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Topic: Color Filters - South Pacific

Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted October 24, 2018 05:42 AM

I have just bought "South Pacific" from a fellow member, and had completely forgotten about the use of colour filers at times. I found the interesting comment on the internet.

In his autobiography, Joshua Logan (the Director) takes great pains to explain that he went along with the idea of the color filters with the understanding that they could be easily altered if they proved unsatisfactory.
Assured by cine-photographer, Leon Shamroy, that the color changes would be subtle, Logan was shocked at the blatancy. Since previews were already paid for and the film was over budget, studio executives were unwilling to spend "three months in the lab to make the color come out right."
Logan does not place the blame on Shamroy, who "had not been allowed in the lab to check" on how the color changes were realised. He does find fault with George Skouras (the Executive Producer) for placing "financial considerations over technical quality."

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Maurice

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted October 24, 2018 01:30 PM

It's sometimes painful to watch the strong unnatural color hues in South Pacific. Less painful but noticeable was the use of multi-colored filters in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. There are scenes with the Count where there are clearly three separate colored sections in the frame.

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Roy H. Wagner
Junior
Posts: 1
From: Thousand Oaks, CA, USA
Registered: Dec 2018

posted December 13, 2018 12:05 AM

I have personal history regarding the “dream sequence” in South Pacific. I know Josh Logan claims he didn’t went the filters once he saw them. The truth is that tests were done by Shamroy during pre production. The filters were built specifically for South Pacific by Harrison and Harrison. There are six of them. I inherited them from Shamroy. The studio borrowed them from me to make the new DI. We tried to make a print from the original camera negative. It continued to fall apart. We then did a DI to preserve a new film element. Logan saw the test of the filters during pre production and approved the purchase of the filters. The studio would never have approved those filters without testing. Shamroy hated them. Once photographed it would have been impossible to alter photo chemically. Digitally the tin type transition in Sound of Music’s opening was fixed digitally. The choice was made to preserve the Logan color sequence for South Pacific. I hate them as much as you do.

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RHWASC

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 16, 2018 09:35 PM

Roy,

Thank you so much for sharing the correct information about those filters. It's greatly appreciated.

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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