Two Color Kodachrome Test Shots
Two Color Kodachrome Test Shots
Special Presentation
Kodachrome/Kodachrome
This program of short films selected from the George Eastman Museum Moving Image Collections promises to be a visual feast of vintage color featuring rare and significant examples of films made with two separate Kodak products sharing the same trade name of Kodachrome.
From its debut in 1935 until its discontinuation in 2009, Kodachrome film has been one of the most iconic and successful film stocks ever produced by the Eastman Kodak Company. Loved by amateurs and professionals alike for its warm, saturated colors for still and motion picture use, Kodachrome was the first successful subtractive color film product to reach a wide market. A little known fact is that the product name Kodachrome was borrowed from an earlier and much different Kodak color film stock introduced in 1913, which, due to its limited color palette, is now referred to as “two-color Kodachrome.”
Both film stocks reproduce color in special ways and this presentation will allow viewers to directly compare the two versions of Kodachrome through several rarely screened treasures from the collection, including The Flute of Krishna (Eastman Kodak Company, 1926), Colorful Fashions from Paris Displayed by Hope Hampton—McCall’s Color Fashion News (Educational Pictures, US 1926), [Kaleidoscope] (Loyd A. Jones, ca. 1925), Two-Color Kodachrome Test Shots No. III (John G. Capstaff, US 1922) and Triple Exposure (James Card, 1947). Some of the titles in this program are silent and will feature live piano accompaniment by Philip C. Carli.