Prizma II
Description
“In its final form Prizma made use of duplitized positive film. As in previous Prizma systems, the original negatives were alternate frame sequential exposures. The Prizma negative was printed on both sides of the positive film in a special printer. After developing in a normal black and white developer it was bleached in a bath that converted the two images to silver iodide. Two methods appear to have been used for dyeing the duplitized prints:
1. The film was wound tightly on a drum and the exposed side was dyed. When this step was completed, the film was dried and reversed onto a second drum and dyed the other color.10
2. The print was coated with a removable resist on the side printed from the blue-green negative. The red-orange negative side was then dyed blue-green. When the dyeing was completed the resist was removed and the film was dried. Next the red-orange side was coated with resist and the other side of the print was dyed red-orange.”
(Ryan, Roderick T. (1977): A History of Motion Picture Color Technology. London: Focal Press, pp. 91-94.)
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The two colors visible at a splice. Credit: EYE Film Institute Amsterdam. Film: [Kleurenpracht].
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Credit: George Eastman House. Preserved by Carole Fodor, Haghefilm Digitaal fellow and graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Film: A Day with John Burroughs (Prizma, 1919).
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Credit: George Eastman House. Preserved by Carole Fodor, Haghefilm Digitaal fellow and graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Film: A Day with John Burroughs (Prizma, 1919).
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Credit: George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection. Film: The Land of the Great Spirit (1919).
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Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Orange.
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Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Orange.
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Credit: Geo. Willeman, Nitrate Film Vault Manager, Library of Congress. Film: The Orange.
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Original Technical Papers and Primary Sources
Kelley, William Van Doren (1919): Adding Color to Motion. In: Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 8, April 1919, pp. 76–79. View PDF
Phillips, Henry Albert (1923): The New Motion Pictures. III. Pictures in Natural Colors. In: Motion Picture Magazine, XXVI,3, Nov., p. 57 and pp. 95–97. View Link
Talbot, Frederick A. (1923): Moving Pictures. Philadelphia: Lippincott 1923, pp. 354 ff. View Quote
Secondary Sources
Alt, Dirk (2011): “Der Farbfilm marschiert!” Frühe Farbfilmverfahren und NS-Propaganda 1933-1945. München: Belleville, on pp. 41–42. (in German) View Quote
Brown, Simon (2012): Technical Appendix. In: Sarah Street: Colour Films in Britain. The Negotiation of Innovation 1900-55. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 259-287, on pp. 279-280. View Quote
Cherchi Usai, Paolo (2000): Silent Cinema. London: BFI, p. 36 . View Quote
Fenton, Alfred (1926): Retrospect in Color. Color Motion Photography from the Inception to Date. In: Motion Picture Director, (Hollywood Cal.) 3, Nov. 1926, pp. 19-21, 72, on pp. 19 ff. View Quote
Klein, Adrian Bernhard = Cornwell-Clyne (1940): Colour Cinematography. Boston: American Photographic Pub. Co., 2nd revised edition, p. 19. View Quote
Layton, James; Pierce, David (2015): The Dawn of Technicolor. Rochester: George Eastman House, on pp. 53–54 View Quote, on p. 59 View Quote, on p. 62 View Quote, on pp. 85–87. View Quote
Li, Bin (2013): On the Prizma Colour System. (Master Thesis) Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam. Download.
Montesanti, Fausto (1954): Lineamenti di una storia del film a colori. In: Giuseppe Sala (ed.): Bianco e Nero. Il colore nel cinema. Rassegna mensile di studi cinematografici, XV,2-4, pp. 11–51, on pp. 25–26. (in Italian) View Quote
Nowotny, Robert A. (1983): The Way of All Flesh Tones. A History of Color Motion Picture Processes, 1895-1929. New York: Garland Pub., pp. 167-185. View Quote
Ryan, Roderick T. (1977): A History of Motion Picture Color Technology. London: Focal Press, pp. 91-94. View Quote
Measurements
Absorbances measured with a multispectral imaging system from film areas with pure dyes. Credit: Giorgio Trumpy, ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors.
See the specific sample from which the spectra were measured.
