The Film Daily (1930)

THE 10 ■e&Sl DAILV Sunday, February 9, 1930 Foreign Markets By WILLIAM ORNSTEIN SEES NO NEW TROUBLE IN FRANCE FOR U. S. Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — ■ Legislation difficulties between the American distributor and the French exhibitor in 1930 will be no greater than in 1929, N. D. Golden, assistant chief of the M. P. Division of the Dept. of Commerce, believes. The outstanding legislative problem in 1929 for the European market was the determined stand of the American distributors and the French exhibitors against tightening up of the quota. During the progress of settling the terms of this quota legislation no new contracts for distribution of American films in France were made for a period oi over six months. The temporary settlement on the basis of status quo placed a decided check on the spread of similar legislations in other countries which consider the adoption of the quota laws providing France was successful in carrying through her new quota demands. Capt. Hawkins Handling Auditone Sound Device London — Auditone, de luxe allelectric sound equipment, has made its appearance and is being handled by Captain S. W. Hawkins. It is manufactured to be adapted to Powers, Simplex, Kalee, C. & W., and Ernemann projector heads, thus doing away with the expense of new projectors and any structural alteration to the booth for installation. A movable tone-arm is one of the device's features which permits immediate adjusting of synchronization. Ihe complete equipment consists of two sets of universal bases fitted with disc oil-float turntable, Auditone patent movietone projection head, synchronous and variable speed motors, lamphouse carrier, movable tone-arm and pick-up. Sandberg Completing Film Paris — M. A. W. Sandberg is completing "The Yellow Captain," at the Billancourt studios. Filmophone system is being used for synchronization. RIchmount Pictures i 723 7th Ave. Inc. New York City D. J. MOUNTAM. Pres. EXCLUSIVE foreigi representa tives for Rayart Pi.tures Corporation and other eading independent producers and distributors. Cable Address: RICHPICSOC. Paris Cable Address: DEEJ.W. London. Cable Address: RICHPIC, N. Y. Exporting only the best in Motion Picturet BRITISH FilN STUDIOS OPEN FORQUOTA FILMS London — British Assn. of Film Directors announce that the followmg companies will enter into contracts with distributors tor making pictures irequired by the British ^uota Act. British Fiimcraft Prod., Ltd., British Instructional Films, Ltd., British Intl. Pictures, Ltd., British Lion Film Corp., Ltd., British Screen Prod., Ltd., London Screen Plays, Ltd., New Era Prod., Ltd., StoU f icture Prod., Ltd., 'iwickenham Film Studios, Ltd. The following studios will rent space to any producers: British Filmcratt, British Instructional, British international, British Lion, Stoll, ilntish Screen and Twickenham, oaumont occasionally has space open tor extra production work. Optical Problems of Wide Film Processes Outlined by Rayton (Continued from Page 6) Schlesinger Heads New $5,UUU,000 Sound Corp. London — Associated Sound Finn Industries has been registered witn a capital of $5,00U,UU0 with object to acquire the beneht ol inventions connected with the photographic metnod oi recording sound on turn or otner material, and method of projecting or translating sound so recorded, and to carry on the business ot manutacturers of and dealers in talking machines, gramaphones, wireless instruments, cinematographs and telephones, theater, concert, music halls and picture show proprietors. The new company IS headed by i. W. Schlesinger, head of the South African Theaters Circuit, of British Talking Pictures and of United Pictures, Ltd. The move IS primarily designed to build up sound recording companies in direct >.onipetition with American electrical interests. Admits Deal Under Way for Two London Houses London — That negotiations between A. E. Abrahams and Sir Alfred Butt for the purchase of the Drury Lane and Dominion theaters are now under way has been admitted by Abrahams' son, who said that nothing yet has actually been accomplished. Nearly $75U,000 is reported to be involved in the deal Scotland Teachers Seek Ban on Inflammable Film Scotland — A request from the Refrewshire branch of teachers to ask support of the National Union of Teachers in England for a proposal that the Government should pass an act preventing the use of inflammable films has been made to the National Executive of the Educational Institute here. on the leus designer. The method referred to consists in enlarging the picture area without changing the focal length of the lenses. This, translated in optical language, calls for both photographic and projection lenses of larger ne.d of view. For the sake of any who may I'C unfamiliar with the meaning of the term held of view it may be well to explain that .he quotient of half the diagonal of the pic cure area divided by the focal length of the length of the lens is the tangent qj half the angular field of view. ihe commonly used focal lengths in motion picture practice run from 4U mm. to 15u mm. senses both shorter and longer are used on uccauion but not frequently. The following table presents the values ot the angular fields of view demanded by three different picture areas for lenses within these limits. Table of Angular Field of View Focal Length I'icture Area of Lens iyx25Mm. 18X36 Mm. 23X46 Mm. 40 mm. 42° 52' 53° 24' 65° 28' 50 34 52 43 50 54 26 75 2i 38 30 02 37 50 100 17 50 22 46 28 50 Beyond doubt the must popular lens in motion p.cture photography is the 50 mm. lens. On standard Him the field of view covered is slightly less than 35°. For the ^i X 40 miu. picture area the field covered is practically 54/2°. This is not by any means au uuheard-of angie iti lcn;^es of re~ laiive aperture of //4.5 or even //3.5 but no puotograpnic lens appeared to be available iVith suuic.eut speed and batisfactorily sharp uennition to cover a p.cture size 2j X 4u inin. at ihe time this size was first attempteu. J. am