Jump to content

Kinemacolor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A frame from George Albert Smith's early colour film ''Two Clowns'' (c. 1907)

Kinemacolorwas the first successfulcolour motion picture process.Used commercially from 1909 to 1915, it was invented byGeorge Albert Smithin 1906.[1][2]It was atwo-colouradditive colourprocess, photographing a black-and-white film behind alternating red/orange and blue/green filters and projecting them throughred and greenfilters.[3]It was demonstrated several times in 1908 and first shown to the public in 1909. From 1909 on, the process was known and trademarked asKinemacolorand was marketed byCharles Urban’sNatural Color Kinematograph Company,which sold Kinemacolor licences around the world.

Process

[edit]

Edward Raymond Turnerproduced the oldest surviving colour films around 1902. They were made through three-colour alternating-filters. Turner's process, for which Charles Urban had provided financial backing, was adapted byGeorge Albert Smithafter Turner's sudden death in 1903 into Kinemacolor.[4]Smith was also influenced by the work ofWilliam Norman Lascelles Davidson.[5]He was granted a patent for the Kinemacolor process in 1907.

"How to Make and Operate Moving Pictures" published byFunk & Wagnallsin 1917 notes the following:

Of the many attempts to produce cinematograph pictures... the greatest amount of attention so far has been attracted by a system invented by George Albert Smith, and commercially developed by Charles Urban under the name of "Kinemacolor." In this system (to quote fromCassell's Cyclopædia of Photography,edited by the editor of this present book), only two colour filters are used in taking the negatives and only two in projecting the positives. The camera resembles the ordinary cinematographic camera except that it runs at twice the speed, taking thirty-two images per second instead of sixteen, and it is fitted with a rotating colour filter in addition to the ordinary shutter. This filter is an aluminium skeleton wheel... having four segments, two open ones, G and H; one filled in with red-dyed gelatine, E F; and the fourth containing green-dyed gelatine, A B. The camera is so geared that exposures are made alternately through the red gelatine and the green gelatine.Panchromatic filmis used, and the negative is printed from in the ordinary way, and it will be understood that there is no colour in the film itself.[6]

To shoot Kinemacolor films, cameramen had to choose between a variety of red/orange and blue/green filters depending on the subject. Despite this, the films were projected through a single set of red and green filters.[3]Modern research has matched the red projection filter to25 Sunset Red(with a peak transmission above 610nm) and the green projection filter to122 Fern Green(with a peak of around 510 to 540 nm).[7][8][9]Projected frame rate was also confirmed to be between 30 and 32 frames per second.[7]

Kinemacolor faced several issues, including its inability to reproduce the full color spectrum due to being a two-colour process. Other issues included eye strain and frame parallax because it used a successive frame process, as well as the need for a special projector. The color filters absorbed so much light that studios had to be built open-air.[10]

Premiere

[edit]
Coronation Drill atReedham Orphanage(1911)

At the press opening of the Urbanora House in London on 1 May 1908,Charles Urbanpresented Kinemacolor films which he stated were not taken with the intention to be shown in front of an audience. A second demonstration in England took place once again in the Urbanora House on 23 July 1908, in front of theLord Mayor of Londonas well as 60 other guests. Kinemacolor was shown in Paris on 8 July 1908, featuring a film of the Grand Prix motor race taken the previous day. Among the guests were theLumière brothers,inventors of theautochromecolor photography process. George Albert Smith presented Kinemacolor before theRoyal Society of Artson 9 December 1908.

