Variety (Jan 1940)

Wednesday, Januar y 3, 1940 Thtrly.fourlh VARIETY Anniversary PICTURES 37 j^^g^sreels In War Time By Mike Wear The wide-scale Europcnn Avar I.-™ i!ht Ainencan newsreels to the ?«e more than ever during 1939 Where recent years saw the five Amcriean newsreels rineing the gons wUh the Hindenburg disaster the dual coverage ot the Panay gunboat sTkine in China and the labor-pol.cc dasi i" Chicago, the past year chronicled the start of a new war soon after the civil warfare In Spain W halted. Germany's march into plnd and the blilr.krieg of HitlerV armed leeioni against the outnum- bered Poles, together with the mop- So by the Russian bear and the So- viet invasion ot Finland, was a mov- ing record ot mamentous weld ^^xiie Nazi march into Poland and nreparations ot both France and Encland. as these two nations again declared war against Germany, were rated by ncwsrecl executives as the most vital subjects of 1939. Prize camera shot was the bombardment of We.itcrplattc, ammunition strong- hold ot the Poles near Danzig, by a German poelcct battleship. This was retarded as one of the most grapliic pictures captured by a motion pic- ture photographer in the last 10 years, being topped only by the Hindenburg disaster. Newsreel coverage of the invasion of Poland thus far have been the top pictures to come from the European struggle, this being partially due to the lack of activity on the western front and partly because only a few scattered shots of ship sinkings were obtainable. The warfront so far has been chiefly on the high seas, par licularly in the North Sea. Airplane raids over Scotland, and Germany are considered dramatic enough to warrant taking, but are staged so suddenly as to catch cameramen un- prepared. Top News Stories The Russian invasion ot Finland provided the newsreels with another story of world interest, cameramen getting pictures of the bombing ot Helsinki and some early maneuvers ■ by Finnish white-clad troops. Reels missed the nav ' battle between three British b:. nvagons and the Gral Spce off Montevideo. Uruguay, but covered the dramatic quitting of (he Montevideo harbor by the Ger man pocket battleship and subse quenl scuttling ot boat by the Ger man coinrnander. These and films of the Columbus. Nazi passenger ship, being burned oft the Atlantic coast to escape capture by a British cruiser were late news headlines ot 1939. Visit of England's king and queen to U. S. and Canada: Coronation ot Pope Pius XII after the death of his predecessor; rescue of part of crew from the Squalu.s. sunk olT the New England coast; Soviet invasion of Finland; Graf Spec's escape from British warships to Montevideo and subsequent scuttling; refugees from Spain arriving in France; the German refugee boat with 1.000 aboard that attempted to hind in Cuba and then wandered • f.>r days on the seas; dispatching of chil- dren from London at the start of the European war; pictures inside of cap- tured Barcelona; opening ot the WorUr.s Fairs in San Francisco and New York, and the Chilean earth- quake furnished lop news stories for the reels in order named with F.uro- Pean war, ot coiusr. lic.-''=ni; the whole list. While stories from the Poland bal- llctront supplied some action, iiicUid- . uig unusual views ot bombings and scenes from Nazi warplancs. much of subsequent material leaned on mobilization and war prcjiaralioii scene.-!. Newsreels were handicapped at the start by rigid cen.sor.ship by Allies, which subsequently loosened "l> shghlly when German military Permillod certain battle pictures to Bet through. Then it bccwne a race or propaganda forces on opposing sides to land their best scenes willi the reels. Inauguration ot regular passenger ana mail service by British and Ajnerican clipper ships atross the Atlantic brought closer the dream of several U. S. newsreels ot having one big world newsreel edition. This service meant that material photo- graphed in Europe (until war cen- sorship rules were slapped on) could oe flown to U. S. and put on N. Y. ihealve screens in Utile more than 72 nours. American reels took ad- vanUge of this .service to speed the siory ot England's royalty visit here "ackr.to London. It was this same service. which made possible the showing ot Po- wnds invasion in this country le.ss man two weeks alter It happened. Paramount took a ganible with one print and shoved it across by plane ahead ot Ihe other reds by several days. Because the bulk of the Eu- ropean war coverage ij obtained by ill cameramen simultar 3ously, only scoops pnssible'arc those obtained by swifter transportation from Europe to N.Y. labs. Sole catch In using Clipper planes is the excessive cost presently, reels haying to pay flrst- class mail rates, Advent of the war into newsreel 1 .aloriul gave exhibitors a chance to bally newsreel issues for added busi- ness, with many cashing in. It natu- rally also meant an uppage in biz Cost of War Coverase ' Despite the fact that the European iiiibroglio already exle,.ds over far- fli iig fronts, the U. S. newsreels thus far report no greatly increased overhead. Two factors make this condition. First is that there is more or less consolidated story coveragie o>^ the war in Europe. Second