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MARCH

No. 41

1943 APR

GEORGE H. ELVIN

ROMAN KARMEN

RONALD NEAME

JOHN A. OJERHOLM

$v

JOHN PRATT

C. TOMRLEY j

FINE GRAIN

CLOSE-UPS-JACK COX
PSYCHOANALYTIC NOTES on the SCREEN

STUDIO TECHNICIANS' CHARTER

BEHIND THE SCENES

Behind the power and brilliance of modern screen
productions stands the unvarying high quality of
Kodak negative films. Each does its specific
work surpassingly well. From long experience,
directors and cameramen — in the studio and in
the firing line — take for granted this vital con-
tribution to each scene's success.

PLUS-X

for general studio use

SUPER- XX

when little light is available

BACKGROUNDS

for backgrounds and exterior work

KODAK NEGATIVE FILMS

/

KODAK LIMITED

MOTION PICTURE FILM DEPT. KODAK HOUSE. KINGSWAY, LONDON. W.C.J

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

forial & Publishing Office: 9, BROMEFIELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX,
vertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I.

Telephone: EDGWARE3119
Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editors : Barrel Catling, Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, Frank Sainsbury.

jmber Forty-one, Volume Nine

March— April, 1943

Price One Shilling

STUDIO
rECHNICIANS' CHARTER

V.C.T signs Agreement with the British
Film Producers Association

by
GEORGE H. ELVIN

SOON after I became A.C.T.'s General Secre-
tary, nine years ago, the General Council set
itself an ambitious programme on behalf of
film technicians, of whom in those days only 88
were organised. Many of those points were
achieved a long time ago, so long in fact that
the present membership never remembers being
without them. I refer to such matters as affilia-
tion to the T.U.C., establishment of a proper Em-
ployment Bureau, and publication of a Journal.
These were, of course, only a means to an end :
the last point in that initial programme, the com-
plete organisation of film technicians within
A.C.T. and the safeguard of their wages and con-
ditions through the negotiation of standard agree-
ments. At last we can say the initial programme
which we set ourselves has been attained with
the finalisation of the standard studio agreement.
Who of those 88 members in those far-off days
would have dreamt that within less than ten years
so much would have been accomplished?

I feel it necessary to say this because now that
our membership is approaching the 3,000 mark
some members do tend to take things for granted
and often expect the goods to be delivered by the
mere passing of a resolution. Agreements are only
obtained as a result of hard work pursued over
a period of time. The laboratory and shorts agree-
ments were not easy to attain but they were
child's play compared with the studio one. How

Signing The Agreement

From left to right : SIDNEY COLE, RALPH BOND,
GEORGE H. ELVIN and CHARLIE WHEELER.

many members remember the history of it?

Seven years ago A.C.T. first approached studio
employers. They had no organisation and had
to be approached .individually. Our approach
brought them together and a meeting was held
with the Film Group of the Federation of British
Industries. No progress was made, and we had
to return to approaching individual studios. Gau-
mont-British were receptive and finally an agree-
ment was negotiated. A.C.T. was not too happy
about this agreement but it was invaluable as
much for the recognition of the principle of col-
lective bargaining for film technicians as for the
actual provisions in the agreement. Nevertheless,
the latter did provide many improvements for
G.B. technicians and gave A.C.T. a weapon with
which to attack those other producers who weir
not so aware of their social obligations. Even-
tually the studios and producers got together in
another organisation, the Film Production Em-
ployers' Federation, and negotiations for a general
collective agreement were commenced. Before
fchey were completed, that body transposed itseli
into the British Film Production Association, and
still another start was made. In time, this body
went the way of its forerunners just as the A.C.T.
Studio Agreement was about to be finalised. Again
we resorted to local negotiations, and with the
stalwart help of members in each studio forced
through the overtime agreements. By now the

26

THE CINE-TECHNICI A X

March— April, 1943

British Film Producers- Association had appeared
on the scene. They took A.C.T. to arbitration on
the local overtime agreements. The Tribunal up-
held the principle of overtime payments to film 10.
technicians, and with the Court's award as the
corner-stone of an Agreement we set out along
the path of negotiation once more. The B.F.P.A.
were better stayers than their predecessors, and
a sincere effort was made to finalise the negotia-
tions. The going was hard, and frequently break-
downs were only narrowly averted, but both sides
were determined to finalise negotiations and even-
tually this was done. After lengthy meetings with
our studio members the A.C.T. General Council 11.
was authorised to conclude and sign the Agree-
ment. This was done on March 8th and A.C.T. 's
signatories were the members of its Negotiating
Committee: Sidney Cole, Ralph Bond, Charlie 12.
Wheeler and myself.

The Agreement runs into 35 clauses, together
with wage schedules and a supplementary agree-
ment on trainees. I cannot do full justice to it
here. Copies have been printed and sent to studios
for distribution to every member. If' anybody
affected has not received a copy, one can be ob-
tained from Head Office. In cases of doubt and
difficulty the Agreement itself must be consulted.
All I have space to do is to summarise its prin-
cipal provisions : — <

1. The Agreement is retrospective to January
4th, 1943, and operates for at least two years.

2. Where individuals' existing rates are better 13.
than those in the Agreement they shall be
continued.

3. Disputes shall be settled by arbitration, the
machinery for which is outlined.

4. There shall be no stoppages of work until
the arbitration machinery has been exhaus-
ted.

5. Employers shall give preferential considera-
tion to A.C.T. members in the engagement
of staff.

6. After payment of expenses necessarily in-
curred and reimbursement to employer of
salary paid during periods of inactivity tech-
nicians shall receive 50% of any profit made 14.
through the sub-letting of their services.

7. Payment to promotees, after probationary 15.
period of one week, of minimum rate for the

job. During that week no wage increase
except for temporary promotees, who receive
50% of difference between their salary and 16.
minimum rate of higher grade job.

8. No reduction in rate during performance of 17.
temporary lower grade job.

9. Insurance for £5,000 of employees earning

£10 per week and over (£3,000 for those up 18.
to £10) engaged on aerial or other dangerous
work. The proceeds of such insurance shall
be deposited with the B.F.P.A. against proof

of evidence. All reasonable safety and pre-
caution measures must be taken by the
employer.

In addition to wage rates, employees receive
a Cost of Living Bonus at the increased rate
of 22/6d. a week for employees over 21 years
of age and earning up to £17 : 10 : 0 per week.
For those under 21 years of age the rate is
15/- a week. The rate of bonus is adjusted
monthly at the rate of 6d. a point (4d. for
those under 21 years of age) rise or fall above
or below 200 in the published Cost of Living
Index Figure.

