As documented by Cole Porter in Silk Stocking, fads in motion picture production resulted in a technical standards of Technicolor, CinemaScope, and Stereophonic Sound. The following chart shows selected examples of actual technology used by various motion pictures.

Three-strip process IV Technicolor is a system of color cinematography using three synchronized monochrome negative films for the primary colors red, green, and blue. A Technicolor camera had a single lens in front of a beam-splitter which directed the separated colors to their appropriate negative. In post-processing, the three monochrome negatives were combined, using color filters, into a single full color negative. Because the three strips were carefully isolated single colors, the final result contained hyper-realistic, saturated levels of color. In common usage Technicolor often means colors which are bright, showy, garish, or excessively vividly.

Eastmancolor refers to specific film stock provided by Kodak. Anscocolor was another widely used specific film stock provided by the Ansco Division of General Aniline and Film Corporation. Often "Eastmancolor" is used generically to mean any single original color negative process. Other single original color negative processes include Anscocolor, DeLuxe Color, Metrocolor, Pathécolor (II), and WarnerColor. Single original color negative processes may or may not have used the same film stock as either Anscocolor or Eastmancolor.

CinemaScope is an anamorphic process which compresses an image during filming onto a standard 35mm frame and then uncompresses it when projected. The compressed anamorphic image fits on a standard 35mm frame with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The uncompressed CinemaScope image has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

The technical specification for CinemaScope also included three-channel sound (three channel stereo in chart below). The three channels corresponded to matching sets of three speakers in many theaters. The invention of multi-channel magnetic tape occurred chronologically with CinemaScope. Recording three channel sound at time of creation was relatively feasible. Major difficulties with three-channel stereo were encountered in post-production and distribution. Three magnetic strips, one for each channel, would be placed on the film stock and sound recorded at print copy time. Many theaters could not afford and/or resisted conversion from monophonic to three-channel stereo. Converted theaters incurred additional operational expenses, such as additional audio head cleaning. The three stripe audio on film stock was subject to excessive wear, mandating more frequent production print replacement. At some point optical two-channel stereo audio tracks were also added to production prints. The optical audio tracks used the same technology as the film itself, and hence the incremental cost for optical audio was low. All of these factors contributed to demise a three-channel stereo on CinemaScope. In many cases, audio masters were created with three channels, but promptly mixed down to monophonic in post-processing to save costs in the production cycle.

Despite the Cole Porter song to the contrary, CinemaScope and Technicolor never existed simultaneously in the same motion picture. Both processes seized control of the original negative in way incompatible with the other process. It is theoretically possible to design a combined CinemaScope-Technicolor camera and process, but the result would be between four and nine times more complex, and hence more expensive than either process alone. Because of technical complexity and cost, there was never a commercially successful execution of combined CinemaScope-Technicolor.

By 1954, most color films made in the United States were being shot in Eastmancolor or Anscocolor. The Eastmancolor single-strip process was coarser-grained and less chromatically saturated, but much cheaper and therefore more appealing to studios. The new widescreen systems could not be used with Technicolor's three-strip process.