:sra
I
ART REEVES
Scanned from the collection of Dino Everett
Coordinated by the Media History Digital Library www.mediahistoryproject.org
Funded by a donation from David Pierce
HOTOGRAPHER
TH YEAR
HOLLYWOOD
JANUARY 1934
VOL. 5
NO. 12
c
A COPY
An excellent example of production on wheels. Note how the "mike" is kept in line with the camera perambulator.
Photographed by Gaston Longet
MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND CRAFTS
Vafc<
365
Glvet\ie
<*
to
QneMitop«pkr\ £&' theVAndof \Ny
i
933
YW
fc
Q>
Pagel INTRODUC7
ive
Cinematograph
the kind Filmhewants
V
Our
Policy continues to be
Give the Cinematographer the kind of Film he wants
REG.U.S.PAT.OFF.
PANCHROMATIC
SMITH & ALLER, Ltd.
6656 Santa Monica Blvd. HOLLywood 5147
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA
Pacific Coast Distributors for
DU PONT FILM MFG. CORP.
35 West 45th Street New York City
THECffllPTRADE MARK HAS NEVER BEEN PLACED ON AN INFERIOR PRODUCT
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND CRAFTS
Vol. 5
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, JANUARY, 1934
No. 12
E. T. Ejtabrook, Publisher's Agent and General Manager
Silas Edcar Snyder, Editor-in-Chief
Ira Hoke and Charles Felstead, Associate Editors
Lewis W. Physioc, Fred Westerberc, Technical Editors
John Corydon Hill, Art Editor
Helen Boyce, Advertising Manager
A Monthly Publication Dedicated to the Advancement of Cinematography in All
Its Branches; Professional and Amateur; Photography; Laboratory and Processing,
Film Editing, Sound Recording, Projection, Pictorialists.
EDITORIAL ------------ 2
THE NEWSREEL WORLD - - 3
By Ray Fernstrom
TEACHING MICKEY MOUSE TO WALK ... 4
By Earl Thcisen
MINIATURE CAMERA PHOTOGRAPHY ------ 6
By Augustus Wolfman
THE WONDERS OF HESSERCOLOR ------- 8
The Editor
TELEVISION— DON LEE SECOND ANNIVERSARY - 9
MOTION PICTURE SOUND RECORDING ------ 10
By Charles Felstead
NOTES ON MARINE PHOTOGRAPHY 14
By Karl A. Barleben, F.R.P.S.
THE CAMERAGRAM - - 16 and 17
CINEMATOGRAPHER'S BOOK OF TABLES 19
By Fred W esterberg
THE SALISBURY RIOTS - - 20
By John Beecroft
ORIGIN OF THE POINT SOURCE THEORY OF LIGHT
INTENSITY - - 22
By F. Morris Steadman
GREATEST INVENTION SINCE RADIO ------ 23
From The People (London)
SOMETHING NEW IN A DEVELOPING STRIP - 25
By Paul Harmer
FILM MAKING IN INDIA - 26
By S. Ramanathan
CLASSIFIED SECTION --------- 30
OUT OF FOCUS 32
By Charles P. Boyle
Entered as second class matter Sept. 30, 1930, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the act of March 3, 1879.
Copyright 1933 by Local 659, I. A. T. S. E. and M. P. M. O. of the United States
and Canada
Office of publication, 1605 North Cahuenga Avenue, Hollywood, California
HEmpstead 1128
James J. Finn, 1 West 47th St., New York, Eastern Representative
McGill's, 179 and 218 Elizabeth St., Melbourne, Australian and New Zealand agents.
Subscription Rates — United States and Canada, $2 a year. Single copies, 25 cents.
This Magazine represents the entire personnel ot photographers now engaged in
professional production of motion pictures in the United States and Canada. Thus
THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER becomes the voice of the Entire Craft,
covering a field that reaches from coast to coast across North America.
Printed in the U. S. A. at Hollywood, California
80^3gg5^-
SERVICE ENGRAVING CO
PART OF THE PROGRAM FOR FEBRUARY
Jack Smith promises a log of his past two years in the Orient, featuring his adventures in China.
•
Earl Theisen will offer one of his most interesting articles — History of Hollywood's Early Studios.
•
Associate Editor, Charles Felstead, con- tinues his instructive series on Sound Record- ing with Chapter VI.
•
Karl A. Barleben, Jr., F.R.P.S., will add to his growing fame with another fine article: Understanding the Miniature Camera.
Art in Motion Pictures by May Cearheart, Supervisor of Art in the Los Angeles City Schools — a most interesting study of its kind.
•
Fred Westerberg will be in with the elev- enth installment of his now famous Cinema- tographer's Tables. Don't miss these. Keep your files complete.
•
Paul Harmer will have something good for the gentry who go after pictures in the hot countries — How to Build a Temperature Con- trolled Portable Laboratory.
e
Our Miniature Department Editor, Augustus Wolfman, will present his second illuminating article with interesting illustrations. And re- member Mr. Wolfman answers questions.
•
Technical Editor, Lewis W. Physioc, pre- sents The Story of Photography in Brief Out- line, the best piece of literature of its kind and first presented in the Souvenir of the In- ternational Photographer. It is recommended to everybody interested in photography — ama- teur or professional.
•
OUR COVER FOR JANUARY This still was shot by Gaston Longet dur- ing a pause in a scene of "Half Shot at Sun- rise," an R-K-0 feature starring Wheeler and Woolsey. The subject is nothing new to the studio habitues, but will be interesting to all who like to know how the picture makers do things.
Left to Right — At camera Harry Wild; in front of him, Willard Barth; seated on per- ambulator, Nick Musuraca; at camera on right Harold Wellman; standing beside Well- man, Clifton Kling. The remainder of the assembled multitude were late in reporting.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Two
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
Editorial
Once upon a time maybe as long as fifteen years
or more ago — there dwelt in Hollywood, the Picture Towne, a group of youngsters who called themselves Cameramen. They were employed by the men who produce motion pictures and they were a fine, straight- shooting, upstanding, intelligent, clean cut outfit.
Their middle name was loyalty and they were the most energetic lot anybody ever saw.
They were the prop's (not the properties) of the growing young industry and no matter who else might, for some reason or other, shirk the job, usually through lack of knowledge, the Cameraman, like the Roman soldier, was always at his post ready for any emergency, even to direct, dress a set or play a part — if his assistant was equal to the job of cranking.
The Producers found by experience that the group called Cameramen could be trusted in any event and that their skill, courage and artistry saved many a picture from the morgue.
Time rolled on. The Producer was getting to be rich and powerful and somewhat forgetful of the "early days" when he and the Cameramen were the best of friends. The Picture Towne was growing up- and becoming famous and the Cameramen, more or less left to themselves, began to talk about getting together in some sort of club or association where they could exchange ideas and, by talking shop, could solve their mutual problems.
And so it befell that they passed the word around and formed an organization which they called a so- ciety and thus they began to enter upon the second phase of their brilliant and useful career.
By this time the Producers were waxing richer and, one may say, a bit arrogant. To him and his kind the Cameraman began to be just one of the hired hands about the studio.
He was on the pay roll and, therefore, entitled to some sort of recognition, but that was all, and so the Cameraman herded by himself and spent his valuable time putting beauty into the pictures and developing processes by which miracles were wrought. And here let it be said that the magic of the skilled cameraman is the most wonderful magic in the world, for the picture is what the cameraman gets and the man be- hind the camera is the real magician.
And so the Producer became very proud of the work of his Cameramen and enthusiastically boasted about it, but when the Cameraman, conscious of his increasing use-value, humbly suggested that it would seem only commensurate with his services to be paid a reasonable advance over the old "take what you can get" scale, so that his family might live better and be a bit happier, he was told to run along and be a good boy.
But the Cameramen were not like that. With a lively sense of their own importance of their use- value in that great structure called the Motion Picture
Industry the Cameramen began to compare notes
and what they found out was sufficient.
Men were sadly overworked and the majority were sadly underpaid. Committees were appointed to see what could be done and contact was actually made with the powers that be among the people who make the pictures.
What was deemed, by the best minds among the Cameramen, to be a fair and equitable basis of agree- ment between Producer and Cameramen, for the ad- justment of differences, was drawn up, submitted to the cinematographic body and considered a first class representation of the Cameramen's case.
This was placed in the hands of a committee with
instructions to put it up to the Producers and the
battle was on.
The tactics of the Cameramen was to go after the Producers and get them to sign this document, which was called a "Code of Ethics," while the tactics of the defense, or the Producers, was to stall the Cameramen, but to do it in a nice, quiet, soothing kind of way.
During the exchanges (conversations they call 'em in diplomatic circles) the Cameramen were in dead earnest and they went at the job with their usual energy and intelligence. They felt sure they were on the way to success and that the bad old days of never ending work and inadequate pay were on the skids for good and, so flattering was the outlook, that scores of Cameramen who had held aloof from membership in the Society now hastened to enroll under that stand- ard for the protection promised by the proposed Code of Ethics and so it was.
Time passed. Many conversations were held, the Code was sent back time and again for amendment and the Cameramen, in their spirit of loyalty and trust, made concessions and did their all to get their Ten Commandments signed, but to no avail ink was dear.
Now in those days there was a young man who happened to be at the head of the Cameramen s co- horts, by unanimous choice, and he was a fine, intelli- gent, aggressive and upstanding executive.
At last he grew weary of the status quo and an- nounced that he would take the matter into his own capable hands and it looked like business.
There were daily conferences between the straight- forward, sincere ambassador of the Cameramen and the affable and unctuous prime minister of the oppo- sition, but to no avail.
And, in the meantime, certain Cameramen had stood on the sidelines and watched the game. They hoped that the Code, by this time more resembling a football than anything else, might be signed, but as time flew on they lost hope and looked about for a true solution of the problem.
They found it in the form of a Labor Union, did these determined Cameramen who had watched from the sidelines and, sure enough, that was the true solution.
They found that because of the unlimited oppor- tunities offered them through an affiliation with labor it was possible to more effectively handle their eco- nomic affairs. They learned that through the I.A.T. S.E. & M.P.M.O. they would build a friendship among 2,500,000 affiliated individuals, who have since grown to 5,000,000.
They learned that through such an association there was not a village, town or city to which their employers could send them wherein labor was not represented wherein friends did not reside.
They learned that not only was the manual laborer their friend, but the skilled laborer and the organized artists as well.
The educators, too, were organized under the great banner of the American Federation of Labor and they found as well that their labor card was an open sesame to places previous inaccessible.
It healed the sore places, barred nobody possess- ing the necessary qualifications for membership, pro- vided for protection to Cameramen and Producers alike, at home and abroad, satisfactorily settled the wage problem, brought about over night far better working and living conditions than the Cameramen had hoped to attain through their Code of Ethics and, within an incredibly short time, established an orderly set up that has endured, grown and flourished for five and one-half years, and internationally respected.
But the prosperity of the Cameramen began to irk the Producer and there were differences as to hours (TURN TO PAGES 16 AND 17)
January, 1934 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
THE
NEWSREEL WORLD
By Ray Fernstrom
As I sit here at the end of another year, I cannot keep from contemplating the newsreel of the future, especially the shooting of news through this medium during 1934.
Is the old element of surprise going to return?
Is newsreel material going to be more colorfully re- produced on the screen ? That seems to me to be the next logical step in newsreel progress. Sound came and slowed up the coverage of news from both the portability angle and novelty of coverage, with but one or two exceptions.
The popularity of Fox Magic Carpets proves that more kinds of news could be shown with pleasant re- sults.
As to color in newsreels, look at the success of Walt Disney's Symphonic Shorts. Now that a practical three- color process is here why not shoot "feature news" in this perfected manner? Think of the added beauty of such old stereotype stories as "Niagara in Winter Garb," "Bavarian Girls in Festivities of Spring," etc.
Do not try to tell me it is impractical and pass it off ivith that. It is practical, even if more expensive. More money will have to be spent to pull newsreels out of the doldrums of stereotype. When such nationally read writers as Robert Benchley start to criticise the "down in the rut" run of newsreel coverage it is about time something came to pass.
I have just talked to Mr. Ball, of Technicolor, and Ed Estabrook, two excellent authorities on color movies, and have found the following to be facts:
1. Color can be shot on a single system newsreel recording outfit just as at present.
2. Any newsreel cameraman can shoot three color pictures.
/ hree
The "Three Musketeers" of the newsreels at the Pan- American Railways. Left to right: )oe Gibson (Universal), Mrs. Gibson; James Pergola (Fox) and James "Buck" Buchan- an of Paramount. Pergola and Buchanan are ready to take off for the firing lines of Cuba, while Gibson remains behind convalescing from his recent Havana experience.
3. No trouble of any kind will be experienced in splitting the beams of light.
4. Prints can be knocked out as fast as black and white.
If that isn't food for thought?
What is News?
Look at your daily paper. It is a NEWS-paper, yet what do you find ? Articles on cooking, articles on care of children, advice to the lovelorn, travel articles, music news, etc. Doesn't that indicate that newsreels could spread out much more in coverage of interesting happenings throughout the world ?
The fact that newspapers feature the personalities that "write up" the news indicates that people would be interested in the men that shoot the newsreels. Why not feature a trip made by Geiskop or Alexander or Oliver, on tour to various and out-of-the-way corners of the globe, letting each cameraman throw his per- sonality into each story. Each will give his personal angle on coverage, manner of build-up and supply his own voice in many instances.
Almost anywhere in the world laboratories are to be found. Let the boys shoot a wide range of subjects, finish them alone after their own ideas and let them mail in the finished film. I'll just bet you would see a world of excellent entertainment filled with the sur- prises always found OFF THE BEATEN PATH.
Some day we will have a new kind of newsreel in- stead of five newsreels practically all alike. What would happen if news-stands sold newspapers and magazines all ALIKE in coverage, personalities and subjects?
What are the differences in various newspapers pub- lished in your town ?
Personalities, who write the news, I'll wager. Yes, there are a couple of personalities talking in the newsreels and these boys stand out and make those reels better.
But no newspaper personality writes the entire paper ; why should one name talk an entire newsreel? Tt is granted, and an accepted fact that newsreels are a most popular feature of every movie program, but are the newsreels holding their fans as they should? No! The Silly Symphonies, the Magic Carpets are cutting into that popularity more each day. Shorts are getting better, but are the newsreels?
Look at several issues of any newsreel made at various times during the last six years or more and I'll foretell that you will get a surprise as you look back. I tell you the newsreels have been standing still while other shorts have been going ahead rapidly adding novelty, sur- prise and applied elementary psychology.
With but little effort our newsreels of tomorrow can be here today or at least 1934.
A very prosperous New Year to you all. May you make the best of every opportunity and if none come knocking at your door, go out and get them. Then all your New Years will be happy.
The Old Swede,
RAY FERNSTROM.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Four
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
Teaching Mickey Mouse To Walk
By EARL THEISEN
Honorary Curator
Motion Pictures
L. A. Museum
EFORE me is a wood carving of Mickey Mouse made by the noted carver, John Cerisoli. It is one of my prized possessions. It shows the little human mouse as he is to each of us the world over. There "Mickey" stands, with chesty pose and arms akimbo, with a so-wise eight year old grin. He is exuding the spirit of a pert youth who has just done something or other.
There he stands beckoning me to chase him, or re-do with him some of the things I did long ago. Walt Disney has made him the personification of all that is young in us.
On the screen he takes us through all his troubles and victories. He is so human that it is difficult to realize that he is only a drawing photographed on motion picture film.
To make a cartoon move; to animate Mickey Mouse is not a mysterious thing. It is a process that anyone can understand. A cartoon studio in many respects is like a real-life studio. In both studios there are four general departments or elements. First, a story or scenario, char- acters or stars to enact the story, a director, and a setting to serve as a background for the story.
Those very few and fortunate persons who visit Mickey's studio look about for him or a model of him ; but in vain. It is hard to "act your age" as you would say, and refrain from getting down and looking under the tables for at least some vestige of "our mouse."
Like a youngster, I am all eyes, staring everywhere, anxious not to miss a single item. Just as I am certain that T have discovered the darkened corner where Mickey is hiding and I am intent upon it, out walks a blinking cat. A near giggle is stopped. There are cats everywhere. They are in all sizes and colors.
My hunt for Mickey is stopped when I am told that he never appears before the camera in person, but does so as a cartoon painted on a sheet of celluloid. And instead of sets made by a carpenter, of wood, as they have in the real-life studios, the cartoon set is a painting by an artist on water color paper.
First, Walt calls together a "gag-meeting" which is actually in the form of a lunch that lasts all afternoon. Herein they organize a story idea. Now with a concep- tion of the story they start out to build the plot and vari- ous sequences. A cartoon scenario differs from the conven- tional studio scenario in that it is in two parts, one part telling the story step by step during every inch of the film and the other part describes and notes all sound and music. These two parts are matched by musical beats ; each beat requires a certain length of film and for each beat Mickey Mouse is required to do a certain bit of action. The rea- son for the two scenarios is that the picture part of the story cannot be photographed with sound. The cartoon sounds are recorded independently on a separate strip of film and then later it is "synchronized" to the picture.
The cartoon director is known as the "lavout" man.
As the term implies, it is his duty to lay out the story for the artists to draw. He makes rough sketches of the characters, illustrating how they are to do the things called for in the story. He also makes background sketches which are painted on water color paper by an artist. A group of artists, who are known as the "animators," takes the rough sketches of the story and begin to draw. They make cartoon drawings by the thousands in order to show the motion. In fact, it is necessary to draw from 10,000 to 12,000 separate pictures for a cartoon movie of the average length. This average length of six or seven hun- dred feet, by the way, is seen in the theatre in seven min- utes. It takes about 100 artists two weeks to make a suffi- cient number of drawings to make a cartoon movie.
These drawings which are known as "original" draw- ings then go to another department where they are traced to sheets of celluloid. They are traced to celluloid for a reason that I'll explain presently. In the meantime Walt is teaching Mickey to be a good mouse ; he is showing him new stunts and reading to him from Emily Post.
Now we have two things completed ; the backgrounds and the cartoon stars on celluloid. These go to the camera department to be photographed. The cartoon camera is like the regular studio camera, — all movie cameras have two cranks, one that will take a foot of film or sixteen "frames" as they are known, and another that will take just one frame for each turn of the crank. The cartoon cameraman uses the crank that takes only one frame. The camera is anchored on a framework and is focused upon a table. The reason for this is because the backgrounds are laid on this table and the celluloid characters are laid on top for photographing. This table is equipped with an air pressure device that holds the drawings steady during the photographing. Too, it presses the celluloids with the pic- tures of the characters into firm contact with the back- ground painting.
Now to explain how a cartoon is made to move. It is not a feat of magic, nor is it a mysterious accomplishment of Walt's. If you look at a piece of film you will see six- teen tiny photographs for each foot. Upon close examina- tion it is found that where there is action the camera has recorded it in progressive poses. As the camera eye "saw" the action it recorded it stage by stage in different posi- tions.
Let us suppose that Mickey Mouse is to be photo- graphed doing a bow on the stage. To show this the cam- eraman would have a painting of the desired stage and a series of pictures of Mickey on celluloid. The cameraman would lay the picture of the stage on the camera table. Upon it he would lay a picture of Mickey standing in a straight pose. When the transparent celluloid with the cartoon of Mickey is laid over the stage painting, he ap- pears to be standing on the stage. Now a single photo is taken with the movie camera. The celluloid picture of Mickey is now removed and rep]aced by a second celluloid of him. This second celluloid picture shows him in a posi- tion where in he is leaning slightly forward. This is pho- tographed. This process of photographing the pictures of Mickey Mouse over the stage painting continues until the bow is completed. In this manner the bow is photo- graphed in pose after pose as he leans forward. To de- pict a bow requires about twenty-four different poses or about one and a half feet of film. When the different poses are projected at high speed in the theatre, they blend together and give an illusion of motion. The process of
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPH KR
/■;.-,
photographing the cartoon step by step continues until the set in a frame for door slams, a barrel swishing against
end of the picture. taut canvass furnishes wind noises, an electric fan sounds
In the meantime, another department is making the like an airplane, an egg beater like machinery. They have
sound effects and music. This is done in a large sound cow moos, dog barks in all pitches, or chick conversation,
stage. Here the musicians hover about a microphone. On Everything.
TT
Original background painting from Mickey's latest "Shanghaied." The cartoons of Mickey Mouse drawn on celluloid are laid over
this for photographing.
their heads are ear phones bringing to them the ticking sounds of the metronome. Contrary to popular belief, they do not watch the picture on the screen and make sounds accordingly. Instead they follow the cartoon man- uscript which designates the sounds for each inch of film. For example, the eighth note of the 326th foot in the pic- ture requires Mickey to say a certain word. The manu- script carries that information. And when the head phones tick off that portion of the film, the person who does Mickey's conversation starts his lines. He must be punc- tual, too, because if he did not start exactly on time, Mickey would open his mouth to say something and the words would not be heard. Walt, by the way, does the Mickey Mouse conversation.
