# Natural color

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{{original research|date=May 2010}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2021}}
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'''Natural color''' was a term used in the beginning of film and later on in the 1920s, and early 1930s as a color film process that actually filmed color images, rather than a color tinted or colorized movie. The first natural color processes were in the 1900s and 1910s and were two color [additive color](/source/additive_color) processes or red and green missing primary color blue, one additive process of time was [Kinemacolor](/source/Kinemacolor). By the 1920s, [subtractive color](/source/subtractive_color) was mostly in use with such processes as [Technicolor](/source/Technicolor), [Prizma](/source/Prizma) and [Multicolor](/source/Multicolor), but Multicolor was mostly never in use in the late [1920s](/source/1920s_in_film), [Technicolor](/source/Technicolor) was mostly in  use. The only one who cared to mess with Multicolor was [William Fox](/source/William_Fox_(producer)), probably because Multicolor was more cheaper of a process and at the time in 1929 William Fox was in [debt](/source/debt). The difference between additive color and subtractive color were that an additive color film required a special projector that could project two components of film at the same time, a green record and a red record. But additive color didn't required a special projector, the two pieces of film were chemically formed together and was projected in one strip of film.

One of the first movies to use subtractive color was a silent film titled ''[Cupid Angling](/source/Cupid_Angling)'' (1918). In 1932, [Walt Disney](/source/Walt_Disney) made the first film to use a red, green and blue color process (Technicolor), ''[Flowers and Trees](/source/Flowers_and_Trees)''. Three years later, the first feature length movie to be filmed entirely in 3-color Technicolor was ''[Becky Sharp](/source/Becky_Sharp_(film))''.

==1900–1909==

{{Empty section|date=March 2013}}

==1910s==
The first [color features](/source/Early_Color_Feature_Filmography) were made in the 1910s. The very first was ''[With Our King and Queen Through India](/source/With_Our_King_and_Queen_Through_India)'' (1912). In 1917, Technicolor made their first film, a two-color additive film entitled ''[The Gulf Between](/source/The_Gulf_Between)'' (1917), ''The Gulf Between'' was also the first color feature in America, but rather than being filmed in [Hollywood](/source/Hollywood%2C_Los_Angeles) it was actually filmed in [Jacksonville](/source/Jacksonville) [Florida](/source/Florida). Today ''The Gulf Between'' is [lost](/source/Lost_film).

==1920s==
In 1922, Technicolor made their second feature and also the first movie made in their second color process, called process 2. The movie was ''[The Toll of the Sea](/source/The_Toll_of_the_Sea)''. It was the first color feature made in Hollywood. The movie starred [Anna May Wong](/source/Anna_May_Wong). Wong never thought the movie would ever make it to the screen, but it did. In 1923, [Paramount Pictures](/source/Paramount_Pictures) made the [Cecil B. De Mille](/source/Cecil_B._De_Mille) partial Technicolor epic ''[The Ten Commandments](/source/The_Ten_Commandments_(1923_film))'', which would be remade 33 years later by DeMille in 1956, also in color by Technicolor. Also in 1923, [Prizma](/source/Prizma) was used to film the 1923 version of ''[Vanity Fair](/source/Vanity_Fair_(1923_film))''. The third feature to be filmed entirely in color by Technicolor was ''[Wanderer of the Wasteland](/source/Wanderer_of_the_Wasteland_(1924_film))'', today a [lost film](/source/lost_film), released in 1924. It was advertised as being filmed in 100% Natural Color. Technicolor made many more silent films in color through the years, but in 1929, the first talking picture to use a color (Technicolor) sequence was ''[The Broadway Melody](/source/The_Broadway_Melody)''. The color hues of that sequence are lost; the sequence only survives in black-and-white television prints from the 1950s. That year, [Warner Bros.](/source/Warner_Bros.) made the first all color-all talking movie, ''[On with the Show](/source/On_with_the_Show_(1929_film))'', which also only survives in black and white, with only a small fragment of surviving color, found in 2005. Later in 1929, the first color talking movies were being made, such as ''[Paris](/source/Paris_(1929_film))'' (Warner Bros.), ''[Rio Rita](/source/Rio_Rita_(1929_film))'' ([RKO](/source/RKO), first RKO color movie, color sequenced),  ''[Sally](/source/Sally_(1929_film))'' (Warner Bros., third all-color, all-talking feature), ''[Gold Diggers of Broadway](/source/Gold_Diggers_of_Broadway)'' (Warner Bros., second all-color, all-talking feature), ''[The Hollywood Revue](/source/The_Hollywood_Revue_of_1929)'' (MGM's second musical, after ''[The Broadway Melody](/source/The_Broadway_Melody)'') and many more. Most of the color talking movies made in 1929 mostly survive in 1950s black-and-white television copies or with color sequences cut. In 1929, Technicolor was so busy filming color movies that the Warner Bros. musical revue ''[The Show of Shows](/source/The_Show_of_Shows)'' (1929), which was originally going to be filmed in full color, had to be filmed only mostly in color, with 21 minutes in [black and white](/source/black_and_white), a seventeen-minute section of part one and a four-minute opening of part two. While most companies used Technicolor, [William Fox](/source/William_Fox_(producer)), owner of Fox Movie Corporation, used [Multicolor](/source/Multicolor).