Films
First feature film entirely in color:
The Glorious Adventure (GBR 1922, J. Stuart Blackton) (sequences) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Kilauea: The Hawaiian Volcano (USA 1918, Prizma)
Our Navy (USA 1918, George A. Dorsey)
Memories (short, USA 1919, Prizma)
Out of the Sea (USA 1919, Prizma)
Glacier Park (USA 1919, Prizma)
Kiddies (USA 1919, Prizma)
Old Faithful (USA 1919, Prizma)
Birds and Flowers (USA 1919, Prizma)
China (USA 1919, Prizma)
Skyland (USA 1919, Prizma)
Everywhere with Prizma (short, USA 1919, Prizma)
Hawaii (USA 1919, Prizma)
The Orange (USA 1919, Prizma)
Trout (USA 1919, Prizma)
Canoe and Campfire (USA 1919, Prizma)
Here and There (USA 1919, Prizma)
Lure of Alaska (USA 1919, Leonard S. Sugden)
Bird Island (USA 1919, Prizma)
A Prizma Color Visit to Catalina (USA 1919, Prizma)
The Land of the Great Spirit (USA 1919, Prizma)
Alaska Revelations (USA 1919, Prizma)
Model Girls (USA 1919, Prizma)
The Apache Trail (USA 1919, Prizma)
Ape Man Island (1920)
Bali the Unknown (1920)
Heidi A.K.A. Heidi of the Alps (USA 1920, Frederick A. Thomson)
Way Up Yonder (USA 1920, Prizma)
In Nippon (USA 1920, Prizma)
The Cost of Carelessness (USA 1920, Prizma)
Marimba Land (USA 1920, Prizma)
Hagopian, the Rug Maker (USA 1920, Prizma)
Beautiful Things (USA 1920, Prizma)
In School Days (USA 1920, Prizma)
Nippon (USA 1921, Prizma)
Seeing the Unseen (USA 1921, Prizma)
Away Dull Care (USA 1921, Prizma)
Magic Gems (USA 1921, Prizma)
Ruins of Angkor (USA 1921, Prizma)
Sunbeams (USA 1921, Prizma)
A Little Love Nest (USA 1921, Prizma)
So This Is London (USA 1921, Prizma)
Japan (USA 1921, Prizma)
Dawning (USA 1921, Prizma)
The Sacred City of the Desert (USA 1921, Prizma)
An Afternoon with Nanki San (USA 1921, Prizma)
Butterflies (USA 1921, Prizma)
Gardens of Normandy (USA 1921, Prizma)
Neighbor Nelly (USA 1921, Prizma)
Bali, the Unknown (USA 1921, Prizma)
The Message of the Flowers (USA 1921, Prizma)
Artists’ Paradise (USA 1921, Prizma)
Beauty (USA 1921, Prizma)
Comedy Review (USA 1921, Prizma)
Danse du ventre (USA 1921, Prizma)
Deer Hunting (USA 1921, Prizma)
Feathers (USA 1921, Prizma)
If (USA 1921, Prizma)
Niagara (USA 1921, Prizma)
On the Trek USA 1921, Prizma)
Poor Butterfly (USA 1921, Prizma)
Rheims (USA 1921, Prizma)
Royal Family of Swaziland (USA 1921, Prizma)
She Blows (USA 1921, Prizma)
Sunshine Gatherers (USA 1921, Prizma)
Sweetest Story Ever Told (USA 1921, Prizma)
The Little Match Girl (USA 1921, Prizma)
Troubille (USA 1921, Prizma)
Victory Parade (USA 1921, Prizma)
Where Poppies Bloom (USA 1921, Prizma)
The Making of a Man (USA 1922, Prizma)
Shades of Noah (USA 1922, Prizma)
Old Glory (USA 1922, Prizma)
Time (USA 1922, Prizma)
‘I Know a Garden’ (USA 1922, Prizma)
The Impi (USA 1922, Prizma)
Bird Dogs Afield (USA 1922, Prizma)
Wonderful Water (USA 1922, Prizma)
Fashion Hints (USA 1922, Prizma)
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Its Inspiration (USA 1922, Prizma)
Algeria the Ancient (USA 1922, Prizma)
The Unselfish Shell (USA 1922, Prizma)
The Glorious Dead (USA 1922, Prizma)
Cape of Good Hope (USA 1922, Prizma)
Teddy in Glacier Land (USA 1922, Prizma)
The Sno-Birds (USA 1922, Prizma)
From the Land of the Incas (USA 1923, Prizma)
Oases of the Sahara (USA 1923, Prizma)
A Palace of Kings (USA 1923, Prizma)
The Dahlia (USA 1923, Prizma)
The Virgin Queen (GBR 1923, J. Stuart Blackton)1, 5
Torquay (USA 1923, Prizma)
1 Behlmer, Rudy (1964): Technicolor. In: Films in Review, 15,6, pp. 333–351, on pp. 337–342.
2 Pranchère, Victor (2013): La sortie du laboratoire ou les stratégies d’exploitation du procédé trichrome de cinématographie en couleurs de la Société des Établissements Gaumont (1913-1921). In: 1895. Revue d’Histoire du Cinéma, 71, pp. 61–80, on pp. 77–79. (in French)
