LizzieMaine
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CharlieH. said:
Correct -- but there were, in fact, difficulties in projecting the early version of the two color process, because the red and green layers were originally printed on two separate strips of film which were then cemented together to form the final strip. Projectionists hated this system because the two layers of film meant they needed to turn up the current on the lamphouses to compensate for the light loss, and that meant extra heat on the film, which caused the print to distort -- "cupping" was a very common problem with Technicolor prints made in this way, and it's pretty much impossible to keep a cupped print in focus on the screen.
It's this original version of the system that's sometimes called "Two-strip Technicolor." It remained in use until about 1928, when Kalmus came up with the "imbibition" process, which essentially lithographed the red and green dyes onto a single layer of film in manufacturing the final print. This meant Technicolor release prints were the same thickness as a standard black and white print, and could be run without any additional problems. This printing method continued right on thru the three-color era, and was finally discontinued in the 1970s. So-called "IB Technicolor" prints are considered the most stable color film prints possible -- they never fade because of the way in which the dyes penetrate the film base -- but the process became too expensive and too painstaking for the company to maintain. There was an effort to revive it a few years back, but it again proved too costly to continue.
The only real difference between today's Technicolor prints and those from DeLuxe or any other lab is that Tech prints are still shipped in orange cans, as they've been since the 20s.
