The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

March— April, 1939 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN CINEMA LOG By KENNLTH GORDON A Polished Bex-Office Job I and many oi my dearest friends have had some! I had great pleasure the other night in seeing "The y° to a11 enthusiastic technicians with an urge to travel. Ware Case" at the Leicester Square Odeon. What a fine seo that 11 .vou are ofiered a job abroad you get good job Eojert Stevenson, the d.rector, and Ronnie Neame. wages, to be deposited at your bank be.ore sailing; a the lighting cameraman, and the rest of their A.C.T. return ticket handed to you personally; a first-rate in crew nave made of this film. There must be tremendous surance policy in your name covering you against sickness co operation at Ealing Studios to have turned out such a or death; a good kit allowance so that you can mix in polisued job of work the best circles and feel properly dressed ; and a fool-proof Just another British film playing to box office contract deposited with the A.C.T. solicitor. Only under capacity at its pre-release in the West End. ,lllJ*e circumstances is it safe for you to travel abroad. Don't Let Expeditions Tempt You With every depression in the film industry has come a crop of otters to unemployed film technicians, more especially cameramen, to join strange expeditions which propose to travel to their destinations by strange ways, and, it ever they arrive at the destinations, to record even stran0er happenings only known to the expedition's or^aiusers. One thing about all these heaven-sent opportunities that is not now so strange is that the cine technician will be offered no wage tor months of work, facing unknown dangers. If he is young and fairly green to the ways of the world he will be asked as a condition ol employment to supply a cine ; nd still camera, "'and just a lew thousand feet" of negative stock. If by this time he has not turned a deathly green, a hint may be made that if his friends would like to help with a little finance, say "a few hundred pounds," his chances of obtaining the job will be much brighter. It will be explained by the charming people he is talking to that here is his chance of making fame and fortune. Another type of jo!) in the offing is a world tour with mcnied people. They will. o. course, find the finance for the stock and camera, but wages will be a share in am profits a cruing from the film. Well, no matter how hard up you are. T beg of you to turn down jobs of this nature. In the first type 1 have mentioned, you will always be in trouble, may even have to be brought home by the British Consul. You w ill have no protection in case of illness or death. The cameraman on these jobs is always blamed lor everything that goes wrong, and when funds run out his camera gear is the first asset to be deposited against unpaid hotel bills. And when he eventually arrives home he will find that any funds obtained from the sale of the film have been eaten up by the preliminary expenses. Wardour Street will h've forgotten him while he was away, and he will find all that he has left is a number of heavy debts to meet. If a technician goes on the "monied" trip he will find that he will be treated as a lower servant — without pay. His wishes in connection with any filming will be subservient to the "big shot'' who is running the show. Of course the result will be that any film obtained will have no entertainment value. Therefore he will have no monies on his return. These people, having considerable influence, will blame him for the unsatisfactory commercial results. No consideration will be given to him by the trade fcr the hopeless conditions under which he has worked, and more than likely it will take him a number of years to rebuild his technical reputation. FILM MOUSTACHE CRJS«S Trouble arises concerning the reported new film in uihicn Chaplin is To appear as a dictator. Merr Hitler alleges plagiarism and threatens to produce a film himself and to appear in it as Chaplin. Chaplin holds that he had Hie moustache first, claims copyright and demands royalties from all sales ME IN KAMPF" to date. Courtesy: Low and "The Evening Standard' NATIONAL SAVINGS HOLIDAY SCHEMES W ide attention has lately been drawn to the schemes put forward by the National Savings Committee for the encouragement of saving for holiday purposes. The schemes have been adopted by a large number of firms in many trades. One of the main reasons for this success is the fact that they have been given commendation b\ many important Trade Federations; amongsl them the Coal Mining and Mining Association, the Engineering and Allied Employers National Federation, end the Iron and Steel Trades Employers Association. Similar action has been taken by certain leading Trades Union.