All the sounds that are heard in the cartoon are made in this manner. Usually the incidental sounds are made by devices constructed for the purpose. They have a door
When the sounds are recorded, the film is "dubbed" on to the picture part of the cartoon. Now it is ready for a preview. These first showings are famous and are a part of the social life of Hollywood, but they are something more than fun. Here the picture receives close criticism and any part not up to Mickey Mouse's style is marked for the limbo of bad film.
As I write this, December 18, information comes to me that Walt Disney is being presented with the medal of "The Parents Magazine" for the greatest contribution to youngsters during the year. The ceremony was a'ttended at the studio by so many that the walls seemed to bulge and one looked to see arms and legs pushed through the windows. Walt received the additional good news that Mrs. Disney had presented him with a baby daughter, "Diane Marie." Now she animates Walt; while he ani- mates Mickey.
Three progressive poses of Mickey that would be used to show him lowering his arm. On the right is a sketch which designates the
action of the story as made by the cartoon director.
EYEMOS GREAT
Martin Johnson, noted African explorer, recently pur- chased a 48-speed Bell & Howell Eyemo camera for mak- ing animal movies from airplanes. This brings his Eyemo battery up to seven machines.
From Nairobi, British East Africa. Mr. Johnson writes: "The new Eyemo has now arrived and I have already tried it out on the airplane trip from Mombasa to Nairobi with wonderful results. It happened that we passed over many herds of elephants, and I got some fine shots with the new camera."
Among his other Eyemos, Mr. Johnson has one with motor and 400-foot magazine, which is also used in air-
WORK IN AFRICA
plane work ; two with special triggers for photographing wild animals automatically ; and three more as accessories to his battery of Bell & Howell standard cameras.
The special trigger Eyemos were first used for Mr. Johnson's gorilla shots in the film "Congorilla."
The arrangement is such that an animal passing be- fore the camera strikes a string which releases the trigger and starts the film in motion. At the same time a flare is ignited electrically. This permits pictures to be taken automatically at night or in the deepest jungles. Some- times the camera is set up and left for a week or so before getting the desired pictures, but eventually something worth while is sure to be "shot."
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
Miniature Camera
Photography
[In introducing Augustus Wolfman to our readers we feel certain that very few of them have not heard of him before. Mr. Wolfman started out in life as a pharmacist having received the degree of Ph.C from the Long Island University, Brooklyn College of Pharmacy. His interest soon turned to photography and, in 1928, he entered the New York Institute of Photography where he took courses in both motion picture and still photography. There he became acquainted with Mr. Karl A. Barleben, Jr., F.R.P.S., and has been associated with Mr. Barleben ever since. Mr. Wolfman soon began contributing articles on photography to various magazines, his writings having appeared in "Photo Era", "American Photography", "Camera", "Amateur Movie Craft", "American Cinematographer", "Nature Magazine", etc. In October 1932 he became technical editor of "Personal Movies". Being associated with Mr. Barleben it was natural that Mr. Wolfman became engaged in, and experimented with miniature photography when it was first introduced. His interest is still unwavering, and he is of the opinion that miniature photography has a considerable future being "tomorrow's photograhy practiced today." — Editor's Note.]
HTS^Ijpljl XHIBITING his usual foresight, and tendency P^^sld t0 ^eeP UP vv'tn t^le trend of modern times, Mr. j/i-gHsjj.j Snyder, our editor has decided to include a min- " ■■' ^ iature photography department in the INTER- NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER. Perhaps it may appear to many that Mr. Snyder has been lagging behind times for not running a miniature department at an earlier date, but the reader must remember that up to a com- paratively recent time miniature photography, as an estab- lished branch of photography, has been boiling and round- ing to form in the pot of experimenters. It has now emerged from the experimental laboratories of photogra- phers, and claims a position not only side by side with other branches of the science of photography, but well nigh at the head of it.
Miniature photography is here to stay. It has ceased being a novelty in the hands of amateurs, and has gained admission in many commercial and scientific fields where the highest of precision is required. The reason is quite evident. Miniature cameras today represent the highest precision instruments in the photographic field. They are little jewels of precision, accuracy, and results — results that relatively far surpass those produced by larger cameras. Consider a small instrument which can be easily slipped into a pocket, and which is capable of producing negatives which will yield flawless prints 11 by 14 inches and even larger.
Perhaps the greatest credit for the remarkable progress of miniature photography can be attributed to the firm of E. Leitz Inc., and the Leica Camera which they sponsor. This camera is undoubtedly the most versatile photogra- phic instrument in the world. It can accommodate over 300 accessories which will adapt it to every photographic endeavor. A description of this camera would be super- fluous since its popularity is of such an extent that it is known to every miniature camera enthusiast.
The Leica represents the cine type of miniature cam- era— it accommodates the usual 35mm. motion picture film. We also have such fine precision instruments as the Contax and Peggy, which use the 35mm. motion picture film. The instruments mentioned take a picture the size of a double frame of m.p. film — 1 by \]/2 inches. The Contax is gradually increasing its range of versatility. It now accommodates 10 lenses of various focal lengths and apertures, and reproduction devices are also available. There are also such cameras as the Memo, and Korel'e-K which accommodate cine film but produce single frame pictures 44 by 1 inch. The Korelle-K magazine holds sufficient film for 100 exposures.
By Augustus Wolfman
The miniature camera enthusiast also has at his dis- posal a host of fine roll-film cameras. Many, such as the Rolleiflex, National Graflex, Brilliant, Superb, Exakata, etc., are of the reflex type. The Rolleiflex is an outstand- ing member of this class. It reflects the pride its manu- facturers take in the instrument which they produce. Carl Zeiss lenses, and the new type of Compur shutter are standard equipment. The Rolleiflex originally em- bodied the principle of having a large aperture finder lens. It also has a unique window, as is illustrated, in which the lens and shutter settings can easily be seen. Accessories are constantly being added to the Rolleiflex to increase its versatility.
Besides the reflex types the miniature camera worker can avail himself of the usual type of roll-film camera in a miniature form. Amongst these we have such reliable instruments as the Makinette, Foth Derby, Baby Ikomat, Perkeo, Vistus, Prominent, Dolly, Pypille, Cameo Ultrix, Weeney Ultrix, etc. At first this type of camera made only the half vest pocket size negative. Now we have ad- vanced miniature cameras which produce full vest pocket negatives, a square format, such as the Rolleiflex whose negative measures 2^4 by 2^4 °r 1-M? by 1^, etc.
I have made this discussion of cameras rather brief because constant advertising has brought these instruments to the attention of the photographer.
Allow me to digress for a moment and mention that this department is intended solely for the benefit of the readers of INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER, that is, they are free to write in requesting information on certain topics, or make suggestions for the type of mate- rial to be included. Most of the workers in the miniature
The Rolleiflex showing the window through which lens and shutter setting can easily be seen.
camera field are actively engaged in experimentation and research, to make miniature photography and even better means of photographic expression than it is. We are de- sirous of making this department a medium of exchange of ideas, theories, and findings of these workers. Acknowl-
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
.military. 1934
The INTKRNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHE
Seven
edgment will be made to the individual submitting such material. Do not hesitate to submit any material which you may think will be of interest to other miniature cam- era workers. It is only through such an exchange of ideas that definite progress can be realized. We are also inter- ested in obtaining photographs made with miniature cam- eras, which will illustate the type of work that can be produced with small cameras. Some individuals may hesi- tate to send in material thinking that what they have to offer will not be of any interest to other photographers. I will ask that readers of this department banish such thoughts and submit all material they have to offer. Al- low us to judge whether your material will be of interest to other readers or not, and bear in mind that you will be given full credit for your offering.
Let us now consider some concrete branch of minia- ture photography. The choice of film seems to puzzle many small camera workers. It is surprising that most workers are not acquainted with all the films available for their camera. They have knowledge of only the more popular brands, and are entirely '.gnorant of other makes. I am listing below practically all the roll films and cine films suitable for miniature camera work, which are avail- able to the photographer.
Motion Picture Films Agfa Fine-Grain Plenachrome (Orthochromatic) , Agfa Superpan (Panchromatic), DuPont Orthochro- matic, DuPont Panchromatic, DuPont Special Panchro- matic, DuPont Superior (Panchromatic), DuPont Micro- pan (Panchromatic), DuPont Infra-D (Ortho-Pan), Eastman Kodak Orthochromatic, Eastman Panatomic (Panchromatic), Eastman Kodak Panchromatic, Eastman Kodak Type 2 (Panchromatic), Eastman Kodak Super sensitive Panchromatic, Gevaert Superchrome Express (Orthochromatic), Gevaert Orthochromatic , Mimosa Extrema (Orthochromatic), Perutz Orthochromatic, Perutz Persenso (Orthochromatic), Selo Orthochromatic, Selo Panchromatic.
Roll-Films
Agfa Fine-Grain Plenachrome (Orthochromatic), Agfa Superpan (Panchromatic), Eastman Verichrome (Orthochromatic), Eastman Panatomic (Panchromatic), Eastman Supersensitive Panchromatic, Gevaert Ortho- chromatic, Gevaert Superchrome Express (Orthochro-
Portrait shot by the Rolleiflex Camera.
matic), Perutz Persenso (Orthochromatic), Voigtlander (Orthochromatic ) .
Although more cine films are available, the possessor of the roll-film camera will notice that with one excep-
tion (Infra-D) he has at his disposal every type of film available to the cine film camera owner. Roll-films can also be secured in orthochromatic, panchromatic, and su- persensitive panchromatic types. Infra-D film is sensitized to infra red rays. Although very sensitive to the red end of the spectrum, this film is practically blind to green, hence its classification as an ortho-pan film. It is used to simulate moonlight effects, and to penetrate haze when photographing from the air, or where it is essential to record detail at great distances.
Haze in the atmosphere is caused by the droplets of moisture which reflect and scatter the shorter wave-lengths of light (ultra-violet, violet and blue). The longer wave lengths of light (red, and infra-red) pass through the atmospheric particles of moisture without being deviated from their course. Since films are generally greatly sen- sitive to the shorter wave-lengths of light, haze is readily reproduced. If Infra-D film is used in conjunction with a deep red filter, all blue, violet and ultra-violet light will be kept from being reproduced, whereas the red and infra-red light will act upon the film. All haze is elim- inated and great distances are reproduced in detail. The filter factors for this film in bright sunlight are as follows :
Filter Factor
K2 16
A 64
F 64
70 64
88 90
When used without a filter Infra-D film behaves like an orthochromatic emulsion.
The night effect produced with Infra-D film in con- junction with a deep red filter, is due to the fact that the sky is normally blue, is kept from being recorded on the negative, and in the subsequent print it therefore appears black. Trees usually reproduce with their green leaves white, appearing as if they were bathed with soft moon- light. This is due to the fact that the green leaves reflect a great amount of infra-red light, and therefore greatly affect the film.
Infra-D film, as well as other cine films, may be pur- chased either in daylight loading spools, or in bulk. Fol- lowing the line of least resistance, as is customary with us humans, it is a fact that the majority of photographers resort to daylight loading spools rather than purchasing their film in bulk. You may as well be informed that buying your film in rolls of 100 feet will bring down the cost of negative material to a negligible amount. E. Leitz supplies a useful little gadget with which the film can be easily loaded onto the spool. It is merely necessary to sup- ply yourself with two or more magazines and keep them loaded with film, and you will always have negative ma- terial at hand. You can also obtain from them a trimming guide with which the film can be cut in the correct fashion to be loaded into the camera. Although it may seem trivial let me remind you that it would be advisable to wash, and thoroughly dry your hands before loading bulk film into magazines. A small dirt smudge left on the film will ruin a negative. Also hande the film only at its edges at all times. Even though you may have diligently washed your hands, the action of loading the film may cause them to prespire. Moisture coming in contact with the delicate emulsion is apt to cause spots in the subsequently devel- oped negative.
Some photographers may raise the objection that they wish to try the various films available, and to purchase them all in quantities of 100 feet, the films would be long outdated before they would have the opportunity of ex- posing such a large quantity of sensitive material. I do not object to an individual experimenting with various films. After having tried them all, he should select one or two films that are best suited to his purpose, and by (Turn to Page 18)
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advettisers.
Eight
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
The Wonders of Hessercolor
New Process of Making Still Pictures in Natural Colors Bids Fair to
Become a Box Office Stimulus.
One of the greatest advancements affecting the mo- tion picture industry as a whole will be possible through the use of a new process of making still pictures in natural color, thus greatly improving the theatre lobby displays throughout the entire exhibitors' market. The weakness of motion picture advertising — in comparison to other major industries — is widely acknowledged.
Much of this is due to the lack of quality in still pic- tures from productions ; this being specially noticeable when they are "hand colored" and lithographed or printed in various other methods for lobby display sets. It is not unusual to see a set of pictures in a lobby where obviously the girl's same dress is pink in one poster and blue in an- other.
These prints are naturally turned out cheaply — the ex- pense in this direction has been pared down to an absolute minimum. Yet, particularly in theatres other than first run, the lobby stills are an all important factor in patron determination as to whether or not they care to see the picture that is being advertised.
This same fact holds true of the billboard lithographs; many of these are cheaply developed from motion picture stills, with crudities of coloring and printing that cer- tainly do not do their fullest duty in bringing patrons into the theatre. National advertisers in many lines are using color photography, while the magazine pages are being more and more filled with advertising copy produced from natural color photography. Any effect that an artist, painting with a brush, can produce, is possible with mod- ern natural color photography, and certainly the magazine covers already produced, of movie stars, are much superior to the paintings that adorn similar covers.
Perfected Color Process Edwin Bower Hesser, one of the early members of Local No. 659, International Photographers, has returned to Hollywood after an absence of two years with his now perfected invention and method of producing natural color still pictures, the Hessercolor Process. To a group of offi- cers and members of the International Photographers he displayed recently a selection of about fifty pictures pro- duced by his method. These examples included everything from natural color portraits of Joan Crawford, Billie Dove, Barbara Stanwyck, Thelma Todd, Jeanette Mac- Donald, Janet Gaynor and other prominent stars, to in- teriors of surprising beauty taken aboard steamship and elaborate exteriors of architecture and classic gardens. Still life groupings for advertisings, such as Heinz pro- ducts, fruits, baskets of orchids and cigarettes were re- markable for their fidelity to nature, while decorative head studies, for advertising purposes, showed a range of artistic effects using colored lightings that rival the variations of a painter's palette — it being possible to "paint with colored lights" just as in stage lighting.
Cameramen To Be Trained
Hessercolor Process is the result of a number of years of great effort, starting while the inventor was captain, Photographic Section, Signal Corps, U. S. Army. The first application was to aerial photography in color, pri- marily for military use. His efforts in recent years have been devoted to simplification in the all important matters of speed, accuracy and financial economy of operation, to make it practical for the motion picture industry.
On his recent visit to Local No. 659, Captain Hesser outlined his idea of operation to include the training of a
number of members of No. 659 in the skillful handling of the Hessercolor Camera, by which the pictures are taken on motion picture sets or in the portrait galleries of a studio; then turned over, undeveloped, for finishing in full color.
Hessercolor Camera
The Hessercolor Camera is a mechanical affair, by which three pictures are made in rapid succession, with proper filters, to produce blue printing, yellow printing and red printing negatives. These three negatives are taken in a total of less than three seconds ; slight movement of the subjects, for instance, in a scene with many players, can easily be corrected in the printing.
The three negatives are printed separately on a new substance discovered and manufactured by Captain Hesser ; impalpably thin, yet tough and flexible, it makes registra- tion easy and certain. The printing of a picture, in the three colors, its superimposition and final blending — sim- ilar chemically to "firing" of pottery — is a matter of half an hour's laboratory work.
The final picture looks almost as if it were glazed ; it has a very bright finish like decoration on china, making it particularly adaptable to reproduction in process plate engraving or any other commercial form of printing. Hessercolor pictures have been reproduced in many lead- ing national ads in the past year, while Captain Hesser was in charge of the natural color photographic depart- ment of The New York Times.
Easy To Master
It is claimed that any skillful cameraman can learn to use the Hessercolor camera properly in two or three experiments ; the resulting pictures, strange to say, have very little possibility of failure, if made on a properly lighted motion picture set. Naturally, the more highly developed arts of portraiture or poster-making in Hesser- color need special lightings in color ; magazine covers, too, require the skill of an artist who knows the art of color- appeal in display work.
Scenic shots are particularly wonderful by this new method and while there are still certain limitations, as to exposure of two or three seconds, it is possible to get a "one-shot camera" which is instantaneous, though not as good in quality as three shot.
Several Types of Cameras
There are several types of Hessercolor cameras, in various sizes and types of mechanism, some of them taking upright portrait pictures and others in landscape propor- tion for stills on motion picture sets. The average time exposure for color stills on sets is about two seconds and even a movement of a person, if not too great, can be undetectably corrected in the finished print.
Practically every photographer is familiar to some ex- tent with the workings of color photography ; the photo- graphing of a subject through minus-yellow, minus-red and minus-blue filters. This is carried out with great speed in the Hessercolor Cameras, which have a feature, for mo- tion picture work, which permits photographing players wearing regular panchromatic make-up with brown lips so that the lips in the final print are red — without alter- ing the relative value of the colorings of clothes or of the set.
It is also possible at all times to "step up" the red printing filament, so that a more natural flesh tint is ob-
tained than is actually before the camera, when panchro- Please mention The international Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
Xiu,
matic standard make up is worn. Naturally, when a stage or "technicolor type" make up with red lips and rouged cheeks is worn, no artificial "stepping up" of the red is necessary or desirable.
Saves Time, Cost and Waste
Until the present time, with the introduction of the Hessercolor method, the majority of color prints have been made with superimposed carbon tissues which have to be manipulated under the most exact conditions of tem- perature, including an air conditioned room at almost freezing point. Great skill is required in all carbon tissue printing; the filaments are decidedly fragile and there is no opportunity to correct faulty registration. The very high cost of finished pictures in carbon methods is due to great time consumption, high cost of materials and large percentage of wasteage — all three of these items being conquered by the Hesser plan.
Mosaic War Maps
Captain Hesser was the inventor of several aerial pho- tographic devices used in wartime and his newest discov- ery is a color camera for aerial use, which will readily disclose camouflage or any tricks of the enemy used to con- ceal fortifications or troop movements. This is also a three-plate camera, but made in "one-shot"; examination of negatives and positives, through special viewing glasses, will tell an army commander secrets that would be un- guessed by judging from an ordinary black and white aerial photograph. Maps can thus be made in full color — a mosaic, as they are called, in color, being much more valuable than in monotone. Great speed in making up the color prints for aerial work is possible by the use of the Hesser devices.
Another great field for this photography is in medical work, where an exact record of skin diseases, for instance, can be made for the illustration of text books.
Commercial Field Great
So far as the general public is concerned, the plans under way call for the equipping of several hundred studios throughout the United States with Hessercolor cameras ; the regional centre nearest them being used for their color printing. All the photographer has to do is make the negatives and develop them in the specially for- mulated solutions for color. This will also apply to mo- tion picture companies on distant location, but locally it will be more convenient to have the negatives developed in the Hessercolor plant. Three sizes of negatives are stand- ard; 5x7, 63^x8^2 and 8x10, while splendid enlarged prints can be made up to 14x17 inches from even a 5x7 original negative.
Remarkable Speed of Process
The remarkable item of speed in The Hessercolor Process was recently demonstrated by a finished color pic- ture in process of making complete on paper, within four hours after the photographing of a scene, using film ; the same process was reduced to one hour and four minutes with the use of glass plates. But because of the danger of breakability the regular method is to use panchromatic film ; this is treated quite differently in developer from the ordinary stills. A central "printing plant" for Hessercolor is already being established in Hollywood and in this plant the color stills made by cameramen with each motion pic- ture company will be developed and finished in color, the colorprints being ready on a twenty-four hour basis.
While the cost of color prints is necessary a great ad- vance over black and white stills, they will serve a very definite purpose and, when contracts with lithographic concerns are revised, for the usage of color-stills instead of hand coloring, the cost will be readily absorbed by the savings made.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers
DON LEE STATIONS CELEBRATE SECOND ANNIVERSARY
Five Million Feet of Motion Picture Film Televised In Two Years
On December twenty-third, with a special i\vc and one-half hour program, the Don Lee television stations W6XS and W6XAO celebrated their second anniversan of television broadcasting.
Two years ago, under the direction of Harry S. Lubcke, Director of Television for the Don Lee Broad- casting System, W6XAO became the first ultra-high fre- quency television station in the country broadcasting on regular schedule. Five months later, May 21, 1932, the first television image ever received in an airplane any- where in the world was broadcast from W6XAO to a speeding Western Air Express tri-motored Fokker and viewed by over a dozen press representatives.
