Animator
Posted:
Sep 29, 2011, 2:50 AM
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Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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Were there any Hanna-Barbera cartoons, from the studio's inception up to about 1981, filmed in the classic 3-strip Technicolor process beloved of cartoons of the late 1930s-1960s?
In other words, was the classic Scooby-Doo ever filmed in Technicolor?
~Ben
(This post was edited by ScoobyDoo1976 on Sep 29, 2011, 2:51 AM)
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Intern
Posted:
Sep 29, 2011, 11:37 AM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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Not likely. As far as I know, the Technicolor process was intended for theatrical films, not for television.
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Muttley, you forgot to Sanforize the car!
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Animator
Posted:
Sep 29, 2011, 11:40 AM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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Not likely. As far as I know, the Technicolor process was intended for theatrical films, not for television. C.F.I., then?
~Ben
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Supervising Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Sep 30, 2011, 10:34 AM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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Might H-B have shot on 35mm Eastman Color, which was introduced in 1952?
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Back by popular demand -
"La-la-La-la.. I can't hear you!"
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Directing Animator
Posted:
Oct 5, 2011, 8:11 AM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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I think they may have used Deluxe beginning in the early 1960's; wasn't that what Columbia Pictures Television was using for their color productions?
I agree, it's highly doubtful that H-B would have used an expensive process like Technicolor when they were first starting out as an independent production company.
I know many 1960's productions distributed by MCA-TV/Universal were filmed in Technicolor. Jack Webb's productions of "Dragnet" and "Adam-12" come to mind.
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"I'd like to cover you with furs and automobiles!"
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Supervising Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Oct 5, 2011, 12:00 PM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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3-color Technicolor was a process whereby the image was split in the camera to register on three separate reels of 35mm Black & White raw stock. The image passed through color filters so that each film strip registered the tonal values of a particular color (red, green and blue). [OK, for perfectionists, the light was only split two ways; green light went to one single reel, the rest of the light went to two reels bipacked together - the first film was sensitive to blue light only, and backed with red gelatine which filtered the red light to the second strip which was normal panchromatic B&W.] The real magic happened in the Technicolor laboratory, where these 3 black & white negatives were used to generate gelatine coatings that were dyed opposing colours (cyan, magenta and yellow). Although Disney started off using the cumbersome 3-strip camera, they eventually ditched it for a conventional camera loaded with panchromatic B&W film, but with a rotating set of color filters - when the operator pressed the button to shoot a frame the camera exposed three frames - one for each color. The Technicolor laboratory then step-printed these frames onto 3 separate strips.
According to the website "pictureshowman.com" most live action studios had switched to using Eastman Color (which could be used in a normal camera) by 1955. The Universal–International release “Foxfire”, starring Jane Russell and Jeff Chandler was the last Hollywood film to use Technicolor's three strip cameras. Technicolor laboratories continued to make dye transfers from other negative sources (and these were promoted as "Prints by Technicolor") but eventually it was considered to be too slow and too expensive, and Technicolor's US dye plant closed in 1975.
So even cartoons intended for theatrical release would have been shot on one of the new color stocks.
In the US they continued shooting TV animation on 35mm. In Britain most TV animation was shot on 16mm.
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Back by popular demand -
"La-la-La-la.. I can't hear you!"
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Research Guru
Posted:
Oct 5, 2011, 3:49 PM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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Check out the two-DVD set <i>The Adventures of Robin Hood</i>. One of the extras is a fascinating documentary, <i>Glorious Technicolor</i>. It gives a thorough history of the technique... although it doesn't talk much about its use in cartoons.
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Oct 5, 2011, 6:08 PM)
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Inbetweener
Posted:
Oct 10, 2011, 3:19 PM
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Re: Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in Technicolor?
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In other words, was the classic Scooby-Doo ever filmed in Technicolor?
What do the credits say? I was always under the impression that anything in Technicolor was contractually required to have a credit reading "Color by Technicolor."
D.
http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com
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(This post was edited by Dodsworth on Oct 10, 2011, 3:20 PM)
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