Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

244 the tape recorder by the screen if you wish. Also it is a simple matter to adjust synchronization should you start with picture and sound out of step. You have only to throw the switch from "Synch." to "Manual" and set the other to "Fast" or "Slow" until the error is corrected. Then you throw the switch back to "Synch." and the projector returns to its controlled speed. Voltage changes, frequency changes, warming up — let them all come. Your picture will keep closely in time with the sound and you can enjoy the result along with your audience. A reel report card [Continued from page 240] In between, you'll film many interesting classroom projects. Not just routine art, clay work and other handicrafts, but major study patterns based on Indians, Mexico, Hawaii and so on. And there will be Nature Adventures, including displays of plant and rock collections and specimens of insect and animal life. You may find, during "Animal Friends Week," that your camera subjects range from pets like rabbits, goldfish and guinea pigs, to a parakeet whose line of patter makes you wish you had a sound track! Your final chapter will be your particular school's version of The-LastDay-of-School Picnic. At our local event last year, I filmed my first grader puffing like a glass blower in the colorful balloon-blowing race, my third grader sprinting like a Cunningham in the 50 yard dash and my fifth grader winning a ribbon in the slow bicycle race. The climax comes with eager children jostling about the heavy-laden table of picnic foods. You will find your own best finis. Right now, concentrate on the start. "Cinemascope" on 16! [Continued from page 235] audio signals, two magnetic stripes on which to record them and two speakers through which to play them back. In any case, the dramatic effect of the two speakers separated by the wide screen should be that the source of any given sound seems to follow the pictorial action on the screen. And so, for whatever use he wishes to make of it, the 16mm. amateur movie maker now has at his command the basic technical facilities provided by the 35mm. CinemaScope system. Optically, as a matter of fact, the amateur movie maker had the same anamorphic method of picture making and projection offered to him well over 22 years ago. It was embodied in a cylindrical anamorphic lens called the Cine-Panor, which was designed by Dr. Sidney Newcomer, a well known optical scientist, and manufactured by the C. P. Goerz American Optical Company, which now has its headquarters at 317 East 34th Street, in New York City. Of this objective, Movie Makers wrote in our issue for January, 1931, in part as follows: "A startling new achievement in projection effects, comparing favorably with the very latest developments in professional wide-screen pictures, was given a most effective demonstration recently at League headquarters. . . . This is the Cine-Panor, which compresses within the standard 16mm. frame a view 50 percent wider than that normally recorded. ... In projection, the same auxiliary lens is used to widen the image out again to create a screen picture which covers 50 percent more horizontal field than the normal coverage. . . . The results are quite similar to those of the very latest (this is 1931, mind you!) wide-screen systems." Let's see . . . What were those systems, anyway? Hollywood might like to know. Notes from magnetic [Continued from page 238] No. 1 whilst I had it plugged into Pentron No. 2. Thus, on one long unbroken tape, No. 2 was recording what No. 1 played, and soon I had many minutes' worth on one tape of Oslo's bells ringing. I did the same thing with the assortment of cheers. Next I ran off the first few scenes of my film on 202, used a stopwatch (you soon get used to doing many things at one time) and made notes such as: "Need bells alone, 11 sees. . . . Then bells with approach-cheers, 8 sees. . . . Then loud cheers, King arrives, 6 sees. . . . Fade slightly and add bells when cheers quiet enough, 4 sees. ... No sound, 12 sees." I switched off 202 and started to work those notes out. Let's see: "Bells alone, 11 sees." From my long "bells" tape I selected the very bells I had heard during that particular scene, and cut out a length running 11 seconds. I spliced this onto a white tape leader marked "Track for Film," and then spliced back together the two disjointed ends of my long "bells" tape. Now I had the first scene in my film's sound track complete. I started work on the second. For this I had to get the bells and cheers sounding together, as I'd heard them. I merely put markers (colored Scotch tape) at each end of a suitable section on the long "bells" tape. Then I did the same on a suitable section of cheers on the long "cheers" tape. I threaded 202 with some Magna-Striped leader film, plugged Pentron 2 into the phono input of 202, played on Pentron the wanted SEPTEMBER 1953 section of cheers and got it recorded on the 202's stripe. I now had 8 seconds of "approach cheers" on 202 and 8 seconds of "approach bells" threaded into Pentron 1. My problem was to get them recorded together. Well, I had had an adapter cord made for 202 — simply a plug to fit 202's speaker outlet on one end of a wire, and a plug to fit into Pentron at the other end of the wire. So I plugged 202 into the mixer, plugged No. 1 into the mixer, plugged the mixer into Pentron 2 (on which there was new tape running at "Record") ; then simultaneously I switched on 202 and Pentron 1. The result — No. 2 recorded from the mixer the bells from No. 1 and the cheers from 202. They were mixed on one tape simultaneously. So I cut off 8 seconds of this mix, spliced it on to my first tape sequence on "Track for Film" and now I had my first two sound sequences recorded all genuinely from Oslo and exactly as I'd heard them. I did about six more scenes like that, each one spliced on in sequence to the "Track for Film." Then .1 checked the track with the film so as to correct it if necessary before going further. I threaded Pentron with "T for F"; threaded 202 with the film; set them at first sound and first frame, respectively— motor running, clutches out. Pentron waited with first syllable of sound, 202 waited with first frame of film! I threw in both clutches simultaneously, then halted both machines simultaneously at the end of each scene (to catch my breath and to see what was what) . Between each sound sequence there was a marker on the tape, so it was easy to see its start and finish. When the sound ran too long for the film, I merely cut the tape at the point I'd stopped Pentron. When too short, I went back over the scene, threw in 202's clutch the instant the sound ended, marked that frame on film with grease pencil, ran 202 to the end of the scene. Then I counted the frames between the grease mark and the end of scene. Let's say the sound was too short by 8 frames. Well, at 24 frames per second, that's % of a second; since tape runs 7% inches each second, I was actually short % of 7% inches! (I can't figure fractions of seconds, but it's easy by inches.) So I measured off 2^2 inches from "long tape" at the same point where I'd clipped sound from it before, and simply spliced it on. Elementary! Well, I went through the film like that, with all my bits of Norway's sounds, until I had tapes spliced together in sequence for the whole length of the film. Now for the narration! I put Pentron's microphone on a table in front of me, ran the film and just chatted along with it into the mike. (I'm good at ad-libbing, as anyone who knows me will affirm ! ) Any reference