With the inaugural broadcast of W6XS on the first anniversary of W6XAO, this new 1000 watt transmitter was soon heard and received across the continent at Houl- ton, Maine. Immediately after the Los Angeles-Long Beach earthquake of March 10th, 1933, W6XS and W6XAO transmitted scenes of the disaster before the public was admitted to the stricken area, with the result that those who had television receivers saw the damage over television before they were allowed to see it in person.
Soon regular editions of Pathe Newsreels were shown, then Paramount trailers, shorts, and full length features, until at present nearly five million (4,824,000) feet of mo- tion picture film have been televised on regular schedule. This is believed to be the largest television footage ever exhibited. Recently a record was set in bringing an event to the television screen, when the Stanford-USC Trojan contest of Armistice Day was shown three hours and forty-five minutes after the conclusion of the game.
The anniversary program started at 5:00 p. m. with a historical review of the subjects broadcast during the two year period, and included the first image broadcast, the one sent to the airplane, and others connected with outstand- ing events. It was followed at 6 p. m. by a current Pathe Newsreel, Paramount's "Hollywood on Parade," with Ginger Rogers, John Boles, Robert Woolsey, Johnny Mack Brown, Mary Pickford, Boots Mallory, and Doro- thy Wilson, and a special edition of Paramount News. At 7:00 p. m. the full-length Paramount feature "Madame Butterfly" was broadcast starring Sylvia Sidney and Gary Cooper. The broadcast ended at 10:25 p. m. with the usual closing signal.
THE ASSISTANTS TALK IT OVER
"What do you think of personal liberty?" "I'm in favor of it, but my girl won't see it."
Ten
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
Motion Picture Sound Recording
Chapter V
HE preceding chapter described the sound stage jfe||| and the equipment used on it, and mentioned briefly the types of portable recording equip- ment employed for location work. This chapter begins the discussion of the permanent monitoring equip- ment that is associated with each sound stage.
The monitor man, who is also called the "mixer," or first soundman, has perhaps the most responsible position in connection with the recording of sound ; for it is he who governs the volume and, to some extent, the quality of the sound that is recorded. The volume of sound, or rather its electrical equivalent, he regulates by means of his monitoring controls; and by locating the microphones so that they take advantage of the favorable acoustic con- ditions existing within a set, he is able to influence in a considerable degree the quality of the recorded sound.
Monitoring at its best is an art ; at its worst the result is a confused jumble of sound that is decidedly unpleasant to hear. Monitoring requires a high sort of skill on the part of the monitor man, a skill that is developed most readily by intimate acquaintance with the monitoring equipment and with the acoustic conditions normally en- countered in motion picture sets. In addition to that special skill, a monitor man must be resourceful and alert, and have a sincere desire to do good work regardless of the labor involved.
A theoretical knowledge of the fundamentals of acous- tics and sound (the elementary discussion contained in Chapter III should prove sufficient) and broad practical experience in the monitoring of sound motion pictures are necessary requisites in the schooling of a successful monitor man. One other essential that the monitor man must have is tact ; for only if he is possessed of that virtue can he secure the whole-hearted cooperation of the director and the technical staff of the picture on which he is working.
o*
Switch
/vvicrophone Outtput
By
Charles Felstead Associate Editor
person of normal hearing. A knowledge of music and of musical instruments is not indispensable, although it is highly desirable ; but an ear for music is a necessity for the monitor man who does orchestrations. As in any skilled labor, natural abilities make it easier for some men to be- come more expert monitor men than others.
The Permanent Monitoring Installation
The permanent monitor room that is associated with each sound stage is usually located adjoining the middle of one of the side walls of the stage. This monitor room is about twelve feet square ; and its floor is about fifteen feet above the floor of the stage. The monitor man looks out onto the sound stage through three glass windows set in a sort of bay, like the bay window of a house. The windows are each constructed of two sheets of thick plate glass solidly mounted about four inches apart. The air space between the sheets of glass provides additional in- sulation against the passage of sounds originating on the stage.
The control desk for the monitor man is placed in the bay formed by the three windows in such a position that he has a clear view of the action taking place in both directions along the stage as well as directly in front of him. One side of the monitor room is open to a large room about thirty by fifty feet in size, the floor of which is on a level with the floor of the sound stage. This large room is known as the monitor theatre, or auditorium ; and
S*Vfe
"'^fP Controls
ih
ih
?L
-^
lh
i^hrf1
ihQ
yVyONITOR ROOM
Three- position
y^*m Volume Control
To npli room
., , >Amplifier
VolumeindKAtof \ r£,nvy,
Oextensic meter
sion
— *■
To boo&terAmplifier k^
Loud Spe&Ker
public
address
amplifier
Carbon microphone
Fig. 2. Block schematic diagram of stage and monitor room.
Normal hearing is, of course, a possession of the most vital importance to the monitor man. If he is not gifted with normal hearing, he is likely to place his microphones so that lie records more high-frequency, or perhaps more low-frequency, sounds than are pleasant to the ears of the
the two monitor horns are suspended in the far corner of it facing toward the monitor man's desk. The walls and ceiling of the monitor room and monitor theatre are treated with acoustic materials, that absorb sound, and the floor is covered by a rug laid over a thick padding of hair-
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
T li e
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPH KK
Eleven
felt; so there is very little reverberation within either room.
This monitor theatre is provided for the sole purpose of simulating normal theatre sound conditions as closely as possible ; and its construction and acoustic treatment are such that time of reverberation within it is practically the same as that of a small motion picture theatre filled with an audience of average size. This arrangement per-
instead of the two panels that are standard for the perma- nent equipment ; but otherwise there is little difference be- tween the two installations. The monitor man must of course wear headphones when using the portable monitor desk, because it is usually placed in position on the set beside the camera where the monitor man has a good view of the action. This type of monitoring equipment would supersede all other types because of its convenience, were
Center — The monitor desk in operation on a set. Courtesy Universal Pictures Corp. Right — The portable monitor desk, showing the amplifier and junction box for microphone cables beneath the opened door.
Courtesy Universal Pictures Corp.
Left — A portable monitor booth. The junction box for microphone cables is clearly shown. The small horn of the monitor man's public address
system may be seen on top of the booth. Courtesy Paramount Productions, Inc.
mits the monitor man to hear the sound he is monitoring under conditions similar to those which will exist when an audience listens to the recorded sound being reproduced in a theatre. In this way, the monitor man works under acoustic conditions that are as nearly normal as it is pos- sible to make them.
The Portable Monitor Booth Where there are so many sets left standing on the stage that their intervening walls obscures the monitor man's view of the set in which shooting is being done, a portable type of stage monitor room, or monitor booth, is often used. This monitor booth is a small, thoroughly sound-proofed room about five feet square and seven feet high mounted on regular automobile wheels ; and resembles closely the old-style camera booth. It is just large enough to hold the monitor man, his monitoring contro's, and a small horn.
A large, double-thickness window with an air space between the sheets of glass is provided in the front of the monitor booth to allow the monitor man a clear view of the action on the set ; and access to the booth is through a closely-fitting door of double-wall construction in the rear. Insulated and shielded cables equipped with suitab'e plugs are used to connect the monitor booth with the main re- cording system. The monitoring equipment in the booth is essentially the same as that in the permanent monitor room. Batteries to supply current for the monitoring am- plifier are carried in the booth. The monitor booth is preferred by some monitor men because it can be moved right up beside the cameras on the set to the position most advantageous for observing the action ; and when so used it permits much more intimate monitoring work.
The Portable Monitor Dask A new type of portable monitor desk is now becoming popular with monitor men. This is a desk with a slanting front something like the permanent control desk ; but it is mounted, together with a chair and. a box for batteries, on a platform equipped with large casters. Only a single three-position mixing panel is used in the portable desk,
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
it not for the unsatisfactory reproduction that the head- phones provide on anything other than straight voice re- cording. The arrangement of the microphone and system cables will be apparent from the accompanying photo- graph.
Monitor Horns and Units
The two monitor horns installed in the permanent monitor room are of the exponential, air-column type, and have lengths of twelve and fourteen feet, which assures good reproduction of the bass notes in recording music. The greater the length of the air column, which is meas- ured from the diaphragm of the horn unit to the opening of the bell, the lower the frequency response of the horn. That is, the fourteen-foot horn will reproduce lower mu- sical notes than will the twelve-foot horn.
The horn units are of the electro-dynamic type, which has a high factor of efficiency in converting energy from electrical to sound form. These units operate on the same principle that accounts for the functioning of the dynamic speakers used in radio receiving sets. The theory involved will be explained in another chapter. Field current is sup- plied to the units through series resistors from a twelve- volt source. These horns and units are of the same type as those employed in motion picture theatres.
The monitor horn installed in the portable monitor booth is of the same type as those used in the permanent monitor room, but it is smaller, which results in a loss of response to the low-frequency end of the sound spectrum. This small horn is equipped with the same type of horn unit that is employed on the large monitor horns. The horn is mounted on the back of the monitor booth in a box-like affair built onto the outside of the booth beside the door. This arrangement is provided so that the open- ing of the horn wall be at the greatest possible distance from the monitor man's ears. Because of the poor low- frequency characteristic of the small horn, the monitor booth is never used when music is monitored. For the recording of dialogue and sound effects, however, the lack in low-frequency response of the small horn is not objec- tionable.
Cwelve
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
The Mixer Controls
The control portion of the monitoring equipment is quite simple, being made up entirely of potentiometers, with key switches for disconnecting unused controls. Three potentiometers and the associated three key switches are mounted as a unit on a metal panel ; and two mixer con- trol panels of this type are employed in the normal instal- lation. The two panels are built into a cabinet with a slanting front, which stands on the desk in such a position that it is convenient for the monitor man to reach the con- trols.
An idea of the functioning of a potentiometer and its key switch may be obtained from Figure 1. Actually, a more complicated impedance-matching potentiometer is employed, in order that the output impedance of the mi- crophone will be exactly matched to the input impedance of the monitoring amplifier at all adjustments of the po- tentiometer ; but the simple potentiometer shown illustrates the theory much more clearly. X is a circular winding of resistance wire, which has a resistance, in this case, of 200 ohms ; while Y is a metal blade attached to the control knob. By turning the control knob, the blade can be made to connect with different points on the circular resistance element.
When the blade is at the point A , the full output of the microphone is fed to the monitoring amplifier, and the resistance element is simply shunted across the line. But when the blade is at the point B, none of the output of the microphone is supplied to the monitoring amplifier. At intermediate points on the resistance element, different proportions of the microphone output energy are supplied to the monitoring amplifier ; the nearer the blade is to the point A the greater the amount of energy transmitted by the potentiometer. The switch is provided to permit the potentiometer and the microphone with which it is asso- ciated to be disconnected from the monitoring amplifier.
One potentiometer and its key switch are required for each microphone ; so a six-position mixing panel provides controls for a maximum of six microphones. The switches turn off the microphones that are not in use ; and the potentiometers regulate the volume of sound (in the form of electrical energy) that is supplied to the recording sys- tem by each microphone. The potentiometers are care- fully constructed and will not cause noise in the system if they are kept clean. The key switches are designed not to produce clicks when operated, so that microphones can be turned on or off during the shooting of scenes without interfering with the recording.
The Monitoring Amplifier
The electrical output level of a condenser or dynamic microphone is so low that it is necessary to amplify it by a monitoring amplifier after the energy has passed through the mixer potentiometer. The normal circuit arrange- ment is shown in Figure 2. Squares represent the micro- phones and the amplifier, and pairs of wires are repre- sented by solid lines. The conventional symbol is used for the potentiometers.
The monitoring amplifier is also called a pre-amplifier, or "booster," amplifier. There are two types of audio- frequency amplifiers in general use for this purpose. One type of amplifier employs small "peanut" tubes in a re- sistance-coupled circuit of three stages ; while the other type uses larger tubes in a two-stage impedance-coupled circuit. The three-stage amplifier is equipped with only a single switch for regulating the amount of gain in the amplifier. But gain control on the two-stage amplifier is provided by two tap switches, one of which regulates the gain in steps of five decibels each and the other provides fine adjustment in one decibel steps.
Meanings of Technical Terms Terms which are not clear will be explained in a later chapter ; but it will be mentioned here that the term gain is merely another name for amplification. The word itself
is almost self-explanatory. Just as a current that has passed through a resistance is said to have suffered a loss, or diminution in value, current that has been increased by an amplifier is said to have received a gain in value.
Electrical level is a measure of the current at any point in a circuit with reference to some other point in the circuit, and is not necessarily defined in any unit of meas- urement. The level of an electric current at the output of an amplifier is higher than the level at the input be- cause there has been a gain in the amplifier. Likewise, the electrical level at the output of a resistive device, such as a potentiometer or attenuation network, is lower than at the input because there has been a loss in the resistance.
All of the terms just defined are concerned with speech current, which is the current generated by the sounds picked up by the microphone. It is called speech current because of the convenience of that term ; although the sounds that produce the current might be noises or musical notes as well as speech sounds. It is this speech current that is dealt with in sound recording; for it is this cur- rent that, after suitable amplification, causes the variation in the recording device that produces the sound record on film.
Comparison of Amplifiers
The three-stage booster amplifier is equipped with meters for reading the plate and filament current of all tubes ; but the two-stage amplifier is without meters. Both amplifiers have rheostats for adjusting the filament cur- rent. These rheostats must be kept particularly free of dust and corrosion, because any noise produced in this low-level part of the circuit will be enormously amplified. Just as for the microphone amplifiers, a separate set of plate-supply batteries, as well as filament batteries, are often used with these booster amplifiers to prevent electri- cal coupling through the batteries with the main ampli- fiers. These are known as "local" batteries. Sometimes, however, it is possible to operate this amplifier directly from the main system batteries without feed-back troubles.
The two-stage amplifier is to be preferred for this work, despite the lower gain it provides, because the "pea- nut" tubes of the three-stage amplifier are inclined to be more microphonic than the larger tubes. This means that if the tubes are set into mechanical vibration by a jar or blow, the electrical "singing" produced in the amplifier by the vibration of the tube elements will be much more troublesome and objectionable for the "peanut" tubes than for the larger tubes.
Necessity For Pre-A mplification
It is necessary that the electrical level of the speech current be raised at this point in the recording circuit instead of waiting until it has reached the main recording amplifiers in the amplifier room. If it were not boosted in the monitoring equipment, the speech current would be at such a low electrical level when it reached the main ampli- fiers that it might be below the noise level of the system. By noise level is meant the level of the annoying electrical currents generated in the recording system by tube hiss, by minute amounts of electrical leakage, and by a multi- tude of other tiny sources of disturbances in the system.
If the speech current is permitted to fall to the noise level, it becomes necessary to amplify the noise as much as the speech current when the speech current is raised to recording level. The monitoring amplifier serves to in- crease the speech current to a level that is high enough to over-ride any extraneous electrical disturbances that are picked up in the monitoring circuit and by the transmission line carrying the speech current down to the main ampli- fiers.
The next chapter will conclude the description of the permanent monitoring equipment and will explain the usual procedure in coordinating the activities of the sound department with those of the picture companv on the sound stage.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934 T he INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPH E R Thirteen
A Serious Problem Beautifully Solved
COMPOSITE photography presented film manufacturers with a new and serious problem. Eastman has solved it. The Ultra-fine grain of Eastman Background Negative yields background shots that can be projected and rephotographed with genuinely beautiful and completely con- vincing results. And this new film has other properties . . . especially surprising speed . . . that will stimulate the camera- man to new achievements in general cinematography. Brulatour and Eastman technical staffs stand ready to help you.
J. E. BRULATOUR, Inc.
New York Chicago Hollywood
E A S T M AN
Background Negative
i'Hiii teen
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
Notes on Marine Photography
By Karl A. Barleben, Jr., F.R.P.S.
HOTOGRAPHY is becoming increasingly popular in all types of activities. Unfortunate- ly the amateur yachtsman has not as yet taken full advantage of photography in his hobby ex- cept in rare cases, and this is somewhat difficult to under- stand, for surely the water and boats make most attractive subjects for picture-material. It is possible that the aver- age "pleasure sailor" feels that a camera is too awkward and cumbersome a device to fit into the scheme of things on board small boats. This is a serious mistake, for the modern camera is so tiny in size that it occupies little or no space. Cameras of this type are known as miniature cameras, and are represented by well-known makes such as the Leica, Rolleiflex, National Graflex, Contax, Foth Derby, and Makinette. These cameras make tiny nega- tives, it is true, in keeping with their diminutive size, yet pictures on paper from these small negatives can be made in excess of 3 x 4 feet — think of it! Nor is the technique involved in producing such revolutionary results difficult or expensive. It can be readily understood, then, that the yachtsman has available a number of precision cameras at his disposal which are not only highly satisfactory from a photographic standpoint, but small and compact as well.
Complete descriptions and prices of these small models may be secured from the manufacturers or from photo- graphic dealers. The point to be stressed here is that these cameras are ideally suited to boat photography at the least cost, least fuss and bother, and least stowage space. Every boat lover should investigate the merits of these small cameras — he owes it to himself, for just think back at the marvelous chances for pictures that you have already ex- perienced. Wouldn't you like to have an album in which a pictorial record could be preserved of the various picnics, cruises, and races you visited or participated in? Of course you would.
Going still stronger in photography, the amateur mo- tion picture might be mentioned. Cameras such as the Bell and Howell, Victor, Simplex, and Cine Kodak accom- modate the popular 16 mm. film, and like the miniature still cameras, are extremely easy on the pocket-book, yet deliver pleasures and delights that cannot be duplicated.
Photography in small boats or large, is now brought to the point of perfection. The time is not far off when the yachtsman will no more think of leaving the shore without his small camera than without his pet binoculars. Life has, in these days, been made easier and more comfortable. The boat enthusiast can have a small radio aboard, complete culinary equipment, and other means of comfort and ease, despite the small size of his boat. The same holds true for photography. Just as radios have been made smaller, more compact, and incidentally more efficient, so have cameras undergone a similar change.
There are a few points which might often be met with in the ordinary course of marine photography. It might be well to just briefly mention a few for the benefit of those who are not familiar with modern photography, especially when applied to pictures of boats and things of the sea.
The first disappointment that may be experienced by the marine photographer is the fact that he cannot secure a photograph of the interior of his boat which shows all he wants to see. This is particularly noticeable in the case of small boats of forty feet and less. Naturally the cabins are small, often cramped, leaving little or no room to set the camera upon a tripod or similar firm support. The larger cameras are particularly inconvenient in this res- pect. Even if there is sufficient space for the photographer
and his camera, he cannot always include everything in the scene he would like to show in the finished picture. This is due to the fact that the average lens has an angle of view too narrow. What is needed is a so-called wide- angle lens, one which covers a greater area on the film without moving the camera back too far. Unfortunately the majority of cameras are equipped with but one lens which is permanently fixed in the camera. A few, how- ever, are equipped with interchange-of-lens features, by means of which various lenses may be attached to the camera at will. The Leica camera is an example of such a miniature camera. This camera may be equipped with speed, telephoto, and wide-angle lenses besides the normal lens at will, by merely removing one lens and inserting the other.
In the case of cabin interiors, the difficulty is easily solved by simply attaching the wide-angle lens to the cam- era. An angle of view of 65 degrees is thereby produced with the Elmar 35 mm. f:3.5 lens attached to the Leica camera. The normal lens of 50 mm. focus covers only an angle of view of 48 degrees. It will be noted that a con- siderably greater area can be covered by the wide-angle lens in limited space — an important factor when making photographs of ship interiors.
With the small cameras, tripods can be dispensed with, thus saving a great deal of space which can be used to better advantage. Because the miniature camera is so small, it can be placed in out-of-the-way corners and set at various angles in order to secure just the right effect. This is impossible with the larger conventional type of camera.
The next matter of importance is one of exposures. The interiors of cabins are often illuminated poorly, that is, for photographic purposes, especially in corners where little or no sunlight penetrates. In making pleasing pic- tures, the cabin should be amply and evenly illuminated. In order to do this, artificial light will usually be required, and this often stumps the beginner in photography, yet the solution is quite easy. Special flash-bulbs are available which can be ignited either by electric current from regu- lar current, a battery, or small flash-light cell batteries. The marine photographer is advised to obtain the tvpe in which the handle consists of a holder for two or three flash-Hght cells and terminates in a metal reflector and
'i*tmr
interior shots of cabins demand a wide-angle lens. Photo courtesy Matthews Company.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
T 1 1
INTERNATIONAL
HOTOGRAPHE \<
Fifteen
lamp socket into which the lamp fits. Such an arrangement may be purchased for a dollar or less, and makes an ideal illuminating unit. There is no smoke, flame, or danger as is the case with regular Hash-powder which was com- monly used in the days before the invention of the flash- bulb. Obviously the bulb is good for but one Hash, after which it is discarded. They are so cheap, however, that they do not comprise an expense. Because of their inde-
glass, colored, which is attached in front of the camera lens. Its purpose is to hold back certain light rays, de- pending up the color of the filter. By means of a filter, the sky and the water can be made to reproduce on the photograph in their natural intensities and values as seen by the eye. A yellow filter of medium densitj is the most practical of all filters, for it can be used for practically every condition, although there are over several hundn-d
A yellow filter produces rich tones and permits separating the sometimes delicate shadings between water and sky.
