Canadian Film Weekly (Jul 7, 1954)

ee ee —— EEE ee July 7, 1954 Vol. 19, No. 27 July 7, 1954 HYE BOSSIN, Managing Editor BEN HALTER, Production Editor Address all communications— The Managing Editor, CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Canada Entered as Second Class Matter Published by Film Publications of Canada, Limited 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada — Phone WAInut 4-3707 Price $3.00 per year. TODD-A.0. SYSTEM (Continued from Page 1) ent. As with Cinerama, the demonstration opened with a roller coaster scene, then went on to the Madrid bull ring and the gondoliers and canals of Venice. Michael Todd and American Optical are behind Todd-A. O., for which the technical development was guided by the latter’s Dr. Brian O’Brien. The gain in cost over Cinerama is considerable, since many theatres need no alterations in auditorium seating to use the Todd-A. O. system. The projectors, now being manufactured in Holland for sale at about $4,000, will handle standard 35 mm. film and the 65 mm. of the new process. Cinerama required three projectors and seats had to be removed to make room for them, whereas Todd-A.O. takes a single projector and eliminates the need to knit three images together. During the second half of the 45-minute showing, tests of dance numbers made in experimenting for Oklahoma! were screened. The ability of the huge screen, almost identical in dimensions with that of the screen used for Cinerama, to portray intimate story drama was exhibited by a brief showing of part of the Smoke House sequence in the Rodgers-Hammerstein musical, with one character on the screen. The bowl-shaped screen used in connection with Todd-A. O. was 51 feet wide and 25 feet high. Along the curve, which has a depth of 13 feet, the screen measured 60 feet. Todd-A. O. is projected with a 2 to 1 ratio, compared with 2.55 to 1 projection of CinemaScope. The film used for the test run in the demonstration was 55 mm. which is three and a half times the area and two and a quarter times the width of standard 35 mm. film. The scenes were photographed at 30 frames per second, instead of the normal 24 frames, in order to permit faster action. Four lenses were used on the camera, ranging from the 128 degree wide-angle lens down through 37 degrees. CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY Russ Daylight Projection (Continued from Page 1) a great desire for it by teachers and in 1935 he “finally designed a device which has since come to be called the DKSN (Novitsky’s daylight projection system).” It was tested that summer in a 500seat outdoor theatre in a park and hardly any changes were needed. The paper, sent to Canadian Film Weekly by Artkino Pictures (Canada) Limited, tells of some of the development and the reception of the system: “Soviet illuminating engineers have provided theoretical substantiation of the possibility of obtaining satisfactory pictures on a screen no matter what the lighting conditions or which method of daylight projection is used. “The problem of favorable adaptation of vision has also been solved. It has been observed that when the sun shines into the eyes of spectators at a sharp angle, reception of the visible picture becomes unsatisfactory. It was suggested that white semi-transparent curtains be hung up indoors, while out-ofdoors the difficulty was resolved "The Police Story’ Paula Raymond has checked into Allied Artists studio for one of the top roles in The Police Story, which stars Gary Merrill and Jan Sterling. Trio Named by MGM Tony Martin, Russ Tamblyn and Vic Damone will comprise the trio of gobs in love with three girls, Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Debbie Reynolds, in the MGM musical, Hit the Deck. Katzman Signs Cugat Columbia producer Sam Katzman has signed Xavier Cugat and his wife, singer Abbe Lane, to an exclusive contract calling for two starring pictures in 1954. Their first film will be Chicago Syndicate. by facing the seats north-east or east, “Since the difference between the brightness of the screen and the surrounding light is only slight, daylight cinema is much less tiring. Spectators reported that visibility from both the front and back seats was much better than in the ordinary cinema, that the projected pictures seemed more distinct and stereoscopic and their color more natural. “Some people feared that daylight would interfere with the artistic reception of the film. True, we are not accustomed to seeing films in the light. Nevertheless, spectators report that the sense of oddity is felt only the first time, and even then only for the first few minutes, after which the spectator simply forgets that he is watching a film in broad daylight rather than in ,darkness. “Scientific institutes, higher educational institutions and schools have studied the advisability of showing films and lantern slides in daylight or artificial lighting in the classroom. In the Moscow Institute of Municipal Engineering adoption of daylight projection has increased the classroom demonstration of films, lantern slides and diagrams nearly fivefold. Now that tiresome preliminaries like drawing the blinds and so on are no longer involved, the screen has been converted into an ordinary visual aid, comparable with a drawing on the blackboard, except that it is much more accurate and much quicker. Moreover, instead of dealing with static images, students can now follow the actual development of whole processes. “Daylight projection allows students to take notes and copy diagrams’ straight from _ the screen. The showings are held under normal lighting conditions, with fresh air pouring into the auditorium from the open windows.” eee "SALT OF THE EARTH' OK Executive of Local 173, Toronto IA boothmen’s unit, decided not to follow the precedent of some USA locals and hinder the exhibition of Salt of the Earth, feature film made in Southwest USA by persons with alleged Communist connections and opinions. A press screening was cancelled when the projectionist was advised to await a ruling from his local. Ontario censors had previously passed the film, which will open in September at the Variety Theatre. DONALD M. GOVAN PASSES One of Canada’s first motion picture stage and set designers, Donald M. Govan, 66, passed away recently following a heart attack. A native of Tayvallich, Scotland, he apprenticed in cabinet making and antique furtniture before coming to Canada in 1925. Since joining the staff of Associated Screen News in 1931, Mr. Gowan had been responsible for the building of many of the sets used in the production of Canadian Cameos, features and industrial motion pictures. He leaves one daughter, Mrs. John T. Skinner, and three sons, Fred, Donald and Duncan, all of Montreal. Page 3 UR BUSINESS AL, wil A Taylor peus PATTERSON, manager of the Bay Theatre, North Bay, recently sent me a copy of an editorial which appeared in the Daily Nugget of that city. It is headed: “Movie Industry Makes Comeback.” It tells how our business has survived the body blow of TV and by way of new processes, better quality in story and technique and more color in films, is attracting 5,000,000 USA fans more a week than in 1952. The editorial is entirely upbeat and should have a healthy effect on film attendance in that city. 1 * te The Council of Motion Picture Organizations, with headquarters in New York, has been running a series of paid ads in Editor & Publisher, the magazine which is widely read by newspaper publishers all over the United States. These articles tell the story of the motion picture industry and its problems today and elicit sympathetic understanding from the newspapers. It is claimed that in the recent campaign for the removal of the 20 per cent federal amusement tax in the United States, which ended so successfully for the theatres, these articles were very helpful in obtaining a good press. Subsequent articles have dealt with the movie code, the place of the theatre in community economy, with traditional friendship between newspapers and show people, the new _ techniques, double features and other matters on which it is good business to be understood by the newspapers. It represents money well spent by the industry and will probably be helpful in many ways not readily apparent at the moment. * 1 a In Canada we have no similar agency organized to help the industry in the same way. If we had, it might be very good business to send to other newspapers copies of the Daily Nugget editorial so as to encourage them to write similar articles. The sale of tickets at our boxoffices could certainly be helped by this sort of thing. A better understanding with our newspaper friends will secure for us a number of advantages which are important to the welfare of our business. The organization in operation of such a medium costs money but the kind of money which is infinitesimal in comparison with the results which could be realized. No profit insurance has yet been devised for our business but this sort of thing comes very close.