Please access detailed information on over 250 individual film color processes via the classification system on this page, display the Timeline of Historical Film Colors in chronological order, search via the tag cloud at the end of this page or directly on the search page, or see the contributing archives’ collections on the header slides.
Since the earliest days of cinema, film has been a colorful medium and art form. More than 230 film color processes have been devised in the course of film history, often in close connection with photography. In this regard, both media institutionalized numerous techniques such as hand and stencil coloring as well as printing and halftone processes. Apart from these fundamental connections in terms of the technology of color processes, film and photography also share and exchange color attributions and aesthetics.
This publication highlights material aspects of color in photography and film, while also investigating the relationship of historical film colors and present-day photography. Works of contemporary photographers and artists who reflect on technological and culture-theoretical aspects of the material of color underline these relations. Thematic clusters focus on aesthetic and technological parallels, including fashion and identity, abstraction and experiment, politics, exoticism, and travel.
Color Mania contains a general introduction to color in film and photography (technique, materiality, aesthetics) as well as a series of short essays that take a closer look at specific aspects. An extensive image section illustrates the texts and color systems and continues the aesthetic experience of the various processes and objects in book form.
Edited by Barbara Flückiger, Eva Hielscher, Nadine Wietlisbach, in collaboration with Fotomuseum Winterthur
With contributions by Michelle Beutler, Noemi Daugaard, Josephine Diecke, Evelyn Echle, Barbara Flueckiger, Eirik Frisvold Hanssen, Eva Hielscher, Thilo Koenig, Joëlle Kost, Franziska Kunze, Bregt Lameris, David Pfluger, Ulrich Ruedel, Mona Schubert, Simon Spiegel, Olivia Kristina Stutz, Giorgio Trumpy, Martin Weiss, Nadine Wietlisbach
Design: Meierkolb
16 × 24 cm, 6 ¼ × 9 ½ in
240 pages, 122 illustrations
paperback
This database was created in 2012 and has been developed and curated by Barbara Flueckiger, professor at the Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich to provide comprehensive information about historical film color processes invented since the end of the 19th century including specific still photography color technologies that were their conceptual predecessors.
Timeline of Historical Film Colors was started with Barbara Flueckiger’s research at Harvard University in the framework of her project Film History Re-mastered, funded by Swiss National Science Foundation, 2011-2013.
In 2013 the University of Zurich and the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded additional funding for the elaboration of this web resource. 80 financial contributors sponsored the crowdfunding campaign Database of Historical Film Colors with more than USD 11.100 in 2012. In addition, the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, Zurich University of the Arts provided a major contribution to the development of the database. Many further persons and institutions have supported the project, see acknowledgements.
Since February 2016 the database has been redeveloped in the framework of the research project Film Colors. Technologies, Cultures, Institutions funded by a grant from Swiss National Science Foundation. Since 2016, the team of the research project ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors has been collecting and adding written sources. All the members of the two research projects on film colors, both led by Barbara Flueckiger, have been capturing photographs of historical film prints since 2017.
Follow the links “Access detailed information ›” to access the currently available detail pages for individual processes. These pages contain an image gallery, a short description, a bibliography of original papers and secondary sources connected to extended quotes from these sources, downloads of seminal papers and links. We are updating these detail pages on a regular basis.
In June 2015, the European Research Council awarded the prestigious Advanced Grant to Barbara Flueckiger for her new research project FilmColors. Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Aesthetics, see press release of the University of Zurich and information on the University of Zurich’s website.
Subscribe to the blog to receive all the news: https://blog.filmcolors.org/ (check out sidebar on individual entries for the “follow” button).
Contributions to the Timeline of Historical Film Colors
“It would not have been possible to collect all the data and the corresponding images without the support from many individuals and institutions.Thank you so much for your contribution, I am very grateful.”
Barbara Flueckiger
Experts, scholars, institutions | Sponsors, supporters, patrons of the crowdfunding campaign, April 23 to July 21, 2012
Experts, scholars, institutions
Prof. Dr. David Rodowick, Chair, Harvard University, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies
Prof. Dr. Margrit Tröhler, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Jörg Schweinitz, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Christine N. Brinckmann, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich
PD Dr. Franziska Heller, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich
Dr. Claudy Op den Kamp, Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich
Prof. Anton Rey, Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, Zurich University of the Arts
Dr. Haden Guest, Director, Harvard Film Archive
Liz Coffey, Film Conservator, Harvard Film Archive
Mark Johnson, Loan Officer, Harvard Film Archive
Brittany Gravely, Publicist, Harvard Film Archive
Clayton Scoble, Manager of the Digital Imaging Lab & Photography Studio, Harvard University
Stephen Jennings, Photographer, Harvard University, Fine Arts Library
Dr. Paolo Cherchi Usai, Senior Curator, George Eastman Museum, Motion Picture Department
Jared Case, Head of Cataloging and Access, George Eastman Museum, Motion Picture Department
Nancy Kauffman, Archivist – Stills, Posters and Paper Collections, George Eastman Museum, Motion Picture Department
Deborah Stoiber, Collection Manager, George Eastman Museum, Motion Picture Department
Barbara Puorro Galasso, Photographer, George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film
Daniela Currò, Preservation Officer, George Eastman House, Motion Picture Department
James Layton, Manager, Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Center, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art
Mike Pogorzelski, Archive Director, Academy Film Archive
Josef Lindner, Preservation Officer, Academy Film Archive
Cassie Blake, Public Access Coordinator, Academy Film Archive
Melissa Levesque, Nitrate Curator, Academy Film Archive
Prof. Dr. Giovanna Fossati, Head Curator, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam, and Professor at the University of Amsterdam
Annike Kross, Film Restorer, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam
Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Curator Silent Film, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam
Catherine Cormon, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam
Anke Wilkening, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden, Germany
Marianna De Sanctis, L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna
Paola Ferrari, L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna
Gert and Ingrid Koshofer, Gert Koshofer Collection, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Memoriav, Verein zur Erhaltung des audiovisuellen Kulturgutes der Schweiz
BSc Gaudenz Halter, Software Development Color Film Analyses, video annotation und crowdsourcing platform VIAN, in collaboration with Visualization and MultiMedia Lab of Prof. Dr. Renato Pajarola, University of Zurich, (Enrique G. Paredes, PhD; Rafael Ballester-Ripoll, PhD) since 07.2017
BSc Noyan Evirgen, Software Development, in collaboration with Visualization and MultiMedia Lab von Prof. Dr. Renato Pajarola, Universität Zürich (Enrique G. Paredes, PhD; Rafael Ballester-Ripoll, PhD), 03.2017–01.2018
Assistants Film Analyses:
BA Manuel Joller, BA Ursina Früh, BA/MA Valentina Romero
The development of the project started in fall 2011 with stage 1. Each stage necessitated a different financing scheme. We are now in stage 3 and are looking for additional funding by private sponsors. Please use the Stripe interface to pay conveniently online or transfer your financial contribution directly to
Account IBAN CH2509000000604877146
Account holder: Barbara Flueckiger, CH-8005 Zurich, Switzerland
SWIFT Code / BIC: P O F I C H B E X X X
Bank: PostFinance AG, Mingerstrasse 20, CH-3030 Bern, Switzerland
Clearing Nummer: 09000
Read more about the financial background of the project on filmcolors.org.
The author has exercised the greatest care in seeking all necessary permissions to publish the material on this website. Please contact the author immediately and directly should anything infringe a copyright nonetheless.
Type "process: [process name]" to search for processes.
Type "inventor: [inventor name]" to search for inventors.
Donisthorpe
Year
1913
Principle
Additive two color process: rotating filters and toning
Invented by
Frank Wordsworth Donisthorpe
Country
England
Description
The film is recorded through alternating red and green filters, creating two color separations. After development, the print is placed in two alternating dye-baths, toning the blacks green and the whites red. Additionally, a black-and-white copy is developed, the final result consisting of two prints; one in color and one in black and white. In projection, the two prints are superimposed.
Donisthorpe was an avid inventor; for instance, he filed patents in the realms of stereoscopy, printing processes, cameras and sound.
Secondary Sources
Anonymous (1913): Colour Cinematography. A New Process. In: The Bioscope, 346,XIX, May, p. 619. View Quote
Downloads
Patents
1,350,143 (Donisthorpe, Frank Wordsworth; filed January 15, 1917; granted August 17, 1920)
“A two-colour cinematograph process whereby a complete range of chromatic tints can be obtained, has been invented by Mr. F. Wordsworth Donisthorpe, who is already known to our readers as the inventor of a number of systems for obtaining synchronisation of gramophone and cinematograph. The basis of the invention is the fact that when a negative, exposed through a light filter of one colour, such as red, is placed in contact with a print from a negative taken through a complementary colour filter and correctly superimposed therewith, the two pictures exactly counteract each other in those parts which contain no colour, such as blacks, whites, and greys. So that portion of a negative being black would be white in the positive, the two giving, when superimposed, no image whatever.
A different effect is obtained, however, when colour is present. The red parts on the negative are not counterbalanced by the green of the positive. A green object, which would be white on the red filtered negative, would be also white on the green filtered positive, whilst red objects would be black on both. Also colours predominating in either red or green would come out more or less black on one or the other of the prints. The result is that a print taken through a combined negative and positive will have the colouring matter only in black and white, all else, of course, being counteracted by the two images cutting each other out. The prints, then, that have been taken through the two superimposed images will contain only the colour values, the red portions being white, the greens black, and the intermediate tints as shades of grey.
In practice Mr. Donisthorpe now takes this print and places it in a bath, which will tone the blacks of the image green, and at the same time render the silver image impermeable. The print is then placed in a red dye bath, and the whites of the image turned red, the greys in both cases taking a proportion of the dye. Actually the darker and lighter shades in the toned print take more or less red dye, according to the colour of the photographed objects. There is then obtained an exact representation of the colouring matter only, the actual colours being those which were originally passed through the light filters of the camera. Naturally, as might be supposed, the particular tints of the dyes used have an important bearing on the results, but from what we have seen there seems to be no difficulty in obtaining a dye of similar hue to the colour filter originally employed.
When the finished colour print is superimposed with the ordinary black and white negative (the one, of course, taken through the colour filters and employed for making the colour print), a perfect colour picture is obtained. Alternatively, and, of course, the more practical method for projection, is to varnish the colour print to protect the dyes, and to then re-emulsion and again reprint from the negative film. The result upon development will then be a coloured film consisting actually of two prints, one containing the colouring matter only, and the other the blacks, whites, and shadings.
We should add that the results we have seen were taken through an ordinary two-colour camera, and the colour print obtained therefrom.
The advantages of this system are that, although the colour values are photographed alternately, they are actually reproduced on each picture, and the positive print can be projected without colour filters on any ordinary projector. The difficulty of colour fringing, also, which is always present when the different colour values are taken and projected in succession, has been overcome by Mr. Donisthorpe, and in producing both colours on each print, by a special process, correct registration is obtained.
Certainly, from the experimental results we have seen, we have formed a highly favourable opinion on the possibilities of the new process, and we shall hope to hear of its commercial exploitation.”
(Anonymous (1913): Colour Cinematography. A New Process. In: The Bioscope, 346,XIX, May, p. 619.)
