FilmIndia (1945)

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F I L M I N D I A January, 1945. in almost the same way by a number of companies at the same time, I am led to believe that crass stupidity is a communal virtue amongst our producers. Social pictures of the Bombay Talkies type have been so thoroughly exploited by different producers that their novelty and flavour have been absolutely lost. Had it not been so " Hamari Baat " should have done well at the box-offices. Indian screen writers carry little originality in their nuts. Add to this unfortunate circumstance, the unimaginative producer in a hurry to make some quick money and imagine what happens to an industry which is supposed to create a novel and highly artistic product every time. Stories repeat themselves till they get on one's nerves. The England-returned boy flirting with a modern society butterfly and ultimately falling into the waiting arms of the patient suffering house-wife is a theme oft seen and umpteen times multiplied on the screen. Such stereotyped themes become intensely boring and unfortunately the penalty for the stupidity of the producers has to be paid by the average film-goer, who goes to the picture house primarily for some mental relaxation and returns home more bored with life than before. I refuse to believe that there is a general scarcity of themes and subjects in this fast moving world where new human drama is created every minute. But our producers seem to be satisfied with their old-fashioned Daves and Madhoks who lay the same egg from month to month and hatch the same old boring plot. A ridiculously surprising instance is that of " Samrat Ashok ". Two producers are claiming to produce this subject and strangely enough with the same lead, Chandramohan. When our producers haven't brains enough to give us different themes in social stories, what sort of Ashoks shall we get from these two different producers with outstanding historical incidents as a common heritage to both ? I often wonder whether our film industry has come to the end of its resources in motion picture themes or whether our producers are becoming greater fools than they were before. FAIR DEAL TO TECHNICIANS! During the present war almost every one has made profits — producers, artistes, carpenters, distributors, exhibitors and even the daily-wage extras. Only our film technicians have been left out of all profits. On the other hand, they have had to work overtime all through these five years on disproportionate salaries and without overtime payment. Cameramen and recordists are considered as members of the superior film services and as such it is considered insulting to pay them overtime charges. Recently I carefully examined a year's work-record of a technical unit consisting of a cameraman and a recordist. I did not worry about their several assistants, because they were paid overtime charges. But the recordist and the cameraman, who were supposed to contribute 2,304 hours of work during the whole year had actually given 3,264 hours of work, i.e. 960 hours Il^ttHgilk calling! Faster, higher 'flying planes mean new lens problems. Kodak's new glass, twice as fast as the fastest lens previously used, is today one factor responsible for effective aerial photography and bombing. NEW RARE-ELEMENT GLASS DESTROYS LEGEND OF "GERMAN SUPREMACY" IN LENS MAKING ^ERMANY has enjoyed a reputation for world leadership in making lenses — a basic ingredient of which has always been sand. But, as so often happens, reputation outlived performance. Long before the war began, Kodak optical research was developing lenses superior to any ever made by anybody, anywhere. And now, for the first time. Kodak is making optical glass not from sand but of "rare-elements'* — tantalum, tungsten and lanthanum . . a glass with greater fig//* be tiding ability . . which means a lens that can have less curvature and give much better definition at the picture edges. A lens, in fact, which gives greater speed without loss of definition and covering power. FASTER, FARTHER, CLEARER Planes are now being supplied with the new aerial lens which is twice as fast and gets pictures of better quality, with the same size flash bomb, at a greater (and therefore safer ) height. For special bombsights, which have shown the enemy the bitter Pencil's image shows light* bending superiority oj Kodak's new glass (below) over old type optical glass (above ) — both havin g I h e *ame dispersirm. meaning of "high altitude precision bombing" most of "'the optics" are made by Kodak. Kodak also makes 29 of the most complex types of optical systems for fire control (the sighting of guns) including the famous height finder for anti-aircraft. Today these new optical elements, which needed several years to perfect, are present in many cameras and instruments in the service of democracy. PHOTOGRAPHIC WRONG DOERS: No 1 " THE MAN WH0'S U' NOT ON THE LEVEL He's guilty of camera tilt, truly a photographic crime in these days of film scarcity — for it means precious negatives wasted. The camera must be held level ( and kept steady too, especially for exposures of 1, 25 sec. and longer) if the best — and the most — is to be got out of available film. Other photographic misdeeds to be avoided are forgetting to wind the film on, focusing and exposing negligently, composing badly and keeping the lens dirty. *</rri£ OPIUMS Serving human progress through Photography, ' KODAK LTD. (Incorporated in En|land> BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . LAHORE • MADRAS K. 4944 Filmindia January 45.