Videokarma.org

Go Back   Videokarma.org TV - Video - Vintage Television & Radio Forums > Early Color Television

We appreciate your help

in keeping this site going.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #91  
Old 03-29-2017, 07:44 PM
benman94's Avatar
benman94 benman94 is offline
Resident Lunatic
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 1,190
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
...Not sure what they did differently.
One woman is responsible for the difference: Natalie Kalmus.

While she technically was the "color consultant" for Technicolor here in the US, she was largely ignored by American directors and cinematographers. Virtually everyone who came in contact with her hated her. George Cukor had terrible things to say about her, and is known to have ordered her off the lot on at least one occasion, Victor Fleming loathed her, etc If you wanted to shoot in Technicolor, you had to put up with Natalie.

Herbert Kalmus eventually started sending her over to "help" the Brits, mostly in an effort to get her out of his hair. They seemed to have actually taken her suggestions. Dare I say the British IB Technicolor looks better? She may have been an enormous b*tch, but she wasn't stupid. The more subtle color works.

Edit:

A few other great films for color roundie demonstrations:

La Cucaracha (1934) *Just a short
The Garden of Allah (1936)
A Star Is Born (1937)
For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)

And the following all shot by Freund:

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
This Time for Keeps (1947)
South of St. Louis (1949)
Montana (1950)

Last edited by benman94; 03-29-2017 at 07:55 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #92  
Old 03-29-2017, 08:41 PM
Dave A's Avatar
Dave A Dave A is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SE Pennsylvania
Posts: 1,529
I forgot about Natalie. She was still around for Blimp and opened the Technicolor office in England but gone by Kate. Ironic that she lasts in our world as a badge on a BW set. Karma is for real.
__________________
“Once you eliminate the impossible...whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes.

Last edited by Dave A; 03-29-2017 at 08:41 PM. Reason: text
Reply With Quote
  #93  
Old 03-31-2017, 05:28 PM
Pete Deksnis's Avatar
Pete Deksnis Pete Deksnis is offline
15GP22 demo @ ETF 2007
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Big Rapids, MI
Posts: 761
Quote:
Originally Posted by etype2 View Post
Edit: In Oz, at the early part of the film, when the witch goes to the shed for the first time and then turns back, I see about 2 seconds where it looks like they forgot to restore the film in my copy. It looks very dark and blurry. Can anyone confirm that?
Just now catching up with his thread. It's been years now since I heard an explanation for the 2-second 'fuzz' scene in Oz. It seemed plausible then, and I have always accepted this -- albeit now sketchy -- explanation. It simply was 2-seconds that had been recovered from a crappy old 16-mm print found somewhere in Europe . Again, details may suffer, so if this sparks a recollection, please update.

Pete
Reply With Quote
  #94  
Old 03-31-2017, 05:36 PM
Pete Deksnis's Avatar
Pete Deksnis Pete Deksnis is offline
15GP22 demo @ ETF 2007
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Big Rapids, MI
Posts: 761
It's my understanding that the only reason Natalie had any Technicolor 'power' was because it was won in a divorce settlement.

Pete
Reply With Quote
  #95  
Old 03-31-2017, 06:29 PM
old_tv_nut's Avatar
old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
See yourself on Color TV!
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rancho Sahuarita
Posts: 7,184
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete Deksnis View Post
It's my understanding that the only reason Natalie had any Technicolor 'power' was because it was won in a divorce settlement.

Pete
Yes, according to books on the subject, the divorce was kept secret. She was such a thorn in one director's side that she was told her expertise was needed in England to get her out of the US for a while.
__________________
www.bretl.com
Old TV literature, New York World's Fair, and other miscellany
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
  #96  
Old 03-31-2017, 06:40 PM
benman94's Avatar
benman94 benman94 is offline
Resident Lunatic
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 1,190
Dr. Kalmus and Natalie weren't divorced until the 40s though, despite having been separated since the 20s. Why then would she have been a "color consultant" for everything between the separation and the actual divorce? Does anyone know what exactly the nature of their relationship was for those 15-20 some odd years?
Reply With Quote
  #97  
Old 03-31-2017, 06:40 PM
old_tv_nut's Avatar
old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
See yourself on Color TV!
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rancho Sahuarita
Posts: 7,184
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete Deksnis View Post
Just now catching up with his thread. It's been years now since I heard an explanation for the 2-second 'fuzz' scene in Oz. It seemed plausible then, and I have always accepted this -- albeit now sketchy -- explanation. It simply was 2-seconds that had been recovered from a crappy old 16-mm print found somewhere in Europe . Again, details may suffer, so if this sparks a recollection, please update.

