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222
The Kinematograph Year Book.
STEREOSCOPY
IN normal times there would have been a number of patents registered for various methods of producing motion pictures in some sort of stereoscopic relief. The war, however, has considerably curtailed the activities in this direction of our inventors. This does not mean that the search after this elusive quality has lessened, as a matter of fact it appears still to exercise a degree of fascination upon both technicians and exhibitors. The subject has been discussed at the B.K.S., at which one important circuit executive declared that even recent immature experiments had convinced him that they represented an advance almost comparable with that effected by sound.
There have, of course, been a number of methods by which the illusion of depth has been achieved in the motion picture, but all of them have involved the use of such cumbersome and expensive equipment as to be quite impracticable for u?e in the commercial kinema. That some form of stereoscopy will sooner or later be achieved is fairly certain — already certain shots in recent colour subjects have possessed the quality which suggests that it will be by means of the colour medium that stereoscopic films will eventually be rendered possible.
There seems to have been little further research in the subject undertaken by the American motion picture technicians, the only new contrivance reported being one that relies upon some sort of camera oscillation. In this particular case the method involves the fixing of the camera to one end of a set of movable arms by means of which it can be moved slowly back and forth during " takes," speed of movement being about eight seconds each way. The arms are adjusted to keep the principal object in the frame motionless by aiming the lens steadily at it.
Last year reference was made to a Russian system of stereoscopy invented by S. Ivanov, which, in its original form, consisted of a screen with two surfaces, the front comprising a frame with metal wires stretched fanwise against a rear surface which is of standard screen material. The talking device divides the image into two, each being photographed from separate viewpoints, which, during projection, correspond with the binocular vision of the spectator. Experimental films on this system had been considered satisfactory, but the cumbersomeness of the screen was an admitted handicap. This has now been simplified, and although technical details are lacking, it is claimed that the new screen gives a brighter picture with a reduction in the intensity of illumination previously required. Obviously, the Soviet film authorities believe the system is now commercially satisfactory, for preparations are in hand for the production at Mosfilm studios of a stereoscopic film of " Robinson Crusoe."
There have been no reports of further developments in the Polaroid method of attaining third dimension effect, but, in any event, the need for the wearing by the audience of polarised spectacles seems to rule out its adaptability for public stereoscopy, although the technique employed contains much that is of scientific interest to the research worker.