is a tendency to supplant footage in each i.s.sue from the domestic area with war material. Besides the photographic work done by each government, usually via their signal corps cameramen, seldom' docs the propaganda minis- t" of a belligerent permit a worth- while story to go out to one reel. Reasoning of governmental offlcials is that if the news item is unfavor- able, no reel should be permitted to make it. It worthy of the warring power, it should go to all Qve Ameri- can newsreels. thus being'given five times as much publicity throughout th; world. Which is one very good reason why there is so much consoli- dated treatment of each yarn.. This joint coverage, plus geal'is ma- terial, keeps down overhead to an appreciable extent on the war front. Where costs have counted up is with reels still maintaining a full camera crew of high-priced technicians in F...rope (even though seldom used). Excessive cost of transportation, outlay tor cables and for shipping prints to this country, add to the total. Fact that each reel must sub- mit a print to censors in England, France, Germany, and several other countries also increases the expenses. Terrific -.mount ot interest in any and all material from the war zone, among American theatregoers, makes newsreel editors feel justifled in playing up—and thus taking up a I: '-g part ot each edition—the Euro- pea I conflict. In this manner, the war material supplants a healthy portion of each newsreel i.ssuc which ordinarily would be taken up with domestic, or le.ss expensively, ob- tained stories. This saving on domes- tic and extraneous coverage helps to equalize the war expenditures. Past season sa / Pathe (RKO) lean more toward radio announcers for iiowsreel commentation, with Para- iroiiiit alone sticking to voices deemed best to put over the photo- graphic .story, no matter what radio iiamo they pos.scs.sed. Universal con- tinues stringing along with Graham McNamce. who probably will be given a new pact shortly. One ot til - llrst air-wave names grabbed by newsreels. and still going strong, .loliii B. Kennedy remains top news commentator for News of Day (Metro). i\liilo Lowell Thomas sticks as veteran narrator tor Movietone (20lli-Kox). Lew fjclir conliniies as most con- sistent newsreel punster. ill Slern llgures as a new strong entry in the sports (ielU. willi Art Tlioiger.sen still ace sporting commentator for Movie- lone. Stern is with News ot Day. Paramount continues with Bill Sla- t?.. who llrst won attention on iiet- woi-k.<. ("Icin* McCarthy, long a.>so- ci;ilcd with calling races, is .<till ideii- li ed with Pathe. Films' Technical Advances In '39 Hollywood, Jan. 1. Despite the general trend of major studios to reduce overhead and operating costs of backlot technical and production departments during the past year, the engineers main- tained strides of recent years in continuing to improve present equipment and introduce new pro- cedures and^ apparatus to materially assist in reducing costs and produc- tion time. Improvements ■ on the technical and cngineeving sides are divided into two classes—new apparatus and materials made available by the manufacturers, together with sug- gested ■ use ot the new tools; ad- vanced technical engineering by major studio departmental staffs. Studio executives have not yet credited the advantages along re .search lines available through con tact with the large suppliers and manufacturers. The latter have ac cess to research laboratories and cx perimental apparatus . and expend millions of dollars annually for their own .progress in other fields, out of which comes numerous by-products applicable to improvements in mo tion pictures that arc immediately made available to the studios. The sound companies and raw fllm suppliers, Erpi and RCA, Du Pont and Eastman Kodak, respec lively, through association with re- .search laboratories and engineers in the east, are continually provid- ing new materials and equipment to increase picture quality and many times reduce costs.. Erpi has access to research of the Bell Laboratories, out of which comes continual improvements for sound recording and new accessories and apparatus connected with the re- cording of voice or music. RCA's eastern laboratories also develop improved methods of sound quality applicable to studio work -while delv- iii|> into increasing quality of radio voice transmission. On the raw film side, DuPont and Eastman Kodak eastern laboratoi'ies. both expending millions annually on research work in their affiliated flelds, have provided studios with new, faster and finer grained nega- tives and positives to allow for re- duction of production costs, while at the same time increasing quality of both the picture and sound track. Bell Telephone Laboratories, RCA, Proving—Dualers Pay Chicago. .Tan. 1. Balaban St Katz will finish up the ' year of 19.39 to a profit ot over $1- j 000,000. biggest ill the history of the ' firm. Mosl of it came from the big nabe hou.scs which have been coining heavily on a double feature policy. REPUBLIC SIGNS GRAY Robert Gray, legit and radio actor, has been signed to a one-picture deal by Republic and left last night (Tuesday) for the Coast. He'll do an untitled picture now being scripted. Deal wa« set by William Licbling. NEWSREELS' GRAF SPEE COVERAGE VERY COSTLY Newsreels which had cameramen covering the Graf Spce burning and scuttling near Montevideo, Uruguay, are still getting the backwash of this financial headache. Several reels had to depend on freelance photog- raphers, while Paramount prewed lis .general manager ot Uruguay into action. Reports on the coverage indicate that nearly every crew or director ill charge was imbued with the idea that u.se ot airplanes was prerequisite in handling such a yarn. Hence each company had at least one .char- tered plane ferrying back and forth over the bay and finally catching the burning from the air. Number or. cables exchanged between these treelanccrs and the N. Y.