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December, 1937 



Published in Hollywood 
by 

American Society 
of Cinematographers 



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490 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


AMERICAN 

CINEMATOGRAPHER 


A Technical and Educational publication 
on motion picture photography. 

Published monthly by the 
AMERICAN SOCIETY 
OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS, INC. 

1782 N. Orange Drive 

Hollywood (Los Angeles), California 

Telephone GRanite 2136 

VICTOR MILNER, President. 

FRED W. .JACKMAN, Treasurer. 


Vol. 18 December, 1937 No. 12 


Contents 


Front Cover. Scene from MGM’s “Conquest” 


Just Between Turkeys 492 

By Georg-e Blaisdell 

What 1937 Has Shown in Technical 
Progress 493 

Cooperation Bulks Big in Work of 

Make-up 496 

By Perc Westmore 

A. S. C. Members on Parade 497 


Big Scenes in Goldwyn’s “Hurricane”. 498-9 

Color Real Advantage Shooting Steel 

Mills 500 

By Charles P. Boyle, A.S.C. 

Soviet Working on New Stereoscopic 

Pictures 502 

By V. Solyev 


o 


ESTABLISHED 1920. Advertising Rates on applica- 
tion. Subscription: U. S., $2.60 a year; Canada, $3.50 
a year; Foreign $3.60 a year. Single copies, 25c ; 
back numbers, 30c. Foreign single copies, 36c ; back 
numbers, 40c. COPYRIGHT, 1937, by American 
Society of Cinematographers, Inc. 



The Staff 

EDITOR 
George Blaisdell 

WASHINGTON 
STAFF CORRESPONDENT 

Reed N. Haythorne, A. S. C. 

TECHNICAL EDITOR 
Emery Huse, A. S. C. 

ADVISORY 
EDITORIAL BOARD 

Victor Milner, A. S. C. 
James Van Trees, A. S. C. 
Fred W. Jackman, A. S. C. 
Farciot Edouart, A. S. C. 
Fred Gage, A. S. C. 
Dr. J. S. Watson, A. S. C. 
Dr. L. A. Jones, A. S. C. 
Dr. C. E. K. Mees, A. S. C. 
Dr. W. B. Rayton, A. S. C. 
Dr. Herbert Meyer, A. S. C. 
Dr. V. B. Sease, A. S. C. 

CIRCULATION MANAGER 
L. F. Graham 

NEW YORK REPRESE.NTATIVE 

S. R. Cowan. 19 East 47th SL. New York. 
Phone Plaza 3-0483. 

FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVE 
Georges Benoit, 100 Allee Franklin, 
Pavillions-sous-Bois, Seine, France. Tele- 
phone LeRaincy 13-19. 

AUSTRALIAN REPRESENTATIVE 
McGill’s, 179 Elizabeth Street. Melbourne, 
Australian and New Zealand agents. 

Neither the American Cinematographer nor 
the American Society of Cinematographers 
is responsible for statements made by au- 
thors. This magazine will not be respon- 
sible for unsolicited manuscripts. 


December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 491 

ANNUAL TOPICS INDEX 
Volume XVIII, 1937 


PROFESSIONAL 

A 

Advanced technique of lighting on 
Technicolor: 230. 

Agfa is settling in new building: 414. 

Agfa's fundamentally new type of 
infra-red film: 96. 

Agfa's new three color process: 50. 

Aid of foreign officials vital: 274. 

Air photography: 190. 

Arnold again heads Cinematogra- 

phers: 182. 

Arnold given gold life card by 

A.S.C.: 464. 

A.S.C. members on parade: 12; 56; 
98; 140; 184; 240; 286; 326; 370; 
416; 461; 502. 

A.S.C. moves into new home: 5. 

A.S.C. opens new home: 136. 

As midnight sounds: 177. 

Attacking the problem of color 
stills: 6. 

B 

Believe new camera makes eclipse 
find: 420. 

Bi-focal lens system for optical ef- 
fects: 10. 

Big scenes in Goldwyn's "Hurricane": 
498-9. 

Blue ribbon for R.K.O.: 180. 

By the sounding sea (editorial): 405. 

C 

Canty joins Universal: item, 192. 

Chemistry's work told by Morrison: 
285. 

Color: 6; 50; 186; 230; 234; 273; 315; 
372; 408. 

Color real advantage shooting steel 
mills: 500.^ 

Color student will find best guidance 
in nature: 315. 

Cooperation bulks big in work of 
Make-up: 496. 

Convention, A great: 228. 

Council may change projector aper- 
ture: 412. 

Crane goes with Charney: - item, 192. 

Cronjager, Edward, personality story: 
55. 

D 

Dallmeyer issues booklet: item, 195. 

Death of Ernest Cousin: 191. 

Developing: 142. 

Device for producing variable diffu- 
sion effects: 52. 

Dodd tells of new sun spot: 134. 

E 

Eastman announces production of 
quality dupe and negative: 323. 

Editorials: 5; 49; 89; 131; 177; 228; 
272 ; 315; 358; 405; 449. 

Effects: 10; 52; 96; 328. 

Engineers hold convention in New 
York: 456. 

Engineers hold Hollywood meet on 
May 24 to 28: 194. 

Engineers see pictures made at Uni- 
versal: 231. 

Equipment: 142; 188; 318; 320; 325; 

413. 

Erickson describes triple 5 spot: 238. 

Exposure: 360. 

F 

Film: 96; 323; 360. 

Film editing: 318; 360. 

Film is more valuable in television: 
450. 

Film exports gain ten million feet 
over previous year: item, 101. 

First movies really were ''stupen- 
dous": 196. 

Frost is on the punkin': 449. 

G 

Gaudlo, Tony, wins camera honors: 
139. 

Germans make gains: 377. 

Great convention, A: 228. 


H 

Hessercolor is all set to enter still 
market: 273. 

High screen efficiency reflector and 
background screen: 53. 

Hittin' the trail: 131. 

How color was made at last corona- 

tion: 186. 

How lighting units are developed 

today: 189. 

How one cinematographer secures va- 
riable diffusion: 328. 

I 

India's picture men faced by handi- 

caps: 276. 

Industry pays glowing tribute to 
Adolph Zukor: 49. 

Infra-red film: 96. 

J 

Jackman returns to business: 137. 

Jones develops focus shift for B-H 
camera: 188. 

Just breaking in: 89. 

K 

Keg-lite aims once started to run on 
its own: 454. 

Krasner, Milton, capitalizes availa- 
ble assets: 8. 

Kruse builds rental crane: item, 283. 

L 

Lens, bi-focal system for optical 
effects: 10. 

Lighting: 94; 134; 189; 230; 238; 278; 
319; 454. 

Lighting Shirley Temple: 94. 

Linolite brings use of variable den- 
sity: 413. 

Lloyd, Frank, hails men of camera: 
132. 

Looking at London cinematographic- 
all/: 50. 

M 

M.G.M. to make wide use of tone- 
tint merging: 372. 

"Michael Stroghoff" registers genu- 
ine triumph in technique: 101. 

Milner elected president of A.S.C.: 
406. 

Mitchell announces new sound re- 
corder: 138. 

Movie, The — Uncle Sam's international 
salesman: 182. 

N 

New Burroughs "Wellcome Diary" 
Out: 192. 

New film editing aid gives larger 
picture: 318. 

New Leica projector: item, 242. 

New office for National: item, 192. 

Newsreeling: 92. 

O 

One concern gets Brazilian business: 
369. 

P 

Perry, Harry, talks to pilots on air 
photography: 190. 

Pollock, Gordon, builds test lab: 
320. 

Precision lighting: 278. 

Printing: 6. 

Process engineering: 232. 

Producing shorts down in Tahiti: 9. 

Production effects with Agfa's new 
type infra-red film: 96. 

Projection: item, 242; 412. 

R 

Reaction on making his first color 
picture: 408. 

Recent developments in motion pic- 
ture lighting: 319. 

Reeves, Art, introduces all-purpose 
developer: 142. 

Reeves combines light tester and 
sensltometer: 282. 

Reflectors: 53. 

Research Council compiles bulletin 
on sound tracks: 415. 

River roll along: 92. 


Rolling camera locker guards cam- 
eras on set: 325. 

Roos, Len, comes to buy equipment: 
371. 

Rotary protects lenses in water 
scenes: 285. 

S 

Screens: 53. 

Shearer, Douglas, & M.G.M., hon- 

ored by Academy Board: 145. 

Shorts, producing down in Tahiti: 9. 

Some comment, some fact: 417. 

Sound: 138; 324; 415; 453. 

Sound recording quality improves: 
324. 

Stills, attacking the problem of 
color: 6. 

Stroghotf — triumph in technique: 101. 

Stumar directs Shaw: 179. 

T 

Technicolor brings new charm to 
screen, 234. 

Television, lighting, sound, color 
stand out at Engineers con- 
vention: 229. 

Television of today has long road 
to go: 280. 

Television will supplement but won't 
supplant: 322; 366. 

They make pictures in India: 90. 

Time payments here: 358. 

Tricks: 10. 

Two new films for duplicating work: 
360. 

W 

Walker, Mate & Marsh win critics' 
praise: 54. 

What 1937 has shown in technical 
progress: 493. 

What says the morn?: 272. 

Why "idO Men and a Girl" makes a 
hit on screen: 453. 

Write your own head: 315. 

X. Y, Z 

Zukor. Adolph, industry pays glow- 
ing tribute to: 49. 


AMATEUR 

A 

Advances Cineamateurs hail DuPont's 
new 16mm: 265. 

Aerial photography: 341, 484. 

Amateur Cameramen Make Winner: 
156. 

Amateur Club News: items, 34; 116; 
164; 221; 258; 394; 428. 

Amateur contest of 1936: 25. 

Amateur movie making: III; 162; 

218. 

Amateur-pro or pro-amateur is Ken- 
neth Forbes: 296. 

American concern gets bulk of Bra- 
zilian business: 438. 

Ampro's model L for all homes: 473. 

Automatic development has its ad- 
vantages: 435. 

B 

Background vs. foreground lighting: 
118. 

Being prepared is key to luck when 
on Safari: 208. 

Bell & Howell installs vaporate film 
treatment: 299. 

Bol, Cornelius, comes to rescue 
stand-ins: 124. 

Brooks is agent for '''Night Photog- 
raphy": item, 220. 

Build fastest sky camera to shoot 
eclipse: 252. 

Business man's show has charm: 382. 

C 

Cameras: item, 32; item, 83; 252. 

Camera should be instrument of illu- 
sion : 119. 

Camera speed change will help your 
shot: 304. 

Camera toting medico brings film a- 
plenty: 254. 


Cinematographers have language all 
their own: 76; 122. 

Cinematography in 8mm cameras aid 
in dentistry: 426. 

Cinning abroad at home; 167. 

Coaching an Olympic team with 

16mm: 1 12. 

Color: 31: 72; 298; 430; 484. _ 

Color in black and white films: 72. 

Columbia University sponsoring Lit- 
tle's International Salon: 251. 

Composition not so tough as is 
often claimed: 264. 

Conditions in Orient fine, declares 
Fisher: 307. 

Contest of 1936; 25. 

Continuity: 30; 386; 480. 

Cut, brothers, cut with care: 437. 

Cutting to balance atmosphere and 
action: 26. 

D 

Da-Llte has new method for glass 
beaded screens: 436. 

Demonstrate new Eastman projector: 
261. 

Developing: 344, 435. 

Diffused lightings make most natural 
color film: 298. 

Documentary film patterned from 
prize winner: 69. 

Dramatizing a cow proves good busi- 
ness: 30. 

Duncan MacD. Little inaugurates mo- 
tion picture program: 523. 

E 

Editing: 26. 

Effects: 70; 72; 144; 119; 218. 

Effects, Kodachrome light: 31. 

Equipment: item, 120; 299; 399; 429; 
435; 473. 

Exhibition of applied and scientific 
photography: item, 32. 

Exposure: 300, 304. 

F 

Family scenario of interiors for win- 
ter shooting: 28. 

Film: item, 82; 265; 388; 481; item, 
346; 481. 

Film dryer: item, 120. 

Filters: item, 32; 216. 

Ford designs mobile picture power 
truck: 522. 

Flying film.er tells of making air 
shots: 341. 

For best results plan vacations on 
budget basis: 256. 

G 

Gadgets: 306; 429. 

G-E announces new flash lamp: 166. 

Getting best out of your exposure 
meter: 300. 

Getting professional diffusion with 
amateur movie camera: 218. 

German cine statistics: item, 217. 

Gerstenkorn, Dr., shows film of rag- 
ing Yangtse: 483. 

Going places is this 8mm club of 
Los Angeles: 336. 

Great sensitivity in two Afga press 
films: 481. 

Gumbiner brings us 16mm sound 
camera: 399. 

H 

Half across world and back in 
color: 430. 

Here's the answer: 168; 210; 267; 302; 
476. 

Holiday moviemaking as newsman 
sees it: 480. 

Hollywood Forum has successful con- 
ference: 342. 

Honorable mention extended to ama- 
teurs: 73. 

Hortons give trophy to Los Angeles 
8mm: 348. 

How films aid in advertising: 439. 

How suggestion aids production: 338. 

How to aid in lighting homes for 
cine films: 474. 

How to get stills from movie frames: 
214. 


492 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


How to shoot Kodachrome light ef- 
fects: 31. 

How to trick titles: 212. 

I 

International meet set for April 6 
at Columbia: 340. 

International salon proposed by Lit- 
tle: 204. 

It won't be long now: 478. 

J 

Japan's year book is worthy publi- 
cation: 486. 

James, Rian, to South Seas a-gypsy- 
ing goes: 160. 

K 

King of Allah's garden: III. 

Kodaslide reproduces stills with great 
brilliance: 121. 

L 

Labs make advances in their han- 
dling of film: 344. 

Lamps: 166. 

Leavitt represents Univex in West: 
262. 

Lens: item, 32; Item, 120. 

Lighting: 31, 70; 94; 118; 124; 298; 
347; 474. 

Lighting Shirley Temple: 94. 

M 

Mac-Gurrin paintings on view: 345. 

Major gadgets galore on stream- 
line: 8; 306. 


Making cinema stars of amateurs: 
29. 

Making photos on metal: 311. 

Meters: item, 77. 

Moore, Grace, is keen filmer of inti- 
mate shots: 434. 

Moore, Kinney, is making third di- 
mensional film: 388. 

Musical mood and tempo for the 
1936 prize winners: 74. 

N 

Native films: item, 120. 

Nelson, Clifford, shows film at Roch- 
ester: 268. 

New Bausch & Lomb laboratory: 123. 

New Eastman sound projector dem- 
onstrated at Convention: 261. 

News of the movie clubs: 258, 308; 
479. 

No easy task to get results in titling 
film: 516. 

Notable honors for amateur produc- 
tion: 295. 

Notes of the movie clubs: 526. 

Now's the time to get busy on needed 
splicing: 530. 

O 

Oswald, 10 years old, going big in 8 
and 16mm: 266. 

P 

Patience keynote to prize pictures: 
70. 

Photo product may be bought on 
time: 384. 


Photographic annual will aid cam- 
erist: 487. 

Planning is +he basis of better vaca- 
tion films: 386. 

Poet-photographer, Ihe: 158. 

Printing: 344. 

Projection: 121; 261; 473. 

R 

Roper creates unit to push film sales: 
349. 

S 

San Franciscans hail Nelson's "Trail 
Song": 215. 

Santa stars in Christmas continuity: 
528. 

Scenarios: 28; 69; 477; 480. 

Sease, Dr., A.S.C., talks to Philadel- 
phians: 258. 

Shooting waterfront as Sherlock sees 
it: 515. 

Shorts: item, 82. 

16mm ideal medium for educational 
pictures: 346. 

16mm sound displacing 35mm in busi- 
ness way: 262. 

Sound: 74. 

Staten Island cinema: item, 222. 

Stills: 121; 214. 

Story of girl and dog: 477. 

Stuart, Ruth, wins triple recognition 
in 1936 contest: 25. 

T 

Tell it to the film say examining 
police: 395. 


Teorey, Sergeant, outstanding disci- 
ple of 8mm movie making: 
162. 

There's right filter for every film 
type: 216. 

Thomson takes out patents for mak- 
ing photo on metal: 311. 

Three-lens turret built for 8mm users: 
429. 

Titles: 212. 

Titles continue important part of 
silent film: 390. 

Transition: I 14. 

Travel: 160; 208; 254; 430; 483. 

Trick Shots: 70; 119; 338. 

Tripods: item, 120. 

U 

Uncle Sam busy lenser: 398. 

V 

Visual educationists meet: item, 217. 

W 

Wheels of industry: 32; 77; 120. 

When added scenes close up the. 
gaps: 431. 

Wide world supports Columbia moviee 
show: 472. 

Winter Inc. opens up to date store: 
525. 

X. Y, Z 

You just can't help doing these- 
transitlon things: 114. 


JUST BETWEEN TURKEYS 


TWO SIGNS OF THE TIMES 

T here are several attention com- 
pelling statements in the report 
of the Philadelphia Cinema Club for 
November as forwarded to us by B. N. 
Levene, chairman of the club’s publi- 
cations committee. 

Nearly all of the films, as attested 
by their titles, were based on out- 
door subjects. That is interesting. 

All of the films were in Koda- 
chrome. 

For the first time in the experience 
of this particular organization the 
8mm. contestants outnumbered those 
submitting 16mm. films. 

The second and third items are 
revelatory of the tendency of the 
times. There can be no question, in 
the Los Angeles area in any event, 
of the mounting use of color in ama- 
teur motion picture photography. 

The item regarding the outnumber- 
ing of the 16mm. by the 8mm. sub- 
jects is confirmatory of the recently 
expressed opinion of an executive of 
one of the gi eater equipment manu- 
facturers of the world, who declared 
his belief the 8mm. demand had 
grown to equal that of the 16mm. if 
it had not already exceeded it. 

The officer alluded to, who is in an 
exceptional position to estimate the 
present trend in the amateur field, 
expressed the view it is only a com- 
paratively short time when the 8mm. 
will outnumber the 16mm. in public 
demand to the extent of perhaps 50 
to 1. 

“Frankly,” he went on, “I firmly be- 
lieve it will in time reach a ratio of 
100 to 1 in favor of the more econom- 


By GEORGE BLAISDELL 

ical 8mm. as against the 16mm. The 
latter by no means will be discarded, 
but it looks to me as if it will be- 
come largely the screen medium of 
the semi-professional users and those 
who are not concerned what their film 
activities may cost them in dollars and 
cents.” 

It is not yet a week at this writing 
since the editor was discussing the 
same subject with one of the ener- 


The Front Cover 

T he picture on the front cover 
was exposed during the por- 
trayal of one of the more dramatic 
love scenes between Garbo and 
Charles Boyer in the making of 
MGM’s “Conquest.” Karl Freund, 
A.S.C., shown in the inset, was di- 
rector of photography. William 
H. Grimes photographed the still 
shown on the cover. 


getic and forward-looking members of 
the Los Angeles 8mm. Club. At that 
time the member promised to put his 
conclusions on paper for the benefit 
of the readers of this magazine. We 
have hopes the result will be received 
in time for printing in this issue. It 
is certain to be worth reading when 
it comes in. 

r 

SEE “THE BARRIER” 

Harry Sherman’s “Barrier,” which 
he produced for Paramount distribu- 
tion, will bring recollections to older 
picturegoers of the first of the thi-ee 
adaptations of this stirring Rex Beach 


story. It was made during the receiv- 
ership of “Pop” Lubin, the Philadel- 
phia film pioneer, and was one of the 
most successful subjects ever to come 
from that studio. It was released 
early in 1917. 