One day's holiday with pay per annum for
each completed month's service. Free-lance
employees are credited through A.C.T. with
their holiday pay.

Payment of full salary (without deduction of
sum equivalent to National Health Insur-
ance) while away sick at rate in each calen-
dar year of :

(a) Up to one week at full pay and one
week at half pay for emploj'ees with
between three and six months' service :

(b) Up to two weeks at full pay and two
weeks at half pay for employees with
between six and twelve months' ser-
vice ;

(c) Up to four weeks at full pay and four
weeks at half pay for employees with
over twelve months' service.

47-hour normal working week with overtime
payments thereafter at time-and-a-half for
employees whose salary does not exceed £10
per week. A 54-hour normal week and over-
time thereafter at straight-time for employees
whose salary is over £10 and does not exceed
£15 per week. Double time for both classes
in respect of work on Sundays, Bank and
Public Holidays. Technicians earning over
£15 per week receive no payment for over-
time but are entitled to a day off for each
Sunday, Bank or Public Holiday worked,
failing which they shall be paid an extra
day's salary.

Viewing of rushes (for -those affected) is in
the company's time.

Meal break after every five hours work, ex-
cept if work continues after supper break.
when meal break shall be after every four
hours work.

Minimum break of ten hours between com-
pletion of call and re-call.
Employer to provide transport when, by
reason of early or late work, ordinary trans-
port is not available.

The employer pays all location expenses and
also expenses necessarily incurred when
working at a hired studio. Travelling time
on location shall be paid to all technicians

March.— April, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

27

entitled to be paid for working overtime.
When required to remain on location on a
Sunday without being called, employees are
guaranteed a minimum of 8| hours' pay.
The salary schedule lays down the minimum
weekly rates for the 89 principal technical
grades, the general levels of which are : —
£2 : 10 : 0 (Clapper Boy, Sound Loader,
etc.)
10 : 0 (Sound Camera Operator, Boom
Operator, First Camera Assist-
ant, Second Assistant Director,
Continuity Girl, First Projec-
tionist, Librarian)
£15 : 0 : 0 (Sound Recordist (Mixer), Cine-
Camera Operator, Unit Produc-
tion Manager, Editor, Art Direc-
tor)
0 (Lighting Cameraman).

£6

0

£30

The rates for Sound Recordist, Cine
Camera Operator, and Lighting Cameraman
are qualified by experience on three pictures,
prior to which the minimum rates are
£12:10:0 for. the first two grades and £25
for the Lighting Cameraman.

Rates for the other specified grades vary
between the above levels and provision is
made for negotiation of rates for grades not
mentioned in the agreement.

Daily rates are a minimum of a quarter
of the weekly salary with a minimum of
£1:1:0 per day.
20. The supplementary agreement is a war-time
one and provides that entrants to the industry
shall be 17 years of age or over. For the first
three months such trainees shall receive 50%
of the minimum rate for the job with a mini-
mum of £2:10:0 per week (plus Cost of
Living Bonus), for the next three months
75% of the rate, and thereafter not less than
the full minimum scheduled rate.
So much for the Agreement. What now? The
majority of studio owners and producers will
loyally observe it. There may be some who will
look upon it as something to be evaded rather than
a document to be observed. There is Warner
Bros, at Teddington, the only studio not a mem-
ber of the B.F.P.A. and at present not observing
the Agreement. We have got to bring Warners*
and any other wayward producer into line : we
have got to see that every studio owner and pro-
ducer observes the Agreement : and A.C.T. mem-
bers equally must pledge themselves to abide by
its terms and not be a party to any attempt which
may be made to circumvent it. that may not be
difficult now. It may be another story when our
serving members start returning and want their

jobs back. That will be the testing time when we
must see that whatever befalls the industry our
Agreement is a rock-bottom standard below which
rates and conditions must not fall. Under no cir-
cumstances must the bad old days of 1937 and
1938 return, when technicians -worked for star-
vation wages and for unlimited hours without a
penny recompense. We must be determined to
ensure that the present Agreement constitutes a
first step along the road to a decent industry in
which we will be proud to work and to which our
serving members will be happy to return after the
war, gratified that in their absence we have not
let them down.

As we go to press Warner Bros, have agreed
to observe the Agreement.

10th ANNUAL

GENERAL MEETING

SUNDAY, APRIL 18th

commencing at 10.30 a.m.

CAXTON HALL
WESTMINSTER, S.W.1

(off Victoria Street. Nearest underground
St. James Park)

All members are entitled to and should
attend. Many important policy decisions
will be taken and officers elected for
the ensuing year.

A copy of the Annual Report and Agenda
for the Meeting will be sent to each
member a week before the Meeting.

28

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1943

PSYCHOANALYTIC NOTES ON THE
SCREEN AS A MEDIUM

By JOHN PRATT

THE scope of this article will be limited to a
few psychoanalytic remarks as far as possible
directed entirely to the actual technique of
cinematic presentation. Let us start by recalling
a somewhat outmoded phrase : " The Magic of the
Screen." The belief in magic of the primitive
can be shown to be due to an unconscious convic-
tion of his own omnipotence. Tbe majority of
human beings consciously attribute omnipotence
to their deities alone. But the microscopy of psy-
choanalytic technique can show that in the un-
conscious mind of the more highly civilised, as
in that of the savage, is present this same belief
in his personal onmipotence. This is most evident
in relation to certain words and gestures. An Afri-
can tribesman may not pronounce the name of
his mother-in-law " lest some grave mishap should
occur." This taboo is a reaction against the omni-
potence of the spoken word. If a tumbler is inad-
vertently struck and gives a ringing note, we
hasten to stop it " lest a sailor should die." He
has been saved by an omnipotent gesture. In
relation to the omnipotence of words let us con-
sider a magical conjuration. " By all th' infernal
Gods I conjure Belcephon," says the learned
Friar. And straightway appears the Devil. In the
cinema we leave a scene in London on the line
" It's a long time since I was in Paris." And we
dissolve to the Champs Elysees or the Tour Eiffel.
To our unconscious mind this too is a magical con-
juration. The technique of writing and of cutting
from a word to its visual representation has con-
firmed our unconscious belief in the omnipotence
of words. We wonder with an actor "what old
so and so is doing." A dissolve, and he appears
before our eyes. This is the omnipotence of
thought. From a gloved hand on the trigger but-
ton of a Spitfire we cut to a Messerschmidt dis-
integrating in the air. The causal logic of the cut
is evident, but to the unconscious this is a magic
gesture. It constitutes a part of the " wizardry "
of the Spitfire. In a sequence about the B.A.F.
we are at one moment inside the plane aiming
the bombs, the next outside it watching them
fall, and two or three seconds later we see the
explosion from close to, just as we should have
wished. Tins may not quite be omnipresence, but
it is certainly omnipotence. If in the screen con-
vention we dissolve from the tedium of a winter's
landscape to a summer's sun, from a keel and

