The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

Jp.lv— October, 1945 THE CINE T ECHNICIA N T'.t and Frank Sainsbury with Winifred Pearson, Secretary. These members do not spare themselves in their efforts to reach a workable report back and have met seventeen times to date, interviewed hundreds of technicians from all departments and sections, collated, sifted and prepared evidence. The importance of their work is realised when one considers the effect of the question on our product, post-war rehabilitation, expansion, apprenticeship and a host of other points. It seems that the employers' organisations are not greatly interested in some of the points at issue and that soon the .Ministries concerned may step in. In that case the Committee's work will be available. The B.K.S: and the Regent Street Polytechnic are anxious to operate plans in conjunction with A.C.T. on some of the questions, but little progress can be made, more's the pity, while respective employers' organisations find it inconvenient to meet A.C.T. and discuss certain safeguards. Meanwhile, here's luck to our hard-working Technical Standards Committee and all those interested in the advancement of the industry. Riverside Reverberations Down at Riverside Studios a bird whispers that some good humoured banter is flying around in regard to "backs to the wall" working. Which department is to blame is hard to say ; it may be ambition from art. lighting, even direction — it can hardly be sound, for the position in which Boom Operator Gordon Hay often finds himself has moved him to doggerel commencing : — Gimme room, gimme room, Just In swing the !! Boom. Don't fence me in, I aint no tyke. Let me see my ! ! Mike. Enough? I'll say — and spare you more. Gordon will get no sympathy with stuff like that, but if he approaches George Burgess, Arthur Kelly, Terry Turtle and other stalwarts they will surely devise some system of mirrors and remote control, operating through a hole in the roof and led to a fishing punt on the river, from which, with finger light operation, the job can be covered. If, in the meantime, any department forgets that every set has to be "lighted and miked" let Gordon take as his motto " No job too big — no job too small " (Carter Paterson, I think), but please spare us that doggerel. VE Versatility The protraction attending the official announcement of VE.l had its effect on most people, while technicians and producers alike got problems they least expected, and coupled with the laboratory troubles then just breaking it seemed easier to pick a Derby winner than make arrangements for all contingencies. One efficient premise was A.C.T. 's contribution to historical records and posterity by the resiliency with which speeds coverage oi VE Day happenings was arranged within the limits oi no overtime. Graham Thompson, who has been quietly responsible for filming the Royal Family during the war, was his usual imperturbable self, and a crew which merits our admiration quietly walked off the stages at the Bush in the middle of a feature production and in an hour or so transformed a room at Buckingham Palace into a complete sound stage for the filming of the King's VE Broadcast. Of this crew. Brian Sewell and Syd Wiles (sound), Phil Grindrod and George Mill (camera) and Charles Hillyer (electrical), who were responsible, have each received a copy of a letter of thanks to E. Long Mad'dox, Secretary of the Xewsi'eel Association, from Captain Lewis Ritchie, C.V.O., O.B.E., R.x., in which it is remarked that His Majesty commented on the smoothness with which the technicians present carried out their task and that the arrangements made for the filming were excellent. Hollywood Hypothesis Don't think I let America sell herself entirely to me, but the excellent equipment of Hollyw 1 studios made me realise how much praise is due to our film technicians for the pictures they have turned out during the war with worn-out apparatus," says J. Arthur Rank on his return. A nice compliment, but a trip to Holhwood is hardly necessary to realise this, for A.C.T. has been drawing attention to equipment matters for many a long day. However. J. A. R. has not fallen the way one of our members did upon his return from Hollywood, enthusing mightily on equipment. " Did you discover any addition to the multiplicity of uses to which camera tape and string can be put'1" asked a bored and war-worn camera operator, with a string of ace productions to his credit. Bat Blind Leeds University has recently obtained an electron microscope at £22,000. More equipment, and Sir James Marchant. late of the Ministry of Supply, tells us of its great value in eye research. A factory inspector told Sir James that "unsuspected eye trouble is one of the greatest single factors behind industrial absenteeism." Among miners eye troubles cost £450,000 a year in compensation, and eyestrain is an evil to which thousands of workers are exposed. "Support of eye research is not just pure philanthropy, it is a business proposition," argued Sir James. That, no doubt, is why £22,000 is cheap for equipment such as electron microscopes, yet Sir James, like ourselves, experiences difficulty in getting busin< ssmen interested. All this may not interest the Laboratory owners, or Mr. Cash, nor yet that visitor from Alice in Wonderland, 'Sir. Aiken Watson. K.C., for all laboratory workers are not blind, yet!