British Kinematography (1953)

July, 1953 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS regrettable but not surprising, that they tend to develop an apathy as regards things which happen outside their own particular studios or in other sections of the trade. In these vital days of rapid technical advancement, 1 look forward to a considerable increase in the membership, not only of the Film Production Division, but of the Society as a whole. 1 would now like to turn from the general to the particular and refer to a few recent problems, especially those concerned with film production, some of which were reported in the Review of Technical Developments already mentioned. Colour First, referring to colour, the review draws attention to the complex situation in this country in regard to the release printing of negatives made in America on integral tripack systems. Due to the dollar position, negatives shot on, for instance, Ansco or Eastman Colour, have been printed on Technicolor, Gevacolor and Ferraniacolor. This flexibility is likely to increase with the mixing of different types of negative material in the same subject, for instance, if a specially fast stock is used for night or underwater photography. The colour laboratories seem to be quite willing to make special arrangements to cope with such differences in negative material, which, under certain conditions, will give the lighting cameraman more freedom to achieve the effects he wants. Technicolor is now producing a threestrip negative which is balanced for interior lighting at a colour temperature of 3350° K (with tolerance down to 3200° K and up to 3400° K) as against the old H.I. arc light rating of 5400° K.2 This enables excellent results to be obtained with incandescent illumination at key lighting intensities as low as about 150 ft. candles compared with 600 to 1000 ft. candles formerly required. Nevertheless, special C.P. tungsten bulbs are required, since the standard M.P. tungsten bulbs for black-and-white photography, give a colour temperature of 3000° to 3200° K only. The running costs of C.P. bulbs are high— three or four times as much as M.P. bulbs— due largely to their short life. If these emulsions or the processing could be adjusted so that a very slightly lower colour temperature could be accepted, around 3200 K, then a tungsten bulb of relatively long life and low cost could be used for both colour and black-and-white photography. Experiments are taking place and if successful will greatly reduce the cost of making films in colour. Several integral tripack systems are already balanced for the lower colour temperature. Indirectly, such developments will enable the mobile studio system, used up to now for black-and-white photography, to use colour. Turning to 35mm. camera equipment, the Coronation has provided the incentive to accelerate the development of long focus and zoom lenses, in which British firms are well to the forefront. These lenses are primarily of interest to newsreel and television, but will no doubt be taken up by feature film producers in due course. For special production work in difficult locations, such as in wildest Africa or on the snowy heights of the Alps, the zoom lens will overcome many physical problems. We also watch with interest the progress of the electronic camera, which is readily adaptable for photographing pictures for anamorphic wide screen projectors. It is strange that at this stage in the development of our techniques, camera motor-drives should require reconsideration. The fact is, there are few D.C. camera motors to fit in blimps which can be made to operate consistently at or very near to 24 frames per second. For instance, notice how the speed of troops marching on newsreels varies from shot to shot, with troops getting in and out of step with the music. This is due to speeds varying from 22 to 26 frames per second with different cameras as a result of insufficiently accurate tachometers and under-powered motors. When sound is being recorded with a synchropulse or similar system, picture camera motor speed affects the pitch of the sound when transferred from tape to photographic 35mm. track. It