The Cine Technician (1939)

-juty) r937 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 71 Lab Topics Slump I'd like to say a lot about studios remaining idle, hundreds being thrown out of work, quota w(r)angling, etc., but my job is lab topics. So far the trade and newsreel labs have not felt the draught : the newsreels must go on and fortunately all American pictures are printed in this country, thanks to the tariff on imported prints. The tale is different with the studio laboratories, but maybe soon there will be an awakening in the British film industry, then everything in the garden will be lovely. What we seem sorely to need is a leader, a man who would have the backing of the Government behind him and the interest of the British film industry at heart. Economy in Stock The following should be of general interest. It is taken from the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, volume XXVII, No. 2, and is headed "Preselection versus the Split Film Method," by H. G. Tasker of Universal Picture Corporation : — "At least one studio that has been using 17.1 mm. film for sound recording has found it more economical to return to 35 mm. film and employ, instead, the pre-selection method, with the result that less processing is done, but much more film used. The 171 mm. method consisted in recording along one edge of the 35 mm. film, then reversing the film in the magazines and recording along the opposite edge. The film was processed in the 35 mm. width, and then split before printing. The sound dailies were also on 17 J mm., and the resulting savings for an average large studio amounted to around 4,000 dollars a month. In practising this method all sound negative must be processed. In the pre-selection method the director designates 0. K. takes and Hold takes, all others are marked N.G. All but the O.K. takes are broken out of the roll before processing. Since only one edge of the film has been recorded upon, the N.G. takes (and later the Hold takes) may be spliced together and the opposite edge used for printing sound dailies : thus effecting two economies, in that the N.G. negative is not processed and the daily print stock is obtained without cost. I hese economies alone amount to around 3,500 dollars a month for an average studio, and nearly off-set the economies obtained by the 17i mm. method. There remains, however, a reserve of 1 to 2 millions of feet of N.G. stock per year per studio. New ways of using this stock, including le.tders, effects negative, effects positive, and even action dailies, have made the pre-selection method definitely more economical than the split-film method." L.C. Who in the trade doesn't know Leo Cass ? If you happen to run against him don't mention the day when Jim South sold him somebody else's scarf for a couple of bob and parcelled it up nicely for his journey home. Leo was so pleased with his bargain that in the train the same night he undid the parcel to show a couple of pals what value he'd got for his money. Imagine his dismay and the chuckles of everyone else in the compartment when a dirty old towel came to light. There were ructions the following morning ! Still Leo knows his hpyo. when lie sees it, and if you want any information about photographic chemicals or formulae he is your man. Unbiased Technicalities I've received the following heartfelt lament from Albert Dyas, lab. member : — "I'm just a rather puzzled film printer who, although he works in a darkroom, has some bright ideas as to how this industry is carried on. Before 1 was a printer I worked in the chemical room. People from the sound and camera departments, who came in from time to time for quantities of developer and hypo., looked to me as though they were walking banks and seemed to have a new suit every week. One of them asked me for some developer. I said 'Which kind ? ' After much pondering he asked me if it mattered ! I convinced another that perforation holes were invented for Friese-Greene by a Frenchman named Perforer. We used to have a photographic chemist for whom we made up developer. One day, there being no-one about, he decided to help himself— he took two lots of sulphite from two barrels that he thought must be carbonate and sulphite. Subsequently he asked us if our chemicals varied much, as his developer was behaving peculiarly ! I read an article some weeks ago about a film director who says he started at nothing a week (I wouldn't like to tell you what my mother would say if I came home at the end of the week with this !). After six months he was an Assistant Director at £15 per week. Then he had the misfortune to meet with an accident. During convalescence he saved /1,000, and with financial assistance made a successful first film. He signed a contract and hopes to have £50,000 by the end of the year, since he says he only spends {'10 per week. I seem to remember Alfred Hitchcock saying : After six years progressing in various departments I thought I was in the Director's chair by proxy. There are many men in the industry who would be willing to study in order to get their break until their heads were misshapen with knowledge, but they have not had the good fortune, which often seems so essential in our industry, to start with financial equipment." Gamma. Library Additions Recent additions to the A.C.T. library, for use of members, include : — "Money Behind the Screen," by F. I). Klingender and Stuart Legg, "Photography," by Dr. C. F. K. Mees, "Amateur Movies and How to Make Them," by Alex. Strasser, "The Romance of the Movies," by Leslie Wood, " Icy Hell," by Will E. Hudson, and " Elephant Dance," by Frances Hubbard Flaherty. i «. Journal" Cover Our readers will have noticed in our last issue that we lu\ e changed the Journal cover. It retains the essential character of the previous design, but makes it possible to see at a glance which issue it is and what are the main contents. The cover will be set in a different colour for each issue. Both designs were the work of Joanna Macfadyen, A.R.I.B.A., A. A. Dip., wife of one of our members.