Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

Its Time to Face Up to the Price of Progress By GIO GAGLIARDI AT A MEETING held during the recent TOA-Tesma conventions, some very highranking motion picture industry engineers made some statements to the effect that today motion picture film had stored upon it a greater amount of information than the present-day motion picture theatre projection equipment is capable of deploying on the screen. These statements inferred that present day 35mm positive film, especially that which is printed down from larger negatives, could be blown up to the sizes required on our new large theatre screens without any danger of quality deterioration, if all the theatre projection elements could be made to operate at their theoretical peak of perfection. I his would be really very heartening news, if we could foresee any possibility of taking present-day equipment and, b\ modifying, strengthening, or rearranging it, attaining the perfection required to equal the quality of the film. But let us look over the staggering problems confronting the projection engineer at the present time. We all know that in order to produce the necessary picture brightness required for good presentation, a tremendous amount of light is required from the projection lamp. Unfortunately, an increase production of light on the film carries with it an increased amount of heat upon that same film. This heat causes the film to buckle and pin-cushion in the projector gate to such an extent that the entire area of the film frame can no be held inside the depth-of-focus limits of the projection lens. This causes certain sections of the picture on the screen to be almost always out of focus! Further complications are encountered because the amount of film deformation is not constant; it changes value during the entire time in which the picture is projected. This causes almost the entire picture to be out of focus during some part of the projection cycle. Since the entire problem is aggravated even further by the use of high-speed lenses which, because of their very nature, have extremely narrow limits of depth-of-focus, it can be seen that at best the projectionist can maintain only a partial focus over the entire field of the screen, and only an average focus during the open-bladed portion of the projection cycle. The tremendous enlargement required by the new screens are now demanding much smaller tolerances in the accuracy of film registration, film weave and film shake in the projectors. Projectors have been designed for the smaller screens and most of those in use cannot meet these new requirements of mechanical accuracy. OPTICAL LIMITATIONS Althought many new lenses have recently been announced by various manufacturers, it is well understood that present-day projector construction is antiquated enough to place very definite limitations on the design of really highspeed, high-resolution distributing lenses which should materially assist in the projection of good-quality pictures. If we consider all these problems carefully, we should see that all of them are pretty much interlocked one with the other. Poor design, or deterioration, of any one section of the projection train will nullify the improvements produced in others. It is quite evident that projectors, lamphouses, lenses and screens must be carefully and accurately designed and constructed if they are to fall within the close tolerances required for the high-quality projection of the new large pictures. The above discussion leads up to conclude that great quantity of our projection equipment is either being misused, or is entirely inadequate to meet the new conditions. These are rather cold and cruel “facts of life,” but they must be faced, and conquered, if we are to maintain our superiority over televised competition. If we accept as fact the thesis that standard 35mm positive reduced prints contain a great quantity of unused information, we should then proceed with the design of an ideal prejection system which would be able to exploit this film to its fullest extent. However, there exists a school of thought which claims that such absolute perfection in projection equipment cannot be attained commercially, and for that reason the use of larger-sized positive film in the projector gate is recommended, especially where huge picture sizes are considered. The large-area positive frame, since it would require considerably lower amounts of enlargements, would not demand such extreme accuracy in projector design, construction and operation. We all recognize the fact that motion picture exhibition is facing another crisis in its long and variegated career. Inequitable television competition has re tluced the proportion of the amusement dollar which formerly found its way into the motion picture theatre. The only weapons which can arm our industry against this competition is high quality. We must be able to offer the public a quality and sumptuousness of entertainment in our theatres which can never be equalled on the home television screen. All theatres must be capable of presenting the best product available with the highest-fidelity projection and sound. VARIETY AND CONFUSION To accomplish this goal we must give very serious thought to refurbishing and replacing equipment. However, for our own salvation it is extremely important that, when a program of replacement is considered, we should proceed careful 1\ and cautiously and not repeat any of our former mistakes. Many of the film companies have been 10 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 13, 1956