Color motion picture film refers both to unexposed color photographic film in a format suitable for use in a motion picture camera, and to finished motion picture film, ready for use in a projector, which bears images in color. With the present-day technology, there are two distinct processes: Eastman Color Negative 2 chemistry (camera negative stocks, duplicating interpositive and internegative stocks) and Eastman Color Positive 2 chemistry (positive prints for direct projection), usually abbreviated as ECN-2 and ECP-2. Fuji's products are compatible with ECN-2 and ECP-2.

Overview[link]

The first motion pictures were photographed on a simple silver halide photographic emulsion that produced a "black-and-white" image—that is, an image in shades of gray, ranging from black to white, which corresponded to the luminous intensity of each point on the photographed subject. Light, shade, form and movement were captured, but not color.

With color motion picture film, not only is the luminance of a subject recorded, but the color of the subject, too. This is accomplished by analyzing the spectrum of colors into several regions (normally three, commonly referred to by their dominant colors, red, green and blue) and recording these regions individually. Current color films do this by means of three layers of differently color-sensitive photographic emulsion coated onto a single strip of film base.

Early color motion picture processes recorded them as completely separate images (e.g., three-strip Technicolor) or adjacent microscopic image fragments (e.g., Dufaycolor). Each photographed color component, initially just a black-and-white record of the luminous intensities in the part of the spectrum it recorded, is processed to produce a transparent dye image in the complementary color. The superimposed dye images combine to synthesize the original colors by the subtractive color method. In some early color processes (e.g., Kinemacolor), the component images remained in black-and-white form and were projected through color filters to synthesize the original colors by the additive color method.

Tinting and hand coloring[link]

See also List of early color feature films

The earliest motion picture stocks were orthochromatic and recorded blue and green light, but not red. Recording all three spectral regions required making film stock panchromatic to some degree. Since orthochromatic film stock hindered color photography in its beginnings, the first films with color in them utilized aniline dyes in order to create artificial color. Hand-colored films began in 1895 with Thomas Edison's hand-painted Annabelle's Dance made for his Kinetoscope viewers.

Many early filmmakers from the first ten years of film also used this method to some degree. George Méliès offered hand-painted prints of his own films at an additional cost over the black-and-white versions, including the visual-effects pioneering A Trip to the Moon (1902). The film had various parts of the film painted frame-by-frame by twenty-one women in Montreuil^[1] in a production-line method.^[2]

The first commercially successful stencil color process was introduced in 1905 by Pathé Frères. Pathé Color, renamed Pathéchrome in 1929, became one of the most accurate and reliable stencil coloring systems. It incorporated an original print of a film with sections cut by pantograph in the appropriate areas for up to six colors^[1] by a coloring machine with dye-soaked, velvet rollers.^[3] After a stencil had been made for the whole film, it was placed into contact with the print to be colored and run at high speed (60 feet per minute) through the coloring (staining) machine. The process was repeated for each set of stencils corresponding to a different color. By 1910, Pathé had over 400 women employed as stencilers in their Vincennes factory. Pathéchrome continued production through the 1930s.^[1]

A more common technique emerged in the early 1910s known as film tinting, a process in which either the emulsion or the film base is dyed, giving the image a uniform monochromatic color. This process was popular during the silent era, with specific colors employed for certain narrative effects (red for scenes with fire or firelight, blue for night, etc.).^[2]

A complementary process, called toning, replaces the silver particles in the film with metallic salts or mordanted dyes. This creates a color effect in which the dark parts of the image are replaced with a color (e.g., blue and white rather than black and white). Tinting and toning were sometimes applied together.^[2]

In the United States, St. Louis engraver Max Handschiegl and cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff created the Handschiegl Color Process, a dye-transfer equivalent of the stencil process, first used in Joan the Woman (1917) directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and used in special effects sequences for films such as The Phantom of the Opera (1925).^[1]

Eastman Kodak introduced its own system of pre-tinted black-and-white film stocks called Sonochrome in 1929. The Sonochrome line featured films tinted in seventeen different colors including Peachblow, Inferno, Candle Flame, Sunshine, Purple Haze, Firelight, Azure, Nocturne, Verdante, Aquagreen,^[4] Caprice, Fleur de Lis, Rose Doree, and the neutral-density Argent, which kept the screen from becoming excessively bright when switching to a black-and-white scene.^[1]

Tinting and toning continued to be used well into the sound era. In the '30s and '40s, some western films were processed in a sepia-toning solution to evoke the feeling of old photographs of the day. Tinting was used as late as 1951 for Sam Newfield's sci-fi film Lost Continent for the green lost-world sequences. Alfred Hitchcock used a form of hand-coloring for the orange-red gun-blast at the audience in Spellbound (1945).^[1] Kodak's Sonochrome and similar pre-tinted stocks were still in production until the 1970s and were used commonly for custom theatrical trailers and snipes.

In the last half of the 20th century, Norman Maclaren, who was one of the pioneers in modern animated movies, made several animated films in which he directly hand-painted the images, and in some cases, also the soundtrack, on each frame of the film. This approach was previously employed in the early years of movies, late 19th and early 20th century. One of the precursors in color hand painting frame by frame was the aragonese Segundo de Chomon, that worked with Melies.

Physics of light and color[link]

The principles on which color photography is based were first proposed by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1855 and presented at the Royal Society in London in 1861.^[1] By that time, it was known that light comprises a spectrum of different wavelengths that are perceived as different colors as they are absorbed and reflected by natural objects. Maxwell discovered that all natural colors in this spectrum may be reproduced with additive combinations of three primary colors - red, green, and blue - which, when equally mixed together, produce white light.^[1]

Between 1900 and 1935, dozens of natural color systems were introduced, although only a few were successful.^[4]

Additive color[link]

The first color systems that appeared in motion pictures were additive color systems. Additive color was practical because no special color stock was necessary. Black-and-white film could be processed and used in both filming and projection. The various additive systems entailed the use of color filters on both the movie camera and projector. Additive color adds lights of the primary colors in various proportions to the projected image. Because of the limited amount of space to record images on film, and later because the lack of a camera that could record more than two strips of film at once, most early motion-picture color systems consisted of two colors, often red and green or red and blue.^[2]

Practical color in the motion picture business began with Kinemacolor, first introduced in 1906.^[3] This was a two-color system created in England by Edward R. Turner and George Albert Smith, and promoted by film pioneer Charles Urban's The Charles Urban Trading Company in 1908. It was used for a series of films including the documentary With Our King and Queen Through India, depicting the Delhi Durbar (also known as The Durbar at Delhi, 1912) which was filmed in December 1911. The Kinemacolor process consisted of alternating frames of specially sensitized black-and-white film which were photographed at 32 frames per second through a rotating filter with alternating red and green areas. The film was then printed and projected through the same alternating red and green filter at the same speed. The sense of color was achieved through a combination of separate red and green alternating images and the viewer's persistence of vision.^[2][5]

William Friese-Greene invented another additive color system called Biocolour, which was developed by his son Claude Friese-Greene after William's death in 1921. William sued George Albert Smith, alleging that the Kinemacolor process infringed on the patents for his Bioschemes, Ltd.; as a result, Smith's patent was revoked in 1914.^[1] Both Kinemacolor and Biocolour had problems with "fringing" or "haloing" of the image, due to the separate red and green images not fully matching up.^[1]

French inventor Louis Dufay developed Dufaycolor in 1931, which was a reversal film (producing a positive image on the camera original) that used a mosaic of tiny filter elements of the primary colors between the emulsion and base of the film.^[3]

By the nature of the systems, additive color was wasteful of light. Because of the filters used to project the films, more light was required than was typically projected onto the screen, resulting in an image that was dimmer than the average black-and-white image. The larger the screen, the dimmer the picture. For this, and other case-by-case reasons, additive processes for motion pictures grew out of favor about the time of the Second World War, though additive color methods are employed by all the color video and computer display systems in common use today.^[2]

Subtractive color[link]

The first successful subtractive color system began with Kodak's Kodachrome system. Using duplitized film, red and green records were exposed. By bleaching away the silver and replacing it with color dye, a color image was obtained. Kodak's first narrative film with the process was a short subject entitled Concerning $1000 in 1916.

