Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

October 28, 1916 MOTION PICTURE NEWS 2657 Pathe Acquires Rights to New Toning Process Combination Toning Method, De^dsed by F. W. Hochstetter, Permits Graduation of From Five to Ten Tones by Treatment of Ordinary Black and White Negative — Special Expedition Embarks on Eighteen Months' Trip to Cover the Whole of the United States — Westgard, President of National Highways Association Will Be in Charge PATHE has acquired the exclusive rights to a series of pictures treated by a new process of combination toning, invented by F. W. Hochstetter and known as the Hochstetter process of combination toning, which it is confidently expected will revolutionize present methods. The pictures which will be made under this new process will consist of a series of the scenic wonders of the United States under the general title of " Know America, the Land We Love," and will be released weekly on the Pathe Program. Pathe has paid a greater price for these pictures than for any that go to make up their regular weekly program in pictures of this class. A special expedition will start from Trinidad, Colo., Tuesday, October 17, ■vvhich will be gone about a year and a half. During that time it will cover the whole of the United States photographing every scene that is either beautiful from a scenic standpoint or interesting historically. This expedition will be in charge of A. U. Westgard, president of the National Highways Association, known as " The Man of Many Miles," and will be taken in •direct co-operation with the Department of the Interior of the Federal Government. Every facility of this department will be put at the disposal of Mr. Westgard and iis cameraman. The expedition will .travel entirely in two Paige automobiles, one of which will be used for the members ■ of the party, and the other for their camp •equipage. A new company called Combitone Pictures, Inc., with a paid in capital of $200,"000 will be formed and legally incorpor.ated during the course of the next week ■ or two for the taking and manufacture ■ of these pictures. F. W. Hochstetter and A. L. Westgard, president of the National Highways Association, are the moving spirits in this new organization. Ten Tones Possible new process with which the ordi :Five to The :nary black and white negative is treated permits of a gradation of color tone to the extent of from five to ten tones on each inch of film. The first requisite is great care in the developing whereby the graduations between the blacks, dark grays, graj-s, light grays and whites are made very distinct. The film is then put through a special toning bath, which causes the various tones of the color used to automatically register in direct ratio to the density of the film. In other words, the tonal degree is manifested according to the deepness with which the exposure has registered on the silver of the emulsion. There is only the one toning bath which is a combination of a toning and tinting solution. The result is marvelously and wonderfully beautiful. The marvel of the process is that the colors in bright light and in shadow reg rister in the same tones in which they are seen in nature, and do not change to a different color as so frequently happens. In the picture shown to a representative of Motion Picture News there was evident eight different tones of the same colors. There was one scene in particular showing a herd of moose fording a river at sunrise. The bright orange of the direct rays of the sun was brighter than the reflection in the water. Then there was the bright green of the nearby foliage, and the darker green of tlie trees in the background. This process is not to be mistaken for color photograph}', for it is not and makes no claims to such. It is merely a combination process of tinting and toning whereby the natural gradations of the tones in the black and white are transferred when the film is toned and tinted to the colors. This selective gradation of color tone, however, is such a vast improvement over the present methods of tinting and toning that at times one almost believes that it is natural color photography. The result is that the pictures treated by this process have the most beautiful color effects of any that have been publicly thrown on the screen up to the present time. Taylor Will Be Cameraman E. C. Taylor will be the cameramaa of the expedition that will start this week. He is well known in camera circles, and has been " shooting " for over nine years. The business manager of the new company is Julius E. Timer, who also acts as personal representative for Mr. Hochstetter in his numerous other activities. Mr. Timer is well known in producing circles, having for the past nine years been connected with Biograph, Universal and the American Standard Motion Picture Machine G^mpany. He is also at present connected with the Ideal Laboratories with which Mr. Hochstetter has recently become connected, and where all of the technical work on Combitone pictures will be performed. University Graduate and Former Football Star Charged by General with Purchase of Stolen Film cuse University in 1910 and was prominent in college athletics. He was center on the IT is not often that an alleged theft of film from an exchange attains the dis tinction of having a university graduate and famous football player involved as an admitted purchaser of the stolen property, although he stoutly denied knowledge of the fact that the film was stolen when he agreed to buy it. However that may be, John Van Arman, a widely known film exchange man of Syracuse, was arrested recently on a charge of having bought stolen property, in that he purchased a film stolen from General Film Company (Inc.) exchange at Syracuse. The Syracuse Herald, reporting the case, had this to say : " John Van Arman, former Syracuse University football star, was arrested by Detective Thomas J. Lynch late yesterday afternoon, charged with criminally receiving stolen property. " Van Arman, the police say, bought a moving picture film from a sixteen-yearold boy who had stolen it, according to the boy's confession, from the General Film Company with offices at 445 South Warren street. " The police charge that Van Arman, who conducted a film exchange at 551 South Salina street, bought several other films which he knew, the police say, had been stolen from the General Film Company by boys employed there. " Van Arman admits having bought the film the police specifically charge him with, but denied knowing it was stolen. " The football star's arrest came as the result of an investigation covering a period of nearly two weeks. The film company's offices were broken into by burglars, and afterwards an inventory was taken which showed that a dozen films or more were missing from stock. " Van Arman was graduated from Syra university football team for a number of seasons, and played in the outfield of the baseball team." Van Arman, after the first police investigation, was paroled by Chief of Police Cadin, but afterwards was re-arrested on a warrant sworn out by an attache of General Film Company office at Syracuse. Later he was released on bail pending a presentation of the circumstances attending the theft and sale of this film hy the grand jury. It is charged and will be brought out at Van Arman's trial, if he is brought to trial on a grand jury indictment, that many film exchanges in northern New York have been systematically robbed recently, the thieves apparently being satisfied that they could dispose of all films they stole. There was powerful influence brought to bear, looking toward the abandonment of the charge preferred against Mr. Van Arman, but General Film Company determined to put a stop for all time to thieving, at its Syracuse branch at least, insisted that the charge be pressed. The two young men formerly employed by General Film Company at Syracuse, charged with theft, are still in jail. They will be called as witnesses if the charges against Van Arman are upheld by the grand jury. PRICE OF ROTHACKER BOOK FIFTEEN CENTS IS The price of the memorandum book for cameramen, being issued by the Rothacker Film Alanufacturing Company of Chicago, is 15 cents, and not 75 cents, as erroneously printed in a recent issue.