Moving Picture World (Nov-Dec 1924)

December 20, 1924 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 781 PLATE NO. 3 (By Mr. Dennison.) Other examples showing corner fractures due to the same cause as those shown in Plate No. 2 published and discussed last week. PLATE NO. 4 (By Mr. Dennison.) This photograph illustrates the manner in which corner fractures, such as are shown in plates numbered 2 and 3, soon break through to the edge of the film, thus making it totally unfit for further use. Film having corner fractures as per Plates 2 and 3 is said to be in No. 2 condition. Film such as that shown in Plate 4 is said to be in No. 3 condition, which is the stage finally reached by film in No. 2 condition, if the film is kept in service. Film Damage! What’s the Real Cause ? By F. H. RICHARDSON The accompanying photographs are the second installment of those supplied by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. They were prepared under the direction of Earl J. Dennison. Study them. They should have great value in bringing home to YOU the possibilities for great damage to the films intrusted to your care. MY COMMENTS: Look at Plate No. 4 well, my good brother. It shows the final results of excessive gate tension, against which this department and my handbooks have been preaching for more than TWELVE YEARS. Times without number I have warned you of the evil of this thing, and the tremendous damage it does. Now, thanks to friend Dennison and the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, it is literally rubbed under your combined noses. THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF FEET OF FILM ARE THUS DAMAGED EVERY DAY. The only place in this country and Canada, so far as I have information, where excessive projection speed is prohibited is in Denver, Colorado. There the law makers have very wisely made any speed of projection in excess of 85 feet of film per minute illegal. Elsewhere there is no limit, and since the projector manufacturers well know that projectionists are often ordered to jam film through at as high a rate of speed as 125 feet per minute, those projectors who have no gate tension adjustment — all of them except one — necessarily have the gate tension set at the factory to take care of any speed -up to the possible limit. And thus ALL film sprocket holes are subjected to excess strain, the effect of which is made worse where sprockets are badly worn, hooked or undercut. If y >u have a projector with tension adjustment, when did YOU examine and test it last? Have YOU tested the tension on YOUR projectors lately by speeding up, when no audience is present, until the picture begins to move up on the screen— evidence that “over-shooting has just begun? IF NOT, THEN WHY NOT??? Read and Ponder (Continued from preceding page) take-up tension, worn sprockets and excessive projection speed. — Ed.) The Right Attitude MY ATTITUDE IS THAT THE EXHIBITOR IS PAYING ME GOOD, LAWFUL U. S. CURRENCY, OR ITS EQUIVALENT FOR THE FILMS, THEREFORE HE IS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE THEM IN THE BEST POSSIBLE CONDITION. If you or I, Richardson, entered a grocery and bought a dozen strictly fresh eggs, WE WOULD BE ENTITLED TO ONE FULL DOZEN STRICTLY FRESH EGGS. AND WOULD BE FULLY ENTITLED TO MAKE ONE WHALE OF A HOWL DID WE FIND TWO OR THREE OF THOSE EGGS “NOT SO GOOD,” OR EVEN JUST MERELY IN FAIR CONDITION. The condition of my prints do not require the expenditure of the time you had your inspectors devote to the films in the exchange of which you were manager. I have watched the work of my inspection department very ■carefully, and can show you, any time you drop in (which I will do very soon. — Ed.), that it is quite possible for my girls to thor oughly inspect and repair an average of 30 reels per day. You may be interested to know that I “broke in” to the business as an “operator,” way back in 1904 — those wonderful days when out at Coney Island we thought nothing of starting the daily GRIND at ten A. M. and keep hand cranking ’er right along until far into the night, after the last stray nickel had departed from the Coney “Bowery.’’ Eighteen hours? Sure! That was just a fair average — and the motor was our good right arrum, too, by heck! It is also a fact that Joe Hornstein, nowhead of the Howell Cine Equipment Company, broke in under me, as did Lou Epstein, who has been projectionist, for Fox, on Broadway, for many years, and Pop Carlin, who has been a member of L. U. 306 for, lo, these many years. It probably is due to these experiences that I have always felt a keen interest in good projection, and the thing which hurts is that so relatively few of the men take the keen interest in their work which men in other callings in life display. All True I will close this matter for the present by saying that while what friend Hodes has said is just about ALL true, still, with notable exceptions, exchange managers are largely, if not wholly, to blame for the shameful abuses practiced on film, a considerable percentage of which is done right smack dab in some of the exchanges themselves. I have stood in an exchange in New York City and watched employes unpacking film and literally pitching the reels to a table three or four feet away. That is an extreme case, yes, but often and often and often I have found exchange “inspectors” inspecting (??????) film by rewinding it at literally top speed, on a rewinder the elements of which were very badly out of line, using reels in a disgraceful condition. However, two wrongs do NOT make a right, and I am not defending either the projectionist or operator (especially not the former) for abusing films. My compliments to Manager Hodes. If only we had one like him in ALL exchanges, our film troubles soon would cease.