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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Technicolor Dye Transfer printing.

   
Author Topic: Technicolor Dye Transfer printing.
Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002


 - posted 02-23-2005 12:57 PM      Profile for Stephen Furley   Email Stephen Furley   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What type, and pitch, of perforations were used on the printing matricies?

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 02-24-2005 06:30 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Stephen,
There is an excellent book titled "Colour Cinematography" that has alot on the exact science of the Techniicolor Dye Transfer Process. I believe its a british book!! They even get as detailed as comnparing the differences in U.S. and British dyes used in the process..... Its probably the British dyes that account for the main reason the British stuff always looked better than the U.S. stuff. I have the section from the book here in the process and I will scan through it to see if they make mention of the pitch.

Mark

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000


 - posted 02-25-2005 08:27 AM      Profile for John Pytlak   Author's Homepage   Email John Pytlak   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Marty Hart's American Widescreen Museum has some photos of the Technicolor 3-strip negatives, matrices, and dye transfer prints:

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor6.htm

Since the dye transfer originally occured on a "pin belt" with the films essentially flat during contact, I suspect (but don't know for certain) that KS-1870 perfs would have been used for both matrices and receiver stock, as seems to be the case in the photos shown.

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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 02-26-2005 02:51 AM      Profile for Christopher Seo   Email Christopher Seo   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Stephen,

Out of curiosity, what is the reason for your inquiry?

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 02-26-2005 06:32 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
There is an excellent book titled "Colour Cinematography" that has alot on the exact science of the Techniicolor Dye Transfer Process. I believe its a british book!!
It's by Adrian Cornwell-Clyne and is very rare. Copies of the 1950 second edition change hands for between £50 for a dog-eared one and several hundred for a pristine one. Of all the rare British film books only Cecil Hepworth's Animated Photography (1987) or Henry V. Hopwood's Living Pictures (1899 first edition) are likely to go for more. Even well-photographed microfiches are pretty expensive. There's a copy of Cornwell-Clyne in the BFI library and I have a scan of most of it on a CD at work - I'll have a look when I get a moment next week to see if it answers Stephen's question.

Edit: Hepworth's Animated Photography was, obviously, published in 1897. Cecil Hepworth was a pretty impressive bloke (not to mention his dog, who by starring in the original and two remakes of Rescued by Rover because the first canine film star) but writing a book aged 137 was even beyond his capabilities!

[ 02-27-2005, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: Leo Enticknap ]

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Mark Gulbrandsen
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Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 02-26-2005 07:56 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Leo Enticknap
It's by Adrian Cornwell-Clyne and is very rare. Copies of the 1950 second edition change hands for between £50 for a dog-eared one and several hundred for a pristine one.
Although there are bound to be others the only copy I know of this book in the States is at the University Of Illinois Grainger Technical Library. The book even disappeared from there for quite some time but was eventually returned. Its that book that I copied the entire Technicolor sections from... probably the most extensive scientific information about the Dye Transfer process outside Technicolor labs itself.... Thanks to Steve Kraus for dragging me down there one day... This library was built by a single donation from W.W. Grainger himself! An absolutely amazing library not to be missed if you're into technical libraries.

Mark

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Dan Lyons
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 698
From: Seal Beach, CA
Registered: Sep 2002


 - posted 05-15-2005 02:45 AM      Profile for Dan Lyons   Email Dan Lyons   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
bump!!! lets take this topic in a new direction!

Having just looked through the long out of print book "Glorious Technicolor" today, a question came to mind.

I know that for a short time some new IB prints were made such as "gone with the wind", "OZ", "apocolypse now redux","pearl harbour", etc.

Does anyone have a list of all the titles that were printed with the new, but now defunct, dye transfer line? How many prints of each title were made? It would be nifty, and dorky, to have the info so I could paste it into my book.

[Confused]

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 05-16-2005 03:25 AM      Profile for William Hooper   Author's Homepage   Email William Hooper   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Concerning Oz, Scott Norwood posted this information to rec.arts.movies.tech 11/9/1998:

quote:

See below. This is reposted from rec.arts.movies.current-films. I have
no idea about the accuracy of the list.

--
Scott Norwood: snorw...@nyx.net, snorw...@redballoon.net, sen...@mail.wm.edu
Cool Home Page: http://www.redballoon.net/
Lame Quote: Penguins? In Snack Canyon?

[Snipping header junk]

From dhi...@email.com Sun Nov 8 20:50:22 In article <Pine.GSO.4.05.9811061322070.20255-100...@paladin.cc.emory.edu>,
Jason Richard Edgecombe <jedg...@emory.edu> wrote:

> I read today that WIZARD OF OZ is being distributed in both Eastmancolor
> and 3-strip Technicolor prints. If i'm going to see it, i'd really like
> to see it in a theater with a Technicolor print. Does anyone know of a
> way to find out what theaters might be showing them? I haven't checked
> today's paper, but I checked the website and they didn't seem to make any
> mention of it. Or, if anyone knows of a theater in the Atlanta area
> showing one, please speak up. Reply a copy via email, too, please.
> Thanks.
> jason.