Pete
I just tried looking at the DVD in still frame mode. Unfortunately, the data rate must be somewhat low in order to get the special features on the disc. This means that the grain doesn't show very well, and comes and goes in blocks of artifacts. So, I looked at the Blu-ray version. The Blu-Ray shows the grain in all its glory, and it doesn't seem to change character on her face in that shot. (By the way, I am surprised at how much grain is in the highlights, as I thought most photographic processes are grainiest in the mid-tones.) Also, when she holds her head still momentarily, there seems to be full resolution in her features including the catchlights in her eyes. Her costume is a bit darker than in the surrounding scenes, but I think that's due to the oblique lighting also (the whole movie looks darker on the Blu-Ray than on the DVD on my setup).

So, to my eyes, it still looks like a process shot with very oblique lighting to prevent shining on the rear projection screen.
__________________
www.bretl.com
Old TV literature, New York World's Fair, and other miscellany
Reply With Quote
  #98  
Old 03-31-2017, 06:55 PM
old_tv_nut's Avatar
old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
See yourself on Color TV!
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rancho Sahuarita
Posts: 7,184
Quote:
Originally Posted by benman94 View Post
Dr. Kalmus and Natalie weren't divorced until the 40s though, despite having been separated since the 20s. Why then would she have been a "color consultant" for everything between the separation and the actual divorce? Does anyone know what exactly the nature of their relationship was for those 15-20 some odd years?
According to the book "Glorious Technicolor", they were divorced in 1921 but continued to share homes on both coasts. It says that Dr. Kalmus considered her to be a guest, but she acted as a hostess and insisted on being called Mrs. Kalmus. The unusual relationship was ended by written agreement in 1946 involving cash, continuing alimony and a pension from Technicolor. She had taken him to court repeatedly since 1921 trying to get the divorce nullified, and continued suing him into the 1950s regarding community property and trying to get more of the Technicolor fortune. The book also states that Dr. Kalmus, the perfectionist, was in favor of Natalie's work as head of the color consulting department.
__________________
www.bretl.com
Old TV literature, New York World's Fair, and other miscellany
Reply With Quote
  #99  
Old 03-31-2017, 07:09 PM
old_tv_nut's Avatar
old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
See yourself on Color TV!
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rancho Sahuarita
Posts: 7,184
I would note also that the closeup had to be shot separately and out of sequence in any case, because there are Munchkins lying about her feet in the wide shot.
__________________
www.bretl.com
Old TV literature, New York World's Fair, and other miscellany
Reply With Quote
  #100  
Old 03-31-2017, 08:51 PM
old_tv_nut's Avatar
old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
See yourself on Color TV!
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rancho Sahuarita
Posts: 7,184
Additional from
http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton

You may recall that Margaret Hamilton was burned during the exit scene because the flames started before she was completely below the floor. This happened on December 23 1938. She was not able to return to work until February 10.

It's quite possible that the close-up was filmed after February 10, and either the set had been struck by then, or her distance from the house was different, putting it out of focus.
__________________
www.bretl.com
Old TV literature, New York World's Fair, and other miscellany
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
  #101  
Old 04-01-2017, 04:59 AM
ceebee23's Avatar
ceebee23 ceebee23 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 356
One film that the Technicolor really bounces out at you is The Adventures of Robin Hood .... photography by Tony Gaudio and Sol Polito ..an early film stock to Oz (it was slower apparently).

Lots of exteriors.