Kodachrome, however, did not find much use in the commercial market, and the first truly successful subtractive color process was William van Doren Kelley's Prizma,^[6] an early color process that was first introduced at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on 8 February 1917.^[7][8] Prizma began in 1916 as an additive system similar to Kinemacolor.

However, after 1917, Kelley reinvented the process as a subtractive one with several years of short films and travelogues, such as Everywhere With Prizma (1919) and A Prizma Color Visit to Catalina (1919) before releasing features such as the documentary Bali the Unknown (1921), The Glorious Adventure (1922), and Venus of the South Seas (1924). A Prizma promotional short filmed for Del Monte Foods titled Sunshine Gatherers (1921) is available on DVD in Treasures 5 The West 1898 – 1938 by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

The invention of Prizma led to a series of similarly printed color processes. This bipack color system used two strips of film running through the camera, one recording red, and one recording blue-green light. With the black-and-white negatives being printed onto duplitized film, the color images were then toned red and blue, effectively creating a subtractive color print.

Leon Forrest Douglass (1869–1940), a founder of Victor Records, developed a system he called Naturalcolor, and first showed a short test film made in the process on 15 May 1917 at his home in San Rafael, California. The only feature film known to have been made in this process, Cupid Angling (1918) — starring Ruth Roland and with cameo appearances by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks — was filmed in the Lake Lagunitas area of Marin County, California.^[9]

After experimenting with more advanced methods of additive systems (including a camera with two apertures (one with a red filter one with green) from 1915 to 1921, Dr. Herbert Kalmus, Dr. Daniel Comstock, and mechanic W. Burton Wescott (who left the company in 1921) developed the subtractive color system for Technicolor. This system used a beam splitter in a specially modified camera to send red and green light waves to separate black-and-white film negatives. From these negatives, two prints were made on film stock with half the normal base thickness, which were toned accordingly: one red, the other green.^[3] They were then cemented together, base-to-base, into a single strip of film. The first film using this process was Toll of the Sea (1922) starring Anna May Wong.

Perhaps the most ambitious film made with this process was The Black Pirate (1926), starring and produced by Douglas Fairbanks and directed by Albert Parker. The system was refined through the incorporation of dye imbibition, which allowed for the transferring of dyes from both color matrices into a single print, thus avoiding the problems at attaching two prints back-to-back and allowing for multiple prints to be created from a single pair of matrices.^[2]

Technicolor's system was extremely popular for a number of years, but it was a very expensive process: shooting cost three times that of black-and-white photography and printing costs were no cheaper. By 1932, general color photography had nearly been abandoned by major studios, until Technicolor developed a new advancement to record all three primary colors. Utilizing a special dichroic beam splitter equipped with two 45-degree prisms in the form of a cube, light from the lens was deflected by the prisms and split into two paths to expose each one of three black-and-white negatives (one each to record the densities for red, green, and blue).^[10]

The three negatives were then printed to gelatin matrices, which also completely bleached the image, washing out the silver and leaving only the gelatin record of the image. A receiver print, consisting of a 50% density print of the black-and-white negative for the green record strip, and including the soundtrack, was struck and treated with dye mordants to aid in the imbibition process (this "black" layer was discontinued in the early 1940s). The matrices for each strip were coated with their complementary dye (yellow, cyan, or magenta), and then each successively brought into high-pressure contact with the receiver, which would imbibe and hold the dyes which collectively were able to render a wider spectrum of colors than the previous technologies.^[11] The first animation film with the three-color (also called three-strip) system was Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees (1932), the first short live-action film was La Cucaracha (1934), and the first feature was Becky Sharp (1935).^[3]

There were other subtractive processes, including Gasparcolor, a single-strip 3-color system developed in 1933 by the Hungarian chemist Dr. Bela Gaspar.^[12]

The real push for color films and the nearly immediate changeover from black-and-white production to nearly all color film were pushed forward by the prevalence of television in the early 1950s. In 1947, only 12 percent of American films were made in color. By 1954, that number rose to over 50 percent.^[1] The rise in color films was also aided by the breakup of Technicolor's near monopoly on the medium.

In 1947, the United States Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against Technicolor for monopolization of color cinematography (even though rival processes such as Cinecolor and Trucolor were in general use). In 1950, a federal court ordered Technicolor to allot a number of its three-strip cameras for use by independent studios and filmmakers. Although this certainly affected Technicolor, its real undoing was the invention of Eastmancolor that same year.^[1]

Monopack color film[link]

A strip of undeveloped 35 mm color negative.

For many years, Monopack (capitalized) was a proprietary product of Technicolor Corp, whereas monopack (not capitalized) generically referred to any of several single-strip color film products, certainly including various Eastman Kodak products. It appears that Technicolor made no attempt to register Monopack as a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, although it certainly asserted that term as if it was a registered trademark, and it had the force of a legal agreement between it and Eastman Kodak to backup that assertion. It was a solely-sourced product, too, as Eastman Kodak was legally prevented from marketing any color motion picture film products wider than 16mm, 35mm specifically, until the expiration of the so-called "Monopack Agreement" in 1950. This, notwithstanding the facts that Technicolor never had the capability to manufacture sensitized motion picture films of any kind, nor single-strip color films based upon its so-called "Troland Patent" (which patent Technicolor maintained covered all monopack-type films in general, but monopack-type motion picture films in particular, and which Eastman Kodak elected not contest as Technicolor was then one of its largest customers, if not its largest customer). After 1950, Eastman Kodak was free to develop and market color films of any kind, particularly including monopack color motion picture films in 65/70mm, 35mm, 16mm and 8mm. The "Monopack Agreement" had no effect on color still films.

Modern color film is based on the subtractive color system, which filters colors from white light through dyed or color sensitive layers within a single strip of film. A subtractive color (cyan, magenta, yellow) is what remains when one of the additive primary colors (red, green, blue) has been removed from the spectrum. Eastman Kodak's monopack color film incorporated three separate layers of color sensitive emulsions into one strip of film.

Kodachrome was the first commercially successful application of monopack multilayer film, introduced in 1935.^[13] For professional motion picture photography, Kodachrome Commercial, on a 35mm BH-perforated base, was available exclusively from Technicolor, as its so-called "Technicolor Monopack" product. Similarly, for sub-professional motion picture photography, Kodachrome Commercial, on a 16mm base, was available exclusively from Eastman Kodak. In both cases, Eastman Kodak was the sole manufacturer and the sole processor. In the 35mm case, Technicolor dye-transfer printing was a "tie-in" product^[14]. In the 16mm case, there were Eastman Kodak duplicating and printing stocks and associated chemistry, not the same as a "tie-in" product. In exceptional cases, Technicolor would offer 16mm dye-transfer printing, but this necessitated the exceptionally wasteful process of printing on a 35mm base, only thereafter to be re-perforated and re-slit to 16mm, thereby discarding slightly more than one-half of the end product.

A late modification to the "Monopack Agreement", the "Imbibition Agreement", finally allowed Technicolor to economically manufacture 16mm dye-transfer prints as so-called "double-rank" 35/32mm prints (two 16mm prints on a 35mm base which was originally perforated at the 16mm specification for both halves, and which was later re-slit into two 16mm wide prints without the need for re-perforation). This modification also facilitated the early experiments by Eastman Kodak with its negative-positive monopack film, which would eventually become Eastmancolor. Essentially, the "Imbibition Agreement" lifted a portion of the "Monopack Agreement's" restrictions on Technicolor (which prevented it from making motion picture products which were less than 35mm wide) and somewhat related restrictions on Eastman Kodak (which prevented it from experimenting and developing monopack products which were greater than 16mm wide).

Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950,^[15] was Kodak's first economical, single-strip 35 mm negative-positive process incorporated into one strip of film. This rendered Three-Strip color photography relatively obsolete, even though, for the first few years of Eastmancolor, Technicolor would continue to offer Three-Strip origination combined with dye-transfer printing (150 titles produced in 1953, 100 titles produced in 1954 and 50 titles produced in 1955, the very last year for Three-Strip). The first commercial feature film to use Eastmancolor was the documentary Royal Journey, released in December 1951.^[15] Hollywood studios waited until an improved version of Eastmancolor negative came out in 1952 before using it, perhaps most notably in This is Cinerama, which employed three separate and interlocked strips of Eastmancolor negative. This is Cinerama was initially printed on Eastmancolor positive, but its significant success eventually resulted in it being reprinted by Technicolor, using dye-transfer.

