International projectionist (July-Dec 1934)

20 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST October 1934 RECENT TECHNICAL ADVANCES IN PRODUCTION E. A. Wolcott RKO STUDIOS, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA Many improvements have been made in recent years in the equipment used in producing motion pictures. Not the least of these advances is process projection, which finds a steadily increasing application. The accompanying paper, originally presented before the S. M. P. E., refers to this and other new aids to production work. SOUND engineers have realized for a long time that theatre audiences are becoming increasingly critical of the quality of the sound in a motion picture. A? a result, new refinements in sound recording and reproducing equipment have been found necessary; in particular, recording and reproducing equipment for extending the frequency range. The application of the new sound recording equipment in making motion pictures demands considerable precision in operating the various devices, controls, etc., particularly in connection with the manipulation and placement of the velocity microphones furnished with one system of extended frequency-range equipment. During the filming of a picture, the sound crew consists of the following members : (1) The first sound man, usually termed the "mixer" or "recordist". (2) man". (3) The second sound man, or "stage The third sound man, or "assist ant". (4) The fourth sound man, also known as "stage electrician". The mixer is in charge of the sound crew, and is directly responsible for the quality and volume of the recorded sound. It is his duty also to see that harmonious relations exist at all times between the sound crew and the other members of the company producing the picture. The stage man operates the boom to which the microphone is attached. The work calls for considerable skill, particularly in making moving or dolly shots, and whenever the actors have occasion to move about the stage during dialog sequences. In some of the large studios in Hollywood he acts also as contact man between the recordist and the director of the picture. The assistant has charge of the film recording machine, which is usually located in a permanent booth some distance from the mixing booth. His duties consist in loading the recorders, keeping a complete log or report of the opera tions of the sound crew throughout the day, and also aiding the recordist to keep a careful check on the operation of the anti-ground-noise device. The fourth sound man, or stage electrician, operates a starting panel on which are placed suitable controls for starting the cameras and recorders and placing the synchronizing marks upon the edges of the sound and picture negatives by means of an electrical marking system. He also aids the stage man in connecting the cables and suspending the microphones in the various requisite positions on the set. The Velocity Microphone Extended frequency-range sound recording equipment is particularly suitable for the velocity microphone, although the standard condenser type may be used. The directional properties of velocity microphones are very advantageous, particularly when it becomes necessary to pick up and record a dialog spoken in the midst of a large group of persons, such as in a mob scene. Another advantage is the possibility of achieving what is known as "close-up quality" during the filming of a scene, using two or more cameras, one camera photographing a fairly long shot and the other a medium shot. Usually when the picture is edited, the medium shot is used for the greater part of the scene, and it is necessary to match the perspective of the sound to the Some Choice Additions to the Nomenclature Culled from a single recent issue of a British technical paper, and submitted by George A. Bishop, Jr., of Fall River, Mass., are the following delectable departures from the approved term, "projection room": 1. Bio Box 2. Operating Box 3. Machinery Box 4. Bioscope Chamber 5. Projection Chamber Bad as are the foregoing, none of them matches the contribution of those worthies engaged at the State Lake Theatre, Chicago. These nice boys had their names printed under the heading, "kino booth". That's Chicago for you. closer camera as much as possible. In a recent feature picture, this characteristic was very helpful, inasmuch as practically all the scenes consisted of medium and long shots, very few of them being closeups. When using the velocity microphone, it is important that some means be provided to rotate it, so that it may always be directed toward the source of the sound. The device for rotating the condenser microphones, as used in the past in practically all the major studios in Hollywood, is quite satisfactory for rotating the velocity microphones. However, due to the greater sensitivity of the velocity microphone to transmitted shocks, or to vibrations generated in the boom that carries it, a new kind of suspension was required. A suspension developed by the RCA Victor Company consists of an inverted metal yoke to which the microphone unit is attached by means of a 4-point rubber suspension. It possesses excellent qualities as a mechanical filter, and is quite Hunts Ducks With Projector STRANGE things happen in projection rooms — such as warming soup in a lamphouse and cleaning clothes — but no more novel story anent projection has ever been written than the appended news dispatch wired from Beaver Flats, Nebraska, to newspapers throughout America: The duck season opened in the Calamus Valley Tuesday and Peterson, not having a shotgun, took a moving picture projector from his theatre Tuesday evening and went out to the bad lands west of town. There he pointed the machine at the white wall of a marl cliff and began running an advertising reel of some fishing lake scenes as soon as he heard the ducks coming down his way. The scenes — displayed upon the cliff walls — of sylvan lakes with birds soaring above and fish leaping from the waters, proved most entrancing to the oncoming flocks flying through the darkness and they crashed head on against the cliff in attempting to alight upon the phantom waters. Then Peterson gathered up several hundred ducks and came back to town, where he was promptly arrested. Peterson's attorney contends he has committed no offense as the game laws do not mention moving picture machines as lethal weapons, and also that the law against tolling wild game by artificial device to be slaughtered does not apply, as the ducks killed themselves by flving against the cliff. There seems little doubt but that Peterson is some jinks as a projectionist, if not as a hunter — but one wonders just what he used for power supply.