This thread will give a brief rundown on the film making techniques and technology of the silent era, both on the set and off. There will be multiple posts for different categories. This list can be expanded to accommodate more categories if needed.
Categories:
On Set Techniques
In the Lab
All About Color
Terminology
Silent Film 101 - Techniques & Technology
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Re: Silent Film 101 - Techniques & Technology
Mabel Normand at the camera.
On Set Techniques
- What is undercranking?
*Regarding normal... there was never a true industry standard regarding frame rate throughout the silent era; even then, as there is today, there was controversy over which was 'correct', and films weren't always shown at their intended speeds. But it typically varied between 16 - 24 fps, depending on the film.
- What is double exposure/multiple exposure?
- What is a matte?
- What is a glass shot?
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Re: Silent Film 101 - Techniques & Technology
Beatrice Bentley, Anna May Wong, and Priscilla Moran in The Toll of the Sea (1922), filmed in two-color Technicolor no. 2. From Wikimedia.
All About Color
- Were all silent movies black and white?
The earliest "color" films were hand tinted. Sections of the image were dyed by hand, which was painstaking considering the number of frames and small space to work with, though stencils could be used to ease the process. One of the most famous examples of hand tinting is Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895), where Annabelle's billowing skirt appears to change color with each movement.
However, these are not the same as actual color photography in motion pictures. For this, different motion picture color processes were developed. These could be additive or subtractive. Put very, very simply, additive relies on light traveling through color filters during filming and projection. Subtractive also relies on color filters for filming but not for projection, as the image already has the color information via dyes in the film itself. Think of it like this: additive = light. Subtractive = dye.
Early color cinematography utilized additive processes; subtractive processes were introduced around 1920. Buckle up! We're getting technical.
- What happens in additive and subtractive processes?
For example: in Kinemacolor, successive frames would contain red records and green records (so, from top down: red, green, red, green, etc.). During screening, when a frame exposed through a red filter is projected, it's through a red filter. When a frame exposed through a green filter is projected, it's through a green filter.
In a subtractive color process, color records are still recorded onto black and white film, but the different records are dyed their complementary colors, or the colors opposite them on the color wheel. In one two-color Technicolor process, System 2, two color records are used, red and green. The red record was dyed blue-green, and the green record was dyed red-orange. These two dyed records were then cemented together.
The reason the color records were dyed their complementary colors is because the complementary dyes would block the other colors light. For example, the blue-green dye would block red light. So, when the red record is dyed blue-green, the blue green is lighter where there was more red in the image.
Clara Bow in a two-color Technicolor (no. 3) screen test for Red Hair (1928).
- What color processes were there?
Kinemacolor
A two-color additive process in commercial use from 1908 until 1914 when World War I began. It was the first successful color system, though it found more appeal in Europe than in the US. Red and green optical filters were used in filming and projection. Kinemacolor built upon a three-color additive process - the earliest known color motion picture process - patented by Edward Raymond Turner in 1899; unfortunately, he died in 1903 of a sudden heart attack at only 29 before he could develop it any further.
Prizma Color
Started off as a two-color additive system (Prizma I; 1916) before becoming a two-color subtractive system (Prizma II; 1918). Prizma was the predecessor for future subtractive color systems. The last films using the Prizma system were shot in about 1924.
Kodachrome
This is not the same Kodachrome for color still photography that would launch in 1935. Developed in 1915, this two-color subtractive system printed red and blue-green color records onto a single strip of film, which would be dyed red on one side and cyan on the other. There were a few experimental films shot in this two-color process, including a series of screen tests from 1922 shot in Rochester, New York that featured screen actresses such as Mae Murray.
Two-color Technicolor
The first Technicolor system, System 1/no. 1, was a two-color additive one developed in 1917; the two-color subtractive process that's more familiar to us today, System 2/no. 2, was developed in 1922. For the subtractive process, red and green records were captured on a black and white negative during filming via a special camera. Two positives were made of the red and green records in the lab; these two strips were cemented together and each side of the print dyed their corresponding complementary colors: blue-green and red-orange.
Unfortunately, the green dye has a tendency to fade over time, leaving just the orange. System 2 Technicolor prints also had a tendency to "cup", caused by the expansion of the strip facing the arc lamp in the projector. A third two-color Technicolor process, System 3/no. 3, was developed in 1927 and used until 1933; the dyes were transferred to a single strip of film, eliminating the need for two strips to be cemented and thus the cupping issue.
- Why weren't more movies filmed in color?
Subtractive processes were not without their own issues. With two-color Technicolor, the process was very expensive. The special camera used twice as much film and specialists from Technicolor needed to be hired for filming. The negatives also had to be sent to the Technicolor labs, which added to the cost. The aforementioned cupping of System 2 prints was also a problem, though this was rectified via improvements to the technology in System 3.
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Re: Silent Film 101 - Techniques & Technology
Florence La Badie in The Evidence of the Film (1913).
In The Lab
- How did they make intertitles?
*The term intertitle is a more modern one; during the silent era, the proper name was actually subtitle, which was shortened to title. They were also referred to as leaders and title cards, among other terms.
An example of an art title. From The Blue Bird (1918). Note the purplish tint.
- What's the difference between tinting and toning? And how did they do it?
Here are some examples of both from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Fool's Paradise (1921) to check out at filmcolors.org:
Tinting in Caligari
Toning in Caligari
Tinting and Toning in Fool's Paradise
Before learning how they did tinting and toning, let's get familiar with what motion picture film (film stock) is made of. At its most basic, film stock consists of a transparent base which is coated on one side with a photosensitive emulsion. In the silent era, the industry standard for professional motion pictures was nitrate film stock. The emulsion was a gelatin containing microscopic silver halide particles; the film base was cellulose nitrate (aka nitrocellulose), which is why it's called nitrate film.
During tinting, the positive print is physically soaked in a dye bath, which stains the gelatin emulsion with the color. During toning, the positive print is soaked in a chemical solution, which causes a reaction that replaces the silver in the gelatin emulsion with another metallic compound.
First, the scenes to be tinted* would be taken from the original camera negative and assembled in whatever order the different colors would be arranged (e.g. yellow first, then blue, then green, and so on) onto their own reel. A positive print is struck, and the different groups of scenes would be dyed their appropriate color. Lab technicians were helped out by tint slugs - frames between the scenes that had the required color written on them.
Finally, the reels were left to dry before being spliced back into the release print in correct order; instructions for assembly would've been printed to aid in this. Now it was ready for distribution to theaters. The introduction of pre-tinted film stock cut down on the labor somewhat, as the scenes could be shot directly onto the colored stock, though they still had to be spliced into the film in order.
Here is an example of a splice, from Malombra (1917):
Splice from Malombra
And here are images of the room for tinting, toning and washing, and the negative inspection room, from the tinting page at brianpritchard.com:
Tinting, toning and washing room
Negative inspection room
*Save for the different soaking solution, the process for toning was essentially the same.