By 1953, and especially with the introduction of anamorphic wide screen CinemaScope, Eastmancolor became a marketing imperative as CinemaScope was incompatible with Technicolor's Three-Strip camera and lenses. Indeed, Technicolor Corp became one of the best, if not the best, processor of Eastmancolor negative, especially for so-called "wide gauge" negatives (65mm, 8-perf 35mm, 6-perf 35mm), yet it far preferred its own 35mm dye-transfer printing process for Eastmancolor-originated films with a print run which exceeded 500 prints^[16], not withstanding the significant "loss of register" which occurred in such prints which were expanded by CinemaScope's 2X horizontal factor, and, to a lesser extent, with so-called "flat wide screen" (variously 1.66:1 or 1.85:1, but spherical and not anamorphic), a nearly fatal flaw which was not corrected until 1955 and which caused numerous features which were initially printed by Technicolor to be scrapped and to be reprinted by DeLuxe (these features are often billed as "Color by Technicolor-DeLuxe"). Indeed, some Eastmancolor-originated films which were billed as "Color by Technicolor" were never actually printed using the dye-transfer process, due in part to the throughput limitations of Technicolor's dye-transfer printing process, and competitor DeLuxe's superior throughput. Incredibly, DeLuxe once had a license to install a Technicolor-type dye-transfer printing line, but as the "loss of register" problems became apparent in Fox's CinemaScope features which were printed by Technicolor, after Fox had become an all-CinemaScope producer, Fox-owned DeLuxe Labs abandoned its plans for dye-transfer printing and became, and remained, an all-Eastmancolor shop, as Technicolor itself would much later become.

Technicolor continued to offer its proprietary imbibition dye-transfer printing process for projection prints until 1975, and even briefly revived it in 1998. As an archival format, Technicolor prints are one of the most stable color print processes yet created, and prints properly cared for are estimated to retain their color for centuries.^[17] With the introduction of Eastmancolor low-fade positive print (LPP) films, properly stored (at 45 °F or 7 °C and 25 percent relative humidity) monopack color film is expected to last, with no fading, a comparative amount of time. Improperly stored monopack color film from before 1983 can incur a 30 percent image loss in as little as 25 years.^[18]

How modern color film works[link]

A representation of the layers within a piece of developed modern color 35 mm negative film. When developed, the dye couplers in the blue-, green-, and red-sensitive layers turn the exposed silver halide crystals to their complementary colors (yellow, magenta, and cyan). The film is made up of (A) Clear protective topcoat, (B) UV filter, (C) "Fast" blue layer, (D) "Slow" blue layer, (E) Yellow filter to cut all blue light from passing through to (F) "Fast" green layer, (G) "Slow" green layer, (H) Inter (subbing) layer, (I) "Fast" red layer, (J) "Slow" red layer, (K) Clear triacetate base, and (L) Antihalation (rem-jet) backing.

Modern color film is made up of many different layers all working together to create the color image. In color negative films there are three main color layers: the blue record, green record, and red record; each made up of two separate layers containing silver halide crystals and dye-couplers. A cross-sectional representation of a piece of developed color negative film is shown in the figure at the right. Each layer of the film is so thin that the composite of all layers, in addition to the triacetate base and antihalation backing, is less than 0.0003" (8 µm) thick.^[19]

The three color records are stacked as shown at right with a UV filter on top to keep the non-visible ultraviolet radiation from exposing the silver-halide crystals, which are naturally sensitive to UV light. Next are the fast and slow blue-sensitive layers, which, when developed, form the latent image. When the exposed silver-halide crystal is developed, it is coupled with a dye grain of its complementary color. This forms a dye "cloud" (like a drop of water on a paper towel) and is limited in its growth by development-inhibitor-releasing (DIR) couplers, which also serve to refine the sharpness of the processed image by limiting the size of the dye clouds. The dye clouds formed in the blue layer are actually yellow (the opposite or complementary color to blue).^[20] There are two layers to each color; a "fast" and a "slow." The fast layer features larger grains that are more sensitive to light than the slow layer, which has finer grain and is less sensitive to light. Silver-halide crystals are naturally sensitive to blue light, so the blue layers are on the top of the film and they are followed immediately by a yellow filter, which stops any more blue light from passing through to the green and red layers and biasing those crystals with extra blue exposure. Next are the red-sensitive record (which forms cyan dyes when developed); and, at the bottom, the green-sensitive record, which forms magenta dyes when developed. Each color is separated by a gelatin layer which prevents silver development in one record from causing unwanted dye formation in another. The bottom of the whole stack (film base) is an anti-halation layer that prevents bright light from reflecting off the clear base of the film and passing back through the negative to double-expose the crystals and create halos of light around bright spots. In color film, this backing is rem-jet, which is a black-pigmented, non-gelatin layer on the back of the film base and is removed in the developing process.^[19]

Eastman Kodak manufactures film in 54-inch (1,372 mm) wide rolls. These rolls are then slit into various sizes (70 mm, 65 mm, 35 mm, 16 mm) as needed.

Modern manufacturers of color film for motion picture use[link]

See also List of motion picture film stocks

Motion picture film, primarily because of the rem-jet backing, requires different processing than standard C-41 process color film. The process necessary is ECN-2, which has an initial step using an alkaline bath to remove the backing layer. There are also minor differences in the remainder of the process. If motion picture negative is run through a standard C-41 color film developer bath, the rem-jet backing will partially dissolve and destroy the integrity of the developer and, potentially, ruin the film. Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm are the remaining major manufacturers of color motion picture film.

Kodak color motion picture films[link]

In the late 1980s, Kodak introduced the T-Grain emulsion, a technological advancement in the shape and make-up of silver halide grains in their films. T-Grain is a tabular silver halide grain that allows for greater overall surface area, resulting in greater light sensitivity with a relatively small grain and a more uniform shape which results in a less overall graininess to the film. This made for sharper and more sensitive films. The T-Grain technology was first employed in Kodak's EXR line of motion picture color negative stocks.^[21] This was further refined in 1996 with the Vision line of emulsions, followed by Vision2 in the early 2000s and Vision3 in 2007.

Fuji color motion picture films[link]

Fuji films also integrate tabular grains in their SUFG (Super Unified Fine Grain) films. In their case, the SUFG grain is not only tabular, it is hexagonal and consistent in shape throughout the emulsion layers. Like the T-grain, it has a larger surface area in a smaller grain (about one-third the size of traditional grain) for the same light sensitivity. In 2005, Fuji unveiled their Eterna 500T stock, the first in a new line of advanced emulsions, with Super Nano-structure Σ Grain Technology.

See also[link]

• List of color film systems
• List of film formats
• List of motion picture film stocks
• List of early color feature films
• Film stock
• Photographic film mainly about film for stills
• Film base
• Kinemacolor
• Prizma
• Multicolor
• Cinecolor
• Technicolor
• 35 mm film
• 135 film
• Color photography

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• John Waner, Hollywood's Conversion of All Production to Color, Tobey Publishing, 2000.

External links[link]

• The American Widescreen Museum has a thorough treatise on early motion picture color processes.
• List of films in Prizma at IMDb
• "Animation in Natural Colours", Moving Pictures, 1912.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2011)

This focuses on motion picture film. For still photography film, see photographic film.

A film strip

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is videotape.

History[link]

1889–1899[link]

Early motion picture experiments were performed using paper roll film, which was difficult to view a single, continuously moving image without complex apparatus. The paper film was fragile. Transparent and flexible film base material, celluloid, was discovered and refined for photographic use by John Carbutt, Hannibal Goodwin, and George Eastman.

