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History of Cinema: Adding Colour

Colour was first added to black-and-white films through early colouring processes in the 1900s, but was not widely used until Technicolor's three-colour process in 1932. The first film with synchronized sound was The Jazz Singer in 1927, though an optical soundtrack recorded along the film soon replaced unreliable disc systems. By the 1930s, most films had sound and some were in colour, ushering in Hollywood's Golden Age. While television competition reduced cinema attendance, multiplex growth since 1985 has nearly tripled weekly UK numbers. Digital technology now dominates film production and projection, and 3D features have recently revived, though it remains unclear if this interest will be long-term.

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139 views2 pages

History of Cinema: Adding Colour

Colour was first added to black-and-white films through early colouring processes in the 1900s, but was not widely used until Technicolor's three-colour process in 1932. The first film with synchronized sound was The Jazz Singer in 1927, though an optical soundtrack recorded along the film soon replaced unreliable disc systems. By the 1930s, most films had sound and some were in colour, ushering in Hollywood's Golden Age. While television competition reduced cinema attendance, multiplex growth since 1985 has nearly tripled weekly UK numbers. Digital technology now dominates film production and projection, and 3D features have recently revived, though it remains unclear if this interest will be long-term.

Uploaded by

Trần Chi Mai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

HISTORY OF CINEMA

ADDING COLOUR

Colour was first added to black-and-white movies through tinting, toning and stencilling. By
1906, the principles of colour separation were used to produce so-called ‘natural colour’ moving
images with the British Kinemacolor process, first presented to the public in 1909.

The early Technicolor processes from 1915 onwards were cumbersome and expensive, and
colour was not used more widely until the introduction of its three-colour process in 1932.

ADDING SOUND

The first attempts to add sound to projected pictures used phonographic cylinders or discs.

The first feature-length movie incorporating dialogue, The Jazz Singer (USA, 1927), used the
Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system, which employed a separate record disc with each reel of
film for the sound.

This system proved unreliable and was soon replaced by an optical, variable density soundtrack
recorded photographically along the edge of the film.

CINEMA’S GOLDEN AGE

By the early 1930s, nearly all feature-length movies were presented with synchronised sound
and, by the mid-1930s, some were in full colour too. The advent of sound secured the dominant
role of the American industry and gave rise to the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’.

During the 1930s and 1940s, cinema was the principal form of popular entertainment, with
people often attending cinemas twice weekly. In Britain the highest attendances occurred in
1946, with over 31 million visits to the cinema each week.

CINEMA MAKES A COMEBACK

While cinemas had some success in fighting the competition of television, they never regained
the position and influence they once held, and over the next 30 years audiences dwindled. By
1984 cinema attendances in Britain had sunk to one million a week.

Since then, however, that figure has nearly trebled with the growth of out-of-town multiplex
cinemas following the building of the first British multiplex at Milton Keynes in 1985.

Although America still appears to be the most influential film industry, the reality is more
complex. Many films are produced internationally—either made in various countries or financed
by multinational companies that have interests across range of media.
Today, most people see films on television (whether terrestrial or satellite or on video of some
kind) and we are also moving towards a web-based means of delivery.

WHAT IS NEXT?

In the past 20 years, film production has been profoundly altered by the impact of rapidly
improving digital technology. Though productions may still be shot on film (and even this is
becoming less commonplace) most subsequent processes, such as editing and special effects, are
undertaken on computers before the final images are transferred back to film. The need for this
final transfer is diminishing as more cinemas invest in digital projection which is capable of
producing screen images that rival the sharpness, detail and brightness of traditional film
projection.

In the past few years there has been a revival of interest in 3D features, both animated and live
action, sparked by the availability of digital technology. Whether this will be more than a short-
term phenomenon (as previous attempts at 3D in the 1950s and 1980s had been) remains to be
seen.

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