The Film Daily (1929)

THE Isday, December 5, 1929 £Bfr* OAILY '.M.P.E. Progress Report on Industry ^HNICAL SURVEY SHOWS PROGRESS BEING MADE vice yearly the Committee on tress, authors of the Progress vrt, of the Society of Motion PicEngineers, surveys the internail film industry and prepare for nembers an analysis of strides tf made in technical developts. What follows is the first secof its report rendered at the fall meeting held at Toronto: le most important items of progduring the past six months have i the extensive use of all-color id pictures, or pictures with exive color inserts, and several onstrations of enlarged projected ires by the use of film wider than im. nly two-color subtractive procesare at oresent in vogue and in process extensively employed, dye images are produced in a le layer film by imbibition. Algh some three color imbibition > have been prepared, they have been publicly displayed. 3 date only one type of wide film been put on the market, this be70 mm. wide. Comment of the e has been most enthusiastic with ird to its suitability for scenics news events, but it is apparent a new photographic technic is lired to secure more pleasing pertive in the case of photoplays, iculties involved in the more unial adoption of the wide film are present lack of standardization of the necessity for greater illumion at the proejctor aperture, and prevention of film buckle, tudios in Hollywood are now proing only about five per cent of tit pictures. When it is consid1 that about a year ago the first ■natic sound pictures were shown >re the society, notably "The SingFool," the remarkable progress le since that time is apparent. :re has been a steady improveit in the quality of sound reprotion, notably in the theater, but nany cases the quality in the the• falls far short of that which the is capable of producing when it es the studio. Much still remains be done in the way of improvelt even with the best of recordWith the high quality music en by the modern radio receivers public is realizing that the avertheater music is not equal in lity to that emanating from their ios at home. Jotable advances in studio technic e been (a) the tendency to use Minimum number of microphones eliminate "mixing," (b) the ncing of cameras such as by means insulating coverings thus permits' greater freedom of camera loca tion, (c) the tendency to use more live studios so as to simulate more closely natural sounds, and (d) the non-simultaneous recording of scene and sound. A noteworthy advance in reproducers has been the introduction of the condensor or electrostatic reproducer consisting of a rubber diaphragm coated with aluminum foil stretched across a metal grid. Apart from the high quality resulting, the reproducer occupies no more space than the average screen and can be raised and lowered just as easily. No fundamental advances have been made in the field of stereoscopic motion pictures and although some of the sponsors claim that their wide film processes give stereoscopic effects, they are at the most pseudostereoscopic. A much higher order of relief is noticeable in many of the pictures in color. Although color pictures have been televised during the past six months, the probability of television usurping the present motion picture in the immediate future appears to be very remote. Films and Emulsions Some of the special negative emulsions for making pictures announced in the spring report have found extensive use during the summer of 1929 as the bulk of pictures made were "all-sound" pictures or contained sound sequences. Tinted films for sound positives were described by Jones at our spring meeting. These films have the base tinted with dyes which transmit light capable of exciting uniformly the photo-electric cell thus providing a fluctuation in the volume level during a change of tint which occurred with some of the older tinted bases. A patent has been granted on a film base suitable for sound motion pictures having a substance in the base rendering it translucent. A marked increase in the use of film emulsions for color motion pictures has occurred during the past six months. Many entire features in color and sound have been announced, a number of which have been released, notably "On With the Show" which required nearly three million feet of film in the making. The most radical advance since the advent of sound is the impending adoption of wider film. This has apparently been a result of (a) the introduction of processes designed to give pseudo-stereoscopic effects, and (b) the need for a larger picture when screening large musical stage settings. Three processes have been announced. Two of these, namely, the Spoor Natural Vision process and Magnafilm uses a film 56 mm. wide. The former system is capable of projecting a picture 70 feet wide although a screen 52 feet wide by 30 feet high was used in the demonstration. Magnafilm for which stereoscopic effects are also claimed was demonstrated in New York at the Rivoli theater on July 25, the screen used being 40 feet wide by 20 feet high. The third process is called "Grandeur Pictures." It uses film 70 mm. wide. A sound newsreel (sound-on-film) and a feature picture opened at the Gaiety Theater, New York, September 17 and was favorably received. A screen of 40 feet overall width was used which fills the proscenium arch. Another method of securing larger pictures which has many commendable features is the Fear process. This uses standard 35 mm. film and photographs the picture lengthwise instead of across the film by means of a special optical system which rotates the image through 90 degrees, a similar rotation also being necessary on projection. A longer sound track per picture framii is a feature of this process. . Westerberg has analyzed several of the suggestions for wider film and warns against the confusion which may result if several him sizes should be adopted. He suggests a picture size of 36 mm. by 22'zS mm. leaving 4 mm. for the sound track and 1 1 mm. for the sprockets giving a film 51 mm. wide. In the positive print, the sound record is printed outside the perforations and with sound-ondisc methods a narrower film (47 mm.) is suggested. To avoid difficulties resulting from damage to the sound track because of its narrowness and proximity to the picture area and perforations, the German Tri-Ergon process uses a 42 mm. film and prints the sound track in the center of the extra 7 mm. width. In the more direct field of manufacture, Didee has given information on the manufacture of film base and preparation of emulsions. Details of the preparation of Ozaphane film have been published by Pouchon and two patents have been granted related to films coated with a diazo compound and phenol. Only a few patents have been granted on improvements in the manufacture of nitrate base whereas the continued large number of patent applications related to acetate bases give evidence of the efforts being made to standardize this product. Two patents have been