NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Prizma

The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley. Initially, it was a two-color additive system, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor. However, Kelly eventually transformed Prizma into a two-color subtractive system that itself became the predecessor for future color processes such as Multicolor and Cinecolor. For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1916. ... Multicolor is a subtractive natural color process for motion pictures. ... Cinecolor is an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Multicolor system of the 1920s. ...

Prizma I (additive)

The first system of Prizma was similar to Kinemacolor in that the camera took alternating frames of red-orange and blue-green colors through color filters placed within the camera's shutter. Projection involved running a colored disc again in synchronization with the black and white color record film, and through persistence of vision, the two frames combined on the screen to form a color image. According to the theory of persistence of vision, the perceptual processes of the brain or the retina of the human eye retains an image for a brief moment. ...

The first film shown in Prizma color on 23 December 1917 was the feature, Our Navy at the 44th Street Theatre in New York City. General reception to the system was positive, but the rotating filter wheel technique proved impractical. To counteract the issue of having a special projector with a filter wheel, Kelley began tinting alternate frames of his film red and green. However, fringing, flicker, and light loss were major issues which plagued not only Prizma, but also all of the other additive systems of the Kinemacolor nature. December 23 is the 357th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (358th in leap years). ... Year 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... An example of light amber tinting and blue toning. ...

In counteracting this, Kelley had filed a patent in February of 1917 which proved to be the beginnings of Prizma's second color system.

Prizma II (subtractive)

On 28 December 1918, Kelley announced that Prizma would release a color film (usually a short) every week, a film which would be projectable on any standard projector. Kelley's idea was two years in the making, but was a valid one which became the springboard for all future color systems to follow -- two films were filmed simultaneously with a camera of his own design. One strip was sensitive to red-orange, the other to blue-green (cyan). Both negatives were processed and printed on duplitized film, and then each emulsion was toned its complimentary color, red or blue. The final result was a color image that was subtractive in nature -- no flicker and a bright projection. But as a result of the way the camera was designed, a constant fringe was apparent, as the strips were being recorded side-by-side. December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Cyan (from Greek ÎºÏ…Î±Î½Î¿s, meaning blue) may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. ... Duplitized film stock was a type of film available through various companies used in color photography and special effects. ... An example of light amber tinting and blue toning. ...

In January 1919, this new process was premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City with the short Everywhere With Prizma. Kelley, based in Jersey City, New Jersey, was a friend of the Rivoli's manager and music director Hugo Riesenfeld (1879-1939) and so did business with Samuel Roxy Rothafel's Roxy Theaters chain, which the Rivoli was part of. Location of Jersey City within New Jersey. ... Samuel Lionel Roxy Rothafel was a showman of the 1920s silent film era and the impresario for many of the great movie palaces that he managed such as the Capitol, the Strand, and his eponymous Roxy Theater in New York City (opened 1927, demolished 1961). ...

In February 1921, another Prizma film, Bali the Unknown was premiered at Roxy's Capitol Theatre in New York. The four-reel feature garnered lukewarm reviews, but enough positive audience response that more films were produced in the system.

The Prizma process only took off in 1922, when J. Stuart Blackton of Vitagraph Studios shot his feature film The Glorious Adventure in Prizma. The film, starring Diana Manners and Victor McLaglen, premiered in April 1922 to lukewarm success in the US, but much appeal in the UK. With the prestige of a Vitagraph production, Prizma was considered the apex of color photography at that point in motion picture producer's minds. James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 - August 13, 1941), usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an American film producer of the Silent Era, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. ... American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 and bought by Warner Brothers in 1925. ... Victor McLaglen (1883-1959) was a boxer and actor. ...

Prizma sued the Technicolor Corporation in September 1922 on the grounds that Technicolor was infringing upon Prizma's patents, but lost. Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc. ...

In April 1923, Robert Flaherty took a both a black-and-white camera and a Prizma color camera to Samoa, hoping to film part of his documentary film Moana (1925) in that process, but the Prizma camera malfunctioned and no color footage was shot. (Moana became famous as the first feature film shot using panchromatic black-and-white film rather than orthochromatic.) Robert Joseph Flaherty (February 16, 1884, Iron Mountain, Michigan, United States - July 23, 1951, Dummerston, Vermont) was a filmmaker who directed and produced the first feature length documentary (Nanook of the North) in 1922. ... Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... Moana is a (1926) documentary film directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North. ... Panchromatic is a term describing a type of photographic film that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. ... Orthochromatic refers to any spectrum of light that is devoid of red light. ...

