Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

246 SEPTEMBER 1953 I looked into the adjoining room at the running film, where my assistant sat with 202, the two Pentrons and the mixer. I watched the film and narrated into a mike plugged into the mixer. The alternating tapes on the two Pentrons also were plugged into the mixer, and the mixer was plugged into 202. I held my voice at one agreed volume, and my assistant controlled the volume of the tapes on the mixer. He listened to the whole lot through earphones. I guess we repeated this performance of putting the combined sound on 202 at least twenty times. Sometimes I muffed my narrating or missed a cue. Sometimes my assistant got the sound effects too loud and my voice too low, or the reverse, or he missed a cue. I think I may truthfully say that the sound on that little film is as good as any professional newsreel — and it is all genuine Oslo sound! Yes, it was a great deal of work indeed. But a 202 had created a sound recording which would have cost a fortune if done in any professional studio. But ... I had this fine magnetic recording on a workprint! How was I going to get it transferred to Magna Important new mail rates may benefit film shippers SIGNED into law by President Eisenhower on July 20, important new postal mailing rates applying to 16mm. film and allied products are now in effect throughout the United States postal service. Specifically, these mailing rates are as follows: 141a. Sixteen-millimeter films and 16millimeter film catalogs. — Sixteen-millimeter films and 16-millimeter film catalogs may be mailed at the rate of 8 cents for the first pound or fraction thereof and 4 cents for each additional pound or fraction thereof except when sent to commercial theaters. The films shall be positive prints in final processed form, prepared for viewing. Each parcel mailed under this provision shall be clearly endorsed by the sender "Sec. 34.84 (h), P.L.&R." 142a. Sixteen-millimeter films, filmstrips and similar materials. — Sixteenmillimeter films, filmstrips, transparencies and slides for projection, microfilms, sound recordings and catalogs of such materials may also be mailed at the rate of 4 cents for the first pound or fraction thereof and 1 cent for each additional pound or fraction thereof when sent to or from (a) schools, colleges, universities, or public libraries, and (b) religious, educational, scientific, philanthropic, agricultural, labor, veterans' or fraternal organizations or associations not organized for profit and none of the net income of which inures to the benefit of any private stockholder or individual. The films, slides, and transparencies referred to herein shall be positive prints in final processed form for viewing. This special rate applies only to parcels of such materials addressed for local delivery, for delivery in the first, second, or third zone or within the State in which mailed. Each parcel mailed at this rate must be clearly endorsed by the sender "Sec. 34.83 (e), P.L.&R." In every case the parcel shall show the sender or the addressee to be a school, college, university, public library or a non-profit religious, educational, scientific, philanthropic, agricultural, labor, veterans' or fraternal organization or association. If this cannot be ascertained from the address or return card, appropriate inquiry shall be made of the mailer. These new mailing rates, when applicable, will supplant those provided under the zoned 4th Class (or Parcel Post) scales. However, amateur movie makers, seeking to put these new rates to work for them, should note carefully the following: (1) Neither Paragraph 141a nor Paragraph 142a can be applied to the mailing of exposed but undeveloped films returned to the film manufacturer for processing, because of the clear provision in each paragraph reading: "The films shall be positive prints in final processed form, ready for viewing." (2) The individual amateur movie maker can apply the rates provided under Paragraph 141a when he is shipping processed motion pictures of the 16mm. width within the United States and its Possessions only. Within those areas the rates apply without reference to destination or Parcel Post zoning. No specific provision, inexplicably, is made for the application of these rates to 8mm. film shipments under similar circumstances. (3) The individual amateur movie maker can apply the rates provided under Paragraph 142a when he is shipping his 16mm. films to the Amateur Cinema League, since the Amateur Cinema League is classed by the federal government as a "non-profit" organization. However, any such shipment to the ACL can be made only from a point within New York State or Parcel Post zone 3 (300 miles or less from New York City) and it must carry (besides the League's name and address) the following statement on the face of the package : "Shipped to the Amateur Cinema League, a non-profit addressee, under the provisions of Sec. 34.83 (e), P.L.&R." As an example to our readers of the amount of saving involved in using this method of shipment to ACL, a 10 pound shipment from zone 3 to ACL would cost 49 cents by 4th Class (or Parcel Post) rates. Under the provisions of Par. 142a, the same shipment could be made for 13 cents. Stripe on the original color? Nobody could give me that answer. Nobody knew any place doing such work. (Incidentally, the workprint was pretty beaten up from all the back-and-forth. I was glad that I'd had it made.) Finally I went to a big recording studio known as A-V (it's at 730 Fifth Avenue, New York City) which in my book stands for Angelic Virtuosos, although they themselves pronounce it AudioVideo. I can assure you that every person in that place is truly angelic! They gently and sympathetically explained to me that their equipment was fabulously costly and their staff technical experts of the highest skill, so that the operating costs of this heavenly place also are sky high. However, I'd lugged along my 202 and soon they all got intrigued with what seemed to them an admirable little toy. They ran off my film, re-recording its sound-stripe on one of their giant synchronous motored tape machines. Then they played it back from their machine whilst my film ran silently on 202. As they had warned, the two no longer synchronized. For my non-synchronous-motored 202 was not running the film at exactly the same speed as before. So I had a synchronous motor put on my 202 (Biograph, 140 East 44th Street, New York City, $125). By this time the A-V boys were in love with my "toy." As an experiment they borrowed a Bell & Howell demonstration film which carried two 50 mil tracks side by side — one a blank magnetic stripe, the other an optical sound recording. Using my synched 202, they played the optical track into one of their synchronous tape recorders, then bounced it back from there onto the empty magnetic stripe. Everything synchronized perfectly! We had the answer in sight on how to rerecord the sound from my workprint onto my original color footage! (Audio-Video is studying the possibility of setting up a magnetic-sound duplicating service for all 202 owners — but wonder if there will be enough demand to justify the investment. If you are now, or even potentially, interested in such a service, why not drop a line to A-V urging them on — The Editor.) And so, there are the notes from my magnetic notebook. And now permit me one parting shot — a quote from The Film Daily, a newspaper of the motion picture industry. Writing under the head, "Amateur Film Maker Shows Pros How," F. D. stated: "At a recent screening held at Bell & Howell's New York headquarters, Mrs. Andrew Winton Roth proudly proved to a wide-eyed 'pro' audience that it's possible to produce a full-color, sound travelog with little more than a knapsack of equipment." Knapsack, is it? Oh-h-h . . . my aching back!