<<<So was the movie shot by three cameras with filters on B&W, effectively making the separations directly>>>
Yes, sort of, but on 3 strips in one special, Technicolor patented camera.
OK, I'll explain the process and hope not to bore or confuse you with a too much technical stuff. (Please note that, as a Canadian I spell the word as COLOUR It's deliberate!)
Here goes:
The original movie was, like all Technicolor films at the time, shot on 3 strips of black and white film in a special single camera that used prisms to split the incoming light images into red, green, and blue components, each put on one of the 3 strips.
Each of those B&W strips were developed and then DYED the appropriate colour to make the 3 negatives. Yes, DYED. It was not a chemical process, except for that original development of each exposed strip of film.
The three negatives were then separately pressed, each in turn, onto a single strip of film specially made so that it could absorb each colour dye as it was pressed against it. As each colour strip was pressed onto this single strip, the colours would build up so that when the third strip was finally pressed, the full colour image would then be on that print, which could then run through a projector in a theatre. Every distribution print sent to theatres had to be made the same way.
The process was physical, actual dye impregnating the film strip, much like paper printing in colour, or lithography, as posters are made. Each pressing had to line up EXACTLY with the other two. It was expensive, but made beautiful prints.
That's why the film was saved on three strips of nitrate B&W stock. All technicolor negatives of that era were that way.
The studios liked Technicolor because, being a physical dye process, not a chemical process, it didn't fade with time like 3-layer single strip colour film prints did.
Later on, in the 1950s or so, Kodakchrome-style film became readily available, and a bit more durable, so copies of dyed prints were often made on such film because that was cheaper than the full Technicolor process.
What seems to have happened with "Leave Her To Heaven" was that the 3 original B&W negatives were thrown out, maybe in the '60s or '70s, so all the restorers had to work with were old deteriorated and faded colour prints, so they had to estimate, or at least use their own judgement, for the colour levels.
Whew! That was long, wasn't it? Hope that explains likes a bit more.
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paleolith
9 years ago
Thanks! You will have to go a lot further to bore me with technical details. 😎 I read about photo technology (historical and current) from time to time and understand the basics, but since I don't work with it day-to-day, what I learn tends to fade. Your explanation ties a lot together.
Edward
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