Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1929)

1204 Motion Picture News "Third Dimension" Lighting Produces All Colors on Four Circuit System Brings Out Complementaries of Red, Blue and Green hy Adding White Light — May Revolutionize Theatre Illumination and Design ANEW application of color lighting, producing effects the explanation of which are as mystifying to the expert as the results are to the beholder, has been developed by F. J. Cadenas, illuminating engineer of the < ieneral Electric Company. The discovery of new resources of lighting, which makes possible the production of an unlimited variety of colors and shades with a four-color system using, red. blue, green and clear lamps, will have a revolutionary effect on interior decoration and architecture, particularlv in the theatre and the motion picture studio, according to lighting experts who witnessed demonstrations given by .Mr. Cadenas at the recent convention of the Illuminating Engineering Society in Philadelphia. The first practical and commercial installation of this new lighting is be:ng completed in the Ballroom of the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn, N. Y., which will lie demonstrated to the Illuminating Engineers Society on the night of December 12. The ballroom will be opened to the public thereafter. Extracts from the description of this installation as prepared by Mr. Cadenas may be of interest in giving an idea of how the system is applied. ami may be applied to motion picture theatres, with certai necessary social provisions: The Hotel St. George Ballroom will have an unobstructed Hour area of 9.500 square feet, and a clear ceiling height above the floor of 21) feet 6 inches. There will be two tiers of balconies along the sides and back wall. The lighting system for the walls consists of a series of four separate and parallel coves fitted with vertically-pleated flutes in which are placed, both in the front and back of the flutes, clear lamps in various wattages equipped with color caps. The first or highest cove surrounding the four walls. 325 feet all together, will be located near the ceiling and will require approximately eleven lamps per foot, the lamps ranging frorri 50 to 200 waits. The ;ei ond cove surrounding only .1 walls, approximately 250 feet, will be in the balcony, while the third cove covering .} walU also about 250 running feel will be placed on the outside of the balcony railing. The fourth cove also covers 3 walls and has the same number of running feel as the third cove and will be placed under the balcon) ceiling to illuminate the por tion of the ballroom which will nol re ceive illumination from the mam ceiling. On the front wall will be mounted gradu .4 demonstration model of the new lighting system described in this article will be a feature of the display at the Craybar Booth at the Electrical Exposition which opens Monday, October 7, and continues through the week at the Grand Central Palace in ISetv York. The model was completed this iceek under the supervision of Mr. Cadenas, and will be capable of showing the actual application of the system to auditoriums, ballrooms, etc. ating flutes, ranging in size from two feet to 18 feet in height. The lighting system for the ceiling will be a series of five inverted troughs, ten feet wide and sixty feet long, placed symmetrically on 20-foot centers. These troughs will have sawtooth opening; along the sdies through which colored lights and shadows will be projected on the ceiling. In the bottom of the troughs will be roundels through which will be projected light in red, blue, green and clear. These roundels will be in groups of four and will be located along the center of the trough and spaced on 20foot intervals. The entire surface of the four walls and ceiling will be painted a flat white. Not a single decoration 01 fixture will be installed. BY a simple method of arrangement of the lamps of three colors and the clear lamps used, the operator can produce all colors and in a variety of designs which appear to have no limit. The system produces what has been termed the "third dimension in color." this being the complimentary of each of the three colored lamps used by adding white light, or light from the clear lamp. Mso all of the pastel shades of each color are released bj adding the white light. The lamps are arranged in combinations in vertically-pleated flutes, the lamps being placed in the front and back of tlic flutes. In the demonstration model .Mr. Cadenas used, the blue lamps were set in front, and arranged in back of the links were red. green and clear lamps. The fluting was set in a trough with a rounded cove at the hack. All lamps are concealed, the light seen being reflected on the white surfaces. Dimmer controls are used to vary the intensity of the light from the lamps to produce the different colors and shades By using the blue light in combination with white. Mr. Cadenas produces a true yellow, the complimentary, which appears as a "Gothic" above the fluting. In similar fashion, he produced the complimentaries of the other two colors used, by adding white light. Dawn and sunset effectare equallv easy to obtain and expert manipulation of the controls will produce all the effects of the Aurora Rorealis. "In fact." said Mr. Cadenas in his paper read before the society of Illuminating Engineers, "if we but knew how. a regular symphony of lights could lie produced, — here are the instruments for playing one which would be comparable in beauty and emotion with the greatest symphonies of music." The model used in demonstrating the "third dimensional lighting" for the reporter for this journal was small, but it sufficed to indicate the undreamed of possibilities that are o|>ened up to the theatre, and the .motion picture producer using color. ITider various combinations of the different colors with white, and with varying intensities of each, the range of colors defied enumeration, even a gray light, never before produced so far as is known, being introduced into the combinations. EQUALLY elastic in the hands of the operator is the production of designs formed by the reflected colors Light shadows that formed "Gothics," pyramids, and hourglass designs were traced in solid colors or in layers of colors. Fringes, stripes and shadows of various designs are added t othe predominating outline. The vehicle required to produce the colors and patterns is white plastered walls. The invention opens up a brand new field for the architect and designer, little imagination being required to visualize the rich store of new designs that will be evolved to employ the "third dimensional lighting" system to masses and forms of the most interesting and arresting character. The system adapts itself admirably to the modernistic style now so popular. and it is not unlikely that it will prove a factor in extending the scope of forms 11 iw used in that style. Since bare white walls, with designs only for the troughs or coves necessary, the invention may well develop the means for complete remodeling of older theatres now out of date, without structural alteration of the auditoriums.