To answer Jason's question---the following was written by a guy named Scott
Schechter. He has just co-produced a Judy Garland CD, and he seems to be
pretty knowlegeable about both Garland and "Oz". Anyway, he posted this in
the Judy Garland discussion group---it answer's Jason's question pretty well.

Dave

----

Thought everyone would like to know which theatres accross the country will
be showing the superior DYE TRANSFER prints of OZ (Only 50 prints were made;
some are being held as "back-up" prints.) Here they are :

Boston area : W.Newton Cinema, Boston
Cinema 140, New Bedford
Fine Arts, Acton
IOKA, Portsmouth

New York : Astor Plaza, New York, NY
Lincoln Square, New York, NY

New Jersey : Berkeley, New Jersey

Washington, DC area : Uptown, Washington
Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, VA
Senator, Baltimore
Regal Ridge, Richmond, VA
Greenbelt, Greenbelt, MD
Berkeley, Martinsburg, WV

New Orleans area : Palace, Harahan
Plaza, Pasagoula

Chicago area : Northbrook Court, Yorktown
Marcus, Addison
Marcus, Orland Park
Gurnee, Gurneee
Western Heights, Chicago

Des Moines area : Paramount, Ankeny

Indianapolis : Clearwater

Minneapolis : Mall of the Americas

Denver : Greenwood, Englewood

Los Angeles : Century City
GCC, Sherman Oaks
National, Westwood
Chinese, Hollywood
Uinversal, Universal City
GCC, South Bay

San Francisco area : Colfax, Colfax
Sieraa, Grass Valley
Lark, Larkspur
Southland, Hayward
Met, Oakhurst
Signature, Visalia
Broadway, Ureka
Grand Lake, Oakland
The Oaks, Berkeley
Raven, Healdsburg

Seattle : The Pacific Place, Seattle
Metro, Seattle

Montreal : Loews, Montreal

Toronto : Uptown, Toronto

Vancouver : Centre, Vancouver

>From the LA Times October 24th piece on OZ :

"Technicolor President Ron Jarvis says there's no substitute for going back
to the original negative. 'It's incredible what we've been able to extract
>from the negatives,' he says. 'And with improved dyes and (film) stocks, we

can make 'Oz' look like it's never looked before. I wish we could've done
'Gone With The Wind' this way. If they'll let me, I'd still like to go back
and do it right.

Of course getting here has required some very meticulous registration
correction that we can only do because we have the records,' Jarvis adds.
'Those negatives have to be lined up just right, shot by shot. There was
misregistration in the camera and misregistration due to shrinkage over the
years. It won't be perfect. But we can correct most of it.' About the only
complaint about this ultimate OZ is that there's a bit too much contrast in
the brighter scenes. Even so, the splashy use of color looks like eye candy.

Unfortunately, few moviegoers will be seeing OZ in it's original Technicolor
glory or in it's proper 1.33:1 aspect ratio. That's because of the
accelerated release schedule (from December 25th, to November 6th), and
extremely large print order (for 1,835 theatres), as well as the fact that
most multiplexes don't want to be bothered renting special lenses or making
correct aperture plates.

As a result, Technicolor was asked to make two different sets of prints :
about 1,800 standard color compositives for conventional multiplexes, and
about 50 superior dye transfers for special theaters (including the Mann
Chinese in Hollywood), recalling the old road-show engagements of the 50's
and 60's. That's not to say the color positives won't be superb. They'll
look just fine, thanks to entire pre-fitting done by Technicolor. Still, they
won't have the vibrancy, the 3D-like sharpness or velvety blacks of dye
transfer. Nor will the color positives be shown unadulterated. 'We're going
to shrink the image slightly so most theaters can play it using a 1.85 lens.'
'But you won't lose any actual picture information.' This is preferable to
the tortuous process used on 'Gone With The Wind,' which actually degraded
the image quality."

"According to Aljean Harmetz, author of 'The Making Of The Wizard Of Oz,' to
be reprinted next month by Hyperion, the landmark fantasy has earned
approximately $300 million in its nearly 60-year history, including $225
million in home sales over the last 10 years. (By comparison, it's $5.4
million in theatrical revenues seems meager, until adjusted for inflation,
which makes it a much more impressive $219 million.) To be a success (this
release), the film needs to do at least $25 million at the box office."

Scott Schechter

The "New Orleans Area" theatre "Plaza, Pascagoula", was in a twin in Pascagoula, MS, about 90 minutes from New Orleans. I can confirm that it had one of the IB prints, & was running it in a building with typical MS coast post-hurricane Georges destruction: ceiling tiles gone, dripping water from the roof being caught in huge Rubbermaid garbage cans distributed as needed in the house, etc. Georges had been through about a month before, but rebuilding & repairs for the whole area were delayed an incredibly long time due to 2 factors: it rained heavily & often for weeks aterwards, & also a HUGE new casino being built in Biloxi was far behind schedule & was scooping up with better wage offers all the itinerant contractors that come in after a hurricane to do opportunistic work.

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