Rainbow Dance
- Studio
- General Post Office Film Unit
Synopsis
A dancing businessman (in live action) is silhouetted in changing colored backgrounds. The message: "The Post Office Savings Bank puts a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for you."
Characters
Businessman
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Len Lye
Producing
- Producer
- Basil Wright, Alberto Cavalcanti
Writing
- Writer
- Len Lye
Animation
- Animator
- Len Lye
Music
- Music
- Tony's Wife (Rico's Creole Band)
- Title Music
- Walter Leigh (uncredited)
Editing
- Editor
- Jack Ellitt (Synchronization)
Crew
- Cinematography
- Jonah Jones
- Camera
- Frank Jones
- Sound Editing
- Jack Ellitt
- Dancer
- Rupert Doone
Production notes
Commissioned by the Post Office Savings Bank in Great Britain.
Director Len Lye's innovations for this advertisement included exposing three separate negatives and almost continuous use of a traveling matte. Black and white footage (using black and white backdrops) was "colorized" in the laboratory by manipulating the red, green and blue matrices (separate strips of film) of the Gasparcolor three-color separation system.
Lye's development of the "trick technique" of changing colors, which he first used in this cartoon, later became common in commercials and credit titles (such as those in the James Bond movie series).
Dancer Rupert Doone appears as a silhouette performing various actions against stylized backgrounds, and cartoon drawings are combined with live action. At the time, this was an astonishingly original way to make a colour film- and Lye saw it as an opportunity to transform "realism" into colour "hieroglyphics."
The film, sponsored by John Grierson's GPO Film Unit, had an enthusiastic premiere at the 1936 Venice Film Festival.
Director Len Lye's innovations for this advertisement included exposing three separate negatives and almost continuous use of a traveling matte. Black and white footage (using black and white backdrops) was "colorized" in the laboratory by manipulating the red, green and blue matrices (separate strips of film) of the Gasparcolor three-color separation system.
Lye's development of the "trick technique" of changing colors, which he first used in this cartoon, later became common in commercials and credit titles (such as those in the James Bond movie series).
Dancer Rupert Doone appears as a silhouette performing various actions against stylized backgrounds, and cartoon drawings are combined with live action. At the time, this was an astonishingly original way to make a colour film- and Lye saw it as an opportunity to transform "realism" into colour "hieroglyphics."
The film, sponsored by John Grierson's GPO Film Unit, had an enthusiastic premiere at the 1936 Venice Film Festival.