Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541514
N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 | P E R S P E C T I V E 3 3 A. THE GRAND DAME OF TECHNICOLOR, ACTRESS OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND. B. GENE KELLY AND LESLIE CARON IN AN AMERICAN IN PARIS The history of color cinematography is the history of Technicolor. The development of the 2-strip and then 3-strip method of color reproduction are the technological leaps that made this possible. The Technicolor 3-strip dye transfer printing process that forms the center of the narrative was the revolution that brought color photographic imagery to the masses. Technicolor opened up possibilities in design and visual composition that still resonate in this digital age. Hoffman had a front-row seat to much of this history. He served as Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations at Technicolor for 18 years. This provided him with not only almost two decades of experience within the company starting in 2001, but also gave him access to records and archival materials reaching back to the beginning of the process. The book isn't arranged on a timeline from the start of color reproduction on film to the transition to digital color. The Technicolor process is explored in great detail, but is also used as a jumping-off point on the development of color technology into the current era, and how color was developed as a thematic element through the use of the Technicolor process. Particular emphasis is placed on how it was employed by specific artists on specific films, and on how directors and cinematographers were able to manipulate the system to achieve their artistic goals. Hoffman also explores how different countries approached the use of color, with British, French, Italian and Indian films employing Technicolor to remarkably different results. Hoffman also dispels the idea that the scientists and businessmen at Technicolor worked at odds with the interests of the filmmakers. The control that the company held over the use of color, and the idea that Technicolor wanted to show off the process with the use of vivid colors no matter the subject of the film is contradicted by the many examples of the artists and technicians within Technicolor working with directors and cinematographers to get decidedly more subtle results required by filmmakers. The contribution of designers to the development of color in motion pictures is touched on throughout the book. In discussing his findings Hoffman notes: "It is an unmistakable fact that Production Designers and Art Directors like Robert Edmund Jones, William Cameron Menzies, Lyle Wheeler, Vincent Korda, Alfred Junge, Heim Heckroth, Henry Bumstead, Ferdinando Scarfiotti, Richard Sylbert and Dean Tavoularis had as much to do with the look of those Technicolor classics as any other individual on the production. B A