American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

Fosholdt has built for use in this and previous darkrooms. At first glance, they seem to be simple enough — just goodsized cylindrical drums, with a spiral bead along their faces to keep the film in place. But providing that little spiral ridge proved an interesting problem. "At first," says Fosholdt, "I made that spiral by simply soldering a wire around the face of the drum, winding it in a spiral, of course. That's none too easy to do, though, and you can never be sure that the wire is really firmly anchored; it is always likely to break loose just at the wrong moment. Besides, the wire doesn't give a deep enough groove to accept the film easily when you're loading the drum in the dark, or to hold it well after the moistened film stretches. "The next set I made with a somewhat deeper metal bead; but this, too, wasn't a very successful piece of construction. Finally I hit upon the present idea. It's more complicated in the making, but it is sturdy and dependable in use. Beginning with a flat-surfaced drum, I had a sheet-metal shop make up a long strip of metal of the desired width, with one edge bent at right angles and about a quarter of an inch deep. Then I simply wound this around the drum spirally. I had a strip slightly wider than 16mm. film to solder to the drum, so it could be given a really rigid attachment. Then the ^-inch flange projected upward to guide the film onto the drum, and separate the successive windings. With this arrangement I can simply put my reel of exposed film in a spindle, or hold it in my hand, attach one end of the film to the drum, and load the drum automatically by simply spinning it 'round. When you come to the end of the film, all that's necessary is to clip the end in place with a strip of scotch tape, and you're ready to start processing." In use, the drums are moved from tank to tank by hand; but when in place in any of the tanks, they are revolved by motor. A long shaft extends the length of the tankage, with appropriate belts and pulleys below each tank. The drum has a similar pulley on the end (if its shaft, so that all that is necessary is to connect the belt from the main drive-shaft to the drum. The governor and gearing from a discarded phonograph-motor serve as a reduction gearing for this drive, and the power comes from a small electric motor. After the final rinse, the film is wound onto folding wooden drying-racks, as shown in the illustration. A supporting block on the wall holds up one end of the drying-rack, while a hinged wooden arm, normally folded down out of the way, is swung up to hold the other end of the rack. Then all that is necessary is to clip one end of the film to the rack, and spin the rack: guided by the spiral groove in the developing-drum, the film feeds out into a neat spiral around the drying-rack. Fastening the other end of the film with a rubber-band tensioned clip, to allow for the film's shrinkage in drying, the rack is loaded. It is then transferred to the dryingbox, where an electric fan and heatingcoil circulate a current of warm air through the box — which is large enough to hold several racks of film — and the film can be dried and ready for projection within a few minutes. LaNelle Fosholdt is just as enthusiastic about this home studio set-up as is her husband. "Ray was the original movie-maker of the family," she says, "but I soon decided that if I wanted to keep on having a husband, I'd better get interested in his hobby, too. I didn't have any particular inclination toward camerawork, but I knew there must be some phase of movie-making I could get MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT Studio and Laboratory Tested Since 1929 Automatic Developing Machine Complete in Every Detail Immediate Delivery HOLLYWOOD USERS CAN ATTEST MACHINE'S SUPERIORITY — USERS ALL OVER THE WORLD CAN RECOMMEND THIS DEVELOPING MACHINE. SENSITESTER • SOUND RECORDING SYSTEMS NEW ADDRESS ART REEVES 1515 Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood, Cal., U. S. A. Cable Address: ARTREEVES interested in that would help Ray. I found it in planning pictures and writing scripts. Now we really make o r pictures together — and I get just as i much fun out of it all as Ray does. "But that didn't help things much I when Ray became interested in home 1 processing, and we didn't have a dark j room. He had to share a darkroom with another movie-making friend who lived way over on the other side of town. I Whenever Ray had some film to pro1 ress, he would naturally go over to his i friend's, promising, like a good husband, that he'd be home early. But just as naturally, like any enthusiastic photog ; rapher, he'd usually grow so interested i in what he was doing that he lost all ! track of time. "But with this darkroom, he does his work here at home. We have a little intercommunicating telephone-line be ; tween the darkroom, the projection-room and the house, so no matter what he is ' doing, I can always keep in touch with him. And since we've had this home studio set-up, instead of Ray's going out to see his movie-making friends, they naturally gravitate here to see us, so our home and social life quite naturally center around our hobby and the place we've ' made for it in our home. "Ray and I have been married quite a few years, but since we've both found our spheres of interest in this moviemaking hobby, and built this home around it, we're closer together than we've ever been." Which is why the Fosholdts' moviemaker's "dream home" seems to be a "dream home" in more ways than one — and as such, at once an ideal and an inspiration to all movie-making households. END. Cameraman's Tips (Continued from Page 381) shooting, his Weston "Master" comes out to give him a final check for perfect exposure! I've found it pays in my private picture-making, too. Harry has another little gadget that I've appropriated and found extremely useful, too. It's a little rotary-dial type calculator put out as an advertisement by one of the Hollywood camera-rental firms. With it, once your meter has told you what the unfiltered exposure for a shot ought to be. this gadget tells you at a glance just what exposur use for almost any combination of film and filtering; it also tells how to compensate your diaphragm-sett ing to keep the exposure right when you use cameraspeeds above or below normal. If you haven't one of those calculators, though, Harry has another trick that helps keep exposures uniform. Simply divide your meter's film-speed setting 1>\ the 1'actoi of the filter you're using, and re-set the meter's speed dial according to the result. From thei until you change filters you can just take the meter's reading directly, and automatically get the correct exposure loo August, 194] A MKKICAN ClNEMATOGRAPHER