When Did Film Transition to Color?

If you asked anyone today, “When did film transition to color?” You would probably get some kind of answer that erred on the side of “as soon as possible, film transitioned to color as soon as the technology was available.” After all, why wouldn’t everyone in the film industry be keen on something so vibrant and new? One would believe that the transition of film from black and white to color would have been something that cinematographers, artists, and consumers would immediately accept, but that’s actually not how it worked.

Throughout the history of the film industry, several distinct changes have taken place, but few are as vibrant as when film went from black and white to color.

However, as much as we all love and enjoy color in our films and videos today, the transition wasn’t a welcomed change at first. In fact, the transition of film to color actually took place over a period of 30 years through several distinct adjustments.

It Didn’t Happen Overnight!

When you watch a movie that’s in color, and then one in black and white, you’re inclined to immediately think: the black and white movie was old, the color movie was probably newer.

However, it’s important to note, especially when answering the question, “When did film transition to color?” that the process of transitioning from black and white to color didn’t happen overnight.

This was a change that was going to gradually take place as new developments in technology and new decisions to adopt the technology would gradually come into play.

Not all black and white movies are old, or older than color movies. In fact, some filmmakers chose to continue shooting in black and white for several decades after color film had taken over and become the standard.

For example, “Schindler’s List” produced in 1993, is one such film that is certainly not “old” comparative to many many others, but it was shot in black and white decades after color film had been the standard.

The Birth of Color Film

SO, when did film transition to color? It all started in 1915 when Technicolor, a two-color subtractive process, was introduced to filmmakers by Herbert Kalmus.

Technicolor involved two negatives that captured red and green lights which were placed back to back to produce “color” in film. Technicolor was used in 1929 by Warner Bros in the movie On With the Show!

And several other studios also used Technicolor for a little while, but high cost and poor quality meant Technicolor wouldn’t become the standard and wouldn’t be around for long.

In 1952, George Eastman introduced Eastmancolor, a one strip color negative process that was called the “monopack” and replaced Technicolor.

Because Eastmancolor was high quality, studios were quick to adopt it and, in 1954 the last Technicolor camera was used for the last time. 

The Television, A Filmmaker’s Real Reason for Color

The real reason why filmmakers adapted and switched from black and white to color wasn’t so much the technology, it wasn’t Eastmancolor vs Technicolor, it was the television!

When the Television was available for spectators to watch shows at home, cinema had to come up with a way to convince spectators to come to the movies.

Thus, color provided something that filmmakers could use to draw people back to cinema, as televisions would only provide black and white viewing. At least, this was until the mid-1960s when television switched to color, too.

So, when did film transition to color? It was over a multi-decade period beginning in 1915 and largely playing out until about the 1950s.