The motion picture projectionist (Nov 1931-Jan 1933)

Motion Picture Projectionist May, 1932 Motion Picture Film in the Making By Franklin Courtney Ellis When we think of Romance, ive inevitably associate it with the Past . . . the fleets of Tyre with their precious cargoes of ivory, apes and ■peacocks . . . rakish Roman galleys plying the Blue Mediterranean . . . the gold-luden caravels of the Spanish Main. But behind the fleets of Tyre, of Rome and of Spain lay the driving force of Commerce, and that which may appear to be the unremitting, humdrum toil of the present day, may well be the Romance of tomorrow. In the article which follows, Mr. Ellis, himself associated with the Eastman Kodak Company, tells us the story of the manufacture of Motion Picture Film ... a story which in its fascinating interest might justly be styled The Romance of a Modern Industry. — The Editor. Part I IN sunny Southern fields "darkies" sing as they pick cotton. . . . Steamers chop through the long ocean miles bringing saltpeter from Chile. . . . Sulphur comes to the surface in Texas. . . . Japanese with broad straw roof hats prepare camphor for shipment in Formosa. Lumbermen harvest mighty trees, and alcohol is distilled from the waste wood that is too small for lumber. . . . Participants in a successful theater industry dine on roast beef while the hides from the beef are only beginning their industrial career. . . . Mexico, land of the conquistadors, yields the silver that valor dared for. . . . Methodical extractors derive potassium bromide from Great Lakes brine deposits. ... A flash in the witches' cauldron of the photographic industry and film is produced. Modern Alchemists But the witches who conjure up several hundred thousand miles of magical ribbon every year wear no conical caps nor ride broomsticks. ^^t w '4BP "*■■■''■ ;'^P Part of a Week's Silver Supply. Entrance to Kodak Park, Typical Film Manufactory of the Article. Change the picture to patient, alert engineers, skilled by long training in meeting rigid standards of accuracy; veteran emulsion chemists whose technique enables them to offer their market 100 different types of film; research men who hold their jobs because they are able to know what the photographic public is going to want several years later and have it ready. No less capable combination of men could conduct an industry in which delicate laboratory operations have been magnified to huge mass production proportions, and conduct it so that the product is satisfactory and uniform. Let's, as a party of men who make their livelihood using film, visit a plant where film is made — not by any means a hypothetical manufactory, but an entirely real group of more than 75 major buildings standing on 400 acres and manned by a force of 6,500 persons imbued with an equally real tradition of making and meeting the "raw stock" standards of the motion picture industry and the nation's photographers, day in and day out. Through the Gates Entering from the busy highway, we find the grime and noise usually associated with manufacturing strangely missing. Here, instead, is a calm setting of stately elms, shrubbery, tidy lawns and ivy-clad buildings. Scanning the figures for size, we shall realize that the industry confronting us is large in scale; but, in that, it is not distinctive from other huge enterprises — from an automobile factory, say, or a locomotive plant. This film manufactory is different, however, from any other industry in the fact that the scale of operations, the expense, the large personnel, all are concerned in an unrelenting fight against seemingly inoffensive enemies — a speck of dirt too small to be seen, a slight variation of temperature, a dim ray of light entering where it does not belong. In subsequent instalments we may have an opportunity to examine in detail some of the elaborate, unending precautions taken in the permanent drive against these enemies. For the present, let's simply pass quickly through our typical film manufactory for a quick survey. The First Line Defense Trees and lawns fronting this film plant exist only in part to beautify the grounds. A barrier against dirt is the more important purpose. The six miles of street within the plant are paved, and are constantly sprinkled, to guard not against dust that is unpleasant but against dust that endangers perfect pictures. The chimneys that carry fumes and cinders 366 feet into the air, the fireless steam locomotives, the fleet of electric trucks, the constant use of scrubbing machines and floor waxing machines, the white laundered suits worn in any building where film is uncovered, the employment of full-time cleaning crews, are not merely interesting innovations. They are part of a grim program that keeps this film plant perhaps the cleanest industrial area on earth. We are using the term "film plant." It is not even necessary for this party of visiting motion picture projectionists to remember that a variety of photographic products is made here., since 35-mm. film for the motion picture industry is the object of their interest. Film for millions of snapshot cameras, nevertheless, is an exceedingly important product, comparable to motion picture film. It was a piece of amateur camera film from here that Edison had received when he said to his associates building a motion picture camera: "That's it. We've got it. Now work like hell." Home movies — personal motion pictures— sprang from here and now form the equivalent of a large industry in themselves. Portrait and commercial photographers must be supplied, not with one type of film and paper, but with scores, to meet the various exacting needs of their work. Medical and dental radiologists diagnosing the infirmities of human anatomies, X-ray technicians examining the soundness of metals, of building materials, and of aeroplane parts,