Photo courtesy Matthews Company.
pendence of the usual house current, they ought to appeal strongly to the boat photographer.
We have taken care of two of the most vexing prob- lems in photographing ship interiors. Now let us investi- gate a few other forms of photography which appeal to the yachtsman. Take races, for example. Ordinarily the spectators must keep their boats a considerable distance from the race course, and if photographs are wanted of the participants, the photographer has to be satisfied with tiny specks on the picture — specks which are hardly recog- nizable as a general thing, due to the distance between the camera and the objects of the picture being photographed.
In cases such as this, we resort to another type of lens which is just the reverse of the wide-angle lens — the tele- photo lens. The telephoto lens has a longer focal length, and is therefore to be compared with binoculars in that it magnifies the object and produces it larger on the film in the camera. The Elmar 135 mm. f :4.5 lens as offered for use on the Leica camera is ideal for distant photography. It has an angle of view of only 19 degrees and from this it can be seen that it will "pull" in distant objects and present them on the film of a size which is quite large enough for all ordinary purposes. It is with the aid of such lenses that such startling pictures are often produced, pic- tures in which it seems that the photographer was very close to the object. In reality he was a considerable dis- tance away. A lens of this nature is as important to the marine photographer as the wide-angle lens. Just think of binoculars and their characteristics, and you will get the idea of the telephoto lens on a camera.
It might be said that at least seventy percent of the amateur marine photographs of a scenic nature are flat, dull, and uninteresting. This is due mainly to the fact that the amateur photographer does not use a filter. The water and the sky, while of different colors as a rule, are recorded on the film as practically the same shade, result- ing in the flatness so often noticeable. A filter is a disc of
different kinds of filters available. The amateur should by all means secure a yellow filter and use it whenever clouds in the sky are to be recorded. The filter will hold back the excessive blue of the sky and permit the clouds to register on the film.
A sun-shade is another important accessory that should be used, for, especially on the water, an abundance of light is reflected by the water into the lens. This tends to create a veil or fog on the picture. The sun-shade protects the camera lens from these unwanted light rays and per- mits only the picture-forming rays to enter the lens.
Commercial finishing laboratories which develop and print amateur films agree that ninety percent of all pho- tographic failures are due to under-exposure. On the water a similar percent produce over-exposure because they do not take into consideration the additional light which exists on the water, due to reflection. The problems of exposure at best are confusing to the amateur. Even the most experienced photographer experiences difficulty in this matter, for it must be remembered that the light which is used to form the photographic image, in other words, photographic light, is not entirely the same as the light by means of which we see, or visual light. How can anyone, therefore, claim to be able to judge photographic light without the aid of some instrument ? Before the amateur becomes alarmed at this news, let me hasten to explain that there are on the market a number of excellent devices which measure accurately the actinic value of the light, artificial or sun. Of the most accurate and least bothersome might be mentioned the famous Weston Pho- tronic cell meter, which employs a special type of photo- electric cell developed by the Weston Electrical Instru- ment Company. In use, the meter is held or aimed in the direction of the object to be photographed. A needle sw rings across a scale upon which is calibrated the lens and shutter settings of the camera. Instantly the photographer knows (Turn to Page 31)
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
The Camera Is the Fulcrum Upon Which Turns the En- tire Structure of the Motion Picture Industry.
-.
THE CAM!
Vol. I.
WHO THEY ARE
MONTHLY NEWS OF PRODUCTIO
4
BENNETT TOURS WORLD
Paul Perry, but recently home from shooting pictures in Ce. Ion. Java and the Straits Settle- ments, and Robert Miller at home after several cruises to the Orient, as chief photographer of the Dollar Lines, departed Wednesday, December 2$. with Chester Bennett for a world tour to last, ac- cording to the breaks of the game, a year or two.
The expedition is an enterprise of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Pat Powers, together again after several years, and our cameramen were chosen not only because of their knowledge of photography but of their invaluable experience in actual production at far flung points in the Orient.
Mr. Perry goes as chief cinematographer and Mr. Miller as his trusty lieutenant — together they will handle the entire photographic department and as they are personal friends of long standing they are happy about the arrangement.
Unless their plans be altered the production pro- gram will contemplate the filming of twelve short subjects in color with locales in Japan, China, Indo-China, the Philippines, Java, Burma, Ceylon, Borneo. Siam and Mediterranean countries, all of which will be released through one of the major studios in Hollywood. Bennett Process color will be used.
Backgrounds for several studios will be shot in many countries and three features will be pro- duced in black and white using Bennett Process Film. The color will be shot with Dupont Super- Pan.
The direction will be in the capable hands of Ward Wing whose latest picture, "S-amarang," was released by United Artists, and Miss Lori Bara, author of "Samarang," will accompany the expedition as writer of the scripts. She is a sister of Theda Bara.
One feature will be written by Miss Nell Emerald, whose play "This Week of Grace," starring Gracie Fields, is just now enjoying a successful run in London.
Japan will be the first stop of the expedition, thence to Saigon and thence to Singapore where headquarters will be established and the laboratory built under personal supervision of Mr. Bennett.
A full and complete outfit of photographic, color and sound equipment was taken along, among the items being a Bell & Howell standard camera; Leicas and other miniature cameras; the new Fear- less Camera and motor and the latest obtainable in sound.
Mesdames Perry and Miller plan to join their globe-trotting husbands at Singapore in about six months.
Rolla Flora has established his research laboratory and machine shop at 1128 North La Brea, Holly- wood. He has just completed the special process shots and main title in "Cane Fire," photographed by Alvin Wyckoff.
George Mcehan is happy with his billet at Alex- ander Brothers' Studio where he is shooting on his fourth picture for Al Alt and Sam Catsman, Screen Craft Production. The current feature is "The Moth," Fred Seymour directing. Sally O'Neil and Paul Page arc featured.
Commodore Roy Klaffki is tuning up his air boat lor a flight to some mysterious destination. Is it possible that he has located a Glory Hole some- where up in the gold fields?
J. O. Taylor, wizard of the famous Grandeur wide film, tells the editor that some day the now somewhat eclipsed 70 mm. will be back again with the imperfections all ironed out. That's something to look forward to.
Len Powers, ex-knight of the padded gloves, is back on his old shooting grounds at U.
William Steiner has just finished an untitled feature in the cast for Educational.
Edward Du Par and Roy Fister have complete 1 for Educational, in the east, "Corn on the Cop" and "Let's Play Post Office."
M. A. Anderson, for Chesterfield, photographed "The Campanille Murder Case."
Harry Forbes photographed "Love After Thirty' for Freuler Film Associates.
METRO-COLDWYN- MAYER
Ray June got his usual laudatory reviews on "Rip Tide."
Lester White has another fine opus to his credit in "Laughing Boy."
Oliver Marsh, M-G-M pioneer, is busy as usual. His last feature was "Mystery of tic Dead Police."
Phil Rossen will' be able to tell us all about it now. He has increased his repertoire with "It Hap- pened One Day."
Old Reliable Len Smith has just put over a real one in "Old Hannibal." This picture was just up Leonard's alley, so to speak.
Jimmy Howe, director of photography on "Viva Villa" made a real picture of his big subject. The Mexicans liked the clever young man from the Orient and extended him many courtesies.
Clyde De Vinna and Charles Clarke, the latter famous for his courage in saving himself and a comrade when they were lost up under the Arctic Circle, are doing some notable cinernatographing in "Tarzan and His Mate."
COLUMBIA
Bennie Kline had the assignment in "The Ninth Guest" at Columbia.
Joe August, brother of August, photographed "No Columbia.
the famous Edwin Greater Glory" for
WARNER-FIRST NATIONAL
Byron Haskins, with "As the Earth Turns"; Sid Hickox, with "Wonder Bar"; George Liarnes, "Gambling Lady"; Ernie Haller, "Journal of Crime"; Ira Morgan, "The Heir Chaser"; W. Rees, "A Modern Hero"; Arthur Todd, "Har- old Teen," kept the home fires burning at Warner- First National until early in December. Now they are all on other and equally rotable assign- ments.
Tony Gaudio's fine Italian hand is seen in the camera work on "Upperworld." Roydel Ruth di- rected and Warren William, Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers and others furnished the drama.
Ira Morgan's current opus, is "A Very Honor- able Guy" with Joe Brown as the laugh-smith. Lloyd Bacon directed. It is one of Ira's many good ones.
Alaskan atmosphere will serve as the locale for the next Ben Blue comedy to be directed by Ralph Staub at the Warner's Vitaphone Studios in Brook- lyn. Having spent time in Alaska where he en- dured some very heavy winters, Staub will be right at home making the exteriors, which will be made outside during the present snowstorm in New York.
Joe Walker was in charge of the photography on "Night Bus" and, as usual, turned out a fine job.
Johnny Stumar has finished shooting "Murder at Rexford Arms."
A card from Lloyd Kneehtcl. London, tells the Santa Clans editor that he is feeling very much at home there and extends his sincere compliments of the season to all his friends in Hollywood.
John Mescal, champion golfer of the cameraman classification of the world, directed the photography on U"niversal's picture, "The Poor Rich." Some of these days this Mescal boy is going to step out and grab the National Amateur Championship. Edward Sedgewick directed the action.
Gill Warrenton was chief cinematographer on Monogram's "Beggars in Ermine."
BOYLE AND FERNSTROM
John W. Boyle is making great strides with his feature "Sweden, Land of the Vikings" back East. The press of New England gave this production in color unusually fine notices. This I is an outstanding seven reel world travel produc tion done in novel style in photography, story and narrative. The Boston Transcript evet went so far as to say : "Through nearly an houi and a half. Sweden, Land Of The Vikings proves a suggestive hint to the TVew Deal' ii I addition to pleasurable entertainment." N'u sed. Good luck and much of it John. This i the film that John and Mrs. Boyle producec with the assistance of Ray Fernstrom, dat oh dabil Swede.
EDI')
(CONTIN
!■■■
of work and wages and then, sudd and many of the loyal, long sufferi to pursue, found themselves once m
As a result of this astonishin a division in the ranks of the Cam well on to six years has been the si
But in such times as these it i;: the builders has become the head of honest opinion, have a way of 1
Let not, therefore, the ill wish' work has for the time being been 1.^ the elements of discord shall be re' Union are enthroned together is the1
Yea, the Producer is rapidly n, are best conserved by friendly coi his property, his business and his far away—and which has never at to the mutual well being of both to the glory of the motion picture
i
:ragmam
The Camera Operative
Body Is the Power Behind
Production in All Motion
Picture Activity.
FOM THE CAMERAMAN'S ANCLE
WHAT THEY DO
No. 1
IN A. D. 2034
Walt Disney's
"Three
Little
Pigs
*V DEAL TELLS EM
HAL
PAGE 1)
lined into a tremendous controversy m», bewildered as to the right course
iy to join the old affiliation. ir;nious contention — there has arisen rinization, an organization which for u ler of the Cameramen. :e in mind that "the stone rejected of n.' and differences, especially those I d."
I leramen rejoice because their great tl day cometh and now is here when
ith and the place where Labor and n; real place in the sun. th, in the last analysis, his interests v h the Union Local which protects tj studio and on location — near and
hd any purpose except that looking It Cameramen, on EQUAL terms, and
sf 'Oth.
A PRODUCTION MIRACLE
Three hundred men working in three eight-hour shifts a day for ten days were required to build the set for "By a Waterfall" sequence which was the big feature of Warner Brothers' "Footlight Pa- rade."
Thirty tons of steel, brass and tin were necessary to fabricate the big revolving fountain.
Seventy-two hundred pounds of paw-paw fed blondes were required to decorate the amazing mechanism designed and created by Busby Berkeley and by Frank Murphy, the electrical genius of the Warner picture factory.
George Barnes photographed dramatic sequences of the big picture and to Sol Polito fell the difficult task of filming the water sequences — and it was one of the finest pieces of camera work in the history of the cinema.
Assisting Mr. Polito were: Mike Joyce, operative cameraman ; Louis De Angelis, assistant ; George Whittemore, electrician; George Amy, film editor: Billy Cannon, assistant film editor; Ollie Garrett, sound engineer; Harold Noys, grips; Gene Delaney, props; Irva Ross, script.
As seen on the screen this big water set is a spec-
PARAMOUNT
Bert Glennon was the lucky cinematographer to photograph "Catherine the Great." He likes the big ones and is sure fire where majesty is con- cerned. The picture promises to be worthy of its subject.
Leo Tover was assigned to "Bolero" by Chief Cinematographer Virgil Miller; Henry Sharp shot "Three of a Kind"; Theodor Sparkhul photo- graphed "No More Women," while "Good Dame" fell to the camera of Leon Shamroy.
Bert Glennon and Henry Sharp are sharing the honors for the extraordinarily fine photographic job thev did in "Alice in Wonderland." Farciot Edouart and his able associates, Dev and Gordon Jennings, did a wonderful job of work with the special effects.
Archie Stout has just put the finishing touches upon Paramount's big Western, "The Last Round Up," which the Hollywood Reporter estimates as a "rattling good Western." The author is Zane Grey and the director Henry Holloway. Mr. Stout is an ace at all cinematographic drama, but at the delineation of big Western stuff he is almost in a class by himself.
FOX
Hal Mohr directed the photography on the great Fox production, "Carolina."
Ernest Palmer will pull down the screen ciedit r "Ever Since Eve," the new Fox feature.
John Seitz has been exercising his rare cinema- tographic genius on "Coming Out Party," a Fox offering.
Barney McGill and George Schneidermin have completed their camera assignment on "Disillu- sion" and "Woman and the Law," respectively.
Hal Mohr had a wonderful time shooting "David Harum," the big all star feature with Will Rogers as the beloved old hoss trader, James Cruze di- rected.
Lee Garmes and George Schneiderman shared the honors of the photographic work on "George White's Scandals." Rudy Vallee is the star. Pro- ducer George White.
Ernest Palmer with Winfield Slieehan as pro- ducer, did the cinematographic stuff on "Fox Fol- lies," the story idea of Will' Rogers and Philip Klein. The rail-birds say it's good.
Lee Garmes did the cinematographic work on "I Am Suzanne," Jesse L. Lasky's most recent pro- duction. E. E. Ward handled the sound. The featured players are Lilian Harvey and Gene Ray- mond. The Mussolini sponsored Piccoli Marionettes, Italy's greatest theatrical troupe, nearly two hun- dred years old, are shown in the early sequences of this picture and they make a great hit. Mr. Garmes, as usual, lives up to his fine reputation as a vir- tuoso of the motion camera.
tacular disappearing fountain on which sixty glorious blonde girls disport themselves on four alternately rotating platforms, all bathed in a colored mist from three hundred tiny water sprays.
But to those who watched the building of this amazing mechanism, who know the problems which confronted artists and engineers when Busby Berk- eley first sketched his ideas roughly on a conference room tablecloth, and who remember the short time allowed for its completion, it will always be re- membered as a confirmation of the belief that : "Studio technicians can do anything."
To begin with, the fountain which is only one feature of an enormous set for the celebrated "water number" created by Berkeley for the Warner Brothers picture, "Footlight Parade," is twenty feet in diameter at its base, twenty-two feet high in the center and under its frothy super-structure more than thirty tons of steel are hidden.
Three tons of girls ride these revolving spraying turrets, but their weight is negligible compared to the complex machinery which rides camouflaged within the super-structure. Each whirling platform carries its own propelling motor, its own pump and a huge water storage tank to supply its own share of the sprays on the fountain.
Each of the four platforms fits exactly within the inner limits of its larger neighbor. They can turn separately, all on one level, all in any one direction, or alternately and on levels four feet apart.
A tremendous steel' platen, such as supports hy- draulic elevators in office buildings, and another power motor near the foot of the shaft, can lift the entire assembly on structural steel, spraying water and propelling motors, not to mention the three- tons of girls, twenty-two feet high in the air, at any given speed and can also lower them com- pletely out of sight. It can lift all' this as a unit or in four alternate whirling layers.
There were no patterns to follow when Berkeley talked first about his idea of a "disappearing foun- tain." His ideas were sketchy, his mechanical knowledge limited.
"Can we do it," he demanded.
Louis Geib, technical director for Warner Brothers, and Frank X. Murphy, head of the studio's electrical and mechanical department, thought they could. They had ten days to plan it. fabricate and install it. They submitted first drawings to an outside contractor. The studio was busy with other sets for other pictures and was willing to have the set built off the lot.
The contractor, however, wanted three months to do the job. Murphy and Geib had promised it within ten days. Wearily they moved cots into their offices, telephoned their families not to expect to see them for ten days and set about keeping their promise.
The mills, the plaster shop, the steel workers and the tinsmiths were all trebled in numbers and put on three eight-hour shifts. The studio foundry blazed day and night. Even the flanged brass wheels on which the giant platforms rotate, were made in the studio under Murphy's orders.
The largest steel circle, when it was completed, weighed more than six tons. At exactly one angle it would go through one of the gigantic stage doors. A motor mounted crane brought it to the stage and maneuvered it through the opening and into place near the great hole cut in the stage floor, under which workmen had dug a pit nearly thirty feet deep.
Quicksand there impeded the work. Finally the whole excavation was concreted off, pumps were installed to drain seeping water and the huge mechanism was lowered into place.
Structural steel workers joined studio forces and worked twenty-four hours a day for three days, riveting and welding the basic structure into per- manence.
Berkeley, not a little amazed at the vast amount of work his original idea was causing, went to the edge of the hole occasionally and peeked over. Accustomed as he was to having his most outlandish conceptions translated by studio technicians into steel and plaster, lie nevertheless seemed perpetually astonished that his idea was actually feasible.
Convinced finally that it was, that thirty tons of steel, eleven powerful motors and pumps, pulsing dynamos and huge water mains would give him the effects he had sketched so roughly on the table- cloth, he washed his hands of all' technical problems and busied himself with the three tons of girls who were to ride the contraption.
Llovd Bacon directed the picture from the screen- nlay by Manual Seff and James S'eymour while Berkeley created and staged the choruses and dance ensembles.
Eighteen
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January , 1934
MINIATURE CAMERA PHOTOGRAPHY
(Continued from Page 7)
using them constantly he will arrive at a point where he is full}- acquainted with their various characteristics, such as latitude of exposure, time of development in a definite formula to obtain the finest grain, etc. There will now be at his disposal a tool with which he is well acquainted, and which he can mould to produce the results desired.
Many photographers disregarding this fact continue to jump from one film to another with the conclusion that they have no definite idea of the results they are going to get. Try all the films — then decide on one or two which would serve you best, and stick to them. When a new film is placed on the market experiment with one or two rolls. If it will serve you more adequately than the emulsions you are employing, discard one of them in its favor. If it is just another film as far as you are concerned, then for- get it.
There are also many photographers who flock to the supersensitive emulsions, as the sole sensitive material which they employ. Let a faster emulsion be introduced, and they will immediately discard the film they are em- ploying in its favor. Designations such as merely ortho- chromatic, or panchromatic, do not seem to have color to them. When a film is given a definite trade name and is designated as belonging to the supersensitive class, they immediately use it solely and expect it to produce their long desired masterpieces.
Supersensitive emulsions stand as criterions to the progress in photography, but they have their specific uses. In general, the slower the film, the finer is its grain. Why is it necessary to employ a supersensitive emulsion in broad daylight, when an orthochromatic film will have all the speed that is necessary, and in addition will produce a finer grain? When photographing with artificial light it would be wisest to employ one of the supersensitive type
The Leica Film Winder for quick and efficient load- ing of standard 35 mm. mo- tion picture film on Leica spools when film is pur- chased in bulk.
films. In this case resorting to a slower orthochromatic film, will not be taking advantage of the marvelous prog- ress in the sensitizing of emulsions. Then again very soft daylight scenes may be required. In this instance a super- sensitive emulsion may be prescribed, due to the soft re- sults it produces. Bear in mind however that for the gen- eral run of outdoor "shots", slower orthochromatic and panchromatic films will produce the picture with a finer
grain.
* * *
The Vertex Miniature Enlarger. As new products appear on the market they will be described in this de- partment. At times, apparatus which may have been in- troduced some time ago, but of whose existence the minia- ture camera worker may not be aware, will be considered. I am including an illustration of the Vertex Miniature En- larger, which is sponsored by Willoughbys. This enlarger
The Vertex Miniature Enlarger.
is made entirely of metal, and is supplied with a base- board for 8x10 or larger. It contains a fully corrected f :6.3 lens, rough and critical focusing, swinging red glass screen to allow the paper to be adjusted while the nega- tive image is being projected on it, film support wings, and other features. It will accommodate negatives 2.4x3.5 cm., 3 x 4 cm. and 4 x 4 cm. In short it will serve ideally for the photographer possessing a few cameras with differ- ent negative sizes.
