American cinematographer (Aug 1937)

August, 1937 • American Cinematographer 319 hand or with greater lengths spooled on 1000 or 2000 foot reels. For the former utilization special non-scratching film channels are pro- vided, while the inclined back of the stand makes an excellent runway through which the film may be fed into a basket on the floor. For the latter use, with longer lengths of film on reels, double-acting spindles are fitted, both to sound and picture heads. These will take up the film in either direction. A representative of this magazine was privileged to be the first to edit a reel of film with the new model. The projecting feature quickly proved its worth for studying detailed action. as in matching close-up and long shot cuts and synchronizing lip move- ments to sound-track, while the in- stant change from the large picture to the smaller image seen through the magnifier, or to the clear aper- ture for marking a selected frame, was invaluable. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN MOTION PICTURE LIGHTING Abridged from a paper presented at the spring convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, in Hollywood, 1937 By ELMER C. RICHARDSON, A.S.C. I N PREVIOUS discussions of this subject it has been pointed out that modern lighting technique evolved, bit by bit, from the very early necessity of sufficient illumina- tion to permit an exposure. It was soon found that projecting beams of light on to set and actors from a variety of angles gave improved ef- fects of depth and roundness. The development of lighting from that time on has been closely inter- locked with the development of light projectors which afford a more pre- cise control of these beams. This is well illustrated by compar- ing the custom of only a few years ago with current practice, especially as concerns “general” lighting. This phase of lighting, as its name implies, deals with maintaining a definite overall exposure level of illumination throughout the set. The necessary intermediate tones and highlights are built up from this by the more intense beams from spot- lighting units. Within the past year this rather characterless overall lighting has been definitely on the wane. New materials and equipment make a more specific lighting of sets both desirable and possible. There is, moreover, a new concep- tion of set lighting. For several years after the inhibiting introduc- tion of sound a set seemed regarded more nearly as something to be illuminated than as something to be lighted. Key Lighting Gains Today, in addition to lighting the set to give some illusion of depth, and to keeping it in accord with the mood of the action, many of our best cinematographers hold that the light- ing of a set must make it a decora- tive part of the composition. Over and above the familiar tech- nique of making the set a lighting composition of contrasted highlights, halftones and shadows, cinematog- raphers are more and more fre- quently employing the artifice of casting decorative shadow patterns on otherwise flat wall areas. The technique of “key lighting,” while it cannot be said wholly to have come into use only during the last few years, has certainly gained in importance. Fundamentally, it refers to the logical practice of light- ing a set directionally. That is, key- ing the lighting to some logical angle of lighting, usually suggested by the design of the set. This does not mean that all the lighting should come from this direc- tion, but that the predominating highlights should appear to come from some source established within the scene. Beneath this key lighting Elmer C. Richardson will come the still vitally necessary modeling lighting, fill-in lighting, etc. The lighting of people is too in- tricate to discuss here. It is an in- tensely individualized matter, varying not only with the technique of the individual cinematographer but with the requirements of each individual star. Strides in Color Due to various limitations, natural color cinematography was felt to re- quire flatter lightings. Within the past very few months color cinema- tography has made immense strides toward parity with monochrome. The process itself has been improved to give the cinematographer more lati- tude, and newer and more efficient arc spotlighting equipment has been made available. At present, these units are used exactly the way the incandescent Solarspots are used in black-and- white. The arrangement of modern lightings in color cinematography is virtually identical with black-and- white practice. The formerly dominant general lighting units have virtually vanished save from unusually large sets. Speaking conservatively, over 90 per cent of the lighting of a Technicolor scene is now effected by spotlighting equipment. The methods and effects are identical with the best mono- chrome practice. In some respects, it may even be said that color lighting methods and equipment are in advance of those commonly used in black-and-white. This, however, is more for economic reasons than technical ones. For color it was necessary to obtain new lighting equipment throughout, as the older types were deficient in such qualities as color, uniformity of burn- ing, silence, and controllability. In black-and-white this procure- ment has not been spurred by abso- lute necessity, and is of course slower, since there exists a vast supply of passable though obsolescent equip- ment. However, as the newer concept of set lighting is becoming more univer- sal, this procurement is accelerating, and it will not be unduly long until we will find the old-time concept of set-lighting as largely floodlighting extinct and replaced by precision lighting of set as well as players with the more exact tools of today’s most modern spotlights.