With William K. Fairall and Robert F. Elder's 3-D feature, The Power of Love opening 27 September 1922 in Los Angeles and the December 1922 unveiling of Laurens Hammond's Teleview system in New York City, Kelley used his Prizma camera for stereoscopic purposes. As his camera took side-by-side pictures, Kelley mounted a set of prisms on his rig, thus expanding his point of convergence, and utilized his red/blue color system to make an anaglyphic print of his product. His final product was the first of Kelley's Plasticon Pictures entitled Movies of the Future, which was premiered at the Rivoli on 24 December 1922. The film consisted largely of shots of New York City, including Times Square, the New York Public Library, and Luna Park. The Power of Love or Power of Love has been the title for numerous popular songs: (You Got) The Power of Love by The Everly Brothers (1966) The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1984) The Power of Love by Huey Lewis & the News (1985) The Power of... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ... Born on January 11, 1895 in Evanston, Illinois, to William Andrew and Idea Louise Strong Hammond, Laurens showed his great technical prowess from an early age. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... In film, the term 3-D (or 3D) is used to describe any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the illusion of depth as seen by the viewer. ... In the absence of a more specific context, convergence denotes the approach toward a definite value, as time goes on; or to a definite point, a common view or opinion, or toward a fixed or equilibrium state. ... Anaglyph (Greek ana+gluphein - to carve) has two meanings: Method of encoding a three-dimensional image in a single picture by superimposing a pair of pictures taken through colored filters or by simulating this effect through digital image processing. ... December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... Times Square Times Square is the name given to a principal intersection at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... The New York Public Library - logo New York Public Library, central block, built 1897â€“1911, CarrÃ¨re and Hastings, architects (June 2003) The New York Public Library (NYPL), one of three public library systems serving New York City, is one of the leading libraries in the United States. ... Luna Park was the originally the name of the second major amusement park at Coney Island, ultimately named for the spaceship in the Buffalo, New York Worlds Fair ride A Trip to the Moon. The name has also come to refer to: Luna Park is the name of a...

Based on the success of Movies of the Future, Kelley had his chief photographer, William T. Crispinel, shoot another short film entitled Through the Trees - Washington D.C. during the Spring of 1923. The film was not shot with the Prizma rig -- which was being used by Flaherty in Samoa -- but by one designed by Frederick E. Ives, a technician that specialized in 3-D photography. Although the short was technically shot better, Riesenfeld rejected it because it did not have the 3-D gimmicks that the recent films of that nature included. Stereo card image modified for crossed eye viewing. ...

The last few years of Prizma were somewhat fruitful. Samuel Goldwyn produced Vanity Fair (1923) in Prizma, and D.W. Griffith utilized the process in a couple of his films, including a scene in Way Down East (1920). Flames of Passion (1922), directed by Graham Cutts and starring Mae Marsh and C. Aubrey Smith; The Virgin Queen (1923), directed by J. Stuart Blackton; and I Pagliacci (1923), co-starring Lillian Hall-Davis, were all U.K. productions with one reel filmed in Prizma. // Samuel Goldwyn (July, 1879, Warsaw, Poland â€“ January 31, 1974, Los Angeles, California, United States) was a widely known motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios. ... Title-page to Vanity Fair, drawn by Thackeray, who furnished the illustrations for many of his earlier editions Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray that satirizes society in early 19th-century England. ... David Lewelyn Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 - July 23, 1948) was an American film director (commonly known as D. W. Griffith) probably best known for his film The Birth of a Nation. ... Way Down East is a 1920 film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess. ... Studio promotional photo Mae Marsh (born Mary Wayne Marsh, November 9, 1895 in Madrid, New Mexico, died February 13, 1968 in Hermosa Beach, California) was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years. ... Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (known as Sir Aubrey Smith) (21 July 1863-20 December 1948) was an English cricketer and actor. ... Pagliacci (The Clowns) is an opera in two acts and a prologue by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. ... Lillian Hall-Davis (born June 23, 1898 in London; died October 25, 1933 in London) was a British film leading actress during the silent era. ...

One of the last films using Prizma was Venus of the South Seas (1924), starring Annette Kellerman, where Prizma was used for one reel of a 55 minute film. Venus was recently restored by the Library of Congress. Annette Kellerman (born July 6, 1887 in Sydney, died November 5, 1975 in Southport, Australia) was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star, and writer. ... The Great Hall interior. ...

In 1928, Prizma was bought by Consolidated Film Industries and was reintroduced as Magnacolor (and later Trucolor). Kelley, who held many patents in color photography, sold his patents and equipment to Cinecolor, which benefited from Kelley's advanced printing techniques. Ironically, Cinecolor was co-founded by Kelley's former photographer, William T. Crispinel. Consolidated Film Industries has been the leading film laboratory in the Los Angeles area for many decades. ... Cinecolor is an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Multicolor system of the 1920s. ...

List of Films Made in Prizma Color

Cover of Heidi in German Heidi is a story focusing on events in the life of the title character, a young orphan girl, in Switzerland. ... Pagliacci (The Clowns) is an opera in two acts and a prologue by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. ... Old Faithful can refer to: Old Faithful Geyser Old Faithful Quasar This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Title-page to Vanity Fair, drawn by Thackeray, who furnished the illustrations for many of his earlier editions Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray that satirizes society in early 19th-century England. ... Anne Marie Duff as Elizabeth I from the Virgin Queen The Virgin Queen (which presented the life of Englands Queen Elizabeth I from the time she was twenty to her death in 1603 at the age of sixty-nine) was a BBC/Power co-production directed by Coky Giedroyc... Way Down East is a 1920 film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess. ...

External links

Contents

Prizma I (additive)

Prizma II (subtractive)

List of Films Made in Prizma Color

External links

See also

Contents

Prizma I (additive) GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Prizma II (subtractive)

List of Films Made in Prizma Color

External links

See also

Prizma I (additive)