Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1941)

?^N Williamsburg Filmed Spot Film Productions, of New York Cily. is completing / Am Williamsburg, a 16mm. sound film in color, which will run about 800 feet in length. It will be released by Colonial Williamsburg. Inc., for publicity purposes sometime this fall. Also in production by Spot Film is Boy's Life, a 400 foot color film sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America. Timely Aviation Film America Learns to Fly, a black and white sound film for the National Dairy Council, was released by Burton Holmes Films, of Chicago, on June 28. This movie is being distributed both in a 480 foot, 16mm. version and in a 35mm. theatrical "short" version. Harold Lignell directed the film. Oscar Ahbe was cameraman, Fred Barber was the script writer and John Weigel was the narrator. The movie will be distributed on the free loan basis— see the Free Film Reviews department in this number. "The Story of Civilization" Under this title, a series of seventeen 16mm. sound films has been issued by M. Minter Culver, of New York Cily. Designed Eor educational use before an entire student body, each unit is complete in itself and is accompanied by study outlines for the teacher, so that portions of each film can be used for class discussion. Some of the units are: Primitive Life The Story oj Transport and Travel, Story oj the City, Story of the Sea and The Land oj Our Forefathers. Report from Willard Willard Pictures, in New York Cily, has recently produced a ten minute. 16mm. sound picture, called Spiritual Rearmament, for the National Bible Press. The aim of the film is to present the efforts of private groups, to make pocket Bibles available to all men in the armed forces. Willard is now at work on Senior Scouting, a sound film in color for the Boy Scouts of America. GORDON L. HOUGH G. E. Produces Curves of Color, produced by the Visual Instruction Section of General Electric, in Schenectady, N. Y., tells how science has probed into the world of color by means of a new color analyzer. This one reel Kodacbrome film illustrates the operation of a machine which can distinguish more than 2,000,000 colors and which can measure them with an amazingly high degree of accuracy. Released in May. the movie has circulated in many schools, colleges, churches and other groups. t\>s Va\mo^eaS Eclipse Film from South Africa The frame enlargements reproduced above were made from a 16mm. color movie, filmed in South Africa by Vincent Vermooten, ACL, in October, 1940, during the total eclipse of the sun. Dr. Vermooten. whose work has now brought him back to the United States, captured, in 250 feet of Kodachrome, the intense excitement among the movie makers at the approach of this spectacle. We see the arrival of the camera "fans." the setting up of cameras and otherequipment and, finally, the splendor of the eclipse itself. Reaction shots add a great deal of interest to a subject which, with less imaginative treatment, would have resulted in an ordinary scientific film. Institutional Movies from Virginia The Reverend George P. Gunn and J. Owen Campbell. ACL, have produced recently The Eternal Light, a 1300 foot color film with a musical background. Mr. Gunn. who also acted as technical director, wrote and delivered the narrative, while Mr. Campbell did the camera work. Sound recording was done by Spot Film Productions. Produced for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia and scheduled to be screened in all its churches, this movie will be used to raise funds to carry on the work of the diocese. An 8mm. Kodachrome movie for the Employees Relief Association of the Norfolk Southern Railroad occupied Claude McMillan most of last spring and early summer. Scenes taken on the railroad, in the general of es ™d m the shops show literally what each man does to "make the wheels go round." Optical Film from Dartmouth Measurement for Aniseikonia, a 600 foot sound film in join m., was released last spring by the Dartmouth Eye Institute. We see the steps in measuring the extent of this ailment and the ensuing cure or correction. Robert E. Mrinon directed the film, assisted by Wendell Triller: ™lden Higbee was the cameraman and Robert Straub was the narrator. Walter B. Lancaster, chief of staff of ie institute, and John Pearson, its executive director, as Fra mes =f film of eclipse a id act vi s 0 obse rvets ir South Afric shot by ce it Ve mooter , ACL. "islcd in the production. Air Corps Films Planned Leon A. Kreger, formerly chief cameraman for the New York State Health Department, has been granted a year's leave of absence, which was effective on September 1. to serve as "writer director" of the Training Film Production Laboratory at Wright Field, in Dayton, Ohio. There he will produce 35mm. sound films for training purposes in the Army Air Corps. He will In responsible for the films, from the initial research In the finished product. Prior to joining the Stale Health Department, Mr. Kreger worked on newspapers as a reporter and photographer; he did newsreel work and lie is an airplane pilot. Plastic Surgery Filmed Tentatively titled A Blessing in Disguise, a 300 foot, 8mm. Kodachrome film is now being produced by Dudlej E. Porter. ACL. and Don Cash. ACL, of Los Angeles. Tinmovie is to show the achievements of plaslie Burger) in restoring persons' faces which have been disfigured b) accidents. Mr. Cash is makeup director for tin Edward Small Productions, in Hollywood. "Hands" Moves Forward Since the last report on Hands thai Work it, the Darkness which gained Honorable Mention in the 1940 eontest "of Movie Makers. Jack L. Krapp. ACL. wriles thai his 8mm. publicity film for the Cleveland Society for the Blind has had ten screenings in I Continued on page 518)