William Thomas Crespinel (9 July 1890 – 19 June 1987) was the inventor of a
bipack
In cinematography, bipacking, or a bipack, is the process of loading two reels of film into a camera, so that they both pass through the camera gate together. It was used both for in-camera effects (effects that are nowadays mainly achieved via o ...
process, which allowed any cinematic camera to shoot color film. In 1932 he developed
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...
.
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Biography
He was born in Weymouth, England
Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third l ...
on 9 July 1890. He experimented with early color photography as a teenager. In 1906 he joined Kinemacolor
Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson and, more directly, Ed ...
. In 1932 he developed Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...
and started a company to sell the process, making himself president. He retired as president of Cinecolor in 1948. He died in 1987 in Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservat ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crespinel, William Thomas
1890 births
1987 deaths
People from Weymouth, Dorset
20th-century British inventors