(To Be Continued in February)
SCHEIBES LATEST FILTERS
Graduated diffusing screens in vary- ing degrees of diffusion are proving successful in their operation on dolly shots and, too, for stationary shots. One of the screens is made to slide through the matt-box, starting with- out diffusion or a very mild degree and increasing to the desired effect for a close-up.
Screens 2x4 are made to fit the new Mitchell adaptor, two screens being necessary for this device, as they slide
across each other from one end of the carrier to the other
— diffusion coming in from each side and crossing over the
center of the aperture.
Graduated Color Filters and Graded Fog Filters are
used in same manner, whether for dolly or stationary shots.
Another new filter known as Scheibe's Hot Spot Iris has also proved successful in its use. This Iris is 6x6 inches square with color in the center and gradually blend- ing outward to the edge of the glass minus color. The colored portion is about three inches in diameter and is used in front of the process projector at varying distances to cover the hotspot on the process screen, thereby produc- ing an even density of image in the final shot. No more burned-up centers on the background.
The new Monotone Filter, for Superpan, is becoming very popular with cameramen who use it mainly for light- ing purposes. It can be used in any kind of light and shows true black and white values, thereby saving time and material for tests. This filter is now made to fit into the focusing tube on a Mitchell camera and the boys say it works fine.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONA
PHOTOGRAPHER
Nineteen
This is the tenth installment of the Cinematographer's Book of Tables compiled and computed by Mr. Fred Wester- berg, one of the technical editors of THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER.
Cinematographer's
BOOK of TABLES
By FREC WESTERBERG
There are several more installments to come probably con- cluding with the April issue, 1934, and when completed the tables will constitute a handy reference guide welcome to all cinematographers, professional and amateur.
Take note that the tables are so placed in the magazine as to be easily cut out and bound into a small pocket ring book. Cut down the middle of page 19; then trim top and bottom to fit your cover; punch holes to fit rings on inner and outer edges of magazine pages 19 and 20. When all tables have been bound into your ring book the pages will number from 1 to 52 inclusive with complete index unless others are added, which seems very likely at this mailing.
12-E
TIME CONVERTED TO FEET OF FILM 16 mm. FILM
TIME REQUIRED TO EXPOSE VARIOUS LENGTHS OF FILM AT DIFFERENT CAMERA SPEEDS
26- B
|
Feet of Film Exposed |
CAMERA SPEED IN PICTURES PER SECOND |
||||||
|
8 |
12 16 |
24 32 48 64 |
|||||
|
RUNNING TIME IN MINUTES AND SECONDS |
|||||||
|
1 |
0— 5 |
0 — 3.3 |
0— 2.5 |
0— 1.7 |
0— 1.2 |
0— .8 |
n - .6 |
|
2 |
10 |
6.7 |
5.0 |
3.3 |
2.5 |
1.7 |
1.2 |
|
3 |
15 |
10.0 |
7.5 |
5.0 |
3.8 |
2.5 |
1.9 |
|
4 |
20 |
13.3 |
10.0 |
6.7 |
5.0 |
3.3 |
2.5 |
|
5 |
25 |
16.7 |
12.5 |
8.3 |
6.3 |
4.2 |
3.1 |
|
6 |
30 |
20.0 |
15.0 |
10.0 |
7.5 |
5.0 |
3.8 |
|
7 |
35 |
23.3 |
17.5 |
11.7 |
8.8 |
5.8 |
4.4 |
|
8 |
40 |
26.7 |
20.0 |
13.3 |
10.0 |
6.7 |
5.0 |
|
9 |
4 5 |
30.0 |
22.5 |
15.0 |
11.2 |
7.5 |
5.6 |
|
10 |
50 |
33.3 |
25 |
16.7 |
12.5 |
8.3 |
6.3 |
|
12 |
1—00 |
40.0 |
30 |
20 |
15.0 |
10.0 |
7.5 |
|
14 |
10 |
46.7 |
35 |
23 |
17.5 |
11.7 |
8.8 |
|
16 |
20 |
53.3 |
40 |
27 |
20.0 |
13.3 |
10.0 |
|
18 |
30 |
1—00 |
45 |
30 |
22.5 |
15.0 |
11.3 |
|
20 |
40 |
07 |
50 |
33 |
25.0 |
16.7 |
12.5 |
|
22 |
50 |
13 |
55 |
37 |
27.5 |
18.3 |
13.8 |
|
24 |
2—00 |
20 |
1 — 00 |
40 |
30.0 |
20.0 |
15.0 |
|
26 |
10 |
27 |
05 |
43 |
32.5 |
21.7 |
16.3 |
|
28 |
20 |
33 |
10 |
47 |
35.0 |
23.3 |
17.5 |
|
30 |
30 |
40 |
15 |
50 |
37.5 |
25 |
18.8 |
|
32 |
40 |
47 |
20 |
53 |
40 |
27 |
20.0 |
|
36 |
3—00 |
2—00 |
30 |
1—00 |
45 |
30 |
22.5 |
|
40 |
20 |
13 |
40 |
07 |
50 |
33 |
25.0 |
|
44 |
40 |
27 |
50 |
13 |
55 |
37 |
27.5 |
|
48 |
4—00 |
40 |
2—00 |
20 |
1—00 |
40 |
30.0 |
|
52 |
20 |
53 |
10 |
27 |
05 |
43 |
32.5 |
|
56 |
40 |
3—07 |
20 |
33 |
10 |
47 |
35.0 |
|
60 |
5—00 |
20 |
30 |
40 |
15 |
50 |
37.5 |
|
64 |
20 |
33 |
40 |
47 |
20 |
53 |
40.0 |
|
68 |
40 |
47 |
50 |
53 |
25 |
57 |
42.5 |
|
72 |
6—00 |
4—00 |
3—00 |
2—00 |
30 |
1—00 |
45.0 |
|
76 |
20 |
13 |
10 |
07 |
35 |
03 |
47.5 |
|
80 |
40 |
27 |
20 |
13 |
40 |
07 |
50.0 |
|
84 |
7—00 |
40 |
30 |
20 |
45 |
10 |
52.5 |
|
88 |
20 |
53 |
40 |
27 |
50 |
13 |
55.0 |
|
92 |
40 |
5—07 |
50 |
33 |
55 |
17 |
57.5 |
|
96 |
8—00 |
20 |
4—00 |
40 |
2—00 |
20 |
1—00.0 |
|
100 |
20 |
33 |
10 |
47 |
ii? |
23 |
02.5 |
PROJECTION 35 mm. FILM
EFFECT OF PROJECTION ANCLE ON SCREEN PROPORTION
AND ON THE RECTANGULAR SHAPE OF THE
PICTURE
|
A |
,M |
|||
|
1 |
RS_ AM PT~CM |
Area of Picture Masked To Obtain Rectanculaa. Picture On The Screen |
||
|
1 |
B |
y |
||
|
1 |
||||
|
P R |
s |
i— — — ~~~ ^-^ |
||
|
A |
^^ ^"^d^ |
s^ Projection ^ Anole. |
||
|
AM=AO |
\^^ ^^ |
O |
||
|
&^— — " ~~ |
||||
|
B C |
S^ AC _ Sine Z. CCA AB~ Sine/. ACD |
AM _ Sine X. ACM CM "Sine/. MAC |
|
EFFECT OF PROJECTION |
ANCLE ON SCREEN PROPORTION |
|||||
|
Focal Length of Proj. Lens in Inches |
RELATIVE HEICHT OF PICTURE AC FOR VARIOUS PROJECTION ANCLES. "„ (see diagram). AB |
|||||
|
5° |
10° |
15° |
20° |
25° |
30' |
|
|
3 |
1.0126 |
1.033 |
1 nil.; |
1.104 1.097 |
1.157 1.149 |
1.225 1.214 |
|
3 'A |
1.0113 |
1.031 |
1.059 |
|||
|
4 |
1.0104 |
1.029 |
1.056 |
1.093 |
1.143 |
1.207 |
|
4y2 |
1.0096 |
1.027 |
1.054 |
1.088 |
1.138 |
1.201 |
|
5 |
1.0091 ■ |
1.026 |
1.H51 1.048 |
1.086 |
1.135 |
1.1 ''6 |
|
6 |
1.0082 |
1.024 |
1.084 |
1.130 |
1.189 |
EFFECT OF PROJECTION ANCLE ON RECTANGULAR SHAPE
|
Focal Length of Proj. Lens in Inches |
RATIO OF TOP TO BOTTOM PICTURE WIDTH DC FOR VARIOUS PROJECTION ANCLES. " (see diagram). |
|||||
|
5° |
10° |
15° |
20° |
25° |
30° |
|
|
3 |
.9827 |
.966 |
.948 |
.931 |
.911 |
.891 |
|
3'A |
.9851 |
.970 |
.956 |
.939 |
.923 |
.906 |
|
4 |
.9869 |
.974 |
.961 |
.947 |
.932 |
.917 |
|
4J4 |
.9884 |
.976 |
.966 |
.953 |
.939 |
.926 |
|
5 |
.9894 |
.979 |
.968 |
.957 |
.945 |
.933 |
|
6 |
.9913 |
.982 .975 |
.964 |
.954 |
.944 |
Based on Standard Projection Aperture .600 by .825 of an inch.
Twenty
T h
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
THE SALISBURY RIOTS
By John Beecroft
ARRY TUGANDER can come through revo- lutions dodging successfully machine gun bul- lets. He can even get away with President's "Pal," as he did President Grau San Martin when he was down with Hugo Johnson covering the last Cuban revolt. He can shoot communist mobs in Union Square and at miners' strikes and not get clubbed — but let him cross the Mason and Dixon Line into the sunny South and he gets into trouble.
On one Southern trip, a few years ago, he had been covering football practice at the Naval Academy, when, on his way back, the car he was riding in overturned and Tugander was thrown into a ditch. He was badly injured and spent several weeks in a hospital at Wash- ington. President Hoover was distressed when he was informed of Tugander's accident and sent him flowers with the sincere hope of seeing him and his camera back on the firing line soon. Harry remembers that accident for Hoover's solicitude and for the many kindnesses shown him by other Washington officials.
His most recent escapade in the South almost ended in his being strung up on a lamp post. Tugander was
pleasantly and happily covering the President, Congress- men and Senators and events at Washington when the New York office got word there was trouble down in Salisbury, Maryland. The authorities in Salisbury had arrested four men who were accused of leading a lynch- ing there. Mobs of men had poured into the town from the surrounding country and were trying to take the
Hoisting Harry Tugander's sound truck from the river where a mob had thrown it.
26-A
PROJECTION
35 mm. FILM
EFFECT OF VARIOUS MAGNIFICATIONS ON THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE PROJECTED PICTURE
|
Size of Picture On Screen In Feet |
Screen Magnification In Diamefers |
Relative Brightness of Screen Image at Various Magnifications |
Relative Light Required at Various Magnifications for Constant Screen Brightness |
|
Horizontal Projection |
|||
|
Light Constant |
|||
|
2.91 by 4 |
58.2 |
1180 |
8.5 |
|
3.64 by 5 |
72.7 |
7i,ii |
1 i J |
|
4.36 by 6 |
S7.2 |
530 |
19 |
|
5.09 by 7 |
101.8 |
385 |
26 |
|
5.82 by 8 |
116.4 |
295 |
34 |
|
6.55 by 9 |
130.9 |
233 |
43 |
|
7.27 by 10 |
145.4 |
189 |
53 |
|
8.00 by 11 |
159.9 |
156 |
64 |
|
8.73 by 12 |
174.5 |
132 |
76 |
|
9.45 by 13 |
189.1 |
112 |
89 |
|
10.18 by 14 |
203.6 |
96 |
104 |
|
10.90 by 15 |
218.1 |
84 |
119 |
|
11.64 by 16 |
232.7 |
74 |
136 |
|
12.36 by 17 |
247.3 |
65 |
155 |
|
13.09 by 18 |
261.8 |
58 |
172 |
|
13.82 by 19 |
276.4 |
52 |
192 |
|
14.55 by 20 |
290.9 |
47 |
213 |
|
16.00 by 22 |
320.0 |
39 |
257 |
|
17.46 by 24 |
349.1 |
33 |
304 |
|
18.91 by 26 |
378.2 |
28 |
358 |
|
20.36 by 28 |
407.3 |
24 |
417 |
|
21.82 by 30 |
436.4 |
21 |
478 |
|
23.27 by 32 |
465.4 |
18.4 |
545 |
|
24.73 by 34 |
I'M S |
16.3 |
613 |
|
26.18 by 36 |
523.6 |
14.6 |
688 |
|
27.64 by 38 |
552.7 |
13.1 |
765 |
|
29.09 by 40 |
ssl.s |
11.8 |
850 |
12-F
TIME CONVERTED TO FEET OF FILM 35 mm. FILM
RUNNING TIME IN MINUTES AND SECONDS CONVERTED INTO FEET OF FILM EXPOSED
|
C o u G) 10 |
FEET OF FILM EXPOSED |
|||||||||
|
0 Min. |
1 Min. |
2 Min. |
3 Min. |
4 Min. |
5 Min. |
6 Min. |
7 Min. |
8 Min. |
9 Min. |
10 Min. |
|
0 | 0 | 90 | 180 |
270 |
360 |
450 |
540 |
630 |
720 |
810 | 900 |
|||
|
2 | 3 | 93 | 183 |
273 |
363 |
453 |
543 |
633 |
723 |
813 | 903 |
|||
|
4 | 6 | 96 | 186 |
276 |
366 |
456 |
546 |
636 |
726 |
816 |
906 |
||
|
6 | 9 | 99 | 189 |
27 9 |
369 |
459 |
549 |
639 |
729 |
819 |
909 |
||
|
8 j 12 | 102 | 192 |
282 |
372 |
462 |
552 |
642 |
732 |
822 |
912 |
||
|
10 | 15 | 105 | 195 |
285 |
375 |
465 |
555 |
645 |
735 |
825 |
915 |
||
|
12 | 18 | 108 | 198 |
288 |
3 7X |
468 |
558 |
648 |
738 |
828 |
918 |
||
|
14 | 21 | 111 | 201 |
291 |
381 |
471 |
561 |
651 |
741 |
831 |
921 |
||
|
16 | 24 | 114 | 204 |
294 |
384 |
474 |
564 |
654 |
744 |
834 |
924 |
||
|
18 | 27 | 117 | 207 |
297 |
387 |
477 |
567 |
657 |
747 |
837 |
927 |
||
|
>i) | 30 | 120 | 210 |
300 |
390 |
480 |
570 |
660 |
750 |
840 |
930 |
||
|
12 | ii | 123 | 213 |
303 |
393 |
483 |
573 |
663 |
753 |
843 |
93J |
||
|
24 | 36 | 126 | 216 |
306 |
396 |
486 |
576 |
,,1,1! |
756 |
846 |
',;,, |
||
|
26 | 39 | 129 | 219 |
309 |
399 |
489 |
579 |
669 |
759 |
849 |
939 |
||
|
28 | 42 | 132 | 222 |
312 |
402 |
492 |
582 |
672 |
762 |
852 |
942 |
||
|
iO | 45 | 135 | 225 |
315 |
405 |
495 |
585 |
675 |
765 |
855 |
945 |
||
|
32 | 48 | 138 | 228 |
| 318 |
| 408 |
498 |
588 |
678 |
768 |
8 5,x |
948 |
||
|
J4 | 51 | 141 | 231 |
| 321 |
| 411 |
501 |
591 |
681 |
771 |
861 |
951 |
||
|
■ 6 | 54 | 144 | 234 |
324 |
414 |
504 |
594 |
684 |
774 |
864 |
954 |
||
|
.8 | 57 | 147 | 237 |
| 327 |
| 417 |
507 |
597 |
687 |
777 |
867 |
957 |
||
|
tO | 60 | 150 | 240 |
330 |
420 |
510 |
600 |
690 |
780 |
870 |
960 |
||
|
12 | 63 | 153 | 243 |
| Hi |
| 423 |
513 |
603 |
693 |
783 |
873 |
963 |
||
|
+4 | 66 | 156 | 246 |
| 336 |
| 426 |
516 |
606 |
696 |
786 |
876 |
966 |
||
|
46 | 69 | 159 | 249 |
339 |
429 |
519 |
609 |
699 |
789 |
879 |
•>,,'! |
||
|
48 | 72 | 162 | 252 |
| 342 |
| 432 |
522 |
612 |
702 |
792 |
882 |
972 |
||
|
50 | 75 | 165 | 255 |
| 345 |
| 435 |
| 525 |
615 |
705 |
795 |
885 |
975 |
||
|
52 | 78 | 168 | 258 |
| 348 |
| 438 |
528 |
618 |
708 |
798 |
888 |
978 |
||
|
54 | 81 | 171 | 261 |
| 351 |
| 441 |
| 531 |
| 621 |
711 |
801 | 891 | 981 |
||||
|
56 | 84 | 174 | 264 |
| 354 |
| 444 |
| 534 |
| 624 |
714 |
804 | 894 | 984 |
||||
|
58 | 87 | 177 | 267 |
| 357 |
| 447 |
| 537 |
| 627 |
| 717 | 807 | 897 | 987 |
8ased on Standard Projection Aperture .600 by .825 of an inch.
Based on standard talking picture speed of 90 feet per minute.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
Twenty-one
prisoners away from the police. The governor had ordered out the militia and it looked as if things would be pretty interesting in that county. Tugander's boss wanted to cover Salisbury and ordered Tugander from Washington to Salisbury — "Get the mob scenes. Get plenty of action in the story. Riots and everything you can get."
Tugander got more than he bargained for on that job. He got the riots, all right — and plenty of action, too. Here is what Tugander said about that assign- ment :
"We followed Route 404 and United States Route 13 from the Mattaspeake ferry to Salisbury. As we were nearing Salisbury we saw eight busses of troops rushing out of the town towards Baltimore. Behind the troops we saw a photographer we knew. As he passed in his car he waved his hand, but we didn't know whether he was trying to stop us or was just saying hello. Be- hind him was a sedan filled with four tough looking men that seemed to be escorting him out of town.
"We didn't quite know what to make of it, but continued on towards Salisbury. We had no sooner arrived in the town than we saw a mob chasing someone down a street. We started to follow the mob when a Western Union messenger jumped on the running board on one side of the truck. 'Get that truck out of sight — your lives aren't worth a nickle!" he yelled. The messenger was still shouting at us when a reporter for a local paper jumped on the other running board and said :
'The mob is after reporters and photographers. Get out while you can get out.'
"We turned the truck into a side street and about half way up the block we found a garage. We put the truck away in the back where it couldn't be seen easily.
"Then I walked back to the corner. 1 could see the mob smashing up a car down the street. It belonged to one of the reporters. I asked a man standing beside me why the mob was after the reporters. He didn't answer; just looked at me. Another man gave me a once over and said that I looked like one of those damned picture men and hanging was too good for me. The police were standing around watching the mob and never making any attempt to stop them.
"While I was standing on the corner a red-haired boy came tearing down the street leading a mob. They were headed for the garage in which the truck was parked. There was no stopping them. It would have meant fighting the whole town. In a minute they had the truck and were pushing it down the street. They came to a cross street where there was a red traffic light. The policeman turned on a green light so they could keep on going. They kept shouting that they wanted the men who belonged to the truck. As the mob Avent down the street they passed the chief of police and an- other local police offices. Neither made any effort to stop the mob. I followed them. When they got to the west side of the Wicomico River, they pushed the truck over an embankment head on. It went into the river out of sight. $25,000 worth of equipment — gone!
"Some shouted they wTere going after the newsreel men now. So I beat it to the sheriff's office. From there I phoned the office to tell them what had happened. The sheriff said he couldn't or wouldn't guarantee protection as the mob was uncontrollable and advised since the militia had left to get out. I got a car from one of the town officials and went to Easton, while the mob was storming the hotel for the reporters and photographer who had been driven in there."
Tugander came back to Salisbury the next da\ to (Turn to Page 28)
The B & H Cooke VARO LENS
The 1934 releases announced by leading producers prom- ise a year rich in dramatic and musical entertainment. And in no small part will these accomplishments depend on the B & H Cooke Varo lens for photographic effects. This "zoom" lens is alone in its speed, quality of definition, and ease of use. At F 3.5 the range is from 40 mm. to 50 mm.; at F 4.5 from 40 mm. to 85 mm., and at F 5.6 and F 8 the full "zoom," from 40 mm. to 120 mm., is obtainable. Adjustable stops provide for limiting the "zoom" as desired. One crank controls all moving parts. The iris is varied automatically with the focal length to keep the f/ value constant. Close focusing is done with auxiliary lenses. Write for full details. Sometimes avail- able on rental to responsible studios in this country.
BELL & HOWELL
COMPANY
1849 Larchmont Ave., Chicago; 11 West 42nd St., New York; 716 North La Brea Ave., Hollvwood ; 320 Regent St., London (B & H Co., Ltd.). Established 1907.