3 Elliott, Eric (1934): Wither colour? In: Cinema Quarterly, 2,3, Spring, pp. 161–165.
4 Street, Sarah; Yumibe, Joshua (2019): Chromatic Modernity. Color, Cinema, and Media of the 1920s. New York: Columbia University Press, on pp. 141–142 View Quote and on p. 208. View Quote
5 Montesanti, Fausto (1954): Lineamenti di una storia del film a colori. In: Giuseppe Sala (ed.): Bianco e Nero. Il colore nel cinema. Rassegna mensile di studi cinematografici, XV,2-4, pp. 11–51, on pp. 25–26. (in Italian) View Quote
According to Simon Brown (2012): Technical Appendix: Prizmacolor. In: Street, Sarah: Colour Films in Britain. The Negotiation of Innovation 1900-55. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 280:
Vanity Fair (1923)
Flames of Passion (1923, sequences)
Pagliacci (1923, sequences)
Accordint to Alt, Dirk (2011): “Der Farbfilm marschiert!” Frühe Farbfilmverfahren und NS-Propaganda 1933-1945. München: Belleville, on pp. 41–42. (in German):
Way Down East (USA 1920, D.W. Griffith, sequence)
Downloads
Dunning, Carroll H. (1922–23): Color photography in 1922. In: Film Daily Yearbook of Motion Pictures 1922-1923, p. 171.
Download PDF
Patents
U.S.P. 1,259,411 (Kelley, William van Doren; filed July 26, 1917; granted Mar. 12, 1918)
Download PDFU.S.P. 1,278,161 (Kelley, William van Doren; filed Feb. 7, 1916; granted Sept. 10, 1918)
Download PDFU.S.P. 1,278,162 (Kelley, William van Doren; filed Feb. 8, 1917; granted Sept. 10, 1918)
Download PDFU.S.P. 1,337,775 (Kelley, William van Doren; filed July 8, 1918; granted Apr. 20, 1920)
Download PDFU.S.P. 1,411,968 (Kelley, William van Doren; filed Apr. 25, 1918; granted Apr. 4, 1922)
Download PDFU.S.P. 1,431,309 (Dunning, Carroll H./Kelley, William van Doren; filed Feb. 10, 1919; granted Oct. 10, 1922)
Download PDF
Links
Phillips, Henry Albert (1923): The New Motion Pictures. III. Pictures in Natural Colors. In: Motion Picture Magazine, XXVI,3, Nov., p. 57 and pp. 95–97. View Link
Restoration
Read, Paul; Meyer, Mark-Paul (2000): Notes on Restoring Subtractive Two-Colour Process Prints. In: Paul Read and Mark-Paul Meyer: Restoration of Motion Picture Film, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, pp. 310-313. View Quote
Read, Paul (2009): Synthetic Dyes and Their Origins. In: Film History, 21.1, pp. 9-46, on pp. 16-19. View Quote
Contemporary Reception
Anonymous (1922): The First Photoplay in Colors. In: Photoplay, 22,1, 1922, p. 72. View Quote
Ramsaye, Terry (1922): Color and the Photoplay. In: Photoplay, 22,4, p. 78 and pp. 110-111. View Quote
Ramsaye, Terry (1923): The Romantic History of the Motion Picture. Chapter XX: The Great Story of Color on the Screen. In: Photoplay, 24,6, pp. 130-131. View Quote
The Glorious Adventure (GBR 1922, J. Stuart Blackton):
Anonymous (1922): Across the Silversheet. New Screen Plays in Review. In: Motion Picture Magazine, XXIII,6, Jul., pp. 75–76. View Quote
Anonymous (1922): Blackton Color Feature at Capitol, N. Y. In: Exhibitors Trade Review, 11,18, Apr., p. 1240. View Quote
Full text on the Media History Digital Library website. View Link
Anonymous (1922): The First Photoplay in Colors. In: Photoplay, XXII,1, Jun., p. 72. View Quote
Full text on the Media History Digital Library website. View Link
Anonymous (1922): The Glorious Adventure. In: The Bioscope, 797,L, Jan., p. 43. View Quote
Anonymous (1922): Lady Diana Manners in The Glorious Adventure. In: Exhibitors Herald, 20, May, p. 59. View Quote
Full text on the Media History Digital Library website. View Link
Anonymous (1922): The Screen. The Glorious Adventure. In: The New York Times, Apr., p. 18. View Quote
Full text on The New York Times website. View Link
Reid, Laurence (1922): The Glorious Adventure. In: Motion Picture News, XXV,20, May, p. 2592. View Quote
Full text on the Media History Digital Library website. View Link
Selected Analyses
The Glorious Adventure (GB 1922, J. Stuart Blackton):
Brown, Simon; Street, Sarah; Watkins, Liz (2013): Colour Adventures with Prizma and Claude Friese-Greene in the 1920s. In: British Colour Cinema. Practices and Theories. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 22-36, on pp. 22-32. View Quote
Street, Sarah; Yumibe, Joshua (2019): Chromatic Modernity. Color, Cinema, and Media of the 1920s. New York: Columbia University Press, on pp. 141–142 View Quote and on p. 208. View Quote
Production Reports
The Glorious Adventure (GBR 1922, J. Stuart Blackton):
Anonymous (1922): Eight-Reel Drama in Color. Prizma Hails The Glorious Adventure as “Unqualified Success”. In: Motion Picture News, XXV,7, Feb., p. 884. View Quote
Full text on the Media History Digital Library website. View Link
