There was a panic circa 1980 about the longevity of color cinema film. Martin Scorsese pointed out the cultural loss but it was also a big dollar and cents loss because home video was on its way as a way to turn old movies into cash.
People looked at quite a few different answers, including copying the movies and separating them into three films, one for each color, but the problem was simply solved when people discovered you can greatly extend the life of dyes by storing them in the freezer.
You have to keep them out of light also. Conversely, high temperatures accelerate aging. I have a room in my house (an old farmhouse with uncontrolled humidity) which is very bright and somewhat intemperate (and also has a lot of indoor wildlife) and I’ve found prints made with fugitive dyes fade badly in six months — I didn’t get mad instead I use it for accelerated aging tests, I make two prints and store one in the dark and put the other in the wall.
People looked at quite a few different answers, including copying the movies and separating them into three films, one for each color, but the problem was simply solved when people discovered you can greatly extend the life of dyes by storing them in the freezer.
You have to keep them out of light also. Conversely, high temperatures accelerate aging. I have a room in my house (an old farmhouse with uncontrolled humidity) which is very bright and somewhat intemperate (and also has a lot of indoor wildlife) and I’ve found prints made with fugitive dyes fade badly in six months — I didn’t get mad instead I use it for accelerated aging tests, I make two prints and store one in the dark and put the other in the wall.
There is a book about this stuff at
http://wilhelm-research.com/