ribs in a shipyard to the launching of a liner, we
feel ourselves omnipotent creators. We may derive
omnipotent pleasure from the timing of a com-
mentated travelogue, but also more subtly from
aerial shots, long tracking shots and crane shots.
(Another source of pleasure in the crane shot I
would relate to the unconscious origins of the plea-
surable flying dream.) All the various types of
optical gratify unconscious fantasies of omnipotent
destruction and creation. A few are not so obvi-
ous : a wipe I would class as a magic gesture. In
a crane shot can be seen at large a quite subtle
source of this unconscious pleasure. Ordinarily the
muscles of the eye perform the work of focussing
and of accommodation in response to an altera-
tion in the distance of a visual object. This they
would do if we were sitting on the crane. But in
the cinema our eyes are accommodated to a fixed
distance, the work of focussing is done by the
camera. To the unconscious this implies an omni-
potent control over whatever it is that we arc
craning in to. A magical control of the environ-
ment is a wish for which in the past men have
sold their souls to the Devil. And to some persons
at the present time the Cinema is the Devil. Out
of all this I would stress one point, to which I
shall return : That there is in screen technique a
profound source of unconscious pleasure almost
continually operative irrespective of story, actors,
quality and so on.

At this point we might return to the subject
of focussing. There appears to the psychoanalyst
to be something rather specific in the association
of muscular activity with instinctual aggression
which probably rests on a basis ultimately biolo-
gical. As an emotional activity, looking can take
over either a loving or an aggressive function. But
I think the muscular acts of accommodation and
of focussing carry a fundamentally aggressive sig-
nificance, which is intuitively employed in the
"hard focus" effect of a certain lighting tech-
nique, exemplified by the extensive stopping down
of the lens in Citizen Kane. The "soft focus"
effect of a diffused lighting, I would think, is
an intuitive technique for avoiding ocular wrath:
by representing an image that is not " clear cut "
the way is freed for a more loving looking. The
adjectives we naturally use in this connection
serve also to illustrate my thesis.

A certain preliminary explanation is necessary

March— April, 1943

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

29

for the psychoanalytic findings to which we must
now refer. They are not very easy to comprehend,
perhaps less so to present in brief. For a theoreti-
cal detour, as for a certain dogmatism in presen-
tation, your indulgence will be needed. It is pos-
sible to regard the human infant as a behavioural
system largely organised for the physical processes
of taking in by the mouth, and for expelling. Its
earliest emotions are developed in relation to these
two functions which determine the form of its
earliest psychological mechanisms. The psychic
mechanism of projection* corresponds to the physi-
cal mechanism of expulsion. A man who violently
condemned short skirts as ' ' immoral ' ' was pro-
jecting his own repressed desires. The physical
process of taking in forms the pattern for the
psychological process of assimilation, to which the
technical term of introjection is applied. The psy-
chological assimilation, or introjection, results in
an identification. In Southern Italy the son of a
fisherman is made to devour a big fish, in the
stomach of which a smaller fish has been found.
In this way he becomes a strong swimmer and a
successful fisherman. He has established an iden-
tification with the big fish, whose flesh he has
incorporated, whose psychological attributes he
has introjected. Now, a considerable portion of
our pleasure as cinemagoers rests upon our (par-
tial) identification with the characters of a screen
play. On some of the prerequisites for an identi-
fication it is not necessary to enlarge. The suc-
cess of a Cinderella story needs no subtle explana-
tion. But the psychological mechanism through
which we achieve identification is introjection : and
this, as I have tried to show, is to be related to
a physical process of taking in. If I wheel my six
months old daughter along a certain path overhung
by foliage, it is as though she were seeing a con-
tiuously moving background. Here and there,
where a branch hangs very low, she will open
her mouth and smile. It is as though she were
being shown a close-up. I have used this little
observation to illustrate that there is a fundamen-
tal link in behaviour between the eye and the
mouth. The eye is in everyday as well as in poetic
speech considered as a means of taking in. This
rests upon sounder argument than metaphor. For
research upon certain mental disorders suggests
that to the infant, only partially aware as yet of
the environment as a system of experience out-
side itself, an object which approaches the eye is
conceived of as actually entering it. My daughter's
behaviour is probably to be in part explained in
(Concluded on next page)

" Projection " is used throughout in the psycho-
analytical, not the cinematic, sense of course.

A QUARTER OF EVERY

CONTRIBUTION GOES TO

HELP RUSSIA

A quarter of the weekly pennies sub-
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Fund goes to help Russia. Your pennies
are helping to bind Russian wounds, to
ease Russian suffering. Will you give
an extra penny a week and help the
Red Cross & St. John to continue its
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Give an extra Penny lo the
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registered under the

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30

THE CIKE-TECHNICIA.N

March— April, 1948

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

Photographic Optics, by Arthur Cox, B.A., B.Sc.

Focal Press, 15/-.

" Can you measure the focal length of a lens?
Do you know the meaning of the word aberrations ?
Do you know how a zoom lens works? Do you
know why a wide-angle lens distorts at the edges?
And do you know what is meant by (a) the angle
of incidence, (b) the angle of reflection, and (c) the
angle of deviation? "

It sounds like a general knowledge test, doesn't
it? And so it is. A general knowledge test for all
members of the camera department and still de-
partment. I wonder how many of us could honestly

answer "yes" to all the above questions. And
yet if we cannot we are not in the true sense of
the word cine-technicians. They are all very
elementary questions really, and all very important.
Mind you, I can speak with great confidence
because I can answer them all — the reason being
that I have recently been polishing up my know-
ledge with the aid of a book — a book which is well
worth reading. It is full from cover to cover of the
most useful information oi this sort. Long focus
lenses, short focus lenses, projection lenses, en-
larging lenses, depth of focus and definition. All
(Concluded on next page)

PSYCHOANALYTIC NOTES— (Concluded from

previous page)
some such terms. But the point that I want to
stress is that this almost physical taking in corre-
sponds in the mind to a psychic mechanism of
ocular introjection. And that under certain emo-
tional preconditions the screen technique of cut-
ting to an actor's close-up may form the strongest
possible physical basis for a psychic technique of
increasing an audience's sense of identification with
him. It will be sufficiently obvious by now that
a far reaching analogy can be made between these
psychic mechanisms and the technical processes
of cinematography. That this is so need not afford
occasion for surprise. We need no concept other
than projection to explain it.

