Anon. (1929c) "Wynn Holcomb, Cartoonist and Stage Designer Signed for Universale King of Jazz Revue," Universal Weekly 30, no. 13 (2 November), 18.
Anon. (1930a) "Two Color Sequences Stand Out," Los Angles Times (27 April), B. Anon. (1930b) "Color and Sound on Film," fortune vol. 11, no. 4 (October), 124. Anon. (1930c) "A Director's Ambitions," New York Times (11 Mav), 122. Anon. (1930d) "Warners to feature Technicolor Program," New York Times (27 Mav), 38.
Anon. (1934) "What: Color in the Movies Again':" Fortune vol. 10. no. 4 (October), 94. Babcock, M. (1929) "King of Jazz Lacks Throne," Los Angeles Times (18 August), 13, 24.
Bell, N. (1930) "Behind the Screens," The Washington Post (3 Mav), 11.
Berrett, J. (2004) Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman. Two Kings oj Jazz, New Haven,
CT, and London: Yale University Press. Brost, L. (2007) "On Seeing Red: The Figurative Movement of Film Colour," in
W. Everett (ed.). Questions of Colour in Cinema: from Paintbrush to Pixel, Bern,
Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2007, 127-139.
Buhler, J., Neumcyer, D. and Deemer, R. (2010) Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Coates, P. (2008) "On the Dialectic of Filmic Colors (in general) and Red (in particular): Three Colors: Red, Red Desert, Cries and Whispers, and The TJouble Life of Veronique," Film Criticism vol. 32, no. 3, 2—23.
G., R. (1930) "The King of Jazz." Wall Street journal (5 Mav), 4.
Haines, W. (1993) Technicolor Movies: the History of Dye-Transfer Printing, Jefferson, NC: MacFarland.
Hall, M. (1929) "Dialogue and Color," New York Times (29 May), 30. Herring, R. (1930) "The Whiteman Front," Close Up vol. 6, no. 1 (July), 60. Higgins, S. (2007) Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow: Color Design in the 1930s, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Huron, D. (2006) Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation, Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press.
Johnson, M. (2007) The Meaning of the /Wv: Aesthetics of Human Understanding, Chicago and London: University ot Chicago.
Kalmus, N. (1935) "Color Consciousness," foumal of the Society of Motion Picture
Engineers vol. 25, no. 2, 145. Lang, H. (1930) "He Didn't Know How," Photoplax vol. 38, no. 1 (1 June), 75. I.usk, N. (1930) "Depression Felt in Last," Los Angeles Tunes ( 11 Mav), B9. Schallert, F. (1930a) "•Ghosting' Songs Now Favored," Los Angeles Tunes
(19 January), B13.
Schallert, F. (1930b) "Revues Stir Controversy." Los Angeles dimes (9 March), Bl 1. Scheurer, P. (1930) "Jazz Spectacle Sets Pace in Novelties," Los Angeles Times
(13 April), 19. Sime (1930) "King of Jazz," Variety (7 Mav).
Y'umibe, J. (2009) '"Harmonious Sensations ot Sound by Means of Colors': Vernacular Colour Abstractions in Silent Cinema," Film History vol. 21, no. 2, 164-176.
four
glorious agfacolor, breathtaking total vision and monophonic sound
:olour and "scope" in Czechoslovakia
anna
b a t i s t o v
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The cinema industry was one ot the first industries to become state-owned in post-war Czechoslovakia.' Although state interference in film production, distribution and exhibition grew as the political climate of the cold war became increasingly tense, it did not stop Czechoslovak cinema from following technological changes which were happening abroad. However, isolation from the western world and political and economical dependence on the centre of socialist power in Soviet Russia caused considerable problems. Efforts to evolve independently inside the socialist block were affected by the growing internationalization, standardization and globalization of the cinema industry.