- homcofficc wM.s the largest on any recent news story. Fox Movietone attempted to con- tact a foalure production crew on- location at Buenos Aires (about 90 niiiuites from Montevideo by plane) but llie crew was reported io have left for Hollywood two or three days previously. Added to these expense items was the cost ot speeding footage by air- plane from' Uruguay to New York City. Expense of such coverage recalled other instances ot costly news han- dling on past big evenLs among ncws- rcclers. There was the freelance lad who was detailed to handle the Rlhiopean campaign at the last mo- ment but only after a promise of SZ.'iO per week plus expenses. First ex- pcn.sc bill showed a total ot $500. with itemized account showing only expendilur&i; for liquor and one can of peas. The photographer ex- plained it by saying this only actual- ly was his outside expense since he was eatiii.!; with the army mess. Also recalled was the instance where a cameraman refused to han- dle some earthquake yarn in the tropics until a case of gin wa" rushed to him. By Walter R. Greene DuPont, Eastman Kodak, four of the largest companies, in the country maintaining huge research staffs and laboratories that expend millions an- nually, are continually available to the motion picture studios for only a small percentage of the annual costs. Add to this group the re- search facilities of National Carbon Co; and General Electric, both working closely on improving set lighting with carbons and. incan- descent lamps of greater efficiency, and the research brains cover a wide scope for the benefit ot the sludios. New Film Stock Important Faster and finer grained film nega- tives were introduced by DuPont and Eastman early in the year. DuPoht's Superior 2 and Eastman's Pliis X, in addition to speedier and finer grain characteristics, allow for extreme latitude in photography.. Materials provide for cost reduction through production speedup on sets through minimum rearrangement' of lights between scenes and sequences, be- sides providing better quality nega- tive for all-around effectiveness. Most important film stock contri bution ot the year, according to spiind experts, is DuPont's fine grain print stock (DuPont 222), which was primarily introduced for use as sound-track film in various stages of sound processing between original set recording and the release print Replacing two previous, types of film used in the sound-recording stages, the DuPont produi:t carries through the high quality of the original re cording, with minimum loss of qual- ity and lessened background noise It is being used extensively by sev- eral of the major studios. Introduction ot DuPont 222, al though pointed for sound-track use was picked up by Paramount techni- cians for testing as possibility ior use on release prints. Loreh Ryder, Roy Hunter and Ray Wilkinson, heads of Paramount sound, camera and labo- ratory departments, respectively reasoned that utilization of the finer grain stock through various stages of sound recording after the original recording on the set, would provide higher quality to the theatres if car ried directly through to include the release prints also. Tests were sue cessful. with the laboratory readjust- ing processing satisfactorily to take care of the emulsion speed of the new-type film. Sound Quality Improves Erpi and RCA Hollywood engi- neers, working closely with studio sound departments, assisted in con sistently improving sound recording and reproducing quality during the year.' In addition, improved equip ment was made available by the .<;ound apparatus manufacturers Erpi's new accessories for recording included the cardioid michrophone, which combined the former separate ribbon and dynamic type mikes in one housing; wax recording pickup and playback system; portable sound channel of lightweight for remote location work, providing; quality of recording comparable to permanent studio channels, and multi-duty mo lor system, operating by either AC or DC current, which can eliminate several different types of camera and sound recording motors generally used. RCA provided improvements to its recording system for the benefit of licensees, most imi)ortant step being develoimicnt ot variable density re- cording via RCA channels, and ex tensive- use of the latter by Warner Bros, for push-pull recording. Althe .. end oC the year, RCA had cooperated i with I^epublic on new cla.ss B re- I cording, which u.scs push-pu.sh on recorded track as against the more familiar push-pull.