American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

tographers to the picture. We're supposed to see to it that the players' faces are presented in color to the best advantage on the screen: but we can't do it if those faces aren't correctly made up. "I'll admit its all to the good that as many make-up artists as possible be trained in color make-up. But letting them teach themselves by trial and error on actual production doesn't make very good sense to me. Wouldn't it be a lot better to assign the man they knew to be experienced in color as make-up man on the picture, and then let the man they wanted trained work with him as a sort of junior associate? In that way, the production would be assured correct make-up and normal faces from the start, and the make-up man would learn by doing things the right way, rather than by hit-or-miss experimentation. "Really, the day of radical technical experimentation in Technicolor is over. Of course technical advances are coming, but we'll be able to take them in stride, Meanwhile, there have been enough Technicolor productions made in almost every major studio so that we've built up a mighty good backlog of technical knowledge. The technical factors involved in making a satisfactory Technicolor production are now almost as familiar as those involved in doing the same scene in monochrome. "But speaking as a cinematographer, I'm very sure we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the things we, as artists, can do with color. All of us who have worked at all with color — and most of those who haven't had that opportunity, as well — have ideas which, once the right production opportunity arises, we want to try out. With the constantly increasing number of Technicolor productions being made, the opportunities for putting into effect more and more of those ideas are going to present themselves. On some productions we can make use of the added literalness of color for greater realism. On others, we can make use of the added beauty of color for greater pictorial effect. And on yet other productions we can cinematic language, making use of color to heighten any dramatic mood, just as in monochrome we use lighting for mood and effect. The basic tools are ready and familiar in our hands: and as we learn to use them completely, I am confident we will see cinematography go on to new heights of beauty and dramatic expressiveness, for color, added to form, tone and motion, gives us the completely expressive medium of which for nearly fifty years cinematographers have dreamed. Technical advances will come, but in the long run, we will find the real future of color cinematography in the hands of the cinematographers!" END. Landers Moving Sam Landers, A.S.C., proprietor of the well-known Landers Camera Rentals, announces that on and after March 9th his firm will occupy new and larger quarters at 6373 DeLongpre Ave., (near Nvar), Hollywood. Natural Lighting (Continued from Page 105) ground by the fire, and concealed by the men sitting in the left foreground. Lamp No. 2, a Dinky, similai'ly placed, illuminated the man standing at the left, while No. 3, another Dinky, highlighted the two men sitting (left) by the fire. Lamp No. 4, a Baby Keg placed high on the lamprail, at the back left, was used to rim-light the players at left and center-foreground. Extremely soft front-lighting was provided by lamp No. 5, a heavily-silked broad. The background was highlighted by lamp No. 6, a Baby Keg placed high at the right and crossed, while the backing was illuminated by No. 7, another silked broad. The point which I hope these somewhat obvious examples discussed will make is this: that these natural sourcelighting effects, together with many similar ones they will suggest, would have been absolutely impossible previous to the introduction of today's high-speed emulsions and the smaller lighting-units the speed of these films make possible. I am very sure that many scenes closely paralleling the photodramatic requirements of the ones discussed have come up frequently in the past experience of almost every cinematographer. If we look back at them, we can see from our own experience just how badly we were hampered by the technical limitations of the materials with which we then had to work — how we were forced to approximate the "natural" effects we wanted, rather than obtaining them in actuality. In this connection, a rather interesting thought strikes me. Cinematographers have always looked forward to the day when they could get truly natural lighteffects, and employ substantially natural levels of illumination. Today, thanks to these modern technical developments, we have come incredibly close to being able to achieve this long-sought goal. While average interior light-levels are of course subject to considerable variation, due to differences in the methods of individual directors of photography and to the processing standards of the different laboratories which handle their film, a surprising majority are working only slightly above normal practical roomlighting levels. As a matter of fact, I am informed that some cinematographers who work under conditions permitting exceptionally low light-levels have at times had to wire the practical lights in their sets through dimmers in order to cut down the intensity of these normal lamps to match the levels of the photographic lighting ! Finally, it should be pointed out also that this remarkable development of the past few months has in addition to its artistic benefits, very definite technical and economic advantages as well. By eliminating the need for high illumination levels and the larger and bulkier lamps necessary to obtain them, we have at the same time eliminated the necessity for many of the makeshifts formerly necessary to make these larger lamps adaptable to the fine, precision lighting these effects demand. I doubt if the precise difference in either time or production-cost has been or, for that matter, could be accurately estimated. But it must be obvious that the time formerly spent in figuring out how to position a large lamp so it would produce some of these precision effect! just discussed, without interfering any other phases of the lighting on people or set, and then confining its beam to the exact small area where the light would be needed, by means of goboe3, > flags, shades and similar auxiliaries — to say nothing of reducing it to the right intensity by means of diffusers and the like — would be very considerable when compared to the modern method < simply concealing a Dinky within scene at whatever point might be n> sary to produce just the right effect. Summing the matter up, we can consider ourselves most fortunate that we can today reap the benefits of these recent advances in film, lenses and lighting equipment, which on the one hand make it possible at last to light with the precision necessary to obtain really natural lighting effects, and on the other, so greatly simplify and expedite the work of the director of photography and his stage crew. In all probability we have not as yet been using the?« new materials and methods long enough to obtain — or even understand — their full benefits; but even so, we can realize that we have in our hands something which must inevitably lead on to genuine advancement in the art and science of cinematography. END Editor's Finder (Continued from Page 114) par, that was his fault — the film couldn't be to blame! Today, how different is the situation! With three or four different companies actively competing for the industry's raw-stock business, the film-using technician— cinematographer, recordist or laboratory expert — has everything offered him on a silver platter. Film—? There's lots of it: specialized emulsions for every conceivable service. A few months ago, setting out to make photographic tests of one single company's picture-negative emulsions, this writer found himself provided with no less tha eight different emuslion types, including normal-speed panchromatic, high-speed "production type" panchromatic, superspeed panchromatic, a slow-speed door type" pan, a fast ortho "chrome1 type, a reversible panchromatic, and infra-red. The recording engineer has an almost equally broad selection: can choose an emulsion specifically fitted to the particular recording problem and system involved. Even in the most recently-evolved "fine-grain" positive and recording stocks, there seems to be an emulsion to suit everyone's individual needs: in a recent chat with the writer, one leading film-merchant remarked that his company handled no less than 136 March, 1941 Amkkican Cinematographer