In this chapter I will examine how this tension between Soviet self-sufficiency and a global cinema market affected the adoption of colour in Chechoslovakian cinema in particular in relation to the change of colour process required by the adoption of widescreen. While the Czechoslovak film industry was content to use low-qualitv East-German colour film stock in the late 1940s, owing to the international adoption
of widescreen it was forced to exchange it for Eastmancolor during the following decade. In this period therefore the necessity lor technological change powered bv the global industry overwhelmed the political realities of the Soviet system.
The first mainstream natural colour films were screened in Czechoslovakia well before 1945, including films utilizing various two-colour systems in the 1920s, American Technicolor productions in the 1930s and German Agfacolor films in the 1940s.2 Although there were minor independent experiments with colour in the period, and Czech workers helped during production of Agfacolor features at Barrandov studios in Prague during the war, regular colour production w7ould start only after 1945.'
The particular character of the Czech film industry between the wars did not allow for the earlier proliferation of colour films. Since the mid 1920s the state would only licence charitable organizations to run cinemas, which discouraged entrepreneurship and meant that film production was not seen as a profitable enterprise and thus was never supported by banks or other private investors. In addition so many distribution companies were set up in the post-First-World-War period, flooding the market with hundreds of films from all over Europe and the U.S. every year, that they did not leave much space for domestic releases, nor did they enjoy long lives in this highly competitive atmosphere themselves (Heiss and Klimeš 2003: 303-320).
After 1945 on the other hand, the state-owned industry was provided financial protection by vertical integration and, on account of the German occupation of the Barrandov studios during the war, not only were experienced workers and fullv equipped laboratories available, but also a limited supply of colour film stock. However, before Czechoslovak cinema ventured into its own colour production, it needed more experience, hosting Soviet colour production in the first few post-w7ar years.'1 But they could not wait long. Colour production was supposed to prove both the technological and the artistic maturity of the industry. As in other countries, the first attempts at colour cinema were made with short and non-fiction films, and from the latter half of 1945 colour stock was used prominently for both short and feature-length animation. While the focus on short films is understandable due to initial experimenting and high costs of colour stock, the choice of the animation genre not only copied foreign patterns, but also drew on the international reputation of Czechoslovak animation at the time, such as JiriTrnka's Animals and Bandits (Zvířátka a Petrovští, 1946) or The Christmas Dream (Vánočnísen, 1945), collaboration of Karel Zeman, Bořivoj Zeman and Hermína Tvrlová, both in Festival de Cannes competition in 1946. The young state-owned industry was in need of reorganization and lacked modern equipment in both production and cinemas, as well as the support of domestic manufacturers of technology and film stock.
In such a situation, colour animated films seemed an ideal product to be exchanged tor much needed foreign currency.5 For example, in 1947, thirteen out of seventeen short animated films were in colour, as was the onlv feature-length animated film produced that year, while only one feature out ot eighteen and two out of fifty-three non-animated shorts were in colour. At the same time, only some of the films shot in colour were distributed as such at home, the colour copies being reserved for international festivals and the foreign market. The first live action feature film in colour, Jan Roháč oj Dubá (fan Roháč z Dubě, 1947), was made in 1947 and the production of colour films increased steadily every year until the mid-1950s. Even in the critical year of 1951, when only seven feature films were made in total, two of them were in colour.6 The 1950s were also marked by an interesting (but quite understandable) inclination of colour productions towards popular films in general and children's movies in particular. Children's and animated films were successful at international festivals and often sold abroad. They constituted prestige product, not onlv securing the foreign currency, but also showing both possibilities and abilities of the newly nationalized cinema industry, advertising the idea of socialism.
Before 1945, domestic manufacture of film stock was virtually nonexistent, and even in later years onlv a small amount of black-and-white positive material could be secured internally.7 Czechoslovakia thus depended on foreign supply. The negative colour film stock used well into the 1960s was East German Agfacolor, initially bought through the Soviet Union administration after 1945, and later directly from the Agfa factory in Wolfen (from the mid-sixties, the same stock was called Orwocolor). However, since the mid-1950s, the industry had been experimenting with stock bv other European manufacturers and with Kodak products, looking for new and better colour material.
