American cinematographer (Apr 1929)

April, 1929 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER Eleven Howe Takes Vitacolor to the Orient Not only has Vitacolor, a new system of cinematog- raphy controlled by the Max B. Du Pont Vitacolor Cor- poration of Los Angeles, taken a powerful grip on the imagination at home, but its influence is rapidly spread- ing abroad, as was evidenced by certain occurrences dur- ing the past month. When James Wong Howe, a Chinese lad who started from Hollywood’s bottom-most ranks and climbed stead- James Wong Howe with Max Du Pont, A. S. C., inventor of Vitacolor. ily upward to a position of eminence in the field of cine- matography, sailed for Shanghai recently, he carried with him a Vitacolor-equipped camera and projector, and inci- dentally credentials as the representative of Vitacolor in the Orient. He intends, among other objectives which will carry him into the producing field in his own country, to make a Vitacolor picture of the transfer of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s body from its present resting place to its million-dollar tomb atop a high mountain in China. The transfer is being made out of reverence of the Chinese peoples for their first provisional president whom they declare was responsible, above any other person, for the overthrow of the old imperial government. The cere- mony, says Howe, should prove one of the most colorful in the history of China. He is looking forward to bring- ing its beauty to the screen, down to the last ounce of color, through the facilities Vitacolor will provide for him. Mr. Howe’s departure for the Orient was looked upon by his fellow cinematographers as a distinct loss to Hollywood. With a university training behind him, he started as an assistant cameraman twelve years ago. Those dozen years have seen him expand and grow into one of the most expert cameramen in the film capital. A week or so after Howe sailed, two more Vitacolor- equipped cameras were carried aboard a steamer bound for the Orient. This time, however, they were in the hands of government explorers who will visit Japan, Chosen, Manchuria and China to study new plant varie- ties, whose introduction into this country is expected to enrich nearly every agricultural section of the United States. The expedition is in charge of P. H. Dorsett, veteran explorer of the United States Department of Agriculture, who has taken thousands of footage of film for his divi- sion. Loud in his praise of Vitacolor, he predicted that the next greatest advance in the educational work of his department would come from color cinematography. The Table of Filter Factors Panchromatic negative film is being used so commonly and has been used so long, now, that any lengthy discus- sion of its advantages as compared with orthochromatic negative for use on ordinary sets is no longer necessary. The rendition of color is much less distorted with pan- chromatic than with orthochromatic negative. It is pos- sible to use incandescent light for set illumination with- out using prohibitively large light units. This use of in- candescent lights is of particular value in the case of scenes with sound records made at the same time as the pictures. Panchromatic film has possibilities both for accurate and distorted color representation. It would take a rather large group of pictures to illustrate these possibil- ities and even then the representation would not be sat- isfactory without some rather definite idea of the colors in the original subjects pictured. No attempt will be made here to present such pictures or any full discussion of these potential possibilities of panchromatic film. Only through actual trial can a really satisfactory estimate of these possibilities be made. As an aid to such trial, it is worth while giving approx- imate values for the filter factors needed with some of the more usual Wratten light filters. The accompanying table gives approximate filter factor values for the filters indicated with DuPont panchromatic. The body of the table gives the number of times the exposure should be increased from that required with no filter to that re- quired for exposure through the filter when the scene is illuminated by noon sunlight or by light of equivalent color value, such as some arcs give but which incandes- cent lights do not give. It should be noted here that the incandescent lamps produce light rich in red and low in blue which by itself serves to correct very largely distor- tion of color rendition caused by panchromatic film itself and hence makes a correction filter practically unneces- sarj% though for some special cases filters to alter rela- tive contrasts are needed. Table of Filter Factors Filter Factors for Certain Wratten Filters Used with DuPont Panchromatic Film and Scenes Illuminated by Noon Sunlight. Recent Releases of A, S, C. Members “Hearts in Dixie,” Fox Glenn McWilliams “The Girl on the Barge,” Universal Jackson Rose “Interference,” Paramount..Farciot Edouardt & Roy Hunt “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Paramount Victor Milner “Vagabond Cub,” F.B.O Virgil Miller “Object, Alimony,” Columbia Joseph Walker “Cheyenne,” First National Frank Good “The Spirit of Youth,” Tiffany-Stahl John W. Boyle “Hey, Rube,” FBO Robert Martin “Noah’s Ark,” Warner Bros Hal Mohr-Barney McGill “Lady of the Pavements,” United Artists Karl Struss “The Passion Song,” Excellent Andre Barlatier “Speakeasy,” Fox J. A. Valentine “His Last Haul,” F. B. O Philip Tannura “One Man Dog,” F. B. O. Robert DeGrasse addition of color to the films he will make on his present expedition, he said, will enhance their value by 500 per cent. Vitacolor, however, is not an entire novelty in the Orient. The King of Siam, who received his attachments for 16 mm. camera and projector over two months ago, has been an enthusiastic Vitacolor fan since and has even gone to the extent of concocting his own developing “soup.” Vitacolor is now represented in more than forty foreign countries.