1931-04-11 — Page 5

TECHNICOLOUR FILMS,

CENTRAL HOW THE COLOUR IS PUT IN.

THEATRE

SHOWING TO-DAY

At 2.30, 5.10, 7.15 & 9.20 p.m.

"How is it done†”—will ask those who will see "Whoopoo," the | all-technicolour film produced by lorenz Ziegfeld and Esmuol Coldwyn, which is coming shortly to the Queen's Theatre

It is a natural question with the inotion picture industry turning to colour, just an, two years ago, it wint pell mell to sound. One hun- dred feature pictures entirely or

partly in technicolour have now been shown. In fact, lending pro-

A 1931 PARAMOUNT ducer predict the end of the black

SUPER-PRODUCTION

MARLENE

DIETRICH

The new screen beauty whose resemblance

to GRETA GARBO is the rage of two

continents

In

He buried himself alive in the Foreign -Legion to forget wom

en like her!

She Gives. Love a Start-

ling Signifi.

cancel

MOROCCO

GARY COOPEA MARLENE DIETRICH ADOLPHE MENIQU a. Paramount Picture

NEXT CHANGE-

The laugh that, torns Bcandal to Praise and LATE. The Talking Screen's Bewest and most daring story of a woKAN'S his pluted against men's Latrigues.

You loved her in "Ma dame X"-now thrill, to the brillant acting of

Ruth Chatterton

"THE

LAUGHING LADY

(1 Staramount Picture

Booking at Anderson's and

the Th. Atre (Tel. 25720).

and white film,

"Whoopes," was filmed in the final technicolour yet to reach the screen and has Eddie Cantor as the

star.

The development of technicolour lana engaged the attention of a group of scientists for the past sixteen years. Consequently, an a curato description of how the magie q1ocess works cannot be condensed into a few sentonces.

Technicolour is not entirely n photographic process. In fact, after the negative has been exposed, it nimost conses to be photography ht. all and becomes something like a | lithographic process, except that the colours are not put on by n

heavy impression as in the priting | plate on paper nor as they are laid on in the making of a lithograph. They are put on the film by what is called the imbibition process.

In other words, the emulsion on the film drinks in the colours which are in the form of liquid dyce, when applied.

Two Images..

To begin at the beginning, a technicolour negative differs very

· HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1931.

HONCKONC'S FINEST CINEMA

SLICE

OF

A MUSICAL COUNTRY GOLF LIFE! GLORIOUS IN TECHNICOLOR, CHUCHFUL OF LAUGHS AND LOVE!

FOLLOW THRU

CHARLES

ROGERS

NANCY

CARROLL ZELMA O'NEAL.. JACK HALEY

SCHWAB MANDEL

PRODUCTION

a Paramount Picture

printed on the gelatin-coated ralluloid film and the latter drinks

in from the red mateix all the colour necessary

to furnish tho

"FOLLOW THRU,"

SHOWING TO-DAY

AT 2.30, 5.10, 7.15 & 9.30

...82.20

PRICES Including Tax. Loge Seats ... Dress Circle Back Stalls Front Stalls

...$1.70.

...$1.10 ...50

Booking at the THEATRE Only:""

PHONES: 25313, 25330,

COLOUR FILM AT KING'S

Patrons are requested to call for Reserved Seats, 15 minutes before the show-No Reser. vation can be guaranteed after that hour.

Follow Thruú," the Paramount picture at the King's Theatre, in The same process is repeated with of particular interest as a complete the strip of positive film which Eins | techni-colour film. It is a quite been exposed to the green portions light-hearted, musical comedy stuff of the negative; that is, a green about a pretty young golf cham- matrix is made from it in the same pion, a young Romeo of a golf pro- manner the rod one waa made, This green matrix is later soaked fessional, and the usual attendance with dys of a greenish cast and of secondary stars and coinic men- Inid on the golatin-coated strip of in this case"öhe is fat and the ather celluloid directly over the colour shy. The film would be better which already has been imbibed from the red

little from the ordinary motion gradations of red required in the picture negative film, except for

pictura. some necessary 'chemical treatment added to the usual photographic cmulsion. Otherwise, it is the same as the negative used in black and white photography. It is twice, as long, however, because, while photo, graphing a black and white scene only one frame of negative is ex- Fosed at a given instant of time, in technicolour two frames are ex- posed simultaneously.

0

The reason for this double length is that behind the lens in the technicolour

camera there is crism which splits the scene into [-two images, each idention! with the other. Ono image-or one-reaches the negative through a red filter, The other reaches the complement- nry bit of negative which is being exposed at

instant through a green filter. Thus there are on the negativo two images, one right side up, the other bottom side up, the top lines being parallel with each other.

the

BRMO

Now follow the operations neces sary to get the positive of this double negative printed on one side of a strip of films so that it may bo presented on a motion picture Bercon.