B & H Cooke Varo Lens in photographing position on the Bell & Howell Camera.
B & H Cooke F-2 Speed Pancro Lenses
B & H Cooke F 2 Speed Panchro Lenses, de- signed to focus the blue and red rather than the blue and yellow rays, are very nearly apochromatic. Their efficiency and success has caused their almost universal adoption in lead- ing studios. Made in eleven focal lengths, from 24 to 108 mm.
B & H Cooke F 2.5 Panchro Lenses offer the same remarkable correction. At considerably lower prices they meet many needs where their speed is adequate. Seven focal lengths from 35 to 162 mm. Write for details and prices.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
fwenty-two
T h
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHE
R
January, 1934
Origin of the Point Source
Theory of Light Intensity
By F. Morris Steadman
EPLER, more than 300 years ago, when he glpl arranged his study plan for the schools, knew full well that things were made visible by the play of light from whole primary and secondary light sources and expanses, as from the sun, the sky, and from the surfaces of lighted objects about us. He knew that whole window openings illuminated rooms and that, at night, things were made visible by the functioning of whole flames.
There was no need that he should have ignored these natural light conditions, as will be shown, and the fact that he did so in his teaching plan, is a mystery that needs explaining.
The present practically total popular ignorance of light is seen in the almost universal practice of "snap shooting" amongst amateur photographers and the cus- tom of "guessing" the exposure amongst professionals.
Dr. Woodhull, of Columbia University, and many other educators, have revealed to me their dissatisfaction with the Point Source theory of light instruction because of its failure as explained above.
We are to be privileged soon, I believe, to see this study of the technical point source dropped from the school books and the study of natural light sources sub- stituted. This series of articles is to hasten somewhat this reform.
Two different patterns of light play will now be described : The light from the whole hemisphere of sky converges upon each accessible grain of dust on the earth, but on a dark night a light source placed on the earth would spread its light outward through this same hemisphere of directions. One pattern is just as true to nature as the other. This is a matter of illumination patterns, not of intensity.
For some unnecessary reason the scientists have visual- ized only the pattern of illumination which spreads from small sources.
This is the unfortunate and even disastrous limita- tion from which Flammarion and Count Rumford freed themselves, as will be explained further on.
We will now see how Kepler was trapped into ignoring the whole flame and using a technical point source instead.
Imagine him at work with a small flame in a room. Half way to some opposite wall he suspends an opaque card, say a foot square. He sees a shadow on the wall that is approximately two feet square and which has about four square feet in it, or four times the area of the card.
But he notes that this shadow measurement is not precise, because of a blend, which we call the penumbra, all around its edges. This blend on the sides of the shadow is equal in width to the width of the flame and at the top and bottom of the shadow it is equal to the height of the flame. Exactness must be secured. He lets the light shine through a small hole, say a fourth of an inch in diameter, the card with this hole being held against the flame. The penumbra is now reduced to the quarter inch blend. It is clear that to make this shadow perfectly sharp at the edges and make the shadow iust four times the area of the card, the source must be reduced to a technical point.
We find then, that in order to reduce to an accurate geometrical design the truth that light at double distance
spreads over four times the area that it does at distance one and do it in the single pattern of spreading light to which he was restricted, he had to visualize the light as spreading from a technical point, thus making it neces- sary to ignore the very cause of the brightness — the whole flame. Will the reader please try to visualize the situation in which the wise Kepler, in explaining an effect, annihilated the cause thereof?
The present popular ignorance of light, after using the above erroneous scheme for 300 years, will continue just as long as the plan is retained in the books.
Now let us see how a different visualization of light play might have avoided that error and led Kepler naturally into the formation of a plan that would have permitted the study of whole light sources, instead of a technical point source: Suppose that while out of doors he had appreciated the fact of the light converging upon him from the whole sky. The sky is a hemisphere above and around him and he a very small object resting in its light. With this pattern in mind he could have arranged a grain of white chalk on some dark surface and seen the light from his small frame converge upon it to illuminate it. On holding the grain very close to the flame he would have noticed the increased converg- ence of the light to it and its correspondingly greater intensity, while touching the grain to the flame he would have realized that the light was coming to it from a whole hemisphere of directions, just as the light came to him from the whole sky when out of doors.
Had Kepler visualized this convergent pattern of light play instead of that of spreading light, we might never have heard the term "Point source of light" as associated with intensity. He would have discovered that the point seat of intensity, in the molecule, would have solved the whole sphere of natural luminosity, in his teaching plan, so that students could have studied nature's plan of light play as it actually functions about us.
It is encouraging to note that Camille Flammarion, in explaining the sun's influence for light and heat on the different planets, ignored the Point Source theory and the pattern of spreading light entirely. In the book, "Astronomy for Amateurs," the English translation of one of his popular French books, on page 157, we find: "At that distance" (that of Jupiter from the sun) "the sun displays a diameter five (5.2) times smaller than that which we see and its surface is twenty-seven times less extensive; accordingly this planetary abode receives on an average twenty-seven times less light and heat than we receive."
In other words : As the planets get closer to the sun, the sun gets larger in the sky, and their brightness in- creases in the same ratio. It must be understood that this is precisely the same law that functions on turning up a flame or raising a window shade, when the distance is fixed.
As stated in the preface of my book, "Unit Photog- raphy," this truth of the importance of the convergent light pattern in creating intensity came to me inde- pendently, about the year 1895, as the result of my work with ordinary windows while making portraits in private homes.
It is of course true that Flammarion and Count Rum- ford used the same truth much earlier. Both these [Turn to Page 29]
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
Twenty-three
Greatest Invention Since Radio
Men Will See in Dark and Fog; Color Films So "Real" They Startle. Chemist's Discovery in Tiny Laboratory.
Kinema Revolution Gives Britain Lead Over Hollywood. Makes Clothes Transparent.
[The headlines above and the following article are from "The People, October 1, 1933" — a London paper 52 years old and with 3,000,000 circulation. Efforts are making to authenticate the yarn. — Editor's Note.]
Men will don spectacles that will enable them to see as clearly in the dark as they do by day. Captains of ships and pilots of air liners will look through the densest fog and travel at full speed ahead as safely as they do in the brightest sunshine.
The films will be revolutionized, pictures will no longer be flat black and white, but will be seen in all the glorious colors of nature with the same "depth" perceptible to the human eye — more real than the finest sterescope.
All this will follow the perfection of a brilliant British invention, the greatest since the invention of wireless, which is now in its final stages.
At a secret show in a Liverpool kinema a special repre- sentative of "The People" was shown the most amazing film ever seen by man, made possible by this wonderful new process.
I had been with the inventor and a cameraman to Liverpool's new zoo (he writes), where we took "shots" of parrots and monkeys. We also filmed a dog jumping through a burning hoop. I saw the film developed. I saw it placed in the projector.
The Miracle Happened
Then the miracle happened. I saw the parrots again in their vivid coloring, not looking like pictures at all. The screen seemed suddenly to have become of three di- mensions, with depth, as well as length and breadth.
We appeared to be looking out through a window on to the very scenes we had witnessed in the zoo. The monkeys' cages seemed to have been placed before us, and there the animals were swinging to and fro. It was hard to realize that the jumping dog was not actually coming toward us.
The invention has one astonishing result.
It makes many of the thinner garments worn by women transparent. It will no longer be possible to pho- tograph actresses in thin nightdresses of the kind they now wear, for the flesh tints would show clearly through their clothes.
Bedroom scenes, at present passed by the censor, will become taboo for this reason.
In Dockside Laboratory
The invention, which has been perfected in a little dockside laboratory in Liverpool, is of a chemical nature.
A chemical compound extracted from a wild flower and mixed with other chemicals is added to the emulsion
on the film. This has the effect of trapping not only light and shade, but also the actual colors, and makes the emul- sified surface as susceptible to light and color as the human eye.
It will, at one blow, remove the handicap under which the British film industry has labored by reason of the fact that the light in Hollywood is so much more suitable for photography than it is here.
With this new invention good films can be taken in a fog.
Natural color television is an obvious development of the future.
Natural color films which I have seen produced here during my weeks of investigation into the invention and its claims, cost little to produce, show every changing, shimmering light in a shot-silk dress, the colors in a girl's eyes, the play of light on her hair, the changing colors of a sunset's reflections in water and the lights of a bonfire.
They are as cheap, as quick to produce and as lasting as black-and-white films. The additional equipment for taking and projecting them costs but a few pounds.
While the City Slept
Night after night when the crowds filed out of the Regent Cinema, Crosby, which has been loaned for the experiments ; I have stood with the little group of pioneers financing the invention, in the deserted theatre, and I have seen it lighted up with color thrown on to the screen from the same projectors used for the black-and-white films.
Arrangements are being made for the program there to be interrupted shortly with a surprise for the audience, who will suddenly see one of the new films spring upon the screen.
The invention may sound the death knell of some of Hollywood's stars — just as the talkies were the doom of others.
It will set a new standard of beauty on the screen, in which the natural color of the eyes and skin will be of paramount importance.
Once the public have tested these color films ordinary black-and-white pictures will seem to them dead and life- less.
A company is in contemplation to keep this invention a British possession.
A vast foreign film corporation which knew of the struggles of the inventor offered him a staggering sum for his half finished work. He refused it.
Today, Herr Goebbels, the Nazi director of propa- ganda, is negotiating for German rights to operate the new invention.
"»•>;::'*
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Twenty-four
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
LEICA
Camera Features'.
11 Interchangeable Lenses
Orer 300 Accessories
Focal Plane Shutter with speed of
1 second to 1 /500th second
Built-in Range Finder with magnified image for easy focus- ing.
Gives up to 36 Pictures on a single roll of cinema film. Nega- tive size lxlJ/2 inches.
Perfect Enlargements up to 12x18 inches and more.
Three Leica Models ranging in price from $85.80 to $143.00.
Write for free illustrated booklet giving full details of the LEICA Camera, Lenses, and Acces-
WHAT'S INSIDE A FINE CAMERA?
Designer's Specifications Reveal Amazing Value Built in the LEICA
Look at the drawing below. This is an ex- act copy of one of the drawings that LEICA craftsmen work from. No technical mind is needed to see at a glance that the LEICA Camera is really an extraordinary piece of engineering in miniature. Here is no mere assembly of intricate mechanical parts, hut an instrument designed and constructed with the beautiful precision of a fine watch. The focal plane shutter, the built-in range finder, the film loading and winding apparatus and all outside controls are planned for the greatest speed and simplicity of operation. Every detail is finished and fitted by hand. And the famous LEICA lenses, the precision of which no drawing can show, complete the perfection of this remarka- ble camera.
Because so much scientific planning and hu- man care go into its construction the LEICA offers you greater accuracy, better results, and longer trouble-proof life than any camera made.
E. LEITZ, Inc.
Dept. 443, 60 East 10th St. New York, N. Y.
Western Coast Agents: Spin, II, r & Sauppe,
811 W. 7th St., Los Angeles, Calif., and
86 Third St., San Franciseo, Calif.
Diagram showing interior cross-section of the LEICA Camera
$2.oo
a Year
So gratifying has been the response to our drive for subscriptions at $2.00 per year that it has been determined to continue this rate indefinitely.
The International Photographer
was the first publica- tion in its field to re- duce its subscription rate.
MINIATURE CAMERA CLUB OF PITTSBURG
The regular monthly meeting of the new organized Miniature Camera Club of Pittsburg was held in one of the lecture rooms of the University of Pittburg's Cathedral of Learning, on Tuesday evening, December 12. Despite the extremely inclement weather which pre- vailed, thirty-five members attended, and were well re- warded for their enthusiasm.
was supplemented, and greatly enhanced, by the exhibi- tion of 20X enlargements, and by projection of the test negatives through a micro-projector varying in magni- fications from 100X to 1000X, which brought out with startling clarity the grain clumping tendencies of the various film and developer combinations.
The program committee has drafted a program for the next six months, with a view to laying a sound foun-
The business session of the meeting disposed of, Presi- dation in the fundamentals of miniature camera tech- dent Harry Bastow presented an exceedingly interesting nique. From the reception accorded Mr. Bastow's lec- and educational lecture on the fundamentals of fine grain ture the succeeding programs are being looked forward emulsions and their development. Mr. Bastow, in pre- to with much enthusiasm.
paring the lecture, conducted a series of experiments in- All miniature camera enthusiasts in the Pittsburg
volving five of the most widely used miniature films, area are again urged to communicate with the Secre-
processing these in the fine grain manner, using a variety tary, Frank McGary, at 3150 Landis Street, Pittsburg,
of the more popular fine grain developers. The lecture Pa.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONAL P H O T O G R A P H E R
7 wenty-five
SOMETHING
NEW IN A
DEVELOPING
STRIP
By Paul R. Harmer
j^gj OR the benefit of the experimenter, Leica enthu- siast and roll film photographers, the following described developing strip is an easy article to make and it lasts a long time without showing wear.
This little idea was developed by me sometime ago when I started my home laboratory, using it for short lengths of film when making tests. I have had excellent results.
At one time I had hopes of utilizing it for 1,000 foot rolls in a portable laboratory I had designed for use on an expedition, but as the expedition turned out to be another mirage, of which picture people have seen many during the past five years, I had neither the time nor the inclin- ation to patiently sit in a chair and thread 2,000 feet of rubber through 144,000 sprocket holes just to get one length of developing strip in order to show a prospective financial angel that we could do things in a big way with- out asking the R. F. C. for $90,000,000, like a certain politician did, while others coudn't raise enough cash to pay interest on the mortgage. Anyhow, I took a spoiled piece of negative, then I cut narrow strips of rubber, about 4 feet long from a red inner tube, and went to work threading this through the sprocket holes. The ends of the rubber do not need to be tied together, as it fits rather tightly in the sprocket holes, and just cut them off short enough so they won't ride on the edge of the picture or sound track.
For lengths of film up to 8 feet a frame or rack is not necessary. Be careful to tap the edges of the roll on the table for alignment before immersing it in the developer. As soon as the film becomes wet the rubber sticks to the edges of the film and holds rather firmly while you raise and lower the roll in the liquid for about a minute to force the bubbles from the face of the film.
The rack is made of wood, painted with black lacquer and immersed in hot paraffin, the lower section is fastened securely to the handle, while the upper section slides loose-
ly up and down the handle.
For constructing this rack use lVi> inch round dowling for the spools, \/\ inch round dowling for the spokes and 1 2 inch round dowling for the handle, using waterproof glue to hold the spokes tight in the spools. The long handle keeps your hands out of the solution. (Those who have had metal poisoning will appreciate this.)
A celluloid covered thumb tack will hold the develop- ing strip to the spool for a start and a rubber thong slipped over a spoke will hold the loose end of the developing strip, yet be elastic enough for film shrinkage.
This idea can be used on film larger than motion pic- ture film by punching holes in strip celluloid, which is procurable in large pieces at auto supply stores.
JAPAN WINS AGAIN
In the Third International Contest for the best ama- teur film, held bv the French Federation of Amateur Cine Clubs under the patronage of CINE AMATEUR, the first prize went to Japan, the second to France and third to the United States. Details as to the names of the win- ners and titles of their film will follow later.
In all probability the next contest will be held in Japan, although the winning country has the right to name any other country in case they do not care to undertake the next contest themselves.
Six Months of Actual Studio Use Has Proven
u
ArtReeveS Twin Fidelity Optical Unit
One of the most important contributions to successful sound recording during the past year.
]-[oll\Yvood
Motion PicTure/EquipmemT(o. |Td.
64 5 NORTH MARTEL AVE
CABLE ADDRESS ARTREEVES
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA. L/SA
Phone: WYoming 4501
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Twenty-six
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
Film Making in India
(Written for International Photographer)
By S. RAMAN ATHAN, Editor of Sound and Shadow, Madras, India
ILM production in India might be said to have begun in 1913, with the release of the first Indian silent picture. The first talkie was released about 1928 or 1929, but here the parallel between the American and Indian films stops. A comparison of foreign pictures and ours is a question of "look on this picture — and then on this." Our tech- nique is so inferior to that of imported pictures.
At present there are nearly 20 studios in India, cen- tered around the cities of Bombay, Calcutta, and and Kolhapur, with the probability of Madras having one of its own, and an equal number of independent produc- tion units making use of other studios. Excepting a few, which have been sound-proofed and fitted up with facili- ties for artificial lighting, all the others work by day- light.
On an average each company produces about four pictures per year, each picture, generally in two versions, one in Hindi, the Lingua Franca of India, and another in the local language, whatever it may be.
I think "talkies" in more languages have been pro- duced in India than in any other part of the world. Till now, talking pictures have been made in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengalee, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Arabic, Per- sian and Burmese. Pictures in Punjabi and Canarese are under production and I wonder in how many more lan- guages pictures should be made to satisfy the demands of the 350 millions of India with its score and a half of languages.
There it is, the main problem that faces the Indian film producer. The circuit for any of these pictures is, of course, limited to the one province where that language is actually spoken. This naturally affects the capital outlay on each picture, which is governed by the returns, and this, in turn, restricts production.
When Hollywood, with its world-market, is itself finding the language barrier a pretty difficult obstacle to overcome, you can imagine the plight of the Indian producer with his much smaller field and still smaller returns. But the demand for pictures in local languages is insistent, and cheap and quick pictures have become, more or less, the producer's watchword.
A feature picture is usually anywhere near 13,000 feet in length — don't gasp — there are excellent reasons behind it. Primarily Indians, I mean the vast mass of illiterate humanity that forms the major percentage of India's teeming millions, and not the sophisticated and English-educated Indians, who, rarely go to see a pic- ture produced by purely native means — demand long pictures. They seem to be willing to sit through any amount of footage so long as something is shown on the screen.
Secondly, the feature picture has to supply the whole evening's program, there being no "shorts" or ''topicals" to supplement the show. Indian theatres, that is, those which exclusively show Indian pictures — never go in for "newsreels" and "cartoons," and no production unit in India has as yet taken to regular production of "shorts."
The story will generally be taken from one of the two great Indian classics — "Bharatham" and "Ramaya- nam" which forms the tradition of the land, or it will be a Muhammadan love-story, with plenty of songs. East Indians love songs — plenty of them. There might be anything from a dozen to three score, the latter in
one company's production — in a picture. Social pictures are almost taboo.
Coming to production proper, standards are much lower than that of imported pictures, due to the pecun- iary and other difficulties necessitated by the restricted market. Trained technicians are few and far between. The majority of cameramen have but a smattering knowledge of English, which prevents them from keep- ing up with the latest developments in emulsions and filters.
Panchromatic film is only slowly coming into general use. The use of filters is very limited and over-correc- tion and special effect use of filters is almost unknown. Except in one studio, where they have fitted up an Auto- matic Debrie Processing Plant, developing is entirely by the rack and tank method, both for sound and picture, positives and negatives. "Cutting" is done entirely in the negative itself, no "rushes" of the day's work being printed.
Film is rarely wasted and the extra footage that is invariably wasted in cutting American pictures is never shot in Indian studios. Retakes are few, compared to foreign studios. The Indian producer's aim seems to be to use all the footage taken, very little being scissored off. Feature pictures, on an average, are completed in about a month's time and cost from 10,000 to 30,000 Rs.
Coming to technique proper; photography and direc- tion are more stagey, perhaps, than in any other coun- try. Daylight being the source of illumination and, it being difficult to effectively light sets, the picture con- sists of a majority of medium and close shots, taken at eye-level. This is further necessitated after the advent of sound pictures by the microphone having to be placed as close to the actor as possible to effectively catch the sound, there being no properly sound-proofed studios.
The script-girl is an unknown entity in the Indian studios and a pre-conceived scenario itself being some- times absent, some directors carry it all in their heads.
The camera is rarely moved from the normal eye- level angle and it is still more rare to find the camera traveling to and from the subject. This fixed camera naturally restricts the movements of actors. Without taking into consideration the emotional requirements and necessities of the scene, only two studios in India make proper use of their trolleys and only in their pictures do we see mechanically smooth traveling shots in one plane. The crane is a novelty that is yet to come into the picture business in India.
Movement of camera is further limited by the small sets, which generally consist of a few flats, with doors and windows and other necessary decoration painted on them in a dull brown color — showing that our camera- men haven't yet got out of their "ortho" days — placed on one or two sides. This, of course, limits the camera to that one angle. Reverse shots, naturally, are im- possible, there being nothing but the studio compound on the other side.
The camera has to be very carefully placed, to bt within bounds, and this careful placement does not give the cameraman an opportunity even to "pam" on an action. The only variety he can afford is to change from 25 mm. to 50, and back again, which generally hap- pens when the dialogue breaks down, when the director asks the lens to be changed and proceeds with the action.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January. 1934
T h
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGR A I'll E R
Twenty-seven
Foreground, which in almost all long shots, occupies more than half the frame, due to the improper place- ment of the camera, is more often than not left com- pletely blank, placing of foreground objects being an exceptional rarity. Even if such objects are placed, they do not help to give that depth and perspective we see in American pictures, due to the mechanical limitation of the light having to come from behind the camera. This naturally lights up the foreground more promi- nently than anything beyond, where it will be casting shadows, and you can imagine the sight of a brilliantly lighted foreground figure all fuzzy and out-of-focus. Thus foreground objects, even if utilized, instead of helping to create that illusion of relief and depth, only serve to destroy it.