It is important to consider at this point how similar the background for decision-making mechanisms are when it comes to comparison of technological change in the nationalized cinema of a socialist country-such as Czechoslovakia, and other cinemas governed by the free market. This is largely due to the nature of cinema as an industry. While in the late 1940s and early 1950s the cinemas of the East-European countries tended towards separatism, as did other industries, quite soon the need of at least partial success in the international market became obvious. Also, while Soviet and other socialist countries' films were preferred bv individual governments, tastes of the audiences in these countries did not differ much from those in the western world (Skopal 2009). Finally, although the main goal of the cinema was to educate the people in the ways of the new and future socialist world, economics constituted an inseparable force behind the control of the industry.
While shooting in colour was not without issues, screening colour films proved to be equally problematic. Firstly, the quality of the eastern Agfa
stock was low. In various tests conducted in the period. Czechoslovak technicians found the definition of Agfacolor positi\ e materials 50 per cent lower than that of F.astmancolor, while the sensitivitv of the emulsion was uneven, sometimes in the same reel. Up to 10 per cent of the Agfacolor material was sent hack to Wolfen as taultv everv \ear. Reports from the period comment on the low quality of the colour stock causing problems during shooting and processing (Anon. 1955). Proof ot this is e\ ident in the poor colour saturation in scenes with lower intensity of light (tor example night scenes) and changes of colour during dissolves which are visible on the surviving prints and recently released digital copies of some films. Second, domestic cinemas were very poorly equipped for the projection of colour films. Nation-wide surveys showed that some cinemas only had one projector and most of them had machines that were more than t\\ ek e years old. Even silent-era equipment, onlv later adjusted for sound screening, was not unusual. Old projectors were feared to be more likely to damage expensive colour copies during screenings. Furthermore, these projectors had very poor lighting properties. Not onlv did their optics absorb most of the light before casting it on a screen, but also the light sources were insufficient themselves, as were the reflective qualities ot materials used to make screens. Before colour, even a dim projector light was enough: black-and-white films required less light to be sufficiently luminous and cinemas in Czechoslovakia were mostly small, with short distances between projector and screen.8 Screenings in larger venues, however, revealed the inadequacy of the machines.'' Not surprisingly, when reviewing projectors manufactured domestically after 1945, cinema representatives usually complained, about lamp houses and optical arrangement, which had the biggest effect on the light efficiency ot the projector.
The survival ot Czechoslovak cinema depended on foreign product and the abilitv to screen films produced abroad.1" As coordination and division ot labour and flow of product inside the Council tor Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) was still poor, Czechoslovakia could not close itself inside the Eastern bloc, at least from the point of view of the cinema market. Being able to screen foreign films and occasionally sell some domestic product abroad was necessary, and therefore if the foreign product was in vvidescreen, Czechoslovakia needed to he able to adapt to new formats.
The vvidescreen revolution brought a new set of concerns tor Czechoslovak cinema and thev were to test the new organization of the industry after little more than a decade ot its existence, firstly, the administration of the centralized cinema industry had to decide which of the emerging new formats to adopt. Having more than one new format alongside academy ratio was impossible tor economic and organizational reasons." In the initial anarchv of emerging new formats, Czechoslovak cinema technicians had to decide, or rather guess, which ot the formats would get the major share of the cinema screens in the world. As thev
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started to consider a new format quite late, around the end ot 195-1 or the beginning of 1955 (and in these years onlv preliminary research was made, while the actual adoption was planned tor 1956), the chosen format was OmemaScope. which was at that point the dominant vvidescreen format and had a number of fullv compatible competitors. While the word OmemaScope appears (in various distortions of the original spelling) in cinema journals and archival documents ot the period, this actual brand never made it to Czechoslovakia, and was substituted bv compatible European technologv for shooting (tor instance French Totalv ision), and bv domestic equipment for screening.
