Film and TV Technician (1957)

April 1957 HERE AND THERE Every film maker and technician, whatever his grade, who takes cinema seriously, should subscribe to, borrow, or steal the new American film magazine Film Culture. Its claim and desire is to advance the study " of a more profound understanding of the function and aesthetics of Cinema ". The first few numbers contain articles like " For a Universal Cinema" by Orson Welles (about censorship and stupid customs rules), articles by Joris Ivens, Hans Richter, two Synopses by Stroheim and reviews of world productions. In particular there is a splendid contribution by George Fenin on •' Motion Pictures and the Public," showing how desperate Hollywood is becoming with new public tastes and demands both at home and abroad. He thinks Hollywood is becoming " a spiritual desert in glorious technicolor ". Enigma " The enigma of film making is that it is at once a dictatorship and a democracy — the dictatorship of the creator who makes absolute his conception of how the script should be transferred to the screen; and the democracy of scores of highlyskilled technicians, who must work as a team, pooling their knowledge and experience, to make that transition from the script." — Billy Wilder in " Films and Filming ". Financed by Church The powerful Presbyterian Church in America, according to Dr. Ch. Leber in the " Kine ", has put up half a million dollars for an Eastmancolor Superscope feature titled Accused. Why has the church gone in for financing features? "We wanted to make an impact, and commercial cinema is still the most opinion-forming medium in the world," says Dr. Leber. The church is not asking to be associated with the film. It is being made by Film Productions International, a Hollywood company. " This picture doesn't preach anything," he explains. " The fact is the church has a story to tell, which it believes must be told. It deals with the problems of racial equality and the rights of selfdetermination ". Well, whether he FILM & TV TECHNICIAN STILL OF THE YEAR 59 Congratulations to Ken Danvers who has once again won " The Cinema's " Still of the Year Award, this time with the magnificent still reproduced above from the American film " The Pride and the Passion " calls it preaching or not it's certainly needed, especially in places like Alabama and South Africa. Lewis McLeod. NEWS FLASH Just as we were going to press we learned of the marriage of two stalwarts of the Editorial Section, Stan Hughes and Norma Bremson, daughter of E.C. member Sid Bremson. We wish them happiness and prosperity. Teehnirama Technicolor are the latest to sponsor a wide screen system. Teehnirama, as the system is called, employs standard 35mm. negative which moves horizontally through the camera exposing an eight perforation picture as in VistaVision. An anamorphic or CinemaScope type Technicolor release print made from the Teehnirama negative allows for maximum use of the available positive frame. (American Cinemato grapher).