Spoiler alert: there is a red shirt.

August 28, 2012 4:22 PM

Jeff Altman has posted several stunning examples of his grandfather's Kodachrome 40 8mm home movies.

Previously with less, but now with more!!

Also worth seeing: 1922 Kodachrome Film Test, with more info and previously, too.

posted by 1f2frfbf (14 comments total)

Any footage of his dad flipping him like a cheese omelette? Oh, wrong Jeff Altman.
posted by davebush at 4:35 PM on August 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

These were a lovely reminder for me to look up when Home Movie Day is. Sweet! I haven't missed it yet.
posted by knile at 4:37 PM on August 28, 2012

I call shenanigans: Mannes and Godowsky were experimenting with color movies about 1922, but they were still a decade and more from the "Kodachrome" process.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 4:44 PM on August 28, 2012

AsYouKnow Bob: Here's a Kodak blog post about the 1922 footage, which apparently was shot on 2-color Kodachrome.
posted by zsazsa at 4:49 PM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thanks for that.

First tests on the Two-Color Kodachrome Process were begun in late 1914. Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives. The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues."

So, ok, "Kodachrome" in the sense of "Kodak's proprietary name for color movies", but not in the sense of "the reversal process perfected by 'God' and 'Man' in the early '30s". (Heck, they were still in short pants in 1914 when the first tests began.)

Thanks for clearing that up for me.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 5:53 PM on August 28, 2012

Ahh crap, that Kodak blog post was supposed to be the "more info" link. Sorry folks.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 6:00 PM on August 28, 2012

I look at 1962 Las Vegas at night in the first video and don't understand how I can't be from there since it's so obviously how I feel on the inside.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:15 PM on August 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

wow, old disneyland was really low rent.

This link, though, is rarefied stuff. Thanks!
posted by absalom at 7:25 PM on August 28, 2012

These are really beautiful! The well-done (but not overdone) color correction makes it feel *real*.
posted by nosila at 8:36 PM on August 28, 2012

The first link sez these are 16mm films, not 8mm, which makes more sense, as these are far better looking than any of the 8mm home movies I watched as a kid in the 60's.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:57 AM on August 29, 2012

These are fantastic.
posted by rotifer at 6:57 AM on August 29, 2012

Very interesting. I dig the SF one (http://vimeo.com/6337228) - turning the streetcar around by hand! And I think it's Ken Cosgrove getting on about 1:04.
posted by jetsetsc at 9:29 AM on August 29, 2012

Gorgeous! Also note that some of the signs (like the Silver Slipper) are now at the "Neon Graveyard," which opens to the public in October.
posted by J-Do at 10:49 AM on August 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

jetsetsc - That's a cable car, and they still turn them by hand!
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 4:35 PM on August 29, 2012