happy, however, to announce that i uave been auie to design a 50 mm. lens of a relative aperture of t/2.i which covers this area very satistactoniy. lo cover the heiu with lenses ol longer focal length is a lasK ut lecS diificuity, out here one must guaru against a oeteriorat.on of general definition uuu to res.uuai aberrations which become the more noticeau.c me longer the local length. ^ow, it would not be strictly necessary loi the production of the wide him pictures to nave lenses as short as 50 mm. in toca. length. If the distance from camera to set couiu be chosen at will, any given area wmch can be photographed with tne desireu reuuction on a him ot given size can be pnoiographed at the same scale of reduction uii a him of the same size with a longei locus lens. Two obstacles present themseive^ However; first, the d.stance trom camera to set becomes too great involving excessive expense in studio space and, second, tht perspective of the view becomes fiatLcr. The latter might be overcome by a dirterent arrangement of the set but this agaio involves incieased expense as compared with the possibility of varying perspective by the simple process of selecting the camera lens of most appropriate focal length. Alter the pictures have been taken the problem of projection otters difficulties in illumination and in nnumg a projection lens competent to project them with satisfactory definition. It is obvious that if the same amount o. light which passes through the aperture of the film gate in an ordinary projector b. spread over a screen area twice as large the illumination of the screen image will be only half as great. If a. pair of ordinary 4^i in. condensers and high intensity arc be employed in their usual adjustment it will be found impossible to illuminate an area 23 X 46 mm. The illuminated area in the plane of the Attanasio Buys Two Houses Lakeland, Fla. — J. G. Attanasio, who owns the Columbia, La Belle, has purchased the Franklin at Busnell and Caleatha at Mulberry and plans to operate the three houses under the name of the Columbia Amusement Circuit with headquarters here. Multiphone for La. House Gretna, La. — Multiphone sound apparatus has been installed at the Hollywood, according to Ed Thomasic, manager. film is not large enough. The size of the illuminated area can be incireased, however, by reducing the distance from arc to condenser. An adjustment can be found in which the spot at the film gate will be large enough to circumscribe the 23 X 46 mm, rectangle. It is obvious that much light will be intercepted by the film gate, but still the illumination will be greater than we might expect as a result of comparison of screen image sizes. In reducing the distance from arc to condenser we have increased the amount of light picked up by the condenser and we are not limited entirely to the light flux which passed through the aperture in the ' film gate while we were projecting ordinary, 35 mm. film. The old 4}^ in. diameter condensers with the high intensity arc, however, did \not exhaust the possibilities of the projection lens in respect to its angular aperture. One obvious means of increasing illumination, therefore, lay in employing condensers of larger converging angle. Since the approach of the arc to the condenser cannot be carried on indefinitely this led at once to larger condensers. We foiind it possible to obtaiti a marked increase in angle with condensers of 6 in. diameter With aspheric surfaces, of course. A substantial inerea'^e in illumina tion resulted. Some additional illumination, however, is possible by using an astigmatic condenser, one whose focal length in one meridian is shorter than its focal length in the other principal ineridian. Such a condenser can be realized by employing one cylindrical surface, as we have done for several years in one of our ophthalmic instruments, or by employing a toric surface. Such a condenser will yield a spot of light in the plane of the film. A preliminary investigation subject to jwssible correction indicates a gain of something like 25 per cent obtainable in this manner. If, now, the arc be run ai something like 150 amperes with condensers as described above a satisfactory illumination will be found possible. It still remains a question as to just what degree of illumination will be reluired. It is possible that the relatively enormous picture on the screen may prove more satisfactory at a level of brightness lower than we have been accustomed to in the smaller picture. Certainly, a projected picture of, say, 23 X 46 feet illuminated as lirightly as some of the news reels we see might be expected to raise the general il lumination of the theater to an undesirable level. For the projection of the pictures ordinary projection lenses are entirely out of question except in the longest focal lengths because of objectionable curvature of field. It happened that I had been working on aii improved form of lens for the shorter focal lengths for the projection of ordinary film when the demand came for lenses to project the large pictures. The design had progressed to the point where it was possible to offer lenses of 4 in. equivalent focal length and of a speed of //2.2 which projected a picture 23 X 46 mm. with satisfactory re suits. Since then it has beep found entirely possible with lenses of 3 in. focal length. These lenses are, of course, anastigmats. For the benefit of those who may have seen the demonstrations, I might say that both the Grandeur film shown at the Gaiety, New York and the earlier demonstration bv Paramount were for the most part accomplished with the aid of the optical developments described above. Warner Office to Open Feb. IS New Orleans — New quarters for Warner and Vitaphone Corp. are scheduled to open here on Feb. IS. F. F. Goodrow, Warner branch manager, will have charge of both companies. De Forest for Shelby House Shelby, N. C. — The Carolina opened with its first showing of sound picture. "Sweetie" was the opening picture shown via De Forest apparatus.