International photographer (Jan-Dec 1935)

December, 1935 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Thirty-one ACTING AND SPEAKING PHANTOMS Reprinted from "Magazine Digest" and condensed from Je Sais Tout, Paris (April, 1935) SENSATIONAL invention is about to revolutionize the motion picture. A procedure over which legions of searchers have been racking their brains for many years has finally been evolved by an illustrious French physicist. Almost to the day forty years after his invention of the ordinary cinematograph, Louis Lumiere has presented his latest creation, the moving picture in relief, at a recent public meeting of the French Academy of Science. At the present the projection is flat, but no doubt in a few months' time this flatness will make us smile, even though it costs us an effort of imagination today to visualize the "third dimension" on the screen. The effect of relief or solidity may be obtained with such simple means as a stereoscopic camera with two objectives, taking two separate pictures on one plate or film. Looking at these pictures through a stereoscope with two eyeglass lenses we obtain the effect of a perfect relief, that is of figures and objects detached from their background. This extraordinary result, which is always a surprise to the non-initiated, is just what the new motion picture proposes to achieve and the numerous audience present at the above demonstration certainly felt as though this aim had already been attained when they saw — or thought they saw — a train dashing at them from the screen. The mechanism by which the effect of relief is produced in life is the capital problem upon which depends the practical application of all the inventions connected with it. The classical explanation is the following: our eyes produce two slightly different images of the object, the difference increasing in inverse ratio to the distance. The images thus formed on the two retinas are transmitted by the two optic nerves which combine in the brain centers. The psychological "superposition" of the two different perceptions is what produces the effect of relief. A simple experiment 'will demonstrate the role of binocular vision engaging both eyes at once for obtaining this effect. If you close one eye and then try to get hold of some detached object, like the finger of another person, you will commit many errors because the distance between your hand and the object in question cannot be correctly estimated with one eye. This simple fact reveals the difficulty of the motion picture in relief problem, which consists in projecting onto one screen two slightly different, stereoscopic, images, so arranged as to allow each spectator to see image No. 1 with the right and image No. 2 with the left eye only. One solution would consist in projecting the two images close to each other on the screen and supplying each spectator with prismatic opera-glasses, combining them into one. Although satisfactory in theory, this method, proposed already in 1895, presents inconveniences for the audience and tires the eyes, not to mention the fact that such binoculars are fragile and costly. Inventors, and Louis Lumiere particularly, have therefore studied solutions that would allow the use of simpler devices, like ordinary smoked eye-glasses. The anaglyphic procedure, which is really a physical trick but is used for the study of geometry of the space, is another method of producing relief effects. We design on the same white background two figures representing, for example, two equal cubes, one traced with red and the other with green lines. The bare eye sees nothing but a confusion of inter-crossing lines, but looking through glasses with one red and one green glass or mica lenses the two designs appear distinctly separate from each other. The eye behind the green glass sees only the red design which looks black, while the green lines disappear and merge with the whiteness of the paper. This method is used for lantern slide projections and all kinds of music-hall attractions, but its adaptation to the moving picture presents difficulties, because colored glass absorbs too much light and because the continuous excitation of both retinas by different rays is very trying to the eyes. Lumiere's remarkable achievement consists in his having evolved special colors for the lenses. Lens No. 1 lets the greenish yellow, yellow, orange and orange-red rays of the spectrum pass, while lens No. 2 is a conductor of the violet, blue and green-blue rays but also of the straight red rays. Thanks to this seemingly insignificant modification both eyes are subject to equal strain, the tiredness due to overexertion is eliminated and a very pure white color is obtained. The instruments required are very simple. The projector is equipped with two objectives, each concealed by a transparent screen identical to the lenses of the eyeglasses, so that two colored images are superimposed on the screen. The glasses for the spectators are simple too and not trying to the eye, even when used for any length of time. Of capital importance is the fact that this procedure does not require any special films or screens. Because of these considerations there is undoubtedly a brilliant future in store for this latest invention of the great physicist. But remarkable though this achievement is, it should not make us forget the results of the research pursued by other scientists in other countries with a view to the realization of the "integral motion picture" or the complete faithful reproduction of life. Neither has the problem of the colored film been solved satisfactorily. What is offered in this respect is far from perfect, but it seems that two French scientists have now evolved a more satisfactory procedure which they intend to commercialize in the near future. Another important feature which the motion picture still lacks is the "relief of sound." At present voices and noises are badly "placed," that is, they do not always seem to issue from the mouth of the speaking character. The radio is far ahead of the movie in this respect, thanks to its method of utilizing a system of several microphones. Is it a case of asking "Whither movie?" American technicians are working on a "screenless motion picture" which would present characters and objects detached from the solid support of the screen. Optics allows us to create aerial images by means of a system of concave mirrors, while acoustics permits the concentration of sounds from loudspeakers in the spots in which these images appear. In other words, we can create acting and speaking phantoms, but this obviously is a remote aim and belongs in the field of experimental physics rather than of the commercialized movie. On the other hand, the "movie in relief,' 'in natural colors and with a perfect sound recording is quite feasible on a commercial scale and will undoubtedly soon conquer the field, as did the talkie a few years ago. THE HOLLYWOOD MOCKING BIRD By Silas Edgar Snyder (The man who wants to kill the mocking birds for singing at night is loose again.) My friend Jerry, the Mockin' bird. Is the finest singer ever heard; See him up in the old palm tree Turning flip-flaps as he trills high C: Mate nestin' there in the ivy vine, Listens enchanted and thinks he's fine. Night and day Jerry does his stuff. Never gets weary, hoarse nor rough; Ideal daddy and loyal mate, Good to his folks and affectionate: A matchless artist, bless his heart; In God's great plan he has his part: Needs no composer nor band of strings; God wrote the music that Jerry sings; And maybe that's why when I hear his trills Touchin' my heart and soul 'with thrills. I feel that the Mocker's friendly call Means it's not such a bad world after all. Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.