The timing of cuts in a dialogue is obviously
explicable in economic terms of mental emotional
tensions. And of this it need only be said that
psychoanalytic theory and practice are very much
aware of the importance of time factors in alter-
nating identifications. But in relation to the un-
conscious sense of omnipotence you will have seen
a psychoanalytic reason for making one type of.
cut as tight as possible. It must come as pat as
the devil in the old catastrophe. On the rhythms
of direction and of editing I do not feel competent
to enlarge : but only to point out that these can
sometimes take over the pattern of quite funda-
mental physical tensions, as that essentially of
orgasm, in the opening sequence of Renoir's La
Bete Humaine.

We have heard much at different times of the
"hypnotic" influence of the screen. This adjec-
tive is used sometimes loosely to express some
feeling of omnipotence, sometimes by persons who
are aware of the diminution in critical faculty of
the cinema audience, and who have perhaps cor-
related with this the single source of light in
darkness as analogous to the trappings of mes-
merism. One thing is certain. The screen as such

exerts no hypnotic influence. How easy would it
be for the propagandists if it did ! One can, it is
true, see the members of an audience carry over
their identifications into everyday life. We can
see them as they emerge from the Picture Palace
walking pixillated in the rain like Mr. Deeds, or
hear them speaking in voices modified to the
accents of the Bowery. But this is quite another
matter. It is analogous to the continuance into
waking life of some of the feeling of a dream.
Without any reference to the analytical theory of
hypnotism and of dreams I should at once say that
the psychological state of the cinemagoer approxi-
mates in all its essential conditions 'to that of the
dreamer. It is no accident that the cinema pro-
vides the only really effectual medium for the
representation of a dream. And dreams since the
work of Freud are known to psychological science
as wish-fulfilments. At this point I am reminded
of a limerick I once heard.
' ' Young girls who frequent Picture Palaces

Don't hold with psychoanalysis.

The great Dr. Freud

Is extremely annoyed

That they cling to their long-standing fallacies. ' '
This rather charming verse takes too naive a view
of Freud, too pessimistic a view of the cinema
audience. The author of The Future of an Illusion
was a man who accepted the hypothesis of mental
evolution. Though in this article I have spoken
much of the primitive, of the fantastic and the
infantile, I should like to finish on another note.
In the cinema we see portrayed with accuracy
authentic action, genuine voices, real people. More
and more does the screen express realities, per-
sonal, social, economic. More and more. I think,
do audiences look for reality from the cinema.
The deeper satisfaction of omnipotence, inherent
in the medium, remains as the fundamental wish-
fulfilment. Alongside of this the pathway to reality
is free.

March— April, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

31

PHOTOGRAPHIC OPTICS— continued

are dealt with fully and in a most interesting
and reasonably simple manner in this excellent
volume. It is true there are what at first appear
to be rather complicated diagrams and tables, but
these are all very clearly explained and are easily
understood.

It is impossible to give the full contents of this
admirable piece of work. So far as photographic
lenses are concerned there is practically nothing
which is not dealt with. For the cine-cameraman
there is a lot of information about depth of focus
and crispness, which, in view of the tendency
these days to stop down on interiors, cannot fail
to be of interest ; for the still cameraman interest-
ing data about the rising front and swinging back,
the panorama camera and soft focus lenses ; for
the darkroom man information concerning enlarg-
ing and enlarging lenses ; for the assistant camera-
man depth of focus tables and help in the con-
structing of lens hoods and useful information

about view-finders, etc. And-for all grades useful
details about such things as the nature of light,
polarising filters, infra-red filters and stereoscopic
photography.

There are those who will say what does it mat-
ter how a lens works so long as it is a good one
and is getting satisfactory results. But who can
say that the results won't be even better if prac-
tical knowledge is backed by a little theory. I
have been shocked on many occasions by the lack
of theoretical knowledge among the younger mem-
bers of the camera department, and I therefore
particularly recommend to them to read this book.
Photographic Optics is one of a series of books that
have recently been published under the title of
" Manual of Photo-technique." The possession of
the entire series would mean having at one's dis-
posal a complete library of photography, which
every photographic cine-technician would be well
advised to possess.

Ronald Neame

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

^ A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,
where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff
are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone ■. liberty an

On* milt from Wimbledon Station

82

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1048

Edited by Frank Sainsbury

CLOSE-UPS

No. 20— JACK COX

tlT/'EEP your lights pointed at the money.
J\_ boy " is how Jack Cox sums up the wis-
dom gained in his thirty years' experience
of camera work. And a very good motto it is too,
if you extend " money " to mean not merely the
stars of the picture, but whatever is most import-
ant to the film in any scene. The sudden and some-
what unexpected elevation of the cinema from the
public to the saloon bar, from fish and chip shops
to the Savoy Grill, from the back streets and
the tenements to the parlour of the aesthete and
the polite drawing rooms of the middle-class,
meant an influx into the film world of a quite new
type of middle-class technician, very different from
the down-to-earth pioneers. No doubt they had
something of value to bring, in their extra sensi-
tivity and the niceness of their appreciation of
the different shades of this and that, but their
constant search for effect and pernicketiness over
detail carried with it a definite loss to the film
world in directness, simplicity and integrity. And
so it is a very pleasant thing to meet a technician
like Jack Cox who can easily hold his own with
the arty boys when effect stuff is what is wanted
(remember Blackmail and Murder?) and yet has
kept from the old days enough honesty and com-
mon-sense to weigh up each job, decide what is
important, and give it what it needs — realism or
effect — without any frills.

Jack Cox got his start in the film business in the
tough old pre-last-war days, when if you wanted to
say anything on the films you had to say it pretty
loud and firm and clear; and a good job too. His
sister was a great friend of Chrissie White and
Jack used often to go roller skating with her and
Alma Taylor at the rink at the Shepherd's Bush
end of Holland Park Avenue. In 1913, when he was
16, Jack thought he's like to have a try at the
film game. He'd always been interested in photo-
graphy and had done all his own processing in a
shed at the bottom of the garden at Chiswick —
incidentally having once nearly killed himself there
with sulphuric acid fumes. Anyway, Chrissie
White sent him along to Cecil Hepworth, and
Hep worth, who was of course at that time the
big name in the film industry, passed him along
to a man called Lewin Fitzhamon, who was busy
churning out 400-feet epics. Fitzhamon said
that he would take him on if he proved

himself by tackling successfully a job he needed
done — finding a wild bull in Walthamstow for
one of his films. Jack, after holidays with his
farmer uncle, was not at all daunted by this,
and after a round of the Walthamstow butchers
succeeded in locating a quite wild bull on a farm
there. Anyway. Fitzhamon was delighted, and
proceeded to engage him as assistant at the rate
of 8/- a day, when working. This may not sound
very much, but he was better off than the actors
they used to hire. They only got 7/6d. a day : or,
if they were called and filming didn't take place
for weather or other reasons, 2 6d.