Now that the decision was made, the next step was to prepare the industry tor the transition as quickly as possible. A five-year plan was prepared tor the period 1956—1960, during which ten features were supposed to be made, and forty cinemas adapted tor the new technologv. While the number of films actually made corresponded with the initial plan, over 250 cinemas were adapted during the period. Of these, however, onlv approximately forty had stereophonic sound reproduction alongside the wider image.
While Agfacolor negative stock was barely sufficient for academy ratio shooting and screening, it was even more inadequate for "scope" or even masked formats.12 As a result, from 1957 the situation became more complicated. For "scope" films, Eastmancolor became the standard, while academy ratio productions continued to use eastern Agfacolor/Orwocolor. We can see this distinction in the film Death m the Saddle (Smrt v sedle, 1958). The film was shot in two formats, academv on Agfacolor and "scope" on Eastmancolor stock.1, A similar situation arose with Provisional Liberty (La Líbené suneillé IV proudech, 1957), the first "scope" feature finished in Czechoslovakia, which was a co-production with the French Trident company. According to negotiations, the French co-producer was supposed to supply the Eastmancolor stock, although in fact what thev provided was western Agfacolor. Czech cameramen working on the film found the qualitv sufficient, although the material needed some changes in lighting and laboratory processing. The release copies were printed on Italian Ferraniacolor." A Midsummer Night's Dream (Sen noci svatojánské, 1959), a "scope" animated feature bv Jiří Trnka that went into production in 1956 and was released in 1959, was shot entirely in Eastmancolor. However, in 1956 there was no Laboratory to process Eastmancolor in ('zechoslov akia, so the rushes were sent to Paris, while Trnka used black-and-white academv materials shot simultaneously to check the movements of his puppets. Also, he was forced to make alterations to his usual methods of puppet-making, due to the differences in colour rendering with Agfacolor and Eastmancolor.1^
While the first colour vvidescreen films were being made, research groups were formed to compare the qualities of Agfacolor and Eastmancolor
and to investigate possibilities ot introduction of the latter into laboratory practice. The main problems were connected with old and insufficient machinery and inaccurate measuring instruments. However, unlike the Agfa/Wolten factory, Kodak provided technical support during the introduction ot the new laboratory equipment and processes, and remained in contact with the Prague laboratories. While preparing tor Eastmancolor as a new negative material, Czechoslovak researchers continued to review other colour stocks produced in Europe. Small groups ot technicians (usually two or three) were sent to the Soviet Union, as well as the DEFA studios in Germany, the Ge\aert factory in Belgium and the Ferrania factory in Italy. During the 1960s and 1970s, Eastmancolor became and remained the main colour stock for negatives and intermediate materials, while cheaper colour processes (most often eastern Agfacolor, later Orwocolor) were used for distribution copies. There were however a few scope films using Agfacolor or Orwocolor negative film stock, especially in the late 1960s.
As in other countries, post-war cinema in Czechoslovakia was threatened by the growing popularit}' of television, but aspired to coordinate the media to the advantage ot both, and the needs of the governing partv. In 1972 almost half ot the approximately 2,000 cinemas (or 3,400, it we count 16 mm, non-regular and various club, factory or union screening facilities as well) were equipped for "scope". At the same time, these cinemas collected more than 60 per cent ot the overall income of the industry. Because of the limited use of widescreen films in television, and television's growing proliferation, 1972 was marked bv a decision to save "scope" tor productions described as "popular", supposedly attracting larger audiences to cinemas, while "politically important" films were to be shot at academy format, and as such to be more suitable for the new medium. While musicals, comedies or films tor young people attracted large audiences during their first few weeks of release, and sometimes during the summer rere-leases in open-air cinemas, political dramas and similar were supposed to find their viewers in private homes, repeatedly, for years after their original release (Pilát 1972: unpaged).
Although the widescreen resolution did not take a direct course and was held back, in Czechoslovakia probably more than elsewhere, it did significantly influence the transition from black-and-white to colour. While eastern Agfacolor was perceived as problematic and inferior from the verv beginning, the major impulse tor a change of colour system came with the introduction of widescreen in Czechoslovakia, as anamorphic processes tested the limits of the film stock, and made all the known issues even more visible. Czechoslovak studios never saw the real CinemaScope and worked with compatible European "scopes", as the cinemas had to use domestic technology, however clumsy it might be. It was therefore not glorious Technicolor, breathtaking CinemaScope and stereophonic sound at first in Czechoslovakia.
