Resources on film stock in Japan

[Aaron Gerow]

Joanne is right that talking to archivists might be a productive  
route. That reminded me that Itakura Fumiaki of the Film Center gave  
an interesting talk at the JASIAS about tinting and toning of film  
prints in the silent era with a representative of Imagica. He might be  
someone to contact too.

I should also note (not for Jasper, who already knows this) that there  
is a major reference book for film technology in Japanese: Nihon eiga  
gijutsushi (Nihon Eiga Terebi Gijutsu Kyokai, 1997). It has its  
drawbacks--it was written and edited by technicians, not professional  
historians, so there are a lot of typos, etc.--but it is a great place  
to start out. (My copy is back in the states, so I can't check it  
right now.)

For the 1910s, I would also recommend just leafing through Kinema  
Record. Kaeriyama and the gang were real technical geeks and published  
a lot of articles on the technical nitty-gritty of film.

For the postwar, the journal Eiga gijutsu (a Japanese equivalent to  
the Journal of the SMPTE), which began publication in 1948, should be  
a treasure trove for discussions of the transitions to color and  
widescreen.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Associate Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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