The Cine Technician (1939)

74 T H K C I X E-T KG II X I < I A X June-July, 1937 Technical Abstracts A New Sound Recording Film Kodak Kimitcd has now made available in this country its new "1357" type Sound Recording Film, which has been especially designed to meet the present requirements of variable area recording systems and in particular the R.C.A. Ultra-Violet system." The new sound film differs from the Kodak "Blue Label" Sound Recording material in two respects, for, while retaining the high resolving power of the Blue Label film, the new "1357" type film has considerably higher speed, coupled with a higher rate of development, both of which have been obtained without increasing the fog values above those obtained on the "Blue Label" stock. In ,1 direct comparison between the "Blue Label" and the "1357" film, it must not be assumed that the former is in any sense an inferior product. The "Blue Label" material is eminently suited to the conditions of variable density recording systems, where low gamma values are required, whereas the "1357" type, with its higher rate of development, is not designed to fulfil these particular requirements. Under variable area recording conditions, however, the new type film presents certain advantages over the "Blue Label" film. At the present time it is felt that on certain sound systems the "Blue Label" film has not sufficient speed to produce the required track density value without resorting to over-development, with a consequent loss in finality, due to increased development fog. The new "1357" type film is, however, fast enough to produce the required sound track density at a normal development time (within, say, a range of gamma values from 20 to 2*40), so that abnormal development fog is not produced. -Kodak Report, No. 58. Recording Improvements Every improvement now available in sound technique has been used for the first time in "Maytime," a new Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald picture. Among the features used are the new four-ribbon pushpull valve, new reproducer head, stabilised film movement and the Shearer multiple horn system, as well as the latest Western Electric sound. Studio press agents enthusiastically ballyhoo it as "all angle recording." International Photographer, April, 1937. Francita-Realita Colour Process This process is an additive system, employing three quartersize images, taken by means of a beam-splitting system. The film projected at Bush House was a record of the funeral of Marshal Lyautey, taken in Algiers. While in topical subjects the perfection of studio work is not to be expected, the best of the shots showed a very high standard of colour. One shot which particularly impressed me showed a cream motor-car, with chromium fittings, and behind it natives in white costumes ; the range of white and near-white shades was particularly good. Another excellent shot, .1 close-up of the cortege, showed to perfection the brilliant colouring of the uniforms and of the gold-tasselled flag draping the coffin, contrasting strongly with the glossy black of the horses. Definition was in most places surprisingly good. The film was projected at the normal current of 30 amps. ; although the screen width is actually just over 8 ft., the size of the projected picture was about 10 ft. My only doubt is whether the level of illumination of the ordinary kinema will be sufficiently high to do justice to the colouring. I was shown also a particularly interesting experiment — a subtractive print made from the same negative ; the tiny separation images of the negative had been enlarged to full picture size, and coloured by a three-colour subtractive system, perfected in Erance. This process is only in its experimental stages and the length shown demonstrated the use of different dyes. The best examples, while exceedingly good, were strangely different from the additive copy ; colours were brighter, and definition was equal to the best we have seen — a fact which proves that any lack of definition attributable to the tiny images is not due to lack of resolving power of the negative, but exists either in the print or in the projection optical system. — Kinematograph Weekly, 1 4 37. Lighting Equipment Modernization Within the past year and a half, an entirely new type of lamp, born and bred of film studio heritage, has come into wide use. An outstanding example is the "Solarspot," evolved by Mole-Richardson and engineered on radically new principles, with the specific problems of the cameraman in mind. Paramount feature of these lamps is silkily smooth distribution of light at all beam-spreads, especially when the beam is spread out to the degree most often used in studio lighting. Illumination is even from one edge of the beam to the other. There are no "hot spots" or shadows, and the beam may be flooded out to a spread twice the widest beam possible with a mirror-lamp. At the same time, when concentrated to a spot, the beam of a "Solarspot" is highly potent. This is accomplished by a new type of lens, the "Morinc" Fresnel-type. It looks as though someone had tried to make a bull's-eye target out of a big disc of glass. Actually, it is half-a-dozen lenses rolled into one. Each of the circular "steps" has its own lenticular curavature, suiting it to just the work that part of the lens has to do. Behind this lens is the lamp-globe, and behind the ^lobe is an efficient spherical (not parabolic) mirror, which picks up the light radiated by the rear side of the globe, and tosses it back to where the lens can pick it up and use it. The new lamps are available in four sizes. First to make its bow was the Junior Solarspot, a 2000-watt unit that is supplanting the familiar 18-in. mirror lamp. Nexl came the Senior Solarspot, a 5000-watt unit. Available this month are two brand-new, smaller Solarspots a 500-watf "Baby Solarspot" and a 1000-watt intermediate size. It is claimed that these last two. competing directly with the familiar condenser-lens type spotlights, will outperform their opposite numbers two to one International Photographer, April, 1937.