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The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color system
Additive color

An additive color model involves light emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red, green and blue light to produce the other colors....
, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co....
. However, Kelley eventually transformed Prizma into a Bi-pack color system that itself became the predecessor for future color processes such as Multicolor
Multicolor

Multicolor is a Subtractive color natural color process for Film. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
 and Cinecolor
Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
.

first system of Prizma was similar to Kinemacolor in that the camera took alternating frames of red-orange and blue-green colors through color filters placed within the camera's shutter.






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The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley and Charles Raleigh. Initially, it was a two-color additive color system
Additive color

An additive color model involves light emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red, green and blue light to produce the other colors....
, similar to its predecessor, Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor

Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co....
. However, Kelley eventually transformed Prizma into a Bi-pack color system that itself became the predecessor for future color processes such as Multicolor
Multicolor

Multicolor is a Subtractive color natural color process for Film. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
 and Cinecolor
Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
.

Prizma I (additive)

The first system of Prizma was similar to Kinemacolor in that the camera took alternating frames of red-orange and blue-green colors through color filters placed within the camera's shutter. Projection involved running a colored disc again in synchronization with the black and white color record film, and through persistence of vision
Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which even nanoseconds of exposure to an image result in milliseconds of reaction from the retina to the optic nerves....
, the two frames combined on the screen to form a color image.

The first film shown in Prizma color on 23 December 1917 was the feature Our Navy at the 44th Street Theatre in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
. General reception to the system was positive, but the rotating filter wheel technique proved impractical. To counteract the issue of having a special projector with a filter wheel, Kelley began tinting
Film tinting

Film tinting is the process of adding color to black and white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion....
 alternate frames of his film red and green. However, fringing, flicker, and light loss were major issues which plagued not only Prizma, but also all of the other additive systems of the Kinemacolor nature.

In counteracting this, Kelley had filed a patent in February 1917 which proved to be the beginnings of Prizma's second color system.

Prizma II (subtractive)


On 28 December 1918, Kelley announced that Prizma would release a color film (usually a short) every week, a film which would be projectable on any standard projector. Kelley's idea was two years in the making, but was a valid one which became the springboard for all future color systems to follow — two films were filmed simultaneously with a camera of his own design. One strip was sensitive to red-orange, the other to blue-green (cyan
Cyan

Cyan may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the removal of red from white light....
). Both negatives were processed and printed on duplitized film
Duplitized film

Duplitized film stock was a type of film available through various companies used in color photography and special effects. It was introduced in the early 1910s....
, and then each emulsion was toned
Film tinting

Film tinting is the process of adding color to black and white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion....
 its complementary color
Complementary color

Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are of ?opposite? hue in some color model. The exact hue ?complementary? to a given hue depends on the model in question, and perceptual uniformity, additive color, and subtractive color models, for example, have differing complements for any given color....
, red or blue. The final result was a color image that was subtractive
Subtractive color

A subtractive color model explains the mixing of paints, dyes, inks, and natural colorants to create a range of colors, where each such color is caused by the mixture absorbing some wavelengths of light and reflecting others....
 in nature — no flicker and a bright projection. But as a result of the way the camera was designed, a constant fringe was apparent, as the strips were being recorded side-by-side.

In January 1919, this new process was premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City with the short Everywhere With Prizma. Kelley, based in Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is a City in Hudson County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population of Jersey City was 240,055, making it New Jersey's List of municipalities in New Jersey , behind Newark, New Jersey....
, was a friend of the Rivoli's manager and music director Hugo Riesenfeld
Hugo Riesenfeld

Hugo Riesenfeld was a pioneering Austrian-American film composer as well as violinist and Conductor .Riesenfeld was born in Vienna and began composing professionally in his native Austria....
 and so did business with Samuel Roxy Rothafel
Samuel Roxy Rothafel

Samuel Lionel "Roxy" Rothafel was a showman of the 1920s silent film era and the impresario for many of the great New York movie palaces that he managed such as the Strand, Rialto, Rivoli, Capitol, and his eponymous Roxy Theatre in New York City ....
's Roxy Theaters chain, which the Rivoli was part of.

