Summary

Footage Information

Archive Films by Getty Images
Color Harmony
PA-1012 Beta SP; PA-0559 Digibeta
B W, Color
Industrial
1938
diagrams puppets marionettes Chevrolet Motor Company (sponsor) Automobiles (Chevrolet) (details) Trunks Fenders Animation Rainbows Color Light (spectrum) Painting Palettes (animated) Visual effects Surrealism Fantasy Weirdness Strangeness Spectrum (visible) Rainbows Prisms Patterns (color, abstract) Kaleidoscopes Beam-splitters Beams (light) Physics Science Graphic design Hubcaps (rotating)
Color Harmony HUMAN EYE & ITS FUNCTION IN SEEING COLORS SEPARATELY & IN COMBINATION. COLOR VISION EXPLAINED. GOOD COLOR SHOTS 1939 AUTO. GOOD ANIMATION. PAINTER'S PALETTE. SCENICS. Ken Smith sez: This film served several purposes for Jam Handy. First, it's yet another Chevrolet theatrical short disguised as something educational (Jam Handy was adept at that). But it also served as a showcase for Jam Handy's access to Technicolor, and acted as a kind of cinematic billboard to potential Jam Handy clients. "Hey! Doesn't this stuff look great? You want some for YOUR film?" If real educational films had Jam Handy budgets, they might have been a lot more fun to watch. This one takes a circuitous route first pretending it's an educational film about animals, then eyesight, then color. "The fascinating world of color," appears unexpectedly in this black and white film, and is dazzling enough to make you forget the narrator's nonsensical babbling about eyeball "substances" and "nervous currents." Jam Handy manages to slip in a plug for "modern color-reproducing processes" (thanks again, Technicolor), then spends the rest of the film showing us lovely blue, green and gold Chevrolets. As opposed to all those dull, black Fords, I suppose. Title card scene-scanning ocean floor with a few small fish. Pan to sandy area. Fade to CU of many fish and one turtle. Shot of many fish. Man swimming under water attempting to catch turtle. Captures turtle and 'wrestles' with it while turning over and over in water. Man goes up for air, turtle hides its head. CU of lobster out of water on sand (indoors, plain BG). A man's hand emerges from right side of screen and begins to slowly reach for lobster. Camera slowly moves in for ECU of lobster's eyes. Honeycomb design over screen with man's hand seen behind it (to show lobster's visual perception). Hand comes closer and closer to viewer. MCU six or seven worms squirming about. ECU one worm's eyes and orifice. EECU of same. Fade to rippling water with vague shadow of an object. CU of woman adjusting camera, raises it to her eye. Pan in for ECU of eye and camera. Fade to side view diagram of eye and camera adjacent to each other. VS of arrows pointing to corresponding parts of eye and camera (iris, lens, retina). Camera fades, replaced by single line. Line changes to small, very animated wooden man dancing on a small platform. Drawing of eye changes to plain sphere with hole in center. Moves in for CU of sphere. Sphere turns slowly so that opening no longer visible then completes its turn with hole covered by white rectangular patch. Pan back to show moving sphere and dancing wooden man. ECU of covered hole showing vague, shadowy picture. Man's hand places lens over hole in sphere. CU of opening shows animated figure upside down and dancing. Back to drawing of eye and dancing man. Rays of light (white lines) emerge from man, enter eye and are reflected. Arrows point out parts of eye that are refracting light. More white lines emerge from man and enter eye. Image (upside down ) of dancing man drawn on back of eye corresponding to upright image at right screen. Image in eye moves back and forth (as it attempts to focus properly). CU of diagram of eye (side view). A hand holds a pen-draws rectangle outlining area at back of eye (retina). ECU of this inset then showing ECU of drawing of layers of nerve fibers. Hand draws another rectangle on area of nerve fibers. ECU of black and white drawing of rods and cones (some tubular and bulbous structures). Cones fade, then rods fade. Large white line emerges from lower right screen passing over a rod. Arrow shows this particular rod, which then has particles running through it (showing chemical changes as eye perceives light). Shot of CU of retina as before as particles and lines pass through it with arrow elucidating same for viewer. Shot of eye with particles flowing along retina and optic nerve. Bursts of light-upper left screen. Fade to drawing of rods and cones. Cones fade. Arrow points out four rods grouped to one nerve fiber. Large white, transparent light emerges from right screen and covers rod group, then fades. Particles again flow through rod group. Rods fade. CU three cones. Light pierces center cone-particles processed through cones. Change to night scene of flowing stream with trees, grass swaying in a breeze. Same scene as light grows brighter-to day. Fade to black and white colors on a palette. Same palette shown in color-various bright colors of paint now clearly visible. Thumb holds palette, paintbrushes in rear. Shot of drawing of rods and cones. ECU of cone with long protrusion containing small red, then many colored spheres. Red line (light) emerges from right mid screen piercing cone and protrusion. Red spheres change to particles-exit screen as red lines through cone. Yellow light does same-yellow spheres change to particles, as does blue, green, and white light. Fade to drawing of silver colored prism on black background being pierced by white line (light). Refracts various colors onto a small screen. Red light then reflected onto small screen. VS different colors reflected onto upper left hand drawn screen. Large white circle in black background. Blue and red circles emerge from original. Circles overlap many times showing various color combinations. Circles move back, become smaller, duplicate, overlap and show color combinations and results. Again, the colored circles become smaller, overlap and show every color of the spectrum until there is a ring of circles of all colors. All but three circles fade, leaving the primary colors (red, yellow, blue). CU of these as they transform themselves into vertical blocks of color covering the entire screen. Shot of flat red glass prism set in a holder-nondescript grey background. Red line (light) emerges from left screen passes through glass. Yellow line emerges-cannot pierce prism. Light orange line partially passes through. Mauve light emerges, passes through, emerges as red light. Fade to shot of early model car in yellow tinged light. Car is slightly hazy, difficult to see. (Curtain in background). Hue of scene is changed by a black bar coming from the bottom of the screen and moving up-bringing a new color with it-which is now red. Auto appears clearer. Blue color change again in same fashion-car now blue. Black color change-tires of car now distinctly black. Entire picture now very clear and colorful. Montage of various shapes of many colors moving (as if looking through a kaleidescope). This continues with colors moving and fusing. CU of drawing of wooden palette with various splashes of colors on it. Palette fades, colors remain. Splashes transform themselves and fuse together with a blotch of blue remaining in center. Splash of blue transforms into blue drawing of early model car with rainbow. Car being driven by man on dirt road with grass, passing fences, flowers, rocks. Fade to car transformed to smaller style on a highway with posts in a scene with mountains in BG, trees in FG. Car transforms again to larger yellow model being driven in rustic setting with hills, trees, and small farmhouse. (The preceding auto scenes are animated). CU of full dashboard of an early model auto. CU of back seat, then rear of auto (license plates read 000 000- no state).CU's of side and front of same auto then fade to black. CU of spinning wheel of auto tire while camera moves in for ECU of black Chevrolet logo on hubcap. stock shot: kaleidoscope shot
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