British Kinematography (1951)

January, 1951 HARRIS : PRE-PLANNING PRODUCTION 29 decided upon only after discussion and argument amongst the production unit and actors, and after seeing the rushes through several times. It is certain, therefore, that any recording device fitted to the Television Aid would have to be capable of playing back any number of times, and even then it is problematical how far the small size of the display might prevent the those fine points at present full-size screen at rushes. This diffuse survey will clear picture of Operational the Technical Objectives But it may have suggested is possible in " operational appreciation of debated on tne have given no Research nor of in Preplanning. that objectivity problems. DISCUSSION Mr. T. S. Lyndon-Haynes : In your analysis of the possibility of rolling together sequences, was consideration given to the fact that it would probably be necessary to call artistes specially? The Author : A sub-analysis was made to determine whether the cost of calling artistes was compensated for by the shortened production time. Mr. C. Brunel: In the savings contemplated, what proportion might be put down to studio hire, artistes' fees, technicians' salaries, craftsmen's salaries, building charges, etc. ? The Author : We took it that there were two major factors that contributed to the cost of a picture: a fixed charge of director's salary, top artistes, and so on, and a charge which goes broadly with the time spent on the floor — sometimes including studio hire. You are saving quite a lot if you can save time on the floor, but not proportionately in the whole cost of the film. Mr. K. Gordon: Has the television viewing device or the rush machine been in active use? The Author : The rapid rush machine has not been in active use. The television aid has in fact been in use in the Rank Studios. Mr. R. H. Cricks : It is my opinion that many scenes that are retaken could well have been used in the original form. In rushes, for example, I have seen shots scrapped through fluffs in dialogue, yet such shots seemed more natural than the accepted shot, because they were more natural. People do fluff their lines in real life. The Author: In America, Dr. Gallop invites a standard audience to view a film ; the process is to give the audience a number of handles, and as the audience watches the film the handles are moved in accordance with what they think of the picture. I decided to try it out in this country ; if you can get a curve which repeats itself, quite obviously it has something significant. We started off with " Brief Encounter " ; with five different factors, we got correlation factors of 0.5 to 0.6, which is the sort of thing you would not get by accident. Mr. B. Honri: Over-riding everything is the fact that if the story is good, technical faults are not noticed ; the worse the picture, the more do technical defects appear. When you add together all the factors, you have the difference between a first feature and a joint first feature — a difference of four times the income on the picture. Mr. C. Tomrley: In plotting these statistics, do you make allowance for faults which are afterwards corrected by opticals? The Author: Allowance was already made for " dodges." Mr. Alan: Was it your Operational Research organisation that arrived at the basic theories on which Independent Frame production was undertaken? If so, have you since analysed the practical results? The Author: No, we did not design the Independent Frame method. There is a lot of good in the process, but there were too many things tried under one heading ; those that were good were submerged in those that were not, and the total result was that I.F. was not so much less costly than other methods of picture making. A COURSE OF LECTURES ON SENSITOMETRY A course of lectures on Sensitometry will commence on February 26, 1951, to be given by Mr. I. B. M. Lomas, A.R.P.S. ' The lectures will take place at Kay's (West End) Theatre, Movietone House, 22 Soho Square, W.l, on Mondays, at 7.30 p.m., as follows: — February 6, 1951. — " Early Work in the Field of Photography." Brief survey of the most important contributions to photography during the last hundred years. Detailed examination of the pioneer work of Hurter and Driffield. March 5, 1951. — " Sensitometers and Densitometers." Intensity-scale and time-scale sensitometers. Constant light sources. The Eastman lib sensitometer. Grease-spot photometers ; comparative wedge densitometers ; polarization photometer ; photo-electric densitometers. March 12, 1951. — " Characteristic Curves and Developers." D/log E curves ; the effect of exposure ; reversal effects ; gamma-infinity. Negative and positive developers ; effects of each component in a developer and examination of some of the problems encountered. March 19, 1951. — " Sensitivity of an Emulsion." Various accepted methods of speed determination and their shortcomings. The importance of knowing the spectral emission of light sources used