The Film Daily (1930)

10 DAILY Tuesday, October 21, 1930 Highlights ofS. M. P. E. Progress Report Leading Events of the Year Summarized by Engineers Two years will be required to change the industry's theaters over completely to sound-on-film, it is estimated in the report of the S. M. P. E. progress committee, submitted yesterday morning. Recognizing the shift from records to sound-onfilm the report states that at present there are 3,500 houses equipped only for discs. "It is considered by some exhibitors that film records wear better than disc records and have noticeably less of a metallic tone when played," says the report. Excerpts from the report follow: Plans for ultimate adoption of wide film have continued throughout the summer as several producers were known to be engaged actively in further experimentation. According to reports from production centers, negatives for several pictures have been made on wide film as well as on the usual 35 mm. width. Agreement has been reached among leading producers on perforation standards and sound tracks but there is still a division of opinion on total width and size of frame. One possible solution of the projector problem is to make the negatives on wide film and make reduced prints on 35 mm. for showing on the present standard projector fitted with a shorter focal length lens. A transparent paper support which can be coated with either a positive or negative emulsion was placed on the market and the claim advanced that it was suitable for cinematography film. Another innovation was the introduction of a film containing a layer of aluminum foil 0.005 mm. thick. The bulk of the leading studios of Europe had installed sound recording channels by July, 1930, one of the finest being located in a studio at Wembly, England. Services of American engineers were in demand by several Russian firms to assist in establishing an expansion program. A report was published during September giving the final result of a comprehensive survey of the methods used to silence cameras in the Hollywood Studios. Eighteen types of equipment were tested. One very interesting "'blimp" was constructed of a cellulosic composition, the sections of which were so tightly fitted as to render the housing both airtight and watertight. The investigation dealing with methods of silencing arc lights for sound motion picture work mentioned in the previous report of this committee has been continued and its results published. Data on tests made in 14 studios and reports from the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light are included. One improved type of arc lamp contains a special built-in choke coil which takes care of commutator ripple. The intermittent feed has been eliminated, non-grinding gears installed, and a new type of positive carbon used which is said not to squeak during feeding of the arc. Improvement in Lamps Improvement has also been noted in high wattage incandescent lamps. Such lamps must necessarily be subjected to rough usage and it has been a problem to make these sufficiently strong for such service. A new system of bringing the current into the bulbs of 5 KW. and 10 KW. lamps has greatly increased their strength, reduced their heating tendency, and permitted the introduction of any amount of current. In the method used, the glass does not come in contact with current-carrying parts. * Incandescent lamps are stated to be in almost universal use in sound studios in England. For overheads and banks it is general practice to use 6 to 12 lamps (1500 watt) in a fan cooled single aluminum reflector. The average lighting of a set is 400 foot candles. The use of tungsten powder for cleaning bulbs is not generally favored. According to reports from the M. P. Division of the U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, the demand is increasing in foreign countries for sound pictures in native languages. The plan of dubbing S. M. P. E. Progress Committee Personnel of the Progress Committee of the S.M.P.E. is as follows: M. Abribat, J. A. Ball, J. Boolsky, W. Clark, E. R. Geib, J. B. Engl, R. E. Farnham, H. B. Franklin, K. Geyer, A. C. Hardy, R. C. Hubbard, G. F. Rackett, S. K. Wolf, G. E. Matthews, Chairman. foreign lines in pictures made with English speaking actors is being discouraged. Sound film records made in England at the Wembly studios are identified by photographing at intervals on the film, a lantern slide carrying the scene and shot numbers. Each half minute, figures up to 10, in Morse code, are printed on the side of the film opposite the sound track. Corresponding figures are recorded on the picture negative in the space reserved for the sound track. By controlling the ratio of direct sound to reverberation, Maxfield states that the true illusion of nearness or distance of the speaker can be secured. There is a critical range of 50 steps of the total 120 sensation units within which sounds may be reproduced pleasantly in theaters. An improved type of flashing lamp has been devised by Zetka which is stated to have 50 times the life of older types and to be of much sturdier construction. Recordings of nearly 25,000 feet have been made. A beam microphone which may be focussed on one speaker has been perfected by a Hollywood sound director. Balantine has studied the effect of cavity resonance on the frequency response characteristic of the condenser