| Handschiegl Color Process |
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Information AboutHandschiegl Color Process |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HANDSCHIEGL COLOR PROCESS | |
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HISTORY OF THE PROCESS The process was invented in 1916 for Cecil B. DeMille 's production of ''Joan The Woman (1917)'' by engraver Max Handschiegl with assistance from Alvin W. Wyckoff and Loren Taylor. All three were technicians at the Famous Players-Lasky Studio, where the film was shot. The system was originally advertised as the Wyckoff process, referred to in publicity as the DeMille-Wyckoff process. The process, for a time, was strictly a Paramount Studios item, but once Handschiegl and Wyckoff left Players-Lasky, the color process became known as the Handschiegl Color Process and aside from Pathé 's stencil process Pathéchrome, was the most widely used form of hand-coloring in motion pictures of the 1920s . OVERVIEW OF HOW THE PROCESS WORKED How the process actually worked is subject to some argument based on existing prints, but Handschiegl described the invention as such: A separate, black and white print for each color to be applied was made. Using an opaque paint, portions of the image where color was to be applied were blocked out. A duplicate negative was made from the painted print, developed in a tanning developer which hardened the gelatine layer where it had been exposed and developed. Those areas corresponding to the blocked out areas on the print remained relatively soft, and capable of taking up dye. This dyed matrix film was brought into contact, in accurate register, with a positive print, to which the dye transferred in the appropriate areas. The print made several passes through the dye transfer machines, in contact with a separate matrix for each color. Usually, three colors were applied at the most. Surviving examples of the process show that this technique was not always used-- in some examples, stencils or simple hand coloring were employed. The process used most likely depended on variables such as speed and budget. LATER YEARS The Handschiegl process was bought out by Kelley Color in 1927 and then somehow bought out by Technicolor in 1928 . Technicolor later put the Imbibition process to use with the Technicolor natural color process. Technicolor also continued to use the process up until 1930 or 1931, at which point it was discontinued, although the Technicolor corporation experimented with similar effects for years following. KNOWN EXAMPLES OF HANDSCHIEGL COLOR
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