Natural Colour Films.
Most film pictures shown upon the screen are at present of the black and white variety, and colour films are sometimes spoken of as being generally impracticable. The main item which is the cause of the non-general appearance of these films in natural colour is the question of cost. Experiments have been highly successful, but the necessary standard of apparatus has to be secured to produce the colours of nature in reality, and this is the reason why natural colour films have been slow in receiving commercial recognition. The items entering into consideration are—extra equipment and extra help.
A colour-film has to be very realistic, and to secure its real market value its ascendancy over the ordinary black and white film has to be proved. If the “projector” required it to be elaborate, the stage effects to be in unison, its chances as a commercial venture are greatly reduced on account of the high cost of film rental. The various expensive processes of production have greatly retarded its progress—hence its rarity.
Colour films are usually accepted as natural colour films, whereas, in reality, natural colour sometimes does not exist. A great number of these natural colour films are hand painted, mostly produced in France, where this subtle art of colour deception is practised to advantage. Films are tastefully and artistically coloured, requiring excessive patience and skill from hundreds of workers; for it is no easy task to paint these miniatures, measuring one inch by three-quarters of an inch.
This process of painting is carried out by stages. One scene is gone through, taking a single character—a house, background or foliage in its various shades. The process is tedious and there lurks the ever-present danger of making mistakes which would spoil the whole effect.
Photography plays an important part in the reproduction in natural colours, and the fact that dyes and chemicals can be used for this purpose is overlooked by many people—red, orange, green, yellow, violet and blue, when mixed in varying degrees, produce any shade known to the human eye.
The earliest attempt at a natural colour process for the film was made in 1907; the combined efforts and experiments of an Englishman and an American. Their efforts were very successful, the pictures being particularly clear and realistic. An improved process has been developed which reproduces objects, whether stationary or in motion, bringing forth the natural colours to be found in nature at her best.
It is to be regretted that the colour films cannot be cheapened in the process of production, for nothing delights the hearts of patrons more than to see before their eyes scenes and places with which they are familiar; every object of still life (plants), or the living animals roaming amidst their natural-coloured surroundings.