yellow, to sepia, etc. but would be overlaid on the entire image, which is more visible on the lighter areas of the emulsion side of the image—that is the unexposed and undeveloped silver halide salts. It was a highly industrialized yet simple process that was carried out in film laboratories all over the world. (Fig. 4) 16

Pre-tinted film bases were also manufactured presumably as early as 1915 but was more common in the 1920s costing almost the same as clear film base—although far less used as laboratory tinted film. Eastman Kodak manufactured nine colours: red, pink, orange, amber, light amber, yellow, green, blue and lavender and later in the 1920s introduced the Sonochrome that claimed a “complete gamut” of tint colours, which in fact were only “sixteen expressive tints” as was described in an advertisement of the product. Sonochrome was perhaps a last attempt to incorporate colours in film upon the introduction of sound on film, which restricted the use of applied colours because the dyes interfere with the reproduction of sound. 17

4.5. Toning

Toning, also called metallic toning, is the application of metallic salts, mostly ferrocyanides and sulfides (uranium, copper, gold, etc.), that replaced the silver grains of the photographic image. This resulted to the darker areas of the image taking up the colour of the dyes as supposed to in tinting where the lighter areas were coloured. (Fig. 5) Mordant dye toning is another technique that used organic “basic” synthetic dyes. The dyes were applied to the film after bleaching the silver salt, where the dye is chemically bonded. It has been observed to be unstable compared to metal toning and is prone to leaking and diffusion of colours into the lighter areas. 18

Double effects of tinting and toning were also practiced producing two-coloured images—usually with a single colour on lighter areas and a second colour on the darker areas. (Fig. 6) Tones can only be applied onto the release print after processing, while tinting can be done in both ways. In some rare cases, stenciling was also applied to a print after tinting and/or toning. 19

The sudden demise of silent era and coloured films were attributed to the introduction of sound on film, also called the “talkies”, in the late 1920s. The varying tints and tones on film with optical soundtrack distorted the the amplification of the signal from the sound photocell. This resulted to sudden changes in sound levels and overall poor quality in sound. Former techniques in cutting film,

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Coe, Brian: The History of Movie Photography. London: Ash & Grant, 1981, p. 114.14

Timeline of Historical Film Colors: Handschiegl / DeMille-Wyckoff / Wyckoff Process. <http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/timeline-entry/1231/##> Accessed on 9.12.2013.15

Read. 2009, p. 13.16

Read. 2009, pp. 14 and 19.17

Timeline of Historical Film Colors: Mordant toning / dye toning. <http://zauberklang.ch/filmcolors/timeline-entry/1217/> Accessed on 9.12.2013.18

Enticknap, Leo: Moving Image Technology from Zoetrope to Digital. London: Wallflower Press, 2005. p. 77.19

where differently tinted or toned film scenes were to be spliced, could not also be employed without interfering again with the sound track. Even then, coloured films have already been quite problematic that caused much irritation and apprehension from viewers and filmmakers alike. The film was more fragile and prone to breakage when projected with images that were wee bit darker than normal screening (25-95% of the projection light absorbed by the dyes). Also the prolonged viewing of a singular colour caused eye fatigue to the viewer, where the eye adapts to compensate for the strongest colour. By then it was quite obvious that movies should only be made—and remained so for decades in black-and-white. 20

4.6. Theories of Colour in Silent Cinema

Colour in films particularly in the silent era is a complicated issue that has invited open discussions and thorough examination on its integral role in cinema. Adding colours on a black-and-white film allowed the filmmakers to not only simulate reality but also create a world of fantasy, as well as convey emotional, cultural, aesthetic, and ideological meanings to their silent narratives. Creators like 21

George Méliès, Segundo de Chomón and Alfred Hitchcock took to their advantage the effect of colour and while Fritz Lang, according to legend, did not approve of tinting his films purely as a matter of personal taste, the colour orange was still applied to his epic film “Die Nibelungen” —an 22

indication that decisions in colour in most cases do not come from the filmmakers. Nonetheless decisions can be artistic, pragmatic or casual. 23

Colour design was very much a part of that era’s constantly transforming film style and narration. 24

Analysis of the colour decisions showed that the hue selections were usually based from common associations to the natural world, lighting conditions, and objects: blue was typically used for exterior night scenes, amber is for interior settings, red for fire, green for landscapes and so on. But then there would also be coloured films that exhibit illogical colour designs merely for artistic reasons, personal preferences of the distributor or whatever’s left in the lab technician’s dye vats. Lloyd Jones’s Sonochrome was marketed using rather ridiculously romantic naming and descriptions of the tints that related to the dramatic effects of lighting to the senses and emotions (see Appendix Plate No.

"14

Read. 2009, pp. 19-20.20

Hanssen, Eirik Frisvold: The Functions of Color. White paper, 1999. Available online: <https://www.academia.edu/292978/The_Functions_of_Colour> Accessed on 21

19.3.2014.

Wilkening, Anke: Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen: A Restoration and Preservation Project by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden. FIAF Journal of Film 79/80, 22

1990. pp. 96-97.

Read. 2009, p. 11.23

Yumibe, Joshua: Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture, Modernism. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2012. p. 8.24

Fig. 5: Iron Blue toning. Source: Brian Pritchard Fig. 6: Double effects of a yellow tint with a green tone added. Source: Brian Pritchard

10). The absence of colour—whether as blackness or black-and-white—was also recognized to be 25

part of the evolution of colour in silent films. Although majority of the films were arbitrarily coloured, there were films that remained uncoloured. If the suppression of colour was due to creative intentions or economics, no one really knows. 26

The so-called chromophobia likewise suppressed colours as filmmakers, critics and even archivists denied to acknowledge the creative use of colours in film, which fueled the erratic decision to preserve nearly all silent films in black-and-white. Cecil B. DeMille claimed that colour may be too distracting to the narrative in addition to causing eyestrain. The French New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut 27

was quoted in declaring that coloured films conveyed too much realism and ugliness and are lacking in artistic ambition in cinema making. All in all, colour was constantly scrutinized and undervalued to 28

have a creative potential in filmmaking even when the natural colour processes alongside musical 29

extravaganzas became more prominent in the thirties.

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Read. 2009, p. 11.25

Gunning, Tom: Where Do Colors Go at Night? In: Color and the Moving Image: History, Theory, Aesthetics, Archive. AFI Film Reader. New York: Routeledge, 2013. pp. 26

81-92.

Yumibe. 2012, p. 20.27

Bergan, Ronald: Did colour ruin the movies?. the guardian Film Blog, August 10, 2007. <http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/aug/10/didcolourruinthemovies> 28

Accessed on 13.1.2014.

Everett, Wendy (ed.): Questions of Colour in Cinema: from Paintbrush to Pixel. New Studies in European Cinema. Bern: Peter Lang AG, 2007. p. 23.29