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as rental lots, servicing the many independent producers that supply the French market. Though small, they are well equipped and staffed.
I was kept so busy in England and France that I had no opportunity to visit the German studios and paid only a brief visit to Italy’s muchpublicized “Cine Citta.” These plants do not compare with those in England.
Metal Set-Platforming
There is one feature of British studio practice which I feel deserves special comment. This is the system, followed in many plants, of using standardized, metal set-platforming,
Instead of using wood for this purpose, standardized tubular metal units and clamps are used. These units are much the same as the metal scaffolding now being used here on big building projects. By using these metal units, considerable savings of time and money can be effected, for the platforming can be put together quickly, conforming more accurately to the shape and height of the set than is possible with wooden platforming, and of course the standardized metal units can be used over and over again.
In addition, it is surprising how Europe’s stage crews can improvise accessories with these units. When a company is on location, a parallel of any height can be quickly made from these sturdy tubular units. At other times, I’ve seen excellent large camera-booms improvised out of the same units. And on one occasion I've known of using this handy framing to hurriedly knock out a camera platform for making low-angle shots of the bow and waterline of a ship
during the short run of a regular cross-channel steamer! I think Hollywood's technicians are missing a good bet if they don't investigate the possibilities of this system.
Laboratories Improved
Traditionally European laboratory processing has lagged behind Hollywood standards. Such was certainly the case when I first went abroad, but it is not nearly so much the case today. Eleven years ago, the European labs were pretty much on a par with our second-rate labs of pre-talkie days. They generally used raek-andtank processing, and (like our own labs at the time!) knew nothing of sensitometrie methods. Since then, however, the producers, the laboratory owners and the film-manufacturing companies have done a great deal to educate the laboratory technicians in modern methods, and conditions are far better.
In general, I'd say that European negative development is excellent. During these last few years I’ve seen some of the most beautiful negative work anyone could ever wish come out of the British labs.
Their printing, however, is not so good. No matter what type of filmstock they use, nor how fine a negative they may have to print from, the prints have a tremendous tendency to excessive contrast. I am sure that if you took the same negative, and had one print made from it in the average European lab. and another made in the average Hollywood plant, you would hardly recognize the two prints as being the same picture. In fact. I’ve seen examples of this, for very often the big first-run theatres in
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