Jack kept on with Fitzhamon for quite a
time as assistant. Then one day they were down
at Bognor filming a 400ft. thriller called The
Pony Rescue. The heroine was marooned on- a
rock out at sea, and the boy star had to swim to
her rescue on the back of a pony, which Jack had
borrowed from the local milkman. There they
were, all set up and ready to shoot, and no camera-
man : apparently he'd decided to take a day off
(his name was Gimber). At this point Jack steps
forward and offers to do the turning, and from that
day he's been a cameraman. Very sensibly, after
deciding that lie wanted to be a cameraman more
than anything else. Jack set about finding out
all about it. He went to the Warwick Bioscope
Trading Co. and for six months worked without
pay in the lab. to get a good background. After
that he went to the boss, professed himself ready
to go out with a camera, and after a few^suct
ful newsreel exhibitions was fully set up as a
cameraman. There were not many regular jobs
going in those days, but after a bit Jack struck
lucky. A cameraman called Fisher told him that

March— April, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

33

he was starting with a man called Martini who
was just opening a studio, and asked Jack to depu-
tise for him there whilst he worked out his fort-
night's notice. Jack obliged, and at the end of
the fortnight Fisher changed his mind and Jack
stayed on at £4 a week. In fact he was there
until war broke out, and managed to get Percy
Strong started there too.

Nothing particularly exciting happened to Jack
during the war. He joined up in 1914 with the
London Scottish and got in with the transport,
which meant that he had horses to look after,
and that suited him down to the ground. In tact
he refused the chance of a commission, as that
would have meant leaving his beloved horses, and
finished the war, as he began it, a plain stripeless
private. One wartime coincidence for him hap-
pened at Bishops Stortford. He was sitting in
his billet when the door opened and in walked
Percy Strong : neither of them even knew that
the other was also in the London Scottish.

After being demobbed, Jack went straight back
to the film business, picked up again with camera-
work where he left off, and it wasn't long before
he struck lucky and got a job at Stolls, where
he stayed until 1926. Stolls was about the steadi-
est and most successful British company in those
days and a very pleasant place to work in at that.
Jack at this time was using one of the famous
hand-turn Debries and he worked on year after
year on a succession of good straightforward films
with such stars as Matheson Lang, Olive Brook
and Jameson Thomas. At this time he w:orked
mostly with Maurice Elvey, and Jack remembers
with particular pleasure the yearly film trips they
had abroad, to the Kiviera or Switzerland or
Morocco, when they basked in the sun, lived like
fighting cocks and, as a by-product, made films.
The most awful moment Jack ever had arose from
one of those trips. They'd been shooting in Switz-
erland on a Maurice Elvey picture, Running Water,
and the others having gone ahead. Jack was com-
ing back to England with the results, about 2,000
feet of undeveloped negative. When he reached
Paris the taxidriver loaded the tins in a wooden box
on to the front of the taxi and secured them by a
rope. Now anyone who's been to Paris knows what
tin' taxi-drivers are like: it wasn't long before in
taking a corner at 40 they smacked the pavement,
the rope burst and forty or so valuable tins of un-
developed negative went rolling around the streets
of Paris. However, everything turned out all right :
Jack managed to salvage all the tins and get them
back to England safely. So things went on until one
day in 192(5, as he was walking down the corridor
at Stolls, he was hailed by the newly arrived busi-
ness manage]' and told he was getting too much
money, and it was proposed to reduce his salary
from £15 to £10. " Thanks very much, " said Jack,
reaching for his hat and leaving Stolls for good,

and with it the new business manager — Bruce
Woolfe.

A few days later, as he was walking down
Wardour Street, Norman Walker hailed him and
told him that B.I. P. was just setting up in pro-
duction and that he'd have a good chance of
a job there. So along he went, and sure enough
landed the job at £30 a week. His first few films
there were not so hot, though they included The
Four Feathers and a pleasant trip to Morocco for
a bit of nonsense called The White Sheik, but
shortly after that he began his long and fruitful
partnership 'with Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch had
started in the film world writing titles, and later
worked in the cutting room, but now he had re-
cently made The Lodger for Gainsborough and the
great success of that had sent him to B.I. P. with
a fat contract. He had his own cameraman, C . .

M , who was generally regarded as a cut

above the ordinary run of cameramen and Hitch
had promised to get him £50 a week at B.I. P.
Well they'd been shooting for two or three days

when M found out that he wasn't going to

get £50 a week, and walked out in disgust. The next
day they sent for Jack, told him they'd got a lovely
new Mitchell for him and he was to work on Hitch's
picture. That was all very well until Jack found
out what his first day's assignment was to be:
they were making The Ring, with Carl Brisson,
and they'd built a lovely Fun Fair for it out
on the lot. Jack's first day's work, with a
hand-turn Mitchell he'd never used before, was
a sequence of 18 camera dissolves of the various
Fun Fair sideshows. Jack sweated blood over
that day's work and didn't sleep at all that night.
But when they saw the rushes next day, every-
thing had turned out all right, and after that Jack
was the white-headed boy. He was Hitchcock's
cameraman right the way through, until Hitch
left B.I. P., on that fine sequence of films that
included The Ring, The Manxman, Blackmail and
Murder.

Of all the directors he has worked with, Jack
liked Hitch best, for his quick mind, lively ideas
and workmanlike way of setting about the job ; they
were always going into conference together and
thinking up new narrative gags and camera treat-
ment. And it is a measure of their adaptability
that when sound arrived, in the middle of shoot-
ing Blackmail, they could turn the whole produc-
tion over to a talkie with a minimum of fuss. They
had already done three weeks' shooting, but
luckily at 24, with a motor-driven camera, so that
they could use most of the stuff already shot.
Those were the days when there were no blimps
and the camera had to be enclosed in a travelling
cabin, and Jack still treasures to this day the
cover-picture of a German film magazine showing
Hitch, Anny Ondra and himself (sitting in the
cabin and complete with the little moustache he

34

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April. 1943

wore in those days) shooting Blackmail. An added
complication was that Anny Ondra couldn't speak
English, so she only mouthed the words, whilst
Joan Barry, standing off-stage, spoke them into a
microphone — none of which was particularly
helpful to good acting. Anny Ondra, incidentally,
Jack found very pleasant to work with. In fact,
later on, when he was on his yearly holidays on
the Continent, he always used to make a point of
visiting her at home in Germany, only discon-
tinuing this, for fear of his visit being misunder-
stood, when she married Max Schmeling.