In February 1921, another Prizma film, Bali the Unknown was premiered at Roxy's Capitol Theatre in New York. The four-reel feature garnered lukewarm reviews, but enough positive audience response that more films were produced in the system.

The Prizma process only took off in 1922, when J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton

James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an United States film producer of the silent film, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and animation animation....
 of Vitagraph Studios
Vitagraph Studios

American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 and bought by Warner Brothers in 1925....
 shot his feature film The Glorious Adventure in Prizma. The film, starring Diana Manners and Victor McLaglen
Victor McLaglen

Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was an Academy Award winning England actor, Boxing and World War I veteran....
, premiered in April 1922 to lukewarm success in the US, but much appeal in the UK. With the prestige of a Vitagraph production, Prizma was considered the apex of color photography at that point in motion picture producer's minds.

Prizma sued the Technicolor Corporation
Technicolor

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
 in September 1922 on the grounds that Technicolor was infringing upon Prizma's patents. However, Prizma eventually lost the case.

In April 1923, Robert Flaherty took a both a black-and-white camera and a Prizma color camera to Samoa
Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa , is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean....
, hoping to film part of his documentary film
Documentary film

Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and new media productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a televis...
 Moana
Moana

Moana is a documentary film, the first docufiction in the history of Film, directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the creator of Nanook of the North ....
 (1925) in that process, but the Prizma camera malfunctioned and no color footage was shot. (Moana became famous as the first feature film shot using panchromatic
Panchromatic

Panchromatic film is a type of black-and-white photographic film that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. A panchromatic film therefore produces a realistic image of a scene....
 black-and-white film rather than orthochromatic
Orthochromatic

Orthochromatic refers to any spectrum of light that is devoid of red light....
.)

With William K. Fairall and Robert F. Elder's 3-D feature, The Power of Love, opening 27 September 1922 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles

Los ?ngeles is the Capital of the Biob?o Province, in the municipality of the same name, in Regions of Chile VIII , in the center-south of Chile....
 and the December 1922 unveiling of Laurens Hammond
Laurens Hammond

Laurens Hammond , was an engineer and inventor. His inventions include, most famously, the Hammond organ and the Hammond clock....
's Teleview
Teleview

Teleview was a process for producing 3-D film, invented in 1922 by Cornell University graduates Laurens Hammond and William F. Cassidy. It premiered at the only theater that installed the equipment, the Selwyn Theatre in New York City on 27 December 1922, during a show of shorts and the only feature shown with the process, M.A.R.S. ,...
 system in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, Kelley used his Prizma camera for stereoscopic
3-D film

In film, the term 3-D is used to describe any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images of the third dimension, the optical illusion of depth as seen by the viewer....
 purposes. As his camera took side-by-side pictures, Kelley mounted a set of prisms on his rig, thus expanding his point of convergence
Convergence

In the absence of a more specific context, convergence denotes the approach toward a definite value, as time goes on; or to a definite point, a common view or opinion, or toward a fixed or equilibrium point state....
, and utilized his red/blue color system to make an anaglyph
Anaglyph

Anaglyph may refer to:* Anaglyph image, a method of encoding a three-dimensional image in a single picture by superimposing a pair of pictures...
ic print of his product. His final product was the first of Kelley's Plasticon Pictures entitled Movies of the Future, which was premiered at the Rivoli on 24 December 1922. The film consisted largely of shots of New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
, including Times Square
Times Square

Times Square is a major intersection in Manhattan, a borough of New York City at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd Street to West 47th Street s....
, the New York Public Library
New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is one of the leading Public library of the world and is one of the United States's most significant research libraries....
, and Luna Park.

Based on the success of Movies of the Future, Kelley had his chief photographer, William T. Crispinel, shoot another short film entitled Through the Trees — Washington D.C. in the spring of 1923. The film was not shot with the Prizma rig — which was being used by Flaherty in Samoa — but by one designed by Frederick E. Ives, a technician that specialized in 3-D
Stereoscopy

Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D imaging is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the stereopsis in an image....
 photography. Although the short was technically shot better, Riesenfeld rejected it because it did not have the 3-D gimmicks that the recent films of that nature included.