Eastman Kodak made celluloid film commercially available in 1889; Thomas Henry Blair, in 1891, was its first competitor. The stock had a frosted base to facilitate easier viewing by transmitted light. Emulsions were orthochromatic. By November 1891 William Dickson, at Edison's laboratory, was using Blair's stock for Kinetoscope experiments. Blair's company supplied film to Edison for five years. Between 1892 and 1893, Eastman experienced problems with production. Because of patent lawsuits in 1893, Blair left his American company and established another in Britain. Eastman supplied Edison with film.

Blair's new company supplied European filmmaking pioneers, including Birt Acres, Robert Paul, George Albert Smith, Charles Urban, and the Lumiere Brothers. By 1896 the new movie projector required a fully transparent film base that Blair's American operation could not supply. Eastman shortly thereafter bought the company out and became the leading supplier of film stock. Louis Lumiere worked with Victor Planchon to adapt the Lumiere "Blue Label" (Etiquette Bleue) photographic plate emulsion for use on celluloid roll film, which began in early 1896.

Eastman's first motion picture film stock used the same emulsion as its still film, which was orthochromatic. Film did not have a strictly defined speed; the orthochromatic stock could be processed under a red safelight. Density was checked as development was occurring. Until the end of the silent era, several inches were cut from the start of each shot developed to test it. Positive stock was slower, finer-grained and of a higher contrast than a negative.

From 1895, Eastman supplied their motion picture roll film in rolls of 65 feet, while Blair's rolls were 75 feet. If longer lengths were needed, the unexposed negative rolls could be cemented in a darkroom, but this was largely undesirable by most narrative filmmakers. Actuality films were much more eager to undertake this method, however, in order to depict longer actions, and created cemented rolls as long as 1000 feet. American Mutoscope and Biograph was the first known company to use this, for the Jeffries-Sharkey fight on November 3, 1899.

1900–1919[link]

Film stocks improved slowly between 1900 and 1910, as the equipment and formats gradually became standardized. Many differing film gauges were made. Eastman retained a large market share without major adjustments to the emulsion, increasing the length of rolls to 200 feet. Lumiere reformulated its stock to match the speed of Eastman film, naming it 'Etiquette Violette' (Violet Label). Blair sold his English company to Pathéin 1907 and retired to the US. Pathe began to supplement its operation in 1910 by purchasing film prints, strip the emulsion from the film base and re-coating it.

As the quantity of film and filmmakers grew, the demand for standardization increased. Because of the popularity of Edison's and Lumière's cameras, 35mm film began to become the dominant gauge. this was usually purchased unperforated and punched by the consumer with perforation equipment. Perforators were often imprecise, causing difficulty in making prints for the opposite perforation format. Edison's organization of the Motion Picture Patents Trust agreed in 1909 to what would become the standard: 35 mm gauge, with Edison perforations and a 1.33 aspect ratio.^[1]

Bell and Howell began making perforators in 1908. Eastman Kodak used Bell and Howell's machine to perforate its films.

Agfa began to produce motion picture film in 1913, but remained a largely local supplier until World War I boycotts of popular French, American and Italian film stocks allowed the UFA film studio to flourish, boosting Agfa's orders.

A silent home movie on 16mm black-and-white reversal double perforation film stock

All film stocks were manufactured on a nitrate film base, which is highly flammable. Nitrate film fires were difficult to extinguish. A significant number of fatal accidents occurred in theatrical projection booths, where the heat of the projector lamp made ignition most likely.

Amateur filmmaking (home movies) slowly developed during this period. Kodak developed a heat-resistant 'safety base' for home projection. In 1909, tests showed cellulose diacetate to be a viable replacement base, and Kodak began selling acetate-base films the following year in 22 mm widths for Edison's work on the Home Kinetoscope, which was commercially released in 1912. Eastman Kodak introduced a non-inflammable 35 mm film stock in 1909. The plasticizers used to make the film flexible evaporated quickly, making the film dry and brittle, causing splices to part and perforations to tear. In 1911 the major American film studios returned to using nitrate stock.^[2] More amateur formats began to use acetate based film, and several, including Kodak's own 16 mm format, were designed specifically to be manufactured with safety base.

Kodak released Cine Negative Film Type E in 1916 and Type F (later known as Negative Film Par Speed Type 1201) in 1917. As both of these orthochromatic films were no faster than previous offerings; the improvements were in granularity and sharpness.

1920s[link]

Film stock manufacturers began to diversify their products. Each manufacturer had previously offered one negative stock (usually orthochromatic) and one print stock. In 1920, a variant of Type F film known as X-back was introduced to counteract the effects of static electricity on the film, which can cause sparking and create odd exposure patterns on the film. A resin backing was used on the film, which rendered the film too opaque to allow focusing through the back of the film, a common technique for many cameras of that era. The X-back stock was popular on the east coast of the US. Other manufacturers were established in the 1920s, including American E.I. Dupont de Nemours in 1926 and Belgian Gevaert in 1925.

Panchromatic film stock became more common. Created in 1913 for use in color film processes such as Kinemacolor, panchromatic was first used in a black-and-white film for exterior sequences in Queen of the Sea (1918) and originally available as a special order product.^[3] The stock's increased sensitivity to red light made it an attractive option for day for night shooting. Kodak financed a feature in 1922 shot entirely with panchromatic stock, The Headless Horseman, to promote the film when Kodak introduced it as a standard option. Panchromatic film stock was expensive and no motion pictures were produced in entirety on it for several years. The cross-cutting between panchromatic and orthochromatic stocks caused continuity problems with costume tones and panchromatic film was often avoided. Orthochromatic film remained dominant until the mid 1920s due to Kodak's lack of competition in the panchromatic market. In 1925, Gevaert introduced an orthochromatic stock with limited color sensitivity and a fully panchromatic stock, Pan-23. In 1926, Kodak lowered the price of panchromatic stock to parity with its orthochromatic offering and the panchromatic stock began to overtake the orthochromatic stock's market share within a few years.^[4] Similar panchromatic film stocks were manufactured by Agfa and Pathé, the shift to panchromatic stocks had largely been completed by 1928, and Kodak discontinued orthochromatic stock in 1930.^[5]

Color films[link]

Experiments with color films were made as early as the late 19th century, but practical color film was not commercially viable until 1908, and for amateur use when Kodak introduced Kodachrome for 16 mm in 1935 and 8 mm in 1936.

Before 1941, commercially successful color processes used special cameras loaded with black-and-white separation stocks rather than color negative. Kinemacolor (1908–1914), Technicolor processes 1 through 4 (1917–1954), and Cinecolor used one, two or three strips of monochrome film stock sensitized to certain primary colors or exposed behind color filters in special cameras.

Technicolor introduced a color reversal stock, called Monopack, for location shooting in 1941; it was ultimately a 35 mm version of Kodachrome that could be used in standard motion picture cameras. Eastman Kodak introduced their first 35mm color negative stock, Eastman Color Negative film 5247, in 1950. A higher quality version in 1952, Eastman Color Negative film 5248, was quickly adopted by Hollywood for color motion picture production, replacing both the expensive three-strip Technicolor process and Monopack.

Classification and properties[link]

A short strip of undeveloped 35 mm color negative film.

There are several variables in classifying stocks; in practice, one orders raw stock by a code number, based on desired sensitivity to light.

Base[link]

A piece of film consists of a light-sensitive emulsion applied to a tough, transparent base, sometimes attached to anti-halation backing or "rem-jet" layer (now only on camera films). Originally the highly flammable cellulose nitrate was used. In the 1930s, film manufacturers introduced "safety film" with a cellulose triacetate plastic base***. All amateur film stocks were safety film, but the use of nitrate persisted for professional releases. Kodak discontinued the manufacture of nitrate base in 1951, and the industry transitioned entirely to safety film in 1951 in the United States and by 1955 internationally. Since the late 1990s, almost all release prints have used polyester film stock.

Emulsion[link]

The emulsion consists of silver halide grains suspended in a gelatin colloid; in the case of color film, there are three layers of silver halide, which are mixed with color couplers and interlayers that filter specific light spectra. These end up creating yellow, cyan, and magenta layers in the negative after development.