Hitch, whose very charming wife had been his
script girl, had a town flat and a country place
and they used to entertain very lavishly, with
lashings of champagne and so on, says Jack, with
a far-off reminiscent look. When Hitch's contract
with B.I. P. run out in 1933, he asked a figure
which B.I. P. felt they were unable to meet. Hitch
then went off free-lancing and it was years later
that Jack shot a picture for him' again, .The Lady
Vanishes, for Gainsborough, which pleasantly
enough was one of their very best.

When Hitch left B.I. P. Jack carried on under
his contract with them for several years. But
much of the pleasure went out of his work there,
with Hitch's departure, and the pictures he had
to work on were, as he says, generally not much
better than a load of tripe. Finally he was hired
out by the studio to do an outside job down at
Shepperton. He was a bit suspicious that this
might be a " quota quickie " job and let the studio
know that if it turned Out to be so when he got
there he would give them till midday to find
someone to replace him, and would then walk
out. Those bad old " quota quickie " days seem
far off now, but most people can remember clearly
enough how it broke any honest technician's heart
to work on them, and probably ruined his reputa-
tion into the bargain. Anyway, when Jack arrived
on the Monday, he found out from the director
that the film (a feature) was scheduled for nine
days' shooting; so he rang up the studio to warn
them and at midday walked out on the film and
his job at B.I. P. The only redeeming feature of
this sorry business was that the quota job gave a
first lighting opportunity to a man who'd been
Jack's second on Blackmail — Ronnie Neame — who
has recently made a name for himself with his
work on One of Our Aircraft is Missing and In
Which We Serve.

After leaving B.I. P. Jack had a rather lean time
free-lancing for a while, and was then offered a
contract by Gainsborough, where he's been ever
since. He rinds it a good place to work at, and
has had several good jobs to do. Of all the British
directors he's worked with, next to Hitch, he likes
working with Anthony Asquith best. He finds
him very pleasant as a technician and full of .ideas ;
in fact Jack goes so far as to say that We Dive at

Dawn, the submarine picture he and Asquith have
recently finished, is the best film he has ever
worked on and the best work he has ever done.
The whole picture, with its cramped sets to scale
of submarine interiors, was full of lighting prob-
lems and opportunities — the effect when the lights
go down while the periscope is in use and a high
light here and there picks up on the oily faces
of the crew — or the effect when the whole sub-
marine shudders under depth charges, which they
got by all laying hold of the camera and giving it
a good shaking, whilst at the same time one of
the crew pulled the lens quickly in and out of
focus. Anyway, Jack confidentlv recommends the
film.

Jack has worked with pretty well every British
director in the business and has got on well with
all of them, except one who shall be nameless. In
fact it would take a pretty funny sort of director.
hopelessly arty or hoity-toity or something, not
to get on well with a cameraman who gets on with
the job with as liftle fuss as Jack does. Mind you.
if he takes a dislike to anyone or objects to their
way of working, it takes a pretty rough tongue
to equal Jack's for outspokenness. There's a nice
little story of when Jack .was working on a film
with a certain American director a few years ago
— now this director was a patronising sort of lout
who laboured under the impression that British
technicians were a lot of yokels ; well one day he
put his hand approvingly on Jack's shoulder and
said: "You know, Jack, I'm surprised — you're
really a very good cameraman. You'd do well in
Hollywood — why don't you come back with me
and earn some real money? " To which Jack
replied: "Are there many more like you over in
America? " " Oh yes! dozens." ' In that case,
thanks very much, I'll stop right here."

Jack thinks that his most unpleasant job of
shooting was on the original Hindle Wakes, direc-
ted by Maurice Elvey. which if you remember
was a very good film indeed. They were shooting
at Blackpool and Jack had' to set up his camera in
the front car of the giant switchback and keep
turning on Estelle Brody and John Stuart sitting
in the front seats. You can imagine what it was
like, standing up and hand-turning all the time
with his back to the way the switchback was going
and never knowing -whether it was going to go up
or down. But when it was all over they did at
least have a shot that looked like something : to-
day it would all be done with back-projection and
turn out as unreal and flat as wartime beer. That's
one thing that Jack really regrets from the old
days — the location jobs when you could push
your actors and actresses against some real scenery
and among some real people and come back with
stuff that was something like the real thing. It
was only the coming of sound and back-projection

March— April, 1943

THE CINE - TECHNICIAN

35

that drove everybody to herd in pale, isolated
crowds in the artificial atmosphere of the studios.
But nowadays, with portable channels, sound-
trucks and lightly-blimped cameras, there is only
the weather to keep them in the studios, and that
never tied them down in the old days. Anyway,
whatever difficulties had to be overcome would be
well worth it for the added liveliness and authen-
ticity : incidentally, Hollywood is going in much
more for extensive location jobs these days.

Jack Cox has no great desire to 'go to Holly-
wood : he's got a good job here and all his work-
ing life has been spent in the British film industry.
He's survived two wars, half-a-dozen slumps,
dozens of technical changes, studios going up and
coming down, quota acts, and -seen hundreds of
crooks come and go, from the home-produced one-
room shysters of the early days to the eloquent
cosmopolitan financials of to-day. It's made him
tough, of course, and he has few illusions and lit-
tle use for pretentiousness; but he's still as good
humoured, lively and full of ideas as ever, and he
still has faith in the British film industry. It
takes quite a lot to retain any honesty in the film
business, but Jack seems to have managed it
somehow.

CINEMA LOG — (Concluded from page 41)
F/Lieut. Gordon Peace, Air Gunner

Met Gordon Peace the other day on a spot of
leave. I spent quite a time battling with him over
A.C.T. Now he is one of our staunchest mem-
bers. 'After forty operational flights as Air Gun-
ner, in one of which (at Botterdam) he was
wounded, he was transferred to the Film Unit.
So he dreamed of a nice little house with Mrs.
G.P. and baby, and a spot of garden. But that
was just a dream — he is still flying operationally,
but is using a camera instead of a gun. He tells
me what a fine bunch of technicians the B.A.F.
Film Unit are and what a grand leader S/ Leader
Pat Moyna is to serve under.
Message from Charlie Chaplin?

