Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1939)

San Francisco's Fair offers cine shows as well as cine su bjects 505 Photographs by Roberts & Roberts MOVIE SHOWS AT TREASURE ISLAND GENE HARRIS THE $50,000,000 San Francisco World's Fair offers unusual opportunities for shooting, and it also gives the amateur movie maker a laboratory in which to study the technique of commercial and publicity films screened on the site. More than two hundred 16mm. industrial films and several 35mm. reels are shown on the numerous screens on the island. While many of the pictures were taken on the grounds, films of all sorts of commercial and industrial activity are offered. Foreign nations use travelogs, taken especially for Exposition presentation, to lure visitors to their borders. Only a few of the films were taken with sound ; the majority were taken in silent form, and sound was added later, either by post synchronization or record accompaniment. Color films are numerous, there are a few reels of cartoons, microscopic subjects and trick photography, but most of the pictures are simple in technique and continuity. One of the neatest advertising "tie ins" is furnished by the Union Ice Company of San Francisco in a two reel Kodachrome film. The advertising "plug" is brought in so cleverly that the audience is scarcely aware that anything is being advertised. The picture is a gay tour of the San Francisco Fair; gardens, fountains, courts, towers, palaces and pavilions pass in polychromatic array. At length comes an action shot of a gigantic ski jump being frosted with artificial snow for a forthcoming tournament. Ice by the truck load is shown being wheeled to the island. A crew of workmen is seen cutting up the big cakes, while others are feeding small sized pieces to the rotating iron jaws of the "swingers," which grind the ice into snow and blow it through nozzles over the broad track of the precipitous jump. World famous ski jumpers are shown stamping the snow into a compact bed. Later, they are seen in the thrilling tournament. The words, "Union Ice," are to be seen on every truck hauling ice to the jump, but a viewer would not be aware of the advertising element unless he had some knowledge of the subtleties of the business. The cameraman was R. W. Davis, advertising and sales representative of the Union Ice Company. Fine occasion for study of practical film methods Night illumination on Treasure Island is featured in another Kodachrome film of 800 feet taken by Branson de Cou, the travel lecturer. The lighting of dazzling fountains, shimmering pools and alabastine walls is presented in a color film of rare beauty. Particularly good are the shots of the Gayway, Treasure Island's amusement area. Best shot of the lot is a scene showing four mechanical thrill devices, all in operation. Unique among the industrial films is the Kodachrome movie sponsored by Pabco Products, more formally known as The Paraffine Companies, Inc. The actors in this film, like the great King Kong, are miniature dolls animated by hand, each step of the movement having been photographed by single frame exposure. The picture is titled Your Dream House and shows a newly wedded couple viewing the step by step building of their new home, into which is going, to be sure, Pabco building materials. The director of the film is Orville Goldner, with Jimmy Stone responsible for the photography and Wah Chang in charge of the animation. The picture, of necessity, is very short — about 150 feet. For sheer scenic beauty, few of the 16mm. films on the island can compare with Magic Beneath the Clouds, directed by Carlton T. Sills and produced by Universal for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. It is purely a picture to promote travel to the vacation lands of Colorado and shows majestic scenes of the Columbine State's Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds, Pike's Peak, Cripple Creek Canyon, Royal Gorge and Colorado Springs. It is not an unrelieved scenic, however. A pair of youthful trav [Continued on page 520]