Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

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64 A. S. HowEUv AND J. A. DUBRAY [J. S. M. P. B. in screen size and proportions cannot be satisfactorily brought about by reduction of the picture area, but involves, on the contrary, its increase. It would perhaps require too much time and be too tedious to enumerate here all the quite obvious technical reasons which lead to this conclusion. What is perhaps less well known are the problems that the directors of photography encounter in that all-important phase of their work which relates to the lighting of motion picture sets. The square, or nearly square, shape of the picture area has been the cause of building sets of height disproportionate with their width and depth. The back lighting effects, which are so essential to a rendition of pleasing roundness and relief in the finished picture, and which are obtained by placing spotlights at strategical points high up on the set, have always presented serious problems to the cinematographer, due to the excessive height of the sets themselves. On many occasions the so-called back lightings are nothing less than top lightings which have to be corrected with painstaking and difficult manipulations of the floor lighting system. The architects of the screen are also confronted with serious and, we might say, unnecessary problems in the design of the composition of the decorative schemes. And so on down the line through the legion of those responsible for the artistic presentation of pictures, the square shape of the screen is considered as a stifling curse which limits the possibilities of expressing beauty and harmony. The demand for a change in the proportions of the screen is not a mere desire to give the public a "bigger show," as has been stated at times, but is, in our estimation, one of the most striking and significant steps in the evolution of the motion picture art. PROPOSED FILM DIMENSIONS AND PROBLEMS PERTAINING TO THEIR ADOPTION It is very obvious that an alteration in the proportion and size of the motion picture image creates complex problems which involve all branches of the motion picture industry and which are of such nature that they demand the close attention and cooperation of all allied industries. The reaching of definite conclusions in regard to this new development must follow a very definite plan, worked out in complete detail as to the technical problems involved, and with a perfect understanding of the economic condition created. It is necessary that the plan can be met not only by the motion picture industry as a producing unit, but also by the exhibitors