Home Movies (1944)

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HOME MOVIES FOR JUNE OHE ./ tke MONTH "F, OR more than 5000 years, gems and the cutting of them have played important parts in the destiny of nations. Fortune and misfortune have sometimes followed certain gems. The cutting of gem stones has for centuries been shrouded in secrecy and mystery. The crude hand equipment of the ancients and the secret processes have given way to modern methods and abrasives. It is now possible for persons with little experience to produce gem stones from materials close at hand, in many respects superior to those of centuries past." This comprehensive foreword introduces An Ancient Art, 375 foot 16mm. black and white film produced by M. D. Taylor of Stockton, California, and chosen the Movie of the Month for June. It is a highly informative film produced by a man who knows the business. Mr. Taylor deals in gem cutting equipment and naturally is an old hand at the art himself. Thus it was that he found an interesting topic on which to focus his camera "right in his own yard," so to speak. The picture was intelligently conceived and produced with all of the action pictured in closeups. There are ample informative titles to describe the picture as it unfolds, and no operation shown goes unexplained. The youngest grade school student easily could follow and understand it and no doubt An Ancient Art will eventually find wide appeal as a vocational instruction film. The picture opens with scenes showing a man gathering stones in the mountains and desert. The collection is brought home, washed and assorted. Among the rough chunks of rock are quartz, agate, jasper, etc. We see one piece being cut by a diamond saw — a large circular disc in the edge of which are set tiny chip diamonds to form the cutting edge. This saw revolves in a bath of oil and quickly cuts through a chunk of stone about the size of a biscuit. When cut, the sawed surface reveals the interesting pattern that will be brought out with additional clarity in the subsequent polishing operations. A title explains that four main steps are necessary in transforming a rough stone into a polished gem: sawing, grinding, sanding, and polishing. The ensuing sequences show each of these operations being performed. Besides the diamondedged saw, there are various grinding stones, a sanding wheel, and a felt covered wheel for the final polishing operation. We are shown how the fragment of stone, after being sawed apart, is reduced still further in size, then roughly formed through being held in contact with a grindstone. When the stone assumes something of its ultimate shape, it is then attached by means of sealing wax to a short stick or dib, enabling the operator to hold the stone against the rotary polishing wheels for the final operation in its transformation from rough rock to gem. After this there are a series of closeups of groups of polished stones, now semiprecious gems, and this is climaxed with a sequence in color showing ultra closeups of each of the gems. Rose quartz, jasper, malachite, moss agate, tiger eye, opal, turquoise, carnelian, agate, etc., are shown in various shapes and sizes, highly polished. The closing scene shows a pair of feminine hands selecting one of the stones, then placing it on one finger as it would appear if mounted in a ring. All scenes, except the color shots in the closing sequences, were filmed with a model 75 Bell & Howell fitted with a 20mm. f/3.5 fixed focus lens. The shots in color were filmed with a model s Victor 16mm. camera. All of the shots, which were closeups, were filmed with the aid of auxiliary lenses. These varied from a small hand magnifier of 2 inch focus to one of 48 inch focus. Titles were printed on letter press and photographed in a small titler. They are well composed and photographed. Photography in general is good throughout • Continued on Page 249 • An Ancient Art, interestingly photographed, edited and titled, pictures the skillful cutting of semi-precious stones with modern equipment, reveals the transformation of a gem from a rough piece of ro<"t' *o polished oval ready for mounting. 237