"Oklahoma!" Printing Operation in the Todd-AO Mark III Printer

Benny Grinsewitz loading raw stock into the Mark III printer.

The American Optical Company has the responsibility of printing the release prints of the motion picture "Oklahoma!". In order that this printing may have the closest supervision, it is planned that, at least for the initial stages, this printing will be done in the Research Center in Southbridge. The wet processing of the print film will be done at the Consolidated Film Industries Laboratory in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

It is planned that the first group of answer prints will be done by Consolidated as soon as the negative is cut. These will be done on their present step contact printer and will be subject to the R&H group's approval as to editing, color balance and exposure. While this is being done, our personnel will be working closely with Consolidated so that all information acquired during this operation can be immediately transferred to Southbridge.

After the above answer print is approved, the negative will be shipped to Southbridge, and we will make the final Answer Prints with all corrections incorporated. Once this is approved, we go into production on release prints. All answer prints and release prints will be on 70mm. film.

Our answer printing and release printing must be done on a 24 hour/day and 7 day/week schedule in order to meet the time requirements. It is planned that all of our activities will be ready for production by March 1, 1955.