Twenty years have brought great 
changes in filmmaking. The first 
“Barrier” was directed by Edgar 
Lewis, one of the best of his time, 
now several years retired. For its 
period it made a greater mark than 
comparatively will the present one. 
It did that for the reason pretentious 
subjects were few and far between 
in 1917. They aie not in 1937. 

There are a number of factors that 
will make the Sherman adaptation 
notable. Almost in the first shot of 
the picture we are brought under the 
spell of the work of the photographers 
in their transference to the screen 
of the beauties of Mount Baker Na- 
tional Forest, the locale of the pio- 
duction. The result has all the color 
of the north and the charm of stream 
and forest. George Barnes, A.S.C., 
directed the photography. 

Leo Carrillo again demonstrates in 
the leading part of Poleon his mar- 
velous finesse in character delineation. 
He weighs his portrayals on extreme- 
ly sensitive scales. The pressure he 
applies or the pressure he omits 
seems always to be exact. 

And keeping closely behind this in- 
terpreter of the French - Canadian 
woodsman are Jean Parker, James 
Ellison, Robert Barrat (and especial- 
ly), Otto Kruger, Andy Clyde, and 
several others. 

“The Barrier” is strong and excel- 
lent entertainment. 


December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 493 


WHAT 1937 HAS SHOWN IN 
TECHNICAL PROGRESS IN 
MOTION PICTURE MAKING 


T he year 1937 has been for the motion picture industry one 
of peak production. As such, technical progress has been 
basically along lines tending to improve or expedite details, 
rather than in sweeping changes. Nevertheless, definite advances 
are noticeable in many directions, and in some fields — most not- 
ably, perhaps, that of raw film manufacture — sweeping advances 
are heralded for the immediate future, if not already announced. 

A very definite trend toward color has been noted, while last 
year’s trend of modernizing the equipment of studio camera de- 
partments has continued unabated. A radical change in the con- 
tractual relations between studios and sound equipment purveyors 
has been seen. 


The sub-standard field has grown 
enormously, with 16mm. taking on 
increased importance as a semi-pro- 
fessional and educational standard. 
The demand for 8mm. equipment has 
grown to such proportions that man- 
ufacturers have fallen behind in their 
orders even before the Christmas 
rush has started. 

Until shortly before this review 
was written production schedules and 
budgets had both been on the in- 
crease; in the opinions of some ex- 
perts somewhat too greatly in ad- 
vance of box office receipts. As this 
is written a trend toward produc- 
tion economy is noticeable, while the 
erstwhile despised program picture 
gains higher esteem. 

Methods 

The move toward color during the 
latter months of 1937 has taken on 
almost the aspect of a boom. Fol- 
lowing notable and progressive ad- 
vancements in the quality of natural 
color cinematography, and especially 
in the laboratory processing of color 
film and prints, several major pro- 
ducers, already committed to the pro- 
duction of one or several color fea- 
tures, increased their commitments, 
while others, including several stu- 
dios previously uninterested in or 
even opposed to color, have contract- 
ed for color features. Yet another 
major producer, Samuel Goldwyn, of 
United Artists, announced his future 
production would be entirely in color. 

Coincidentally with this, an in- 
creasing number of major studio con- 
tract directors of photography, pre- 
viously associated only with the pro- 
duction of important monochrome 
films, have been placed in charge of 
photographing natural color produc- 
tions. 


The success of these members of 
the A.S.C. in the still new artistic 
and technical field of color is and 
will be, if judged by such films as 
already have been released or pre- 
viewed, fully as great as had been 
forecast in these columns. It may 
well give color a further impetus. 

Trend to Color 

The trend toward color has also 
been evidenced in the revival of tint- 
ing and toning monochrome film by 
at least two studios. This has been 
done with greater artistic restraint 
than was known in the tint-and-tone 
work of silent days and, with the ad- 
vantage of today’s routined use of 
sensitometric control and machine 
operations, is technically vastly su- 
perior to previous uses of these proc- 
esses. 

The year has been marked by a 
lessening of the stream of foreign- 
bound Hollywood technicians. This 
has been due to a general tightening 
up of restrictions on imported talent 
in the various foreign producing cen- 
ters and to the improvement of native 
talent in many cases. 

Tighter economic regulations in 
several foreign countries, in combi- 
nation with wars and war scares in 
both Europe and Asia, have been 
seriously reflected on the receipts of 
American films. 

Raw Materials 

The much discussed establishment 
of a British Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 
production unit has become a fact, 
with the firm’s first British-American 
feature under way. R-K-0 is under- 
stood to have reached a somewhat 
similar arrangement with the British 
producer Herbert Wilcox. 


Two important new types of raw 
film material have come into general 
use. Chronologically the first is 
Agfa’s Type B infra-red sensitive 
film. This emulsion is in a way sim- 
ilar to the firm’s previous type inas- 
much as its sensitivity is such as to 
permit the use of filters far lighter 
than those previously employed for 
infra-red photography, giving a 
greatly increased effective speed. 

For Night Effects 

The new type, however, is charac- 
terized by a more normal contrast 
and gradation, permitting its use not 
only in background and atmospheric 
night effect scenes, but in filming 
night effects of normal action includ- 
ing close-ups of principal players. 
The use of this film for filming ex- 
terior night effects by daylight has 
become almost general. 

The second notable improvement 
is the introduction of Eastman’s two 
new duplicating films, which have 
revolutionized the creating of dupli- 
cate negatives. One of these emul- 
sions is for making the master du- 
plicating positive from which the 
dupe negative is printed; the other for 
making the duplicate negative itself. 

With them it is for the first time 
possible to get dupe negatives from 
which prints indistinguishable from 
prints from the original negative can 
be made. 

Aside from the obvious uses of 
these materials in special effects proc- 
esses they are capable of saving the 
studios notable sums in the making 
of foreign release prints and in ad- 
dition bring to foreign audiences 
identical photographic quality seen in 
American releases — a quality hereto- 
fore all too often lacking. 

New Agfa Negative 

As this is written Afga is preparing 
to make formal announcement of two 
new negative films, at least one of 
which has in some cases been used 
on actual major studio production. 

The first of these is trade named 
Supreme, and is reported to have a 
Weston speed rating of 64 to daylight 
and 40 to incandescent light, while 
retaining fine-grain characteristics 
equal or superior to the previous 
Superpan types. The second is known 
as Ultrapan, and is said to have a 


494 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


sensitivity still greater than this ex- 
ceptional speed. 

It is understood other manufactur- 
ers have similar super-speed emul- 
sions in preparation, so 1938 may 
confidently be forecast as a year of 
revolutionary changes in film, and 
consequently in lighting, processing 
and many allied techniques. 

In the sub-standard field the major 
reversal-type products have remained 
basically unchanged, but two new 
16mm. negative films have been put 
out. 

DuPont introduced an improved 
16mm. version of its familiar Su- 
perior panchromatic film, and Agfa, 
in addition to supplying the familiar 
Superpan emulsion on 16mm. stock, 
introduced a sub-standard version of 
the moderate speed, fine-grain Fino- 
pan already used for background and 
miniature camera photography. 

It may in this connection also be 
remarked that DuPont introduced a 
new emulsion of this type for mini- 
ature camera use under the name 
Parpan. 

Cameras 

Gevaert, already in the sub-stand- 
ard field in Europe, and in this coun- 
try as supplier of the pre-slit 8mm. 
film for the popular-priced Univex, 
entered the double-width 8mm. field 
with several films including a super- 
speed variety. 


No radical innovation in profes- 
sional motion picture cameras ap- 
peared. The trend toward modern- 
izing major studio camera equipment 
continued, however, with an increas- 
ing number of the self-blimped Mit- 
chell NC type cameras as well as new 
standard silenced cameras of the 
same manufacture going into service. 

The combination of an unexpected- 
ly increased demand with a shortage 
of high-grade optical products, both 
imported and domestic, has resulted 
in a nation-wide shortage of sub- 
standard — particularly 8mm. — cam- 
eras and projectors of all types. 

Accessories 

Some few foreign sub-standard 
equipments have appeared on the 
American market, and there are per- 
sistent rumors that at least one not- 
able European manufacturer of 
16mm. and 8mm. caiueras is shortly 
to erect an American factory. 

A new 16mm. sound-on-film single- 
system camera recorder, the Gum- 
biner Syncro-Sound, has been intro- 
duced. This is a semi-professional 
equipment, following essentially pro- 
fessional practice as regards size, 
general operation, and the like, but 
evidencing interesting innovations in 
the dual synchronized motor drive 
of the picture and sound movements 
of the film. 

Several interesting accessories to 


professional production have been 
developed. Among them may be 
mentioned a device for variable dif- 
fusion effects developed by Emil 
Oster, of the Columbia Studio. This 
consists of a simple mechanism for 
raising or lowering a gauze or other 
diffuser in front of a camera lens. 

The device is built into the blimp, 
and is controlled from the outside. 
John Arnold, A.S.C., developed a ro- 
tating screen to protect camera 
lenses from water and spray in film- 
ing rain and storm scenes. 

An outstanding accessory in the 
sub-standard field is the Harrison 
Colormeter, a direct development of 
the color balancing finder unit made 
by Harrison for the Dunningcolor 
camera and chronicled in these pages 
a year ago. 

A reading is obtained from the 
meter by visual inspection. This 
reading in turn governs the choice 
of the color correcting filter used to 
correct the color rendition of the 
scene to normal standards. The same 
firm marketed a set of matched filters 
for black-and-white cinematography, 
so coordinated that all filters have 
the same exposure factor. 

Filters 

No advancement in this field en- 
tered the realm of practical camera- 
work. Reports of a liquid lens of 
greatly increased transmission and 
virtually universal depth of field come 
from England, while at the Califor- 
nia Institute of Technology experi- 
ments with a new lens working at 
an aperture considerably greater 
than f:l are reported. Neither has 
as yet reached the commercial stage. 

Lighting 

The trend toward lower levels of 
illumination continues, and is height- 
ened by a marked trend toward light- 
ing almost exclusively with spot- 
lights. In the lighting of natural 
color productions, two definite and 
contradictory schools of thought are 
evident: one holds that the fact of 
color eliminates much of the need for 
high contrasts in illumination, while 
the other holds that the best results 
are had by lighting color with some- 
what greater contrast than would be 
the case in monochrome. 

Both are represented by capable 
artists and excellent films, leaving 
the true result in doubt pending fur- 
ther spread of color cinematography. 

The popularity of the more effi- 
cient Fresnel-lensed lighting units in- 
creases. The originators of these 
lamps as applied to cinematography, 
Mole-Richardson, Inc., have intro- 
duced two new units of the Solarspot 
type: a 1000-Watt unit and a 500- 
Watt “baby spot,” as well as a small 



Where the cameraman — just for a flash — has the laugh on the player: Bert Glennon, A. S. C., 
directing photography on Goldwyn’s “Hurricane,” cha Is Mary Astor, just after the player has 
donned dry garb, over her rough experiences in the breathtaking scenes of that man-made 
tempest the while the cinematographer looked on from behind the camera, quite high and 
comparatively dry. The player retorts by gently reminding him she saw him being photographed 
not so long before when not even a microscope would have revealed the trace of a smile on 
his face. The result of that picture Miss Astor saw in the making is reproduced on the 

opposite page. 


December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 495 



65-Ampere H. I. Arc spotlight em- 
bodying the same principles. 

Another firm, B'ardwell & McAlis- 
tei’, Inc., introduced a F'resnel-lensed 
2000-Watt unit known as the Keg- 
Lite, and a larger 24-inch unit known 
as the T\^pe T-5 studid spot in 
which a Fresnel type lens is com- 
bined with the conventional para- 
bolic mirror to give an even fiood, a 
fact unrealized before in the 24-inch 
lamp. This principle, which involves 
a differential movement between the 
globe and lens, can be applied to the 
modernization of existing reflecting 
24-inch spotlights. 

Lighting Technicolor 

Incandescent lighting units, using 
the over-volted Movieflood type of 
high color temperature incandescent 
filament globes in conjunction with 
special daylight-blue filters, have 
been officially approved and used suc- 
cessfully in Technicolor photography. 

In this connection, too, it may be 
said that with the availability of 
modern, Fresnel-lensed spotlighting 
units of adequate power, floodlight- 
ing units, and especially the overhead 
“scoops,” have been as completely 
eliminated from color cinematog- 
raphy as have comparable incan- 
descent floodlighting units from 
black-and-white cinematography. 

Two new types of flash globes for 
still photography have been devel- 
oped. One is an American version 
of the wire-filled Phillips globe, made 
here under the name Wabash. 

This globe uses fine hydrolanium 
wire instead of foil, and due to this 
claims a longer peak of higher ef- 
fective illumination. The other, a 
controlled mercury arc, was de- 
veloped by General Electric. This 
globe may be used repeatedly, and 
gives a fast flash of extreme bril- 
liance. 

Special-Process Cinematography 

Several of the users of the pro- 
jected background or transparency 
process have made important strides 
in illumination, thereby making pos- 
sible the use of notably larger back- 
ground screens. 

The same factor has made it pos- 
sible to employ the process more ex- 
tensively in natural color produc- 
tions, as will be noted from several 
current productions. 

An equipment for using this proc- 
ess in conjunction with stereopticon 
or lantern slide static background' has 
been made available to commercial 
photographers as well as to the in- 
dustry. 

As has been indicated, the latter 
months of this year have taken on 
the proportions of a boom in color 
production, with all but two of the 
major studios, as well as several im- 
portant independent producers for 


For explanation see caption under picture on opposite page. The score would seem to be even. 


such major releases, making one or 
more color features. 

All of these films are being made 
in one process — Technicoloi — while 
independent production of two-color 
features, so noticeable a year ago, 
has declined almost if not literally 
to the vanishing point. 

Three Color Trend 

At least one of these two-color proc- 
esses is, however, in the final stages 
of a transition to three-color, while 
several other promising three-color 
systems are under intensive develop- 
ment. 

Early in the year the Agfacolor 
process was described before the So- 


ciety of Motion Picture Engineers 
and in articles in this and other 
journals. 

It is a multiple-layer, selectively 
sensitized emulsion similar in piin- 
ciple to the familiar Kodachrome, 
from which it differs, however, in de- 
tail and especially in the fact that 
one of the dye-coupler components is 
latent in the emulsion itself, while 
the others are added in a single color 
developer bath subsequent to normal 
black-and-white reversal operations. 

This film is not as yet commercially 
available in this country, though it is 
marketed in Europe. 

The Dufaycolor process has cap- 

(Continued on Page 507) 



496 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


COOPERATION BULKS BIG 

IN WORK OF MAKE-UP 


By PERC WESTMORE 

Head of Make-Up Department, Warner Brothers — First National Studios 

(Abridged from an address given at the September meeting of the 
American Society of Cinematographers.) 


T he most important factors in 
the success of any kind of 
make-up work are thorough un- 
derstanding and cooperation between 
the cinematographer and the make-up 
artist. Each actually exists to help 
the other in the task of presenting 
interesting and convincing characters 
on the screen. 

If both keep this fact in mind, they 
can simplify each other’s work tre- 
mendously. If they are, as is too often 
the case, at swords’ points, the best 
efforts of neither can bring wholly 
satisfactory results. 

The reason I am here tonight is to 
try to encourage such a spirit of 
understanding. 

You gentlemen here realize that, 
apart from minor personal techniques, 
there is no real mystery about cine- 
matography. That idea went out of 
style with backward-turned caps. 
Speaking with equal frankness, there 
is no real mystery about make-up, 
either. The man who tries to shroud 
either cinematography or make-up 
with an aura of mystery is fooling no 
one but himself. He is not increasing 


the importance of his work, but tear- 
ing it down. 

MAKE-UP CHART 

stuA, Nam. 

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That is the big trouble with the 
“corrective” technique of make-up to- 
day. In some studios it is quite 
rightly regarded as the most impor- 
tant recent development in make-up, 
and used as a fixed part of the stu- 
dio’s routine. In other studios, it has 
seemed a failure. 

Cooperation Counts 

If you will look below the surface 
you will invariably find that the stu- 
dios using this technique successfully 
are those where genuine cooperation 
between make-up and cinematography 
exists, and that those in which it has 
not succeeded are those in which such 
cooperation does not exist. 

It has been charged that this meth- 
od of make-up attempts to light the 
players for the cinematographer. This 
is not true. No possible combination 
of make-up can take the place of the 
cinematographer’s lighting. But cor- 
rectly used, “corrective” make-up can 
supplement the cinematographer’s 
work, and make his problems easier. 

The whole system is built on the 
simple idea that concave areas in a 
face absorb more light than do con- 
vex areas. Conversely, a protruding 



area, since it is not physically shad- 
owed, will reflect more light than 
a hollow. 

The cinematographer’s method of 
dealing with these facial irregulari- 
ties is to project more light into hol- 
lows, and less on to protruding areas. 
Corrective make-up in its simplest 
form strives, with considerable suc- 
cess, to create artificial areas of high- 
light where more light is needed, and 
artificial shadows where less light is 
needed. 

Helping Cinematographer 

In other words, where we know the 
cinematographer would naturally need 
more light — as in a hollow under an 
eye, for example — we simply offset 
some of the natural absorption of 
light which causes the shadow by 
using a lighter shade of make-up for 
that particular spot; and where a 
natural bulge tells us the cinematog- 
rapher will want less light, to mini- 
mize the natural highlight from the 
rounded surface, we help the cine- 
matographer by using make-up of a 
tone darker — and therefore more light 
absorptive than that used on the sur- 
rounding features. 

If these corrections are actually 
made with light it is not always easy, 
or even possible, to confine the light 
to the relatively small area where it 
is needed. The surplus therefore 
“drains” off on to other parts of the 
face; sometimes on to areas where 
such added light might be likely to 
accentuate otherwise acceptable feat- 
ures unpleasantly. 

For instance, suppose a cinematog- 
rapher is adding light to smoothe out 
some hollows under the eyes, and the 
player in question has some inclina- 
tion toward a square jaw. The added 
light which would “paint out” the eye 
hollows would be very likely to exag- 
gerate the slight fullness of the jaw 
into a jowl. The make-up man can 
help the cinematographer with this 
problem. To begin with, he would 
treat the little concavities under the 
eyes with a lighter make-up, so that 
less light would be needed to blend 
them into the smooth area of the 
face. 

At the same time, he would apply a 
somewhat darker make-up to the 


How a corrective make-up is charted. The drawins shows the Make-up Department’s chart of 
Beverly Roberts’ corrective make-up. The photo shows the make-up applied, with the shaded 

and highlig-hted areas outlined. 



