Three-Strip Technicolor Camera
This is one of many cameras Technicolor built to shoot movies in color. The process involved running three strips of black and white film simultaneously through this behemoth of a camera. A prism behind the lens would split the light three ways, one bit of light going through a red filter, the other light going through a green filter, and the other light going through a blue filter. With the light being cut down from both the prism and the filters the exposure level (ASA) was in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 (the Wikipedia article says 5). Eventually, faster black and white film stocks would help make the ASA higher, but lighting scenes inside a studio involved pumping a huge amount of footcandles to get a decent exposure (f/stop). It goes without saying that shooting three-strip Technicolor was cumbersome, time-consuming, and (of course) expensive.
Three-strip Technicolor began in 1935, and the use of this process continued until 1953. Eastman Kodak had come out with a useable color negative for motion picture shooting that could be used in conventional studio cameras in 1951. The three-panel "This is Cinerama" utilized the color negative. It wouldn't be long before wide screen films would be made because of the single color negative stock.
Despite the fact that color negative rendered the use of three black and white negatives obsolete, the use of the three matrices (yellow, magenta, and cyan) remained in use to make release prints until 1974, when "The Godfather Part II" was the last film to be printed using the dye-transfer process.
Not only that, but the Technicolor cameras were re-engineered to shoot VistaVision, which is running the film through the camera horizontally, creating a larger eight-perf image (the same size and perforation numbers one can get when shooting 35mm stills), creating a 16x9 aspect ratio. Also, an anamorphic attachment (1X5) could be used in front of the lens to create a 2.35 to 1 aspect ratio (the same shape as Cinemascope but a larger frame), called Technirama. By the mid-1960s the camera and the VistaVision process was also rendered obsolete.
It was in 1976 when George Lucas brought the VistaVision cameras (the old Technicolor cameras) out of mothballs to shoot background plates and blue-screen work for "Star Wars," and VistaVision became a thing again. Lucas' ILM would use the cameras for all their other productions, even those where they were hired out by other producers and directors.
If you think this camera is a huge hulking beast -- and it is -- you should try to check out photos of the camera with the soundproof blimps on them. They must have weighed a ton, or at least something close to it. Yes, despite the size and bulk, these cameras were never locked down, unless the shot called for it. Directors would still decide to have fluid moving shots, whether by dollies or cranes, and they would still be placed in every conceivable angle to get the maximum dramatic effect. And the cinematographers and their lighting and grip crews would do their best in ensuring the shots would look as good (if not great) as possible.
The list of movies shot using three-strip Technicolor would be way too long to mention here. But here are some tiles that are among my favorite films shot in three-strip Technicolor: "The Wizard of Oz," "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," "Black Narcissus," "A Matter of Life and Death," "The Red Shoes," "An American in Paris," "Singin' in the Rain," "The Tales of Hoffmann," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," and "Quo Vadis."
Three-Strip Technicolor Camera
This is one of many cameras Technicolor built to shoot movies in color. The process involved running three strips of black and white film simultaneously through this behemoth of a camera. A prism behind the lens would split the light three ways, one bit of light going through a red filter, the other light going through a green filter, and the other light going through a blue filter. With the light being cut down from both the prism and the filters the exposure level (ASA) was in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 (the Wikipedia article says 5). Eventually, faster black and white film stocks would help make the ASA higher, but lighting scenes inside a studio involved pumping a huge amount of footcandles to get a decent exposure (f/stop). It goes without saying that shooting three-strip Technicolor was cumbersome, time-consuming, and (of course) expensive.
Three-strip Technicolor began in 1935, and the use of this process continued until 1953. Eastman Kodak had come out with a useable color negative for motion picture shooting that could be used in conventional studio cameras in 1951. The three-panel "This is Cinerama" utilized the color negative. It wouldn't be long before wide screen films would be made because of the single color negative stock.
Despite the fact that color negative rendered the use of three black and white negatives obsolete, the use of the three matrices (yellow, magenta, and cyan) remained in use to make release prints until 1974, when "The Godfather Part II" was the last film to be printed using the dye-transfer process.
Not only that, but the Technicolor cameras were re-engineered to shoot VistaVision, which is running the film through the camera horizontally, creating a larger eight-perf image (the same size and perforation numbers one can get when shooting 35mm stills), creating a 16x9 aspect ratio. Also, an anamorphic attachment (1X5) could be used in front of the lens to create a 2.35 to 1 aspect ratio (the same shape as Cinemascope but a larger frame), called Technirama. By the mid-1960s the camera and the VistaVision process was also rendered obsolete.
It was in 1976 when George Lucas brought the VistaVision cameras (the old Technicolor cameras) out of mothballs to shoot background plates and blue-screen work for "Star Wars," and VistaVision became a thing again. Lucas' ILM would use the cameras for all their other productions, even those where they were hired out by other producers and directors.
If you think this camera is a huge hulking beast -- and it is -- you should try to check out photos of the camera with the soundproof blimps on them. They must have weighed a ton, or at least something close to it. Yes, despite the size and bulk, these cameras were never locked down, unless the shot called for it. Directors would still decide to have fluid moving shots, whether by dollies or cranes, and they would still be placed in every conceivable angle to get the maximum dramatic effect. And the cinematographers and their lighting and grip crews would do their best in ensuring the shots would look as good (if not great) as possible.
The list of movies shot using three-strip Technicolor would be way too long to mention here. But here are some tiles that are among my favorite films shot in three-strip Technicolor: "The Wizard of Oz," "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," "Black Narcissus," "A Matter of Life and Death," "The Red Shoes," "An American in Paris," "Singin' in the Rain," "The Tales of Hoffmann," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," and "Quo Vadis."