Multicolor is a subtractive two-color motion picture process. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor. For a Multicolor film, a scene is shot with a normal camera capable of bipacking film. Two

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

35mm film negatives are threaded

bipack In cinematography, bipacking, or a bipack, is the process of loading two reels of film into a camera, so that they both pass through the camera gate together. It was used both for in-camera effects (effects that are nowadays mainly achieved via o ...

in the camera. One records the color red (via a dyed panchromatic film), and the other, blue ( orthochromatic). In printing, duplitized stock is exposed and processed with one record on each side. In a tank of toning solution, the film is floated upon the top of the solution with the appropriate chemical. The cyan record is toned a complementary red with a copper ferrocyanide solution, and the red being toned blue/cyan with ferric ferrocyanide solution. Multicolor enjoyed brief success in early sound pictures. The following features included sequences in Multicolor: '' This Thing Called Love'' (1929), ''

His First Command ''His First Command'' is a 1929 American pre-Code comedy action film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring William Boyd, Dorothy Sebastian and Gavin Gordon.Munden p.352 Location shooting took place at Fort Riley in Kansas. Synopsis A playboy ...

'' (1929), '' Red Hot Rhythm'' (1929), '' Sunny Side Up'' (1929), '' Married In Hollywood'' (1929), '' Fox Movietone Follies of 1929'' (1929), ''

The Great Gabbo ''The Great Gabbo'' is a 1929 American Pre-Code early sound musical drama film directed by James Cruze, based on Ben Hecht's 1928 short story "The Rival Dummy", and starring Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson. The film features songs by Lynn Co ...

'' (1929), ''

New Movietone Follies of 1930 ''New Movietone Follies of 1930'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical film released by Fox Film Corporation, directed by Benjamin Stoloff. The film stars El Brendel and Marjorie White who also costarred in Fox's ''Just Imagine'' in 1930. The f ...

'' (1930), '' Good News'' (1930), ''

Madam Satan ''Madam Satan'' or ''Madame Satan'' is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film in black and white with Multicolor sequences. It was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, and Ro ...

'' (1930) and '' Delicious'' (1931). All of these features were produced by

Fox Film Corporation The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...

except ''The Great Gabbo'' (

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures Sono Art-World Wide Pictures was an American film distribution and production company in operation from 1927 to 1933. Their first feature film was ''The Rainbow Man'' (1929), while one of their most prominent was '' The Great Gabbo'' (1929) starr ...

), ''Red Hot Rhythm'' ( Pathé), ''Good News'' (

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

) and ''Madam Satan'' (

). A sequence in '' Hell's Angels'' (1930) was filmed in Multicolor, but printed by

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

, as Multicolor could not yet supply as large a demand of printings in such a short amount of time. Multicolor was also utilized in several cartoons of the era. A 15-second, behind-the-scenes clip in Multicolor of the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

filmed on the set of '' Animal Crackers'' (1930) exists as part of a Cinecolor short subject entitled ''Wonderland of California''. The first feature filmed entirely in Multicolor was '' The Hawk'' (1931), which was re-released five years later in Cinecolor as '' Phantom of Santa Fe''. In 1932, the next (and final) all Multicolor feature, '' Tex Takes A Holiday'' (1932), was released.

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

was an early investor of Multicolor's Rowland V. Lee and William Worthington. The Multicolor plant closed in 1932 and their equipment was bought by Cinecolor in 1933.

References

{{reflist Audiovisual introductions in 1929 Film and video technology Motion picture film formats

See also

References