December, 1937 


American Cinematographer 497 


lower sides of the jaw, so that such 
added light as reached there would 
meet a more absorptive surface, and 
would not, therefore, reflect and give 
the impression of an overly prominent 
jaw. The reverse, of course, holds 
equally true. 

These corrective touches must be 
applied delicately or not at all. The 
start of the make-up is, as always, the 
application of a thin, smooth founda- 
tion of the desired shade of grease- 
paint. 

Thinner the Better 

The thinner this foundation is, the 
better. Then the desired highlights 
and shadows are carefully blended in, 
sometimes thinning the foundation at 
that point. This highlighting, inci- 
dentally, is a very delicate operation, 
and requires experienced judgment, 
especially when the highlight or 
shadow grease is applied over the 
existing foundation, for in thus put- 
ting one shade of grease-paint over 
another the result is virtually mixing 
the two shades of grease-paint, and 
tends to appear lighter than the dark- 
er tone added, in the case of shading, 
or darker than the light tone added, 
in the case of a highlight. 

The matter of blending these high- 
lights and shadows with the rest of 
the face is tremendously important. 
Probably the biggest single mistake 
often made in this is in doing it too 
obviously. 

The important thing is to blend 
the various shades together so per- 
fectly that the eye cannot perceive 
any line of demarcation between the 
normal foundation and the highlight 
or shadow. 

Once th make-up artist and the 
cinematographer have agreed on 
what is to be done we prepare a de- 
tailed chart of the make-up, as shown 
in the illustrations. This chart simply 
consists of an outline sketch of the 
face. Upon it we outline the areas 
to be shadowed or highlighted. 

Indicate Shade Number 

The cryptic numbers you see scat- 
tered about these various areas in- 
dicate the precise shade-number of 
grease paint to be used in that area. 
For instance, in the chart of Beverly 
Roberts’ make-up, we see that the 
base make-up is Arden’s No. 6. The 
highlights at the temples, along the 
ridge of the nose, under the inner 
edges of both eyes, and around the 
corners of the mouth are created with 
Arden’s No. 3 grease paint. 

The shadows which subdue the 
forehead and cheek bones, slim the 
sides of the nose and render the chin 
less prominent, are Arden’s No. 9 
The eye shadow is Factor’s No. 22, 
and the powder Factor’s No. 26. 

It will be noted we use the same 




MAKE-UP CHART 

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The drawing illustrates the way Paula Stone’s corrective make-up is planned. 
The photo shows how she looks in that make-up. 


number of powder overall, regardless 
of any shadowing or highlighting be- 
neath. The lip rouge is No. 390-A, 
the mascara brown, and the dry rouge 
the light shade. From this chart any 
competent make-up artist should be 
able to reproduce perfectly the orig- 
inal corrective make-up. 

The other illustration, which shows 
a make-up created for Paula Stone, 
the fundamental shades of make-up 
used are the same, but they are ap- 
plied differently. For instance, there 
was no need to subdue the cheek 
bones, so they used the regular foun- 
dation shade — No. 6. 

On the other hand, there is a slight 


natural concavity along the lines 
from the nose to the corners of the 
mouth, so they were highlighted with 
an application of No. 3 grease-paint. 

Just above the outer corners of the 
upper lip are slight convexities, which 
are toned down with the darker No. 
9 grease, while the lower corners of 
the jaw are subdued with shadows of 
the same shade. The eye shadow and 
pow’der are again F’actor’s Nos. 22 
and 26 respectively, but a brown 
make-up pencil is used and the lip 
rouge is Factor’s No. 22, while the 
mascara is black. 

Part II will be printed in an early 
issue. 


A. S. C MEMBERS 
ON PARADE 


• John Arnold, A.S.C., is well settled 
in his new camera department home 
at MGM. The quarters are on Stage 
17 and are spacious. The normal per- 
sonnel of eighty men had outgrowm 
their home of the last dozen years. 
They have a recreation room, and 
they are putting it to use. Now 
when they are between pictures for 
several hours they have some place 
to go but out. Yes, and they like it. 

The department has wider facili- 
ties for experimentation, whether in 
photographic or mechanical lines, 
than heretofore. 

T 

• Sidney C. Wagner, A.S.C., after 
five months in Africa with Twentieth- 
Fox’s “Stanley and Livingstone,” left 


late in November for Burmah with a 
camera crew of five and accompanied 
by a sound crew of three to work on 
a native subject with Merian Cooper. 
Director Ernest Schoedsack left in 
October with his party. The troupe 
expects to be away a year. 

T 

• Archie Stout, A.S.C., has been 
loaned by Samuel Goldwyn to Harold 
Lloyd to work on “Professor Beware,” 
a Paramount release. 

V 

• Leo Tover, A.S.C.. attacked by the 
flu, was compelled to release work 
on Paramount’s “Bluebeard’s Eighth 
Wife” and slip into bed. Charles 
Schoenbaum succeeded him. 

(Continued on Page 506) 


a 


498 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 



Striking Scenes 
From Goldwyn’s 
“The Hurricane” 

Director of Photography, 

Bert Glennon, A. S. C. 

Guy Coburn and Alex Kahle photo- 
graphed the stills. 


At left, above — Terangi and Marama 
decide to take a chance to outwit 
the fury of the waters by climbing 
a parau tree. 

Below — At left — Father Paul (Au- 
brey Smith) and Germaine de Laage 
(Mary Astor) tight their way to- 
ward the island church in the hope 
of finding refuge from the storm. 
At their right Terangi (Jon Hall), 
Marama (Dorothy Lamour) and Tita 
(Kuulei DeClercq), their child, sink 
their outrigger in order to preclude 
discovery. 


On opposite page — Top, South Sea 
Island feast. Bottom, left, Reri. 
who attained fame as the native 
heroine of “Tabu,” South Sea Island 
production of the late F. >V. 
Murnau and released in 1931 by 
Paramount, returns to the screen. 
Bottom, right, native girls congrat- 
ulate Marama, the bride, and adorn 
her with blossoms. 




i 


1 


If 

! 

1 


I 


I 




500 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


COLOR AN ADVANTAGE 
SHOOTING STEEL MILLS 

By CHARLES P. BOYLE, A.S.C. 


I HAVE just returned from mak- 
ing- a feature-length industrial 
film for the United States Steel 
Corporation, telling the story of steel 
from the mine to the finished prod- 
uct. Making any kind of a production 
on such a location is a difficult pho- 
tographic assignment: but this par- 
ticular film was photographed entirely 
in Technicolor! At first thought one 
might believe this would add greatly 
to the photographic problems of mak- 
ing the pictui'e, with but little to show 
in added visual effect. 

Actually, I am convinced the exact 
opposite was the case, for the color- 
helped us over some of our photo- 
graphic problems, and added very 
definitely to the visual effects on the 
screen. We could not have achieved 
so graphic a presentation of the steel 
industry had we been confined to 
black-arrd-w-hite. 

Anyone who has ever visited a big 
steel mill carries away wdth hinr mem- 
ories of huge, pitch-black buildings, 
highlighted here and there by the 
white-hot glow- of incandescent metal. 
Photographically it is a study in ab- 
solute extremes of dazzling white 
light and inky-black shadow. 

From the cinematographer’s viev-- 
point the problem is magnified by the 
incredibly huge areas to be presented 
in many shots. Buildings that will 


house a battery of half a dozen or a 
dozen rrrighty open hearth furnaces 
and the giant machinery used to 
charge them and to ladle off the mol- 
ten steel are just too vast to be de- 
scribed in words. 

Lighting 31ill Big Job 

All of this makes the matter of 
lighting any sort of a steel mill pic- 
ture a really big one. For either 
black-and-white or color, it is of 
course manifestly impossible to build 
up the lighting level to anything like 
equality with the incandescent glare 
of the molten metal. 

It is just as impossible to attempt 
to light up the whole huge area. These 
limitations are heightened w-hen you 
consider that working on such a loca- 
tion one is thousands of miles away 
from the great store of lighting- 
equipment we take for granted in 
Hollywood, and must do the job with 
a relatively limited supply of both 
lamps and power. 

Since we were shooting Technicolor 
we had the advantage of using the 
modern, high-pow-ered arc lighting 
units developed especially for Techni- 
color by Mole-Richardson. Our equip- 
ment consisted of a half dozen M-R 
Side Arcs, ten M-R Type 170 H.I. Arc 
150-Amp. spotlights, six M-R Type 90 
H.I. Arc 85-Amp. spotlights, and three 


of the little 65-Amp. H.I. Arcs. Our 
power supply was from one of 
Mole-Richardson’s new 175-Kw. gaso- 
line-electric generator trucks. Not 
particularly generous resources for 
lighting up hundreds of square feet 
of soot-covered blackness! 

Lighting the closer angles, of 
course, was no great problem. But in 
lighting the long shots we had to de- 
velop a technique of revealing what 
we could, and suggesting what we 
could not directly reveal. Suppose, for 
instance, that w-e were making a shot 
of a long battery of blast furnaces. 

Lamps in Groups 

We would plan things so that in the 
foreground we would have whatever 
action might be important, lit fully 
and naturally. For this we made 
especial use of the side arcs and some 
of the smaller spotlights. 

The other spotlights would be dis- 
tributed at intervals down the length 
of the building; not attempting to 
spread their light over the whole vast 
area, but concentrated in groups here 
and there, each group of lamps pick- 
ing out some important action, or 
creating a pictorially necessary high- 
light. 

At one point in the background one 
of the furnace doors might be ajar, 
creating another strong highlight. At 



I , f from a massive ladle, the foreground is normally lit, while open furnace doors in the 

distance lend depth to the shot 2. Making the hottest shot of “Men of Steel”: focusing the Technicolor camera on the interior of a huge 

electric furnace. (Photo courtesy United States Steel Corporation and Roland Reed Productions ) 




December, 1937 • 


American Cinematographer 501 


other points furnace doors might be 
opened intermittently in routine oper- 
ation, momentarily throwing the men 
working there into bold silhouette. At 
the extreme end of the building was 
an open door, through which the sun- 
light outside could be seen. 

Thus our long shots literally, 
showed the highlights of the scene, 
the details of which later could be 
shown more clearly in closer shots. 
From the purely photographic view- 
point this enabled us to make the 
shot, despite the huge area to be cov- 
ered and our relatively small supply 
of equipment. Actually, I feel this 
treatment, which suggests things 
rather than showing them literally, 
gives us a much better impression of 
size and depth than if we had lit up 
the area in the regular motion picture 
fashion. 

This same idea of suggesting things 
rather than showing them with bald 
literalness helped us out in solving 
the problem of photographing the 
various operations on glowing hot 
metal. Often we would make long 
shots of such operations carried out 
on a production line basis. 

White to Yellow 

In the distance, where its dazzling 
intensity would not be too overpower- 
ing, would be seen the start of the 
operation, on white-hot incandescent 
metal. As the operation moved down 
toward the camera the metal would 
grow cooler, so that by the time it 
reached the foreground of the shot, 
while still definitely glowing, it would 
no longer be a white-hot blaze utterly 
beyond the power of our lamps to 
balance. 

This, incidentally, gave us a very 
interesting pictorial effect. Oddly 
enough, while the metal’s color 
changes visibly as it cools, and this 
change is of course reproduced in 


color on the screen, the change does 
not seem disturbing or unnatural. 

In fact, it seems to add to the effect 
of the scene. At the far end the metal 
is obviously white-hot. As it cools in 
the working, and comes near the 
camera, the white heat fades to a yel- 
low glow, to orange and finally to a 
red; and in so doing, it makes it 
much easier for the audience to see 
just what is being done to shape the 
metal. 

There were, of course, some shots 
necessarily made at points where the 
metal was still white-hot. In these 
the primary illumination was often 
supplied by the metal itself. One 
might easily expect this to be a con- 
siderable problem in color, where the 
color of the lighting is of such im- 
portance. 

Actually, it was not; in some cases 
the metal was heated to a tempera- 
ture of as much as 5000 degrees 
Fahrenheit, which gave an excellent 
white light. In such scenes we often 
used neutral density filters to reduce 
the intensity of this incandescent 
glare to a point our equipment could 
handle, building up our lighting pro- 
portionately. 

In other scenes, where the metal 
was cooler, it ran through a variety 
of shades from orange to dull red. As 
it cooled, the light intensity lessened, 
so that instead of being something 
that actively competed with our light- 
ing, the metal became merely hot, 
glowing metal, and was shown as 
such on the screen. 

Strong Contrasts 

Here was one point where color was 
definitely superior to black-and-white 
for such a picture, for in monochrome, 
aside from the intensity of the metal’s 
glow, the camera can make no dis- 
tinction between white-hot and red- 
hot metal, and can thus give a very 


exaggerated impression of a scene. 
The contrasts between our illumi- 
nated areas and the necessarily jet- 
black surroundings also served to 
heighten the effects of color. The 
natural colors of the steelworkers and 
their clothes contrasted with the 
many-colored glow of the hot metals, 
and set in a frame of velvety black- 
ness made unusually effective color 
scenes out of shots which, in mono- 
chrome, might have been ordinary. 

It may be mentioned, too, that be- 
tween the lighting methods we used 
and the efficiency of the arcs with 
which we were equipped, we found the 
relatively few lamps we carried ample 
for our needs, even though some of 
our shots embraced as much as a full 
city block in depth. On several oc- 
casions our Type 170 H.I. Arcs pro- 
jected their beams effectively for well 
over a hundred feet. 

While this film, which is to be 
titled “Men of Steel,” is technically 
an industrial production, it is far dif- 
ferent from the general idea of an 
industrial film. Aside from the use 
of Technicolor, Roland Reed, who pro- 
duced the film for the United States 
Steel Corporation, has given it a pro- 
duction and budget worthy of a major- 
studio program film. 

Film Is Educational 

The production is not, actually, a 
selling or advertising film. Its pur- 
pose is primarily educational; it is in- 
tended to give the public a more 
truthful idea of the men who make 
steel, and what they do. As such, sev- 
eral versions are being prepared, 
ranging from a one-reel version for 
theatrical release up to a five-reel 
feature for educational use in schools 
and clubs. 

I have been told that several major 
studio executives who have viewed 

(Continued on Page 527) 



1. On the screen this massive steel ingot glows orange-red as it is rolled into thin sheets. 2. Arc lights illuminate a river of molten iron flowing 

into molds. (Photo courtesy United States Steel Corporation and Roland Reed Productions.) 




502 


American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


SOVIET WORKING IN NEW 
STEREOSCOPIC PICTURES 

Released Through Press and 
Publisher Literary Service 

By V. SOLYEV 


T he problem of stereoscopic, 
three-dimensional motion pic- 
ture projection is now being 
widely discussed in motion picture 
circles and research institutes of 
Moscow. 

The Scientific Research Institute of 
Motion Pictures and Photography, 
Nikfi, is now seriously engaged in 
perfecting the projection of motion 


pictures by anaglyph methods, by 
means of polarizing filters, “fan- 
shaped” screen and so on. 

Furthermore, interesting research 
is also being done in the three-dimen- 
sional reproduction of sound. 

Three-Dimensional Sounds 

Recently, the motion picture engi- 
neer P. G. Taguer, one of the pioneers 


of the sound film in the Soviet Union, 
published a report of his work on the 
attainment of spatial localization of 
the sounds heard by motion picture 
spectators in the auditorium of the 
theatre. The work was done in one 
of the laboratories of Nikfi in Mos- 
cow. 

Shorten Dialogue 

The static effect of the sound repro- 
duction in contrast to the dynamic 
effect of the action unfolding on the 
screen always disappoints the spec- 
tator who newly comes to the modern 
motion picture theatre. As the bore- 
dom caused by this is intensified 
when listening to long dialogues, it 
has even influenced scenario writing, 
forcing the script writer to shorten 
the dialogue. 

Even in scenes where the action 
is static the gross lack of spatial 
synchronism between the sound and 
the screen image strikes home to 
the spectator. He cannot focus both 
vision and hearing in that, let us say, 
corner of the screen where the film 
character is projected at a given 
moment. 

The character is in one corner while 
the sound is heard somewhere from 
the other side. Hence, the spectacle 
has a great deal less effective influ- 
ence on the spectator. 

How to Eliminate 

For these reasons it was decided 
that fundamental changes had to be 
made in sound projection, and con- 
sequently also in sound recording. 

How can this discrepancy between 
sound and action be eliminated ? 

This can be done by using two 
microphones, mounted both on the 
left and on the right side of the place 
of action instead of using on which 
records sound on a single sound- 
track. 

If the actor goes from left to right 
then the louder sounds of his steps 
will be received first by the left 
microphone and afterward by the 
right. 

Both sound films also will record 



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504 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


analogous diminishing and increasing 
loudness of sounds. In projection 
the left sound film should be repro- 
duced through a loud speaker mount- 
ed in the left half of the screen and 
the right sound film through a loud 
speaker on the right side. (See 
sketch). 

Then the spectator, seated in the 
theatre, is convinced that the sound 
of the steps of the moving character 
is actually transmitted simultaneous- 
ly with the movement of the person 
from one side to the other. 

If in addition to the two side micro- 
phones there would be a third in the 
interior of the set used for photo- 
graphing and also a corresponding 
third sound track as well as a third 
loud speaker situated for projection 
some distance behind the screen, then 


it appears possible to reproduce in 
sound also the depth of the motion 
picture spectacle — the convergence 
and recession of sounds in respect to 
the spectator. 

In this way the motion picture 
sound would be brought to correspond 
not only with modern two-dimensional 
but also with the future three-dimen- 
sional motion picture projection. 

Multiple Recording 

The whole question hinges on how 
to record two or even three sound 
tracks instead of one on a motion 
picture film. There are several solu- 
tions of this problem, arrived at by 
the most varied ways. But even if 
one had to use for the sound film a 
separate film from the one on which 
the image is photographed that would 
not be too great a price to pay for 


the attainment of a complete “stereo- 
scopic effect” in sound. 

Sound reproduction of this kind 
will become an urgent necessity in 
case three-dimensional motion picture 
projection is actually realized. 

Stereoscopic Spectacle 

Are there elements of stereoscopic 
vision in the motion picture theatres 
at present? Can we intensify these 
elements, preparing in this way for a 
complete shift to the building up of 
three-dimensional motion picture pro- 
jection ? 

Questions like these were raised 
recently at one of the scientific meet- 
ings on stereoscopic motion pictures, 
which are periodically arranged by 
the Scientific Society of Engineers 
and Technicians of Motion Pictures 
and Photography in Moscow. 

It appears that there are such ele- 
ments and that they can be intensified. 
A three-dimensional motion picture 
spectacle can be most frequently ob- 
served at present when a geographic 
landscape is shown. Landscapes are 
often photographed with a motion 
picture camera that is smoothly mov- 
ing as when mounted on an automo- 
bile or in the window of a railway 
coach. 

The depth and relief of image ob- 
tained is quite extraordinary, espe- 
cially if it be seen on a well-lighted 
screen in the preview auditorium of 
a motion picture studio. 

Stereoscopic Pair 

This phenomenon is explained by 
the fact that under these conditions 
every fifth or sixth frame forms a 
“stereoscopic pair” of images, such 
as we have for looking through the 
ordinary stereoscope, which gives 
fixed images. (In the stereoscope also 
there are two photographs taken from 
somewhat different angles of vision). 

