Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

MOVIE MAKERS 277 TWIN 202 PROJECTORS put on the ACL Top of the Ten Best show for the Golden Gate Cinematographers, ACL, in San Francisco. At the controls, front to rear, are A. Theodore Roth, ACL, president of the GGC; Tullio Pellegrini, ACL, and brother Gino Pellegrini. Morton, ACL (Muskegon) , second vicepresident; Mrs. E. Stapert (Kalamazoo), secretary, and Elmer LaPointe (Niles), treasurer. Hosts for the meeting were members of the Battle Creek Motion Picture Society. On the itinerary for the occasion were conducted tours to the Kellogg Food plants and the Kellogg bird sanctuary. Needless to say, many cameras were in evidence. Sixteen sees Everest [Continued from page 268] Cwm, at more than 21,000 feet, was the nerve centre of the expedition. All around us was a mass of blazing white. I hope that in future expeditions the cameraman will be allowed to have some say as to the colour of the clothing worn by the climbers. Blue garments against a background of snow make it difficult to calculate the best exposure. From the advance base, I had to carry all my own kit as my personal Sherpa had fallen ill. I did not go beyond 23,000 feet, but even at that height I found myself becoming forgetful. At the start I took notes of the scenes I exposed, but later I gave it up, and I am afraid I missed a certain amount of stuff. At these altitudes it is essential to have a tripod, for the wind makes it impossible to hold a camera steady; for certain scenes I mounted the 70-DL on my ice axe, which had been specially adapted for the purpose. NEARLY FIVE MILES UP Although only still cameras were taken to the summit — for even a few pounds of extra weight might spell the difference between success and failure — George Lowe carried the Auto Loads up the Lhotse Glacier and exposed some 16mm. Kodachrome on the South Col at nearly 26,000 feet. This was the highest point reached by the cine cameras; but from our camp in the Western Cwm I managed to get some telephoto shots of the summit and the col on the 70-DL. On the day of the attempt on the summit we waited anxiously at Camp 5 for news. At last, we saw three figures on the way down. Carrying the 70-DL, I started out to meet them. Hillary, who wanted to give the news himself, asked me not to send a prearranged signal down to Colonel Hunt at the camp. As a result, they began to think the attempt had failed. I got Hillary to agree to make no sign to the party until I had set up the camera. The expressions of delight on the faces of Colonel Hunt and the others when — after fearing the worst — they heard that the attempt had after all succeeded should make a wonderful climactic sequence. Probably few men were better qualified than Mr. Stobart for the exacting task of making the official film of the Everest expedition. The son of a climber and explorer, he was on a Himalayan expedition in 1946, on the NorwegianBritish-Swedish Antarctic expedition in 1949 and 1950, and in 1951 and 1952 he filmed in Central Africa and Central Australia. His account is reproduced by permission from Film User, an English trade publication. — J.W.M. Hollywood's new aspect [Continued from page 267] siderations as whether the audience gets a good look at the picture. And all the current giant screen processes, unhappily, involve some degree of image degradation. As any darkroom novice knows, there is a limit to the amount a film can be blown up while still preserving acceptable detail in the finished picture. And a process which throws away anywhere from 20 to 35 percent of the frame before doubling, or even tripling, an enlargement of 200 or so diameters hardly seems to be heading in the right direction. Nothing is gained by this kind of wide-screen projection which could not be accomplished merely by inviting those members of the audience who like bigscreen effects to move down into the first two or three rows of the theatre. The point that all the Hollywood boys seem to be missing is that it is not primarily the bigness of Cinerama's screen which makes it so effective — for there is no magic in merely filling the field of human vision with a picture. The feeling of being "in the movie" occurs only when the picture, in addition to filling the retina, approximates the wide-angle characteristics of human vision. In other words, peripheral vision areas must contain the type of image perspective normally seen out oi tin corners oJ the eye. To accomplish this, a much wider angle camera lens will have to be introduced. Cinerama, of course, uses three cameras (or, at any rate, three lenses) to take in its 146 degrees of lateral coverage. HEMISPHERICAL LENS COVERAGE That this feat, and more, can be performed with a single lens has heen demonstrated recently by the Jam Handy Organization of Detroit. To perfect an aerial gunnery trainer which this company is developing for the Navy, Jam Handy has developed a remarkable hemispherical lens which covers a field of 142 degrees — vertically as well as horizontally. With a front element approximately 7 inches in diameter, tapering down to a rear element of about 1 inch, the lens is rated at //2.2 and has a focal length of 4/10 of an inch. When mounted in a standard (Mitchell) 35mm. motion picture camera, the lens takes pictures which, if projected normally, would be distorted in a manner quite similar to the images seen in one of those silvered glass spheres people sometimes place in their gardens. But Jam Handy has a projection system almost as unique as the lens itself; the screen is half a hemisphere (of 12 foot radius) and the standard 35mm. projector is fitted with the same 142-degree lens used on the camera. However, by adjusting the length of throw, the entire quadrisphere is filled with picture. John Campbell, who is in charge of WITH GRATITUDE . . . The Amateur Cinema League takes pleasure in acknowledging, with sincere gratitude, the following donations of pictures to the ACL Club Film Library, since our report of March, 1953. IN HIS OWN JUDGEMENT, 1944 Maxim Memorial Award winner, 16mm. magnetic sound on Kodachrome, produced by Joseph J. Harley, FACL, and donated by Harrv Groedel, ACL. PAINTINGS, 1952 Honorable Mention winner, 16mm. magnetic sound on Kodachrome, produced by George E. Canning, ACL, and donated by the Toledo Amateur Movie Makers, ACL. TUMBLING WATERS, 1949 Honorable Mention winner, 16mm. magnetic sound on Kodachrome, produced by Leo J. Heffernan, FACL, and donated by Harry Groedel, ACL. KEEP 'EM SMILING, 16mm. optical sound on Kodachrome, produced by Oscar H. Horovitz, FACL, and donated by the United Community Service and Red Feather Agencies, of Boston, Mass. MOUNT ZAO, 1937 Ten Best winner, a new print in 16mm. magnetic sound on black and white, produced by Kohji Tsukamoto, and donated by the Nippon Amateur Cine Slide Association, of Tokyo, Japan.