- Method is claimed to provide greater fidelity, with less noise than heretofore with regulation straight track recording. As an aid to better .sound record- ing, quality. General Electric intro- duced a high-pressure mercury lamp which overcame many problerhs of sound engineers by projecting a greater amount ot light on the track for the original recording. With the fine grain film of DuPont, and the CE lamp, sound engiiicers hope within the next year to have a more en"icient lens in the recorder which will also rai.se the quality of sound. Do Much with Little , Process and background photog- raphy have made rapid and imv^or- taiit strides during 1139 Depart- ments are becoming more ini;y)rtant on all lets, not onl\ for great im- provement ill quality, but for vast biiving:. that can be ac.omplisheJ on prodi-clion costs. Widening the scope of their work, the procc.=s departments have .solved many complex shooting problems that ultimately were made on a studio stage, rather than on location at cost of thousands of dollars. Both Paramount and Warner tech- nicians devised triple-headed projec- tors for process background work. Apparatus allows for greater latitude and larger screen to be used through synchronized projection of three prints of the background plate simul- taneously on the screen thus secur- ng sufficient illumination to ac- comodate a larger screen, which could not be accomplished with light source of a single projector. Development of the split screen, in which broad action required be- fore the process background is shot in two separate films and then pro- jected to match side by side for the process shot, is another contribu- tion of importance by the - process experts. Minor. Improvements Important It is interesting to note the several minor technical devices developed for production use that ultimately save the individual studios thousands ot dollars a year. For example, Paramount is installing new motor systems to eliminate manual syn- chronization of cameras and process projectors used on transparencies and process backgrounds. The sys- tem automatically lines up the shut- ters of both the camera and projec- tor prior to start ot each shot, and will prove an estimated saving of $35,000 annually in time previously consumed on the process stage in making the proper alignment be- tween camera and projector. Para- mount engineers have also developed what is termed 'slate-on-the-run,' a device which fits on the side of the camera and turns up in front of the lens as the cameras start rolling for a take, registering number of scenes, etc., on full size screen when projected. Estimated saving by this improvement over one ot the oldest practices in production, whereby camera was turned for individual slate markings^ is around $5,000 ■ year at the studio. In line with specifications out- lined by the Academy for noise re- duction on process background work, engineers of Paramount and Mole- Richardson developed a new high- powered arc lamp for transparencies which will deliver 24,000 lumens to the screen for the projector. This is accomplished through a relay optical system, delivering greater efficiency while doubling the previous 12,000 lumens possible for this type of work. . Warner technical group devised • special type mik^ boom for the op- erator, which has proven amazingly efficient on locations where a long boom is required. The same studio's sound department worked out a pro- cedure to cue singers for song play- backs more efficiently and conveni- ently through concealment of a small radio reproducer in the vocalist's clothing to keep time to the pre- viously-recorded musical accompani- ment of the song. Warners hav* found this method to be better than practice in use generally where orchestral accompaniment is played back softly through loud speaker horns on the recording stage. Both Mitchell Camera Co, and Twentieth Century-Fox studio tcch- ni.cians introduced new cameras ot compactness and greater silence dur- ing the year. Metro camera engin- eers devised new type camera booms that aid and speed up production, especially on big sets. Technicolor's New Trocr.ss Technicolor took advantage of the faster negative introduced for gen- eral production use early in the year by having its stock manufac- tured with the new emulsion. The faster film for color work allowed tor reduction of lighting on Techni- color sets and greatly increased qual-" ity of color negatives shots. In ad- dition to. the improved negative stock, the Technicolor laboratory en- gineers, headed by plant superinten- dent Gerald F. Rackett, devised a new -processing procedure in han- dling Technicolor negative and posi- tive to make rapid strides in pre- senting finer and more uniform prints. For the coming year indications point to great strides in the field oC sound, process background, raw film stocks, and color. - The engineers realize there are' several bottlenecks along the lines ot various possible improvements and a^ quietly con- centrating in attempts to overcome these handicaps. When - they do, theatres will obtain fullest benefit of many technical advances being made in the studios.