Impressions from frames of film in 
dynamic movement do not vanish im- 
mediately from the perceiving eye. 
Moving dynamically, the first frame 
seen combines with the fifth or sixth, 
forming the stereoscopic pair sought 
for. By placing such frames in an 
ordinary stereoscope this can be dem- 
onstrated statically. 



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American Cinematographer 505 




Apart from the formation of such 
a pair of images there is an addi- 
tional general requirement which the 
stereoscopic frame must meet; that is, 
it must imitate as nearly as possible 
the normal conditions of human vision. 

Anything unnatural and unusual in 
the structure of the image hinders a 
living perception of it. The angle at 
which shadows fall, the width of the 
field of vision, the correctness of per- 
spective — the eye takes in all this in 
the determination of volume, and all 
this inevitably betrays anything arti- 
ficial in the structure of the object. 

Just recall with what certainty you 
determine where a photograph was 
taken; this in a theatre, that in a 
motion picture studio, but this one 
here, from life. 

Enlarging Vision 

The limit of naturalness in lighting, 
observance of perspective, width of 
the field of vision — these are essential 
factors which the cameraman must 
observe to obtain the maximum 
stereoscopic effect in motion picture 
projection. 

The field of vision will be enlarged 
to limits approximating the normal 
sensitive vision of man; whereas at 
present motion picture photographs 
are taken from an angle of vision 
embracing one-third to one-half the 
normal field of human vision. 

Stereoscopic effect is no less re- 
markable from the viewpoint of the 
spectator’s vision. 

Human vision grows feebler with 
age not only through the human eyes 
losing “f-value” and “focal adapta- 
tion,” but also through the loss of 
stereoscopic perception of objects. All 
becomes flat or two-dimensional as in 
the present-day motion picture screen. 
But the three-dimensional screen will 
be able to restore to any person the 


complete stereoscopic effect of youth- 
ful vision. 

The very proportions of the screen 
and the corresponding proportions of 
the motion picture frame should ap- 
proximate more closely the form of 
the human visual field, which is con- 
ditioned by the structure of the optic 
orbits. If this be roughly portrayed 
in rectangular form, then a figure is 
obtained where the sides are in a pro- 
portion of 1:2 and not 3:4 as is true 
of the modern frame of film. 

Stereoscopic Photographs 

In the motion picture section of the 
All-Union Inventors Society in Mos- 
cow they say: If you have strips of 
film which were photographed by a 


camera in smooth movement then you 
have an excellent collection of stereo- 
scopic photographs. 

The inventor, A. K. Kaufman, has 
assembled a whole collection of about 
150 pairs of frames, such as were 
just mentioned, and looks at them 
through an ordinary stereoscope. (In 
this the frames are looked at by 
transparency). 

In the course of this collecting 
observations were made on the pe- 
culiarities in human perception of a 
three-dimensional motion picture 
spectacle. These observations are 
quite interesting for workers of the 
stereoscopic motion picture. How lit- 


(Continued on Page 524) 


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506 American Cinematographer 


December, 1937 


A.S.C. Members on Parade 

(Continued from Pase 497) 

• Sol Halperin, A.S.C., a member of 
the African expedition of Twentieth- 
Fox’s “Stanley-Livingstone” produc- 
tion, on his return stopped off in Lon- 
don. There he was joined by Mrs. 
Halperin, following which the two 
toured the Continent. The Halperins 
are expected back in California early 
in December. 

T 

• George Meehan, A.S.C., of the Co- 
lumbia Studio, extracted his flannels 
from the moth balls and went to Can- 
ada with one of his studio’s units on 
picturemaking bent. 

▼ 

• M erritt Gerstad, A.S.C., has erected 
so pretentious a home on his large 


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valley acreage his associates decline 
to classify the combination as any- 
thing less in rank than an estate, par- 
ticularly those who have been per- 
mitted to see the new stables now un- 
der construction. All of which is quite 
all right with M. G. He admits he 
really is beginning to live. 

y 

• James Van Trees, A.S.C., and Ed- 
ward Blackburn, A.S.C., trekked north 
to the Rogue River early in November 
hunting steelheads. Both are in en- 
tire agreement the gamey tribe was 
running strong. That is undertand- 
able. What does sound at least a 
bit — er, strange, anyway, is that each 
insists the other caught the biggest 
one. 

▼ 

• John Boyle, A.S.C., recently re- 
turned from England after a stay of 
two and a half years, has been busy 
at the Columbia studio. 

T 

• Rude Mate, A.S.C., has returned to 
the West Coast following a visit to 
New York. 


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FORTUNE AND THE WARNERS 

T he magazine Fortune for Decem- 
ber devotes eight full pages of 
its ll^A by 14 inch size to the rise 
and methods of Warner Brothers by 
means of which it was enabled to 
register a profit of six million dollars 
last year. It is an intimate story and 
an interesting one. It begins at the 
beginning and comes right down to 
today. 

The magazine suggests the com- 
pany has larger gross assets (S177,- 
500,000) than any other motion pic- 
ture company. Of Harry Warner, the 
head of the company as well as of the 
family, it remarks that while he may 
not be as witty as Jack he is more 
surprising and his career is more en- 
tertaining than some of Jack’s movies. 
It quotes Abe Warner as regarding 
the company which produces sixty 
pictures a year for him to distribute 
as the Ford of the Movies — by which 
meaning its position in the low 
priced field and the profit riding in 
the volume rather than in an occa- 
sional “smash” hit. 

No one who has been a part of or 
even on the fringe of the picture busi- 
ness for any number of years can scan 
this tale of the brothers without find- 
ing a lot of meat in it. “The Warner 
Brothers trust few people outside 
their own camp,” it remarks casually, 
“but in each other they have the most 
implicit confidence. ‘Warner Brothers 
personally,’ as Harry once put it, ‘have 
always construed themselves as one.’ ” 


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December, 1937 


American Cinematographer 507 


What 1937 Has Shown 

(Continued from Page 495) 


tured a large part of the studio color 
still field. This material also is gen- 
erally available in most standard pro- 
fessional and amateur sizes of roll 
and cut film. 

In Europe some use of the process 
has been made for cinematography in 
35mm. as well as the amateur sizes 
of 16mm. and 9.5mm. Abroad, too, 
a special negative-positive version of 
the process has been introduced. 

In America, the Dufay Company, 
in addition to establishing labora- 
tories in several key cities for process- 
ing both professional and amateur 
color films, has established a central 
laboratory where both duplicate trans- 
parencies and paper prints from 
Dufay originals are made. 

Make-Up 

Notable improvements in make-up 
for natural-color photography have 
been evidenced with each succeeding 
color film. In addition a special lip 
make-up for use in filming night 
effects with the new infra-red film 
has been evolved. 

A new version of the familiar Movi- 
ola film-viewing machine was intro- 
duced. This added to the familiar 
Moviola direct-magnifying viewing a 
feature permitting projection of the 
picture, right side up and laterally 
coirect, on a 5 by 7 inch ground glass 
screen. 



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This new feature was obtained by 
adding an auxiliary lamp house which 
swings over the regular viewing lens, 
which then serves as a condenser, 
while the image is projected through 
an objective lens into a shadow box 
built into the machine and reflected 
upward from a spherical mirror to 
the ground glass. 

Sound Recording 

This year has seen a change in 
sound recording which would have 
been utterly inconceivable in the early 
days of sound. This is the greater 
contractual freedom now enjoyed by 
the studios. Regardless of the record- 
ing system regularly used by a studio 
it is now possible for a sound depart- 
ment head to employ any system for 
any individual production or sequence 
for which he may deem it superior. 
This has been done in several in- 
stances. 

Both RCA’s ultra-violet light re- 
cording (variable area) and Western 



Electric’s “Mirrophonic” push-pull re- 
cording systems have become vir- 
tually standard, though release prints 
as a rule carry conventional rather 
than push-pull tracks. 

The passing, for legal reasons, of 
the Western Electric subsidiary. Elec- 
trical Research Products (“ERPI”), 
must also be chronicled. 

Art Reeves introduced an ultra- 





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508 American Cinematographer 


December, 1937 


violet glow lamp known as the Lino- 
lite. This lamp, for variable-density 
recoiding, is constructed so that no 
physical slit is needed. The light 
source itself is of the requisite size 
and shape, and is imaged on the film 
as a fine line of light by optical re- 
duction alone. 

In addition to the advances in Tech- 
nicolor processing and the revival of 
toning and tinting as already noted, 
several important developments have 
occurred. 


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A new instrument combining the 
functions of sensitometer and light- 
tester has been developed by Art 
Reeves. This device, known as the 
Sensi-tester, times its exposures by 
means of a pendulum, and meters 
the light through fixed diaphragms 
from a common light source with 
such accuracy that it can be used 
interchangeably as a light tester and 
as a practical sensitometer. 

The same manufacturer has intro- 
duced a moderate sized developing 
machine which may be used for either 
negative or positive film without re- 
threading. 

Another laboratory achievement is 
that of two Hollywood firms — Stith- 
Noble, Inc., and the Dunning Process 
Company — both of which are suc- 
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It may be mentioned that in Europe 
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motion speed, $8 5. 

FILAIO 8 Aloc/el 1 ^ 4 -G. Lowest-priced 
Filmo, yet offers all the precision of the 
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Has an F 3.5 lens, a hand-set film footage 
dial. Only $5 5. With speeds to 64 (slow 
motion), $ 60 . 


FILMO JJ PROJECTOR 

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Filmo 8 mm. Projector $118 



Starting thirty years ago in the studios of the infant motion 
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around the world. Just as B & H professional equipment has 
always been the choice in film producing centers, Filmos are 
the preference of discriminating amateurs. 

The perfect gift for any movie maker is a Filmo Camera 
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AND CHRISTMAS NEVER COMES! 


^^EAR afteryear,many a movie-maker 
" has been thrilled at the opportu- 
nity of shooting Christmas sequences 
. . . and has been correspondingly 
dejected as he gazed on his results. 
For these people, Christmas never 
comes! 

“Oh, well” — they say, “can’t expect 
too much when you’re shooting in- 
doors!” 

And that’s where they 
are wrong ! 

Because . . . you can get indoor mov- 
ies today with just as much brilliance, 
depth and detail as you get in your 
outdoor shots ... if you load your 


camera with Agfa I6mm Fine-Grain 
Superpan Reversible Film. 

It’s an ideal film for indoor work 
because its unusual speed and sen- 
sitivity to all colors including red 
give your indoor shots greater depth, 
brilliance and detail. Its wide latitude 
tends to minimize errors in exposure, 
and its fine-grain emulsion and anti- 
halation coating allow large-size pro- 
jection without loss of sharpness and 
detail. 


A#;fa I6mm Fine-Grain Superpan Reversible 
Film is available in 100-foot rolls at S7.50. 
and in 50-foot rolls at S4.00, including proc- 
essing and return postage. 


MADE BY AGFA ANSCO CORPORATION IN BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK 


Tl 






December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 513 



BRIGHTNESS 


See the WESTON at all photographic dealers, or write 
for literature . . . Weston Electrical Instrument Cor- 
poration, 598 Frelinghuysen Avenue, Newark, N. J. 


EXPOSURE 01 
> METER ^ 


514 American Cinematographer 


December, 1937 




AMATEUR MOVIE 

SECTION 



SOCIETY 

OF AMATEUR 

CINEMATOGRAPHERS 


Contents.... 


Shooting Waterfront as Sherlock Does 

It 515 

By James A. Sherlock, S.A.C. 

No Easy Task to Get Results in Titling 

Film 516 

By Charles G. Clarke, A.S.C. 

Walter Bell Completes 8mm. Reversal 


Machine 519 

Here’s the Answer 520 


BOARD OF REVIEW 

Victor Milner, President, A.S.C., Director 
of Photography Paramount Studios, Acad- 
emy Award Winner 1935 

Karl Struss, A.S.C., Director of Photog- 
raphy Paramount Studios, Academy Award 
Winner 1928 

Fred W. Jackman, Treasurer American So- 
ciety of Cinematographers 

Dan Clark, A.S.C., Director of Photog- 
raphy Twentieth Century-Fox 

Tony Gaudio, A.S.C., Director of Photog- 
raphy Warner Brothers Studio, Academy 
Award Winner 1937 


Ford Designs Mobile Picture Power 


Truck 522 

Duncan MacD. Little Inaugurates Mo- 
tion Picture Program 523 


Winter Inc. Opens Up to Date Store. . . .525 

Notes of the Movie Clubs 526 

Santa Stars in Christmas Continuity. .528 

Now’s the Time to Get Busy on Needed 

Splicing 530 

By A. E. Gavin 


December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 515 


SHOOTING WATERFRONT 
AS SHERLOCK DOES IT 

Australian Has Had Abundant 
Experience with Kodachrome 


By JAMES A. SHERLOCK, S.A.C. 

Box 826G, G.P.O., Sydney, Australia 


F ogs, bridges, smoking tugs, 
cargo boats, coastal boats, dock- 
yards, ferries, overseas liners, 
sailing boats, wharves, pleasure boats, 
harbor lights . . . these are the things 
to film in a harbor picture. 

Early morning fogs can be com- 
menced half an hour before daylight 
if there is sufficient light. Your ex- 
posure meter and a fast lens will be 
necessary here. Take a trip on a 
ferry just before dawn on a foggy 
morning, include a C.U. of the look- 
out man on the ferry and shoot when 
you can dimly see such things as 
boats, harbor lights and wharves. As 
the fog commences to lift the sun can 
be seen struggling through the mist. 
Use a few feet of film here with the 
lens pointing straight at King Sol. 
You will get a pleasant surprise when 
you view your processed Kodachrome 
film. Finish this episode with some 
massed white cumulus clouds behind 
a bridge, wharf or quayside. This 
can be done any time the clouds hap- 
pen along, and it will then appear 
that they were the result of the fog. 
This subject in itself is sufficient for 
a whole picture . 


Bridges are best Kodachromed from 
the land about 200 yards back from one 
end and on the sunlit side. If the 
bridge does not open to let boats 
through wait till a boat goes under- 
neath before filming. If it does open 
shoot about eight feet of film show- 
ing the nearly opened bridge. It is 
not necessary to film the whole se- 
quence of opening. 

Tugs 

Then cut back to the boat, keeping 
this boat in the middle of the picture 
as it moves toward the opening of the 
bridge. When it arrives there stop 
panoraming. After the boat slips 
through, a few feet of the bridge 
closing should be added before the 
fade-out. It is not necessary to show 
the whole opening and closing process. 

Tugs look more businesslike when 
they are belching smoke, and the best 
shots are to be had aboard a tug that 
is helping berth a big ship. The crew 
of any boat will help a cameraman 
get his pictures, but he must keep out 
of their way when serious work com- 
mences. 

If you have your choice of tugs 


board the one that is to work on the 
bow of the ship. When the liner is 
sighted, erect your tripod in a posi- 
tion so that the hook to which the 
towline is to be attached is in full 
view. Then get a picture of the bow 
of the liner, its crew throwing the 
towrope over the side and follow this 
action till the rope is placed on the 
tug’s hook and takes a strain. 

Get some C.U.’s of the tug’s skip- 
per and his crew, the liner coming 
alongside the wharf, people waving 
and, lastly, the rope being knocked off 
the tug’s big hook. If you have a 
wide angle lens you will have plenty 
of use for it aboard a tug. 

Cargo and Fishing Boats 

Coastal, cargo and fishing boats are 
really the lifeblood of a harbor. They 
bring food to feed the city. Show 
these by scenes of unloading at their 
wharves, as well as all sorts, sizes 
and shapes of craft unloading casks, 
cases and barrels; the winch man at 
work and the cogs starting to move. 
Follow this through with a sling in 
the air till the load is landed on the 

(Continued on Page 532) 



Long shots may be made occasionally if a figure, tree or boat may be shown in the foreground. Photographed by James A. Sherlock, S. A. C. 


516 American Cinematographer • 


December, 1937 


NO EASY TASK TO GET 
RESULTS IN TITLING FILM 


By CHARLES G. CLARKE, A. S. C. 


A S winter days come around and 
picturemaking outside is cur- 
tailed, then the real days of 
making “pictures” inside begins. I do 
not mean the taking of interior scenes, 
but instead the important task of 
editing and titling the odds and ends 
of scenes made in previous years, 
editing and planning so that these 
scenes knit together until the final 
result is an entertaining picture. 

Unfortunately, this is no easy task, 
because there is yet no practical de- 
vice on the market to facilitate this 
important need. 

Printed titles are so costly as to be 
prohibitive to the majority of cine 
users, yet, that others may fully enjoy 
our films, titling must be done. 

Adequate explanations cannot be 
made to a group of chattering friends 
while the scenes are being screened, 
for usually the picture is gone before 
the commentator has an opportunity 
to get his word in. Besides, dates and 
even names are often forgotten after 
a few months have passed, and we 
fail to remember if it was in May or 
September that Baby took her first 
steps. 

Most important to the flow of the 
picture narrative is the “bridge” be- 
tween scenes that the title supplies. 


Instead of having a series of unre- 
lated scenes, the same scenes, care- 
fully arranged and titled, appear to 
have a continuity of story. 

Also, the sudden jar of different 
backgrounds and even unequal ex- 
posure is leveled when a title is 
placed between these contrasting 
scenes. Now that we agree that 
titling should be done, how can w'e 
best do it ? 

Uses Post Cards 

Most of my films are records of va- 
cation trips or of scenes made on “lo- 
cation” trips or of scenes made while 
on “location” in foreign lands. Keep- 
ing in mind how they would look as 
title backgrounds, I purchase post 
cards of the locality I have visited. 

These always aie horizontal views, 
as they fit the Bell and Howell title 
stand which I use. 

Being poor at hand lettering, it was 
a stroke of luck when I discovered 
that small gummed letters were pro- 
curable. These letters can be bought 
in handy boxed sets of every letter 
and symbol ordinarily needed. 

They are called “Wilson’s Gummed 
Letters and Figures” and are manu- 
factured by the Tablet and Ticket 
Company, 38 West Forty-fifth street. 


New York. They can be bought in 
most of the larger stationary stores 
in your city. 

Size “00” for lower case and size 
“0” for capitals are ideal for ordinary 
titles, while size No. 1 and No. 2 for 
main titles comiilete the assortment. 
The letters are cut from glazed white 
paper, and are leady to be stuck to 
the photo or post card. If the pictures 
are light colored or have white areas 
in them it is best lightly to spray a 
little black ink over them with a fine 
atomizer. 

Obviously, well colored cards are 
ideal when photographed in color and 
cut into Kodachrome films. In making 
opening titles it is often desirable to 
have the same background appear be- 
hind the series of main and credit 
titles. 

The titles dissolve over each other 
and the title and background fade-in 
and fade-out together. This can be 
done on any camera in the following 
manner: 

On every roll of film there are per- 
forated figures at the end of the 
safety-leader about five feet into the 
roll, marking the beginning of the 
exposable film. After loading the 
camera in the regular manner the 
lens is removed and the camera is 
run until the perforated figures ap- 
pear in the aperture. 

