The American cinematographer (Oct 1933)

242 American Cinematographer • October 1933 16MM. 35MM. CUSTOM BUILT 16 MM PROFESSIONAL CAMERA WITH SOUND ON FILM • 1000 ft. magazines optional 9 400 ft. magazines, regular equip- ment • 200 ft. magazines optional 9 Veeder-Roof footage counter 9 Mask slot, and reverse take-up 9 One frame and S frame crank 9 Coerz Variable view finder 9 Focus-on-film, lOx magnification, upright image 9 Four lens turret, standard lens mounts 9 Variable shutter for fades and laps 9 Side tension aperture 9 Silent Cam movement Special equipment designed and built ERIC M. BERNDT SOUND 112 East 73rd Street New York COLOR BELL & HOWELL Used Equipment Guaranteed Perfect 50% off Catalog Price! MODELS 70DA with Sesamee Case 70DA with Hand Crank 70A with Carrying Case 57C Projector and carrying ease 57CC Projector and Carrying Case Continuous Projector Attach- ment Filmophone Sound on Disc de- producer Kodacolor Lens and Filter As- sembly for Projector IRIS VICNETTER, Photometer Exposure Meter . . Heyde Range Finder . . Halldorson Twin Mazda Light . . Extra Carrying Cases for Cameras and Projectors . 400 ft. Reels . . Humidors . . Kodacolor and Character title writer . . Other screens . . Ilex Lenses . . Enlarger . . Pilot Light . . Etc. FREE Silent and Sound 16mm Library Membership and Catalog. TRADE INS ACCEPTED MOGULL BROS. 1944 Boston Road, N. Y. C. success. “F. P. 1” is technically ex- struction in this country today, so the cellent in its own right—and doubly thesis of the film is by no means fictive.) noteworthy as the first foreign-made pro- Jhe $gt used tQ represent this in the fi | m duction in the memory of this reviewer , . , , . . x , , • ... ■ .. is in itself a technical achievement of to be shown in this country in the torm of a first-class print, rather than an in- note, as it was built in actuality on an ferior “dupe.” Both the photography and island in the Baltic and built well the sound are in every way comparable enough so that airplanes actually landed to those of American pictures; in fact, on it, and took off from it. Cinemato- one has frequently seen worse camera- graphically speaking, the work is excel- work in domestic films, and heard worse lent, even to the aerial scenes, which, by sounc j the way, were the only dupes in the en- A good part of the action takes place tire production, on one of the huge floating landing- In common justice, however, Fox fields soon to be anchored in the middle should give credit where credit is due, of the Atlantic Ocean as a base for trans- and inform American audiences who were atlantic air-traffic. (One such bona-fide responsible for the excellent technique “floating platform” is actually under con- of F. P. One. Economies I By Gerald M. Best" 5 * It has been customary at the Warner Bros. Studios to process only the “choice” scenes of picture film, retaining the “NG” and “hold” scenes in storage at the laboratory until it is determined that they will not be required, after which the film is disposed of as scrap, or fogged and used for leader. Until recently, the sound track negative, however, was processed in its entirety, the “NG" and “hold” scenes being set aside after processing, and stored in vaults until the end of the production season. It was not considered advisable to break into the rolls of undeveloped sound track to remove the selected scenes, due to the possibility of damaging the negative in handling. Hence, at the end of a production sea- son there would be several million feet of sound track negative stored in vaults, for which there was no use. In order to avoid this waste, a system of pre- selecting the takes, first introduced at the RKO Studios in Hollywood, was adopted at Warner Bros. Studios, and a most gratifying saving has been achieved with no delay in film processing, no im- pairment of sound quality, and no ex- penditure for new equipment or modifica- tion of existing equipment. The “NG” scenes are placed in con- tainers marked with the numbers of the rolls from which they were removed, and such other information as is needed to identify them should they be required for reference or emergency. The “hold” scenes are placed in other containers marked and stored in vaults under the name of the picture for which the film was recorded. If at the end of 72 hours the “NG” scenes are not called for, they are removed from their containers, spliced into 1000-foot rolls and used for print- *Reprinted from September, 1933, S. M. P. E. Journal.. ^'•"Warner Bros. West Coast Studios, Holly- wood, Calif. n Sound Film ing dailies, etc. As three feet of film ahead of each scene is fogged when operating the recording machine, this length of film is torn off and discarded. The splicer has been so adjusted that the scraper does not remove the emul- sion over the full width of the patch, but leaves a very small margin on each edge so that there will be no white lines of clear film after the patch has been made. This avoids annoying “pops” in reproauction, and unless the reproduced volume is very great, the patches are not ordinarily audible. Due to the fact that different emul- sions are used in recording, during any period of several months or more, the emulsion number is marked on each roll of film sent to the laboratory, so that each roll of spliced stock can be made up of sections of the same emulsion. If different emulsions are spliced into the same roll, serious variations in print transmission are likely to occur due to differences of speed of the several emul- sions. By printing all the dailies with the picture aperture open, the negative track is practically entirely fogged out, so that there is no danger of confusing it with the positive track on the opposite side. Even if the negative track is not fogged out by this means, it can still be readily distinguished, as it becomes ex- tremely dense due to the high gamma to which it is developed. The “hold” scenes are stored until the picture has been released, as occasionally in the editing of the picture, the action or sound in a choice scene is not suitable; in which case the “hold” scene is ordered processed for inclusion in the picture. When the picture is released, the “hold” scenes not called for are removed from the vault, spliced into rolls as are the “NG” scenes, and used for printing, thereby using all the film that was not originally processed. The saving represented by the pre- selection method has been quite appreci-