Significance of technology

As well as being a pioneer filmmaker, George Albert Smith was also an innovative inventor and film processor. He bought chemicals for processing from James Williamson, cameras and other apparatus from Alfred Darling and sold his films around Europe and America with help from Charles Urban. Smith also helped develop the technology to facilitate his experimentation with editing techniques and special effects.

Smith transformed St Ann's Well Garden into a 'film factory'. In 1897 he turned the Pump House into a space for developing and printing film and, in 1899, he built a glass house film studio. Around this time, Smith began commercial film processing and clients included Charles Goodwin Norton, war correspondent John Benett-Stanford and the Warwick Trading Company.

In 1903, Smith stopped making films and began work on developing a colour film process. Charles Urban bought the rights to Kinemacolor and employed Smith to make it a success. Smith discovered that an additive process using red and green could create a colour image and thus Kinemacolor became the first commercially viable colour film process. Kinemacolor was premiered in 1908 and was demonstrated in Paris and New York. It was a huge success. In 1914, however, a patent dispute with William Friese-Greene led to its collapse and the end of Smith's film career.