Lighting, as I have said before, is almost always from the front, coming from a row of silvered reflectors placed in a row, outside, tilting the sun's rays full into the studio, giving a flat over-all illumination, at an absurd angle, from a few degrees below the horizontal, the re- flectors, as I mentioned, being placed on the ground. Even in studios with electric lamps power is insufficient for long shots, when they too are forced to use daylight. Under the prevailing conditions you can understand how difficult it will be to light a scene according to the requirements of the emotional mood.
This flat photography is further aggravated in the printing. Printers are generally operated by raw youths, who take their cue from the shadows and never expose sufficiently for the high-lights, with the result that the picture looks pale and ghostly.
The eye-level perspective painted on the canvas-flats is one more reason for tying down the cameraman to the eye-level angle.
Of course, these are not unsurmountable obstacles and even without much undue expenditure, things could be bettered. But here, the ignorance of the cameraman, who works by rule of thumb and has not yet got into the habit of thinking in "angles," comes in the way. Partly, the audience also is to be blamed, not caring for better pictures. In fact, they sometimes even resent Quixotic angles. I remember the instance when a friend of mine, a regular observer of foreign films, found fault with all the angles of Pabst ! Then what about the poor
illiterate Indian? Give him plenty of songs, a few hand-to-hand fights in the good old Western style with a chase and a last-minute rescue — those silent Eddie Polo and Elmo Lincoln serials are still going strong here, though America might have forgotten them — and he is content that he has got his money's worth. The coming of the sound pictures destroyed that class of pictures, and excepting the few jungle pictures like Tarzan and Big Cage, none of your sophisticated stuff goes well with the Indian audience. Little speech and plenty of action and songs, and devil take the technique, so says the mass, and that partly is why Indian producers, in spite of their numerous faults and in spite of the heavy odds they have to overcome, pull on splendidly.
Of course, for every rule there is an exception, and so also there are a few directors in India with brains and ideals who are trying their best to improve the stand- ard of Indian pictures, and some of the recent pictures do show that their attempts have not been wholly un- successful. The hope is, that in a short time, India will produce though not pictures of such a standard as yours yet something of which she need not hang her head in shame as at the moment.
In this connection it is interesting to note that the Artreeves products manufactured in Hollywood, are the most widely used in India.
AMAZING GROWTH
In the four months since July 1, 1933, the American Federation of Labor has granted charters to 825 new unions. The number of new charters issued for all of 1929 was 75. In other words, 11 times as many new unions have been organized in four months of a depression year than were formed during the entire 12 months of the 1929 boom period. The charters issued by the A. F. of L. are to local unions affiliated directly with it and composed of workers in occupations over which no inter- national union has jurisdiction. The international unions themselves have organized thousands of new local units and have added millions of members to those which were already in existence. — Labor.
Hollywood's Bargain Spot
RENTAL EQUIPMENT?
?
We have the largest stock in Hollywood of
Mitchell • Bell & Howell • Akeley Cameras .... Motors • Free Heads • Lenses • Etc.
•••
Prompt Service on Rentals Night or Day
CAMERA SUPPLY CO., LTD.
Phone GL 2404 Nite Phones: No. Hollywood 1271— GLadstone 6583
Cable Address "CAMERAS" All Codes
1515 CAHUENGA BOULEVARD HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Twenty-eight
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
THE LINE LENGTHENS
Another beloved brother of the craft, John Shepek, Jr., took his way into the sunset the other day at Santa Monica Hospital surrounded by his father, his sister Alberta and his foster-brother Roy.
John passed away on December 23, and was buried from Saint Monica's church the day after Christmas, interment following immediately at beautiful Calvary Cemetery.
The illness which culminated in his sad passing siezed him while accompanying Eddie Lindon on the famous Under Three Flags expedition conducted last fall by the Socony Vacuum Company of New York.
He was sent to Chicago for treatment and was there operated upon for appendicitis, but with only temporary
relief. He returned home as soon as he was able to travel and from that time steadily failed until his death.
Deceased was born in Kansas City, Missouri, October 2, 1905, and thus at the age of only 28 he lays down his earth life for the Great Adventure.
He was popular among his associates of the studios, was a loyal and enthusiastic member of the International Photographers and a craftsman of excellent reputation. For many years he was associated with the late Robert Kurrle and with Al Greene, the three of them constituting a modern "Three Musketeers."
It is with profound grief that the men of Local 659 stand in the presence of this untimely death and their heartfelt sympathy is hereby extended to the sor- rowing family.
THE SALISBURY RIOTS
(Continued from Page 21) get his truck out of the river. Mob spirit was still high, and he was advised to leave the truck at the bot- tom of the river until it would be safe to raise it, and was again told that Salisbury was not too healthy for him.
Paramount covered the Salisbury riots in spite of a truck being thrown in the river. When Tugander phoned the office that the truck was gone and the rest of the $25,000 equipment, the riot squad pulled out of New York to get the Salisbury coverage. Santone flew down from New York and was getting some shots of the mobs milling around the streets of the town, when the plane developed engine trouble and was obliged to make a forced landing. Fortunately, they made the airport. When the motor was fixed, Santone went up again, but it was too dark to get any more pictures. The pilot again reported engine trouble and they landed in a farmer's field.
Urban knew he would be in for trouble if the farmer knew he was a cameraman, so he hid his equipment. When the farmer came out to see who was landing a plane in his field, Santone was ready to meet him. "What are you doing here ? Who are you ? Another of those damned photographers ?"
"Me?" Urban replied, "no, I am not a photographer. I'm a surveyor. I have been flying over this section here getting a map, and I had to land in your field be- cause it got too dark and I couldn't get back to the airport." The farmer thought this was a funny story,
IT
but let Urban go up to his house to telephone. While Urban was telephoning, the farmer's young son, a bright and inquiring lad of twelve, went to investigate the cockpit of the plane with his searchlight. The boy dug around until he uncovered Santone's camera and read on it "Paramount News." When Urban got back from telephoning the farmer accused him of being a camera- man and told him to get off the farm. "They'll string me up with you if they know I let you stay here," the farmer said.
But ordering Santone off the farm and getting him off were two different things. The nearest railway station was fifteen miles away. Santone doesn't enjoy walking fifteen miles, especially if he has to carry his equipment. After some argument, the farmer proved to be more humane than afraid of the riot, and found that a Ford could be had to take Santone to the station. A negro was to drive the car, but he balked. "Ah won't drive no cameraman to dat dere town. If he ain't scared, Ah is!" So Urban covered his cameracase with his overcoat and drove the car himself. The film came on from Baltimore by plane and was in the laboratory the next morning and was put in the reel that was being made up that day.
THANK YOU
The photograph printed in "The Story of Slides and Titles" which appeared in the December issue of Inter- national Photographer was loaned through the courtesy of Leo T. Young and the Los Angeles Museum.
HI
ROY DAVIDGE
FILM LABORATORIES
•••
An Exclusive "Daily" Laboratory
•••
Quality and Service
6701-6715 SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD
G Ran it e 3108
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOCRAPHE
Twenty-nine
ORIGIN OF THE POINT, ETC.
(Continued from Page 22) men failed, however, lo visualize the whole scheme. Neither recognized, so far as I am able to learn from their writings, the fundamental importance of complete spherical and hemispherical illumination, nor the fact that the molecule was the true seat of intensity. If they had grasped the full scheme I am confident that the point source theory would already have been dropped from the books.
Milliken and Gale illustrate this basic truth as re- gards whole light sources, by including in their book, "A First Course in Physics," on page 393 of the 1906 edition, the photometer of Count Rumford which illus- trates the functioning of whole flames. The authors also teach the same truth in their remarks on the standard candle. They say correctly (p. 394) : "In general, then, the candle power of any two sources which produce equal illumination on a given screen are directly proportional to the squares of the distances of the sources from the screen." (Their own italics.)
Note that whole light sources are involved, while the area of the receiving screen is not referred to. This is as it should be.
It is lamentable, however, that these distinguished authors offset the good effect of this correct teaching by illustrating also the erroneous point source figure on page 392. Here it is stated (after saying the usual thing, that light weakens by spreading over four times the area at distance two as at distance one) : . . . the intensity of the illumination due to a given point source must vary inversely as the square of the distance from the source."
Note here that the technical point source, and not a whole source, is involved, while the area of the re- ceiving screen is used as a factor in the problem. This statement I hold to be erroneous. It is the exact oppo- site of their statement first noted, which is the true one.
Dull, in his "Modern Physics," also illustrates both theories. This contradiction results in the student's com- plete confusion as to the truth of light intensity.
The fact, however, that these authors do include the truth, is hopeful, since there is left to be done only a more comprehensive elaboration of the truth and the omis- sion of the error.
In my next article I will give my own classification of the patterns of illumination which function in nature. I will show that there is one pattern in which intensity remains constant through a considerable distance from the source, and another pattern in which the intensity varies inversely to the distances instead of to the squares of the distances.
I will also give my basic law of intensity which ap- plies to these various seemingly contradictory patterns and also to full hemispheric illumination, as from the whole sky extension.
Any reader who desires to keep this series of articles for reference should secure the number of August, 1932, the last, this present one and the two or three which will follow.
ICTER^
In (Atarld'OOid* Us*
ue^ C^Ouanli^br and (NJi^hr £ff*cts in Daytime ~F^ Scenes- Diffused. Fccus.arcd many v\\i*r «Ff«crs
Georcje H. Scheibo
ORIGINATOR OF EFFECT FILTERS
1927 WEST 78TH ST. LOS ANGELES. CAL.
1 1
| Alvin Wyckoff h
30% to 60% CASH SAVINGS on 16 mm.
and 35 mm. Cameras, Projectors
and Accessories
Write for Bass Bargaingram. Specify size of apparatus
interested in. For over 22 years Value Leaders of the
nation.
Your copy is ready. Write for it.
BASS CAMERA CO.
179 W. Madison St.
Chicago, III.
Phone CLadstone 4151
HOLLYWOOD STATE BANK
The only Bank in the Industrial District of Hollywood under State Supervision
Santa Monica Boulevard at Highland Avenue
Howard Anderson
Special Effects — Animations
Culver City 3021 GRanite3111
CINEX TESTING MACHINES CINEX POLISHING MACHINES
BARSAM-TOLLAR MECHANICAL WKS.
7239 Santa Monica Blvd. Phone GRanite 9707 Hollywood, California
DR. G. FLOYD JACKMAN, Dentist
Member Local No. 659
706 Hollywood First Nat'l Bldg., Hollywood Blvd. at Highland
Hours : 9 to 5 CLadstone 7507 And by Appointment
DOUBLE MATTING
(3 PATENTS. 1932)
mjyriLLiAMC? ▼▼SHOTS I*
Phone OXford 1611 8111 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, Calif.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Thirty
T h
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
INTERNATIONAL
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
Brings results — Rates 45 cents per line — minimum charge one
dollar per insertion. For Rent — For Sale — Wanted — For
Exchange, etc.
FOR SALE AND RENT— CAMERAS
FOR SALE OR RENT — Mitchell and Bell & Howell silenced cameras, follow focus. Pan lenses, free head, corrected new aperture. Akeley, Da Brie, Pathe, Universal, Prevost, Willart, De Vry, Eyemo, Sept, Leica. Motors, printers lighting equipment. Also every variety of 16 mm. and still cameras and projectors. B & H Cameras with old type shuttles silenced, $150. Everything photographic bought, sold, rented and repaired. Send for our bargain catalogue. Hollywood Camera Ex- change, 1600 Cahuenga Blvd. Phone HO. 3651. Cable, Hocamex.
BELL & HOWELL Professional Motion Picture Camera complete with 35 — 40 — 50 — 75 mm. lenses and Mitchell tripod legs. Also Akeley Cam- era complete with 2 in., 6 in., 17 in. lenses. Mervyn Freeman, 1960 South Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. Phone: REpublic 3171.
SINCE 1911. Cameras bought, sold, rented, repaired.
PETERSON'S CAMERA EXCHANGE 356 South Broadway, Los Angeles Upstairs
FOR SALE— CAMERAS AND EQUIPMENT
MITCHELL HI-SPEED CAMERA— 3 lenses, F.2.3, 5 magazines, Friction Head, beautiful condition — $1650. Camera Supply Co., Ltd., 1515 Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
BELL & HOWELL CAMERAS — silenced by Cunningham — exclusive specialty of Camera Supply Co., Ltd., 1515 North Cahuenga Blvd., II' illy wood.
BELL & HOWELL with beautiful Fear movement, complete — perfect shape, quick snap $800. Camera Supply Co., Ltd., 1515 North Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood.
1000 FOOT MAGAZINES for Bell & Howell, brand new — $85. Camera Supply Co., Ltd., 1515 North Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood.
NEW AND USED HOME MOVIE CAMERAS— DeVry Motion Pic- ture Cameras — sound on film portable projectors with operators for rent. Photographic supplies — fine grain finishing — courteous service. Educa- tional Project-O Film Co., 1611 North Cahuenga, Hollywood.
REAL BARGAINS in 16 and 35 mm. movie equipment and still cameras. Newest types cameras and projectors in all' popular makes. Save money on film, lights, lenses and all essential accessories. Our 36 years of experience stands back of every sale. Before you buy, send for our new bargain booklet. Burke & James, Inc., 223 W. Madison St., Chicago.
BLIMPS FOR SALE
TWO CELLULOID BLIMPS — same as used by Warner Brothers Studios. Focus change is built into blimp and accommodates Mitchell cameras. Blimps weigh only 55 pounds and can be used on regular Mitchell tilt head or friction head for shooting interiors or exteriors. Charles M. Glouner, 11160 La Maida St., North Hollywood.
CAMERA REPAIRING
BELL & HOWELL cameras with old type shuttles silenced, $150. Hollywood Motion Picture Equipment Co., 645 No. Martel Ave., Hollywood.
FOR SALE OR RENT— MISCELLANEOUS
VICTOR PORTABLE STEREOPTICON, 12" lens— for quick sale— $40. Camera Supply Company, Ltd., 1605 North Cahuenga Blvd., Holly- wood.
HOLMES 35 mm. PROJECTOR, beautiful condition, perfect running order, better than one advertised last month — and with a special long throw lens — $85. Camera Supply Co., Ltd., 1515 North Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood.
25 MM. FINDER ADAPTERS for standard finders, showing correct field of 25 mm. lens, in use by all major studios. $30.00. Camera Sup- ply Co.. Ltd., 1515 Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
LIKE NEW— BELL & HOWELL 5-WAY SOUND PRINTER, Cinex light tester, Moviola Model C or D. Hughes 4-wheel inflated tire dolly, two Holmes sound projectors. Cheap for cash. Box XYZ, I. A. T. S. E., 1605 North Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
25 MM. FINDER ADAPTERS for standard finders, showing correct field of 25 mm. lens, in use by all major studios. $30.00. Camera Sup- ply Co., Ltd., 1515 Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
THEATRICAL EQUIPMENT— Machines, chairs, scenery, costumes, 35mm. films, etc. Also a complete line of 16mm. films. Free catalog of 16mm. new prints. PECKER FILMS, 31 Church St., Boston, Mass.
MITCHELL MOTOR— 1000 ft. Mitchell magazines. J. R. Lockwood, Glendale. Douglas 3361-VV.
FOR SALE — 75 mm. Cooke Lens. F.2 in Mitchell mount complete. 50 and 75 mm. Astro lenses, mounted and unmounted. J. R. Lockwood, 523 North Orange Street, Glendale. Douglas 3361-W.
BUYERS READ these classified advertisements as you are now doing. If you have something for sale or exchange — advertise it in these col- umns. THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER, 1605 No. Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
FOR RENT — 25 and 35 mm. lenses, motor adapters, Mitchell Standard tripod head, baby tripod, 400 ft. Mitchell magazines. J. R. Lockwood, 523 North Orange St., Glendale, Douglas 3361-W.
RIGHT HERE IN HOLLYWOOD
Right here in Hollywood is a Hair Service that is unique. Here everything from a simple hairline front to the most elaborate 18th Century wig is designed and manufactured to fit the personality of the individual. Perc & Ern Westmore at the Max Factor Studios have a library that is probably the largest one anywhere ex- clusively devoted to the subject of Hair. And — when the hair piece is completed it FITS the individual's fea- tures— and photographs in a truly realistic manner. "Hair," observes Messrs. Westmore, "must look as per- fectly natural on the player as the dramatic action, or the artistic results will be affected." If you recall Bar- bara Stanwyck in "Baby Face," or Heather Angel and Leslie Howard in "Berkeley Square" — or the players in "Little Women" — you will see what the Westmores mean by artistic results. And if you are historically minded you will undoubtedly be impressed with the authentic character of their hair pieces.
:M«!8ry'-''1''r1i»ll»IIIIIl|i|l:Bllir«IIBI1l:l:l!llll!«l«|l|l||lll!it|i|i|-.|M||;(||«M|f-!;
In Sound Recording
THE MINOR QUARTZ OPTICAL UNIT
becomes an integral part of your sound recorder this unit is
cemented into a steel block— it focuses a beam of I i- lit of preat intensity and actinic value a distance awav from the film, which PROVIDES CLEARANCE and PREVENTS SCRATCHING of the sound track. The width of the beam of light measures from .0004" to .0O06 ".
Send for specimen of sound track.
C. C. MINOR
Phone GR. 7331
1806 Whitley Ave., Hollywood
|
In 1934 |
International Photographer |
will |
|
|
present a |
feature unequaled in |
this |
field. |
|
Better get |
ready |
for it by becoming a |
sub- |
|
seriber now. |
FOR RENT— CAMERAS
TWO THOROUGHLY silenced Mitchell cameras. Follow focus device. Pan Astro lenses, Freehead — 1000 ft. magazines. J. R. Lockwood, 523 No. Orange St., Glendale. Douglas 3361-W.
THE INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST
THE INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST, a monthly magazine published in the interests of the projectionist. Interesting, instructive. Yearly subscription U. S. and possessions, $2; foreign countries, $2.50. Tame* T. Finn Publishing Corp., 1 West 47th St., New York.
POSITION WANTED
DO YOU WANT A CAMERAMAN who is an expert on studio pro- duction ; or an expedition cameraman who knows every corner of the world ; or a cameraman who thoroughly understands the making of indus- trial pictures ; or an expert newsreel photographer ; or an expert color cameraman? A limited number of cameramen, backed by years of experi- ence, are available. Write stating your requirements and we shall be glad to assist you in choosing the kind of cameraman you want. INTER- NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER, 1605 North Cahuenga Ave., Holly- wood.
AN AUDITOR AND ACCOUNTANT of thirty years' experience with large companies wants small accounts with individuals or business houses. Wide experience in opening, closing and keeping books, in auditing, and in income tax procedure. Wishes to assist individuals in opening their own books. Advice and assistance on filing income tax returns and income tax regulations. Very reasonable rates. CHARLES D. FELSTEAD, 2010 Sixth Avenue. Telephone: PA-6768.
MISCELLANEOUS
COMPLETE COURSE IN FLYING— Tf interested in aviation, see Roy Klaffki, 1605 North Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
WANTED — To know of the whereabouts of motion picture relics, docu- ments, or equipment of a historical nature for Museum purposes. Write Farl Theisen, care of International Photographer, 1605 Cahuenga Ave., Hollywood.
TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY. Exclusive agency for three leading Holly- wood makers of trick lenses. Apply for prices and demonstration, sale or rentals. Camera Supply Co., Ltd., 1515 Cahuenga Ave., Holly- wood.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
January, 1934
Th
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
Thirty-one
NOTES ON MARINE PHOTOGRAPHY
(Continued from Page 15) just how to adjust his camera in order to secure the best possible results, as far as exposure is concerned anyway. These meters are small, compact, require no re-fills, last a life-time, and are absolutely accurate. The marine photog- rapher who aims to secure the best photographs is urged to invest in a reliable exposure meter, for by means of it, film wastage is entirely eliminated. The meter, therefore, may be said to pay for itself in a short time.
The problem of what film to use is admittedly a diffi- cult one, for with so many types and brands on the mar- ket, even the professional photographer is apt to become confused. For average yacht photography, a fine-grain, fast orthocromatic film seems to be the most satisfactory. Of this type of emulsion, films like Kodak Regular, Kodak Verichrome, Agfa Regular, Agfa Plenachrome, Gevaert Express Superchrome, Perutz Persenso, Voigtlander, Mi- mosa Extrema, Selochrome, and Kodak Panatomic are recommended highly.
