[Tig] The Subterraneans cyclic color shift

[Dominic Case]

>the optical dissolves had much more than the usual balance and density
shifts.

Probably the transfer was done from a print made much later than 1960. The
cyclic colour shift could be from a badly stored print (up until around 1980
the dyes were far less stable than they are today), or even from a print
made on dodgy rawstock - if it's at the level that a colorist would pick but
not necessarily the general public, the print could have been accepted at
the time.

The mis-matched opticals would be because they were made on dupe neg stock.
In 1960 it never matched the look of the original neg even with careful
grading: but once again, the dupe neg would have faded faster than the
original neg, so a new print made some years later would have had a serious
mismatch. 

Speaking of films of that era (or earlier) I saw Funny Face on the weekend -
Audrey Hepburn & Fred Astaire. 1954-ish, Technicolor, and magnificent use of
colour: bright pastel coloured costumes in an entirely monochrome office
setting for example - no shortage of neutral grey reference for the colorist
there! Not a bad film either, though at one point in a darkroom scene
(Astaire plays a fashion photograher with a name not unlike Richard Avedon),
he is seen exposing a sheet of photographic paper which he places in the
developer tray - but the image comes up on the opposite side of the paper to
the side he exposed. (beat that for a nerdy observation). 

_________________________________ 
Dominic Case 
Atlab Australia 
________________________________ 
views expressed here may be mine alone




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