British Kinematography (1950)

22 BRITISH K1NEMATOGRAPHY Vol. 16, No. 1 tion gives precise information on two methods of producing the transparent ring. But even though standardisation of films should become fully effective, there will still remain the problem of the human element. Standardisation will not render extinct that race of pseudo-projectionists who are convinced that their audiences are more interested in seeing their scratches and heiroglyphics than in watching the picture ; although the double reel certainly restricts their scope. The ultimate need is for something beyond the abilities of the B.S.I, to secure — a standard projectionist. DISCUSSION Major C. H. Bell : The introduction of the 2,000 ft. standard reel is something which I think this industry should for its own sake drive as hard as possible, because 90 per cent, of the mutilation of film takes place on Saturday night. You have only to see the way in which the film comes off the rewinder. I am very happy to know that in America they are going over very fast to the standard reel. The film goes out on 2,000 ft. spools and it never leaves the spool. The film mutilation from which we suffer to-day is automatically decreasing. Dr. F. S. Hawkins : There is perhaps one direction in which there is a British standard which intimately concerns the projectionist — the one on screen brightness. Normally the equipment when first installed in a kinema gives a screen of adequate brightness, but there is much the projectionist can do to maintain that equipment year in, year out. At the beginning the lenses, port holes and screen are clean : after a while the port-holes and lenses may become dirty and the screen may lose reflectivity and change colour, and the screen brightness will drop tremendously. Good maintenance will greatly diminish this drop, and one must remember that the comfort of the patron in seeing the picture is greatly dependent upon adequate brightness of the screen. There is another aspect — the effect of standards upon technical progress. Sometimes they will stimulate it. In this particular case one of the difficulties has been to find a method which would enable the projectionist to measure the brightness of his screen. It is easy to measure the illumination falling upon it ; a method of measuring the reflected brightness has not been easy to find. Those of you who have read the publications, both in America and in this country, will realise that the standards have stimulated the development of a suitable meter. But this same standard possibly illustrates that unless it is applied cautiously it may hold up progress. The appendix to the standard states that it applies only to the present prints, and that if it were possible to increase the brightness considerably — I believe the figure was five times — prints with a much greater range of gradation could be used. Therefore it behoves us to bear this in mind, and not think that a standard of so many foot-lamberts is settled for ever. Mr. A. E. Ellis : I would like to support what was said by Mr. Cricks. I have had a great deal to do with getting the double reel on to the market and I should like to make a recommendation that we do press that it be accepted more quickly than is the case. There are still many of the British and American companies that are not sending out double reels. My experience is that mutilation has dropped considerably with the use of the double reels. Mention was made of perforation damage decreasing — this is the case. Most of our troubles are from scratching which is due to bad handling; that can be, and should be, eliminated. The cutting and carving of fronts and ends of reels is a thing of the past as far as my company is concerned, because every feature is doubled up. We can get through far more work with less staff and give more satisfaction. On the matter of screen illumination, I do not think sufficient has been done so far to get the standard adopted. There is a theatre not far from here used considerably for trade shows, and it does not matter how dark a print you have, there they bleach it for you ; they have too much light. Last week at a large suburban house, I saw a film in which the picture was so dark, you could not see it to advantage. When we pass a first print we are sometimes told, " You are turning out stuff that is too light." At the back of our minds we know that if you give a theatre a dark print, the projectionist may use all the current he has got and still not put over a good picture. If, on the other hand, a light print is sent out, the light can be cut back, but if we could get down to a standard, we could say " this is our standard density," and almost everybody would be satisfied. All are not agreed on whether film should go out on a spool or not. There was a disagreement as to the centre : some favoured the standard two-inch bakelite centre, but my experience has been that when we have used these bakelite centres they come back crushed in the centre of a double reel. The usual small centre is good enough provided that a small bobbin of hard wood is put in the centre to take the strain. I do not agree that standards should be international, but I find that standards in this industry are inclined to be American — I feel J