The counter is set at zero and the 
lens replaced to photograph the first 
title. As the camera runs, note the 
leading of the footage counter as you 
fade-in and fade-out. Let us suppose 
you have faded-in from 02 feet to 
04 feet and have faded-out at 06 feet 
to 08. 

Iris Attachments on Market 

The fades are made by starting 
with the iris diaphragm of the lens 
completely closed and is gradually 
opened until the correct stop is 
reached, or for a fade-out the reverse 
maneuver is done. There are “iris” 
attachments on the market with which 
the effect of the picture closing down 
in diminishing circles is obtained. 

Whichever of these methods, the 
camera is taken to a completely dark 
closet and the camera is opened, the 
film unthreaded and the exposed film 



Making titles with the gummed letters. 


December, 1937 


American Cinematographer 517 





Charles G. Clarke, A. S. C. 


wound back on to the unexposed roll, 
leader and all. 

Now the light may be turned on 
and the camera is reloaded, the lens 
removed, and again the leader is run 
through until the perforated figures 
appear in the aperture. The footage 
counter is again set at zero, and with 
the lens diaphragm closed the film is 
run up to two feet before the second 
title should begin to fade-in. 

In the above case that would be 
at 04 feet. The camera is set up be- 
fore the second title and, everything 
being in order, the camera is started. 
For a good dissolve it is best to over- 
lap the fade an extra foot, so on our 
second title we should start to open 
the diaphragm at 05 feet and be 
fully opened at 07 feet. 

This procedure is repeated for each 
title in the series, carefully noting 
the reading of the counter for each 
fade, being careful also to reset the 
counter after each reloading, and hav- 
ing the lens closed at all times except 
when actual exposure is being made. 

After the last title is made the 
picture background is then photo- 
graphed. Again the film is wound 
back on to the starting reel, and the 
counter reset at the starting posi- 
tion. The background should be 
darker when used behind titles so 
we should use a full stop smaller 
than that at which the lettering was 
photographed. 

Starting the camera, we begin to 
open the lens at 00, gradually opening 
until the correct stop is reached, the 


camera continuing to run until the 
fade-out of the last title, or preferably 
one foot longer, as the white letters 
linger through the exposure longer 
than the under exposed background. 
Adding the extra foot makes the 
lettering and background disappear 
together. 

White on Black 

For the procedure I have just de- 
scribed white letters are used on 
black cards, and a plain picture is 
used, except the light portions have 
been toned dcwn by spray or soft 
pencil. For trick introductory titles 
you can purchase a set of letters at 
the dime store, sold as “Anagram 
Sets.” 

Putting your stand in the vertical 
position, the letters are arranged so 
that the title is upside down to the 
camera. 

In this position, run the camera 
for sufficient footage to read the title, 
then begin sharply to tap the title 
rack, knocking the letters into gen- 
eral confusion. After the film is de- 
veloped and turned end for end you 
will find that the action is reversed 
and that on the screen the letters will 
maneuver into place in neat lines of 
the title matter. 

Perhaps you have wished you could 
expose your titles over backgrounds 
in action. This can be done with suit- 
able scenes from your library of films. 
Here again scenes should be avoided 
which contain white areas, or else 
the lines spaced so that they will not 
appear over such places. The first 
requisite is a frame to hold a small 


piece of ground glass in place of the 
regular title card frame. 

For my title stand, I bought an 
additional part, cut out the metal 
back, leaving only the frame to hold 
the fine ground glass which was cut 
to fit. Your projector is now set up 
so that it is in perfect line with the 
camera lens and center of the ground- 
glass. 

The selected scene is projected on 
the glass from the back, and is fo- 
cused from the camera side. As the 
shutters of the camera and projector 
will not open at the identical time 
if they are run in the ordinary man- 
ner, in order to have a uniform ex- 
posure it is necessary to obtain it in 
a roundabout manner. 

Projection Printing 

The camera has been loaded with 
film that has been previously exposed 
to the title of white letters on a 
black card. The first frame of the 
scene in the projector is set on the 
ground glass, and one frame in the 
camera is taken, using the trip re- 
lease. The hand knob of the projector 
is used to bring down the next frame 
of the scene, and a single frame pic- 
ture is taken of it. This maneuver is 
repeated, frame for frame, until the 
required amount of footage is ob- 
tained. 

As this is in effect projection print- 
ing, various uses may be put to this 
method for making dissolves, double 
exposures, split screens, etc. You may 
also project candid-camera scenes in 
black and white and color, and re- 
photograph them as title backgrounds. 



Gummed letter title on picture background ready for filming. 



518 American Cinematographer 


• December, 1937 



Rear projection for making titles with action backgrounds. 


and as summery in appearance as if 
it were August. 

I show a series of valley scenes and 
then jump up to Glacier Point in the 
grip of winter. Surely a contrast, 
but none the less a part of the record 
of Yosemite in Spring. To ease the 
jar I say: 

“THE VALLEY IS FREE FROM 
SNOW, BUT THE HIGHLANDS 
ARE STILL WINTER-LADEN.” Not 
an especially clever title, but the aud- 
ience is prepared for the white scene 
that follows. Endless examples will 
occur in your pictures where a title 
will preserve the continuity from the 
preceding scene to one totally differ- 
ent that follows. 

And by the way, writing titles is a 
liberal education in grammatical con- 
struction, punctuation and spelling. I 
surround myself with dictionary and 
Thesaurus and wish that I had been 
paying attention in school instead of 
doing whatever it is that boys do 
during class. 


Modernistic color effects in motion 
may be secured by reflecting prismatic 
bands and masses of colored light 
on the glass. Incidentally, I have 
built a small aquarium to fit the cut- 
out frame wherein are photographed 
tropical fish and natural history sub- 
jects in close-up. 

All the above are ideas for the spe- 
cial titles, but a subject full of this 
kind of title would not only be ex- 
pensive but unnecessary. As long as 
the subject matter remains along the 
same lines, I use a simple white letter 
on plain background title, using the 
picture background only at the be- 
ginning of new “chapters” where the 
locale, situation or time element 
changes. 

For the ordinary sub-title neatly 
spaced typewritten capital letters on 
white paper are the best and simplest 
I know. Using positive film which 
costs only seventy-five cents a hun- 
dred feet, the developed negative is 
cut into the picture, thus rendering 
white letters on a black background. 
When you use negative, the usual 
fade-in and fade-out will no longer 
work, as if made in the usual way, 
the negative will start from clear film 
and darken as the title appears. 

Of Titles No End 

Instead, you must hold a white 
card before the title, and as the cam- 
era runs, withdraw it, which produces 
a “wipe” effect. Slide the card over 
again for the “wipe” out. Of course 
there are endless variations of mak- 
ing titles, using block letters, cellu- 
loid letters on grooved boards, etc., 
but unless one has a “special” camera 
or a slide over attachment for align- 


ing the title, the results are uncertain. 
Now what to say on the title. That 
is a problem. Some are more clever 
than others, and for them it comes 
easy. For those less gifted the old 
rule “Simplicity is the watchword” 
is a good one to follow. The purpose 
of the title is to supply information 
that cannot be gained from just view- 
ing the scene, who persons are, when 
anything happened, why and what ax'e 
they doing it for. The interesting 
facts should be stated in as well 
chosen and as few words as possible. 
Remember how the National Geo- 
graphic captions its pictures ? Theirs 
is a good example, the views aptly 
but tersely explained, and usually 
with a sense of humor. 

Your audience appreciates being en- 
tertained, and dull, tiresome pictures 
can be brightened by sparkling nar- 
rative. Avoid being critical or too 
witty, however, for a joke once heard 
loses its attraction, and after run- 
ning it repeatedly we are ashamed of 
being its author. 

Conveying Mood 

Much can be done to convey the 
“mood” of the scene by the choice of 
wording. Some of the awesome, grip- 
ping grandeur of the Grand Canyon 
and Yellowstone can be conveyed to 
our audiences if we express that feel- 
ing in our titles. 

As an example of the ability of 
titles to smooth over the sudden 
jumps in scenes, may I tell you of a 
case I had today? I am titling some 
pictures taken in Yosemite last 
Spring. At that time the mountains 
were covered with snow, but the val- 
ley, being 3000 feet lower, was clear 


Agfa Issues New 35mm. 

Ultra-Speed Pan Film 

T hree times faster than regular 
high speed films of the “super” 
type heretofore supplied, a new 35mm. 
film, Ag’fa Ultra- Speed Panchromatic 
for miniature cameras, is now being 
manufactured by Agfa Ansco Corpo- 
ration in Binghamton, N. Y. 

Although improvements in film sen- 
sitivity have in the past been made a 
small amount at a time, the increase 
in light sensitivity of this new film is 
of such magnitude that exposures may 
be made with 1 V 2 lens stops less ex- 
posure than was formerly necessary. 
Combined with its phenomenal high 
speed, Agfa U.S. Pan film has excel- 
lent keeping qualities and wide lati- 
tude. 

Agfa Ultra - Speed Panchromatic 
will prove ideal for stage photog- 
raphy, candid camera work and other 
conditions requiring maximum film 
speed. The film is available in a 
new, reloadable type, 36 - exposure 
daylight-loading cartridge or spool. 
Also it will be supplied in a 15-ex- 
posure darkroom loading length for 
all 35mm. cameras; in 27 14 -foot and 
55-foot containers of film notched and 
tongued for easy division and dark- 
room loading in 36-exposure lengths, 
and in 100-foot lengths of unnotched 
film. 


Issues List 1137 

Willoughby’s, at 110 West Thirty- 
second Street, New York, has issued 
its Bargain List 1137, describing new, 
shopworn and used cameras, lenses 
and accessories for sale. Several hun- 
dreds of these are listed. 


I 




December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 519 


WALTER BELL COMPLETES 
8mm. REVERSAL MACHINE 


Mr. Bell demonstrated these features 
by deliberately stopping the film at 
the drying cabinet while the machine 
was still in motion, thus throwing 
a surplus of loose film in the machine. 

Immediately this slack would be 
transmitted through the machine to 
the feed-in reel, which would stop long 
enough to take it up, following which 
the tension again would be normal 
throughout the entire mechanism. 

The builder likewise demonstrated 
that by even putting excessive drag on 
the film at the feed-in end it would 
not tighten up the film in the machine 
at any point other than the first loop 
or so over the immediate rollers at 
the feed-in end. 

This machine, like previous 16mm. 
models he has built, drives the film 
by means of the bottom rollers. At 
no place throughout the entire ma- 
chine does the emulsion side of the 
film come in contact with any surface. 

The total thread-up is approx- 


At left, upper, showing the top rollers and 
main line drive shaft in the developing end 
of the machine. Lower, view shows five of 
the ten tiers of bottom rollers lifted from the 
developing tanks. 


At right, upper, showing front view of the dry- 
ing cabinet with glass doors removed. Lower, 
showing rollers which take finished film from 
dry box and take up reel that receives film. 


I N a recent article we described an 
automatic machine for the proc- 
essing of 16mm. reversible ama- 
teur film which was designed and built 
for a local laboratory. We have just 
had an opportunity to see in actual 
demonstration another machine built 
on the same principle, and by Walter 
W. Bell, the same man, but for use 
in processing stiaight 8mm. revers- 
ible film. 

This machine we predict will be the 


forerunner of many more machines 
that will take their place in the small 
and large laboratories of the country 
for the mechanical processing of this 
new and popular sized amateur film. 

The entire unit is compact, taking 
up a space less than ten feet in length 
by 15 inches in width. It is so con- 
structed that all accessories are an 
integral part of the machine and with 
the developing tanks and drying cab- 
inet are mounted on one frame. 

Due to the extreme narrow width 
of this type film it has been considered 
nearly an impossibility to design a 
machine that would handle this size 
film through all the solutions that are 
necessary for the reversing of ama- 
teur film without breakage, but appar- 
ently Designer Bell has overcome this 
stumbling block. 

At a demonstration given the editor 
it was shown the machine is fully 
capable of running film through with- 
out tension at any point and also 
that it is fully capable of compen- 
sating for automatic stretch and 
shrink to which the film is subjected 
during processing and drying. 

Builder Demonstrates 


imately 850 feet of film and the ma- 
chine will accomodate 2000 foot feed- 
in and receiving reels for the fin- 
ished film. It has a capacity com- 
pletely to process, polish and dry 1200 
feet of 8mm. film an hour and one or 
more machines can be operated by 
one man, since all the attention neces- 
sary is to change film reels every 2000 
feet, which may be done without in- 
terruption of operation. 

The entire mechanism in the devel- 


520 American Cinematographer 


December, 1937 




oping end is made of rust and acid 
proof stainless steel, while the dry- 
ing cabinet is of metal construction 
covered with three-ply veneer. All 
main frames and other metal parts 
are of Dural metal, while all drive 
shafts are carried on precision ball 
bearings. 

Air Conditioned 

The air conditioning unit for drying 
the film is directly connected to the 
drying cabinet and furnishes ample 
warm air to dry the film properly. 
Since the air is drawn through a spe- 
cial design of glass filters there can- 
not be any dust or dirt transmitted 
to the film during drying. 


In the developing end there are ten 
separate compartments or tanks to 
accommodate the various solutions as 
well as different washes that are 
necessary for the reversal process. 
The time in each of these solutions 
and the chemical process set up is 
such as to give the best results in the 
finished film. These standards have 
been set up after careful research and 
in cooperation with the manufactur- 
ers of 8mm. reversible film. 

Mr. Bell states that a machine of 
this capacity is well within the reach 
of even the smaller laboratories which 
now are finishing 8mm. reversible 
film by the hand method, and that the 


saving effected in labor, space and 
chemicals, to say nothing of the su- 
perior results in processing, should 
quickly pay the initial costs of the 
machine. 

Due to the extreme simplicity of 
this unit it can be put in operation 
immediately by any laboratory techni- 
cian, even without previous expe- 
rience in the operation of automatic 
developing equipment. The units are 
so designed that upon uncrating they 
can be in full operation within a few 
hours after receipt from the factory. 
The only work required to install is 
the connection of water, drain, warm 
air outlet, and electrical hook-ups. 



LAP DISSOLVES 

I have a 9.5mm. Coronet constant- 
speed camera. I find my pictures, 
when exhibited, seem monotonous, 
owing to the fact that it is impossible 
to bring about lap dissolves as in pro- 
fessional films. My interest in pro- 
fessional work has made me keen 
whenever possible to duplicate pro- 
fessional effects. Could you help me 
to do this?— H. D. D., Waverley, N. 
S.W., Australia. 

The 9.5mm. standard is virtually 
unknown in this country, so these 
suggestions must be based on experi- 
ence with 16mm. and 8mm. rather 
than with 9.5. Fundamentally, the 
real answer to your question is that 
you can’t get professional effects 
without professional equipment, or at 
least a semi-professional camera like 
the (16mm.) Cine-Kodak Special. 

Speaking practically, however, there 
are some ways of getting around the 
limitations of strictly amateur equip- 
ment to a greater or lesser extent, 
depending upon the capabilities of the 
equipment you use, and upon your 
own patience and skill. 

If, for instance, you use negative- 
positive film rather than reversal, 
you can make lap dissolves quite 
easily in the printer. This is of 
course done by overlapping a fade- 
out and a fade-in, usually by stop- 
ping the printer when the first scene 
has faded completely out, rewinding 
the positive to the point w^here the 
fade started, and then continuing to 
print from the negative of the second 
scene, beginning of course at the start 
of its fade -in. 

These fades can be made either in 
the camera or, after the negative is 
developed, by chemical means. The 
same technique applies to making 
“wipes” and similar transitions on 
the printer. This can be done with 
the aid of photographic mattes. 


There are also some ways of mak- 
ing lap dissolves on reversal film. 
Several 16mm. cameras either have 
or can be fitted wdth a hand-crank 
mechanism which permits winding 
back at least enough footage for a 
dissolve. 

There are at least two films in this 
country which have devised back- 
cranking attachments for 8mm. cam- 
eras as well. It is possible such a 
device might be built on to your 9.5; 
we cannot state this positively, of 
course, as we are not familiar with 
the camera. In such an event making 
lap dissolves would be simple. 

If your camera uses regular spools 
of film, or if you can open the charger 
or cassette to rewind the film in the 
darkroom, you can manage fair dis- 
solves by making the first scene and 
fading out normally. 

Then you may do one of two things: 
either rewind immediately or else 
place the lens cap on the lens and 
run through the footage that will be 
required for the second scene of the 
pair, after w'hich you can finish the 
roll normally, and then rewind either 
to a marked starting point before the 
start of your first scene or clear to 
the beginning of the roll. 

Now run off the film, with the lens 
tightly covered, until your footage 
dial tells you you have reached the 
point w'here you started to fade out 
on the first scene. Uncover your 
lens, and make the second scene, be- 
ginning of course with a fade-in. 

The chief difficulty of this proced- 
ure is of course synchronizing the tw’o 
fades that combine to make the lap. 
Rewinding to the start of the roll, 
and thereafter counting your footage 
from a marked frame which must be 
in the aperture, you should not have 
too much difficulty in this, provided 
your camera’s footage counter is rea- 
sonably accurate. 


Another method, which helps mini- 
mize errors introduced by the rather 
inaccurate footage counters with 
w'hich most sub-standard cameras are 
equipped, is to use a changing bag 
such as still photographers use. 

In this you can, before shooting 
the first scene, notch a starting mark 
in the edge of the film and then later, 
rewinding in the changing bag, bring 
the film back to that easily found 
mark, and work onward to your sec- 
ond scene. 

Much of the difficulty of rewinding 
is, of course, eliminated when using 
double-run 8mm. cameras, with which 
it is only necessary to run the film 
through the camera four times in- 
stead of twice, and to watch the foot- 
age dial very carefully. 

Such special effects scenes are easi- 
est if made at the start of either the 
first or the second run. Many 8mm. 
amateurs have by this method made 
not only lap dissolves but double and 
triple exposure trick shots. 

WJLLIAM STULL, A.S.C. 


German Film Attendance 

According to recent estimates, there 
are 46 million persons living in towms 
w’hich have motion picture theaters. 
Of these, excluding children under six 
years of age, 42.5 million are possible 
visitors to motion picture theaters, 
or 32 million, if those under 15 years 
and above 65 years are deducted. 

The seating capacity of all motion 
picture theaters amounts to 1.9 mil- 
lion. Taking into consideration that 
those cinemas playing daily give fif- 
teen shows a week, on the average, 
and that those cinemas which do not 
play every day average three shows a 
week, there is a yearly seating ca- 
pacity of 1,049,361,000. Actual at- 
tendance came to about 364,000,000 
during the last season. 


December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 521 



EASTMAX KODAK COMPANY, Rochester, X.Y. 







■■■ - 

..... .. 


Y Or know how nuich jiictiires mean. . . 

how interesting’ it would lie to start a 
movie diarv at Christmas. Some member 
of the family . . . some valued friend . . . could 

t, 

ask, and you could give, nothing finer than 
movies with Cine- Kodak. 

It need not be an expensive gift. It's 
getting started with a good camera that 
counts, and $84.50 will do the trick with 
C'ine-Kodak — the camera every one recog- 
nizes as the quality standard. And, teaming 
lip with Cine-Kodak for brilliant movies. 
Kodascope, the Eastman-made jirojector, 
offers the same wide selection — at prices 
from $^2(). 


