Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

8 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 3 hence all do not give screen-results of equal brilliancy. Procure a sound film (if it is a sound projector you want) preferably with variable-area recording. This type of recording often requires more precision in projectors than variable-density because the film must run truer in the projector. If the film sways from side to side, it will throw the exciter-beam off the sound track. This will result in poor sound-reproduction. (d) Require each agent to make his first demonstration in the presence of the others. This will assure you against such sales tricks as : (1) Using an under-voltage projection lamp (90-volt lamps on 110-volt current look bright but last but a short time). (2) Using a lens which gives a picture with a bright center but dim edges. (3) Claiming projectors have devices which will stop the projector “when anything goes wrong.” (Such devices work only when the film breaks or when loops are lost.) (4) Claiming that stop-on-film devices will not permit blistering of films. (5) Enlarging sprocket holes or tampering with splices to cause the next salesman trouble in his demonstration. (e) After the group-demonstration, send the agents from the room and then call them back, one by one, for individual demonstrations and discussions. Use the same room and have the same number of people in it for all sound-projector demonstrations. Different rooms and different numbers of people in the room will produce different acou-stical qualities, which will alter the quality and intensity of the sound reproduction. (f) A competitive demonstration will not reveal the wearing quality of a projector and such quality is important. To discover this factor, “ask the man who owns one.” Price is not a factor in selecting any commodity where competition is as keen as in the projector field. Here, more than in any other commodity, you get what you pay for. A cheap outfit can make up a price-difference by damaging a hundred dollars’ worth of film. It must be borne in mind that the intermittent gear is the heart of any motion-picture projector. On the precision with which this movement engages and disengages the sprocketslits of the film depends the accuracy of the projector’s operation. When one realizes that this intermittent gear, on a sound projector, must start from complete rest; reach full activity instantaneously; engage its teeth in the sprocket-slots of the film precisely ; move the film up one frame; withdraw the teeth from the film sprocket-slots and come to a full stop — and do this twenty-four times in every second — one may faintly realize the strain set up on this mechanism. If one adds to these requirements the handicap that no piece of film is ever perfect and that hence the intermittent mechanism must be so designed that it will allow a tolerance of plus one to minus one unit in making contact with the film sprocketslots, one may see why projectors sell for the prices they do. A projector must have the precision of the finest jeweled watch combined with the rugged strength of a mowing machine. If the intermittent movement could be removed from projectors they might be sold for much less than their present cost. It is this intermittent movement, in combination with the “persistence of vision” of our sight, that changes a series of still pictures into pictures that to move ! Since the intermittent gear, like all other gears, can only “approach” perfection, and since its particular requirements are so severe, this “approach” is determined by various tests which the manufacturer sets up to determine the degree of perfection his projector must attain. He does this by discarding parts that do not reach the degree of perfection he decrees. The higher his standards the more parts he discards, and the more parts he discards, the more he must ultimately charge for his projector. From what we have now pointed out it may be seen that price and quality do go together in projectors. Perhaps it would be better if we said should instead of do. We mention this because not only competition enters into the situation, but also ignorance of the prospective buyers relative to projectors. The latter factor is becoming less important with the years. The day is past when, as one projector salesman told us, the salesman delivered his outfit, collected payment, and then ran like you-know-what to get as far away as possible before the thing fell to i)ieces. Purchasers have become numerous enough to compare notes and to demand equipment which will give service. Fortunately the greatly increased size of the market for the standard-off-standard projector has })ermitted the lowering of prices through increased production. As with any other manufactured product, the financial standing of the firm, the size of its plant, the quantity of its production, and the level of its manufacturing ethics should all be investigated by the wary buyer. Don’t succumb to the hypnotic effect of a smooth sales-talk. Of course, people are apt to favor