Business screen magazine (1946)

Feed hack BiMMss ScRLLN iDiNiiiiis Howard Zuckcrman, author of "Videotape Cassettes: the end of the beginning" (Feb. 1971 ) as "an outspoken missionary of videotape in all its diverse forms." The description is apt. His article reminds me of nothing so much as a lub-thuniping e\angelist on the hallelujah circuit warning the great unwashed that they had better be saved before it is too late. But lefs slow down the flow of rhetoric long enough to analyze some of the unqualified assertions about the glories of videotape \ is-avis what is portrayed as an all-butforgottcn medium, motion picture film. The article predicts that videotape will replace chemical photography in many of its basic applications on a widespread scale within three to five years. This claim has been flying about for at least ten or twelve years. I remember being warned against buying a film camera in 1962 because it would soon be obsolete. Hundreds of thousands of feet later, it was traded in on a new camera — again. I'm afraid, an obsolescent film camera. Let's put the prediction of the demise of films down for a call-up in February. 1974, and again in 1976. To be on the safe side, let's put it down for 1980. The article states that everything done in magazines can be done right now with videotape. I don't quite kni>w what that means or what its significance might be, but how about comparing videotape not with magazines (or hieroglyphics) but with a comparable methiHl of comnuinicalion. lilms. 1 recently completed an industrial documentary on the subject of solid waste disposal. It was filmed at fifteen locations in ten stales in ten shooting days, including travel, by one cameraman, with three additional locations covered by others. Could that have been done using videotape? Not done well or inexpensively— just done? Proponents of videotape talk of speed in processing. But how about li^^ai DaLllt ScfMn Co., Inc. Wirtm. Indian* 46580 Da-Lite Senior Electrol' screen checks in to stay at three Holiday Inns. Holiday Inns, Inc., known as "The World's Innkeeper"* is taking additional steps for their guests' convenience, by installing Da-Lite Senior Electro! slide and movie screens in selected meeting rooms. Da-Lite now offers 4 electrically operated screen models, ranging in size from 50" to 20' square, all designed for easy installation on wall or ceilings. For complete information and the name of a Da-Lite AV specialist near you, write Dept. BS the speed of transporting a color videocamera and recorder up a narrow ladder to the top of a fi\e-stoty copper reduction facilit\ in Utah, then onto an airplane and into the seat of a bulldozer at a Los Angeles landfill on the same day? They talk of economy. Having worked in both the videotape and film media, I find that, when ail costs arc taken into account, the advantages arc on the side of film. The article mentions "■computerized editing ... a simple one-pushof-thc-button affair." Beautiful. .\fter the crew returns with the tapes from fifteen locations. I'd love to see which magic button is pressed to put all the bits and pieces in the proper sequence. As for the market for videotapes, many persons seem to share a dream in which Americans will pay billions of dollars to have little program gems all their own to play over and over again on their own TV sets (equipped with a tape playback costing more than a 16 mm film projector). I would ask: what shows are so desirable that they can generate that kind of market? Getting back to that film on si>lid waste disposal, it is now being distributed (fifty prints) to television stations for public service showings. Track records for the Industry on Panulc series of which it is a part indicate about 200 showings may be expected. Two hundred showings on TV. then unlimited circulation to clubs, schools and other non-theatri-' cal outlets. Can the cassette people offer something better? What are their outlets? Which type of playback equipment is universally available? \N hat specifically are the costs' In short, just how do I distribute m\ industrial via videotape to achieve, results better than those that can be had with film? I don't want ti> hcai. about future possibilities — this (ilm has to be distributed now. Arthur lodge Chapp.iqu.i. N.Y \ i ilitiir's nolt: Mr lodge is an independent film priKlueer. Ncx: month, we will carry Mi /.uckcrman's reply. t ■nt I