American cinematographer (Aug 1933)

August 1933 0 American Cinematographer 135 Ribbon Micro- phones Work Best In Tropics by Len Roos, A.S.C. As told to Karl Hale Len Roos, garbed in dinner clothes at 7 o’clock in the morning to photograph the Sultan in his palace. This Leica shot was taken in the interior of the palace. W HEN Universal assigned me to their animal pic- ture to be made in Java, they not only handed me the responsibility of the camera, but also the jurisdiction of the sound equipment. We used the RCA single sound system to reduce equip- ment and to reduce personnel in that jungle covered coun- try. We kept our equipment down to a minimum, al- though we did take about four each of everything for an emergency. The thing to suffer mostly, however, was the microphone. We kept the microphone in a humidor in which we had placed Calcium Chloride until a minute or two before we wanted to use it. The damp-sweating at- mosphere of Singapore affected the microphone more than any other piece of equipment we had with us. A micro- phone of the condenser type which we had for picking up the sound is naturally affected more by atmospheric con- ditions than any other type. Contraction and expansion of the materials directly in line with the picking up of the sound is a serious matter. We kept the microphone, for this reason, in the humidor constantly ... in fact, we called it the "Mike Incubator.’’ We had to handle it like a sick child. Placing it back in the humidor immediately we were finished, or replacing it with a fresh microphone if we were compelled to expose it to the atmosphere for too long a time. In my opinion the only successful microphone to use in that climate is the ribbon type. The dynamic mike is affected by the winds . . . the condenser is affected by atmospheric conditions. The Ribbon Mike is the only type available that the atmosphere will not injure in its repro- duction values. The ribbon, hanging as it does between the two elements, has a great flexibility in contraction and ex- pansion that is advantageous under tropical conditions. The three microphones we took with us were com- pletely ruined before we finished with the picture. All of them will have to be rebuilt before they will again be serviceable. The 35 mm. hand camera was indeed a mighty handy bit of equipment operating as we were. Paul Perry accom- panied me on this trip. When he was operating the Mitchell, I would use the small lea Kinamo which we picked up in Germany to secure close-ups of the animals. We had the apereture of the Ica-Kinamo rebuilt so as to mask out the space usually required by the sound track. But, I found this little camera a mighty ideal bit of equipment under the circumstances in which we worked. It was the first time I had handled this foreign camera and it worked perfectly for me at all times. The nature of the story also required many street shots. The Ica-Kinamo was pressed into service on practically all of these. We used the Leica camera for all of our production stills. I mounted my Leica on my viewfinder . . . synchronized the Leica finder with the 35 mm. finder and as the camera ground I would snap the Leica as we went along and pick up the same action as the 35 mm. camera registered for our production stills. It is more or less a familiar fact to all cinematographers who have worked in the tropics that it is necessary to keep the moisture out of the film before and after being ex- posed. I have found during my 19 years of travel making pictures in every corner of the world and in every conceiv- able climate that when working in the tropics it is advan- tageous to have the raw stock packed in small rolls from 400 feet to 100 feet of film so as not to expose to the atmospheric conditions that might not be used for several days. Before leaving I had the Eastman company pack this film in small containers . . . seal it with tape and over that seal it with hot wax so as to keep out every vestige of moisture. When we had exposed the film, we put it first in a humidor we had made of a fireless cooker. We had a second fire- less cooker for drying the paper in which we would wrap the film. Of course, in each of these humidors we had placed the calcium chloride to attract the moisture. After both the film and paper were perfectly dry we wrapped the film in the paper, placed it in a can and then sealed the (Continued on Page 152)