microphone. Two effects causing increases over the uniform response of condenser microphones are: (1) increase of pressure on the diaphragm, and (2) acoustic resonance in the cup-shaped recess of the ring stretched over the diaphragm. Equipment Prices Lowered Two large equipment manufacturers during the summer of 1930 announced lower prices on sound-on-film equipment and the option of purchasing the general installation without the disc. One producer who supplied disc records exclusively began early in the summer to supply sound-on-film features as well. It is considered by some exhibitors that film records "wear" better than disc records and have noticeably less of a metallic note when played. There are 3500 theaters, however, equipped only for disc records and it will undoubtedly require at least two years to effect a complete change-over. A system of recording being developed in Russia employs an oscillograph with one thread and is stated" to be suitable for either variable width or variable density recording. Another sound-on-film process utilizes a sound print having the record engraved in the edge of the film. A saffire roller pickup device is employed in the reproduction. A roll of clear celluloid is engraved in preparing the master record and this record is then transferred to the sound print. No stages of amplification are said to be necessary in reproduction. A report was published the latter part of May, 1930, anda second report in September, 1930, giving the results of extensive tests made on acoustic materials for set construction. Reverberation times were measured with the new materials as against times for an empty room. The greatest absorption coefficient was found with Zonolite plaster brushed 1-16 to 1-8 inch thick over burlap or chicken wire. A committee made up of representatives from the Board of Fire Underwriters, the New York Bureau of Fire Prevention, and the M. P. Producers Ass'n have drawn up a code on studio and laboratory practice, the exchange and the theater. It gives specifications for the handling of film from its development to the delivery of finished print. Further information has been published on the Hunter-Pierce developing machine which was mentioned briefly in the previous report. The machine consists of horizontal tanks arranged one above the other with a vacuum system drying compartment on top. It processes 12 separate strands of film simultaneously at the rate of 10 feet per minute and has a capacity of about one million feet of film per week. The film is fed into and taken off the machine from the same end. During processing the film is twisted constantly and is so exposed that any breaks can be repaired very quickly. Lasally has also published a description of two development machines, those of A. Debrie, Paris, and of Geyer-Werke A.-G., Berlin. The former apparatus is a twin machine each part of which works independently. The developing and fixing end is located in a dark room, the washing, dyeing and drying end in a light room. Film passes in loops through the various baths at the rate of 1600 ft. per hour. The Geyer machine is of somewhat similar design. A slowly growing appreciation of the value of sensitometric control in motion picture film development has been apparent since the advent of the sound motion picture. It is also understood to be a general practice in the larger laboratories to make duplicates of the bulk of negatives as finally edited. Continuous Printer A new continuous printer has been designed for sound film records which works at 120 feet per minute. Contact is established by a curved gate with a flattened aperture through which the films are pulled at the correct tension. The printer may also be equipped with an automatic light change attachment. A strip of thin film with perforation on its edges (corresponding to scene changes in the negative) is fed into a special gate attached to the front of the machine. The fibre strip is moved forward at a slower rate than the film and as each hole passes over a contact (of which there are 20) a light change is affected. Changes may be made for scenes as short as 6 inches. It is not necessary to mark the negative in any way by this system. Specifications have been drawn up by a sub-committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on a standard release print including leader, run-out and cues. It applies to either silent or sound prints. According to trade reports orchestras have been returned to a few theaters in this country and South America which discharged their orchestras over a year ago with the installation of sound equipment. An inventory of several leading theaters on the Pacific Coast reveals, however, that certain houses appear to have a patronage who wish orchestras and shows, whereas others have a patronage who prefer a first class selection of pictures. It appears to depend, therefore, largely on the type of clientele a theater enjoys. Sound motion pictures have introduced certain fundamental changes in the previous order of motion picture programs. Overtures played by an orchestra have largely been eliminated, the value of the newsreel enhanced, the value of comedies lessened, but greater importance has been given to cartoons. The general length of program remains one of approximately two hours duration. The suggestion made by Edgar that projection rooms in major theaters