AND NOW “COLOUR” PICTURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 538, 15 December 1928, Page 12 (Supplement)

AND NOW “COLOUR” PICTURES

(Written for THE SUN by Reg Kelly)

Slipping in quietly, but soon clue to cause considerable commotion in film circles, comes the second major feature of the motion picture of to-morrow —colour. Sound, colour and tho third dimension: that is the objective trio toward which the industry is heading. Of sound, much has been written. All who attend theatres know its possibilities. Natural colour has not received so much attention save from those who are interested in producing pictures of that nature. Nothing having to do with screen entertainment is so interesting as colour photography. The process is being constantly improved. Time was when red was the bugaboo, and a player in a colour picture, wearing a red scarf, stole the scene. The spectator could see nothing else on the screen. That difficulty lias been overcome and now the colour camera treats all colours fairly and gives each its true value. Some beautiful effects may be expected. At this time two major “colour” pictures are in production: “Lief the

THE NEXT GREAT ADVANCE

Lucky,” a story of the Vikings; and the Richard Dix starring picture, “Redskin.” It is inevitable that they will start an avalanche of pictures of their kind. The Teehnicolour Corporation, owners of the basic patents on the current method of colour photography, is contracted ahead until next June. It is accepting no additional business until that time. The teehnicolour process as used on the picture, “Redskin,” is not so complicated as it might seem. A prism, directly back of the camera’s lens, filters the photographic rays and breaks them up into basic reds and basic blues. The camera prints two “frames” or pictures at a time instead of the one for black and white photography. One registers the reds, the others the blues. From this negative, two positives aro printed, one going through the red dye and the other through the blue. Then these two identical positives are cemented together, and the reds overlapping the blues produce the multichromatic effect.