Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

162 JUNE 1953 screen biographies, he is planning to film the life of the erratic artist Paul Gauguin in the authentic locations of Paris and Tahiti. The necessary capital is at hand; and James Agee, former Time movie critic and screenwriter, is penning a screenplay based on Noa Noa, the artist's own account of his Tahitian years. Bradley hopes to cast his old friend Charlton Heston (who played his first role before a Bradley camera in 1941 as Peer Gynt) in the part of the French Impressionist. Never one to do things by halfway measures, the dynamic filmer plans to make the story not only in two locales, but in two film media, two languages (English and French) and in some one of the new wide-screen processes — ■ probably CinemaScppe. Although Bradley never muddies his movies with the vagaries of avant gardism, he appreciates the eloquence of strong symbols in his films, as evidenced by the effective montages in Caesar. The Gauguin story will utilize black and white film to suggest the drabness of the painter's life in Paris, while the Tahitian sequences will be interpreted in dimensional color film to indicate the full realization of the artist's talents in the Pacific Eden. Whatever the complications of working in wide-screen, you may be sure that David Bradley will solve them with the same robustness and assurance, perseverance and patience, freshness and originality which have characterized his endeavors ever since he called the shots on Oliver Twist in 1940. ACL annual meeting [Continued from page 153] 202 magnetic projector. Along with this equipment the same company established a film striping service known as Soundstripe. The 202 projector was priced at $699, Soundstriping at Sy2 cents per foot. Both were immediately popular in the amateur film field — and have built up increasingly since then in amateur acceptance. "A few months after the 202," the report continued, "came the announcement in July, 1952, by the DeVry Corporation of their JAN (Joint-ArmyNavy) magnetic sound projector. This three-case, heavy duty unit has so far been restricted in its distribution to the Armed Forces. The price, if and when the JAN projector is offered to the public, is rumored to be in the neighborhood of $1500. "Immediately following the DeVry announcement came the debut in August of magnetic sound on 8mm. film. This was made possible by the introduction of the Movie-Sound 8 projector, a product of the Movie-Mite Corporation, in Kansas City, Mo. This machine, which accepted 8mm. film carrying a magnetic stripe only 25 mils in width and positioned outside of the perforations, was listed at $398.50. "Then in October," Mr. Moore went on, "Bell & Howell again pioneered the magnetic film field by announcing the conversion of their 202 projectors to operation with double-perforated films — as well as the single-perforated, 100mil-striped films which had been required up to that point. 'Always the ideal of the amateur movie maker,' Movie Makers hailed this double-perf development, marking it as 'the most significant advance in the magnetic sound medium since its advent.' " Commenting on ACL's own adoption of magnetic sound on film, Mr. Moore reported: "In June, 1952, with the cooperation of the Bell & Howell Company, the ACL installed a 202 projector and 12 inch speaker unit as official equipment in the League's projection room. And, to keep our other audio equipment in step with this splendid new machine, the ACL's custom-built double turntables and accompanying external amplifier were overhauled and modernized. Specifically, our two-speed turntables (78 and 33 rpm) were equipped with lightweight, reversiblestylus G.E. magnetic pickups and the pre-amplification stage required by them. ACL's amplifier, in turn, was modernized not by rebuilding the old one, but rather by replacing it with a completely new unit — designed specifically to meet the needs of magnetic sound recording on the 202 projector. "The electronic circuits involved in these two operations were created for the League by John R. Hefele, ACL. They were built into physical reality by Joseph J. Harley, FACL. The Amateur Cinema League," said ACL's managing director, "owes both of these brilliant and big-hearted engineers a large debt of gratitude. For with this outstanding audio equipment, ACL soon led the vanguard of workers in this new medium of magnetic sound on film. This work was to come to its full flowering early in 1953 with the release of ACL's enormously successful Top of the Ten Best program." Turning to developments in the camera field, Mr. Moore stated that: "The third technical advance to be announced in 1952 was the 'advent for amateur use of two systems for the production of true stereoscopic motion pictures on 16mm. film. These were the Nord 3-D Converters, a product of The Nord Company. Minneapolis, which were announced in March, and the Bolex Stereo system which was premiered in April. The Nord method operated through two accessory units — one for the camera and one for the projector — and listed at about $87.50. The Bolex system was comprised of a matched pair of primary camera lenses, which were substituted for the standard camera objective, and of a similarly designed stereo lens for the projector. The list for both was $397.50. "Optically," Mr. Moore said, "both systems created stereo images of true three-dimensional quality. However, the widespread acceptance of either by the amateur movie maker may be limited by the technical requirements inherent in any stereo method based on the polarization principle." Summarizing the operations of the League's consulting department, now under the direction of Peter Davis Dibble, Mr. Moore found that the ACL had screened and reviewed in 1952 a total of 166,415 feet of film, for an increase of more than 3^2 times the previous year's review work. Of these pictures, 70.5 percent were on 16mm. film, with 29.5 percent on 8mm. Only 3.25 percent in both widths were black and white in their emulsions, so that the color stocks used (which stood at 93 percent in 1951) continued their ascendancy among ACL filmers. Sound usage by ACL members in general, as indicated by the films reviewed, stood at 35 percent with sound and 65 percent without it. However, in the Ten Best contest per se, 72.7 percent of all the films honored had audio accompaniment in some form. Mr. Moore stated unequivocally that this should not be interpreted to mean that sound-accompanied entries in the competition stood a three-to-one better chance of winning. "What it does mean," he said, "is that three quarters of the able and aspiring movie makers competing in the contest are now adding audio to their cine work as a matter of course." And now, in welcoming ACL's two new directors to the headquarters team, Movie Makers is pleased to present to their fellow members in the League brief biographies of the Messrs. Groedel and Houghton. HARRY GROEDEL, ACL Perhaps because he has lived all his life in and around New York City, Harry Groedel is, even more than most movie makers, an inveterate traveler. This compulsion to see the world and to know its peoples is reflected clearly in his filming — which abounds with such titles as My Trip to Europe, My Trip to South America and the like. Mr. Groedel's interest in movie making began in 1932, when his two daughters were children, and led him to the purchase of the then-new Cine-Kodak iModel BB — a fifty foot roll-film job. From this beginning he has worked his way through a Cine-Kodak Model K (100 foot roll film) to his present camera, the Cine-Kodak Royal Magazine. In 1943 he joined both the Amateur Cinema League and the Metropolitan