The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1935)

Twenty-eight The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER February, 1935 THE 16MM. SOUND-ON-FILM OUTLOOK By W. B. Cook** LDER members of the Society will recall that in the early stages of sound recording it was decided that the former camera and projector standard speed of sixty feet a minute would be inadequate for recording sound, and the standard speed was arbitrarily changed to 90 feet a minute. Even with the greatly extended length of available recording track that resulted, several years of the most intensive research and experimental work were required to achieve uniform results of even passable quality. To have predicted at that early date that a satisfactory sound track could be properly recorded upon and reproduced from a strip less than one-sixteenth of an inch wide and with a projection speed of only 36 feet per minute, would have seemed a wild hope or an idle dream. But the difficulties to be overcome served as a spur, and some of the cleverest engineers of the research laboratories turned at a comparatively early date to solving the difficult problems involved in producing and reproducing satisfactory 16 mm. sound-film. During the earlier stages of research and experiment, the publicized results seemed to favor re-recording from 35 mm. to 16 mm. sound tracks as a means of making 16 mm. sound-films, but the Kodak Research Laboratories felt that photographic reproduction by optical printing offered the more promising results. Such has proved to be so, and optical reduction is now the only system employed commercially. Inasmuch as the decrease of length of the sound-track was 60 per cent, whereas the decrease of width was less than 15 per cent, optical reduction presents rather complicated problems, which have been met by different laboratories in several different ways, with greater or less success. It is not the purpose of this paper to enter into the technical details of sound reproduction, but merely to state that a number of laboratories are now turning out 16 mm. sound prints from 35 mm. negatives of a quality distinctly superior to that of 35 mm. theatrical pictures at the corresponding stage of development. It should be remembered that dimensions of the photographic image of a 9000-cycle recording on 16 mm. film (which is easily attainable by optical reduction) would be about the same as those of a 22,000-cycle recording on 35 mm. film, if such a frequency could be audibly produced and recorded. At this point, it may be in order to point out the efforts being made by European countries, particularly Germany, to adopt a standard of 16 mm. sound-film that shall have the same dimensions and relations of the picture image and the sound track as those adopted by this Society, but exactly reversed as to the projection position of the emulsion surface and the perforations. In the standard adopted by the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, when the film is threaded in a projector the perforations are at the right edge of the film (looking toward the screen), and the emulsion surface is toward the screen. In the standard advocated by European societies, the perforations are at the left edge of the film (facing the screen), and the emulsion surface is adjacent to the light and the condenser lens. The complication is clearly recognized by at least one European manufacturer, who advertises that he will supply either righthand or left-hand sprockets as required. Considering the development of sound-film projectors, * Presented at the Fall, 1934. Meeting at New York, N. Y. ** Kodescope Libraries, New York, N. Y. it is gratifying to observe the progressive spirit that has inspired manufacturers in the field. All the leading manufacturers of 16 mm. silent projectors have already produced or are now working on sound projectors also. The RCA Victor Company has been the real pioneer in manufacturing 16 mm. sound-film projectors, and is already exploiting its third model. Thus a comparatively wide choice of projection equipment of varying capacity and price range is available. Most of the sound projectors are adapted to both 400 and 1600-foot reels, the latter permitting a program of eight full reels to be projected, with a single interruption for rewinding. As many theatrical features are only six or seven reels in actual footage, it becomes practicable to precede the feature by one or two shorts and yet have the entire program on two large reels. A decidedly interesting recent development for the amateur has been a portable and compact 16 mm. soundfilm camera, with which the amateur can make his motion pictures with a sound-record of the operator's voice. Accessories for recording the voice and sound effects made by the subjects photographed are available at additional expense, but are for the present rather heavy and bulky. With further research and competitive manufacture and production, however, it is reasonable to expect that the amateur sound-and-picture camera will soon become practicable and popular. Until recently, the sale and distribution of sound projectors have been hampered principally by the lack of an adequate supply of available sound-film entertainment subjects. Happily, this shortage is now being very rapidly remedied, and perhaps the most outstanding development in the new field has been the astonishing increase in the available supply of sound-film subjects during the past few months. The beginning of 1934, the available supply of 16 mm. sound-film entertainment subjects was perhaps less than 50 reels. At the present time at least ten times that number are actually circulating in the various libraries of the country. Sound-film service is available from coast to coast, and it is no exaggeration to say that several thousands of reels of additional subjects are now available for reproduction in 16 mm. size and will be in circulation just as quickly as the distribution of equipment arouses even a moderate demand for such a supply. Most of the 16 mm. sound-film projection equipment thus far sold has been for industrial purposes; that is, for use by prominent manufacturers in showing their own commercial pictures, made to carry publicity or make sales for the products featured. Recently a decided interest in equipment has developed among institutions that desire to use sound films but could not do so until the fire hazard and expense of 35 mm. prints and projectors had been replaced by the safety, simplicity, economy, and portability of their 16 mm. successors. In the days of the silent picture, non-theatrical exhibitions lacked the charm and emotional appeal furnished by the orchestral accompaniment so cleverly cued to the picture in all the best theatres; but with the advent of the 16 mm. sound-film, the family in the home, the children in the church, their parents at the club, or the shut-ins in the hospitals or institutions could for the first time enjoy every illusion of reality, previously enjoyed only by the spectator in the theatre. The emotional appeal of combined sound and speech was beyond description and for the first time there was available a Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.