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Movies Become Edward Turner

More Colorful and his color
projector.

The first movies were monochrome. At the beginning of the 1900s,
They had darker and lighter areas. British inventor Edward Turner
But early movies were not simply created the first system to shoot
black-and-white. Many were tinted. true color film. His camera used
The film was dipped in dye. Often a rotating wheel with red, green, process. Instead of filters, they

this was done for mood or setting. and blue filters. Each frame was used a prism to separate light
A scene dipped in blue dye could shot through a different filter. When into three colors. This three-
appear to be a night scene. Another projected, three frames, each one color process would record three
way early movies were colorized was a different color, were shown at the separate strips of film, one for
through hand coloring. Each frame same time on top of each other. each color. The three strips were
was painted to add color. All of then layered on top of each other
In the early 1900s, Technicolor
these methods applied color after to provide color. Becky Sharp (1935) 2
Motion Picture Corporation
the film was shot. And the was the first feature film to be shot Number of colors
developed a similar
color did not look natural. entirely using this process. Technicolor used for
Hand-colored its first color film process.
film (left) compared The colors were red
to Turner’s true and green.

color film. THINK ABOUT IT • Some early movies were
By the mid-1900s, most hand-painted to give them

movies were made in color. But color.
even today, some filmmakers • Edward Turner made color
shoot black-and-white movies. movies by using colored
Why do you think that is? Why filters.
would anyone choose black- • Technicolor’s three-color
and-white over color? system used a prism
to shoot three strips
12 of film. 13