Discovery of first colour movies reveals animal stars

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV

A vivid macaw and a goldfish were among the world's first movie stars, according to a new discovery by the National Media Museum in Bradford, UK. Rolls of film found in the museum's collection have been dated to 1901 or 1902, making them the earliest colour movies in existence.

The moving pictures were produced by photographer and inventor Edward Turner using a technique that is regarded by film historians as a practical failure. Successive frames were recorded on film through red, green and blue filters so that later the sets of three images could be projected through similar filters to recreate the original colours. The process, which requires a bespoke camera and projector, was inspired by the colour photography technique devised by Turner's colleague Frederic Eugene Ives.

Michael Harvey, one of the curators at the museum, worked with film archivists to restore the footage using the same method. Since the film itself is black and white, they had to figure out which frames were shot through each filter to recreate the colours. The film was then converted to 35-millimetre format by photographing each frame with an optical printer.

The restoration effort proves that Turner's method works, revealing a macaw and a shot of three children with a goldfish in vivid colour. A movie premiere at the museum will allow the public to view the films for the first time in more than a century on 13 September.

If you enjoyed this post, watch the first science films starring cheese mites and juggling flies.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/235a7ad9/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A120C0A90Cdiscovery0Eof0Efirst0Ecolour0Emovies0Ereveals0Eanimal0Estars0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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