American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

Enlarging 16mm. (Continued from Page 415) color printing routine. Sound can of course be handled along with the picture. Like most laboratories of this type, Technicolor does no soundtrack recording, processing or enlarging, only printing the final sound-track negative in proper synchronism with the picture on the final composite print. Therefore Technicolor requires only a satisfactory 35mm. sound-track, properly cut to footage and matched to the picture. The original recording can conceivably be either direct 16mm. (as in synchronized dialog) re-recorded to make the necessary 35mm. track, or a direct 35mm. recording. Technicolor does not attempt to enlarge 16mm. sound-track to 35mm.; and this would probably be an unsatisfactory method at best, since the losses in definition and resolving power, unavoidable in the enlarging, would almost certainly be far greater than would be involved in re-recording a good 16mm. track to 35mm. For theatrical use, however, a direct 35mm. track would probably be the best, as the frequency-range in direct 35mm. recording and reproduction is still considerably greater than that possible in 16mm. As has been mentioned, Technicolor is at this writing turning out releaseprints on the first professionally-made theatrical short-subject photographed in 16mm. Kodachrome for 35mm. Technicolor release. The film is a Warner Bros.' short-subject entitled "King of the Turf," photographed by L. William O'Connell, A.S.C., and produced by Gordon Hollingshead and Ira A. Genet, both of whom have been most active in encouraging the development of Technicolor's 16mm. enlarging process. Two other 16mm. shorts are now in preparation by the same producers, with more almost certain to follow if these first ones prove as successful as anticipated. For the present, Genet and Hollingshead have no intention of supplanting conventional 35mm. production with 16mm. enlargements. However, there are certain types of subjects which they feel can be filmed to much better advantage using 16mm. equipment and Kodachrome; some, in fact, which can only be filmed successfully in 16mm. For example, one of the shorts now under way is on diving, and filmed almost entirely in slow-motion, using a "Golf Special" Filmo camera which operates at a speed of 128 frames per second. Though Technicolor has specially built and operated cameras for high-speed photography they do not operate at quite this high rate of speed. The present 16mm. subject is believed to be the first slow-motion subject ever filmed in color; certainly the first to be filmed by any commercial three-color process. There are also certain types of documentary, semi-news and novelty subjects which can be filmed successfully using 16mm. equipment, but would be out of the question with the bulkier 35mm. black-and-white or color equip ment. A film, for example, like "Sailplane," the film on gliding described in the February, 1941, issue of The American Cinematographer, absolutely could not be made in its present form with 35mm. equipment, the weight and bulk of which could not be carried in a oneplace glider — much less placed on a twelve-foot bracket on the fuselage or wing of the glider as was possible with the 16mm. equipment used. Genet states that while his present policy is naturally to keep the production of 16-35mm. Kodachrome-Technicolor shorts as much as possible within the Warner organization, with the photographic work under the direction of proven professionals like O'Connell and others, there is no reason why meritorious 16mm. subjects should not be purchased from free-lance professionals, commercial filmers and advanced amateurs who are willing to take the precautions already described, and to safeguard their 16mm. original by editing from a work-print rather than the original. Such films would, of course, have to be not only of sufficiently high technical quality to be suitable for enlargement, but built around subject-matter of sufficient interest inherently and in treatment to enable the picture to compete with the best professionally-made 35mm. shorts. The importance of this new development to the industrial film field can hardly be over-stated. It is well known that today a sizeable number of industrial and commercial films are being made in 35mm. rather than the more economical 16mm. simply because the sponsor has outlets for one or two prints which demand 35mm., though the bulk of the release is necessarily in 16mm. In such instances, 35mm. black-andwhite is very often used for reasons of economy, even though for the 16mm. portion of the release color, in the form of Kodachrome, would enable the advertiser to tell his story more effectively. To such industrial producers, the possibility of making satisfactory 35mm. enlargements in Technicolor from a 16mm. Kodachrome original, and having his full release, both 35mm. and 13mm. in color, offers a revolutionary inducement. What the effect of this development may be on the 35mm. theatrical field cannot be foretold with accuracy. As Genet and Hollingshead are proving, 16mm. offers definitely interesting possibilities in the production of shortsubjects and novelty films. It may, too, offer independent producers of lowerbudget features a worthwhile opportunity. For major-studio feature production, the still superior quality of direct35mm. Technicolor is naturally obvious. But for these other fields — short-subjects, commercial films, and some types of documentary and educational subjects, the possibility of enlarging good 16mm. Kodachrome to 35mm., retaining the color and quality of the substandard original, truly is 1941's most sensational development, and one which offers tremendous promise. END. British Amateurs Buying Bomb The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (London), following the lead ofl other more prosperous clubs and groups in England which have raised funds for i presenting "Spitfires" to the R.A.F., is j reported raising a fund to purchase a , bomb to be presented to the R.A.F. by Britain's amateur filmers for delivery to Berlin. Three-Dimensional Meter (Continued from Page 417) Kodachrome, in not only still-cameras and 16mm. cine-cameras, but 35mm. studio cameras as well. "Then for the final and acid test, I employed the new meter throughout my latest MGM production 'The Chocolate Soldier.' This production gave the meter an unusual range of tests, for it waan elaborate musical, with photographic conditions ranging from big musical and chorus numbers with high-key lighting to normal, intimate action and heavy effect-lightings. The musical numbers were particularly interesting photographically, for despite the fact they were stage numbers and the camera wa< constantly moving on dolly or boom, I did not give them a flat 'stage' lighting, but used a more pictorial cross-lighting. "The technicians and executives at the MGM laboratory have been kind enough to pay me many compliments on the uniformity of the negative I turned out on this picture. Some of them have said it was among the most uniform negatives they have ever handled. While I have not as yet seen a complete cut of the picture, I am told that the entire footage prints within a range of two or three printer-lights. "As I say, I used the meter religiously throughout the picture. Of course there were times when my judgment and the meter disagreed. I would say to myself. 'This meter can't be right. I've been photographing pictures for more than twenty years, and I know that light is too hot or too dim. Even if the meter says differently, I'm going to change that light.' Bat wht m V( r I did — w ever I failed to follow tlie »■ exactly — / found I was wrong. My judgment, rather than the meter* i ing, was off. "Until I made this test, daily checking my negative against the met. rperformance, I don't think I'd realized quite how much the test system of negative development can help the cinematographer. If he is a bit under or over on his exposure-level or contrast-bala the tests show it, and his negative can be given special development to compensate for it. But with a meter as accurate as I've found this one to be. this problem is minimized if not completely eliminated. If one works under the test system, the laboratory's task is easier for lighting can be held so uniform the tests will all show the negative can be given strictly normal development. If one works with strict time-and-temperature processing, he can 1 10 September, 1941 American Cinematographer