Kinemacolor Demo

A demonstration of the earliest motion picture color system (c.1908).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Kinemacolor
• color
• motion
• picture
• additive
• process
• Urban

[NCC6116]

How do you create the red and green passes? How can you extract the red and green channels from a black and white record?

[DeBergeracProd]

@NCC6116

To recreate the color, I used After effects. I separated the green pass from the red pass, tinted the green pass red and the red pass green, then superimposed one pass over the other (overlay).

This kinemacolor record turned out to be panchromatic rather than orthochromaic, so by tweaking the green to a cyan/green and the red to an orange/red, I was able to also reproduce some blue tones.

Take a look at the woman in the bathing suit (1:11) as she moves her arms.

[uszoninyc]

That was 'breathtaking.'

[uszoninyc]

DeBergeracProd ✨truly, amazing to see this, and, breath king to look at.

[NCC6116]

@DeBergeracProd Can it be done with a film that is only in grayscale? Can red and green channels be extracted from that?

[NCC6116]

How can you recreate Kinemacolor on a computer, and with what program?

Please respond somebody, I've really wanted to try it.

[Ataralas]

I found that zooming out considerably helped to better view the film.

[fmlondon]

One Kinemacolor slate would run for six months to sold out houses, close, and then reopen again a few months later, again selling out all showings. What killed Kinemacolor was that a lawsuit placed the rights in the public domain, and that was the beginning of the end. However, reading the contemporary reports, one cannot doubt that Kinemacolor was a sensation in its time.

[fmlondon]

I read through a lot of old newspapers and magazines, from the period of 1910-15, and Kinemacolor was actually a spectacular success. Among the lost ones was the coronation of George VI, all three candidates in the 1912 presidential race, and scenes from the early part of WWI, in which the French soldiers were still wearing red trousers. Writers were falling all over themselves in praise. According to published accounts, people paid as much to see Kinemacolor as to see a live show.

[TheGroxT6]

It brings to seizures. o.O