British Kinematography (1951)

May, l&5i BRAINS TRUST ON THE KlNEMA 157 ing in the rewinding room, when in fact, he has not been at fault. Should the ventilation system in kinemas be of the upwards or downwards draught type? Would the Trust give its opinion oj the advantages and disadvantages of the down draught system? Mr. Henton: The answer is neither. I will deal with the second question first. The upward system is obviously going to cause the dust to rise, and people have to inhale it. The second objection is that the air introduced into the auditorium is at a slightly lower temperature than that inside, therefore it is uncomforable, especially for ladies who are thinly clothed. The downward system, which is preferred in America, is entirely objectionable in this country, mainly because we smoke. To clear the smoke it is necessary for the air to move at a certain rate; if it moves at that rate a draught is produced. Where we come to the question of the velocity of air movement, the movement is first effected by propellers or fans, and also due to its temperature in relation to the auditorium temperature. If the air is warm inside it will go out fairly slowly, but if it is higher it will move faster; therefore it is difficult to keep a uniform speed. In view of the smoking habit in this country, I find it far better for the air to be given a sharp horizontal movement, causing it to move fast enough to maintain its direction of flow. Finally the downward system is much more costly than other types and further, a secondary apparatus is required to reverse the draught in case of fire. As the film picture area has rounded corners and it is generally considered that curved objects are aesthetically more acceptable than straight lines, can the Trust give the reason for the present-day preference for square corners on so many kinema screens? Mr. Pulman: I think the answer is that once upon a time somebody must have found that the corner pieces that are used to give rounded corners to screens became de tached, and probably they had not got a ladder to replace them, and then somebody perhaps saw the right-angle corner picture and decided that a revolution in motion picture screens had arrived. That is the only conclusion I can possibly arrive at in suggesting how it all came about. Mr. Kadleigh: I do not entirely agree with the question that curves are obviously better aesthetically than straight lines. I think they have an equal merit ; you can make just as good a design with straight lines as you can with curves. I think aesthetically that it does not matter whether you have square corners or curves. You can make an equally good proscenium arch and an equally good auditorium with either. What does matter is the proportion between the length and height of the picture and the size of the screen in relation to the size of the auditorium. If you have too small or too large a screen it is uncomfortable, and there must be a direct and quite scientific relationship between the size of the auditorium and the size and brightness of the picture. Needless to say, the sight lines from each seat should be correct. Mr. Ellis: I do not understand why some theatres have square and some round corners but there is one point — the camera aperture, printer aperture and most projector apertures — all have rounded corners. Having regard to the fact that the public are accustomed to poor quality of sound from the normal household radio receiver, does the Trust consider that optimum sound quality in kinemas is unnecessary because it is not appreciated by the public? Mr. Garling: Whilst I think we can agree that home radio receivers do not have a fidelity comparable with that which can be obtained from up-to-date sound film reproducer equipment, I think it is wrong to try to use the lower standard as a basis for deciding that you do not need optimum sound reproduction in kinemas. First, in the home you have an entirely different set of circumstances: rooms are small, acoustics are probably reasonably good, you have no picture — as long as we are not con