The Cine Technician (1939)

1ST BE C ] N E T E C H N I C 1 A N i ii -Jan.. 1937-8 Technical Abstracts Change in Projector Aperture DIMENSIONS MORE CLOSELY APPROXIMATING THOSE OF CAMERA SUGGESTED TO PREVENT ELIMINATION OF MATERIAL As a means of preventing the elimination of significant pictorial and dramatic material from the projected picture, the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lias proposed a change in the projector aperture, extending it to dimensions more closely approximating those of the camera aperture. The present standard width, adopted in 1932, oi .825 inch, would become .815; the present height of .600 would become .615. Academy's Objective The proposal represents an attempt of the Academy to eradicate a condition which has become more oi an evil as more of the camera aperture range has come to embrace critical material, placing important dramatic or contributory elements in the peripheral areas of the frame, which areas are now rather substantially cut off h\ the projector aperture. The Academy proposal follows a iec mendation made l>\ the Projection Practice Committee of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, at that body's convention in Hollywood last spring, also suggesting that action he taken to stop the elimination of peripheral critical material. The S.M.P.E. committee. however, proposed that critical material be confined to areas that would be photographed well within the camera aperture so that the existing standard aperture could be effectively retained. Same Purpose The Academy action, which, it is said, was taken without consultation with the Projection Practice Committee, has the same purpose as the recommendation of this committee, hut definitely indicates the reluctance of the production community to consider any constriction of action areas. The recommendation of the Projection Practice Committee last spring called for confinement of critical material in the frame to an area of .005 inch smaller on all sides than the dimensions of the present standard projector aperture. By recentreing the projector aperture so that it is in line with the camera aperture, the Research Council proposal would place exactly one-half of the increase in width and height on each side of the horizontal and vertical centre lines. This would result in a reduction of the vertical framing tolerance to (one half .031 minus .615 equals) .088 inch, whereas the present tolerance is .0155 inch. Side tolerances are similarly reduced from .0215 to .iill.V Such reduced tolerances, particularly the vertical tolerances affecting the maintenance of the image in frame, are regarded by some persons in projection circles as highh undesirable. It is also pointed on! that with the reduction of the lateral (sidewise) tolerance, placing both camera and projector apertures on the same centre might lead, in some prints, to lateral misframing because of film shrinkage, which is said to amount occasionally to as much as two per cent. The present standard camera and projector aperture are off centre laterally precisely for the purpose of allowing for film shrinkagi George Schutz Motion Picture Herald Tone-Tim Merging The recent announcement that the Metro-GoldwynMayer studio is constructing an addition to its studio laboratory to house a new department tor toning and tinting release prints vindicates an opinion which many notable authorities have frequently exj n ssed in print and otherwise for many years. Briefly stated, that opinion is that since the coming of sound, producers have neglected a tremendous means of* increasing the emotional appeal of their films in n gleeting the emotional aj^peal of tinted and toned film. Tinting and toning motion picture film is no newthing. In the days before the Vitaphone this technique had developed to a relatively high degree. Many of the greatest productions of the silent days owed more than a little of their emotional appeal to the aid of colour in the form of tones and tints. At that time, however, toning and tinting v limited 1>\ the fundamental limitations imposed by the then crude technique of making conventional black-andwhite prints. Control, in the sense implied by to-day's scientific accuracy, was unknown in the developing and printing methods then used. The toning job — the black-and-white print — is nowmade with a scientific accuracy that c,>ts the best out of the negative. Printing is done on the most modern Pell & Howell production printers, and the film is of course machine developed, while the entire process is subject to such accurate sensitometric control that any number of absolutely identical prints of any picture may be obtained. The tinting and toning operations are carried out with the same accuracy. The work is done on machines, of course. These toning machines are essentially similar to the studio's standard developing machines, but with the tanks rearranged to be suitable for the processes involved. Tin' speed of the machines is necessarily variabli over an exceptionally wide range, to allow both for the various solutions which could possibly be desired, and for the necessary control. In some respects the machines for toning are simpler than conventional developing machines. Turbulation is not required, nor is a solution circulating system. The solution is of course refreshed with metered quantities of a concentrated solution at fixed intervals. The life of the solutions seems practically indefinite. Temperature must be very accurately controlled. It is also extremely important that all parts oi the machines in contact with the solutions he chemically impervious to the various solutions, neither being affected by the solutions nor contaminating them. These operations may be carried out at any time after development of the print, and in a lighted room. Therefore the toning machines are in a separate section of the laboratory, and the prints are developed, fixed, washed and completely dried before the toning or tinting operations.