--- Aaron Z Snyder <azs@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whoopee!! is the best-preserved example of a 100% two-color Technicolor film I've ever seen. Most of them have very limited color range, and after seeing Whoopee! I'm now convinced that the phenomenon was due more to fading than the deficiencies of only two colors. It definitely deserves DVD treatment.
"Whoopie!" has been shown occasionally on TCM. I got a decent Hi-8 copy of it off that channel before our cable company began compressing the hell out of the signal. Although the primaries used in 2-strip Technicolor reproduce flesh tones quite well, there is no way to produce blue. Look at all those greenish-gray Palm Springs skies in the opening of "Whoopie!" and you can see the deficiency. But the main thing that killed two-strip Technicolor was a quality control problem. The lab was so rushed with orders that they started sending out films with registration problems, color fading, and other defects caused by rushed production. The films produced eyestrain, and soon black and while was a selling point for films.
David Breneman david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx