Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

202 NOW, MAGNETIC ON 8! The Movie-Mite Corporation, pioneers in low-cost 16mm. sound projection, now add magnetic sound to the 8mm. medium LLOYD THOMPSON Chief Engineer, The Movie-Mite Corporation X.' FIG. 1: The Movie-Sound 8, first in field with magnetic sound on 8mm. film, is complete above. Reel capacity is 1600 feet of 8. FIG. 2: Heart of tha projector's audio design is Roto-Magnetic Stabilizer which scans film flat to beat sprocket hole flutter. THE Movie-Sound 8 projector, first in the field to record and reproduce magnetic sound on 8mm. film, will soon be a full-scale commercial reality. It was announced to the trade last month by the MovieMite Corporation, the designer and manufacturer in Kansas City, Mo. A limited number of machines are now being demonstrated in public screenings across the country, and deliveries are scheduled to photo dealers for September. The Movie-Sound 8, as seen in Fig. 1, comes complete in a single case with a built-in 6 inch speaker and a microphone. Although pictured here with 800 foot reels, the machine will accept up to 1600 feet of 8mm. film. It will list at $398.50. NEW DESIGNS NEEDED Several years have now passed since overly-enthusiastic promoters and journalists announced that an 8mm. magnetic sound projector was "just a matter of weeks." These announcements were accepted by a public unaware of the problems involved in producing a completely new theory of projector design. For, adding sound to an 8mm. projector involved more than simply building a conventional sound head and amplifier, putting them into a case and calling it a finished job. Many problems presented themselves in making the 8mm. sound machine operate successfully. First, it was necessary to design an entirely new projector itself. Then, many things had to be added to this new 8mm. projector which never before had been available for 8mm. work. Because of these many radical changes and additions, let us state now that it will not be possible for Movie-Mite to adapt existing 8mm. projectors to magnetic sound. PRELIMINARY PLANNING Two of the biggest problems which had to be overcome involved wows and flutter: the machine had to have a film motion free from both. In this connection, we had to bear in mind that thousands of people had silent-speed 8mm. films, made over a period of years, and that many of them would want to add sound to this old film. Therefore, it was necessary to build a machine having two speeds — one which would provide for these old films; and the other a speed of 24 frames per second for those who wanted a little better sound and picture quality from 8mm. film. For, of course, this can be obtained at a speed of 24 frames per second. Also, library films, industrial films and other such pictures are made at sound speed, and the machine must be capable of playing these as well. It was. therefore, necessary to build a film movement which would be good enough to record and play back music acceptably at the slower speed. Naturally, if a machine performs successfully at the slower speed, it will do just as good a job, or better, when it is run at 24 frames per second. NO CIRCULAR SOUND DRUM In approaching the twin problems of wow and flutter, we soon found that any adaptation of the conventional circular type of sound drum was out of the question. For this drum would have to be rather small in diameter, with the result that as an 8mm. film was bent at a sharp angle around it. the sprocket holes were deformed. When these