American cinematographer (Jan 1930)

January, 1930 American Cinamatographer Twenty-nine Early History of Wide Film {Continued from Page 5 ) very risque in those conservative days. The May Irwin Kiss, Little Egypt, Loie Fuller’s fire dance. Bridget Serves Salad Undressed and many others brought gasps of amazement at their audacity. On November 3, 1899 the Jeffries-Sharkey fight was held at Coney Island at night. Wm. A. Brady, now well known in the theatrical and motion picture world, and a promoter named O’Rourke sponsored the bout and induced the American Mutu- scope and Biograph Company to film the fight. The film used was 2^ inches wide and each frame was 21/4 inches high. Three hundred and twenty feet of this wide film was used per minute, the perforations being made in the camera at the instant of taking. The fight lasted for twenty-five rounds of three minutes each and more than seven miles of film were exposed. Four cameras were on the job so as to obtain a continuous record. Buckling of the film in the cameras was frequent although the film could be watched through a red glass peep-hole by the light of a small ruby lamp inside the camera box. The perforations in the large Biograph film were used in printing but not in projecting. The projector pulled the film down by means of a set of mutilated rubber rollers and the pro- jectionist had to watch the frame continuously to prevent creeping of the frame line on the screen. Oscar B. De Pue, partner of Burton Holmes, in 1897, pur- chased a machine in Paris from Leon Gaumont for taking 60 mm. wide film then put up in one hundred foot lengths, unwinding and rewinding inside the camera on aluminum spools: not a daylight proposition, but a dark room model. This machine he took to Italy and the first motion picture turned out on the machine was of St. Peter’s Cathedral with the fountain playing in the foreground and a flock of goats passing by the machine. He then took other pictures of Rome and from there visited Venice, where pictures of the canal and Doges Palace and the waterfront along the canal with views of feeding the pigeons at St. Marks with the great cathedral in the background. From there to Milan for a scene of the Plaza in front of the Milan Cathedral; thence to Paris where pictures of the Place de la Concord with its interesting traffic and horse-drawn busses, fountains, obelisks, statues, bicycles, wagons, trucks and carriages were made. All the life of that day, after thirty-two years, is in striking contrast to the present. These negatives are still in his possession although the prints for them have long since been lost track of on account of our having changed from that size of picture to the standard size. This Gaumont wide film camera was used for five years by Mr. De Pue and most of the negatives, many of which are of great historic value, are still in good condition, so that either full size or standard sized reduction prints can still be made from them. Spoor and Bergren have worked for more than ten years upon a 63 mm. film called Natural Vision pictures. Widescope first sponsored a double frame picture on standard film with the film travel horizontal instead of vertical; after that an Italian patent was acquired in which a wide film of about 2*4 inches width is held in cylindrical form about the axis of rota- tion of a revolving lens so that the succeeding frames are pho- tographed on the same principle as in a panoramic still camera. Unfortunately this method of taking pictures introduces the same curvelinear distortion often noticed in cirkuit and other panoramic still photographs. Fox Grandeur pictures are 70 mm. in width with a frame 48 by 22.5 mm. leaving space available for a sound track about 10 mm. wide. Lorenzo Del Riccio, a member of the society, is perfecting for Paramount the Magnafilm. This film is 56 mm. wide and the frames are 19)4 mm. high. Several other sizes of wide film are being used experimentally and other new sizes are being advocated but these are current and not early history and do not properly belong in this chronicle. Fearless Camera Company "P ALPH G. FEAR, head of Cinema Equipment Co., announces that on January 1, 1929, the firm name will be changed to Fearless Camera Company. “The change of name,” says Mr. Fear, “does not denote a change in ownership or of policy. We are doing business at the old stand, and we feel with the advent of the New Fearless Silent Camera, in a bigger and better way.” New Fearless Camera {Continued from Page II) ■'One of the noteworthy features of the Fearless Silent Camera is the method of shifting for focusing and returning to shoot- ing position. Instead of shifting the entire camera head the lenses and their mounts are shifted by the simple process of turning a lever conveniently located at the rear of the camera. This requires merely the effort exerted in turning a small lever with thumb and forefinger. The lenses are in micrometer mount- ings that are mechanical precision itself and will delight every cameraman. The turret has been so designed that all the lenses, together with their mounts, may be removed in less than one minute. A simple follow focusing device can also be supplied. “At the side of the camera are located four separate driving shafts. These are designed for the plug-in type of motor. One drive shaft is for 60 cycle current, one for 50 cycle, a third shaft is for highspeed work and drives the camera through a built-in three speed transmission. The fourth is for hand crank- ing at normal speed. At the rear of the camera is a fifth drive shaft for stop motion work. A footage speedometer with a large window and generous size figures is provided. This speed- ometer may be removed from the camera at will. It will be apparent that this method of providing for the different cycle currents is of tremendous value, not only obviating the need for different motors, but is an additional assurance of quiet motor operation because the reduction gears are in the camera operating in oil rather than in the end-bell of the motor. “The disolve is controlled from the rear of the camera. A convenient lever controls the mechanical dissolve which operates through a gearset that provides for three different speed changes. A dial indicator calibrated to show percentage of shutter opening is provided. “Built into, and a part of the camera is the Fearless Auto- matic Film Tension control, which has proven its worth in over a year of use. This prevents film buckles by varying the tension on the take-up belt. Another feature is the Electric Circuit Breaker which instantly stops the motor in the event of a film break or at the end of the reel. It is also an added safety factor, for if the film should buckle by reason of break- age of take-up belt or for any other cause, the Circuit Breaker will instantly stop the motor and camera. “For recording purposes the Fearless Silent Camera can be furnished with an auxiliary sound photographing aperture, at the correct distance of 19 frames from the photographic aperture, and with gears, rollers etc. necessary for recording the sound directly on the film as it passes through the camera. A Fearless Recording Photo Lamp, or any standard light valve may be attached and when so equipped it may be connected to any recorder amplifier and the sound record made on the same negative as the picture being photographed. This should prove a boon to newsreel cameramen and to location expeditions that are remote from electricity for in cases of that sort the camera motor may be operated from the batteries that provide current for the recorder amplifier. “The Fearless Silent Camera can be furnished for double- width film or for the Fearless Wide Picture on standard 35mm film. Of special interest is the fact that colored motion pictures by the Multi-color system may be taken with the New Fearless Silent Camera. “Lack of space prohibits enumerating all of the unusual features of the Fearless Silent Camera. Suffice it to say that it is the finest motion picture camera ever manufactured for the professional cameraman, and is in every sense a 1930 model camera. Petroleum in Pictures A n unusually interesting four-reel film dealing with the operations of the petroleum refining industry has been ■prepared by the United States Bureau of Mines, Depart- ment of Commerce, and is now available to schools, churches, civic bodies, etc., at no cost except transportation. As an educational film this picture is outstanding, for it re- veals phases of the industry that are little known and which are of unusual interest. Great care has been taken in the mak- ing of the picture so that it is really educational and interesting rather than just plain propaganda.