Microfilm recorders like the SC4020 were aimed at producing white on black or black on white images. However, most users were interested in producing coloured films as well. The possibilities for doing this were:

  • Modify the existing microfilm recorders so they can generate coloured films
  • Use the existing industry methods of generating coloured films.
  • Use different film stock that will generate white images on a coloured background

Modify Existing Microfilm Recorders

In 1968, Sandia Labs and Los Alamos worked with Stromberg Carlson to produce a different phosphor that was much closer to white that could be used on an SC4020 charactron tube. Then place a filter system between the charactron tube and the camera to allow coloured films to be made. The paper Color Film Output from Computer Runs gives a good description of the experimentation and final modified SC4020 that could generate coloured films. The Los Alamos Atom magazine in April 1971 had an article on Computer Generated Color Film.

Livermore produced a similar system by modifying a DD80A microfilm recorder (A Color Movie Facility).

The next generation of microfilm recorders such as the FR80 used a white phosphor tube and filter system attached to the camera to make colour films much easier to produce.

Generating Coloured Film from 3 Black and White Films

In June 1963, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory produced a film of Chuck Leith's Five-Level General Circulation Model in colour by generating three separate black and white films and getting Pacific Title to produce a coloured film from these. Whenever Leith showed the film, people were fascinated by the fact that it was in colour.

In 1975, Swift Film Productions generated the Finite Elements film from 3 negatives produced on the Atlas Computer Laboratory's SC4020 using the pin-registered camera.

Different Film Stock

Judah Schwartz and Harry Schey of the MIT Education Research Centre (ERC) worked with Harper & Row and Joseph Kaye & Co to produce a set of 10 white on blue short geometry films, each 2-3 minutes in length. These were followed by a set of Physics films, also white on blue.