All i'inv~Kinlalis maliv volor movivs 

There’s little to choose between the several Cine- 
Kodaks on the count of dependability. Xo corners 
are cut to meet a jirice. All are built to make good 
movies, simply. All take movies in full-color Koda- 
chrome as well as in l)lack-and-\vhite. Prices 
advance with “faster" lenses, greater versatility. 

So check your (’hristmas list against the eanieras 
shown at the right. More than a gift will change 
hands when you give a (’ine-Kodak this (’hristmas. 


('ine-Kodak K, 
16 mm., /.1. 9, 
$88.50 


( ane^Kodak 
Special, 16 mm., 
/. 1.9. Booklet 
on reqnewt 


iaiie-Ko<lak 
Kiphl, Model 60, 
/.1.9, $71.50 


('ine-Kodak E, 
16 mm.,/.3.5, 
$18.50 


Magazine Cine- 
Kcxlak, 16 mm., 
/.1. 9, $125.00 


(iine-Kodak 
Eifihl, Model 20, 
/.3.5, $:U.50. 
Model 25,/.2.T, 
$15.00 


II 


522 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


FORD DESIGNS MOBILE 
PICTURE POWER TRUCK 


A new mobile motion picture and 
photographic power truck, ca- 
pable of producing 40,000 watts 
of power for lighting purposes, 
has been developed and placed in 
service by the photographic depart- 
ment of the Ford Motor Company. 

Developed principally for motion 
picture or other camera work under 
adverse lighting conditions or for 
night work, the new unit carries com- 
plete power and lighting facilities for 
taking pictures or for projection work 
as well as with still cameras, motion 
picture cameras, sound projectors and 
sound amplifiers. 

In locations miles from electrical 
current the unit can provide adequate 
lighting power for making pictures 
or power for projecting moving pic- 
tures. 

Power is generated in a compart- 
ment housing a motor generator set 
consisting of a Lincoln-Zephyr V-12 
engine connected by direct drive to a 
40-kw generator at 115-volts. There 
is a governor control to keep a con- 
stant speed of 1800 rpm. 

Some of the many combinations 
possible with the new unit describe 
its flexibility. The unit crew can lun 
one 5,000-watt Klieg lamp 850 feet 
from the generator or a cluster of six 


5,000-watt Kliegs can be used 600 feet 
from the unit or a combination of six 
5,000-watt Kliegs, two 1500-watt 
floods and one 2,000-watt rifle and 
four banks of two each No. 4 photo 
flood lamps can be run 450 feet from 
the unit at approximate voltage of 
105-110. 

Plenty of Cables 

In the motor generator compart- 
ment are two cable drums for 200 
feet each of 4-wire of No. 8 heavy 
duty super-service cable (with two 
wires connected in parallel) to give 
greater electrical carrying capacity 
with less physical size. 

The drums are fed from the gen- 
erator’s distributing panel through an 
external female heavy duty plug, 
which connects to a male plug in- 
stalled inside of the drum, which is, 
in turn, connected to the terminated 
end of the cable on the drum. There 
is a safety belt which can be insert- 
ed to stop the drum from rotating 
after the desired length of cable is 
determined. 

Carried in the truck are two 100- 
foot and two 50-foot heavy duty feed- 
er cables to be used as extensions 
from the drum cables or can be used 
from any other source of electrical 


current in places where the truck can- 
not be used. 

A compartment installed under- 
neath the floor of the motor genera- 
tor compartment on each side of the 
truck is constructed as a drawer that 
can be pulled out for easy loading 
and unloading of coiled lateral cables 
consisting of fifteen 50-foot lengths 
of No. 12 super service cable. 

Internal swinging doors at the 
rear of the truck open into the com- 
partments housing the lateral dis- 
tributing boxes and cables. There is 
a two-inch wooden roll to permit fric- 
tionless loading and unloading of 
cable. A slot in both internal and ex- 
ternal doors permits taking cable 
out of compartment with doors closed 
in bad weather. 

Another compartment behind the 
cab of the truck houses motion pic- 
ture and associated equipment as well 
as photo-flood and photo-flash lamps, 
spare lamps for Kliegs, spare fuses, 
all electrical equipment, light reflec- 
tors and diffusers and “high-hat” tri- 
pods and sound projection equipment. 
This compartment carries all miscel- 
laneous equipment required for field 
work and can be used as a field dark 
room for emergency loading of plates 
and magazines. All compartments 
are accessible from both sides of the 
truck. 

Install Lamps on Rail 

On top of the truck is a two-inch 
wooden lattice platform for good tii- 
pod setting in any position. This is 
completely surrounded by a 114 -inch 
chrome pipe railing supported by ten 
standards which also are used for 
standards for Klieg lamps. In the 
motor generator compartment a rack 
carries Klieg light extensions so 
lamps can be installed in the railing 
standards by removing the knobs on 
the platform tip railing. 

These consist of four one-foot, three 
two-foot and two four-foot extensions. 
Klieg lamp tripods are carried on the 
top platform. 

A folding platform supported from 
the bumpers and fender supports in 
front of the truck is used for making 
camera shots when the truck is mov- 
ing. This is capable of holding a 
weight of 600 pounds. 

A water and dust proof compart- 
ment welded in one piece is situated 



(Continued on Page 521) 






December, 1937 • American Cinematographer 523 


LITTLE'S FILM EVENINGS 


HAVE AUSPICIOUS START 


To be Held Once Every Month Including 
May and Drawing on V/orld Material 


T he first two of a series of 
eight Motion Picture Evenings, 
sponsored by Duncan MacD. 
Little, have passed off with success. 
The dates of these were October 23 
and November 20. The showings 
were held at the Littles’ home, in 
33 West Sixty-seventh street. New 
York. At the first there was present 
an interested audience of ten or four- 
teen with the “staff” included. 

The second of the subscription eve- 
nings the attendance was larger than 
the first, with indications that before 
the end of the series the entertain- 
ments will be self-supporting and that 
among the features will be sound on 
film subjects. There are several on 
which Mr. Little has his discriminat- 
ing eye. The series for 1937-8 will 
close May 7. 

The programs are not restricted to 
amateur subjects, as an examination 
of the screenings will indicate. In 
fact, there seems to have been more 
from the professional side of the in- 
dustry than from the amateur. Los 
Angeles was represented on the ama- 
teur side the second evening by two 
contributions from Dr. Roy E. Ger- 
stenkorn, “Japan and Its People” and 


“Oriental Wonderland.” The latter is 
the story of a steamer trip 1600 miles 
up the Yangste, reviewed in last 
month’s issue of this magazine. 

Surely it will interest all lovers 
of motion pictures to examine the 
selections Mr. Little will make for 
screen material to entertain for two 
evenings, especially when it is borne 
in mind that for all practical purposes 
the product of the world in a film 
way is to be found in New York. 

Chaplin’s “Vagabond” 

The program for the first evening 
consisted of three subjects. They 
were “Historical New Jersey” (tw'o 
reels), by Frank Demarest of Hacken- 
sack, N. J.; “The Vagabond,” a 
Mutual production featuring Charlie 
Chaplin, and “The Lost World,” a 
First National picture from a story 
by A. Conan Doyle, and featuring 
Bessie Love, Lewis Stone, Lloyd 
Hughes and Wallace Beery. 

This old-timer of a dozen or more 
years past still carries interest and 
thrills and the model work, depicting 
the prehistoric monsters, is realistic 
and in many instances quite convinc- 
ing. 


As is usual with “Little Shows,” all 
films were set to music, and again 
an audience was amazed by the talent 
of Elfriede Boeiner, who had never 
before seen Demarest’s “Historical 
New Jersey,” and had but once 
viewed the two other pictures. 

“The Lost World” provided excel- 
lent opportunity to bring to use much 
of her beloved Wagnerian music, 
which undoubtedly heightened the in- 
terest of the film. 

The program ran true to schedule, 
for with five minutes between pic- 
tures, and a total of nine reels, the 
screening was ended and the lights 
“on” at just 11 o’clock. It was 
smoothly done; and as is the custom, 
when the end came, the only reel 
needing rewinding was that one just 
finished, and still on the projector. 

Two projectors were used and the 
music was provided by means of a 
cleverly concealed set up phonograph 
with double turnables and loud speak- 
ers concealed in the wainscote below 
the screen. 

Two Los Angeles Films 

After screening, refreshments were 
seived and general conversation en- 
sued. 

The program for the second evening 
was of six subjects and of wide vari- 
ety, ranging in period from the inaug- 
uration of President McKinley to 
scenes in Shanghai as late as last 
August and September. The program 
in detail consisted of: 

“Old Time Movies,” from the in- 
auguration of McKinley through 1914, 
a Castle Films release; “Swiss on 
White,” featuring Sonia Henie, dis- 
tributed by Nu-Art Filmco; “Japan 
and Its People,” made in 1936 by Dr. 
Roy E. Gerstenkorn, a Los Angeles 
amateur of note; “Oriental Wonder- 
land,” the gorges and rapids of the 
Yangtse, also made in 1936 by Dr. 
Gerstenkorn, this and the preceding 
film being exhibited by courtesy of the 
maker. 

“News Parade,” scenes in Shang- 
hai, photographed in August and Sep- 
tember, 1937, a Castle Films release; 
“Bill,” an adaptation of Anatole 
France’s “Crainquebill,” Independent 
production. 



524 Amekican Cinematographer • December, 1937 


Scheme of the production of stereoscopic sounds: A. Filming place in a studio. B. (a) Left 

microphone, (a') right microphone. Sound is recorded on separate sound tracks: (b) Left 

phonogram, (b') right phonogram, (c) screen in the cinema, (C) screen in the cinema, (c) left 
group of loud-speakers, (c') right group of loud speakers. Left sound film is reproduced through 
a left loud-speaker and right sound film through a right loud-speaker. 



background and the leaves in the 
foreground. 

Because the human eye is most 
accustomed to perception of space, it 
is most inclined to perceive an image 
as spatial, or three-dimensional. The 
eye itself is apt to be deceived and 
the task of the motion picture in- 
ventor is simply to find that threshold 
of perception, those new conditions 
which in their time were so happily 
discovered when the moving image of 
two-dimensional motion picutre pro- 
jection was invented. 

Kaufman has two frames photo- 
graphed with movement of a model 
mountain which was deliberately and 
carelessly made. And what do we 
get? When this pair is selected for 
showing the very best stereoscopic is 
obtained, an impression is so vivid, 
that the model seems to be some kind 
of colossal decoration, or mountain, 
anything except the modest structure 
which was erected on an ordinary 
chess board at the time the frames 
were photographed. 

What an abundance of interesting 
opportunities this unfolds before all 
forms of cinematography. 

Though many notable persons of 
history have been photographed for 
the motion pictures, they were not 
photographed specifically for stereo- 
scopic pictures. Yet if while being 
photographed they made but one 
smooth movement, their image could 
now be restored in relief. 

Finally, if you yourself were photo- 
graphed for motion pictures some time 
long ago, then by utilizing scraps of 
film of which you have growm tired 
you now have every opportunity to 
make a stereoscopic portrait of your- 
self in your youth. 


Soviet Working in New Stereoscopic Pictures 


(Continued 


tie is required for us to perceive a 
two-dimensional image as a three- 
dimensional one! 

It appears first of all that stereo- 
scopic pairs can be selected not only 
from among photographs taken with 
a camera in movement. Providing 
the general background photographed 
be more or less stationary, it is suf- 
ficient if any kind of object be mov- 
ing smoothly. 

In this case also the fifth or sixth 
frame produces a stereoscopic effect. 
Besides not only this object will ap- 
pear stereoscopic in effect, but the 
entire setting will very effectively 
dissolve into a number of perspective 
planes. 

Among the frames collected there 
is one pair which has the trade mark 
“Pathe System” on the edge of the 


Page 505) 


film outside the perforations. Film 
manufactured in pre-war days was 
given this trade mark. It is known 
that photography with movement did 
not exist in those days. 

Relief Formed 

This means that the photographs 
were taken in the usual way from a 
fixed position. When the photographs 
were taken there was no wind. If 
one frame be superimposed on the 
other, then the images of the leaves 
fully coincide with each other. Yet 
when looking at this pair of frames 
through a stereoscope, an excellent 
relief is formed. 

The whole secret is that the couple 
walking in the garden shifted slightly. 
This proved sufficient for the eye to 
perceive in three-dimensions not only 
the walking persons but also the 


Ford Designs Truck 

(Continued from Page 522 

under the equipment compartment for 
protection of expensive motion pic- 
ture tripods. If the generator is in 
use while the truck is in motion, a 
small door is opened to cool the gen- 
erator and keep it from becoming 
oveibeated. There is a locking device 
to keep the door open. The door can- 
not close to less than a seven-inch 
opening without disconnecting the ig- 
nition system and shutting down the 
motor-generator unit. 

The truck is built on a 157-inch 
standard Ford V-8 chassis with an 
aluminum and steel body hand-built 
in Ford shops. The truck fully loaded 
weighs approximately seven tons and 
has a speed of 55 to 60 miles an hour 
using standard truck transmission and 
rear axle. 


December, 1937 


American Cinematographer 525 




WINTER INC. OPENS 
UP TO DATE STORE 


D esigned along lines that best 
may cater to tourists as well as 
residents of a large center of 
population, a photographically mind- 
ed population, the new retail store of 
Winter Inc. has completed its first 
quarter in business. The enterprise 
has been a success from the start. 

Its location is in the business center 
of downtown Los Angeles, at 529 West 
Sixth street. The partners conducting 
the store are William J. Winter and 
H. W. Scarborough. Mr. Winter was 
for twelve years with the main East- 
man Kodak store in Los Angeles as 
assistant manager, having conducted 
a store of his own in Portland, Ore., 
prior to that. 

Mr. Scarborough has been in the 
photographic business for a half dozen 
years, in that period having had an 
unusually wide experience. His intro- 
duction to the craft was in the train- 
ing department of the Eastman Kodak 
Company in Rochester. From there he 
went to Pittsburgh and then to the 
San Diego fair. From there he was 
assigned to Los Angeles, where in the 
Hill street store he was associated 
with his present partner, Mr. Winter. 

Conveniences for Customers 
Several factors have contributed to 
the marked success of the new store. 
In the beginning the partners frankly 
confided their ambition was to estab- 
lish one of the finest photographic 
stores on the coast. Aside from their 
intention to install a full complement 
of still and motion picture equipment 
they planned to give their customers 
a “dated prints” service. 

In other words, it was the intention 


of the new comers to indicate on the 
back of every print the date on which 
the work on it was completed, so that 
in later years there would be no diffi- 
culty on the part of the customer in 
establishing practically the exact day 
on which he and perhaps his family 
were in a certain location. The plan 
has proved of real popularity. 

Other steps have been taken by the 
new company which may have real 
interest for those conducting photo- 
graphic stores. This is in the de- 
partment of dark rooms and projec- 
tion rooms. 

There are two model dark rooms, 
each 8 feet by 8. They are, as is the 
projection room, air conditioned and 
fully equipped in every detail — such 
a plant, in fact, as would be installed 
in a home by a man commanding 
sufficient means to procure what he 
wants. 

One is set up for still negatives, 
that is, from 214 to 314 up to post- 
card size. On the ledges, conveniently 
placed, are printers, enlargers, trays, 
etc., suitable for prints from these 
negatives. The second darkroom has 
equipment accommodating all the 
35mm. and miniature negatives and 
contains enlargers of various makes, 
developing tanks, trays and sponges. 

Both of these dark rooms have 
sinks with running water. The rooms 
are rented by the hour or day and also 
are used by the house for demonstra- 
tion and sales promotion. 

It may interest other dealers that 
while of course there is no way of 
tracing the amount of direct sales of 
extra equipment to these daik rooms 


the firm has a feeling approximately 
$1000 a month may be credited to the 
contact and the good will flowing from 
these two 8 by 8 foot rooms. 

Tourists have been particularly out- 
spoken in their appreciation of the 
conveniences provided by the plan. 
The results have not been restricted 
to the tourists. Possibly a dozen of 
the rooms have been installed in the 
homes of comfortably situated fol- 
lowers of amateur photography. 


Agfa Opens Florida Lab 

Amateur movie makers living in 
the Southeast, and the many visitors 
to Florida and Southeastern states 
this winter will be glad to know that 
faster processing of their amateur 
motion picture film has been made 
possible by the opening of an up-to- 
date processing laboratory at 121 
Julia Street, Jacksonville, Fla., by 
Agfa Ansco. This laboratory, the most 
recent addition to the group of proc- 
essing stations which service users of 
Agfa reversible motion picture film, 
has been constructed with great care 
to give rapid yet thorough service. 

One-day processing service will be 
given in Jacksonville on all Agfa 
16mm. and 8mm. Reversible Films. 


Propose Government Prizes 

Legislation has been proposed in 
the Argentine Chamber of Deputies 
which would establish permanent an- 
nual prizes, to be paid by the Govern- 
ment, for various types of Argentine 
pictures. The sponsor of the proposed 
law is Deputy Marcelino Buyan, who 
has stated that the selection of the 
best films should not be hampered in 
any way by censorship considerations. 

There is to be a first prize of 30,000 
pesos and a second prize of 15,000 
pesos for the best “outdoor” picture 
exhibiting the natural beauties of the 
country or customs of the people. 



^..QDjrsK.S ii 


Exterior of the new Sixth street store of Winter, Inc., in Los Angeles and a view of the store as seen upon entrance. Air-conditioned dark 

and projection rooms are in the rear. 



526 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


TlobLdu ihjL 71 /Idvul QlubA. 


Los Angeles 8mm 

Under the direction of Dr. F. R. 
Loscher, the meeting of the Los An- 
geles 8mm Club, held in the Audito- 
rium of Bell and Howell, 716 North 
La Brea, on November 10, 1937, passed 
into the history of the club as one of 
the most entertaining and important 
meetings of the year. 

Earl Bell, Dr. Charles I. Nedleman, 
R. M. Stern, H. M. Stilley, Miss Doris 
Lee, Jack Schenk, Claud T. Smith, 
Mrs. C. H. Taber, J. H. Brutsche and 
D. D. Layman were elected members 
of the organization. 

An announcement was made by 
President Loscher calling attention 
to the fact that tickets were avail- 
able to the third annual Club Banquet 
to be held at the Victor Hugo on Sat- 
urday night, December 11, and must 
be purchased on or before December 
9. Tickets are $1.50 a plate. 

The secretary was called on to 
read correspondence received from 
various points on queries regarding 
8mm equipment, proving that our 
club is known all over the world. 

Members were reminded the ban- 
quet held in December was also to 
take the form of our final contest of 
the year and members were urged 
to have a film ready by December 4 
for judging. 

Owing to the tremendous increase 
in membership of late. President 
Loscher announced the membership to 
the club would temporarily be closed. 

The surprise preview of the evening 
was next shown — a kodachrome pic- 
ture filmed by William Stull, A. S. C., 
honorary member, showing the vari- 
ous types of railroads. This picture, 
which is to be sent to England, proved 
to be of great interest. 

