The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

May 1954 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 85 Queen entered the Abbey at 11.02 a.m.; that negative had to be developed and on a plane at Heathrow by 1 o'clock — or else he wouldn't get a single dollar. Thanks to superb organisation, executed with military precision by a crew of 40 — cameramen, despatch riders and contact men — it was done with twenty minutes to spare, earning Britain $10,000. ANOTHER man active in the field of providing camera and cutting room facilities, as well as film coverages, is Tommy Glover of County Films and its associate, the World Location Company, which he started in 1942. Supplying back projection " plates " is one speciality of his, but he is really in his element in sending locations to Africa, of which he has a very detailed knowledge going back many years; as well as working for Military Intelligence on the Nigerian border during the last war, Tommy Glover was on such expeditions as the first one from Cape to Cairo. Africa, he says, offers producers continuous sunshine and scenery as varied as Hollywood plus the most beautiful lakes. Among the African locations he has been responsible for have been Song of Freedom for Hammer and Jericho for Capitol. The first thing seen on any picture are the titles, and very often these have been made by Studio Film Laboratories, founded by Parkins and Baxter nearly 25 years ago. One of my earliest childhood memories is of being taken by my father, Adrian Brunei, to Wardour Street to see Gus Holness perform his magic new title process, which had just been introduced from America : silver dust was spread over a black card, and the titling appeared immediately; the wording had been printed in invisible gum on to the card, and the fine silver dust stuck to the gum, forming the complete title. When sound pictures came, title work was hit badly, and so Mr. Parkins was forced more into developing and optical work — they were the second British lab to have an optical printer. Gus Holness went from photographing titles to the optical printing side, and he has always remained in the lead in solving the problems posed by each cinematic fashion and technical development. To the Optical Department at Studio Film Labs, trick work means more than frames, key numbers and gamma; each job is treated creatively to fit the mood of the sequence. One job in particular they remember, because it achieved very good press comment, was during the last war for Warner Brothers' The Prime Minister (John Gielgud as Disraeli); after exhaustive research in the archives of Fleet Street, they showed the whole of Bismark's propaganda build-up on the Russo-Turk war (so similar to Goebbels' propaganda), in terms of newspaper illustrations and headlines of the period, keeping the whole montage on the move and interesting. Another job they are proud of is the present version of Paramount " Eyes and Ears of the World " trademark, which was shot in their own studio. Studio Film Labs have also been in the lead with stereoscopic titles in colour for the Festival of Britain Telekinema ; successive frame and 3-strip titles in colour by Technicolor in conjunction with Messrs. Technicolor, Eastmancolor, Gevacolour and Ferraniacolour, as well as 4-strip negs for foreign versions on Cinecolor subjects — a job whose painstaking precision will be appreciated by many camera technicians. Mr. Parkins says that they were " probably the first in the field in shooting CinemaScope titles in this country." Certainly the definition has been superior to that on American pictures, but he generously pays credit to the other labs that have processed these titles as contributing to the fine quality. The Studio Film Labs' technicians are excited about the possibilities of playing with the new colour techniques — improving or deliberately distorting selected colours, for instance — and so encouraging editors and producers to visualise extra effects to enhance their productions. George Hill explains cameras and their idiosyncrasies to A.C.T. President Anthony Asquith