Where full color correction, or special filter effects are desired, a panchromatic film must of course be used. This film has the property of recording practically all the col- ors in the spectrum, hence becomes a valuable tool in the hands of the skilled photographer. Practically all film manufacturers offer one or more brands and types of pan- chromatic emulsions.
The developing and printing of films is looked upon as sheer drudgery by a great many amateurs, and the yachtsmen hold that this work cannot be done on board because of the space and equipment required, however, the plain truth of the matter is that the developing and print- ing of pictures from miniature cameras is not only delight- fully easy and economical, but inexpensive as well. As for doing this work on board the small boat — why the modern developing tanks are so small and compact that films could be developed in a rowboat ! Actually. A few ounces of solution only are required, and once the film is loaded into the tank in darkness (a changing bag, for ex- ample, in the daytime), the subsequent operations can be conducted in the light. This automatically frees the worker of a darkroom such as is commonly supposed to be necessary when processing photographic materials.
Owners of cabin boats have everything right in their cabins to carry out the developing of the film with the utmost ease and convenience.
Every amateur photographer should really do his own developing at least, because the commercial finishers are not over-particular as to the results. Especially is this true in the case of miniature camera films. Commercial finish- ers have not as yet learned to handle the tiny films with as much respect and delicacy as they might, hence it is to the amateur's advantage to do this work himself and be sure of the results. This imposes no hardship, on the con- trary, it is delightfully interesting. Try it sometime.
We have covered but a few of the most important points to be observed in photography as applied to boating, but the main idea is to indicate how easily and success- fully the yachtsman can make photographs while afloat. It is the new companion to boating, and those who have struck this combination of a boat and a camera are intense- ly enthusiastic. You, too, will become enthusiastic if once you taste of the pleasures which photography affords.
THE MOVING PICTURE MONTHLY
All about the Indian Cinema World
The Smartly Different Screen Magazine
Published in Bombay, India
Yearly Subscription Inland — Rs 3-8-0 Yearly Subscription outside of India — 7 shillings or $2.50 • Send Your Subscription to:
MOVING PICTURE MONTHLY
Khatav Building, Cirgaum, Bombay 4, India
NOT A CLUB!
Just a Bargain Day Offer of
CINEMA CRAFTS
and a year's subscription of
The International Photographer
Combined
The Two Most Practical and Useful Journals in the Field of
Motion Picture Arts and Crafts and Newsreel Cinematography
for $3.00— and Each One Worth the Price.
If You Can Buy Only One of These Magazines By All Means Buy This Wonderful Little Book
CINEMA CRAFTS
Order from THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOCRAPHER, 1605 Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood, or CINEMA CRAFTS, Suite 306, 1029 So. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, III.
Calling Sk%¥3 OWNERS
M -} • -tit
Try Our New 35M.M. J in I Service
We will Supply 100FootDaylightLoaderof Eastman or Dupont Film; Develop and Make One Print.
Complete For ^O
Bargains in Standard Motion Picture Equipment
FRESH NEGATIVE .02!2 CENTS PER FOOT
Kinema Krafts Kompany
6510 SELMA AVE. GLADSTONE 0276 HOLLYWOOD. CALIFORNIA
The next meeting of the L. A. Amateur Cine Club will be held Tuesday — not Monday — January 9, 8 :00 P. M. at the Eastman Kodak Company, 6706 Santa Monica Boulevard. Another contest for you of uncut and unedited film. Prizes: One roll each of 100 and 50 feet, donated by Eastman Kodak Stores, Inc. Showing of "Rice," the Japanese picture which won the 1933 gold medal award in the American Cinematographer Inter- national Contest . . . "Panama" by member I. O. Levy and more of "China" by Tracy Q. Hall.
Please mention The International Photographer
|
WE WANT 35 mm. travel, fight, thrill and curiosity films from |
|
all parts of the earth. |
|
We Sell All Kinds of Raw Film at Reduced Prices. |
|
CONTINENTAL FILMCRAFT, INC. |
|
1611 Cosmo Street Hollywood, Calif. |
ROLANC. KENNELL&CO.
Successors to Crescent Brokerage Corporation
INSURANCE IN ALL ITS BRANCHES SPECIAL SERVICE FOR CAMERAMEN
Guaranty Btdg., 6331 Hollywood Blvd. HEmpstead 6978
when corresponding with advertisers.
Thirty-two
T I,
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
January, 1934
o-enjEttS'
=@«tlffJr§CU<S
By Otto Phocus
HAPPY NEW YEAR
This remarkable action still <was posed by our staff photog- rapher, Les Roivley, and depicts icith accuracy the welcome received by an assistant cameraman upon presenting his camera- man luith a set of Neiv Year's resolutions. Attention is called to the out-stretched arm of the cameraman ninth ivhic/i he greets his assistant.
The resolutions are printed for your guidance. Just another service rendered by the International Photographer.
RESOLVED
To take my hat and coat to the dark room and not bother my asst. with it.
To pay him back all the money I have borrowed from him in the past year.
To furnish him with gasoline when he runs errands for me.
To return all the tools I have taken from his tool kit.
To go and get my chair when my asst. is resting.
To make exposures for the lab. and not for the ex- posure meter.
To swing over the camera when the asst. is loading film.
To focus all scenes before they are photographed.
To ask him up to the house for a drink, for a change.
To blame all buckles on the recording system.
To remember him on his birthday.
To laugh at his jokes when he tells them.
To excuse his mistakes when he makes them.
To pay all his dues and buy his lunches.
To help him carry his equipment when he is tired.
To let him line up all shots.
To take in the tape and mark the feet.
To give him screen credit if he wants it.
To hold the slate if he will let me.
And-d-d-d to receive any other little suggestions that he might offer during the coming year.
DO YOU KNOW
That there is to be a new chief cameraman at the United Artists Studios.
That Paul Perry and Bob Miller have left for the Orient, to be gone about a year.
That I will be able to use another robe by the time they get back.
That four years ago the second of this month, 10 men were killed when two planes crashed over the Pacific.
That three were members of the International Pho- tographers.
That from latest reports, Ira Hoke is leading the life of a gentleman farmer.
That the musical number "I Love a Parade" would be a good theme song for a coming release.
That I would like to hear from Bob LaPrell as to what he is doing, if any.
That Bob Martin sends greetings from 22 Graystone Lodge, Hanger Lane, London, W.5.
That Hanger Lane is a much better address than Hun- ger Lane.
That Rov Clark was assigned to location in China for M. G. M.
That Joe Walker has the largest collection of lenses in the business.
That Bert Glennon was a purchasing agent before a cameraman.
That the first complaint Ed. Estabrook handled after taking over his new duties was from the Ko-Op-Kitchen. No salt in the beans.
That Fred Westerberg is running out of ideas for his tables. (Submitted by J. F. W.)
That the "color shorts" I received for Xmas were re- ceived with gales of laughter on the first pre-view.
That it is rather difficult for a cameraman to remain "upright" and shoot a hi-hat shot.
That Reggie Lyon's boy joined the Sons of Legion- naires. The boy, as tall as Reggie, gave the impression that Reggie must have been in the Civil War.
That the picture at the head of this page should not fool you. I am not a nudist. Hardly ever.
PHOTOCRAPHIZZ
Fill ground glass with cracked lenses.
1 jigger Mitchell oil.
1 pony lens cleaner.
Dash of emulsion.
1 twist of sex peel.
1 slice of belting.
1 A. filter for coloring.
Stir with pan crank.
Strain through gauze matte.
Garnish with B. & H. perforations.
Serve on a dolly so guest can be moved if necessary.
CAMERAMEN TAKE NOTICE
Rob Wagner's Script never fails to boost the camera- men in its reviews of pictures and a good way to get even with Rob is to subscribe for the famous Beverly Hills magazine. It costs only $3 a year and there is nothing of its kind in the field of motion picture literature. The address is 9492 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills, California.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
A Question
ANSWERED
WHAT big picture today does not in- clude backgrounds that call for com- posite photography? The answer is obvious. . . . The really vital point is: what medium to use in photographing these important backgrounds ? . . . Eastman has answered that question. Eastman Background Negative, with its remarkably fine grain, its surprising speed, and its excellent processing charac- teristics, completely solves the film prob- lem of the composite shot. Eastman Kodak Company. (J. E. Brulatour, Inc., Distribu- tors, New York, Chicago, Hollywood.)
EASTMAN
Background Negative
The SILENT MITCHELL CAMERA
0 0
These cameras with silent motors are
being used by
MAJOR studios
without the use of
cumbersome blimps*
Light in weight — including all the advantages of the standard model Mitchell Camera
Mitchell Camera Corporation
665 N. ROBERTSON BOULEVARD WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIF.
Cable Address "MITCAMCO'
Phone OXford 1051
HOTOGRAEHER
fH YEAR
HOLLYWOOD
FEBRUARY, 1934
Du Pont Film Manufacturing Corporation
35 WEST 45th STREET, 6656 •• SANTA MONICA BLVD.
NEW YORK CITY HOLLYWOOD CAL.
PLANT • • • PA RLI N, N EW J ERSEY
THECffllPTRADE MARK HAS NEVER BEEN PLACED ON AN INFERIOR PRODUCT
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND CRAFTS
Vol. 6
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, FEBRUARY, 1934
No. 1
E. T. Estabrook, Publisher's Agent and General Manager
Silas Edgar Snyder, Editor-in-Chief
Ira Hoke and Charles Felstead, Associate Editors
Lewis W. Physioc, Fred Westerberg, Technical Editors
John Corydon Hill, Art Editor
Helen Boyce, Advertising Manager
A Monthly Publication Dedicated to the Advancement of Cinematography in All
Its Branches; Professional and Amateur; Photography; Laboratory and Processing,
Film Editing, Sound Recording, Projection, Pictorialists.
THE THREE FLAGS EXPEDITION ------- 2
By Edivin G. Linden
THE MINIATURE CAMERA AND PHOTOGRAPHY - - - 4
By Augustus Wolfman
THE STORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN BRIEF OUTLINE - - 6
By Lewis W. Physioc
A TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED PORTABLE LABORATORY - 8 By Paul R. Harmer
TELEVISION ----------- io
The Editor
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS IN THE EARLY DAYS - 12
By W. Wallace Clendenin
UNDERSTANDING THE MINIATURE CAMERA - 14
By Karl A. Bardleben, Jr., F. R. P.S.
THE CAMERAGRAM ------- 16 and 17
EDITORIAL ------- 18
CINEMATOGRAPHER'S BOOK OF TABLES 19 and 20
By Fred Westerberg
THE LIFE OF A STILLMAN -------- 22
By Don MacKcnzie
MOTION PICTURE SOUND RECORDING ----- 26
By Charles Felstead— Chapter VI
"CHEERIO" HOLLYWOOD! -------- 28
By Alfred C. Moore, Journalist
CLASSIFIED SECTION --------- 30
OUT OF FOCUS ------ 32
By Charles P. Boyle
Entered as second class matter Sept. 30, 1930, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the act of March 3, 1879.
Copyright 1933 by Local 659, I. A. T. S. E. and M. P. M. O. of the United States
and Canada
Office of publication, 1605 North Cahuenga Avenue, Hollywood, California
HEmpstead 1128
James J. Finn, 1 West 47th St., New York, Eastern Representative
McGill's, 179 and 218 Elizabeth St., Melbourne, Australian and New Zealand agents.
Subscription Rates — United States and Canada, $2 a year. Single copies, 25 cents.
This Magazine represents the entire personnel ot photographers now engaged in
professional production of motion pictures in the United States and Canada. Thus
THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER becomes the voice of the Entire Craft,
covering a field that reaches from coast to coast across North America.
Printed in the U. S. A. at Hollywood, California
80
SERVICE ENGRAVING CO
PART OF THE PROGRAM FOR MARCH
Paul Harmer will do his part in the March issue by presenting the most illuminating article we have yet seen on the subject of "Motion Picture Miniatures."
F. Morris Steadman, the Miracle Man of Light, will be back with "Patterns of Illumi- nation," another masterly study on light that no photographer should miss.
And if the reader happens to be interested in 16 mm. subjects there will be something most attractive in March. Look for this department. It's gonna be good.
Mr. W. Wallace Clendenin, who "pinch hits" this month for Earl Theisen, our brilliant young historical writer on motion picture subjects, will return soon with another article on a timely subject.
Miss May Gearheart, Supervisor of Art in the Los Angeles Schools, will present her interesting article, "Art in Motion Pic- tures." Because of previous reservations it was necessary to defer the publication of "Art in Motion Pictures" to March.
Augustus Wolfman, editor of our Miniature Camera Department, will offer the third of his extraordinarily fine technical articles. This series by Mr. Wolfman will prove to be a liberal education to the students of the miniature camera.
Our Television Department will have some- thing of unusual merit to offer and, as this is to be a permanent feature of our maga- zine, it will behoove all interested parties to watch it closely for the latest news. By the way, cameramen would do well to keep their eyes on Television. It may mean jobs some day.
HONOR TO MR. THEISEN
Earl Theisen, Honorary Curator for Motion Pictures of Los Angeles Museum, whose in- teresting historical sketches have attracted International attention, is absent from our columns this month to permit him to write an article for the League of Nations. The subject will be "Archeology of the Motion Pictures." The article will be published in the International Encyclopedia of the League. Mr. Theisen will be back in the International Photographer in March.
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Two
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
February, 1934
Under Three Flags Expedition
By Edwin G. Linden
HE Under Three Flags Expedition," while not known in Hollywood, was an important and ■ extensive undertaking and its wanderings and findings were made into a big picture. We traversed the highways and byways from the northern- most point in Canada, to the southernmost point in Mexico that automobiles are able to get to under their own power. It is true that there is no big name such as Mae West on the main title for all that we featured in this film was oil, and especially Socony-Vacuum oil. At first it seemed rather strange that an oil company should be willing to make a feature length picture just for their own use but I soon found out why. They had developed a new oil that is soon to appear on the market and our film was only to sell the idea of the extent of research that had been conducted to prove the oil, not to the dear public who will never see our master- piece, but to the thousands of distributors and dealers over the entire country, and when it is eventually placed on the market there will be $5,000,000 spent in adver- tising in order to sell it to the public.
There were fourteen cars in all, each a well known brand and ranging from Ford and Chevrolet to Cadillac and Pierce-Arrow. All were painted and equipped alike and they made an impressive sight to the millions who saw the caravan in its three months' traveling through three countries.
I should here give credit to those to whom I refer as "we" of the camera staff. There was Otto Hesse, of New York City, still photographer, and the late John Shepek, Jr., assistant cameraman, who was taken ill in Chicago and was replaced by Bill Reinhold in Cleveland.
Our photographic equipment included two Mitchell standard cameras, two Filmos, three Graflex, two Leicas and forty kodaks with the several other brands of minia- ture cameras scattered among the personnel of the expe- dition. According to this showing they were certainly camera-minded.
Our official start was 1,200 miles north of the U. S.- Canada border and fourteen miles north of Notekewin, Alberta. Here the few wagon tracks that had formed the road branched off in various directions and were soon lost in the tall prairie grass. Only a single telegraph wire continued north to be the only communication that people from there on have with the outside world unless they go on foot or dog-sleds. A telegraph operator hooked on this line, keyed out our start to the world, while the boys for the first time in two weeks broke out the camera equipment to make our first image on grey- back. Our pictures here will prove to anyone who cares that northern Canada is all the same as Kansas.
While fourteen mud-covered cars started out with horns honking we registered the start at F/4, which is all October noon light in Notekewin is worth on any- body's film. Ours was the task of putting on negative a record of the trip, not only to be interesting, but to be instructive to the many men with technical minds who would analyze the results.
The road back was a repetition of what we had been through the previous ten days in getting here. Two
hundred miles of muskeg roads with gumbo mud so deep that the axles dragged and so slippery that it was as easy to go sideways as forward, yet every day we pro- gressed south was the consolation that the days would get longer and warmer. Often at night we plowed ahead under the guidance of the northern lights, but it was slow going as the rains had made the roads nearly impassable and it often required all hands to free the cars that had sideslipped into the ditch.
The light cars naturally were the best performers in the mud, the heavily laden camera car seemed to have a yen for the ditches and received its share of harsh words, the pictures show only the physical side of the mud battle, it really needed sound to convey the spirit of the men, who knee deep in mud pulled on ropes or pushed on fenders while they sang our anthem of "Beef, More Beef," to the accompaniment of roaring engines. Eight horses on foot were worth more than eighty under the hood.
Once through the mud we traveled rapidly over fine graveled roads which took us through the towns of Ed- monton, Saskatoon, Moosejaw and Regina. We had the pleasure of shaking hands with Premier Bennett, who wished us well, and of visiting the barracks of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, where we were entertained by their drills, and we in turn entertained them by tak- ing their pictures, the first time anyone has been accorded this privilege. As fine a body of men as anyone would care to meet are these Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
At Nor Portal where we crossed the line we found it was much easier to get out of the United States than it Avas to get back in. Ten days from the start and we were in Chicago where the boys had a chance to see the Century of Progress, and many thousands at the Fair had a chance to see us.
From Chicago our route was east through Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, past Niagara Falls and across the Empire State, some of the most beautiful scenery of the trip so far, all the hills were covered with autumn foli- age, each in a different shade of the gradual change from green to brown to red to orange to yellow.
And the greatest novelty of all was the complete lack of signboards. In Storrowtown, N. Y., we visited a collection of old Colonial buildings which had been brought from their original sites and re-erected here in surroundings in keeping with their age, an entire village was formed and each of the buildings had been built during revolutionary times, not of 1933, but of 1776. Here we were able to put a little comedy and story into our film that was fast becoming a travelog of the road- ways. We were blessed with a clear sparkling day that made the pictures of Storrowtown stand out above the wonders of the three countries that comprise the finished picture.
Historic Boston was interesting, not for any photo- graphic reason, for it was again F/3 :5 at high noon, but its winding streets and quaint buildings had a charm that will long be remembered. At New York City we had a day — while everyone rested and reorganized for the trip to San Antonio. But not the camera crew ;
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
February, 1934
whoever heard of them resting ? There were stock shots to be made for the studio, for we couldn't come back empty handed.
We also used some film on the New York City police radio system, here the inner workings of that unit were very interesting, for their efficiency enables them to have the fastest radio police service of any city in the United States.
From New York to San Antonio was one grand triumphant procession, of course there were a few stops for pictures — at the Indianapolis Speedway, the War Memorial in Kansas City, road shots of the caravan through various types of country, raging oil well fires in Oklahoma City (for the studio) and the capitols and governors of most of the states. And always we were
Three
moonshine. Here the trio of "Hesse, Reinhold and Lin- den" rendered German ballads while the crowd roared.
So well and often were we banqueted that I began to hate lobsters, oysters, chicken and filet mignon and longed for some of the wife's good old corned beef and cabbage.
Through most of the states and Mexico we had police motorcycle escorts and with their guidance we passed so many stop signs that most of our boys got the habit and will find it very embarrassing when they get back to normal. And here, let me add, that nowhere on our entire trip did we see one motorcycle officer hiding just around the corner.
We finally reached San Antonio, ten days out of New York, and entered that city with a motorcycle
Top Left — Cathedral at Mexico City. Top Center — The Camera Car. Top Right — Cathedral at Monterey. Left — in the Crater of Mt. Toluca, 14,500 Feet Elevation. Center of Layout — "The Scout," Kansas City, Mo.
Center Lower
Left — Canadian Mud. Lower Center — The Far Famed Alamo. Shooting from the Hood of the Camera Car.
cursed with bad weather.
Besides the three of us in the camera crew every member of the expedition was a potential photographer, at each stop all the kodaks came out, and to the man they would ask, "'What exposure?" By the time St. Louis was reached either Bill or Otto would call out the orders for the day, informing all kodakers what the aperture should be. From the amount of film used the Eastman Company should have been willing to sponsor the trip instead of an oil company.
We were wined and dined every night in grand style, so different from the ordinary location. Advance pub- licity always reached the Socony-Vacuum representatives in time for them to prepare a banquet to out-do what had been previously done for us. The high spot in this part of the journey was in Wichita when the camera department became slightly over-exposed from Kansas
Lower Right — More Canadian Mud, and Above — Mr. Linden
escort of eleven officers that sounded like a three-alarm fire. Here we were again to rest and prepare for the trip into Mexico, at least that is what the schedule said. That schedule bothered me as it was the only thing that made the trip seem like a motion picture company.
Here in San Antonio we were to do our most im- portant work on the entire trip, tests were to be made here and elaborate preparations were going on, all of which had to be registered on the Eastman super.
The tests made here wrere of vital importance to the oil company, as the superiority of the oil had to be proved. Outsiders were all concerned with the indi- vidual performance of the cars but the records were not made public, even to us, as this was a test of gas and oil and not of cars. From my personal observation all of the cars did remarkably well.
(Turn to Page 25)
Please mention The International Photographer when corresponding with advertisers.
Four
The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER
February, 1934
Miniature Cameras and f^m\ Photography v« * *
ENERALLY, in classifying films according to