A Colorful Glimpse of the Past
There's something undeniably compelling about the first works created in any medium, which in the domain of film go back to the turn of the 20th century. In this category I'd include the animations of Émile Cohl and the fantastic films of George Méliès. You could go even further back and watch the films shot by the Lumière brothers in 1895. And now we can watch the first color films, created in England between 1901 and 1902.
Apparently Edward Turner patented the first color movie process in Britain in 1899, which involved exposing black-and-white film via red, green and blue filters, with the results being shown using a special projector. Turner shot several short films using the new process as a proof of concept, before his death in 1903 led to its disappearance. The National Media Museum in Bradford had inexplicably been sitting on these films for seventy-five years but thankfully recently completed a restoration project that allows them to be viewed digitally. As is often the case, the clip above is long on talk and short on showing the actual films but at least provides a colorful glimpse into another era, captured thanks to a long-forgotten technique. One can only wonder what Turner would have made of his invention, had he not died at age 29.
Chris Dickman
Editor, Graphics.com
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