Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

262 OCTOBER 1952 This department has been r.dded to Movie Makers because you, the reader, want it. We welcome it to our columns. This is your place to sound off. Send us your comments, complaints or compliments. Address: The Reader Writes, Movie Makers, 420 Lexington Ave., New York 17, N. Y. AVE ATQUE VALE Dear ACL: The reluctance with which I take leave of my job here at ACL headquarters is matched only by the difficulty of saying farewell to the many, many friends I have made as consultant for the League during the past four and a half vears. Working for and with you all has been a rich and rewarding pleasure. I could not have left my post here without expressing the deep satisfaction I have derived from it and my gratitude to you for your fine cooperation. Don C. Charbonneau, ACL New York City Thanks, Don, a great deal. . . . And to your legion of loyal friends we hasten to explain that this really is au revoir, and not farewell. Don is moving no farther away than 480 Lexington Avenue, where he will be employed by a 16mm. film producing unit. ... Be seeing you! BIRD IDENTIFIED Dear Mr. Moore: The bird pictured on page 244 of the September issue of Movie Makers is the roseate spoonbill of Florida, one of the most beautifully colored birds of North America. The color of its plumage ranges from white through pink to a vivid carmine; this, of course, led plume hunters in the early years of this century to come close to destroying this species completely. As recently as 1936 a census showed only 150 of these birds; but the spoonbills are now coming back strongly, due to the support of the Audubon Society. I have found this large wading bird in the vicinity of Cape Sable, Florida, where they feed on small fish and crustaceans found in the salt marshes. A flight of these great pink birds against a blue sky is an unforgettable sight. Warren A. Levett, ACL West Hartford, Conn. Dear Movie Makers: The bird you have pictured looks like a roseate spoonbill. It is a pink wading bird with a flat, spatulate bill, breeds on the Texas coast and also in southern Florida. It is a very beautiful creature in flight against a Kodachrome blue sky. In the same article (Disney's 4th), the author evidently omitted the name of one of the contributors to the film, Water Birds — my friend Dr. Myron Elliott, who used to live in D. C. but is now living in Florida. It is my guess that Dr. Elliott was probably the person who got the spoonbill picture you used on page 244. J. Donald Sutherland, ACL Washington, D. C. To both of these bird fanciers among our ACL membership, our gratitude for their interesting intelligence anent this little-known bird. . . . As for the missing Dr. Elliott, we feel sure that our author, Fred C. Ells, FACL, included all of the names of cameraman-contributors to Water Birds supplied him by the Disney office. Thus, if an injustice has been done, it was at other hands than ours. CORRECTION, PLEASE Dear Mr. Moore: Thank you for your courtesy in sending me the extra copies of September Movie Makers, in which there appeared my article, A Projection Timer. In reading it over, however, I was distressed to discover that you had written into it statements which I had not made and which, regretfully, are not true. These statements occur in my discussion of using the timer part of the mechanism to determine the length in seconds of scenes, sequences and, ultimately, of the entire film. The heart of these misstatements I now quote: "It is essential during this timing procedure to know that your projector is running at a true 16 frames per second. . . . Thus, your hookup for timing your film for scoring should include the electric clock, as well as the timer from which the times are read." Neither of these statements is correct. In the timing operation it makes not the slightest difference at what speed your projector is operating. And, since this is the case, addition of the electric clock to the timing procedure is meaningless and unnecessary. I hope you can see your way clear to stressing this point in a future issue of Movie Makers. John H. Wagner, ACL Chicago, 111. Author Wagner is correct on both counts. We did edit these statements into his article, and (as we now see) they are incorrect. We are glad to give him this public apology. Our reasoning was based on the fact (which is true) that when 400 feet of 16mm. film runs through a projector at 16 frames per second, the elapsed time is 1000 seconds; but when this same 400 feet of film runs through at 17 fps, for ex ample, the elapsed time is only 941 seconds. Thus, it had seemed to us that a film being timed for ultimate 16 frameper-second projection must actually be run during the timing operation at the desired 16 frame speed. Otherwise the end result would be out by 59 seconds. This would be the case, of course, if any form of conventional clock were used in computing the time total. However, Mr. Wagner's timer is not a conventional clock; it is simply a mechnical measuring device. Thought of in these terms, the operation of the timer becomes clear. As follows . . . Movement of the timer's second hand is determined entirely by revolutions of the projector's shaft, to which it is connected by a mechanical gear train. The gear train described and pictured by Mr. Wagner is such that for each 16 revolutions of the projector's shaft the timer's second hand will advance by 1 second. Since each single revolution of the projector shaft passes 1 frame of film, 16 revolutions will pass 16 frames, the measuring of which will be indicated on the timer by an advance of 1 second. Thus, it can make no possible difference whether this measuring is done in an elapsed time of 1 second or even 1 minute. Whenever 16 frames of film have passed through the projector, the timer will measure off another 1 second — Q.E.D. MAGNETIC LETTERS FOUND Dear Movie Makers: In connection with those magnetic title letters mentioned last month by John E. Closson, ACL, I thought it might aid some other readers if I called the Dale Deane store where Closson says he bought them. So here's my report. . . . These particular letters are no longer carried by the Dale Deane shop. But I did find that they are part of the Quixet Magnetic Titler kit and that they are manufactured by Quixet, Inc., 400 Linden Avenue, Dayton, Ohio. Incidentally, Mrs. Deane told me she had already received several letters of inquiry because of the Movie Makers mention. Just goes to show! Markley L. Pepper, ACL Denver, Colo. Dear Movie Makers: I don't know if these are the letters to which Author Closson referred in his interesting September story. But Quintex, Inc., 400 Linden Avenue, Dayton, Ohio, is a reliable manufacturer of magnetic title letters. In size, they offer them in %, 1 and l1/^ inches; in colors, they come white, yellow and green, and there are metal title boards supplied in proportion to each letter size. These are easy to align and the prices are reasonable. Hope this data will aid some of our readers. 0. S. Woods, ACL Brownsville, Texas Our thanks to League members Pepper and Woods for their helpful reports on this interesting product. That's the old ACL teamwork for you !