On 26 February 1909, the general public first saw Kinemacolor in a programme at thePalace Theatrein London. By this time, the process was known as Kinemacolor, a suggestion from Arthur Binstead, a journalist atSporting Life,after Urban offered a £5 prize to anyone who could come up with a name. The programme consisted of 21 films mainly shot aroundBrightonand theFrench Riviera.[10]

On 6 July 1909, George Albert Smith presented a programme of 11 Kinemacolor films atKnowsley Hallbefore KingEdward VIIand QueenAlexandra.The films included military subjects as well as a party at Knowsley Hall and the King himself. Edward was pleased with the films.[11]

The process was first seen in the United States on 11 December 1909, at an exhibition staged by Smith and Urban atMadison Square Gardenin New York City.[12]

Success and decline

[edit]

In 1909, Urban, who had acquired the Kinemacolor patent from Smith, formed theNatural Color Kinematograph Company,which produced most Kinemacolor films. Urban sold Kinemacolor licences around the world through the Natural Color Kinematograph Company. Outside of the United Kingdom, the only successful Kinemacolor companies were located in Japan and the United States.[13][14]

Fragment fromWith Our King and Queen Through India(1912)

The Natural Color Kinematograph Company producedThe Funeral of King Edward VII(1910), the first notable Kinemacolor film which proved to be a financial success. That year, the company released the first dramatic film made in the process,By The Order of Napoleon.In 1911, theScala Theatrebecame Urban's flagship venue for showing Kinemacolor films, which includedFrom Bud to Blossom(1910),Unveiling of the Queen Victoria Memorial(1911),Coronation of George V(1911),The Investiture of The Prince of Wales(1911). The company also produced thedocumentary filmsWith Our King and Queen Through India(1912) and the notable recovery of £750,000 worth of gold and silver bullion from the wreck of P&O'sSSOceanain theStrait of Dover(1912). The dramasThe World, the Flesh and the Devil(1914), andLittle Lord Fauntleroy(1914) were among the last feature films released in Kinemacolor.[10][15]

Kinemacolor enjoyed the most commercial success in the UK where, between 1909 and 1918, it was shown at more than 250 entertainment venues. Kinemacolor was popular with members of theBritish royal family.Pope Pius Xsaw Kinemacolor films in 1913.[3][16]

The Natural Color Kinematograph Company re-purchased the French rights for Kinemacolor. In 1913, Urban built theThéâtre Edouard VIIin Paris for the purpose of showing Kinemacolor, but the process remained commercially unsuccessful in France.

In April 1910, theKinemacolor Company of Americawas formed, which initially relied on showing British Kinemacolor films. They filmedThe Clansmanin 1911, based on thecontroversial novel of the same namebyThomas Dixon.The film was finished and never released or left unfinished,[17]and inspired D. W. Griffith to produceThe Birth of a Nation(1915). The Kinemacolor Company of America produced several narrative and documentary films, such asMaking of The Panama Canal(1912) andThe Scarlet Letter(1913). The company had studios inHollywoodfrom 1912 until 1913 and ceased production in 1915.

The Japanese Kinemacolor rights were acquired by theFukuhōdōfilm studio in 1910 and were passed on to Toyo Shokai.Emperor Taishōwas presented with a three-hour long Kinemacolor programme in August 1913. Two months later, the first Kinemacolor programme was shown inTokyo.Toyo Shokai reformed itself toTenkatsuin March 1914 and produced primarily fiction films. With World War I film stock became more expensive, so the company limited production of Kinemacolor films. The last Japanese film produced in Kinemacolor wasSaiyûki Zokuhen(1917).

Frame from the Kinemacolor filmBalkan War Scenes(1912), filmed by James Scott Brown andFrederic Villiersduring theFirst Balkan War.

In 1913, after years of dispute,William Friese-Greene,inventor of the rival Biocolour system, challenged Smith's Kinemacolor patent at theRoyal Courts of Justice.Although the court initially favoured Kinemacolor, the original verdict was overturned in March 1914. Consequently, Kinemacolor lost not only its patent protection but its commercial value and exclusivity.

