koo@cornell.UUCP (Richard Koo) (03/27/85)
Can anyone confirm or deny that GONE WITH THE WIND was originally a black and white film? Thanks. Richard Koo (koo@Cornell.ARPA)
freeman@yale.ARPA (Ace) (04/01/85)
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GWTW was not originally filmed in black and white but it was
one of the first motion pictures made in color, so at the
time of its release most pictures were still in B&W. There
was some experimentation with filming in black and white
and then manually coloring the frames. This process generally
resulted in color that looked very artificial to say the least.
What probably brought the question to mind was the rumor (untrue)
that GWTW was one of these colored B&W'sreiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (04/04/85)
In article <1315@yale.ARPA> freeman@yale-comix.UUCP (Ace) writes: > GWTW was not originally filmed in black and white but it was > one of the first motion pictures made in color, so at the > time of its release most pictures were still in B&W. Whether or not GWTW was one of the "first" color films depends on how loosely you define "first". Since "Becky Sharpe" in 1935 (5 years before GWTW), three strip Techicolor had been in use. Two strip Technicolor had been in use even longer. Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" (1926) had a short Technicolor sequence, and an Anna Mae Wong movie in the early twenties is reputed to be the first Technicolor feature. Generally, the larger studios produced only two or three films per year in Technicolor, since both filming and striking prints were very expensive in this process. > ...There > was some experimentation with filming in black and white > and then manually coloring the frames. This process generally > resulted in color that looked very artificial to say the least. I've seen some very early (1910s-1920s) experiments in color. None were really satisfactory, but some of them were fairly good looking. Manual coloring was rarely done, but silent films were frequently hand-tinted, which is a little different: each frame is completely tinted with one color, so that it is, for instance, black and red instead of black and white. In some cases, it's moderately more effective than black and white, but I've never really cared for it myself. -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher
leeper@ahutb.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/10/85)
A good (well, common anyway) example of a silent film that had scenes that were hand colored is the famous silent THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Smoke from explosions or a woman's dress would be selectively chosen and hand painted in each frame. Mark Leeper ...ihnp4!ahutb!leeper
rjn@hpfcmp.UUCP (rjn) (04/19/85)
re: Gone with the Wind photography GWTW was filmed in three-strip Technicolor. The camera (now on display at the Smithsonian) is basically three B&W cameras with beamsplitter and color filters, all in a VERY large box. Regards, Hewlett-Packard Bob Niland 3404 East Harmony Road hplabs!hpfcla!rjn Fort Collins CO 80525
davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams) (04/25/85)
In article <19000003@hpfcmp.UUCP> rjn@hpfcmp.UUCP (rjn) writes: >re: Gone with the Wind photography > >GWTW was filmed in three-strip Technicolor. The camera (now on display at >the Smithsonian) is basically three B&W cameras with beamsplitter and color >filters, all in a VERY large box. The cameras were built by Mitchell Camera Co. for Technicolor. These cameras were referred to as Rolls-Royces by the industry because of their cost and size. They had to add a heavy sound deadening box, called a blimp, over the mechanism to quiet the noise to keep it from being picked up by the microphones on the set. When sound pictures were first made the entire camera and operator were put in a telephone booth like enclosure with a double glass port for the lens to keep the camera noise down. -- Dave Williams Tektronix, Inc. Engineering Computing Systems "The 6000 Family" "The workstations that made Wilsonville famous."