The Powell & Pressburger Pages Dedicated to the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and all the other people, both actors and technicians who helped them make those wonderful films. A lot of the documents have been sent to me or have come from other web sites. The name of the web site is given where known. If I have unintentionally included an image or document that is copyrighted or that I shouldn't have done then please email me and I'll remove it. I make no money from this site, it's purely for the love of the films. [Any comments are by me (Steve Crook) and other members of the email list]

Wed 12th February 2003. 6:20pm

NFT programme notes.

---

Previews, Interviews & Special Events/A History of Colour
The History and Development of
Colour - An Illustrated Lecture

Another fascinating evening at the NFT.

David Pierce of the NFTVA gave a nice friendly talk about the history of colour film. A bit chaotic at the start but he fumbled his way through it and got more organised as we went along. Neal Lofthouse from Banbury, Oxfordshire was there as well. Always nice to see you Neal. Mark Fuller from Bristol arrived just as we were settling into our seats and we had a few quick words then settled down for the lecture.

David explained the techniques and methods involved in some of the early processes such as:

• Tinting and Toning
  Tinting replaces the white/clear parts of the film with colour
  Toning replaces the dark areas with colour (c.f. Sepia)
  Toning was done with cyanide compounds
  Tinting can be stripped & restarted - toning can't
• Hand colouring
  Artificial colouring. Each print coloured by hand
  6 hours work for 1 minute of screen time
• Automated - Stencil cutting
  3 feet of stencil per hour (for each or 6 colours)
  Stencils then used to apply colours
• Kinemacolor
  2 colour - Red/Green
  Film run at double speed, 32 fps. Led to mechanical breakdowns
• William & Claude Friese Green
  Tinted alternate frames
  Colour fringing when object moved quickly relative to the camera but very good on fairly static or slow moving scenes.
• Prizma
  Could have become the success that Technicolor was
  Additive, alternate frame, 4 colour RGBY
• Technicolor Process #1
  Single strip, double speed RG
  Operator controls the speed of each wheel
• Dufay
  Dyed film RGB
  Needs a lot of light to project
• Prizma
  Subtractive, different colour emulsion on each side of the film

After the lecture there was time for a quick break then we went back in to see Black Narcissus on a wonderful dye transfer Technicolor print that Michael Pogorzelski had brought over for his lecture a few days before. Slightly scratched in places but it really reminded us why it was called Glorious Technicolor. And of course, it had the correct "black out" as Sister Ruth faints, not the "blue out" mistake that some recent prints have.

Afterwards we all retired to the bar and chatted long into the night (until they threw us out when they closed up). Had the pleasure of meeting Bryony Dixon of the BFI / NFTVA. She had been on the New Directors Award Jury at the 2002 Donostia - San Sebastián Film Festival and had helped enormously by organizing a lot of the prints of the Powell (& Pressburger) films shown there. Thanks again Bryony.