The History and Science of Color Film: From Isaac Newton to the Coen Brothers

41 thoughts on “The History and Science of Color Film: From Isaac Newton to the Coen Brothers”

1. Old School Photography

2. Really thanks, teacher!

3. You make this whole video and still can't spell colour.

4. +filmmakeriq, could you do an episode elaborating on how Monopack and Eastmancolor actually work in a single film strip? And perhaps the developing process, of how the composite colours are developed separately, similarly to the indepth look as CMOS sensors and their quantum inner workings? Cheers! Jamie

5. Stop that darn clicking – buy a better mouse!

6. 'What is color ?'
   Simple. It's 'colour' spelt incorrectly 😉

7. Very helpful, now I know why so many 1980s and 1990s TV show repeats have faded washed out colour, where as BBC colour series of 1970 – 74 are still sharp colour as they are likely Technicolor and later ones Eastman colour, and then Digital colour in the 2000s means later colour remains warm.

8. This video is so helpful! I am talking a film history class and your videos are really helping me visualize what is written in my text book.

9. You should go on the photograph in three strip technicolor process with the modern movie.It may be the short films with originally three strip technicolor process.Then compare with the modern digital colour process.Which is more beautiful picture than?

10. Why are the host's eyes jumping all over the place like that? It looks like he is reading 4 foot wide cue cards from 4 feet away or something lol

11. You have a knack for closing remarks. 🙂

12. Reminds me of Nitro Cellulose Film. It's da Bomb I tell ya.

13. thanks to this video i found a movie i been trying to find for 5 years.

14. <3

15. I only just discovered your channel few days ago and already watched few of your videos. I never knew there was so many different ways film colours was made.

16. Fantastic work. Beyond brilliant. I love this channel. I'm encouraged that the great old films are being preserved, too.

17. John!!! You are the dude!!!!! Fascinating information…… love this channel

18. eastman.. he came out of the east, to do battle with the amazing rando!

19. Thanks. Amazing educational series.

20. How could you forget Edward Raymond Turner who was the first to capture color on film in 1902.

21. I thought Levi Hill produced the first color photograph ?

22. so excellent as always

23. Why LCD screens give the best color. They use the additive process for the picture, but achieve it using the subtractive system for the filters of the underlying black and white pixels.

24. Is there a name for the 3d figurines they have in this thumbnail?

25. You leave out a very important bit here as many do. Films were in color and gave the audience important information. Green tint was outdoors in daylight, purple at sunset, Pink for bedroom, Red for fire, Sepia indoors at night, with Blue as night. Look at an original 1922 print of Birth of a Nation and you will understand. You had many stencil tints used up to the Thirties, checkout Hells Angels for some as well as a Technicolor section. Also you leave out a double emulsion system used for films in the thirties and forties one side red the other blue.

26. Thanks. Great Video.

27. No mention of 'Pleasantville'?

28. Ah yes, "Color Crayon Turner," let loose on black-and-white movies that were "improved" with spot color for that "Colorized" look. Errors were legion; "Old Blue Eyes," Frank Sinatra, became a "brown eyed handsome man." This "everything must be in color" garbage has turned documentaries into strange paint pot constructions, whereby World War I can be viewed "in color," as I've seen at the Smithsonian channel. I wonder what Henri Cartier-Bresson would say about having his monochrome "decisive moments" changed into polycolor images? To misquote an ad: "Is it Real or has it been Colorized?" aka "Is it Real or is it PhotoShop"? Also not mentioned in this vlog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re

29. I'm so glad I found your channel. I really love your videos.

30. I didn't know that O Brother Where Art Thou? was the first to receive Digital Intermediary. That movie always did look so great to me.

31. There are many trolls on YouTube, but the one's who dislike Filmmaker IQ videos are some of the most unreasonable of all. I have a fine arts degree and these videos dig deeper than the more lab based courses out there.

32. Well presented. Great historical information.

33. licc

34. This guy is good.
    He knows his stuff.
    It seems like he should be a major player in the film making industry.

35. This is a good instructional video but where are the lenticular colour systems like Dufaycolor? These monochrome colour films which render excellent colour pallets on otherwise regular black and white film are worthy of mention. Generally used on the domestic market Dufaycolor did also make commercial features. Colour reversal processes should also be mentioned as they are integral to colour film history.

36. Just discovered this channel via this video. Not a bad history of colour film. Obviously not exhaustive, but enough to cover the highlights and point the viewer in the right direction to find out more.

    I have personal knowledge of Martin Scorsese's preservation project, as I saw his lecture at the BFI in London. He showed two trailers for "Gone With The Wind". The first was on Eastman stock and was what we had come to expect. Faded and mainly pink. The other was an original Technicolor print released to first run theatres in the US in 1939. It drew audible gasps from the audience. The colour was all there in full and the film looked almost 3D. Another think he showed us was clips from "The Leopard" (1963) with Burt Lancaster. Again the difference was astonishing.

    Eastman Kodak, thankfully, got such a fright they did the work and produced more stable chemicals for both the film base and the colour layers so film stock is now much more stable. They also invested heavily in Digital Imaging and produced some of the earliest CCD image sensors. Now the main aid to preserving film is the digital intermediate, and this in fact is the only way to preserve the old 3-strip Technicolor movies. Technicolor no longer have any die-transfer printers, and I haven't been able to find out what happened to the equipment they sold to China.

37. I'm watching this video again, as it's been about a year or so since I first watched it, and a thought occurred to me as you said that in the early 30s, Kodak introduced a new panchromatic film that produced great results and was much cheaper to use than two-strip Technicolor: was this new film something Technicolor had been waiting for, and what was new about it? Was it faster than previously available panchromatic films? I'm wondering if this new film was needed to make 3-strip Technicolor practical.

38. how they used to copy these films

39. WOOW WOOW WOOW Such a good material. Thank you.

40. Hope I could have a friend like john, whom knows literally everything…

41. Can you release a video about color film in cameras

Comments are closed.