First of all a positive film, some- what hardened by chemical action, is treated with hot water; then & groon" etching, or relief map of the accus, in recorded upon it. Next a red" relief map is ob tained by the same method on an other positiva film, which, of course, has been exposed to the "red" part of the negativo.

are

Red and Green. While "red" and "green used as the terms designating the two parts of the negative, neither an absolute red nor an absolute green colour is meant. By "rod" is meant the warm colours of the spectrum. By

ie meant the cold colours of the spectrum. The red side is more in the nature of an orange red, while the green sido je more of a blue green. Bo in the subsequent, paragraphs the words. "red" and green." must

green

13

be taken as meaning groups, of colours rather than pure reda or greens

These two rolief map films are the matrices from which are to be made the hundreds or more prints required for distribution to the theatres

With these two matrices ready, blank celluloid ribbon, which later is to become the film to be exhibited in the theatre, is treated with gelatin. so that it readily will accept colour dyes in liquid form. Then the positive which boars the outlines, or microscopic hills and valloys, of the red matrix in brought in, soaked with the ro- quisite amount of dye and applied like a master printing plate this Blank strin of gelatin-contad fceluloid.

During this operation of trans- forring dye from the matrix-

to the blank oolluloid,' both the matrix' and blank are rigidly mounted on metal backings. The

result is that the red parts of the image, or scene, are impressed or

image-or scone, without the dialogue, but some of Through this second application the songs are quite catchy. the gelatin coating now drinks in

some

hint

The

from the green matrix all of the golf course scenes have a pleasant, colour necessary to furnish the re-open air freshness; and there is quired gradations or shades of

love-making. pretty

The green. Thus the gelatin layer is interpenetrated with both dyea-red usual fancy dress party is well and grean-in exactly the same pro-done, and a ballet has some mo- portions that those colours with ments of real phantasy, giving a their varying shades existed in the sconcs, as originally photographed.

5t what talkie-plus-techni- Bimple for the Machine Oporator.

colour could be in the hands of au When this has all been done, these artist. The choice, of subject in colours are "got" on the film and this scene was odd, but the whole we have a motion picture with thing was treated in a sort of every one of its many and diver-

Nancy Carroll fairy-tale manner, sified scenes all recorded in naturalis a nice looking heroine, and the colours on one side of the film and other members of the caste support ready for showing in the theatre.

Because of the perfection of this show, and those interested in the her well. Lovers of a good revue process of putting the colour all

on one side of the film, theatre technical development of the films

will find Follow Thru"! projection machine operators are

able to run a film in technicolour good entertainment.

exactly the same as a black and

white picture. No special ap- liance nor any adjustment what-

A very

R.B.

ever of his projection machine is the emulsion frequently was scrap- required.

ed off one side of the film, causing great green or red streaks to be thrown on the screen.

Before the difficult problem of getting the colour all on one side of the film had been successfully solved, technicolour was printed on both sides of double-coated film, This necessarily was thicker than ordinary film and operators in the theatre often failed to make the proper adjustments for the free pasange of this double-coated film 'through their projection machines. This resulted in the picture some timer being out of the focus. Also, (Continued an neat Column.)

J

Now, thanks to the perfected new technicolour process, these unhappy results have been eliminated. As a matter of fact, the technicolour prints have been proved by actual text to have longer life than black and white prints. Because of this durability, a technicolour picturo. looks exactly the same in a small town picture house as it did several months earlier when presented in n large New York theatre.

PRELIMINARY NOTICE.

THE HONG KONG FILM DISTRIBUTION COMPANY having through their Lordon Aoxers concluded Arrangements. with the following Producers of British Pictures :-

GAINSBOROUGH PICTURES (1928) LIMITED. -THE-GAUMONT-COMPANY, LIMITED.-

JULIUS HAGEN AND HENRY EDWARDS. BRITISH AND DOMINION FILM

CORPORATION. LIMITED.

Taker pleasure in announcing the Early Release in Hong Konɑ of

the following Recent Buocesses:-

ROOKERY NOOK··

HOUSE OF THE ARROW ..SPLINTERS

LORD: RICHARD IN THE PANTRY "PLUNDER”:

BED AND BREAKFAST

"A" WARM CORNER

ETC., ETC.

Enquiries for Terms, etc., should be addressed to Box No. 602, c/o Hong Kong DAILY Pass, Ltd.

MOVIELAND

FOR THE

EEK

THE SILVER SCREEN,

QUEEN'S THEATRE.

"THE SEA BAT."

