Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Make-up for ortho film.

This is topic Make-up for ortho film. in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-21-2008, 01:09 PM:

what sort of make-up was used to get reasonable skin tones when films were shot on Orthochromatic stock? Would they just lighten the face somewhat to compensate, or did they use something really odd, like giving the skin a greenish tint for example? How did they judge the make-up by eye; was it just a mater of experience, or did they have filters which would give some approximation of the response of the film stock?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 05-22-2008, 06:16 AM:

This doesn't really answer your question, admittedly: but one of the exhibits at MOMI was the eyeglass/viewfinder type thing that Fritz Lang used on the set during the 1920s. It had a blue gel in it, to simulate what the scene would look like on orthochromatic film.

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's book The Classical Hollywood Cinema has a big chapter on how lighting methods changed with the introduction of panchromatic film. It's years since I've read it, but if I get a moment I'll have a look over the weekend to see if they say anything about makeup.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-22-2008, 07:35 AM:

I wondered because I was shooting some ortho film yesterday, not movie film, sheet film in a still camera. Iflord still make it, mainly for copying purposes, which is what I usually use it for to the limited extent that I use it at all, I think I've had the present box for about ten years now, but I do need to buy some more soon.

A few weeks ago I bought a 5x4 Graflex Series B RB reflex camera; it's an er... interesting device, though not terribly practical. Anyway, I wanted to try actually taking some pictures with the thing, and ortho film seemed more appropriate for something of that age, probably late '20s. Also, it meant that I was able to develop the film by visual inspection, I suspected that the shutter speeds would be way off, and I could compensate for this to some extent.

There's a light leak at one end of the holder that I was using, which I will need to fix, but it was surprising how much the skin tone darkened, I think some sort of compensation in make-up would have been used, particularly with white females.

I do remember it being pointed out to me some years ago that the hair of one of the characters in a film changed tone between different scenes; it was an early vitaphone type sound film, though I cannot remember which one. The explanation offered, which seems at least plausible, was that the mute scenes were shot on ortho stock under arcs, but that the sync sound scenes had to be under incandescent lighting due to the noise of the arcs, and that to compensate for the increased red content of the light panchromatic stock had been used for these, resulting in a significant change in the red hair of the actress.

This is a mobile 'phone picture of the Graflex; it's in very nice condition for its age, as they often seem to be. I suspect that they were such awkward things to use that they didn't actually get a great deal of use. The last version of them, which wasn't much different to mine, was still being made until about 1959, but I can't imagine who was buying them then.

Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 05-25-2008, 12:06 PM:

In the book review section of the May 25th Los Angeles Times, there is a review of a book about, and with, the photos of Dorothea Lange. The name of the book is DARING TO LOOK.
There is a photo of Ms. Lange sitting on top of a station wagon, circa 1938, holding a Graflex just like the one Stephen displays above.
She apparently used such a camera for her extensive coverage of the farm workers during the depression, including the very famous "Migrant Mother", which appeared on U.S. postage stamps not too long ago.

Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 05-27-2008, 10:49 AM:

As mentioned, most photographers used a "blue glass," similar to other polarized filters today, for the use of getting a sense of what the scene will look like on ortho stock. But most commonly, the orthochomatic spectrum is what established the screen test-- makeup and wardrobe had to be tested despite the actor's skill, and doing so on ortho stock and watching the rushes was the best way to do so.

The base that photographed best was a sort of light pink which leaned towards a blue tint (Factor and Stein brand were the most popular.) Reds, oranges and browns would photograph darkly, and someone with even light freckles or a heavy tan would look really nutty on ortho. Eye-liner or eye-shade would not be black. Instead, common colors were red, gray-green, blue or violet, which all photographed black. After all of this, I'm sure actors and actresses looked very alien to non-movie people.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 05-28-2008, 12:13 AM:

Jack, you're amazing. Great info!

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 05-28-2008, 02:37 PM:

That's interesting Jack. I don't suppose anybody ever took a colour photograph of what this looked like; colour photography would have been quite rare then.