granted on the design of a machine for making transparent film of viscose or cellulose acetate. A few patents have appeared on special base compositions such as cellulose sulfate and carboxylate. Improvements in methods of increasing the sensitiveness of photographic emulsions have been protected by patents, particularly the addition of certain substances to gelatin, or bathing the emulsioned material or treating the emulsion before coating in a solution of a double salt of silver and an alkali with boron in the negative radicle. Studio and Location The nearness of New York to the center of sound equipment manufacture and stage talent has caused a revival of work in the studios located in the vicinity. Several new studios have been built and all of these are reported to be in operation. The production increase in New York has not affected Hollywood apparently because in that city additional sound stages have been built and other silent ones remodeled. There has been considerable emigration of acting talent to Hollywood and it is reported that voice teachers have been busily engaged assisting the "silent" actors to acquire voices. Most of the sound pictures produced abroad have thus far been "shorts" and news weeklies. British International Pictures in England and Ufa in Germany have completed sound stages and production is in progress. Patent difficulties have held up construction plans generally in Europe but these are reported to have been cleared up recently. Descriptions of several sound studios have been published. In filming "Trader Horn" in the Belgian Congo complete sound recording equipment and laboratory processing apparatus were used so that each days negatives could be processed and inspected before changing to a new location. Lenses and Shutters Lee, has reviewed the functions of modern high aperture lenses and predicts that progress may be looked for in improved color correction for use with panchromatic films. A new lens of f-1.5 aperture has been described adaptable to most modern professionals and amateur cine cameras. This aperture is claimed by Sonnefeld to represent very nearly the limit of wide aperture lens design. A novel lens for multi-image photography contains several reflecting prisms between the front and back components. Gifford has given details for constructing rapid rectilinear lenses of fluorite and quartz and of calcite and quartz for ultra-violet photography. A lens for use in a non-intermittent motion picture camera has been patented. Patents on shutters for cine cameras are related to shutters adaptable for either cameras or projectors, regulators for controlling rotational speed of the shutter with changes in cranking speed, shutter blades designed as spherical sections, etc. Cameras and Accessories Descriptions of new cameras or reconstructed cameras are somewhat meager although several of these are known to be in daily use in connection with sound recording, natural color photography, and the four types of wide pictures mentioned previously in this report. Useful data by Reinecke on the theory of movement in relation to cine ap paratus should prove of assistance to designers of cameras and other equipment. Effective illumination in making good "lap dissolves" has been discussed b y Kofinger. Brackets attached to the tripod top have been described for holding the camera view finder away from the camera and allowing the director to view the action conveniently. At the last meeting of the Society, Struss described the method of arranging a battery of several cameras for simultaneous photography of action in dialogue pictures. Six cameras were used in one scene in photographing "Coquette." and about 1000 feet of film were used in each camera. It was possible to complete the scene "shooting" in two days originally scheduled for five days. A small combined camera and projector exposes pictures on one-half of one side of a film, then reverses and exposes the other half. The pictures may be projected either on a screen or in a small album-like box in daylight. A compact, quickly adjustable tripod with an extension from 85 cm. to 170 cm. has been marketed by the Askania-Werke in Berlin. This same firm has produced a tripod head by which the camera may be moved through a 180 degrees vertical tilt, slid forward or backward and rotated for panoraming. The Mitchell camera has been equipped interchangeably for variable area or variable density sound recording. Stull has described several of thre sound-proof housings devised by various cameramen and technical staffs to avoid the use of large sound booths. These new housings are known by rather picturesque names such as "Bungalow," "Blimp," "Baby Booth," etc. Patents have been granted on quite a large number of improvements in camera design relating to pressure plates, friction clutches, magazine holders, cameras for making stereoscopic pairs of images, etc. A camera and projector having _ optically compensating movements of comparatively simple design have been described by Matschek. Time-Lapse and Ultra-speed Cameras A historical review of the various types of rapid cameras has been published and it is claimed with one type that exposures up to 100,000 per second are possible for certain subjects. Thun's ultra-rapid camera employs continuously moving film and a rotating lens wheel and is capable of 4000 pictures per second. Another camera invented by Cranz of Berlin will take 5000 pictures per second. Beck, has described a time-lapse camera which may be set for automatic exposures at intervals of from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Patent protection has been granted on an automatic electrical device for actuating motion picture cameras which operate at timed intervals. Trick Work and Special Photography Dunning has pointed out that the original patents will shortly expire controlling trick printing and composite negative making and that future inventors can therefore claim only improvements on basic principles. The largest stage entirely devoted to special process work is in a studio at Burbank, California, where a room 150 by 300 feet was used recently. In the sound picture "Masquerade" an actor played a dual roll and double printing on the sound track was accomplished successfully. Methods of making "matte shots" have been described by Sersen. These consist in double printing a painted section of a scene onto photographed action. Several improvements in special process photography have been patented one of which utilizes Ienticulated film for making stereo and trick pictures and another employs variously colored backgrounds and lights to secure composite effects. Make-up Actors have found an orange make-up without eye-shading most successful for use in an all-color motion picture. Two leading professional actresses have described their methods for using make-up in some detail for the benefit of cine amateurs. Further instalments of the Progress Report will appear in subsequent issues of THE FILM DAILY.