MODERN MIRACLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 September 1938, Page 5

MODERN MIRACLES

RECENT TECHNICAL ADVANCES IN FILM WORK. MULTI-SPEED CAMERAS. This has been a year of modern miracles in the motion picture studios. According to scientific technicians 1938-39 will bring even more startling developments. A multi-speed camera shutter has been perfected to photograph clearly in one 20,000 th of a second. This instrument photographs a projectile leaving a gun in the first six inches of its flight. A three-colour still camera was designed by O. O. Ceccarini, consulting research engineer, and is expected to revolutionise the art. According to Clarence Bull, famous photographer, the’ new speed film and improved lens will save the eyes of players and save the industry a great deal of expense because it requires less lighting. A synchronous-switch on the 1939 still camera will fire as many flash bulbs as may be required to light a whole sound stage. In an outdoor scene for ‘’Rosalie,” constructed on a 60-acre set, 600 of these bulbs flashed in a glaring instant to light the huge stage, with its chorus and ballet of more than 500 people. “The shot was made so fast,” explained Bull, “that it caught the chorus in a uniform pose. Where the human eye could not possibly catch one or two dancers out of step, the camera did. Those in error were cor- ’ ected and the result was perfect synchronisation.”

Using the new multi-speed shutter. Bull actually “stopped” the wheels of a racing motor car. The spokes could be counted in the finished print. “In the next year,” he said, “we’ll probably catch the propellor blades of an aeroplane.”