The 1937 annual nominating com- 
mittee having selected nominees for 
the various club offices for 1938, mem- 
bers were requested to cast their 
votes in the foyer during the inter- 
mission. After a check and double 
check by the voting committee, C. G. 
Cornell, chairman of the News Items 
of Interest Committee, was unani- 
mously elected as the new leader for 
the ensuing year. For vice president, 
Dr. Jack H. Taylor accepted the office 
and the ever important office of sec- 
retary is to be ably filled by Bion 
\ ogel. Bill Wade was selected for the 
trusted custodian of the treasury. 


Following the election we were 
privileged to view a 2000 foot picture 
of the British Isles filmed by a past 
president of the Los Angeles Cinema 
Club, Fred Champion. The film was 
illuminated by injected remarks over 
a microphone by Mr. Champion. Very 
few of the sights and pleasures were 
overlooked at the historical coro- 
nation or the rest of the trip, which 
took us to Scotland, England and 
France. We deemed it a special 
privilege to have been able to view 
this outstanding film. 

M. R. ARMSTRONG, Secretary. 


Cinema Club of the Oranges 

A T A special meeting held for the 
purpose, the Cinema Club of the 
Oranges screened the winning films of 
the New Jersey amateur motion pic- 
ture contest. This annual event is 


TO OUR ADVERTISERS 

T he AMERICAN CINEMA- 
TOGRAPHER announces 
that beginning with its January 
issue it will be increased in size 
from 8 by 11 inches less trim to 
9 by 12 inches less trim. 

The type columns will be 
lengthened to 10 inches. This 
of course will be exclusive of 
the usual 2 picas allotted to the 
running folio. 

The columns will be widened 
from 13 picas to 14 picas (2J/^ 
inches). 

The page width will be in- 
creased from 41 picas to 44 
picas (7 1/5 inches). 

We are convinced this in- 
crease to a more standard mag- 
azine size will give our adver- 
tisers, especially those using 
larger space, better opportunity 
to tell their story and at the 
same time in some instances 
will mean definite economy for 
them through avoidance of hav- 
ing made special plates to fit 
our columns. 

This is the first time in the 
seventeen years of its publica- 
tion The American Cinematog- 
rapher has changed the size of 
its page. 


sponsored jointly by the club and the 
Newark Sunday Call. 

The awards were: First, “Vacation 
by the Gallon,” William J. Murphy; 
second, “Six Gun Justice,” Vernon 
Lewis; third, “Giralda Galaxy,” Dr. 
Nelson W. Lockwood; honorable men- 
tions, “Nature’s Floral Symphony,” 
Ralph Perkinpine; “1500 Miles through 
Historyland,” H. E. Shannon. These 
constituted the projection program. 

Albert E. Sonn, president of the 
Newark Cinema League, representing 
the Newark Sunday Call, made the 
awards to the prize winners of $50, 
$20, and $10, respectively. 

All other films entered in the con- 
test will be screened and criticized at 
the November meeting of the club. 

The December meeting, or Ladies’ 
Night, will be held at the home of 
William T. Vanderlipp, club presi- 
dent. Selected films of members will 
be screened, followed by refreshments. 

At the annual election the follow- 
ing were chosen: President, William 
T. Vanderlipp; vice president, Warren 
E. Matthews; secretary, William J. 
Murphy; treasurer, Leo E. Leichter. 

Inquiries concerning membership 
should be made to the membership 
chairman. Dr. Nelson W. Lockwood, 
160 Prospect St., East Orange, N. J. 


Charles G. Clarke, A.S.C., 
Entertains Par Movie Club 

T he Paramount Movie Club held 
its November meeting in Projec- 
tion Room 7 on the 11th. President 
Corneal announced the rules of the 
coming club contest. The feature of 
the evening was the showing of 
16mm. films by Charles G. Clarke, 
A. S. C., both in black and white and 
in color, he had exposed in the Yel- 
lowstone, Yosemite and in Mexico. 

It was a return engagement on the 
part of the professional. As in the 
first instance, the entertainer em- 
ployed a musical accompaniment, 
which again added to the thorough 
enjoyment of the show. 

The Mexican film was of unusual 
quality in its revelation of the life 
and customs of the people of the coun- 
try. An example was the filming of 
a bull fight, in which the technique 
of the “sport,” or the approved rou- 
tine through which the participants 
proceeded in the killing of the bull, 


December, 1937 • 


American Cinematographer 527 


was explained and demonstrated in 
action and in titles. It was all of rare 
interest. 

One of the unnsual phases of the 
showing w'as the opportunity afforded 
to note the marked advance in the 
Kodachrome of today over its prede- 
cessor of but a comparatively short 
period ago — “about as fine as can be 
now,” as the cameraman expressed it. 


Indianapolis Will Hold 
Two Meetings Each Month 

Organized last summer, the Indian- 
apolis Amateur Movie Club moves 
into the fall season with a schedule 
of two meetings a month, the first 
and third Wednesday evenings. These 
are scheduled for the Claypool Hotel. 

The club’s announced purpose is 
“for the promotion and encourage- 
ment of amateur moviemaking 
through education, discussion and con- 
structive criticism.” 

The officers are John R. Fish, pres- 
ident; Dr. D. A. Musselman, vice- 
president, and Alfred F. Kaufman, 
secretary-treasurer. The directors are 
the foregoing and H. B. Durbin, 
James N. Genders, Bernard S. Gross, 
Chester W. Hutson, and Jack Mess- 
mer. 


Philadelphia Cinema Club 

T he November meeting of the 
Philadelphia Cinema Club was 
devoted entirely to a review of the 
members’ films offered in the vacation 
contest. The meeting was restricted 
to members only, 45 being present and 
voting. 

The new rating sheet was seen for 
the first time, and worked out ad- 
vantageously. In the order of awards 
the films and authors were: 

“Idle Days,” A. L. O. Rasch; “Grand 
Canyon,” George Pittman; “The Least 
of These,” R. W. Bugbee; “Hykes 
Hellions,” Mrs. Adelaide Hykes; “Au- 
tumn Painting,” Dr. B'owersox; “Lure 
of Northlands,” F'. N. Hirst; “Yosem- 
ite,” Dr. Hykes; “Autumn Gold,” the 
Rev. Mr. Vandenborch. 

It will be noted the great majority 
of the films as evidenced by their 
titles were based on outdoor color. 
All the films were in Kodachrome, 
and it so happens that for the first 
time there were more 8mm. ’s offered 
than 16mm. 

The film entitled “Hykes’ Hellions,” 
while in fourth position insofar as 
general averages w'ere concerned, was 
probably the best offered on the basis 
of actual story and the fact it w^as 
partly taken indoors and partly out- 
doors. The handling of the colors and 
the balance of colors was very well 
done in this film. 

The excellency of photography, the 
almost perfect settings, the handling 
of titles and the general excellence 


of cutting put the films in first, sec- 
ond and third place far above the 
others in these counts. 

The members present were really 
impressed at some of the grandeur 
that developed in these films. Com- 
pared with the efforts of the members 
when the club first started it is evi- 
dent much has been learned, and that 
there has been considerable develop- 
ment in the art of amateur photog- 
raphy. 

B. N. LEVENE, 

Chairman Publications Committee. 


Honolulu Club Growing 

The Honolulu 8mm. Movie Club is 
an established institution, having now 
been organized for three months. Vic- 
tor E. Clark, secretary-treasurer, re- 
ports that for the first two meetings 
about twenty persons attended. The 
other officers are Francis C. Williams, 
the prime mover of the enterprise, 
president, and Harry H. Hutchinson, 
vice presdient. 

Meetings are held the first and 
third Tuesdays of each month at 7:30 
p.m. in Central Y. M. C. A. 

Tourists visiting the islands who 
also are amateur photographers are 
invited to attend meetings and to 
w’l’ite the secretary through Box 2741, 
Honolulu, for information. Visitors 
possessing films that may be of inter- 


Color an Advantage 

Shooting Steel Mills 

(Continued from Page 501) 

some of the rushes of this film have 
become enthusiastic over the idea of 
making a dramatic film, also in color, 
of similar subject-matter. 

Such a film offers excellent possi- 
bilities for drama, even if strict truth- 
fulness requires the elimination of 
many of the stock conceptions of 
steelmaking and steelmakers which 
have been used so often in film fiction. 

Such a film, done in color, certainly 
would offer a cinematographer envi- 
able opportunities for pictorial effect. 
In that connection, too, there is the 
added advantage of working in color 
in Technicolor’s system of recording 
all details of how every shot is made. 

The data gained making our scenes 
would be at the disposal of any cine- 
matographer assigned to such a film 
in the future. With it, and with the 
reassurance of the standardized ef- 
ficiency of the modern arcs we used 
for Technicolor lighting, technical 
problems would be minimized, and the 
cinematographer could be free to con- 
centrate on bringing out the immense 
pictorial possibilities opened to him in 
filming this unusual subject in color. 


est to the members are invited to 
bring them along. 



Phantom of the Desert 

When an amateur photographer recorded better than he knew — in fact, he didn’t discover what 
he had until his original 2V4 by 3V4 was raised to 5 by 7. Then he saw the phantom, if a phan- 
tom may be seen, riding that cloud over Mojave Desert that November Sunday — a glorious 
view that had impelled him to stop his car and collect a pale imitation of it. The picture was 
taken from the highway south of Mojave. The phantom is just over Goldtown, the gold mining 
community near the desert town. By the aspect of that right eye its owner may have visited 
the miners’ camp the night before. Photographed and copyrighted 1937 by George Blaisdell. 



528 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 


SANTA STARS IN CHRISTMAS 

CONTINUITY 


P RACTICALLY all of us make 
Christmas movies. But most of 
them, after they’ve been shown a few 
times, grow as uninteresting as last 
week’s newsreel, and land on the 
shelf. The trouble is that most 
Christmas movies are, like newsreels, 
made as “spot news” subjects, and 
contain little to give them lasting ap- 
peal to audiences. 

That appeal can be put into them 
with surprising ease. Here, for ex- 
ample, is a simple continuity built to 
expand an average family’s Christmas 
news film into a story. These addi- 
tional scenes won’t add greatly to 
either the film footage or your filming 
problems, but they add a touch of 
story to your routine holiday scenes 
and embellish the result with camera 
trickery that will interest any audi- 
ence. 

Adapted to Family 

The exact details of the story are 
of course intended to be adapted to 
the individual requirements of the 
family creating the film, and many 
changes can be made without weaken- 


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ing the basic idea of making the holi- 
day film a photoplaylet. 

Main title; “Santa Comes to the 
Smith’s.” 

Sc. 1 — Close-up of calendar, reading 
“December 24.” 

Sc. 2 — Close-up of clock, pointing 
to 7 o’clock. 

Sc. 3 — Longshot of front door, 
from inside. The door opens and 
Father comes in. He carries several 
bundles, and is obviously very tired. 
He looks carefully around. 

Sc. 4 — Medium longshot of a hall 
door. Mother looks through, and nods. 

Sc. 5 — Night effect close shot of 
Junior, in bed and asleep. 

Sc. 6 — Same as Scene 3. Mother en- 
ters from beside the camera, and 
takes Father’s parcels, while he takes 
off his coat. 

Sc. 7 — Close-up of Father. He 
speaks. 

Title — “Just a cup of coffee while I 
rest a minute. Then I’ll decorate the 
tree.” 

Sc. 8 — Same as Scene 7. Father 
finishes speaking. 


In every step of 
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GOERZ PRECISION 

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CINEMATIC 

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cinematography. 


Address Dept. AC-12 


Sc. 9 — Longshot in living-room. 
Father enters, picks up the paper and 
sits down in a chair by the fireplace. 

Sc. 10 — Close shot of Father. His 
newspaper drops, and it is seen he is 
drifting off to sleep. 

Sc. 11 — Longshot of the fireplace. 
Father, asleep in his chair, is seen at 
one side. Suddenly, directly in front 
of the fireplace, Santa Claus appears. 

Sc. 12 — Close-up Santa. He looks 
around and sees Father. 

Sc. 13 — Close-up of Father, sound 
asleep. 

Sc. 14 — Same as Scene 12. Santa 
nods, smiles, and looks toward the 
other side of the room. 

Sc. 15 — Longshot of the place the 
Christmas tree is to stand. 

Sc. 16 — Medium shot of Santa. He 
reaches his hand toward the spot 
shown in the previous scene and 
makes a mystic pass. 

Sc. 17 — Same as Scene 15. Sudden- 
ly a Christmas tree, not decorated, 
appears. 

Sc. 18 — Longshot, from near tree. 
Father and Santa are in background. 
Santa walks toward the camera, ob- 
viously studying the tree to decide 
how it should be decorated. As he gets 
close to the camera he reaches for- 
ward and makes another mystic pass. 

Sc. 19 — Same as Scene 17. One by 
one the decorations suddenly appear 
on the tree. The scene continues until 
the Li'ee is about half decorated. 

Sc. 20 — Close shot of Mother’s feet 
approaching along the hall. 

Sc. 21 — Close shot of Santa. He 
looks up, hears the footsteps and dis- 
appears. 

Sc. 22 — L( igshot, past Father to- 
ward the door. Mother enters with a 
cup of coffee. She :•( es Father a.leep, 
and tiptoes to leave the cup on the 
table, then tiptoes out. 

Sc. 23 — Same as Scene 21. Santa 
suddenly reappears and turns back to 
his work. 

Sc. 24 — Same as Scene 19. The dec- 
orations continue to appear until the 
tree is completely decorated. 

Sc. 25 — Longshot of Santa. He eyes 
the tree approvingly. Then he reaches 
his hand out in midair, and in it sud- 
denly appears a well-filled sack of 
presents. He looks into it and sets it 
down. 

Sc. 26 — Medium close shot of the 
tree. The presents slide into the pic- 


C.P. GOERZ AMERICAN OPTICAL COMPANY 

317 EAST 54 th street: NEW YORK CITY 


December, 1937 


American Cinematographer 529 




ture and group themselves around the 
tree. 

Sc. 27 — Close-up of Santa. He 
beams, well satisfied with his work. 

Sc. 28 — Longshot, Santa walks past 
table toward the fireplace. He sees 
the cup of colfee, picks it up, and 
drinks it. Then he walks over to 
Father and makes another mystic 
pass. Father abruptly disappears. 

Sc. 29 — Night effect longshot in the 
family bedroom. Mother is already in 
bed and asleep. Suddenly Father ap- 
peals n his place in bed. 

Sc. 30 — Medium longshot of Santa. 
He drains the last bit of coffee and 
replaces the cup on the table. Then 
he turns toward the fireplace, and as 
he walks toward it, vanishes. FADE 
OUT. 

Sc. 30 — F’ADE IN. Close-up of 
alarm clock, pointing to 7 A. M. 

Sc. 31 — Fullshot of living-room 
door. Mother, Father, and Junior 
enter, stop, and all three look toward 
tree. 

Sc. 32 — Longshot of the Christmas 
tree, fully decorated and lighted. 

From this point, cut in your regular 
Christmas movie scenes, especially 
shots showing the family opening 
their presents. Junior has an electric 
train. 

If possible get several shots of 
him playing with it, to be intercut 
with close shots of Father looking 
wistfully at the train, as though he 
would like to piay with it. too. At 
the end of your regular Christmas 
news scenes carry on the continuity 
with : 

Sc. 33 — Close-up of alarm clock 
Ijointing to 7 or 8 P. M. This is a 
night-effect shot, and one of Junior’s 
presents should be be.side the clock. 

Sc. 34 — Longshot in the living 
room. Father and Mother are both 
sitting, reading. Father gets up and 
walks over- lo where the train is still 
la’d out. 

Sc. 35 — Medium close shot of the 
train layout. Fatehr squats on the 
floor and starts to play with the train. 

Sc. 36 — Longshot past the fireplace, 
with Father playing with the train in 
the background. Suddenly Santa ap- 
pears. He walks over to Father, and 
sits down. 

Sc. 37 — Close-up of Santa. He 
speaks to Father. 

Title — “Mind if I play too? I’ve 
always wanted to, but I’ve been so 
busy — !” 

Sc. 38 — Same as Scene 37. Santa 
finishes speaking. 

Sc. 39 — Twoshot, Father and Santa. 
Father nods absently, then turns 
with enthusiasm and points out some 
interesting action of the train. They 
both fall to playing happily. FADE 
OUT.— THE END. 

The various appearances and dis- 
appearances in these scenes will mys- 


tify most audiences, but they are 
very simple. It is only necessary to 
set the camera on a firm tripod, and 
shoot the scene quite normally up tc 
the time the person or thing is to 
ippear or vanish. 

Then stop the camera while the 
thing that is to appear is put in 
place, and then restart the camera 
and finish the scene normally. The 
camera must not move a fraction of 
an inch between these two parts of 
the shot, and of course everything in 
the scene must also be in identically 
the same place and position in both 
parts, so that there will be no slight- 
est “.I'ump” on the screen. 

In scenes where things appear or 
disappear while actors are in the 
scene it is necessary for the actor 
to “freeze” — hold himself motionless 
— while the apparition is put in place 
or removed, as the case may be. Some 
rehearsal of this is necessary, so that 
the actors can time themselves to be 
in easily held positions when the 
time comes to “freeze.” 

This is, of course, the way Santa 
picks his sack out of empty air. He 
simply reaches out his arm and 
“freezes.” Then the sack is put in 
his hand, and camera and action con- 
tinue to finish the scene normally. 

Modified Stop Motion 

Making the tree decorate itself is 
done in much the same way, by a 
modified stop-motion. Expost a few 
frames of the undecorated tree. Then 
stop the camera and put the first or- 
nament in place. Take a few more 
frames, stop, put in the next orna- 
ment, expose some more, and so on. 
Obviously, a tripod is necessary, but 
otherwise these tricks are simple. 

If you happen to own a camera 
equipped to wind back for lap dis- 
solves you can add finesse to your 
appearances and vanishings. You 
shoot the scene quite normally up to 
a point just a bit before the appear- 
ance. Then fade out. 

Next, wind the film back to the 
point where you started the fade, 
just as in any lap dissolve. Put the 
person who is to appear in place and 
finish your scene, fading in. This 


way, as you probably have seen in 
such films as “Topper,” the person 
slowly fades in (or out) while the 
rest of the scene remains unchanged. 

Santa, appearing this way, would 
for instance begin as a very shadowy 
wraith, through which the fireplace 
could be clearly seen. Quickly his 
body would gather solidity, until fin- 
ally he appeared quite normal. 

These tricks are all simple, and, 
with the exception of lap-dissolved ap- 
pearances, can be done with any cam- 
era. If they are well done, they will 
mystify non-technical audiences, and 
interest every audience. And how the 
children will enjoy them! 


Germany Wants Features 

According to the latest estimate of 
the Institute for Business Research 
Germany’s requirements for long fea- 
ture films amount to 200-220 annual- 
ly. For the current season, 180-200 
long feature films are available, on 
the basis of announcements up to this 
time. 

Apparently Germany will again be 
short of long feature films in the 
1937-38 season. 