It looks gorgeous on the cinema screen .... am sure it would look good on a CT100 or similar and bring a real range of Natalie's handiwork to the screen!
__________________
____________________________
........RGBRGBRGB ...colour my world
Reply With Quote
  #102  
Old 04-01-2017, 01:21 PM
etype2's Avatar
etype2 etype2 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Valley of the Sun, formerly Silicon Valley, formerly Packer Land.
Posts: 1,487
The Robin Hood movie is listed frequently as one of the best Technicolor films to view.

Technicolor founders Herbert T. Kalmus and Natalie Kalmus considered The Red Shoes the best example of Three-Strip Technicolor. During the filming, Natalie often complained that Jack Cardiff wasn't following the rules laid down for Technicolor films and demanded that they re-shoot various scenes. However, Michael Powell always backed up Cardiff and they got the film they wanted.

I'm sure this was the psychedelic dark and deep colors scene at the end of the 15 minute ballet of the red shoes.
__________________
Personal website dedicated to Vintage Television https://visions4netjournal.com
Reply With Quote
  #103  
Old 04-01-2017, 01:37 PM
etype2's Avatar
etype2 etype2 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Valley of the Sun, formerly Silicon Valley, formerly Packer Land.
Posts: 1,487
A little know fact to me was in 1950 Natalie Kalmus licensed her name for a line of designer television cabinets made by a California manufacturer.





Edit: A friend sent his restoration photos of a Kalmus set. I have many more.



__________________
Personal website dedicated to Vintage Television https://visions4netjournal.com

Last edited by etype2; 04-01-2017 at 02:45 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #104  
Old 04-11-2017, 02:46 AM
etype2's Avatar
etype2 etype2 is offline
VideoKarma Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Valley of the Sun, formerly Silicon Valley, formerly Packer Land.
Posts: 1,487
As mentioned previously in this thread, our goal is to create a tribute video film for Ed Reitan outlining his career and specifically, his involvement in the restoration of the NBC color special, "An Evening With Fred Astaire".

We were lucky to win Ed's RCA CTC-7 Worthington at the 2015 ETF auction. The Worthington was released in the same year as the television special, 1958.

A generous doner friend sent me a copy of the television special recently, so we are going to undertake full restoration of the Worthington next month. The servo motors within the main chassis are frozen and none of the controls respond. The image had a few minor issues as well.

In the meantime, we created a "sneak preview" to view, showing portions of the video on my 21CT55, but our goal is to have it playing on Ed's Worthington. If you watch the video, check the 1080P video setting for best quality.

https://youtu.be/VmgmbtkvdKo

__________________
Personal website dedicated to Vintage Television https://visions4netjournal.com

Last edited by etype2; 04-11-2017 at 02:49 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #105  
Old 04-13-2017, 11:36 PM
old_tv_nut's Avatar
old_tv_nut old_tv_nut is offline
See yourself on Color TV!
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rancho Sahuarita
Posts: 7,184
I just received "The Red Shoes" and the color is very nice. I had forgotten how many exterior scenes there are, and the Monte Carlo shots are nice. I caught one flub - as Moira Shearer is approaching a fancy building for a meeting, they are obviously following her with powerful spotlights and or reflectors to light her back, which is toward the camera but in shadow. At the very beginning of the shot, you see one of the spots whip across the courtyard in front of her, getting into position.

The set comes with bonus material including Martin Scorsese showing and commenting on the restoration process; he breaks it down into separate illustrations for the processes of removing mold spots, correcting misregistration, and correcting color breathing. Nothing short of amazing.

Edit: many of the shots other than daytime exteriors are rather low-key, which is not an easy thing to reproduce on a vintage color set with a dim picture and reflective tube face. To add to the fog, the CTC-5, like most vintage sets, has less than full DC coupling. I found it advantageous to turn off room lights except for the "TV light" I have that lights the wall behind the set, and turn down the brightness control a little. This made the exterior shots a little too dark, but you have to compromise or some of the interiors look foggy.
__________________
www.bretl.com
Old TV literature, New York World's Fair, and other miscellany

Last edited by old_tv_nut; 04-13-2017 at 11:44 PM.
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:45 PM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©Copyright 2012 VideoKarma.org, All rights reserved.