8mm Forum: 8mm Technicolor?

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Posted by Michael Wright (Member # 1387) on April 13, 2017, 03:51 AM:

I recently bought an amateur standard 8 film off Ebay, just to see what the film was like. It was pretty good, but I don't believe it was dye transfer technicolor. Has anyone any idea what film it could be? I don't remember cine film being sold as technicolor, certainly not in the UK anyway.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on April 13, 2017, 03:54 AM:

Michael
If it's an amateur standard 8 film with good colour, then it's most likely to be Kodachrome.
Look at the edge of the film, at intervals, it may say "Kodachrome".

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 13, 2017, 11:37 AM:

Maurice is no doubt right ...

which reminds me, if you happen to see films in "Technicolor" cartidges being sold, well, the cartridges themselves are in fact from the technicolor corporation, but the actual film within is fadey eastman.

i could be wrong, but i don't think there was any actual technicolor super. The "T" corporation (saves time) released a memo, so to speak, saying that they were experimenting with technicolor on super 8, but i don't think anything came of it.

I will say that i a few super 8 optical sound prints (features) from the late 60's/early 70's that have completely unfaded, glorious color, and they came from Technicolor cartridges, but, since the actual films has no markings stating "IB" or anything like that on the leader, (the leader actually doesn't have any markings), i couldn't say that it was Technicolor.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on April 14, 2017, 05:32 PM:

And, of course Technicolor labs produced prints on Kodak stock so their name often appeared on the leaders.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on April 15, 2017, 04:22 AM:

Sad that Kodak invented Eastmancolor, or did they developed it.

Posted by Eberhard Nuffer (Member # 410) on April 19, 2017, 09:19 AM:

In 1999, in issue #4 of the German film collectors magazine "Movie", we had an article about Technicolor prints in Super 8. The author assumes that Super 8 Technicolor printing was just tested for a short time and only a few Super 8 prints were made using this complex process. And there is a review of a Super 8 Technicolor print of Howard Hawks' "El Dorado" in that issue.

Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on April 19, 2017, 12:09 PM:

I'll have to check when I get home but last Spring I bought a NIB technicolor Super 8 camera from the mid 60's

It came with a couple of envelopes for film processing. If I remember right, there were options you could select beyond regular processing including some enhanced technicolor process and a cartridge.

Whatever that process was I don't think it was the real technicolor process which involved a camera running at double speed exposing alternate B&W frames behind red and green filters. Or something like that.

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 892) on April 19, 2017, 01:28 PM:

Michael, Kodachrome and Technicolor have something in common: the color dyes are additive and not present in the original film emulsion. That makes them chemically much more stable and less prone to fade. No Kodak copy stock was fade-free until after 1982.

Which makes the other points interesting. Why would Technicolor experiment in printing and slitting in Super 8 as late as 1999 when film collecting was just a niche? And how about that brochure Tom mentions (please! a scan!) that surely must've been extra cost to mount the film into a cartridge for playing in a Technicolor Super 8 unit. They couldn't possibly have improved on Kodachrome!

Posted by Joe Balitzki (Member # 438) on April 20, 2017, 10:44 AM:

Technicolor supposedly did strike IB prints for a very short time. I do know registration was a vexing problem due to the small format's size. I have never seen one of their Super 8mm IB prints though. Any that do exist are extremely rare. They also sold for a short time Super 8mm cartridges of film that you sent to them for developing. I had one but never used it; it came with its own mailing envelope. Since they did not manufacture the film stock themselves its unknown who did for them. I think I read somewhere years ago that AGFA was the manufacturer for them. I do know that it was developed only by them; you could not have another lab do it. I imagine the process was similar to Kodachrome.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 20, 2017, 11:56 AM:

Eberhard ...

Could you, perchance, provide either a link to that article/review of "El Dorado" or a downloadable file/photoscan of the article? I'd love to read it!

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on April 20, 2017, 04:31 PM:

The only AGFA Super 8 cartridges I have had were more like E6 process, I'm sure I put a couple through an E6 processing kit.

I don't know if Ilford standard 8 was like Kodachrome, my uncle used it and it was said they had a great increase in quality when only the processing was changed not the emulsion. That could mean improved dye forming chemicals.

Also seeing the Technicolor documentary on the Adventures of Robin Hood Blu ray it states the Kodak said they had the technology to produce fade free prints but Hollywood wasn't interested (did not think it economical).

[ April 22, 2017, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: Brian Fretwell ]

Posted by Eberhard Nuffer (Member # 410) on April 24, 2017, 07:16 PM:

Bill,

Technicolor didn't print Super 8 in 1999; that's just the date when the article was printed in "Movie". According to the article, the Super 8 print of "El Dorado" was made around 1968.

Osi,

the article isn't available online, and I don't want to upload it because of copyright issues. It is in German language. All I can offer is to PM a scan to you - if you don't mind it's in German.

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