Chemistry[link]

Development chemicals applied to an appropriate film can produce either a positive (showing the same densities and colors as the subject) or negative image (with dark highlights, light shadows, and, in principle, complementary colors). The first films were darkened by light: negative films. Later films that produce a positive image became known as reversal films; processed transparent film of this type can be projected onto a screen. Negative images need to be transferred onto photographic paper or other substrate which reverses the image again, producing a final positive image. Creating a positive image from a negative film can also be done by scanning the negative to create a computer file which can then be reversed by software.

Image record[link]

Different emulsions and development processes exist for a variety of image recording possibilities: the two most common of which are black and white, and color. However, there are also variant types, such as infrared film (in black and white or false color); specialist technical films, such as those used for X-rays; and obsolete processes, such as orthochromatic film. Generally, however, the vast majority of stock used today is "normal" (visible spectrum) color, although "normal" black and white also commands a significant minority percentage.

Physical characteristics[link]

Film is also classified according to its gauge and the arrangement of its perforations— gauges range from 8 mm to 70 mm or more, while perforations may vary in shape, pitch, and positioning. The film is also distinguished by how it is wound with regard to perforations and base or emulsion side, as well as whether it is packaged around a core, a daylight spool, or within a cartridge. Depending on the manufacturing processes and camera equipment, lengths can vary anywhere from 25 to 2000 feet. Common lengths include 25 feet for 8 mm, 50 feet for Super 8, 100 and 400 feet for 16 mm, 400 and 1000 feet for 35 mm, and 1000 for 65/70 mm.

Responsivity[link]

A critical property of a stock is its film speed, determined by ASA or its sensitivity to light listed by a measurement on the raw stock which must be chosen with care. Speed determines the range of lighting conditions under which the film can be shot, and is related to granularity and contrast, which influence the look of the image. The stock manufacturer will usually give an exposure index (EI) number equal to the ASA which they recommend exposing for. However, factors such as forced or non-standard development (such as bleach bypass or cross processing), compensation for filters or shutter angle, as well as intended under- and over-exposure may cause the cinematographer to actually "rate" the stock differently from the EI. This new rating is not a change to the stock itself - it is merely a way of calculating exposure without figuring out the compensation after each light reading.

Color temperature[link]

Another important quality of color film stock in particular is its color balance, which is defined by the color temperature at which it accurately records white. Tungsten lighting is defined at 3200 K, which is considered "warmer" in tone and shifted towards orange; daylight is defined at 5600 K, which is considered "colder" and shifted towards blue. This means that unfiltered tungsten stock will look normal shot under tungsten lights, but blue if shot during daylight. Conversely, daylight stock shot in daylight will look normal, but orange if shot under tungsten lights. Color temperature issues such as these can be compensated for by other factors such as lens filters and color gels placed in front of the lights. The color temperature of a film stock is generally indicated next to the film speed number - e.g. 500T stock is color film stock with an ASA of 500 and balanced for tungsten light; 250D would have an ASA of 250 and be balanced for daylight.

While black-and-white film has no color temperature itself, the silver halide grains themselves tend to be slightly more responsive to blue light, and therefore will have daylight and tungsten speeds - e.g. Kodak's Double-X stock is rated 250D/200T, since the tungsten light will give slightly less exposure than an equivalent amount of daylight.

Deterioration[link]

All plastic is subject to deterioration through physical or chemical means, and thus, motion picture film is subject to the same deterioration. Cellulose nitrate, cellulose diacetate and triacetate are known to be unstable mediums: improperly preserved film can deteriorate in a period of time much faster than many photographs or other visual presentations.

Cellulose nitrate, because of its unstable chemistry, eventually breaks down, releasing nitric acid, further catalyzing the decomposition. In the final stages of celluloid decomposition, the film turns into a rust-like powder.

Likewise, tri-acetate stock is also vulnerable to deterioration. Because of the small gauge of the film, owners of home-made films often find that their film can become shrunken and brittle to the point where the film is unwatchable in the space of a few years. In general, decaying acetate film breaks down into acetic acid, and similar to celluloid decomposition, leads to an auto-catylictic breakdown of the base that cannot be reversed. The result of the acetic acid released is a strong odor of vinegar, which is why the decay process in the archival community is known as "vinegar syndrome".

Modern polyester-based stocks are far more stable by comparison and are rated to last hundreds of years.

Intermediate and print stocks[link]

35 mm film print frames. At far left and far right, outside the perforations, is the SDDS soundtrack as an image of a digital signal. Between the perforations is the Dolby Digital soundtrack (note the tiny Dolby "Double D" logo in the center of each area between the perforations). Just inside the perforations, on the left side of the image, is the analog optical soundtrack, with two channels encoded using Dolby SR noise reduction that can be dematrixed into four channels using Dolby Pro Logic. The optical timecode used to synchronize a DTS soundtrack, which sits between the optical soundtrack and the image, is not pictured. Finally, the image here is an anamorphic image used to create a 2.39:1 aspect ratio when projected through an anamorphic lens. Note the thin frame lines of anamorphic prints.

The distinction between camera stocks and print stocks involves a difference in the recording process. When the work print or edit master has been approved, the Original Camera Negative (OCN) is assembled by a negative cutter using the edited work print or EDL (edit decision list) as a guide. A series of Answer Prints are then made from the OCN. During the Answer Print stage, corrections in the film's density and color are corrected (timed) to the filmmakers' tastes. Interpositive (IP) prints are struck from the OCN, checked to make sure they look the same as the custom timed Answer Print, and then each IP is used to make one or more Dupe Negative (DN) copies. The release prints are then generated from the DN(s). Recently, with the development of digital intermediate (DI), it has become possible to completely edit, composite visual effects, and color grade the image digitally at full resolution and bit-depth. In this workflow, the answer print is generated digitally and then written out to the IP stage using a laser film printer.

Due to the specialized nature of the exposure and the higher degree of control afforded by the film lab equipment, these intermediate and release stocks are specially designed solely for these applications and are generally not feasible for camera shooting. Because intermediates only function to maintain the image information accurately across duplication, each manufacturer tends to only produce one or two different intermediate stocks. Similarly, release print stocks usually are available only in two varieties: a "normal" print or a deluxe print (on more-costly print film like Kodak Vision Premiere) with slightly greater saturation and contrast.

See also[link]

• Direct film
• Film format
• Film preservation
• Fujifilm
• Kodak
• List of film formats
• List of motion picture film stocks
• Color motion picture film
• Photographic film with emphasis on film for still photography.
• ORWO
• Tasma

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Film stocks

• Fuji motion picture stocks
• Kodak motion picture stocks

Edward Turner
Edward Turner's Blue Plaque unveiled in 2009 at his former residence, 8 Philip Walk, Peckham, London SE15
Personal details
Born	(1901-01-24)24 January 1901 Camberwell, United Kingdom
Died	15 August 1973(1973-08-15) Dorking, United Kingdom
Spouse(s)	Edith Webley (1929–1939) (her death) Shirley Watts (1952–1965?)(divorced)

Edward Turner (24 January 1901 – 15 August 1973) was a British motorcycle designer. He was born in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark, on the day King Edward VII was proclaimed King.^[1] In 1915, Turner had his first ride on a motorcycle, a Light Tourist New Imperial.

Turner Special[link]

On 16 April 1925 "The Motor Cycle" published drawings by Turner of an OHC single he had designed, using a series of vertically stacked gears to drive the overhead camshaft. A subsequent redesign used bevel gears to drive a vertical camshaft, operating the valves through rockers. The only shared aspects of the two designs were the bore and stroke, 74 × 81 mm (2.9 × 3.2 in), with the barrel being sunk into the crankcases. The head could be removed from either design complete with undisturbed valve gear.^[2]

Turner built his first bike in 1927, using his second design, a 350 cc OHC single. The Motor Cycle published a photograph of Turner's patented engine, mounted in his motorcycle called the Turner Special.^[3] The Special was registered for road use with the London County Council as YP 9286. It used Webb forks, and a three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox.^[2]

Ariel designer[link]

By now, living at various addresses in Peckham and East Dulwich, in the London Borough of Southwark and running Chepstow Motors, a Peckham Road motorcycle shop with a Velocette agency, Turner conceived the Square Four engine in 1928. At this time he was looking for work, showing drawings of his engine design to motorcycle manufacturers.^[4] The engine was essentially a pair of 'across frame' OHC parallel twins joined by their geared central flywheels, with a one-piece four-cylinder block (or Monobloc) and single head.^[5] The idea for the engine was rejected by BSA, but adopted by Ariel. Thus it became the Ariel Square Four, and not the BSA Square Four. Turner was then invited by Jack Sangster to join Ariel.