How many of you heard the "Message to
Lambeth" from Charlie Chaplin the other Sun-
day? Here are his final words: "Although you
have suffered, the future will be brighter, for out
of the ruins of Lambeth, out of the dust of all
your bombed cities, will rise a new England,
where poverty should be inexcusable and charity
offensive to the dignity of a people who have won
by blood and tears the right to be profitably em-
ployed and to live peaceably."

Hello, are you Gerrard 6413 — Norman's?

I want a shot of SHICKELGRUBER and will be
calling in two hours time.

So, although we have millions of feet of g
^ negative, it is found within a few minutes.

And is delivered to the Cutting Room for the
client to view and mark up ready for the
Laboratories.

Our client is very pleased with the shot and

his messenger takes it back to the Studio —

and that's that !

NORMANS FILM SERVICE

54/58 & 86, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.1.
Gerrard 6413. Gerrard 7481.

36

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March — April, 1943

SOVIET CAMERAMEN AT THE FRONT

Karmen is a young ace newsreel cameraman who shared in Stalin Art Prize awards for his part in
filming " One Day in Soviet Russia " and " The Defeat of the Germans near Moscow." He was one of
cameramen later on of "Leningrad Fights." Before the war he took scenes in Madrid during the siege
{iq$6), in China (1937) and in the Arctic Circle during night flights over the Pole in search of the lost
Soviet airman Levanevsky. He has also acted as war correspondent for " Pravda " at home and abroad.

FOR a number of years Soviet newsreel camera-
men had been accustomed to film the peace-
ful life of our country. Documentary film and
Soviet newsreel mirrored the onward march, the
happy life, the constructive and joyful labour of
millions of people.

But there came the day when Hitler flung his
divisions against our towns and villages. Upon
the country and the people that was giving an
example of the actual realisation of the great
march of humanity toward democracy and social
justice, there descended the full force of the
Hitlerite hordes. And the Soviet people entered
into battle — everyone to the last man rose up
to wage a sacred patriotic war. We took upon our-
selves the brunt of the blow. And for the first
time in the present war the march of Hitler's
hordes across the territories of the countries of
Europe was halted- — by the Red Army.

And on the very day of the outbreak of the war,
newsreel cameramen left for the Front.

To-day, when eighteen months of war are behind
us, we can sum up certain results of our front line
work. Scores of thousands of feet of film have
been taken. Each of us has run great risks
and been not infrequently bombed, trench-mor-
tared and shelled by the Germans. Many of our
comrades have perished at their post, camera in
hand, and many have been wounded, returning
to active work immediately on recovery. Digging
into the earth they have been subjected to fierce
enemy bombardment; together with plucky sharp-
shooters they have lain in wait for the enemy,
suffering trials and hardships. We have all grown
unused to the feel of civilian clothes and have
learned to appreciate the supreme law of the sol-
dier's front line comradeship, which is " Help
one another."

1'echul charged into the attack side by side with
his Red Army comrades, rifle and grenade in hand.
The detachment broke through the encirclement.
In this action Pechul died a hero's death.

Another cameraman, Slavin, was twice
wounded and twice came back to the front imme-
diately he recovered.

Cameraman Boris Sher spent ten weeks with
a guerilla detachment that wrought panic among
the Germans in an unnamed district near the
Valdai Hills. When he had amassed sufficient
material covering the activity of this detachment
and planned to make his way back across the
enemy lines, the guerillas did not want to part
with this plucky young man. They had come to
consider him as belonging to their ranks and he
had won their strong affection — the affection of
grim and courageous men who look death in the
face every minute of the da}'. The guerillas sent
a letter to the studio from which we learned much
in regard to which our comrade had modestly kept
silent. They wrote that Boris Sher had partici-
pated in several daring and dangerous operations
as a guerilla trooper. At night time when filming
was impossible he would take up a rifle and accom-
pany the detachment into battle. Boris Sher, like
many another front-line cameraman, now wears
the Order of the Red Banner and continues his
newsreel work.

Cameraman Mark Troyanovsky was among the
last batch of Bed Army men to leave Odessa — that
same Mark Troyanovsky who accompanied Papanin
on his flight to the North Pole. (His film was
shown in England under the title Conquerors of
the North). Troyanovsky filmed scenes of the
heroic defence of Odessa and the exploits of its
defenders.

Till the very last hour cameraman Mikosha
stuck to his post filming the glorious defence of
Sevastopol, which will go down in history as one
of the most heroic pages in the struggle of pro-
gressive mankind against bloody Hitlerism. In the
last days of the defence of Sevastopol. Mikosha
was badly shell-shocked but he kept on working.

The work of the cameramen filming in beseiged
Leningrad deserves special mention. Cameramen

March— April, 1943

THE C I NE - TE C H N IC I A N

37

Uchitel, Fomin, Stradin and others did not cease
filming for a minute. In rigorous frosts, under
fierce bombing, and incessant shelling, under con-
ditions of blockade and hunger, they created for
future history truly priceless cine-documents of
the life and struggle of the hero-city. Like all
Leningraders, the cameramen received a meagre
ration of bread, they were emaciated and could
hardly walk, but each day they plodded to the city
carrying heavy tins of film and kept constantly
taking shots. We are grateful to them for having
preserved for us the inimitable features of proud,
indomitable and plucky Leningrad, for having
perpetuated the unforgettable scenes of the winter
of 1941-42. They filmed in the factories, on the
streets and in the advanced front lines. The epi-
sodes they filmed now show the whole world what
the Soviet people are capable of, cherishing deep
faith in their victory and profound hatred of the
enemy, and, in the name of this faith and hatred,
• ready for all privations and exploits.

At Stalingrad, too, cameramen worked filming
the fierce battles wherein the glorious city's defen-
ders mauled the German divisions, and where,
for every foot, for every inch of soil, Hitler paid
with the lives of thousands of his soldiers.
Stalingrad will shortly be shown in Britain.

One Day of the Soviet War depicts an ordinary
day in this country which at the call of their great
leader, Stalin, the whole Soviet people have
turned into one mighty war camp. That day,
from sunrise to sunset, 160 cameramen filmed
numerous episodes both at the fronts and in the
interior. This film. has recently been shown in
Britain.

Soviet film workers engaged at the front know
that each foot of film taken in battle is of his-
torical value. It will afford an edifying narrative
for future generations. Humanity's future is being
born in today's battle, let our descendants know
the great cost of their happiness, which is today
being won for them by the Bed Army men defend-
ing Stalingrad, by the Cossacks of the Kuban,
Terek and Don, by the sailors of the Baltic.

