SCREEN WONDERS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1930, Page 6

SCREEN WONDERS

PROGRESS IN INDUSTRY. IMPRO VED TECHNIQUE.' STERESCOPIC PICTURES. Many changes in the moving picture industry were noticed on a tour abroad by Mr W. Scott, representative of the R.K.O. Picture . Corporation, who returned recently to New Zealand.

How important the new taxes on film in New Zealand may be can be judged from the fact that Mr Scott, being in Rerljn when lie heard the news, decided to return as quickly as he was able to arrange his affairs. Mr Scott frankly states the new imposts on the industry are very serious to him and his company. Although it is only two years since Mr Scott was in Hollywood, he found revolutionary alterations in the studios when there in April. Consequent upon the change from silent to sound films all the old studios had been demolished to make way for the new sound-proof ones .required. The new windowless buildings were more substantial buildings, with walls, floors, and ceilings from six to ten inches in thickness, insulated against exterior noise of any kind. Even the doors were insulated, and one could not go in and out at will, as they were opened and shut by hydraulic device to prevent accidents in the way of admitted ■found during the screening of a “talkie” picture. The R.K.CX studios were now of varying size. The largest was capable of accommodating and manoeuvring 9000 men, and its floor could be lowered so as to form the bottom of a lake when the cavity was filled with water, to 10ft depth. On the lake schooners yachts, launches, and boats could be photographed in any kind of artificial weather.

“The R.K.O. people are now building a legitimate theatre in Hollywood, where .dramas, comedies and musical shows will be produced from time to time for the public in the ordinary way. The real reason for this departure is to test our pieces before what are considered to be the .audiences most difficult to please. TRAVELLING MICROPHONE.

“Perhaps the greatest improvement "fleeted is connected with the soundrecording methods.. No longer is the microphone a stationary object, restricting the range of movement of the players. That form of .‘mike’ has been scrapped, and in its place are the most delicately sensitive instruments attached to long flexible arms, which reach out, draw in, sink down, or rise -up in accord with the movements of the actors, so that it really is a traveling .microphone, always within the proper scope of the voice, and just outside the range oi' the silent camera’s all-seeing eye.” THE RADIO MICROPHONE.

“Even more wonderful is the ad-

rance in the making of sound pictures n the open. A year or more ago the players engaged ‘on location’ in the open air had to be very careful how they moved lest they got out of range of the microphones, even, when half a dozen were used. That restriction has now been overcome by the experts, who have called in the. aid of delicate radio apparatus, so that the sounds made whether they be speech, song, the clatter of hoofs, or the crack of i. ride, are all conveyed to tlie recording centre by small microphones carried by the players hidden on their person. This has revolutionised the open-air pictures, as will be seen in die new releases.”

“Another improvement in the technique of picture . recording is the ‘squeezed sound’ on film which only occupies half the breadth of standard film. This with another marvellous instrument which /performs feats of incredible delicacy with sound vibrations in making all screen sound uniform and waveless. 'At times a voice used suddenly to boom out or fade in pictures of the past-, calling for a controlling monitor in the theatre, but that is past, as when once the machine is set all sound is just right. BIG SCREEN EXPENSIVE. “Tlie big screen has come, and is a success, but the expense of installation both in the studio and the theatre i.s so expensive that, coming after tjie talkie pet, I am afraid it is something for the future,” said Mr Scott.

“I saw one of the big screen pictures., ‘Danger Lights.’ When the first scene flashed upon the view it was positively startling. The whole stage until in the proscenium was filled with picture, the figures were all life-size, and there was a sterescopic depth which gave an air of uncanny reality to everything. However, it needs new and very expensive projecting machinery witfUspecial lenses, which most theatre proprietors will not be able to afford for some little time. On that account when such a picture is taken they also photograph it for, the standard size film. What T think will happen is that there wi|l be only two or three big screen . theatres in each of tlie large centres, and the rest will carry on as at present with standard film.”

Tlie Radio Corporation of America, in which the R.Tv.O. is embodied, have become associated with a very large and influential British Company, which under the direction of Mr Basil Dean, the well-known London producer, lias secured the services of all the leading players in England, including Stir Gerald «, du Maurier, and also the on-operation of British authors. The basic principle is.that for the future all-English pictures will be made in England by English people.

in ardor to get the correct tone and atmosphere The Radio Corporation of America interest will he presented in the supply of the. plant, and a coin pie te staff of expert technicians to wo^k: it. The first picture taken under . these auspices is John Galsworthy's play, “Escape,” :