NIKFI two-color process(1931–c.1941)

At NIKFI ((НИКФИ/ Scientific Research Institute of Cinema and Photography), a laboratory dedicated to the development of color film systems was set up in February 1931, not long after the Institute became operational, in the latter months of 1930. Located in Moscow, the aim of the lab was for the USSR to achieve greater autonomy across various technical areas of cinema and photography, especially in the manufacture and processing of film. The lab was led by Natan Ovechkis (main specialist), Nikolai Fedorov (head of the lab) and Nikolai Agokas. The first report on the work of the lab was published in December 1931 (Skavronskii, Agokas & Fedorov, 1931). Initially, NIKFI researchers carried out experiments using foreign-made film products and were leaning towards adopting a subtractive two-color process similar to those developed by German companies (such as the Ufacolor process). Highly confident at the time of the 1931 report, the authors mentioned they had ordered a double-coated print film from a new film manufacturer (later named Svema) based in Shostka, Ukraine, and were in talks with Soiuzkino (Союзкино, the Soviet state film production group) regarding the production of a series of color short films. 

Ultimately, the double-coated print film stock was imported from Germany (Agfa Dipo film), as was the negative (Agfa Bipack film) – both products used for the German Ufacolor process. Extensive research efforts towards developing a homegrown bipack film at NIKFI apparently failed to move beyond the experimental stage (Kolosov & Kuznetsov, 1937). In addition to Agfa Bipack, the Soviets also used Eastman Kodak Bipack – on Artek (1937), for example (Maiorov, 2016). Another obstacle the Soviets faced, stemmed from the development of the technology required for toning. It was designed from scratch at NIKFI, and a model that could be run under studio conditions was eventually built by Fedor Provorov (Ovechkis, 1936).

In the end, the team moved to the commercial production stage not with Soiuzkino, but with its competitor, the Mezhrabpomfilm studios in Moscow. Fedor Provorov, an architect by training who joined NIKFI in 1931, became head of Mezhrabpomfilm’s color lab, technical director for color shoots and also performed duties as a camera operator. Together with director Nikolai Ekk and assistant operator Georgii Reisgof, Provorov presented an experimental film, Karnaval tsvetov (Carnival of Flowers), to the general public in September 1935. The film brought together, according to the film’s narrator, the “successes and failures” of color rendering. The film opened with demonstrations of “static color”, with reproductions of painted canvases (portraits of the country's leaders, genre scenes, landscapes), sculptures on colored backgrounds and posters. The film went on to present “color in movement”: beginning with military manoeuvers, sports and a May Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square (including a close-up of a red flag flying against a sky above the Kremlin); which were then followed by Labour Day night-time illuminations, and, finally, some folk dance performances.

The final part of Karnaval tsvetov, “Autumn in the South”, was shot in Georgia. It featured alternating close-ups and general shots, with an emphasis on blues and oranges: sea, sky, mandarin picking and sunset. Cinematographer Aleksandr Golovnia published a negative review, criticizing the film for its lack of depth and relief, its “all-pervading aniline tints” and the omnipresence of red and green [sic] tones (Golovnia, 1935). 

Karnaval tsvetov was made as a test for the production of the first color feature film by the same team, Grunia Kornakova, which was released in June 1936. Sixty prints were reportedly printed in color on the only color printing machine existing in the USSR, at the rival studios' laboratory, Mosfilm. In spite of their public acclaim, these two-color films received little support from the state film industry's governing body because the development of the three-color method was prioritized at that time (Cavendish, 2016). After making a short documentary on the Artek children's camp, Provorov and his collaborators were reassigned to Mosfilm.

The NIKFI two-color process continued to remain in use until 1941, mainly at Mezhrabpomfilm’s successor Soiuzdetfilm and Mostekhfilm studios, but with minimal resources for producing short non-fiction and animated films. Related two-color technology was also in limited use in the Kiev and Leningrad film studios (Deriabin, 2002; Cavendish, 2021). From 1937 onwards, Eliazar Rozenfeld became the principal in charge, while pursuing a thesis in photographic chemistry at NIKFI. He worked on developing alternative reagents, in particular to find a replacement for uranyl nitrate, which was used in the toning process and was prohibitively expensive to import. He also developed a strengthener to compensate for defects at the various stages of processing, as well as a weakener (Luchanskii, 1939: pp. 41–4). 

In 1938, in collaboration with the Moscow Newsreel Studios, Soiuzdetfilm also produced a film featuring a culture parade Tsvetushchaia molodost (Blooming Youth) for the twentieth anniversary of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League), and two short films on the monuments of Samarkand, Registan and Pamiatniki èpokhi Timura (Monuments to Timur) for the educational film studios Mostekhfilm. Konek-Gorbunok (The Little Humpbacked Horse) (1941) seems to have been one of the last ambitious productions shot using this process in the USSR. The film was released with only five prints in August 1941 – it was distributed again in 1943.

NIKFI and the State Committee for Cinematography both remained ambivalent about this two-color process. In principle, it was considered unsuitable for rendering the full range of colors, and it was deemed necessary to be replaced by a three-color process. Nonetheless, from a pragmatic point of view, it was the only Soviet-produced process that had thus far enabled color films to be produced.