Kinematograph year book (1927)

Equipment and Technique in 1926. 2r5 the Optha Stereo. It is a metallic type of screen and gives an improved screen picture, irrespective of angle, and with no falling off of illumination at the most extreme angle. Definition is clear and it affords pseudo stereoscopic effects. TALKING FILMS. A certain amount of diffidence is excusable in dealing with the subject of Talking Films, because there has been no opportunity for a comparison to be made in this country between the PhonofLlm, Dr. Lee de Forest's system that we know, and the Vitaphone which, apparently, has caused a wave of enthusiasm in America, but will not be heard over here for a month or so, when it is expected it will be presented in connection with the film " Manon Lescaut." The two methods present radical differences. In the Phonofilm the sound record is produced in synchronisation with the picture on the edge of standard film. Recording and reproduction is by selenium and photo electric cell. In the Vitaphone a phonographic record is made simultaneously with the film, the reproduction taking place through a machine coupled to the motor drive of the projector. A high-tension current transforms the sound into electrical voltage with the current in turn passing through an amplifying reproducer and thus transmitted into sound, as with the Phono-film, through loud-speakers. In England the Phonofilm has achieved much more than a novelty success. Attention has been given to the provision of variety " shorts " both vocal and instrumental, and many well-known artistes have provided programme subjects, while two real vocalised dramas have engaged the activities of four or five of the best-known B.itish directors at the Clapham studios, which in consequence will shortly be considerably enlarged. Any advance in the selection of subject matter of Phonofilms would be of no avail unless accompanied by a distinct advance in the tone quality of the recording. Difficulties in this respect have been largely surmounted and the presentations at the Capitol show that a great improvement in tone rendering has been secured by using, an image of the light slit formed by a microscopic objective instead of the slit itself. Practical proof of the success attending C. F. Elwell's experiments is forthcoming in the large number of managements who have contracted for the Phonofilm service. The success in America of the Vitaphone, which has largely been concerned with the reproduction of orchestral accompaniment to the Warner pictures and to films of operatic excerpts, has naturally encouraged hosts of inventors on both sides of the Atlantic, and there seems to have been a scramble on the part of American producing firms for rights of talking pictures, the latest of which, the Fox-Case Moviephone and the Pallaphotophone, promise more than ephemeral success. On this side, the Gaumont Company has announced its Acoustic Films, and other experiments are taking place. STEREOSCOPY. According to the American Trade press reports, George K. Spoor, the veteran of Essanay fame, has successfully projected pictures upon a single plane that are perfectly stereoscopic. No particulars have been published of the taking and projector mechanism, although these are said to be so complicated as to prevent the use of the device in any save special picture theatres. An abnormal size screen is also necessary. Production of Show to capacity houses every day with a wellbalanced programme projected on the screen with Columbia carbons