UNDERSTANDING THE LANGUAGE OF STORYTELLING IN HOLLYWOOD: THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE & THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (PART-IV)

Hi Friends,

How've you been? Hope you're enjoying reading my postings on "The Language of Hollywood:Storytelling, Sound and Color". It's been an amazing journey for me, I can't believe that it's already the fourth month of this series and I'm having so much fun recounting the whole experience of the course and sharing with you all the invaluable lessons I learnt on the evolution of story-telling in Hollywood, all thanks to Prof. Scott Higgins for the wonderful insights! :)

So, now we come to the fourth part of this five series blog-post  on "The Language of Hollywood: Storytelling, Sound and Color". For those of you who've joined in late, please go through Part-I, Part-II and Part-III to stay updated!

This month you're going to have fun because in the last three months your eyes have feasted on some fine cinema from the black and white era; but this month it's the coming of color that will once again re-define story-telling where the color palette is going to establish characters, dictate moods and emotions in the treatment of the film. So are you all excited? Then let's begin right away!

The two films we're going to watch this month are among the very few early color films, the first is a romantic drama, 'The Trail of the Lonesome Pine' (1936) directed by Henry Hathaway and the second is the popular action-adventure, 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938) directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley.

Here are a few nuggets of information that you'd like to know on the changes that took place with the advent of color:

1) It was as early as 1895 that attempts were made to make films in color. In fact early films had already started experimenting with tinting and toning.

2) Edward Lee began restoring images to color

Herbert Kalmus -The man who started it all

3) Herbert Kalmus, an MIT graduate founded the "Two Color/ Three Color Technicolor Company"

4) Natalie Kalmus, wife of Herbert Kalmus was the head of Technicolor and in-charge of the "Color Advisory Service". She had an eye for color aesthetics and ensured that producers were comfortable with the use of this new technology. 

5) The function of the Color Advisory Service were the following:

a)Plan and visualize the color sequence from the screenplay

b)Budget and schedules were planned and discussed with producers 

c)The costume color palette with designers were planned with emphasis on the female leads costumes which in turn was decided depending on the color of her hair and eyes. And based on the female leads costumes everyone's costume was decided which would complement/ contrast her costume.

d)And then the set color schemes with art and props were selected in coordination with the set color palette with a hint of the female leads costume.

e)Advise during production and post-production on the final product

Natalie Kalmus, Head of Technicolor

6) Natalie Kalmus had set some "Rules" while heading the Color Advisory Service, they were the following:
a)Color was meant to support the narrative expression and set the mood of the scene. All in all the whole idea of color was meant to augment and not dominate a given scene/ situation of the film. For example no bright colors were used in a funeral scene while no dark colors were used in a happy scene.

b)Color was more like an orchestral score in the background that made us see into the characters mind without us directly noticing that sound or color.

c)Balance color schemes were used and intensity was avoided. Neutrals  like browns, greys, darker blues etc were used.

d)The Law of 'Emphasis' - This rule meant that there was maximal color contrast in the costume with key actors and actions sequences in the film. All of which meant you'd find less of complementary colors in a given palette.

Technicolor - Ushering in the era of color!

7) The advantages of a restrained color palette was:
a)It allowed light to shape images 

b)Small deviations made a significant difference

c)It helped to serve characterization

d)It helped in creating motifs. You'll observe this point in the film, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine where the singer sets the mood and the 'orange foliage' sets the stage for romance, heartbreak as well as used in Buddie's funeral as a motif to cover him up with.

8) At Technicolor, camera was never sold, they were in fact rented. It was also expected that producers used their services like reel processing after the film was shot.

9) The big break-through came in the year 1934 with the introduction of three color technicolor. In this method the cameras were equipped to run three negatives simultaneously in sync that were filmed on three different filters. Later the positives were then dyed in the four colors CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)

The good old days of bulky cameras!