By 1929, at Ariel, Jack Sangster had Edward Turner and Bert Hopwood working under Val Page in design. Turner, now 28, married Edith Webley.^{[citation needed]}

Ariel Square Four[link]

Close-up of a 1932 Ariel Square Four 4F 600 cc engine

The first Ariel Square Four 4F^[6] was shown at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1930 in chain-driven overhead camshaft 500 cc form.

Ariel released the 600 cc Square Four in 1931.

The 40-year old Val Page, formerly a designer for JAP, and more lately Ariel (where he was Turner's boss), gave up on Ariel in 1932, and joined Triumph. (Ariel had closed in 1930 but was reconstituted in 1931–32).

In 1936 Triumph decided to create separate motorcycle and car companies, and sell the motorcycle company. Ariel owner Jack Sangster bought it and changed the name to Triumph Engineering Company. The Ariel Square Four changed from the 4F 600 cc OHC version to the 4G OHV 995 cc version that year.

Triumph general manager and chief designer[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Sangster made Turner, now 35, General Manager and Chief Designer. (In this new position Turner received a 5% commission on the company's net profits, and became a shareholder with 4.9% of the equity). The first thing he did was clear space on the production floor for an office and an adjoining drawing office. Val Page had left Triumph four months before and joined BSA. Bert Hopwood came to Triumph as Turner's Design Assistant. Ted Crabtree, who was also at Ariel before, became Chief Buyer, and Freddie Clarke was made Chief Development Engineer: both were motorcycle racers.

Turner examined the line of 250, 350 (3H) and 500 cc Mk 5 singles, and rationalised them into three sports roadsters: the Tigers 70, 80, and 90. He added single-tube frames, enclosed valve gear, upswept exhausts, polished cases, new paint designs, and chrome petrol tanks.

Triumph Speed Twin[link]

Close-up of a 1938 Triumph Speed Twin 500 cc engine

In July 1937, Turner introduced the 500 cc Speed Twin, selling at £75. It was smaller and weighed five pounds less than the £70 Tiger 90,^[7] and proved very successful. The 5T Speed Twin (some say based on the engine design of Turner's Riley Nine car) became the standard by which other twins were judged, and its descendants continued in production until the 1980s. The original 27 bhp parallel-twin was capable of exceeding 90 mph (145 km/h)^[7] and weighed 361 lb (166 kg).

Turner's wife Edith died in a car crash near Coventry on 8 July 1939; the same crash which killed Gillian Lynne's mother and two other friends.

Turner's "sprung hub" was supposed to go into production in 1941, adding 17 lb to the weight of a bike. But the war delayed its introduction until 1948.

In 1942, Turner designed a generator, using an all-alloy Triumph vertical twin engine, for the Air Ministry. After a heated disagreement with Jack Sangster, Turner quit his position at Triumph and promptly became chief designer at BSA, where he worked on a side-valve vertical twin for the War. Bert Hopwood was made Triumph's new designer and Sangster put him to work on a 500 cc side-valve twin competing for the same contract.

By 1943 Bert Hopwood completed the design, but it was never produced. Triumph's prototypes were released in February, before BSA's planned launch. The design later became the post-war TRW model. In late October, Turner went back to Triumph. Hopwood had been working on a design for a 700 cc inline four-cylinder engine that could produce 50 bhp, but Turner's return to Triumph put an end to that plan.

Turner was Managing Director once again by 1944.

The Speed Twin, Tiger 100 and 350 cc 3T models emerged in 1945. They now had telescopic forks, originally designed by Turner, but modified by Freddie Clarke after it was found that fork oil would spew out on bottoming.

Triumph T100 GP[link]

1947 500 cc Triumph T100 GP

Ernie Lyons won the first Manx Grand Prix on a Tiger 100 built by Freddie Clarke using an alloy wartime generator engine and the unreleased sprung hub in 1946. Turner, away in America, and anti-racing, was furious when he heard, but threw Lyons a victory dinner anyway, and a small batch of replica T100 were made for sale. Clarke resigned and joined AMC as Chief Development Engineer. Bert Hopwood had an argument with Turner over racing, left Triumph, and stayed away for 14 years.^[8]

The Mark I sprung rear hub was introduced in late 1947.^{[citation needed]}

In 1948, Turner was persuaded to allow the entry of three 500 cc twins in the Senior TT, but none of them finished, so the experience only added to Turner's opposition to factory racing.^{[citation needed]}

Triumph Thunderbird[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

One of the Montlhery 1949 model 6T Triumph Thunderbirds on display at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu

The 6T 650 cc Thunderbird, as designed by Turner, and further developed by Jack Wickes, was launched on 20 September 1949, when three models covered 500 miles at 90 mph (800 km at 145 km/h) in a demonstration at Montlhery. Essentially an enlarged tourer version of the Speed Twin, the 6T was designed to satisfy the substantial American export market, and was advertised as capable of a genuine 100 mph (161 km/h). The Thunderbird became a favourite of police forces worldwide.

For 1950, Turner went for a "low-chrome" policy, and banned the use of chrome fuel tanks. A chrome tank did not reappear till the 1981 Bonneville T140LE Royal Wedding edition.

Once in production, the first performance improvements came mid-way through the first year when the carburettor size was increased. This was the year Turner expressed the belief that 650 cc was the practical limit for the traditional British 360° vertical twin. It was the last year for the T100 GP model, although the T100C carried on, and the Mark 2 sprung hub was released.

Turner became involved in the establishment of the US-based Triumph Corp. in Maryland, a distribution company created to serve East Coast US markets. After 1950, America became Triumph's biggest customer.

In 1951 Sangster sold Triumph to BSA for £2.5 million, having previously sold Ariel to BSA in 1939. As part of the sale agreement, he joined the BSA Group as a member of the board. Turner's holdings in Triumph gave him 10% of the sale.

A race kit for the Tiger 100 was introduced, bikes were restyled with new paint and the first dual seat appeared.

Triumph Terrier and Tiger Cub unit construction singles[link]

1955 Triumph T15 Terrier at the Coventry Transport Museum

The first lightweight for Triumph since 1933, a 150 cc OHV Terrier T15, four-speed unit construction single with a sloping engine, was introduced in 1953. As a result Triumph directors Turner, Bob Fearon and Alex Masters rode from Land's End to John O'Groat's for a 1,000-mile Terrier demonstration and publicity stunt – the "Gaffers' Gallop." ^[9].^{[citation needed]} .

By 1954 the sportier 200 cc version was available, and called the Tiger Cub.^[10]

The Tiger 100 race kit was dropped, and the T100C came with the kit already installed. The T100C had twin-carburettors for this year only.^{[citation needed]}

In 1952, Turner married Shirley Watts. They had two daughters and a son.

Triumph T110 Tiger[link]

1954 650 cc Triumph T110

The production 650 cc Thunderbird was a low-compression tourer, and the 500 cc Tiger 100 was the performance bike. That changed in 1954, along with the change to swing arm frames and the release of the alloy head 650 cc Tiger 110, eclipsing the 500 cc Tiger 100 as the performance model.

Chief Executive of BSA Group (BSA, Ariel, Triumph, Daimler, and Carbodies)[link]

In 1956, after a boardroom struggle over power and control, Jack Sangster became Chairman of BSA Group, succeeding Sir Bernard Docker. He appointed Turner Chief Executive of the Automotive Division (comprising BSA, Ariel, Triumph, Daimler and Carbodies – makers of London taxicabs).^{[citation needed]}

Triumph 3TA unit construction twin[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

1958 350 cc Triumph Twenty-One with higher USA market handlebars at the Barber Motorcycle Museum

The first unit construction twin-cylinder motorcycle made by Triumph, the 350 cc (21 ci) 'Twenty One' 3TA , designed by Turner and Wickes, was introduced for the 21st Anniversary of Triumph Engineering Co. Ltd in 1957. Unfortunately it also had the first "bathtub" rear enclosure, which proved to be a major styling mistake, with dealers reputedly having to remove enclosures to sell bikes. Turner's new unit Triumph Speed Twin, the 5TA, introduced in 1959 was a 500 cc version of this engine and was similarly styled. The 6T Thunderbird and T110 models also acquired the bathtub rear fairing. Although quickly mimicked by competitors, eventually Turner relented on this unpopular feature, the 'bathtub' becoming more and more abbreviated until disappearing altogether on the final 1966 versions. Sportier versions of both the 5TA (the Tiger 100) and 3TA (the Tiger 90)were produced from 1960-1974 and 1963-1969, respectively.

