Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

REEL and SLIDE 27 What causes the streakiness in certain films that we rent? L. Answer: We presume you refer to what is called "rain." This is usually the result of constant use. When a film becomes old, it becomes "rainy," from wear. * * * What is the Bureau of Commercial Economics? Bergson. Answer: The Bureau of Commercial Economics, Washington, D. C, loans industrial films to responsible institutions. Its mission is to diffuse knowledge concerning America and its industries throughout the world. * * ♦ Do educational exchanges supply posters with their reels? Lillik. Answer: Not often. It is assumed that the school or church is not desirous of advertising moving pictures they exhibit as a general thing. If you ask for them, sometimes they can be supplied. This depends on the picture. * * * Is it possible to rent a projector for an evening entertainment? B. K. Answer: Possible, but not practical. Some familiarity with the operation of the machine is necessary. Few concerns are willing to rent machines, but many local dealers will furnish an operator with a projector on reasonable terms. * * * Is the Bible Film Company releasing productions at the preesnt time? N. Answer: We presume you refer to the company in operation at Las Vegas, N. M. We have no recent report from this company, though understand they are arranging productions on Bible subjects. * * * What projector is the best for school use? G. Answer: Any of the machines advertised in Reel and Slide will do. We suggest you send for descriptive matter and then make your selection. * ♦ * Can our institution secure the Pictograph and Burton Holmes reels? J. P. Answer: We understand the Paramount Company is now willing to rent to responsible institutions the back issues of these releases. Get in touch with the Paramount Exchange at Omaha. * * * What is the best material for a portable screen. I am using a De Vry machine. J. G. F. Answer: A piece of white Bristol board will do. It can be tacked on to the wall and rolled up when not in use. It is cheaper to buy_ a half dozen or a dozen sheets at a time, as it soon soils and cracks, after which it is of little use for projection purposes. What is the life of a reel of film? E. G. H. Answer: That depends upon how it is used. Dramatic productions wear out in five or seven months. Educational reels, handled more carefully, will last much longer. Films can be kept in repair the same as anything else. They should be cleaned and mended at intervals. Several concerns make a business of this. The Smalley & Klein Company of Chicago are reliable film renovators. See their announcement elsewhere in this issue. Will so-called non-inflammable film burn? M. Answer: Non-inflammable film will burn, but it will not ignite other materials. There is no puff or flame; it will burn slowly and without explosion. * * * Where can tickets be secured? Lehr. Answer: Any educational exchange will send a roll of tickets with your reels if you order them. * * « Is there a market for sub-titles? B. J. Answer: Most film companies print or letter their titles on black cards, using white ink or paint. Decorations are done by an artist with wash. ^ Unless you have an unusual idea or one that will save production cost, you will find little demand for this kind of work. It has been greatly standardized by the producers. Are films in natural colors being produced now? Peavear. Answer: To some extent. Reel and Slide will shortly print an article on this subject. Watch for it. * * * Is it necessary that films be shipped in a metal box ? D. F. Answer: Yes. You are liable to get in trouble if you ship films without taking such precautions. » * * I recently heard of an article printed in one of the magazines on the use of films in teaching cattle raising. What magazine was it? H. G. Answer: The Country Gentleman printed such an article in the month of April. Write them for copies of it. Address, Curtis Pub. Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Is there any objection to a church charging admission to a stereopticon entertainment? J. K. Answer: We presume you mean objection on the part of the city authorities. No. Moving Pictures 40 Years of Age By W. K. Hollander (In The Chicago Daily News.) THIS year the picture industry celebrates its fortieth anniversary. It was on May 18, 1878, when Edward Muybridge, a photographer of note, set up his twenty-four plate cameras in a row to register alternately a speeding horse in action. It is merely a coincidence that the experiment occurred in California, destined to supply the world with approximately 90 per cent of the film dramas. Muybridge was called in to satisfy a controversy regarding the anatomical position of a horse in motion. The setting for the first moving picture was unique. Attached to the shutters of the firmly planted cameras were silk threads, extended about five feet high across to a given point. At a signal the horse was started through this improvised studio at top speed, urged on by the horsemen and Director. The silk threads snapped in succession at the impact of the moving animal's body and simultaneously worked the cameras' shutters. Thus came to life the first moving picture. Muybridge also was the first man to exhibit moving pictures. In 1880 he started on a lecture tour with the result of his efforts, visiting many important cities. During the Chicago exposition of 1893 he set forth the advantages of cinematography in a specially constructed building, showing birds flying, wrestling exhibitions and other objects in action. Meanwhile his crude arrangement for picture making had been superseded by sensitized film in one camera, a decided improvement made by a Frenchman, M. Marey, and Edison, Eastman and Lumiere had been furthering its progress. The picture industry is hardly an infant. For a score of years or more the business was practically in a dormant state, but when it gained impetus the public went to it with such a frenzy that the picture heads had to devote more time to supplying the market than to improvements. Burton Holmes' Travelettes Ready on Film-Slides By Jonas Howard SLIDE users are offered a unique innovation in the new Touriscope Stereopticon which is designed to bring the famous Burton Holmes Travelogs into the American home, into the American church, school house and community center. The special width films for the Touriscope come in reels averaging 100 feet. At present, the 75 most popular Burton Holmes lectures have been "boiled down" to remain within the compass of about 250 ordinary lantern slides. Arrangements have been made, not only to increase the number of Burton Holmes subjects, including his latest efforts, but a considerable library is being planned to make the service complete for users of the Touriscope machine. These abridged lectures are called Burton Holmes' Travelettes. The Touriscope is a lantern, wherein the gas-filled Mazda lamp and the nonmflammable film-slides are featured. In order to provide a stereopticon that could be successfully operated, without the help of an expert or electrician, it was necessary to develop a mechanical construction different in many ways from any stereopticon now in use. The possibility of slides coming on the screen upside down or out of order just when some beautiful sentiment was being expressed is familiar to all. In the Touriscope this cannot happen. _ The strip of non-inflammable film contains all the slides which must follow in proper sequence, right side up and always at the instant wanted. The adjustments are simple and outside the lamp house. "The Touriscope is intended to cover every field of projection requirements, in the school, church, Sunday school, club, lodge, college and university," according to an officer of the company. "It has always been necessary to have two lanterns to produce dissolving effects. The dissolving feature of the Touriscope makes it possible for the first time to avoid eve strain and the disagreeable effect produced by the sliding motion of the slide on the screen. For lecture work, sermons, lodge and school work, the dissolving of the Touriscope is ample and sufficient, doing away with the necessity of two lanterns. Beauty Disclosed By Camera THE feature of a new Bray Pictograph are pictures made with a slow camera for the analysis of motion, a feat thus far performed only by Pathe. The subjects are three men gymnasts, who accomplish somersaults and "flip-flaps" innormal and sub-normal time with exceeding grace. This type of picture, because of its unique character and beauty, is always received with interest. The work being done by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for the health and happiness of its employes is amply illustrated with scenes taken in the office building that is one of New York's most conspicuous land-marks. Goodrich Dirt, in the "borrowed" garb of a policeman, gets into a mixup with a baby whom he deserts, after embarrassingexperiences, for the baby's attendant. But Spot comes to the rescue.