The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN July-August, 1952 A FILM TECHNICIAN'S NOTEBOOK Compiled by A. E. Jeakins T^HE production of motion picture images on J magnetic tape is a subject which you will be hearing and reading about a great deal from now on. Some idea of its possible impact on the motion picture industry is contained in an editorial on the subject by W. R. Wilkerson in his trade paper, Hollywood Reporter, part of which follows here : " Want to do a little guessing on the TV-motion picture problem as it pertains to production, distribution and exhibition? " Here's a picture of things to come, part of which is already past the experimental stage, the remainder to be put on the planning boards before another year rolls by. " In the not too distant future, theatres all over the world will be able to turn on a switch and receive their picture programmes, via closed air waves, broadcast direct to their screens from the production stages here in Hollywood, a main broadcasting plant elsewhere, or many others in important distribution sectors. " There won't be any projection booths, there won't be any film exchanges with their shipping departments and film examinations because there won't be any film. The motion pictures of tomorrow will be on tape and the exhibitor will get his shows, not out of cans via American Express, but from the ether waves. Instead of running a single picture for a day or week or longer, he will have a different picture every two or three hours and every theatre within his part of the country will be running the same programme. " Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Half of it's guess, the other half real. " Tape recording of sound and images is already here. It's just a question of perfecting the medium. Once that's perfected, it's then only a question of working out the details of closed circuits for TV and lining up the theatres, which will, of course, eliminate quite a few, and get them equipped for the reception of their pictures over the air to complete the whole scientific revolt." The production of motion pictures on magnetic tape, about which Mr. Wilkerson wrote, moved a step nearer to reality last month, when Bing Crosby Enterprises Inc., in Hollywood, demonstrated for the Press its electronic filming system. This is a method by which both picture and sound are recorded magnetically on tape for motion picture theatres and television. At present, the Crosby development is concerned mainly with its application to television — a business in which Crosby Enterprises is already pretty well established, using conventional motion picture methods. In the demonstration, a new magnetic recording: head capable of absorbing pictures, sound and colour, on a single plastic tape, took pictures off a home television receiver of a motion picture film being televised. The head transmitted the images onto a quarter-inch magnetic tape for rebroadcast later. Images in the rebroadcast were fuzzy but comparable to results obtained with early TV receivers. " No larger than half-a-doUar " The inventors, John T. Mullin and Wayne R. Johnson, who developed the new magnetic recording head under the supervision of Frank Healy, head of Bing Crosby Enterprises' electronics division, believe their development is the forerunner of filmless portable motion picture cameras of the future, even though their laboratory pilot model is too bulky and unwieldy for general studio use. Their new " camera " is the culmination of two years of research and development. Actually, it does not " take a picture " in the sense of photography. Instead, it utilises a television camera as its " eye " and through a complicated electronics system, transfers the electronic impulses to magnetic tape, which can be played and replayed indefinitely with no loss in image or sound quality. In the demonstration for newsmen, the motion pictures recorded magnetically were run off from an ordinary roll of tape commonly used in magnetic sound recording, and manufactured by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. As the tape passed a tiny magnetic receiving " lens " no larger than a half-dollar, recognisable images of men and women and airplanes appeared on the screen of a television set, to which the pickup-projecting unit was connected by wire. Mullin and Johnson believe their development of a filmless camera foreshadows a great change in modern motion picture production technique, because the cost of tape is one-tenth that of film, and the new method eliminates all need of the costly and time-consuming processing of photographic film. The magnetic tape, on which the images and sound are recorded, requires no processing and may be played back immediately. Some motion picture directors see tremendous advantages in the new method. For instance, just