American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

picture "minute men;" no one is being asked to formally enlist at this time, and its members would be called to serve only in event of actual war. The GHQ Photo Unit would serve as a base unit supplementing the Field Units, though its members might on occasion be sent into the field on special assignments, or detached to form the veteran nucleus of an expeditionary unit. Finally there would be Hollywood itself, with the resources of the motion picture industry thrown into the making of further films as might be needed. Much of that, however, is in the future. For the present, Hollywood's post in the National Defense Effort is the important one of making films to train America's growing army. And Hollywood is already doing this enthusiastically and efficiently. As General Mauborgne expresses it, "The motion picture industry is performing an essential job in the National Defense, and doing it as no other industry could. We have been making motion pictures in the Signal Corps Photographic Section long enough so we know that we can turn out a given footage for less money than our Hollywood-made films are costing. But it would be only a comparable footage; it would not be a comparable picture. Only by turning to the great group of world-leading creative and technical specialists who form the motion picture industry could we get our ideas put on film with the skillful touch which has made Hollywood the center of the world's motion picture production. "In most instances of military procurement, we necessarily have to call for competitive bids, to assure efficient expenditure of the money available. But here we find every producer and organization in the industry cooperating to give us what we want, with no slightest thought of profit or personal glory. The only rivalry between producers, directors, cinematographers, writers and all the many other specialists whose aid we so greatly need seems to be to find who can give us the most. Thanks to the untiring efforts of Col. Levinson, Lt. Col. Zanuck, and Capt. Mitchell, when the present national emergency arose and we turned to the industry for help, we found the industry mobilized and ready for action. We can none of us foretell what the future may hold for America, but we can be sure that Hollywood is doing its part to assure the U. S. Army of training films that will help make the American soldier the best-trained in the world." — END. Williams Lab. (Continued from Page 110) laboratory. In the Williams Process of composite or trick photography, it will be recalled, extremely precise control of the density and contrast of the travelling mattes was essential, and Williams found it necessary to do his own processing to obtain this control. When sound entered the industry, it was but a step to yield to requests that he lend his facilities to the exacting requirements of sound-track processing. In conjunction with Williams' specialeffects cinematographic work, he points out, the various film manufacturers had evolved special fine-grain positive and other emulsions to his order. Experiments in using some of these emulsions for recording, for the making of dubbingprints, and simular uses, followed, first as a matter of curiosity, and later because of the improved results obtained, with the result that some studio sound departments began to order these emulsions for their own use. As a result, both sound engineers and film manufacturers began to study the possibilities of these emulsions, and today Williams proudly points to the fact that every one of today's many fine-grain emulsions is either a product developed for his use in special-process cinematography several years ago, or a type evolved from one of these original products. Meanwhile his plant has been, and still continues using these emulsions for sound and picture purposes wherever they have been found beneficial, and the plant is today one of the few completely equipped and accustomed to handle any type of fine-grain printing or processing. END Ray Rennahan (Continued from Page 108) tographers as partners. We also run the fullest possible range of production conditions and subject-matter. One day, for instance, I may be working on a really big major production like 'Gone With the Wind' or my present assignment, 'Blood and Sand': a few days after that assignment closes, I may be sent to some other studio to direct the photography of a little three-or-four-day short-subject, or even a commercial film, in either of which instances time and resources are likely to be as limited as they were abundant on the major studio 'special.' "This constant change means you don't have any chance of getting into a rut, technically or artistically. One day you're working on a big picture where time and money hardly count, and the main thing is to achieve perfection in each scene. The next, you have to slap it out fast, cutting corners wherever you can to save a few moments or a few dollars — and the results on the screen have still got to be good! "About the only variable we miss that a free-lance monochrome cinematographer has to contend with is constantly changing from the processing standards of one laboratory to those of another. All of our work must of course be processed by the Technicolor laboratory. Still, what with advances in negative sensitivity and constant improvements in negative processing and printing methods, our lab has certainly done its bit to keep us from getting mentally stagnant! "And I think everyone will agree that that laboratory has done a remarkable job. When you consider the technical problems involved in any type of color photography, and the variables involved 1 in developing three negatives, balancing prints from the three to form a complete three-color positive, and the innumerable peculiar habits of even the most perfectly standardized dyes, you'll realize what a job they have. And in spite of it all they've refined the process to a point where today we accept consistently good color-prints as a matter of routine. "Even within the past couple of years, processing improvements have made an enormous difference in the freedom with which anyone who photographs Technicolor can work. Just a few years ago, for instance, shadows were something which, unless you were in a position to gamble on results, most of us preferred to avoid. Today we can use shadows in Technicolor — not only that, but they are richer than the best obtainable in blackand-white, for we can get real, healthy blacks, and add to it the heightening effect of color-contrasts. Any colored object — a face, a hand, a dress — stands out more vividly when contrasted one of the velvety shadows today's Technicolor can give you. "And speaking of faces, there's one thing that tends to suffer under some of the production methods used by some studios making Technicolor pictures today. Any cinematographer knows the importance of make-up and of thorough understanding and cooperation between the make-up artist and the director ol photography. In Technicolor, it's doubly important, the more so because go« color make-up is a comparatively new thing, and one which can be learned only by experience. I don't think the make-up artist lives who can do a really satisfactory job on his first color picture. He's got to learn the restraint necessary for good color make-up. "Of course with the constantly increasing number of color productions being made, more color-trained make-up artists are being needed, and men who have not previously had experience with color make-up must somehow be given the chance to get it. "But when, perhaps only a short time after finishing a Technicolor picture at a studio, you return to that studio fc another picture and find an entirely different man in charge of the picture's make-up — well, it doesn't seem quite logical to me. Especially when you find — as I have on many occasions — that the make-up man you worked with tx fore, and carefully trained in the r quirements of color make-up — is still on the studio's payroll and without an assignment. You'd think the studio executives would naturally put the man wil color experience on their color production, wouldn't you? After all. in addition to deciding in the first place to enhance that production with color, the studio has gone to considerable trouble and expense assigning a production cinematographer like Ernest Haller. A. S. (... or Ernest Palmer, A. S. C, and a Technicolor cinematographer like me or one of the other Technicolor staff cinema 134 March, 1941 American Cinematographer