A Translight or Translite is a large illuminated film backing typically used as a backdrop in the film and TV industry. The name of Translite originally came from the

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. ...

display film made by the

Eastman Kodak Company The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. Pacific Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

was the sole producer of Translites from about 1950 until about 1979. Technicians there projected images in a darkroom onto the film in strips, which were then removed and processed by hand in tanks by the darkroom crew. The strips were seamed with tape; then oil paint was applied to the assembled picture for a tinted color effect. The name gradually was applied to any transparency lit from behind and used as a background picture for feature films or television production. Full-color printing of a Translight was first used on the motion picture ''

One from the Heart ''One from the Heart'' is a 1982 American musical romantic drama film co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, Lainie Kazan, and Harry Dean Stanton. The story is ...

''. Until recently, Translights were made in a photographic process, often in sections to allow very large sizes to be produced. Digital technology has now been introduced, which allows large sizes to be printed with fewer seams. As of 2010, Translights can be printed on photographic film by laser exposure with the Lambda printer, on polyvinyl chloride with

inkjet printers Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...

of grand scale, and on

muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured. Muslin of uncommonly delicate hand ...

with water-based inks. The polyvinyl-chloride production process has been seen by some as environmentally harmful because of the off-gassing of

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is ...

from the film, the lack of a biodegradable printing base, and the release of dioxin into the environment during raw material production. Translights allow the director of photography to create what appears to be an exterior scene, but under controlled conditions, rather than dependent on weather, access, and time of day. The images extend a set. Because the image is captured during principal photography, no post-production is required. A translight gives the filmmaker the ability to do, for example, multiple takes of a scene against a sunset, instead of shooting on location. A further development of this technology is the "day-to-night" Translight. In this case, one side of the film is printed with the daytime image and the reverse side is printed with the night time scene, both images are perfectly aligned. With a change in the direction of illumination, the director of photography can change between daytime and night time scenes with no requirement for re-rigging. This type of Translight does not photographically reproduce the scene at night, for the daytime image remains somewhat visible. In 2011, Translite3 was introduced. It uses the same polyester-base film as is used for Duratrans, but is available in a wider format. Two significant improvements are that it allows the application of additional diffusion in the printing process, solving the see-through problem of Duratrans, and does not require matte coating with lacquer, as is needed with Duratrans. It is also more scratch-resistant than its predecessor.{{cite web, url=http://murphsmedia.com/Translite3-history-translite-duratrans.html, title=Learn the real history of translite from the man who made all three kinds., publisher=

References

Film and video technology

See also

References