Home Movies and Home Talkies (Jun 1932-May 1933)

HOME MOVIES & HOME TALKIES 303 rouR CINE QUERIE/ AN/WERED Free Service for Readers Is there a cine problem bothering you ? Have you some difficulty in which von would like expert help ? Do you want to know xahere to obtain certain apparatus and what it -will cost ? HOME MOVIES is at your service in this and many other ways. Address your query to : The Service Department, HOME MOVIES, Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd., 8-11, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C.2, enclosing the free Query Coupon printed in this issue. A selection from queries and answers of general interest will be printed each month on this page. All others leill be replied to by post. Special Note. — Criticisms of amateur films, opinions of amateur scenarios and test of apparatus can be undertaken bv special arrangement. In such cases a preliminary letter to the Editor is essential. F. P., Penge, wants to know what apparatus is necessary for experimental work in recording sound on film. Answer. — The whole subject is being dealt with by Mr. Bernard Brown, B.fec., in his series of articles, the third of which appears in the current number. The information you require is rather longer than can be given in the brief space of a replj' to a query, but can be summarised as follows : — 1. Blicrophone and amplifier. 2. Means of rarying the light according to the variation of soimd at the microphone. 3. Optical system to concentrate light on a narrow slit immediately in front of the iilm. -1. Means of maidng the film travel steadily past the slit. If you wish to record on the same film as that on which the picture is taken, you wiU need a special camera in which the film, after passing through the intermittent mechanism and over the take-up sprocket, is made to pass steadily past the slit and thtis to the take-up reel. This method is very rarely used in commercial work, as it is found much easier and more practical to record on separate film and to print both the picture negative and the sound negative on to the final positive print. If you use this latter method in your experimental work your present camera can be used, provided it is synchronised Mith the sound camera. One method is to use the same clockwork drive for both cameras. W. H. McN., Wirral, writes : " I should be glad if you would kindly let me know where I can get a short length (say 50 feet) of fll"i with sound on film for experimental projection purposes (16-mm.). Answer. — There are very few films of this kind yet available in this country and as the few copies existing are in the form of complete reels, it is unlikely the owners would cut. Possibly, however, either the British-Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd., CronTi House, Aldwych, W.C.2, or the R.G.A. Photophone Ltd., Film House, Wardour Street, W.l. might be able to sell you a short length. These two firms are making apparatiis using 16-mm. sound-on-film. H. N. D., Rugby, asks us to recommend a reliable but cheap exposure meter for use with Pathe camera fitted with f '3.5 lens. He has been using one of the " table " type and is not satisfied with it and enquires whether one of the kind using sensitive paper which darkens would be an improvement. He also asks whether the Coronet Camera is suitable for the new Pathe super pan. film and whether a portrait attachment is available for these cameras, as he wishes to make his own titles. Answers. — Many experienced cinematographers use the Watkins Bee type of cinemeter and it is certainly an improvement on the kind where the cinematographer is entirely dependent upon tables. Much greater popularity, however, has been achieved by the "extinction" type of which several have been reviewed favourably in our pages. The extinction type has the advantage of being quite rapid in use and any of those reviewed in our pages recently will be found thoroughly reliable, as we have given all of them a practical test. The Coronet Camera is made to take the standard Pathe chargers and is therefore perfectly satisfactory for the p.s.p. film. For title purposes our correspondent will find it very convenient to use the spectacle lens idea, which is awarded a prize in the urrent Competition, see page 281. This scheme is just as adaptable to the Coronet as to the Pathe camera. W. W., Newcastle-on-Tyne, enquires how the 9J-mm. film is attached to the empty reels supphed by the Pathe film. Answer. — If you examine the reel you will find on one side a sit and on the other a circular opening, the slot being arranged to take the tooth of the re-wind spindle. If you look in the circular opening you will find a cylindrical piece of springy metal which can be pulled out with a pair of pliers. This springy metal covers a slot which can be seen by looking inside the empty reel. Hold the spool in the left hand with the opening in the side of the reel facing you, tuck the end of the film into the slot and then replace the cylindrical piece of metal which will now spring out and firmly grip the small piece of film which is threaded inside the spindle hole. The film can now be rapidly wound on by using the paper fastener idea on page 274 of this issue, turning in an anti-clockwise direction on the slot side. H. D., Walton Village. Liverpool.— Write to Lodex Service, 2, Kidacre Street, Leeds, and tell them of your problem. They can supply you with their standard Lodex lamphouse, with either resistance or transformer, so that you can run the 50 watt lamp from a 10 volt accumulator. Your local garage can probably arrange to supply you with a 12 volt accumulator with one with the two volt cells removed so as to give you the necessary 10 volts, and you mil then have a fine and bright image, much superior to that obtainable by any other modification of this model projector. The Krauss lens will give you about 50 per cent, more light with the ordinary lamp with a slight improvement in definition over that of the ordinary lens. CERRARD 6616! THE HOME CINEMA FILM LIBRARY, LTD. 49, GREEK ST., SOHO, W.l WHEN— You want 16 mm. originals copied on 9.5 mm. film ; WHEN— You want 35 mm. originals copied on 16 mm. or 9.5 mm. film ; WHEN— You want any Developing and Printing done as well as it can be done (16 mm. or 9.5 mm.) ; WHEN— You want Hocin (9.5 mm.) Negative Film ; WHEN— You want work done by specialists in Panchromatic Film : Write To Us — Or Telephone Prices on Application.