Urban liquidated the Natural Color Kinematograph Company in order to protect the shareholders. He took the case to theHouse of Lordsand continued the company as Color Films Ltd., which produced the documentaryWith The Fighting Forces of EuropeduringWorld War I.In April 1915, the House of Lords upheld the Court of Appeal's decision and the patent was revoked.[18][19]Charles Urban filmed the British fleet in Kinemacolor for the documentary filmBritain Preparedin late 1915. Most Kinemacolor films are now consideredlost.[20]

With his associate Henry W. Joy, Charles Urban continued his research in colour cinematography and developed a process called Kinekrom, an improved version of Kinemacolor. Kinekrom was shown to the public in New York in November 1916. The process was intended to enable Urban to continue showing his vast library of old Kinemacolor films. However, public interest for Kinemacolor had faded and there were few screenings.[10]

The first (additive) version ofPrizma Color,developed by William Van Doren Kelley in the U.S. from 1913 to 1917, used some of the same principles as Kinemacolor.

List of films made in Kinemacolor

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^US941960A,Smith, George Albert, "Kinematograph apparatus for the production of colored pictures", issued 1909-11-30
  2. ^Smith (25 July 1907).Improvements in, and relating to, Kinematograph Apparatus for the Production of Coloured Pictures - British patent 26,607(PDF).
  3. ^abcI colori ritrovati. Kinemacolor e altre magie. / Kinemacolor And Other Magic.Edizioni Cineteca di Bologna. 2017.ISBN978-8899196417.
  4. ^"World's First Colour Film Discovered", BBC News (12 September 2012)
  5. ^"William Norman Lascelles Davidson".Who's Who of Victorian Cinema.Retrieved31 October2007.... Although his work was ultimately unsuccessful, it played its part in influencing the development of Kinemacolor, the world's first successful natural colour motion picture system, invented by Davidson's neighbour in the English south coast town of Southwick, near Brighton, G.A. Smith....
  6. ^Widescreen Museum
  7. ^ab"Recreating Kinemacolor on the Screen".brianpritchard.Retrieved7 April2023.
  8. ^"LEE 025 Sunset Red – Colour Filters & Gels".LEE Filters.October 2020.Retrieved7 April2023.
  9. ^"LEE 122 Fern Green – Colour Gel for Lighting".LEE Filters.October 2020.Retrieved7 April2023.
  10. ^abcdMcKernan, Luke (2018).Charles Urban: Pioneering the Non-Fiction Film in Britain and America, 1897-1925.University of Exeter Press.ISBN978-0859892964.
  11. ^Anonymous (July 1909)."Animated Pictures in Natural Colours".The BioScope.144.
  12. ^urbanora (15 June 2008)."Colourful stories no. 11 – Kinemacolor in America « The BioScope".Bioscopic.wordpress.Retrieved26 February2014.
  13. ^"Natural Color Kinematograph Company Limited 1909 - 1915".Science Museum Group.
  14. ^McKernan, Luke (1999).A Yank in Britain: The Lost Memoirs of Charles Urban.Projection Box.ISBN9780952394129.
  15. ^Salvage Operations of S.S. OceanaProduced by the Natural Colour Kinematograph Co., BrightonatIMDbEdit this at Wikidata
  16. ^Victoria Jackson, "The Distribution and Exhibition of Kinemacolor in the UK and the USA 1909–1916" (University of Bristol, 2011).
  17. ^Stokes, Melvyn (2007).D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780198044369.
  18. ^"Film Releases".The Bioscope.24 June 1915.
  19. ^Kindem, G (1981)."The Demise of Kinemacolor. Technological, Legal, Economic, and Aesthetic Problems in Early Color Cinema History".Cinema Journal.20(2): 3–14.doi:10.2307/1224830.JSTOR1224830.
  20. ^"Surviving Kinemacolor".Charles Urban.Retrieved8 October2023.
  21. ^The New YorkTimes,2 April 1912: 24. Accessed via ProQuest ( "Display Ad 28-No Title" ).
  22. ^"An Expression | Details of the work | Japanese Animated Film Classics".
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kinemacolor&oldid=1237613639"