Triumph T120 Bonneville[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The first Triumph T120 Bonnevilles from 1959 retained the nacelle and deeply valanced mudguards of the then-Thunderbird and T110 models. Both of these features were dropped on the T120 from 1960 onwards. Note also, background left, the 6T Thunderbird with Turner's unpopular rear 'bathtub' fairing. Photo taken at The Art Of The Motorcycle exhibition in Las Vegas

In 1958 a twin-carburettor version of the 650 engine emerged. Triumph test rider Percy Tait hit 128 mph on a prototype Triumph Bonneville T120 at the Motorcycle Industry Research Association (MIRA) test track. The "Bonnie" was a show stopper at the 1958 Earl's Court Motorcycle Show.

Turner, wary of racing and high-performance options, thought the Bonnie was a bad design and reputedly said to Frank Baker, Triumph's experimental department manager, "This, my boy, will lead us straight into Carey Street (where the bankruptcy courts were)."

Daimler V8 engines[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Daimler SP250 also known as the 'Dart'

For 1959 Turner designed the hemi-head Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 litre V8 engines used in the Daimler SP250 sports car and Daimler Majestic Major respectively. The valve gear was more similar to the Chrysler Hemi than the Triumph motorcycle, itself based on Riley.

In 1960 Turner went for a tour of the Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha plants in Japan and was shaken by the scale of production.

By 1961 Turner was under pressure to retire. Bert Hopwood resigned from AMC, and accepted Turner's offer to work for Triumph as Director and General Manager. It was at this time that Hopwood conceived the idea of a three-cylinder bike and engineer Doug Hele completed the drawings. Daimler was sold to Jaguar, and Edward Turner's V-8 was put into a Jaguar Mark 2 body with an upgraded interior and trademark Daimler grille, and called the Daimler 2½ litre V8.

In 1962, the last year of the "pre-unit" models, Triumph used a frame with twin front downtubes, but returned to a traditional Triumph single front downtube for the unit construction models that followed.

From 1963 all Triumph engines were of unit construction.

1964 Triumph TR6R Trophy with Turner's unit 650 cc engine

Triumph Scooters[link]

1965 Triumph Tina scooter (left) at Coventry Transport Museum

Two Turner-designed scooters were introduced, about 1958 the high-performance Triumph Tigress (also sold as the BSA Sunbeam) and in 1963 the Tina (later called the T10), a Turner-designed 100 cc automatic transmission scooter for shopping.^[11]

Retirement[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Turner retired as Chief Executive of the Automotive Division (which included motorcycles) in1963, but retained his BSA Directorship. He was apparently by this time unhappy about the direction the company was taking. Bert Hopwood had hopes of being appointed Turner's successor, but the job went to BSA's Harry Sturgeon.

BSA management now took over Triumph policy completely. Sturgeon decided to streamline motorcycle operations after McKinsey, an international business consultant, recommended treating the two companies as one.

1966 saw Turner working on a large-displacement, four-cylinder engine design which was not built.

In 1967, Turner, at 66, retired from the BSA Board and Harry Sturgeon took his place. Unlike Turner, Sturgeon was convinced Triumph had to be involved in racing, and John Hartle won the 1967 Isle of Man TT production event on a Bonneville, just before Harry Sturgeon suddenly died, and was replaced by Lionel Jofeh.

Triumph Bandit and BSA Fury[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

In November 1970 the ailing company's last major press and trade launch was held. In the lineup was an ohc 350 cc twin with dual carburettors and five-speed transmission, designed by Turner (already retired) as his last project, and further refined by Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele. It was to be sold both as the Triumph Bandit and BSA Fury (each distinguished by minor cosmetic changes and paint schemes) with 34 bhp capable of 110 mph, and it was already included in that year's brochures, when financial problems forced the model to be cancelled before it could be produced. Several pre-production prototypes were made and still exist.^[12]

1971 Triumph Bandit production prototype. The concept was Turner's but the eventual production version was by Doug Hele and Bert Hopwood

The BSA Fury was an attempt by BSA to compete in the 350 c.c. Double Overhead Cam category. This displacement was, at the time, one of the largest selling in motorcycling. In an early 1970s issue of Cycle Buyers Guide (a yearly listing of all available Motorcycles) it was stated that in that year prior to that issue, Honda had sold more 350 c.c. Motorcycles than Yamaha had sold Motorcycles.

Both BSA and Triumph marketed two versions of exhaust system on the Bandit and Fury: a Street Scrambler 'SS' version had a high mounted system finished in matt black with both pipes to one side of the engine; the other version had a bright chromed exhaust system conventionally mounted low to either side of the chassis (see picture).

BSA-Triumph both made a major media push with multi page brochure inserts in all of the major US Cycle publications and the 350s were prominently displayed. This represented a determined response to the challenge put forward by the Japanese by designing a competitive and aesthetically current 350. The look was very well received and many enthusiasts were looking forward to their arrival in America.

Unfortunately, BSA-Triumph was in a deteriorating financial condition (labor disputes, engines with bad electrical systems and leaking oil gaskets and aging looks). Faced with limited resources, the Company made a decision to neither produce nor export either 350 and to instead concentrate on the "proven models". Whether this decision contributed to their eventual demise is a point of argument that will never really be resolved.

Commemoration[link]

When the Royal Mail issued six postage stamps on 19 July 2005 each featuring a classic British motorcycle, Turner was the only designer cited by name in the accompanying presentation packet notes. This was in relation to the 47 pence stamp featuring his 1938 Triumph Speed Twin.^[13]

Edward Turner's Blue Plaque unveiling by Edward Turner Jr at 8 Philip Walk, Peckham, London SE15 United Kingdom, October 2009

In 2008, an address where Turner lived and worked in Peckham, South-East London was awarded a Blue Plaque by Southwark London Borough Council following a popular public vote in 2007.^[14] The Blue Plaque at 8 Philip Walk, where he lived whilst working for his father's bottle-brush factory itself now at 6 Philip Walk, was unveiled by his son, Edward Turner Jr on Sunday 25 October 2009 in the presence of his siblings, Jane Meadows and Charmian Hawley ^{[15] [16] [17]}.

References[link]

Me, Myself & Irene is a 2000 American comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers, and starring Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, Richard Jenkins, Daniel Greene, Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon, and Mongo Brownlee co-star. The film is about a Rhode Island state trooper named Charlie who, after years of continuously suppressing his rage and feelings, suffers a psychotic breakdown which results in a second personality, Hank.

Plot[link]

Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey) is an 18-year veteran Rhode Island State Police trooper who has been taken advantage of by people throughout most of his life. Immediately after his marriage, his wife, Layla (Traylor Howard), cheats on him with a dwarf African-American limousine driver, named Shonté (Tony Cox), who, like Layla, is a member of the high IQ group Mensa. Although Charlie's friends try informing him of his wife's infidelity, he still denies the possibility. One year later, Layla abandons Charlie and runs off with Shonté; leaving Charlie to raise three biracial sons who are the products of Layla's adulterous affair with the limo driver. Charlie never sees his wife again. Charlie raises his illegitimate triplet sons using very vulgar language and spoiling them with sweets and unbalanced diets. Charlie's three sons become obese and foul-mouthed young adults, but they are also highly intelligent (like their real father) and they treat Charlie much better than anyone else. His wife's affair and abandonment leaves Charlie so emotionally damaged that he lets himself be abused and taken advantage of by others. Despite his friendliness and his being a police officer, the townspeople reject Charlie's authority with open scorn.