will be equipped with extra dummy machines for handling film with sound records only, has been realized in the showing of the feature production "Hell's Angels" at the Chinese Theater, Hollywood. Volume with less distortion, elimination of troubles from heating of the film, and a lowering of projector vibration are some of the advantages cited by Edgar. Three dummy projectors connected in parallel were used in the Chinese Theater demonstration so that two sound tracks could be played at the same time. Six reels of "Magnascope" film were included in the picture which was projected on a 24 by 37 foot screen and 9 extra loudspeakers were added to the regular installation which consisted of three horns. A special amplifier system was installed to accommodate the 12 horns, which made possible an increase in volume equal to five times the normal volume of the regular sound installation. New Devices One of the most interesting innovations in projection equipment of foreign origin is the French Nalpas double projector. Two complete sound-on-film or disc assemblies are mounted compactly on a single rigid support. A resynchronizing device of British origin consists of a footage counter and a dial graduated into 16 sections, each of which corresponds to a frame. The device is attached to the 90 foot per minute spindle by a flexible shaft. The footage counter is set to correspond with the edge number on the film and the dial hand is moved to zero. The exact foot and frame passing the aperture can be detected at once, during projection. A power level indicator has been announced for reading the signal amplitude in voice transmission circuits ; levels from minus ten to plus thirty-six decibels can be measured. A monitor has been developed to meet the needs for accurate indication of volume levels from power amplifiers in sound reproducing equipment. In a new type of sound-on-film reproducer, mechanical parts in the optical path have been substituted for a cylindrical lens which illuminates only 0.0005 inch of the film area, thus eliminating the usual slit. A new ultra-sensitive vacuum tube has been developed in which the grid current is reduced to a very low volume for measurements as low as 10-17 amperes. Such a tube will indicate a flow of 63 electrons per second. A new 72 inch dynamic cone speaker and directional baffle has been announced which is claimed to deliver clear mellow low frequency 50 cycle sounds and high frequency 7000 cycle sounds. The letters "s", "I" and "th" can be distinguished clearly. Another type described by Bostwick, utilizes a moving coil piston diaphragm in conjunction with a 2000 cycle cut-off. By using this speaker as an adjunct to the ordinary type, it is claimed that uniform reproduction of sounds from 50 to 11,000 cycles may be obtained. Bull has published data on methods of measuring loud speaker efficiency. Good horn type speakers used in theater installations are said to have an efficiency of 35 per cent ; ordinary commercial speakers only 1 to 6 per cent. At a meeting of the Societe Francaise de Physique, Dundoyer described a new type of light bulb for sound reproducing equipment. A rectiliear filament is arranged parallel to a flat plate fused in the bulb and a microscope objective used to produce a greatly reduced image of the filament on the film. A projection lamp of novel construction is designed so that the upper part of the bulb is spherical, whereas the lower part narrows to a cylinder, near the base of which is the filament. Methods of using wide-angle lenses to project a much enlarged picture on the screen have been employed in several of the large theaters for certain scenes of such pictures, as "Old Ironsides," "Trail of '98", "The Hollywood Review," and "Hell's Angels." In one process, a movable screen was utilized which traveled downstage as the growth of the picture occurred. These methods all tend to overaccentuate the graininess of the picture. The same defect holds if too large a picture is attempted with wide film ; tests having shown that width of 50 feet is the maximum permissible before such effects begin to appear. When space is at a premium back stage, the public address system with outlets oyer the proscenium arch, has been utilized quite successfully as a substitute for the usual horns during presentation of shorts, such as song cartoons. A novel portable non-intermittent projector for educational use has been made available by Gaumont. It consists of a folding metal case, hinged at the top. Film moves continuously around a hollow sprocket containing a stationary prism. Light from a source on the front of the projector, is directed toward the rear through a condenser system and then through the film, where it strikes the first prism. At this point, it is reflected on to the second prism and thence through the rotating lens drum, and is directed finally through a suitable lens system onto the screen. Installing Larger Screens A number of theaters throughout the United States have increased the size of their screens anticipating the advent of the wide screen picture. Practically all the theaters in one circuit on the Pacific Coast have insulled larger screens. A survey indicated, nowever, Uiat about 60 per cent of the theaters in this country lack space for screens of more than 24 ft. width. _ The large ballroom in the Atlantic City {Continued on opposite Page)