Can yay imagine living in a hotel in which all the rooms are panelled with mahogany? Can you conceive of a motion picture company being. delayed becauso a boatload of wood and sink within its photographio lines? Did you over hear of peopló - who se ebony, that pricelesa binck wood, to cook the morning eggs

These unique experiences all cams to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayar cam pany which journeyed to Mazatlan, Mexico, for the tropical sooner af

The Sea Bat," a marine melo. drama directed by Westoy Ruggles, who recently brought to the talking screon! Condemned" and "Stroot Girl."

"When I think of what my mahogany, furniture cost at home," wrote Charles Bickford to a friend,

theso mahogany walla irritate me terribly. Why, they even use the wood to make little tortillas huts, comparable to our rondside hot dog stands! And one morning, coming down into kitchen for an early breakfast, I actually saw the cook putting ebony on the fire. Why, my olony hair brushes, nicked my clock book plenty when I bought them in New York.

And then, as the very last straw, a boatload of ebony sank yesterday, directly in the path of the big barge carring our talkie picture truck! Ebony, you see, is a very heavy wood and will not float. I tell you, there is nothing like the tropica to give a man, new experiences!"

"REMOTE CONTROL."

Polly Moran is William Haines "good luck. when he starts out to make a new picture.

So Polly is found among the featured cast in "Remote Control," his new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talkie, which will come to-morrow to the Queen's Theatre.

For several years Haines hasn't unde a picture without finding a. part in it somewhere for Polly, and in the picturization of the stage play Polly is to be seen and heard as a radio, beauty expert.

Mary Doran is the loading lady in the new Haines vehicle; and the King, John Miljan and J. C. Nugent.

WORLDA supporting enat includes Charles

FINAL SHOWINGS TO-DAY

Ar 2.30, 5.15, 7.15 & 9.20.

GLOR

FLORIA WANSON

100%

ALL TALKING SINGING

WHAT

WIDOW

ALLANOWAN

STAR

FINAL SHOWINGS TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.20, 7.20 & 9.20.

RONALD COLMAN

Raffles

UNITED

CREDIT FONCIER D'EXTREME-

ORIENT.

MORTGAGE BANK AND ESTATE AGENTE.

"PEAK MANSIONS,” Blx-roomed & Five-roomed Apartments

PRINCE EDWARD BOAD, KOWLOON.

Detached and Semi-detached Villar Modern Construction with Garage,

"CAMBAY BUILDINGS” Flats with Hoden Corenience.

PERSIAN AND CHINESE ART.

MR. BINYON ON CONTRASTS.

At the seventh official lecture.on Persian art, given at the British Academy recently, Mr. Laurence Binyon, who was chairman of the Selection Committee, for the Por sinn. Exhibition, said that what- ever Porsian art got from the inheritance of Greece and from Byzantium, it had more affinity with the art of China. There was somo mutual interaction in San- anian times, and China borrowed Persian motives of ornament, but in later centuries it was the Chin- eso painters who had the greatest. prestige in all Oriental ebuntries. Still, Peraian, design was quite different from theirs, The Persians had a passion for gardens, but tho gurdona they loved were formal gardens, full of straight lines and symmetry, both abhorrent to Chin- cac taste, Persian design was more formal; ita elementa were more solid and static Chinese paint- ing was full of breathing wind or floating mist; Persian painting was atill, bright and unblurred. Again, the Chinese loved sober and low- toned colour; the Persians intro- duced us a world where all was glowing with a gom-like lucency.

They often used pure gold for their skies, and no art gave to colour such radiant, yet never garish, splendour.

COMPREHENSIVE AND COM. PLETE REPORT

of the

NEWS OF THE FAR EAST is given in the

“HONG KONG WEEKLY PRESS,"

"THE CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.”

30 Cents per Copy.

Subscription, paid in advance-

per annum for delivery in Hong Kong #13; including Postags to key part of the world-$18.

MOVIELAND EATURE

THE WEEK

QUEEN'S

FINAL SHOWINGS TO-DAY Ar 2.30, 5.10, 7.15 & 9,20

Kadrio Ch exdej

The

SEX

THIS

GREATEST

ADVENTURE PICTURE

of the

SCREEN

SEA BAT

Dani

with

Charles Bickford

Nils Asther Baquel Torres George Marlon

Metro-Goktryn Mayer.

COMING SHORTLY PARIS BOUND!

Embark

OD A TOYEES

of thrillin

this sya-full, ar-fall, lang-full Latoo riot!

with Fifi DORSAY. Reginald DENNY CLIFF EDWARDS. YOLA D'AVEIL, BANDRA BAVEL, GEORGE GROSSMITH

(what a

Those

Charmaina

THREE FRENCH GIRLS

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