Through a glass colorfully
September 13, 2012 9:59 PM Subscribe
"The world's first colour moving pictures dating from 1902 have been found by the National Media Museum in Bradford after lying forgotten in a tin for 110 years."
There is an exhibit on Edmund Turner , the developer of the process, at The National Media Museum in London. The film had not previously been viewed because of the non-standard frame format,
Prior to this discovery it was thought that Kinemacolor films were the oldest natural colour process movies.
Other early attempts at natural colour included shooting through three filters in this 1903 film
A bonus montage of early colour film types
There is an exhibit on Edmund Turner , the developer of the process, at The National Media Museum in London. The film had not previously been viewed because of the non-standard frame format,
Prior to this discovery it was thought that Kinemacolor films were the oldest natural colour process movies.
Other early attempts at natural colour included shooting through three filters in this 1903 film
A bonus montage of early colour film types
The world's first colour moving pictures dating from 1902 have been found by the National Media Museum in Bradford after lying forgotten in a tin for 110 years.
[...]
Miss Dixon said the footage itself had been known about for some time, but the ability to now watch it was groundbreaking.
Hmm.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:33 PM on September 13, 2012
[...]
Miss Dixon said the footage itself had been known about for some time, but the ability to now watch it was groundbreaking.
Hmm.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:33 PM on September 13, 2012
"Why, the missus and I were just watching Breaking Bad on the Turnervision the other night"*
*What I would have said the other day if Turner had been a closer.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:44 PM on September 13, 2012
*What I would have said the other day if Turner had been a closer.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:44 PM on September 13, 2012
Anyone know if they processed the entire amount of original film, or is this just a subset? If there is more, I'd like to see that as well, but I can't find any definitive info.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:51 PM on September 13, 2012
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:51 PM on September 13, 2012
This is fantastic. I’m always fascinated by how wrong our impression of even recent history can be.
posted by bongo_x at 11:04 PM on September 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by bongo_x at 11:04 PM on September 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
Turner "died suddenly on 9 March 1903 of a heart attack." (He was thus 29 or 30.)
Obviously a great loss for science and the arts, but also for his children -- this was just a year after this video taken of them as wee ones.
posted by dhens at 11:14 PM on September 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
Obviously a great loss for science and the arts, but also for his children -- this was just a year after this video taken of them as wee ones.
posted by dhens at 11:14 PM on September 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
It's cats, isn't it
posted by fallingbadgers at 11:36 PM on September 13, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by fallingbadgers at 11:36 PM on September 13, 2012 [6 favorites]
He started the fashion for massive hats for kids as well and doesn't get credit for that either.
posted by Abiezer at 12:21 AM on September 14, 2012
posted by Abiezer at 12:21 AM on September 14, 2012
How suspicious this shows up so soon after the closure of their Kodak gallery (and sponsorship)
don't mess with the venue formerly known as the National Museum of Television, Radio and Cinema!
posted by davemee at 12:43 AM on September 14, 2012
don't mess with the venue formerly known as the National Museum of Television, Radio and Cinema!
posted by davemee at 12:43 AM on September 14, 2012
faillingbadgers: It's cats, isn't it
yeah, basically. i was really hoping for a slice of life – people working, walking down the street, in recreation – and this appears to be the predecessor to "talking twin babies pt 2".
things trapped in ember not always the most meaningful. (yes, the man-made "ember" is very cool.)
posted by noway at 2:13 AM on September 14, 2012
yeah, basically. i was really hoping for a slice of life – people working, walking down the street, in recreation – and this appears to be the predecessor to "talking twin babies pt 2".
things trapped in ember not always the most meaningful. (yes, the man-made "ember" is very cool.)
posted by noway at 2:13 AM on September 14, 2012
thing trapped in ember also don't last long, unless they are fireproof
posted by DU at 4:03 AM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by DU at 4:03 AM on September 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
What I found funny about this short clip is that one of the children, by continuously waving around that very yellow sunflower, clearly illustrates the very obvious shortcoming of his father's technique: the need to maintain a perfect synchronisation between the three cameras. A slight lag between the cameras turns the moving sunflower into a swirl of green, magenta and cyan.
Poor Mr. Turner, he had yet to learn W.C. Fields' lesson: "Never work with children or animals."
posted by Skeptic at 5:29 AM on September 14, 2012
Poor Mr. Turner, he had yet to learn W.C. Fields' lesson: "Never work with children or animals."
posted by Skeptic at 5:29 AM on September 14, 2012
Oops, I should have RTFA before commenting. I thought Turner used three separate cameras shooting through coloured filters. As it turns out, according to the second link, it was a single camera using successive frames for the different colours (presumably with a rotary colour filter). This explains the "colour swirl" effect even better, and why it was not a good idea, for a demo, to put a yellow object in the hands of a child...
posted by Skeptic at 5:37 AM on September 14, 2012
posted by Skeptic at 5:37 AM on September 14, 2012
On a related note, NPR did a piece this morning on a man named Charles W. Cushman, an amateur photographer who started taking photos using a new technology: Color film. And as luck would have it, he was somewhat obsessive.
posted by arkham_inmate_0801 at 7:53 AM on September 14, 2012 [7 favorites]
posted by arkham_inmate_0801 at 7:53 AM on September 14, 2012 [7 favorites]
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