Year book of motion pictures (1940)

ing material; and Type 222 Tine Grain Sound Recording Film. Superior2 is twice as fast as Superior1. This extra speed permits a cinematographer either to use less light on a set, or to increase the field of sharp focus in front of his lens. An increase in sensitivity of this order normally would entail a sacrifice of some other photographic quality. But Superior-2 is an exception. It retains the fine grain size, wide latitude, and ability to render details, particularly in shadows, for which Superior-1 has been noted. Fine Grain Master Positive, Type 224, was developed to reduce to a minimum the loss of photographic quality encountered in making a duplicate of the original camera negative. Fine grain materials have always been used for this critical work. Type 224. with its improved gradation and ultra-fine grain size, brings the image quality of the "dupe" one step closer to parity with that of the original. Type 222. Fine Grain Sound Recording Rim. improves the reproduction of sound by the variable density method. Its extremely fine grain size reduces background noise and renders more faithful the higher pitched sounds. In the past year, the contributions of the Agfa Ansco research laboratories have perhaps not been as sensational as their introduction of Ultra-Speed Pan and Supreme, which ushers in the era of high-speed films in 1937 and 1938, but the improvements have nevertheless been important and worthy of appreciation by technicians in the field. The Agfa Supreme negative emulsion, which won the Class I Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1938, has been still further refined in 1939 to better adapt it to modern scene-lighting conditions, without changing its general photographic characteristics. It is interesting to note that one of the rigorous, practical tests to which this and other Agfa cine films were subjected in the past year was their use by Father Hubbard, the Glacier Priest, on his 1939 northern expedition. The success and trouble-free employment of Agfa Ansco cine films by Father Hubbard in Actic weather conditions was, in part, due to the important physical improvements that have been made this past year in negative raw stock. A further technical improvement of a physical nature, which has resulted in increased wearing quality and life expectancy of exchange prints, was the standardization of dielectric characteristics of Agfa positive raw stock, a refinement which dissipates the problem of static during printing in laboratories that lack adequate control of humidity. Governed by the policy of recognition for only those achievements which are of outstanding merit and which promise to have a lasting influence on the industry, the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considered 35 nominations for scientific or technical awards. While the industry noted steady progress during 1939, no achievement, in the opinion of the Council, was held of sufficient merit to receive a major award. A number of developments, however, were judged worthy of recognition, and the Research Council, with the approval of the Academy Awards Committee, issued Certificates of Honorable Mention for Scientific or Technical Achievement to the following: George Anderson of Warner Bros. Studios for an improved Positive Head for Sun Arcs; John Arnold of M-G-M Studios for the M-G-M Mobile Camera Crane; T. T. Moulton. Fred Albin, and the Sound Department of the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, for the origination and for the application of the Delta db Test to sound recording in motion pictures; Emery Huse and Ralph B. Atkinson of Eastman Kodak Co. for their Specifications for Chemical Analysis of Photographic Developers and Fixing Baths; Farciot Edouart. Joseph E. Robbins, William Rudolph, and Paramount Pictures, Inc., for the design and construction of a quiet portable Treadmill; Harold Nye of Warner Bros. Studios for a Miniature Incandescent Spot Lamp; and A. J. Tondreau of Warner Bros. Studios for the design and manufacture of an improved Sound Track Printer. Certiiiciates of Honorable Mention were also accorded by the Research Council of the Academy, for important contributions in the cooperative development of new improved Process Projection Equipment to F. R. Abbott, Haller Belt, Alan Cook, and the Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., for faster projection lenses; The Mitchell Camera Co., for a new type Process Projection Head; Mole-Richardson Co., for a new type automatically controlled Projection Arc Lamp; Charles Handley, David Joy, and the National Carbon Co., for improved and more stable high-intensity carbons; Winton Hoch and the Technicolor Motion Picture Corp. for an Auxiliary Optical System; and Don Musgrave and Selznick International Pictures, Inc., for pioneering in the use of the coordinated equipment in the production. "Gone With the Wind." This cooperative development improves the already invaluable Process Projection method, which in the past has been largely limited by insufficient light intensity and screen size. In addition to the aforementioned, some of the important advances were: (1) the development of fine-grain film for sound recording, as used by several of the major companies; (2) development of fine-grain film for release prints, used by Paramount for "The Great Victor Herbert," "Geronimo," etc.; (3) development of Mercury Lamps for Film Processing; (4) the Method of Reversed Bias Recording developed by 20th Century-Fox Sound Dept.; (5) development of Class B Push-Pull Variable Recording by RCA; (6) development of a new Sound Track Projection Microscope by Warner Bros.; (7) the use of new High-Speed Films by Technicolor; and (8) the new HI Lamps developed by Mole-Richardson,