The Cine Technician (1939)

func-July, 193; 1 HE (IN E-TEC HNICI A N 55 The Young Idea ON Thursday, March 18th, the students of tire Regent Street Polytechnic School of Kinematography showed nine sub-standard one-reelers they had made. Mr. Hibbert, the Principal of the School, in his opening remarks, stressed the fact that each of these films was purely an individual job. That is to say, each student was his own scenarist, cameraman, director and editor. It is, therefore, understandable that the films were very open to criticism in detail, but the impression they gave on the whole was a remarkably good one. The Polytechnic course in Kinematography lasts two years and these films are made by the students at the end of their first year. The ability shown suggests that, after their further year's training, some of the students should be well equipped to attempt on a professional career. The snag, of course, is that there is no definite entrance from such a course into the industry. It is a pity this should be so, and provides a further argument for an Apprenticeship Scheme in the industry along the lines consistently urged by A.C.T., and the necessity for which Miss Tejeune stressed in her article reprinted in the previous issue of the Journal. The most striking of the films shown was "EightThirty-One," by S. H. V. Durell, which portrayed the routine of the suburbanite's daily journey to town. This showed a good grasp of three-dimensional camera angle and had some interesting dissolves in which attention had been paid to composition in the dissolve itself, a quality all too rare in the professional cinema. Durell had the most naturally dramatic subject to deal with, and some of the other films, with more prosaic subjects, suffered by contrast. The films were accompanied by music from the non-synch, and by a spoken commentary delivered by microphone by the authors. The commentaries lor "From Forest to Showroom" (C. B. Heath) and "Brickbats" (M. W. MacLaren) showed ingenuity and counter-balanced the sometimes un-cinematic nature of the mute. I he other films were : "Territorial ("amp 1936" (J. PhilipsonMoss) ; "Milk and its Products" (B. Westwood) ; "Quarrying" (G. A. Trickett) ; "City Street" (J. W. Ritchie); "Water" (P. I). Hunt) ; and "East Goes West" (Sing). While varying in cinematic merit, they all showed good observation. The commonest fault was the lark of sense of tempo, an inability to Range the audience length of a shot or sequence of shots. It is hard to throw away shots that it has taken pains to photograph, but it is a ruthlessness that has to be learned. While it is obviously good that the Polytechnic students should experience the responsibility of these one-man films, I think that if it is the intention to train them for probable entry into film studios, it would be valuable to have a film made each year, on a larger scale, by the students working as a team, to teach them something of that multifarious co-operation needed in the commercial studio. An interesting afternoon. Sidney Cole. NEWMAN-SINCLAIR 4 • Price from £120 Send for Price List. AUTO KINE' CAMERA IS THE MOST MARVELLOUS CLOCKWORK DRIVEN CAMERA IN THE WORLD. It drives 200 feet Standard (35 mm.) Kine Film with one wind of the mechanism. It is reloaded in a few seconds. JAMES A. SINCLAIR & CO. LTD. 3 Whitehall, London, S.W.1 SOUND RECORDING FOR FILMS How often has a good film been marred by lack of attention to detail ! In sound recording as in other branches of film technique, slapdash methods are out of date. That is why an ever increasing number of producers REPEATEDLY ENTRUST THEIR RECORDING TO LEEVERS-RICH. • RECORDING STUDIO • MOBILE FILM UNITS • DISC RECORDING • PLAY BACK UNITS zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz LEEVERS-RICH AND COMPANY LIMITED TELEPHONE MUSEUM 4 53 ?00 LO BERNERS ST. NDON, W,1