- This article is about the use of multiple colors in cinema. For multicolor in textiles, see Pied (multicolor).
Multicolor is a
subtractive natural color process for
motion pictures. Multicolor, introduced to the
motion picture industry in 1929, was based on the earlier
Prizma Color process, and was the forerunner of
Cinecolor. For a Multicolor film, a scene is shot with a normal camera capable of bipacking film. Two
black-and-white 35 mm film negatives are threaded
bipack in the camera. One records the color red (via a dyed
panchromatic film), and the other, blue (
orthochromatic). In printing,
duplitized stock is exposed and processed with one record on each side. In a tank of
toning solution, the film is floated upon the top of the solution with the appropriate chemical. The cyan record is toned a complementary red with a copper ferrocyanide solution, and the red being toned blue/cyan with
ferric ferrocyanide solution.
