Amateur Movie Makers (Dec 1926-Dec 1927)

Tke Amateur Turns A Penn}) B? J. H. McNabb THE motion picture field, — hitherto confined to the realm of professionalism, is now being invaded by an insistent and ever increasing demand of amateur desire, made possible through manufacturing genius. What was accepted yesterday as a device requiring professional and scientific skill to operate, is today a simplified mechanism of such compactness and reproductive quality as to adapt itself to home use. Following an urge of enthusiastic welcome, it bids well to become as popular as the phonograph, the automobile, or the radio. The activity of public acceptance of this popularized art has doubtless been covered in other pages of this magazine, so 1 will come to the point of the topic assigned to me — the serious aspect of the amateur movie equipment. To itemize the applications of amateur or semi-professional cinematography, means to go on indefinitely. With each thought and each possibility other avenues of usage appear until one actually wonders how civilization has progressed without the cine-camera. Here are only a few of the many thousand uses to which the new 16 m/m equipment (for the amateur) has been employed with outstanding success. Industrial — The manufacturers of tractors have found selling far more effective through staging a practical demonstration of cutting and handling timber, from the felling of the tree to the finished product in the mill. Great giant timbers in an almost impassible forest — cut, hauled, and handled like so many toothpicks. Actual demonstration in localities of the prospective buyer could have been made, but, by the use of the cine-camer.i and projector, an interesting, actual, performing story in life-like reality was projected in the comfortable offices of their prospective buyers and in a manner far more agreeable to both parties than milling through mud and weather to see the tractors actually perform. Trucks, automobiles, washing machines, motors, batteries, street cleaning and ditching machines, are all among the wide variety of industries which have found practical commercial uses for the smaller equipment. The cost of a product may never be fully understood by the average trade, but a salesman equipped with a cine projector can quickly and effectively portray the qualities produced by such cost, for, in the prospect's own place of business, he may witness a trip through the plant and have actual visualization of the processes. Science — Science comes in for its share of praise for the cinecamera. It is a most amazing advantage when we stop to think of the knowledge heretofore confined to the eye witness or a textbook. Picture, if you will, the interior of one of our country's great technical institutions. Surrounded only by a limited number of witnesses, a wise scientist, with microscopic precision, conducting an experiment, the preparation of which required many years in the gathering of rare materials and which will probably never be reproduced over another long period. Heretofore the transmission of such knowledge depended upon the memory of those few witnesses. Records may have been kept, but the visual, physical action and application could not be recorded. Today, a super speed cine-camera with telephoto or microscopic lens records every move and its result — to be repeated over and over again and the actual experiment, in the minutest detail, re-enacted in every laboratory or before every scientific body in the world, if need be. A moment's reflection on the importance of this one angle alone readily points out the fact that the amateur motion picture is assuredly of great advantage to science, where learning is most dependent upon detailed experiments and the accurate and complete preservation thereof. Consider further, the inadequate illustrative reproduction when drawn from memory, as compared to the everlasting and instant availability of the entire test by slow motion pictures and always surrounded by the environment of the actual initial occurrence. Educational and Civic Purposes— Through the use of the cine-camera a metropolitan dairy adroitly attracts public favor and patronage through an educational film that fairly breathes health and sanitation. In a meadow skirted by cool shade trees of a picturesque wood, a small herd of satisfied Jersey cows is seen grazing. Evening, and the slow procession up the lane. In the stables, the cattle file into separate well bedded stalls. Automatic milking machines in operation rivet the attention of the uninitiated. Moonlight, and the fresh milk, carried in sanitary cans and loaded into great motor trucks, is transported to the central dairy. Each can of milk is carefully sampled. Midst scientific surroundings of a well equipped laboratory, the Chief Chemist analyzes and tests each specimen before the product is accepted. Great vats and scientific processes follow. Bottle cleansing and sterilization is shown operating with almost human intelligence. All is far beyond the expression of words. Finally huge carts of the bottled product are conveyed to the waiting delivery trucks. Each truck has its own refrigeration compartment. The morning quiet in the city streets is punctuated by the silent moving vehicles of (continued on page 30) Nineteen jBI