American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1942)

MAKE 16MM BUSINESS MOVIES THAT HELP THE WAR EFFORT! By W. G. CAMPBELL BOSCO IN LOOKING over the 16mm. commercial-film field after nine months of active participation by this country in the war, it is possible to see a bright side to what might appear at first to be an exceedingly gloomy picture. Granting of course that the cinematographers, directors and writers who have been active in this field approach these new-day problems with the technical and creative ingenuity the situation demands, one can even become downright optimistic in evaluating the future prospects of the business-film industry as a whole. Of course we must face the fact that the conventional business film as we have known it — sales films aimed directly at the buying public, and salestraining films calculated to instruct salesmen in the best selling methods — is dead "for duration." And even though some business-film units have been kept reasonably busy during recent months making institutional films, the number of these productions must surely decrease in proportion as the national effort mobilizes more completely for total war. But for a number of yeai-s, those of us who have been active in building direct-16mm. from a toy to a business institution have insisted very loudly that a properly-made 16mm. business-film is the most potent way of conveying a message—and that it does not matter greatly what that message is. We've rather proven it by the impartial way 16mm. business-films have publicized almost everything from automobiles to safety-pins, and from dairies to cemeteries. We've also been rather insistent that 16mm. had the great advantage that its proponents had a new slant on things, and did not have to un-leai-n a lot of traditions inherited from a 35mm. theatrical-film past. Today, we have an oppoi-tunity to prove these contentions! If the first is true, what does it matter whether our "message" deals with the competitive merits of a particular brand of motorcar;;— or with the "how-to-do-it" facts vital to employees in some defense industry? If the second contention is true, and we do have a new slant on things, we can prove it by giving new life to instructional movies. We can find new ways — both technical and presentational— of making things clear to the people who see the picture. That this can be done is already beingproven by progressive business-film producers and technicians in several parts of the country. In Hollywood, Raphael G. Wolff' recently produced a motion picture on arc welding which not only presents its subject very clearly, but sets a new standard of technical and creative presentation for subjects of this nature. First of all, Wolff — a distinguished specialist in the making of color stills for advertising purposes — utilized Kodachrome for making a film of a subject which might ordinarily be expected to be one for which black-and-white would be quite adequate — and more convenient The simple addition of color to this picture very definitely made it of greater instructional value. A black-and-white shot of arc welding makes very little distinction between the incandescent spot of the arc and the little pool of molten metal which forms the weld itself, or between the dark tone of the metal being welded and the ridge of slag which protects the cooling weld. In color, these technically important distinctions stand out with unmistakable clarity. There is Left close-up of weldin'^ from one of Raphael Wolff's films; riqht. makin a close-up of welding operation. Note shield on camera and hiqh-powered spotlights employed. Below: frame enlargements from Emerson Yorke's films on shop training. Upper frame shows use of stroboscopic lighting synchronized to motion of drill and camera; lower frames show use of transparent lucite to show action of tap inside metal. no mistaking the extent of the arc-flame, and no confusing it with the cherry-red tones of the molten pool. The slag of the weld stands clearly apart from the welded metal. New technical methods had to be worked out to make it possible to photograph this difficult subject successfully, without showing halation, and without sacrificing the balance of the picture to the incandescent spark of the arc. In the same way, completely professional animation — also in color — was called upon to show details which could not be shown by direct photography, such as the melting of the weld metal inside the electrode and the protective (Continued on Page 379) American Cinematographer August, 1942 347