The last few years of Prizma were somewhat fruitful. Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios....
 produced Vanity Fair (1923) in Prizma, and D.W. Griffith utilized the process in a couple of his films, including a scene in Way Down East
Way Down East

Way Down East is one of several film adaptations of the play Way Down East, written by Lottie Blair Parker Cinema of the United States drama silent film and directed by D.W....
 (1920). Flames of Passion (1922), directed by Graham Cutts and starring Mae Marsh
Mae Marsh

Mae Marsh was an United States film Actor with a career spanning over 50 years....
 and C. Aubrey Smith; The Virgin Queen (1923), directed by J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton

James Stuart Blackton , usually known as J. Stuart Blackton, was an United States film producer of the silent film, the founder of Vitagraph Studios and among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and animation animation....
; and I Pagliacci (1923), co-starring Lillian Hall-Davis
Lillian Hall-Davis

Lillian Hall-Davis was a United Kingdom actress during the silent film era.The daughter of a London taxicab driver, her films included 1924's Quo Vadis , and The Ring and The Farmer's Wife both directed by Alfred Hitchcock....
, were all UK productions with one reel filmed in Prizma.

One of the last films using Prizma was Venus of the South Seas (1924), starring Annette Kellerman
Annette Kellerman

Annette Kellerman was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star, writer, and advocate for the change of women's swimwear.She is often credited for inventing the sport of synchronised swimming after her 1907 performance of the first water ballet in a glass tank at the New York Hippodrome....
, where Prizma was used for one reel of a 55-minute film. Venus was restored by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
 in 2004.

In 1928, Prizma was bought by Consolidated Film Industries
Consolidated Film Industries

Consolidated Film Industries was a film laboratory, and film processing company, and was the leading film laboratory in the Los Angeles area for many decades....
 and was reintroduced as Magnacolor (and later Trucolor
Trucolor

Trucolor was a process used and owned by Consolidated Film Industries division of Republic Pictures. Trucolor was a two-strip process based on the earlier work of William Van Doren Kelley's Prizma color process....
). Kelley, who held many patents in color photography, sold his patents and equipment to Cinecolor
Cinecolor

Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
, which benefited from Kelley's advanced printing techniques. Ironically, Cinecolor was co-founded by Kelley's former photographer, William T. Crispinel.

List of Films Made in Prizma Color

  • An Afternoon With Nanki San (1921)
  • Arabian Duet (1922)
  • Artist's Paradise (1921)
  • Bali the Unknown (1921)
  • Beautiful Things (1920)
  • Bird Island (1919)
  • Broadway Rose (1922)
  • Butterflies (1921)
  • Canoe and Campfire (1919)
  • Capetown (1922)
  • Catalonian Pyrenees (1919)
  • China (1919)
  • Children of the Netherlands (1919)
  • Color Sketches (1922)
  • Color-Land Review (1919)
  • The Cost of Carelessness (1920)
  • Danse Arabe (1922)
  • Dawning (1921)
  • Everywhere With Prizma (1919)
  • Fashion Hints (1922)
  • Flames of Passion (1922)
  • Florida Sports (1919)
  • From the Land of the Incas (1920)
  • Gardens of Normandy (1921)
  • The Gilded Lily (1921)
  • Glacier Park (1919)
  • The Glorious Adventure (1922)
  • Hagopian the Rug Maker (1920)
  • Hawaii (1919)
  • Hawaiian Islands (1920)
  • Heart of the Sky Mountains (1920)
  • Heidi
    Heidi

    Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning , usually abbreviated Heidi, is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps....
     (Heidi of the Alps) (1920)
  • Here and There (1919)
  • The Heritage of the Red Man (1922)
  • I Pagliacci (1923)
  • Ice Fields, Glaciers, and the Birth of Bergs (1919)
  • The Impi (1922)
  • In Nippon (1920)
  • In School Days (1920)
  • An Indian Summer (1921)
  • Japan (1921)
  • Japanese Fishing Village (1920)
  • Kilauea-The Hawaiian Volcano (1918)
  • The Land of the Great Spirit (1919)
  • Lest We Forget (1922)
  • A Little Love Nest (1922)
  • Lure of Alaska (1919)
  • Magic Gems (1921)
  • Marimba Land (1920)
  • May Days (1920)
  • Memories (1919)
  • The Message of the Flowers (1921)
  • Mining in Alaska (1919)
  • The Mirror (1923)
  • Model Girls (1919)
  • Moonlight Sonata (1922)
  • Neighbor Nelly (1921)
  • Oahu (1919)
  • Old Faithful (1919)
  • Our Navy (Our Invincible Navy) (1918)
  • Out of the Sea (1919)
  • Picturesque Japan (1919)
  • Pinto's Prizma Comedy Revue (1919)
  • A Prizma Color Visit to Catalina (1919)
  • The Refreshing Riviera (1920)
  • Rheims (1921)
  • The Sacred City of the Desert (1921)
  • The Sno-Birds (1921)
  • So This Is London (1922)
  • Sunbeams (1923)
  • Sunshine Gatherers (1921)
  • Swaziland South Africa (1920)
  • Teddy in Glacier Land (1922)
  • Vanity Fair
    Vanity Fair (1932 film)

    Vanity Fair is a 1932 in film modernized adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair that was directed by Chester M. Franklin and starred Myrna Loy....
     (1923)
  • Venus of the South Seas (1924)
  • The Virgin Queen
    The Virgin Queen

    The Virgin Queen can refer to:* Elizabeth I of England* The Virgin Queen , starring Bette Davis* The Virgin Queen , 2005, BBC...
     (1923)
  • La Voix du Rossignol (France, 1924)
  • Way Up Yonder (1920)
  • Where Poppies Bloom (1923)
  • Wonderful Water (1922)
  • Way Down East
    Way Down East

    Way Down East is one of several film adaptations of the play Way Down East, written by Lottie Blair Parker Cinema of the United States drama silent film and directed by D.W....
     (1920)


External links

  • U.S. Patent: , filed 1914. The patent describes systems using two-color or three-color filter wheels.
  • U.S. Patent: , filed 1914.


See also

  • Cinecolor
    Cinecolor

    Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model RG color space film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s....
  • Color film (motion picture)
    Color film (motion picture)

    This article discusses the evolution and technology behind color photographic film, with specific focus on motion pictures....
  • Color photography
    Color photography

    Color photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors which are produced chemically during the Photographic processes phase....
  • Kinemacolor
    Kinemacolor

    Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith of Brighton, England in 1906, and launched by Charles Urban's Urban Trading Co....
  • List of color film systems
    List of color film systems

    This is a list of Color film known to have been developed for shooting or viewing color motion pictures since the development of such photographic technology towards the end of the 19th century....
  • List of film formats
    List of film formats

    This list of film formats catalogues formats developed for shooting or viewing motion pictures, ranging from the Chronophotographe format from 1888, to mid-20th century formats such as the 1953 CinemaScope format, to more recent formats such as the 1992 IMAX#IMAX_HD format....
  • List of motion picture film stocks
    List of motion picture film stocks

    This is a list of motion picture camera films. Those films known to no longer be available have been marked as "". This article includes color and black-and-white negative films, reversal camera films, intermediate stocks, and print stocks....
  • Multicolor
    Multicolor

    Multicolor is a Subtractive color natural color process for Film. Multicolor, introduced to the motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier Prizma process, and was the forerunner of Cinecolor....
  • Technicolor
    Technicolor

    Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
  • Trucolor
    Trucolor

    Trucolor was a process used and owned by Consolidated Film Industries division of Republic Pictures. Trucolor was a two-strip process based on the earlier work of William Van Doren Kelley's Prizma color process....