1922 colour footage from Kodachrome

Circa Vintage Clothing

Circa Vintage Clothing

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Hi everyone,

A friend sent me this and I thought you might like it too: footage of actresses (and their gorgeous fashions) in colour from 1922. It's an early Kodachrome film.

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Nicole
 
Amazing Nicole ty!

Makes me wonder, did they put the makeup on heavy for the filming ( you would think they didnt know better yet) or did women really dress like that. The woman in red at the end had me laughing, I almost felt liek I was there with here. The lights bright them telling her how to look and mover, her complaining lol.

This was very fun to watch... oh and another thing, I noticed a funny looking red hair was popular. I wonder if it was pinky red because of techniques at the time or from the film..... oh I long fo those days when pasty and chunky faces like mine were the ideal woman :-)

Thank you again nicole!
 
that was great! I loved seeing the Delsarte/silent film acting techniques and poses.

Pale skin sure was fashionable.

Hollis
 
I love this clip!

I was wondering whether the colours were true to life or not - like their super-pale skin which you've mentioned. There's something that strikes me as just a little bit stylized to the palette, like it's been filtered or something. I've been trying to find more information about the 2-colour process used on the film to find out.

There's some interesting information on the Kodak: A Thousand Words website where they posted the clip originally (http://1000words.kodak.com/post/?ID=2982503). They quote some information from a Silent Film Festival about the clip:

"In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair. She is joined by actress Hope Hampton modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton and an unidentified woman and child also appear.

George Eastman House is the repository for many of the early tests made by the Eastman Kodak Company of their various motion picture film stocks and color processes. The Two-Color Kodachrome Process was an attempt to bring natural lifelike colors to the screen through the photochemical method in a subtractive color system. First tests on the Two-Color Kodachrome Process were begun in late 1914. Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives. The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues."

Interesting - but I'm still not sure whether it means the colour was true to what was in the studio that day, or that it 'colourized' the B&W film to make it look like natural colour.

Jen
 
That's an interesting technique, but I think you are right, the result is not a true colour palette. They reminded be of autochromes - an early colour still photography technique that also has washed and faded images that look romantic and ethereal. Its a perfect technique for the erea, the same way saturated colours are so wonderful for 1940s/50s photos and movies.
 
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