Films in Color Are New On The Way in Britain And America

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18589, 27 December 1934, Page 13

Films in Color Are New On The Way in Britain And America

TITE probability that film production i in color is very much more imminent than many people suppose is borne out by the latest news from Hollywood and Elstree.

In America, where the success of the short Technicolor picture, “La Cucurneha,” has been one of the more notable events of the season, the list of projected color features has recently been strengthened’ by the addition of “Becky Sharp,” with Miriam Hopkins in the title role.

A British company plans to use color sequences in their film, “Radio Parade of 1935,” and Alexander Korda announces that as soon as his hew studios open in April he will start production on a full-length color picture, probably “Lawrence of Arabia.” It is quite on the cards that he will also use color for his projected film of the life of .NTjinsky—a subject which seems to be ideally suited to the new medium. The Process The system adopted by the British company is a newly-invented British process known as Hillman Colorgravure, and Mr Korda is so much impressed by its possibilities for commercial film-making on a large Scale that he has himself joined the board of directors. Hillman Colorgravurc is a three-color process which .is relatively cheap to use, and will cost the producer very little more than ordinary monochrome photography. The subject, is ■skoV'oh one strip of film, and depends for its effect on the use of a small igadggt. attadieddo the ordinary cinema Jpfojecfcor, • ■ ■ This gadget may be purchased outright by the exhibitor for aotnething between five and 10 pounds, or hirer! along with the film. Tbe greatest, difference between Golorgravure and other color systems, so far as the studio is concerned, is probably the fact that it requires only a negligible increase over the amount of lighting used in ordinary black-and-white photography. Hitherto the actors in color films have had to work under conditions representing at least a 300 per cent increase in the normal studio lighting, with the result that color tones have faded, make-up has run, and the overheads have assumed almost fantastic proportions.