The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

114 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September, 1953 RUSSIAN STEREO CINEMA In an exclusive Cine article S. Ivanov describes his own invention, stereoscopic films that can be viewed without polarised glasses SOVIET scientists and engineers were the first in the world to work out theoretically, and to solve practically, a system of stereoscopic projection which does not require the wearing of polarised spectacles by the audience. The priority of the Soviet Union in this has been legally recognised in Great Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia, and a patent in the name of the author of this article, with a description of the technical details of the equipment and the principle of the stereoscopic screen, has been published in all these countries. What in substance is the system and what are its advantages over the system which involves spectacles ? The most important element in the Soviet stereoscopic cinema is a powerful optical screen, the distinguishing feature of which is a system of lenses so arranged and of such small dimensions that the spectator does not see them from his seat. This screen, which weighs several hundredweights, can be constructed and assembled in a cinema in a few days. Its manufacture has so far been mastered only in the Soviet Union. A characteristic feature of the screen is that it lends volume to objects and scenes by splitting up the rays of light reflected from their surfaces and then, by sorting them out into left and right, focusing them for the hundreds of pairs of eyes of the spectators. True, in life we enjoy not two but many points of view. This can be easily proved by a simple experiment. If the head is shifted to the right until the left eye has reached the point where the right eye was, and the right eye, a point correspondingly further to the right, then in the sum total of the first and second positions of the head not two but three points of view will be involved and it would be more correct to designate them not as the right and left points of view but as the first, second and third points of view. Obviously, as the head is shifted further to the right, other points of view arc correspondingly included — the fourth, fifth, and so forth. Such a shift in the point of view is accompanied by the displacement of close-lying objects with respect to those at a distance. In the " spectacled " system of stereoscopic projection reproduction of this displacement is out of the question, since the very principle on which it is based does not permit the reproduction of more than two points of view. This is evidence of the utter lack of a future for the spectacle system. In the Soviet Union, laboratory models of stereos copic screens have been made which reproduce dozens and even hundreds of points of view. When the stereoscopic image is perceived on such screens, the trouble the specator has in finding a position for his head is fully excluded. The spectator is completely at ease. Any displacement of his eyes will evoke a corresponding displacement of the closelying objects with repect to those at a distance. From this it is clear that the Soviet stereoscopic system has limitless prospects. The problem now is to choose the best model, and already it isn't the quality of the screen that is the limiting factor, but that of the photographic and projecting equipment, and the possibilities offered by the photographic materials and lenses. Soviet scientists and engineers working in this field, therefore, are faced with the tasks of improving still further the photographic and projecting apparatus and improving the quality of the photographic materials and the lenses. Some 20 stereoscopic films have been released in the Soviet Union. Very popular are Concert, Robinson Crusoe and A Night in May. The stereoscopic film Concert is a concert programme, which opens with the reading of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem Good by V. Yakhontov. In this film the image fulfils the role of allegorical illustration. When Yakov Flier plays Liszt, the waves of the sea are seen breaking on the shore, dewdrops from lilies fall on to the mirror-like surface of a pond, and fish swim around in the auditorium, right up to the very spectator. In the number where the harpist V. Dulova plays Tchaikovsky's Sentimental Walts, glass spheres appear in the space beyond the screen, which is filled with the fountains of Peterhof, and then gently float over the auditorium, with Dulova's image reflected on their surface. The number called A Bird's Paradise evokes the delight and applause of the spectators when, to the strains of music from Glinka's opera Ivan Siusanin, the birds seem to soar through the hall. The allegorical illustrations to the music on the programme make a deep impression on the audience. As for the prospects for the stereoscopic cinema, Eisenstein compared their future with Robinson's raft. The stereoscopic film is making its way through countless difficulties, just as Robinson's raft made its way through the rushes. Eisenstein predicted that the day when the stereoscopic film would firmly enter Soviet art was not far off. That day is already close at hand, but it will not come of itself, it will be the result of the joint efforts of the inventor, the artist and the engineer.