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530 American Cinematographer • December, 1937 



NOW'S THE TIME TO GET 
BUSY ON YOUR SPLICING 

Sales Executive Explains How 
Best to Master Hooking 'Em Up 

By A. E. GAVIN 


T he long winter evenings ahead 
present an opportunity for 
most moviemakers to catch up 
on their editing and splicing and to 
add that editorial touch so necessary 
to the success of all home movies. 
Your films are really never complete 
until they are carefully edited and 
titled and the assortment of “shots” 
or scenes spliced together on one or 
more master reels. 

With the ranks of home movie 
makers greatly increased during the 
past year, many have yet to purchase 
their splicing and editing equipment. 
If you are one of these embryo movie- 
makers you may be interested in a 
few pointers regarding splicers and 
their use. 

Your selection of a splicer will, 
naturally, depend upon the amount 
you wish to invest, but for the aver- 
age amateur, there are two or three 
low-priced splicers on the market that 
give excellent results. The splicer 
you select should enable you to make 
splices with accuracy and a minimum 
of operations. 

The emulsion removing tool should 
be easy to use and positive in results. 
The “dry” type scraper, which elim- 
inates need for moistening the film, 
will prepare a better bonding area 
and prevent damaging adjoining film 
area as is so often the case where 
water is applied to film before scrap- 
ing. 

One of the newest, and perhaps one 
of the simplest, cine film splicers is 

1. W'ith emulsion or dull side up, place both 
sections of film on splicer over the guide and 
tension pins so that ends to be cut extend over 
the trimming edges. Clamp down left pressure 
bar. 

2. Depress cutting blade, trimming both ends 
of film accurately in one operation. Leave cut- 
ting blade in lowered position until after splice 
is completed ! 

3. Remove emulsion from protruding end of 
left film section with a few strokes of dry 
scraper. No need to moisten film. Make sure 
to remove all trace of emulsion to insure a 
permanent splice. 

I. Raise right film section from pins and move 
to left one frame or until it overlaps area 
and, holding up overlapping end, apply ce- 
ment to scraped area and clamp down right 
pressure bar. 

5. Release both pressure bars after about 
thirty seconds; remove film from splicer and 
proceed with next splice. 

Process of splicing 8mm or 16mm film with 
particular device described, beginning at top. 


the Seeniann, moderately priced and 
capable of splicing accurately and 
securely either 8mm or 16mm film. 

Special features consist of a dry 
scraper — particularly efficient on the 
heavier and more tenacious color 
emulsions, spring tension pins for 
holding film in place, and new style 
square cement bottle, with improved 
applicator, set into splicer base where 
it cannot rotate nor overturn. 

Have Your Kewinds 

Besides your splicer you also should 
have a pair of film rewinds for spool- 
ing your film as you splice. Some 
amateurs use their projector for hold- 
ing reels while splicing, but such an 
arrangement does not provide the easy 
winding facilities of regular rewinds. 

In splicing your films, it is advisable 
to work with the spliced sections at 
your left, moving the film from right 
to left as each splice is completed. 

In working with the Seemann both 
sections of film to be spliced are 
placed on the device with the emul- 
sion or “dull” side up, so that the 
ends to be cut are over the trimming 
edges. The clamp is snapped in place 
to hold film over pins and to provide 
guide for emulsion scraper. 

Cutting blade is then depressed to 
trim both sections of film at one op- 
eration. The emulsion is next removed 
by a few strokes of the dry sciaper. 

The right section of film is then 
moved to the left until it overlaps 
the scraped area and, holding up the 
overlapping end, cement is applied to 
the scraped area and the right pres- 
sure bar clamped in place to complete 
the splice. The pressure bars are 
left in clamped position for about 
thirty seconds to allow film cement 
to dry. 

It’s as simple as all that! In fact, 
its really fun. And after you’ve once 
accustomed yourself to the use of 
your splicer you will never again leave 
those fifty and one hundred foot rolls 
of film lying around un-edited! 

Slow Drying Best 

Some beginners often make the 
mistake of applying too much cement 
to their splices, resulting in an untidy 
splice which hampers smooth projec- 


I 

i 


t 

f 


rj 


■I 


{ 

,1 




II I 


December, 1937 • 


American Cinematographer 531 


tion. Also, too much cement has a 
tendency to dissolve and weaken the 
film at the splice, ultimately causing 
it to break during projection. A 
neater and more durable splice will re- 
sult if a moderate amount of cement 
is used. When pressure is applied, the 
cement will spread over bonding area 
as required. 

As many of the film cements on the 
market vary in formula they natu- 
rally give different results. Some dry 
more rapidly than others. For the 
average beginner, the slow drying ce- 
ment is best, for it enables him to 
obtain better results due to its slower 
but more permanent curing quality. 

Should your splices fail to hold, it 
may be due to one or more of the 
following causes; Oily or dirty film; 
bonding area not thoroughly cleaned 
of emulsion; too much cement; in- 
sufficient time allowed for cement to 
dry. 

It is advisable to experiment with 
a few pieces of scrap film before 
commencing to splice your valuable 
films in order that you may acquaint 
yourself with operation of your 
splicer. Practice trimming film and 
removing emulsion as well as apply- 
ing cement in just the right quantity. 

To prevent marring your film with 
fingermarks it is advisable to wear a 
pair of cheap white light-weight cot- 
ton gloves, obtainable at most any 
department store. 

When your splicing is completed 
and your newly edited film projected, 
you will agree that careful editing 
and splicing are equally important 
as any other phase of home movie- 
making. 

T 

San Francisco Cinema 

O UR next regular meeting will be 
held Tuesday night, Nov. 30, at 
the California Camera Clubrooms, 45 
Polk Street, at 8 o’clock sharp . 

According to the By-Laws, Article 
VIII, Section 1, reads: “At the No- 
vember meeting in each year the 
members shall elect a nominating 
committee of five members, who shall 
present nominations for officers and 
directors at least five days before tbe 
time fixed for holding the December 
meeting. Tbe list of such nominees 
shall be sent to all members prior to 
the December meeting. Further nom- 
inations may be made at the meeting 
by any member. Election, if more 
than one candidate for any office be 
nominated, shall be by ballot.” 

Our program this month covers a 
very important phase of movie mak- 
ing; a very interesting and helpful 
talk on “Editing Your Films,” given 
by our Past President, K. G. 
Stephens. 

In addition. Member William Grant 


will show three 400-foot reels of 
16mm. Kodachrome and Member H. 
T. Kelly will show the final two reels 
of his 8mm. Kodachrome vacation 
film. 

E. G. PETHERICK, President. 

▼ 

Stith-Noble to Release 
Tournament of Roses Film 

The Stith-Noble Corporation, re- 
cently removed to new and larger 
quarters at 645 North Martel Avenue, 
Hollywood, announces this year it 
again will release a Kodachrome film 
of Pasadena’s famous Tournament of 
Roses. The film will be a 16mm. sub- 
ject approximately 200 feet in length, 
and the release is scheduled for Jan- 
uary 5 next. 

Full-color Kodachrome copies of the 
film will be offered for sale through 
all dealers. This firm has within 
slightly more than a year developed 
a process of duplicating 16mm. and 
35mm. Kodachrome films. The forth- 
coming picture will be made in color 
by this process. 


German-Japan Accord 

A German-Japanese accord which 
provides for the exchange of cultural 
and educational films between the two 
countries was signed recently by the 
International Cinema Association of 
Japan and a representative of the Ger- 
man Propaganda Ministry, according 
to reports published in Tokyo and re- 
ported to the Department of Com- 
merce. 


KODACHROME 


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Afga Ansco Issues Book 
on Developing Processes 

A profusely illustrated, sixty page 
booklet, “Developing and Printing 
Made Easy,” has just been published 
by Agfa Ansco Corporation of Bing- 
hamton, N. Y. Covering all phases of 
developing and printing, this new 
Agfa booklet has been designed to 
serve both as an instruction manual 
for the beginner and a reference for 
the advanced amateur. 

Included with the discussion of de- 
veloping, contact printing and enlarg- 
ing are such topics as contrast, tem- 
perature control, reduction and inten- 
sification, washing and drying, selec- 
tion of paper and projection control. 

Also given in the booklet are lists 
of necessary equipment for home 
finishing, tables of causes and remi- 
dies of finishing troubles and recom- 
mended formulas for developers and 
other processing solutions. The new 
booklet, a companion in size and style 
to Agfa’s “Better Photography Made 
Easy,” lists at 25 cents and may be 
obtained from your photographic 
dealer or by writing Agfa Ansco 
Corporation. 




RINGING IN HEALTH 

The 1937 Christmas Seals 


BUY and 
USE them 



The National, State, and Local Tubercu- 
losis Associations in the United States 




632 AMERICAN Cinematographer 


• Decembei', 1937 


Shooting Waterfront 

As Sherlock Does It 


CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING' 


(Continued from Pagre 515) 

wharf. Little boats are darting to 
and fro on the water. There is plenty 
of action and human interest here and 
fui'ther use for a wide angle lens. 

Dockyards 

Dockyai-ds are more attractive if 
there is a well known boat in dry 
dock. Open with a shot taken under 
the bows of the boat looking sky- 
ward, showing the name of the boat. 
Then again from the floor of the dock 
show cranes working with the sky as 
a background. 

The most attractive . shot will be 
of the propellers and rudder with 
men working on them. Try to get 
them in the sunlight, as Kodachrome. 
has a bluish tint if taken in shadow. 
An interesting episode in a drydock 
is when the valves are opened to let 
the water flow back in the dock. 

Ferry Boats 

Open this sequence with a ferry 
boat coming toward the camera, which 
has been placed on a wharf, with 
close-up of the* rope being thrown 
on to a pile and people boarding the 
boat. When this is taken the camera- 
man does likewise. 

Shoot down at the same pile with 
the rope being lifted off and the wharf 
receding as your boat pulls out. This 
will make a smooth continuity. If 
any interesting shots are to be filmed 
while the ferry is moving, a film speed 
of 32 frames per second will give a 
more even picture than the normal 
speed of 16 frames per second. If 
the names of the wharves you stop 
at are to be seen, photograph them, 
and get a few pictures of a similar 
ferry to the one you are on, that is 
if you pass one. Finish this sequence 
with a fade-out as your ferry leaves 
you on a wharf. 

Pleasure Craft 

This sequence would have to be 
made to suit local conditions. Here 
in Sydney there are races held each 
weekend for sailing boats known as 
16-footers and five or six thousand 
spectators follow the races on large 
ferries, the roof of which can be used, 
with permission of the skipper, to 
erect a tripod. 

Using a two-inch lens these small 
boats make an attractive picture when 
they commence their race and when 
they turn around the buoys. Speed 
boats are best photographed when 
making a turn or at the finish of a 
race. 

Consult Shipping Index 

You will save a lot of time if you 
read the shipping index in the daily 


FOR SALE 


REBUILT SILENCED AND STANDARD 
BELL & HOWELL 170° CAMERAS— 
rebuilt B & H sound printers, rebuilt 
Duplex sound and picture printers ; pair 
used Simple.x portable sound projectors 
with 2000 ft. magazines. Used Mitchell cam- 
ei’as, Fearless Blimps. Bell & Howell 1000 
ft., 400 ft. magazines. Motors, sunshades, 
finders, lenses and all accessories. 

Write, wire or cable: 

MOTION PICTURE CAMERA SUPPLY. INC. 

723 Seventh Avenue 
New York City 

Cable : Cinecamera Telephone : BRyant 9-77.5^4 


BELL & HOWELL 6-WAY SOUND PRINTER. 
Generators. Panel Control Boards, Duplex 
Printers, Sound Moviolas, Developing Ma- '* 
chin^. Blimps, Dolly, B & H splicers, Mit- 
chell’ and B & H Silent Cameras, Motors, 
High-Speed Gear Boxes, Light Testers, c" 
Projection and Lighting Equipment. Guar- 
anteed optically and mechanically perfect. , 
Send for 1937 Bargain Catalogue. Holly- 
wood Camera Exchange. 1600 Cahuenga 
‘ Blvd., Hollywood, California. Cable Ho- 
camex. 


WE BUY, SELL AND RENT PROFESSION- 
AL AND 16mm EQUIPMENT NEW AND 
USED. WE ARE DISTRIBUTORS FOR 
. ALL LEADING MANUFACTURERS. 
RUBY CAMERA EXCHANGE. 729 Seventh 
Ave., New York City. Established since 1910. 


SILENCED Standard Mitchell Camera, serial 
number above 200 ; 40, 60, 76 mmT' Pan . 
Tachar Astro lenses; upright MitchelPfinder ; 
two 1000-foot magazines or four-400 foot 
magazines ; Mitchell tripod and friction head 
and cases ; perfect mechanical condition. 
FAXON DEAN, INC., 4516 Sunset Boule- 
vard. Hollywood, Calif. 


CINE KODAK SPECIAL, complete, S289.60; 
SOF Victor 25, complete, amplifier, speaker, 
1189.60. Simplex 35mm. SOF RCA Sound, 
$325 : 16mm. Steineman electric printer, 

motor, ,$73 ; 35mm. DeVry Movie Camera 
f3.5, $55, with fl.5, $100; 35mm. DeVry SOF 
Projector, complete, portable. $189.50 ; 9x12 
ft. Screen, $14 ; 35mm. LIK DeBrie Movie 
Camera, f3.5 lens, case, 3 magazines, $165. 
Trades accepted. 8-16mm. Silent, Sound 


Library. Catalogs Free. House of Satisfac- 
tion, MOGULL’S, T944AC Boston Road. 
New York. 


BELL & HOWELL silenced 35mm. standard 
camera with I-type shuttle, 1000 ft. maga- 
zine, two 400 ft. magazines. 40mm., 50mm., 
80mm.. F :2.7 Zeiss lenses, 150mm. Bausch 
& Lomb F :4.5 lens, accessories, Akeley fric- 
tion tripod, motor, carrying cases, at $1276. 
BASS CAMERA CO., 179 W. Madison St., 
Chicago, 111. 


DEBRIE CAMERA, Parvo, 8 magazines, tri- 
pod and cases, $1200.00 cost will sell for 
$200.00 almost new, bargains in 16-35mm 
cameras. We Buy Anything. Block Cam- i! 
era — 154 E. 47th St.. New York. 

BELL AND HOWELL 170° CAMERAS— High 
speed shuttles — high speed gear boxes — 400 
and 1000 foot Bell & Howell magazines — 

Bell & Howell tripods — motors. AKELEY 
and DEBRIE CAMERAS. Akeley motors. 
High speed motors. Sunshades, lenses and 
finders. 

Write or Wire 

CAMERA EQUIPMENT. INC. 

1600 Brc^i^way . New York City 

Tel. Circle, 6-6080 Cable: Cinequip 


16 and 35mm. EQUIPMENT— FOR SALE— 
rent. Mitchell Bell & Howell — Akeley— - 
Debrie. Write for prices. THE CAMER.V- 
MART, INC., no West 40th St., New York 
City. 


ONE 70MM FEARLESS silenced camera ; two 
1000 ft. magazines ; 50, 75 and lOOmm F2 
lenses. This eciuipment is in perfect me- 
chanical condition. 

CAMERA EQUIPMENT, INC. 

1600 Broadway New York City 

Tel. Circle 6-5080 Cable: Cinequip 


WANTED 


WE PAY CASH FOR YOUR USED CAMERA. 
LABORATORY AND STUDIO EQUIPMENT. 
Write, wire or cable 

MOTION PICTURE CAMERA SUPPLY. INC. 
723 Seventh Avenue, New York City 
Cable Address : Cinecamera 


WANTED: We pay cash for everything pho- 
tographic. Send full information and low- 
est cash prices. Hollywood Camera Ex- 
change, 1600 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, 
Calif. 


papers. These publish the time to ex- 
pect large boats an(t. also give the 
boats that are in dock. When shoot- 
ing be careful to get people in the 
scene. Human interest is what is 
needed even in harbor films, and very 
likable folk are these harbor people. 

Cine cameras are simple, but the 
amateur who is patient enough to ar- 
range a story or theme before he 
starts Kodachroming his harbor film 
will use less film and have a better 
picture to edit. Technical skill is not 
as valuable as the power of observa- 
tion and patience. 

Keep Things Moving 

In making a harbor film it is as 
well to remember that you are mak- 
ing a moving picture. This means 
that not only is the film moving 
through the camera but each scene 
must contain some movement and not 
too much sky and water. Therefore, 
shooting must be done close to the 
shore most of the time. 


Long shots can be made occasional- 
ly, if a figure, tree or boat is in the 
foreground. This will give a sense 
of depth to the scene and at the same 
time frame the picture. 

If the background is more than one 
mile away use a Kodachrome haze 
filter. This makes all colors warmer 
and gives more detail in long shots. 
The Kodachrome chart is an excellent 
way of judging light values, but ow- 
ing to the calculation necessary is not 
as handy as an electric exposure 
meter. 

If the latter is used hold it down 
toward the water and measure this 
reflected light for long shots. Close 
ups can be measured close up, as the 
most popular meters are calibrated 
for all colors including white and 
black. 

It took the writer two years to 
make his harbor film, and he en- 
joyed every minute spent on the 
waterfront. 


!■ 








(Upper left) Junior Model. On roller 
with separate new type spring wire 
support. 4 sizes from $2.50 to $6.00. 

(Lower left) Model “F”. In metal case. 
6 sizes. From $12.00 up. 

(Below) Standard Challenger. Tripod 
pivotally attached permits quick set up. 
4 sizes from $15.00 up. 


OA-LITE STANDMO 
CNAUENfiER 


The thrill of showing bright, clear, pictures is 
within the reach of every movie maker. 

The Da-Lite Junior model has the finest light 
reflective surface that monev can buv — vet it 

e' ♦o' 

can be had for as little as $2.50. The above 
illustration will give you an idea of how much 
brighter a picture is on a Da-Lite glass-beaded 
screen than on any white surface. Millions of 
tiny glass beads uniformly superimposed on 
the screen fabric, by Da-Lite’s recently im- 
proved process, reflect the maximum of light 
and bring out in full detail the beauty which 
your camera has captured and which your 
projector would show if given a chance. 

This Christmas, give your family the perfect 
picture quality which only a Da-Lite glass- 
beaded screen can offer! Styles for every 
need and for every movie-maker on your list. 
See Da-Lite Screens at your dealer’s or mail 
the coupon below' for literature and prices! 


MAIL COUPON NO 


DA LITE JUHtOR 


to 

en- 

the 


Da-Lite Screens 


i — 


Da-Lite Screen Co., Inc. 

2721 North Crawford Ave. 

Chicago, III. 

Send free literature and prices on Da-Lite Scree 
Name 

AJJ 







The Pride 

The Cameraman 
takes in his work 
is better justified 
when he uses a 

t 

MITCHELL 


Mitchell Camera Corporation 

665 NORTH ROBERTSON BOULEVARD 
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. 

Cable Address "MITCAMCO" Phone OXford 1051 

AGENCIES 

BELL & HOWELL CO.. LTD., London. England MOTION PICTURE CAMERA SUPPLY. INC.. New York City 

CLAUD C. CARTER. Sydney. Australia BOMBAY RADIO CO.. LTD.. Bombay. India 

D. NAGASE & CO.. LTD.. Osaka. Japan H. NASSIBIAN. Cairo. Egypt