Furthermore, initially Czechoslovak encounters yvith colour yvere determined by the character of the cinema industry — loyy domestic production, small number of cinemas and dependence on international cooperation — rather than bv the political situation. Yet after 1945 colour production gained an increasingly prestigious standing from both a political and economic point of yieyv. Politically, colour films were meant to show the accomplishments of the state-oyvned industry, yvhile economically they constituted a unique source of foreign currency. Ultimately the latter half ot the 1950s and the 1960s sayv a period ot development and expansion in the Czechoslovak industry and liberation in politics and society, which encouraged and enabled the goyernment to spend more on the superior Eastmancolor stock. Where colour film stock was concerned, political issues ceased to be important, and once it became economically possible, the cinema technicians and engineers went for the quality first. Eastmancolor was adopted as the standard negative stock material in the following decades, which in turn sayv a significant increase in the number of films made in colour, leaving the use of black-and-yvhite marginal by the end of the communist era in 1989.
notes
1. By the government decree no. 50/1945 on arrangements in the cinema sphere of business, the Czechoslovak state gained a monopoly on cinema production, laboratory processing, distribution, public screenings and international trade.
2. Short Pnzmacolor films yvere distributed in 1921—1922. In December 1923 The Clorious Adventure (UK, 1922) premiered and The Toll of the Sea (US, 1922) in two-colour Technicolor yvas released in December 1924 (Stabla 19S2: 355-357).
3. For example IRF.-film. a Prague studio oyvned by Irena and Karel Dodal, made several animation shorts in colour between 1933 and 1938 (Struskova 2006: 99).
4. For example, the shooting ot Alexander Ptuschko's colour film The Stone Flower (Kamennvv tsyetok, USSR 1946) began in August 1945, and the film yvas the first to be finished in the Barrandov studios after the war.
5. While the studios did not suffer much damage during the war (at least in comparison yvith other Central and Fast-European countries), the cinemas were in desperate need of new equipment. According to a post-war survey, up to 85 per cent ot them yvere "insufficient for orderly operation", not only in terms of equipment, but also in issues of hygiene and safety (Bvstfickv 1947: unpaged).
6. In 1950, several films were reprimanded by communist party officials and a list ot preferred topics yvas issued. This interference led to a production crisis in 1951, yvhen only a fraction of the originally scheduled 52 films for that year w ere actually produced.
7. On the other hand, film for still photography had been domestically produced since 1914 bv Neobrom, and from 1921 bv Fotochema (now Foma), alongside other smaller companies.
10.
11.
12.
13.
H.
15.
According to the data collected in 1947, only 110 cinemas had an auditorium longer than 30 metres, and the maximum length was 42 metres (Anon. 1950a: unpaged). In 1950, only nine cinemas had a capacity of more than 1,000, while almost 85 per cent of all cinemas could seat less than 500 (Černík 1954: 89, 198). In later decades, the national cinema network was being improved, also by building new cinemas in previously neglected regions. Of these cinemas, some were constructed especially for widescreen or 70 mm, and as such, they tended to be larger. Also, open-air cinemas, with programming concentrated to summer months, had longer distances between the screen and the projector booth, and could have up to several thousands of spectators. For example, the first "scope" screening in Czechoslovakia during the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary in summer 1956 took place in a newly constructed open air cinema, which would seat up to 3,500 spectators (Anon. 1956: 9).
As the report by a member of Cinema Technology Committee (FITES) states, during the screening at the Fair palace in Prague held in 1950 for the anniversary of the Soviet October Revolution, the visibility of the image was so reduced that a viewer could hardly have recognized that the film was in colour. In conclusion, the report suggested that if the minimum luminance required for colour screening is not achieved, colour films should not be shown at all, as that would ruin their political mission (Anon. 1950b: unpaged).
