Below is a quick summary about Cyan Tracks, which will affect most people in the postproduction and exhibition side of the film industry. If you need a more in depth look at the issues, then I have provided a number of links where you can obtain more information.
In the next few years the way soundtracks are printed on film is going to change. Instead of being a dark purple colour, printed using silver and other nasty chemicals to being a ‘cyan’ colour, which is printed without the use of silver. There are a number of reasons for the introduction of these changes. The main to are firstly it finds away of getting rid of the nasty chemicals before there is government legislation against them. This means that the whole industry has time to introduce the necessary changes without any pressure. The second advantage, is also related to the environmental issues is that not having to print using silver means that there is less chance of errors during printing which means less film needs to be scrapped during the processing.
From the audiences point of view there is no different in the sound and projectionists, once the equipment has been altered, should notice any difference from their point of view.
The new cyan tracks do need the exciter lamps on projectors to be changed to red readers and the main cinema suppliers can supply the required.
Cyan Track Links:
- Atlab Group – This is a very intersting site with a lot of technical information about film and cinema.
- Calling All Theaters – : Are you red reader ready from Motion Picture imaging
- Dye Track – is organized by the Dye Track Committee, a group of motion picture executives dedicated to replacing silver-applicated analog 35 mm soundtracks with pure cyan dye tracks
- Dye Tracls – from the Agfa website.
- Google Search – for Cyan Track information.
- Jaxlight (USL Inc) – Quality cinema products equipment, who deal with the Jaxlight LED Exciter Lamp
- Kodak Cinema Notes – on Cyan Film Tracks
- Projectionist Info – A brief overview of Cyan Tracks etc
- Red Readers, Silver, High-Magenta, and Cyan Analog Sound Tracks—Review and Status (pdf) – Details on Cyan Tracks – more details are available at on the dolby site