Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

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Talking Pictures been to insure perfect photographic reproductions of all the handsome men and beautiful women who have risen to screen fame in the intervening years. After the positive print has been printed and developed, it is inspected for both sound and photographic quality. This testing has interesting human values. In one studio, for example, there are eleven girl inspectors for photographic values. This gives each girl about twenty-four prints of each picture to project in a closetlike room which has a small screen at its further end. Despite the fact that each girl sees every photoplay twenty-four times, she can scarcely wait until that film comes to her neighborhood theatre, for she never hears what the players are saying. Her curiosity in this regard is piqued by the visual repetition of the pictured scenes. Sound recording is checked separately in the sound department. The extreme efforts of the picture producers to give the best quality possible is illustrated by these inspections. The percentage of error in development quality found by the picture inspector is less than one per cent, and yet an elaborate checking system is maintained to eliminate this very small margin. In some laboratories the film now goes to a film treating machine where a chemical coating is put on the emulsion side of the film for protection against wear. Practically all laboratories wax the sprocket edges of the film. This lubricant permits a smooth passage of the film through the projection machines. At last the finished film comes to the shipping room where each reel is packed in a separate round metal [234]