After many years of continuous abuse by the people around him, his anger builds up and Charlie develops a rude and violent split personality named Hank, caused by "advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage". As Hank, he goes around retaliating against anyone who has accosted him — and even harms those who really haven't. A psychiatrist prescribes a medicine to keep Hank suppressed.

Believing that Charlie needs a vacation, his commanding officer (Robert Forster), orders him to escort a woman named Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger) from Rhode Island to Massena, New York, because she reportedly committed a hit-and-run. Irene insists the hit-and-run accusation was created by Dickie, Irene's mob-connected ex-boyfriend, and corrupt police officers in his employ. When some hit men arrive with a contract on Irene's life, Charlie agrees to help her escape, while a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agent is killed by the hit men. Charlie leaves his medicine behind, causing his alter ego, Hank, to surface any time he wants.

The FBI suspects that Charlie is responsible for assassinating the EPA agent. The FBI joins Charlie's commander in pursuing Charlie and Irene. Charlie's sons pretend to work with the police to find their father, but throw the police off his trail and even steal a police helicopter to get to Charlie before the police do.

Along the way, Irene and Charlie grow close. However, Hank's random appearances both disgust and frighten Irene. Hank's aggression and resourcefulness aid in their survival, but Irene finds herself attracted to Charlie. Hank tells Irene the truth about Charlie's life, and how years of humiliation have destroyed Charlie's confidence as a man and a police officer. Hank has plastic surgery performed on Charlie's face, and uses hours of careful cunning to trick Irene into sleeping with him by posing as the good-natured Charlie. They meet a mild-mannered but mysterious young man named Whitey (who has pale skin and white-blonde hair). They continue their journey as a trio, until Whitey calmly tells Charlie the (fictional) story of how he brutally murdered his entire family. Charlie and Irene, frightened by this, sneak away in the night.

Meanwhile, Dickie orders corrupt agents to kill both Charlie and Irene. After they fail, Dickie decides to settle the matter himself. During the confrontation with Dickie, Charlie finally manages to eliminate the alternate personality and regain the courage to rescue Irene. Eventually, he manages to stop Dickie, but only after Dickie shoots off one of Charlie's thumbs. Charlie is also aided in the fight by Whitey, who reappears to throw a lawn dart into Dickie's back. With Hank gone, and Dickie's crew dead or behind bars, Irene is finally free to return to her old life. However, just after she drives away from Charlie's house, the Rhode Island State Police fakes an arrest on her and gives Charlie a chance to propose to her.

Cast[link]

• Jim Carrey as Charlie Baileygates/Hank Evans
• Renée Zellweger as Irene P. Waters
• Chris Cooper as Lt. Gerke
• Robert Forster as Colonel Partington
• Richard Jenkins as Agent Boshane
• Zen Gesner as Agent Peterson
• Michael Bowman as Casper/Whitey/Milky
• Daniel Greene as Dickie Thurman
• Anthony Anderson as Jamal Baileygates
• Mongo Brownlee as Lee Harvey Baileygates
• Jerod Mixon as Shonté Jr. Baileygates
• Tony Cox as Shonté Jackson
• Steve Tyler as Delivery Room Doctor
• Traylor Howard as Layla Baileygates
• Richard Tyson as Gun shop owner
• Cam Neely as Trooper Sea Bass
• Ezra Buzzington as Disabled guy
• Lin Shaye (deleted scenes) as Mrs. Caleron
• Lina Teal as Bikini girl
• Richard Pryor and Chris Rock (archive footage, uncredited) as Stand-up comedians on TV
• Anna Kournikova and Cam Neely appear in cameo roles

[edit] Music

The film's original score was written by Pete Yorn, while the movie's soundtrack contains several covers of Steely Dan songs performed by other bands. Examples are Smash Mouth's cover of "Do It Again", Ben Folds Five's cover of "Barrytown", and Marvelous 3's cover of "Reelin' in the Years". Other songs include "Breakout" by Foo Fighters, "Totalimmortal", originally by AFI but covered by The Offspring, "The World Ain't Slowin' Down" by Ellis Paul, and "Strange Condition" by Pete Yorn.

1. "Breakout" - Foo Fighters
2. "Do It Again"+ - Smash Mouth
3. "Deep Inside of You" - Third Eye Blind
4. "Totalimmortal" - The Offspring
5. "The World Ain't Slowin' Down" - Ellis Paul
6. "Any Major Dude Will Tell You"+ - Wilco
7. "Only A Fool Would Say That"+ - Ivy
8. "Can't Find The Time To Tell You" - Hootie & The Blowfish
9. "Bodhisattva"+ - Brian Setzer Orchestra
10. "Bad Sneakers"+ - The Push Stars
11. "Reelin' In The Years"+ - Marvelous 3
12. "Strange Condition" - Pete Yorn
13. "Barrytown"+ - Ben Folds Five
14. "Razor Boy"+ - Billy Goodrum
15. "Where He Can Hide" - Tom Wolfe

+Steely Dan cover

"Motherfucker" by The Dwarves, "Fire Like This" by Hardknox, "Don't Say You Don't Remember" by Beverly Bremers, "The Perpetrator" by Hipster Daddy-O and the Handgrenades, and "Hem of Your Garment" by Cake were included in the movie but not on the soundtrack. Pete Yorn's, Just Another can also be heard it the background, during the scene where they discuss Hank's Idea. Other songs, that appeared in the film are not included on the soundtrack album.

Reception[link]

Box office[link]

The film had the biggest opening on the weekend of June 23, 2000 making US$24.2 million in its opening weekend. The film earned $90,570,999 in the United States, and a further $58,700,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $149,270,999.

[edit] Critical response

The film received generally mixed reviews. Review website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 48%, based on 96 reviews, and an average rating of 5.3/10, with the consensus that "The Farrellys manage to produce some laughs with Irene, but the jokes have become tired." ^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Me, Myself & Irene

• Me, Myself & Irene at the Internet Movie Database
• Me, Myself & Irene at AllRovi
• Me, Myself & Irene at Box Office Mojo
• Me, Myself & Irene at Rotten Tomatoes

Elvis Presley
Publicity photo for Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Background information
Birth name	Elvis Aaron Presley
Born	(1935-01-08)January 8, 1935 Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	August 16, 1977(1977-08-16) (aged 42) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Rock and roll, pop, rockabilly, country, blues, gospel, R&B
Occupations	Musician, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1953–77
Labels	Sun, RCA Victor
Associated acts	The Blue Moon Boys, The Jordanaires, The Imperials
Website	elvis.com

Elvis Aaron Presley^a (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

Conscripted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.

Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music.^[1][2][3][4] Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.

Life and career[link]

Early years (1935–53)[link]

Childhood in Tupelo[link]

Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to 18-year-old Vernon Elvis and 22-year-old Gladys Love Presley.^[5] In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. As an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.^[6]

Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix: On his mother's side, he was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman; one of Gladys's great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee.^[7]b His father's forebears were of Scottish^[8] or German^[9] origin. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evidencing little ambition.^[10][11] The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by the landowner. He was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.^[12]

In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average".^[13] He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw his first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.^[14] A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle.^[15][16] Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."^[17]

Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. The family was by then living in a largely African American neighborhood.^[18] A devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, who often took him in to the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques.^[19] When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.^[20]

Teenage life in Memphis[link]

In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Courts.^[21] Enrolled at Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", in an effort to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing."^[22] He was generally too shy to perform openly, and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy".^[23] In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Jesse Lee Denson, a neighbor two-and-a-half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts.^[24] That September, he began ushering at Loew's State Theater.^[25] Other jobs followed during his school years: Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products.^[26]

During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. On his own time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing them.^[27] Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Courts, he competed in Humes's Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became after that."^[28]

Presley, who never received formal music training or learned to read music, studied and played by ear. He frequented record stores with jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs^[29] and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills.^[30] The Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style.^[31][32] He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spiritual music.^[33] He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.^[30] Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South, only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences.^[34] He certainly listened to the regional radio stations that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues.^[35] Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas.^[36][37] B.B. King recalled that he knew Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street.^[38] By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.^[39][40]