10) Some of the limitations of Technicolor cinematography were the following:
a)More lighting was required as it had to be split alongside three different negatives of the film.

b)Cameras were huge and clumsy

c)Along the way the purpose of small incandescent lights were lost. This effect of moulding and sculpting light was observed in the black and white era to highlight scenes, people or create effects in popular films like Street Angel or It Happened One Night

11) Film makers used colors to depict emotions. A red color tint meant passion or a sinister atmosphere (eg. The Cheat, 1915) whereas a blue color tint recreated romance and a sepia tone was used in the same film to create a different emotion (eg. Stella Maris, 1918)

12) Chroma, Saturation and Hue came into existence with the coming of color.

Now here are some trivia's on The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and The Adventures of Robin Hood:

Setting the aesthetic standards of  color film-making

1) The Trail of the Lonesome Pine was not only one of the top grossing films of that time but also set an aesthetic standard of "restrained color film making".

2) The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) - was the second film to be made in three color technicolor,the first being Becky Sharp.

Olivia De Havilland's 9 costume changes!

3) The budget of Adventures of Robin Hood was a whopping two million dollars when at a time most films were made within 500,000 dollars!

4) In 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', Bazell Raffman had seven costume changes while Olivia de Havilland had nine!

5) As compared to the restrained color palette in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The Adventures of Robin Hood had a denser and richer color palette and it still did not distract the viewers from the narrative of the story.

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My notes on the film - The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

Observe the contrast color palette...

Thanks to this course, the whole journey of watching films unfolding right from the silent era to sound and from black and white to color has been such a gradual, absorbing and a magical process that so much so when I watched The Trail of the Lonesome Pine it felt that color was the next giant leap waiting to happen; cinema was evolving and so were the techniques. 

While watching The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, it never for a

Buddie's death scene & the 'orange foliage'

moment felt that colors were jarring or just too much for a particular frame...the color palette in the film was so well even that I was absorbed in the story and the characters. In fact, at one stage I felt that when Jack and Dave were attacked by the Falins, I thought one of them was going to die then and that we had reached the climax of the film- little did I realize there were some more twists waiting to unfold in the form of Buddie's death followed by Dave's dramatic death in the film. 

and the restrained color palette!

However, all said and done I quite enjoyed the picturesque locales in color, the beautiful cast, their costumes and the colorful sets. In fact, it was amazing to know from Prof. Higgins lecture that the sets and actors costumes were color coordinated with the female leads costume which complemented/ contrasted her look. How interesting!

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My Notes on The Adventures of Robin Hood

Observe the grandeur...

The Adventures of Robin-Hood (1938) was an exceedingly well-made film for it's time (just imagine, in 1928 there was no color and sound as we watched Street Angel and exactly a decade later,in 1938 the landscape of film-making had changed completely and by 1939 we had Gone With the Wind, yet another masterpiece of storytelling in color... especially the war scenes!)

the costumes...

The Adventures of Robin-Hood brought alive the story of the legend we've read so long in books and comics through it's sheer grandeur!The rich palette of colors reflected in costumes be it the royal finery, the outlaws, the poor and the vast sets with intricate details of the time and lavishness as well as the lush green outdoor shots in the film...were indeed a visual treat! 

the narrative...

I'd like to add two scenes in this discussion which is symbolic - Prince John and Sir Guy share a drink to the golden days ahead and the wine spills on the table which trickles down on the carpet giving the audience the impression of blood flowing and cut to the scene where the Saxons are oppressed. Note - in the scene of the wine spill the music changes to a serious note.

and the rich color palette!

Second scene where stark contrast  is drawn between three worlds is when the Normans are captured in the forest by the group of outlaws comprising of Robin hood and within that canvas the director has drawn yet another contrast through the eyes of Robin Hood and Lady Marian when he shows us the lives of the poor and oppressed Saxons living in the forest under the care of Robin Hood. So, the director succeeds in showing us different palette of colors and tones to distinguish the lives of the oppressed Saxons, outlaws and Normans within a single canvas.

Overall, The Adventures of Robin Hood was a visual treat with some good performances by the cast!

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Hope you enjoyed reading this month's post? And if you did, then do write in your thoughts in the comment section below!

Love,

Sonyaa