Because of the small number of cinemas, low ticket prices and high costs of production, an average Czechoslovak film would theoretically take thirty-six months to break even, during which time demand would fall dramatically. Thus only extremely popular Czechoslovak films or foreign films turned a profit (Bláha 1955: 12).
Although since 1964 some new large cinemas were built for 70 mm projection, Czechoslovak cinema never produced a film on 65 mm negative, except for a handful of co-productions with the USSR. A few other Czechoslovak films were released in 70 mm blown-ups from original 35 mm negatives. It should also be noted that masked formats (1:1,66 and 1:1,85), which could be screened with just small alterations to current projectors, were quite common in Czechoslovakia, but there is no data on their actual proliferation.
Only during the 1970s did colour become standard in Czechoslovakia. Until then the majority of both academy and "scope" films were shot in black-and-white.
This practice was used for a few earlv widescreen films, as the Prague laboratories did not have a way to make academy copies from the "scope" originals vet, and at the same time, only a few cinemas were scope-friendly. Having a film on widescreen only would substantially limit its use in distribution.
In general, co-production became the way of obtaining quality colour stock and better shooting technology in the late 1950s and during the 1960s (see Skopal 2009).
In a monograph on Trnka, the reason offered for switching from Agfacolor to Eastmancolor is the blurriness of the wider image towards the left and right extremes. Also, Eastmancolor is described as more "naturalistic", showing the materials used to manufacture the puppets for what they really are (Boček 1963: 247-248).
references
Anon. (1950a) Zápis 60. schůze komise promítací FITES dne 19. 6. 1950 [manuscript),
Filmový technick\' sbor, FITES 1950, Praha: Národní filmový'archiv. Anon. (1950b) Zápis 65. řádné schůze promítací komise 14. listopadu 1950 [manuscript],
Filmový technicky sbor, FITES 1950—1951, Praha: Národní filmový archiv. Anon. (1955) Zápis plenární schůze Filmového technického sboru ze dne 28. září 1955 Zaváděni
nových technologií. Filmový technický sbor, FITES 1951—1959, Praha: Národní
filmový archiv.
Anon. (1956) "Preparations lor the IXth International Film Festival at Karlovy
Varv in Full Swing", The Czechoslovak Film, 4: 9. Bláha, R. (1955) Ekonomika čs. kinematografie. Učebnice pro 1IF a IV. ročník Průmyslové školy
v (..tmelících a příručka pro filmové pracovníky, Praha: Československý státní film.
Boček, J. (1963) Jiří Trnka. Historie díla a jeho tvůrce, Praha: Státní nakladatelství krásné literatury a umění.
Bystrický, j. (1947) Zřizováni km a užiti substandardnich formátů pro veřejný provoz [manuscript], Filmový technický sbor, FITES 1947, Praha: Národní filmový archiv.
Černík, A. (1954) Výroční zpráva o čs. filmovmctvi. Rok 1950, Praha: Československý státní film.
Heiss, C and Klimeš, i. (2003) Obrazy času j Bilder der Zeit. Český a rakouský film 30. letj Tschechischer und österreichischer Film der 30er Jahre, Praha: Národní filmový archiv.
Pilát, F. (1972) Studie dlouhodobého rozvoje filmové techniky, Praha: Ústřední ředitelství Československého filmu.
Skopal, P. (2009) "The 'Provisional Liberty' of Colour and Widescreen: The Czech Co-Productions with the 'West', 1959-1969", paper presented at NEC'S conference at Lund, 2009. Also (inline. Available at http://www.phil. muni.cz/dedur/?lang=1&id=21534 (accessed 30 April 2011).
Strusková. Ľ. (2006) "Irena & Karel Dodal. Průkopníci českého animovaného filmu", Iluminace, 63: 99-146.
Stáhla, Z. (1982) Rozšířené teze k dějinám československé kinematografie, vol. 2, Praha: Filmový ústav.