Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 29 THE NEWEST OF MOTION PICTURE PLANTS Willat Film Manufacturing Corporation Is Building at Fort Lee, N. J., a Model Studio and Factory as Result of a Study of Leading Plants Here and Abroad TO the practical producers in the motion picture business, to the persons who are constantly on the look-out for improvements and innovations in studio and factory construction, the large factory and studio buildings which the Willat Film Manufacturing Company is erecting in Fort Lee, N. J . are of great interest and importance. To the person who is interested in VfeiAi fin HwasvTuaM Gpauta FRONT VIEW OF STUDIO the development and solidity of the industry and its every forward movement the new plant is also of interest. Its size alone guarantees that. The factory, for instance, in which commercial work will be done ;n addition to the work of the Willat Film Manufacturing Corporation will have a capacity of a million feet of film a week. It will be the largest in the country with the possible exception of the new Lubin plant at Betzwood. C. A. (Doc.) Willat, until a few ideas. He will do more than that. He will adapt for his own use what he considers the best features of the important plants of the world. Trip Abroad for Ideas Mr. Willat did not get his ideas of what the best features are of the foreign plants by sitting in a swivel chair. He went abroad and looked them over for himself. Mr. Willat visited the Hepworth, London Film Company, Ambrosio, Cines, Milano, Pathe, Eclair, Gaumont and other plants, in fact, practically every big concern on the other side. Like Kipling "what he thought he might desire, he went and took.'1 In this country Mr. Willat has been familiar for years with all the big plants. So his knowledge of studios and their construction is both far-reaching and practical. Now, at Main street and Linwood avenue, Fort Lee, N. J., he is erecting feet for the production of pictures. Taking up the factory end first, many new departures are found. »In the first place Mr. Willat will build his own' cameras and his own printing machines. The rest of the mechanical equipment, including Bell and Howell perforators, will be especially selected. In the printing of the positives comes the first new plan, and one which is directly opposite to way things are done at other plants in this country. In the printing Mr. Willat will put the strain on the positive, rather than on the negative. To explain this technical difference is not so hard. It has been the custom in this country to make the perforations on the negative stock slightly further apart than those on the positive stock. Then when the two strips of films pass together through the printing machines, the sprocket engages with the negative stock, and the positive stock simply fol m LT3 Ltj m m m S m" m X Wuat fin rUMjf AquciNG Ccwctaiiow SIDE ELEVATION OF FACTORY months ago the head of the factory and laboratory end of the New York Motion Picture Corporation, is the head of the Willat Film Manufacturing Corporation. In fact, he IS the corporation. Mr. Willat is rated as the best technical expert in the country. In his own factory and studio he will embody his own two buildings, a studio and laboratory. Each is 80 by 120 feet in size. The studio building is apparently larger, for running along one side is a smaller structure, 120 by 15 feet, which houses the dressing-rooms, scene loft and carpenter shop. This leaves the studio with unobstructed floor space 120 by 80 lows along. By reversing the process and making the positive perforations further apart than the negative perforations, the strain will come on the positive stock in all films handled at the Willat plant. Wash Films by Spraying The advantage of this is two-fold. It saves wear and tear on the negative which must be run through the printing machine every time a positive print is run off, and Mr. Willat feels that this process makes steadier prints, pictures which show less vibration on the screen. This plan of putting the strain on the positive in printing Air. Willat secured abroad where he says it is in use at most of the large plants. In the washing-room there is another important change. The washing will be done by sprays, not by the tank method. The ceiling of the washing-room, which will hold seventy or seventy-five racks of films, will contain many spray nozzles. Through these the water will be forced at high pressure, filling the room with fine spray such as an atomizer