==1930s==
Color movies released in 1930 included ''[The Life of the Party](/source/The_Life_of_the_Party_(1930_film))'' (Warner Bros.), ''[Under a Texas Moon](/source/Under_a_Texas_Moon_(film))'' (Warner Bros.), ''[Children of Pleasure](/source/Children_of_Pleasure)'' (MGM), ''[Chasing Rainbows](/source/Chasing_Rainbows_(1930_film))'' (MGM), ''[Show Girl in Hollywood](/source/Show_Girl_in_Hollywood)'' (Warner Bros., one of [Al Jolson](/source/Al_Jolson)'s first color appearances), ''[Viennese Nights](/source/Viennese_Nights)'' (Warner Bros.), ''[Hit the Deck](/source/Hit_the_Deck_(1930_film))'' ([RKO Radio Pictures](/source/RKO_Radio_Pictures)), and ''[Leathernecking](/source/Leathernecking)'' (RKO), ''[The Cuckoos](/source/The_Cuckoos_(1930_film))'' (RKO). Like 1929, the original color negatives for many movies of the year are considered [lost](/source/lost_film) and only survive in black-and-white due to the studios wanting more space in their film vaults so they threw away the films and aired them on black-and-white television before, but some color movies from this time have been found throughout the years.

In 1932, [Walt Disney](/source/Walt_Disney) released the first three-color [Technicolor](/source/Technicolor) film, ''[Flowers and Trees](/source/Flowers_and_Trees)''. 1939, which is considered by many film buffs as Hollywood's greatest year, had hits in color, such as ''[The Wizard of Oz](/source/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film))'', ''[The Women](/source/The_Women_(1939_film))'', ''[Dodge City](/source/Dodge_City_(1939_film))'' and the most successful of them all, ''[Gone with the Wind](/source/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film))''.

==Color film processes==
Process has been explained in a 1940 publishing,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=W883AAAAMAAJ] Natural Color Processes, Carlton E. Dunn, American Photographic Publishing Company, 1940</ref> and in a 2013 historic overview.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pBPdCnIaN9sC&pg=PA16] Robert Hirsch: ''Exploring Color Photography Fifth Edition: From Film to Pixels,'' 2013, p.16</ref>

==See also==
* [List of early color feature films](/source/List_of_early_color_feature_films) 
* ''[His Supreme Moment](/source/His_Supreme_Moment)'' (1925)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Category:Film and video technology

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Natural color](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_color) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_color?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.