We have seen some splendid pictures made by
gallant English cameramen, filming battles in the
air, in the Libyan desert and on the Atlantic
Ocean, we have seen newsreels about brave R. A. F.
men making death-dealing raids deep behind the
enemy's lines. We applauded the work of the
heroic cameraman, Tom Tanner, who filmed the
Malta convoy. A while ago we saw a new newsreel
about Malta and admired the skill and gallantry
of the cameramen filming the plucky fight of the
island's residents, A. A. men, R.A^F. men and
sailors.

We Soviet cameramen are proud that in these
grim days we wear trench-muddied military uni-
form. And on behalf of all Soviet newsreel camera-

men, in giving greetings to our British colleagues,
I shoidd like to say with all my voice : " Friends !
It is with blood and tears, children, brothers,
fathers and mothers that the Soviet people pays
for your having not yet suffered all the horrors
of an enemy invasion of your country. But hatch-
ing dreams of world domination, man-eating
Hitler also wants his killers and marauders to
lay their bloody trail of rapine and conflagrations
across your country too.

"About 200 cameramen work on various sectors
of our front. A further 1,000 directors, assistants,
editors, laboratory workers, cutters are engaged
in producing newsreel issues that appear regularly
every three days, including war news shots. Aero-
planes, trains and dusty khakicokmred bullet-
punctured front line lorries daily deliver to the
Central Newsreel Studio in Moscow their tins of
films. One winter morning a car containing tins
of film drove up as usual to the Central Studio.
Inside the vehicle lay the dead body of our col-
league, cameraman Pavlov. He had been filming
the Red Army taking a town in the front line and
had been killed by shrapnel. At the precise moment
at which this heroic cameraman was being buried,
the studio was mixing the sound track for its
next newsreel issue, which showed the actual
scenes of our troops retaking Malo-Yaroslavets,
the very same battle in which Pavlov had met
his death.

" The war of the Soviet people against Hitler's
hordes knows many instances of sublime heroism
and valour. It would be difficult today to say
where Soviet newsreelmen could not be found
filming this war throughout the vast expanse of
the front stretching from the Black Sea to the
Arctic Ocean.

"These cameramen ascend in warplanes and
their cameras travel deep into the enemy's rear
where Soviet aircraft hurl their cargo of bombs ;
they descend deep underwater aboard Soviet sub-
marines ; they will always be found at their posts
in infantry units even in the most strenuous
moments of enemy charges; they film guerilla
action far behind the enemy's lines. The camera-
man often becomes the Red Army man, laying
aside his camera and taking up a machine-gun or
tommy-gun.

" I should very much like tobei you, my friends,
cameramen of Great Britain, that we shall meet
you working and fighting hand in hand with us
when the Second Front is at last opened.

'Then, firmly gripping each other in a hand-
shake, in close creative co-operation, we shall film
the final shots and make the great historic film
of the derisive battle and victory of Ereedom-loA in-
progressive mankind . ' '

(By courtesy of the " Daily Worker ").

38

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1943

STRAWS IN THE HAIR

by

SCREENCOMBER

of the " Kinemato graph Weekly "

Editor Baiting

Suspense is not the only weapon recommended
for driving editors crazy — crazier — for in time
the suspense of waiting for the " Screencomber "
copy to arrive ceases to induce the nervous pros-
tration so desirable in these cases. The victim be-
comes inured to the uncertainty and eventually
adopts a fatalistic attitude to life in general and
' Screencomber " copy in particular. This is just
the time to come back at him with the unexpected.
Copy is suddenly slammed in sharp on schedule,
or, better and more telling still, before time. The
subject is immediately laid low with shock and
becomes a shivering, shaking, nerve-shattered
mess. From then on his worries are multiplied, for
he has to wrestle with the problem of whether he is
now dealing with a reformed character who will
henceforth hand his stuff in on the dot or whether
if it is merely a flash in the pan — an oversight. The
ingenious editor-torturer will, with fiendish cun-
ning, lull his victim into a sense of false security
by delivering on the dot for the next month or
so. The editor becomes a changed man. A burden
is lifted from his shoulders. Wrinkles and dark
circles under the eyes disappear. He goes around
slapping producers affectionately on the back, beg-
ging them not to mention such embarrassing sub-
jects as overtime or rises. So, having lulled him
into a state of ecstatic happiness and freedom from
care — wham ! You slap him down again and start
handing your.dope in just when he has come to the
conclusion that he'll never see it again and the
paper has gone to press without it. This month's
copy was handed in on time! Look out for next
month's thrilling instalment of " With Elvin to
Colney Hatch."

Metaphorically Speaking

Speaking at a recent meeting, Tom O'Brien
put the whole thing in a bombshell when he said :

. . . . they threw the cat among the pigeons
and created a thorn that will have repercussions
all over the place." He omitted to add that this
wolf in sheep's clothing after behaving like a bull
in a china shop immediately adopted a dog in the
manger attitude by accusing them of flogging a
red herring after the stable door was locked. While

no-one wants to buy a pig in a poke, that has
broken the last straw. We would do well to leave
no stone unturned in glass houses and after having
lashed ourselves to the mast and set our hand bo
the plough we must weather the storm secure
in the knowledge that a rolling stone will not
kill two birds in the bush.

Hints to a Star

Be kind, little star, to the make-up man

.X^

v

Or he won't help you improve your pan,
And the lighting lad, as you ought to know,
Can make your dial look like a lump of dough.
So he nice, if you please, to the camera gm B
Or they might show the public you've got cross-
eyes.
He's a lad 'mong your friends you want to count

on
Or he'll make that mole look like a mountain :
And before saying rude things your lip you

should button —
The cutter's reply can be much more cuttin'.

March— April, 1943

THE C INE - TE CHNIC I AN

39

News Items

A " yes " man suffering from some obscure
mental complaint developed a negative complex. A
treatment of reversal baths got him back his job
of assistant director in a few weeks.

An individual wearing a black coat and striped
trousers offended the susceptibilities of the more

normally dressed inmates of Denham. He was
flogged with a pair of blue corduroys and strung
up with a yellow tie to the nearest lamp-post.

An ingenious method of saving celluloid is to
place the hand tightly in front of the camera lens
each time the machine starts turning. To effect an
even greater saving of celluloid, remove the film
entirely and throw away the camera.

Language Barrier

The British Producers Association are to register
a complaint to the studio unions because the sec-
retaries insist on discussing wage rates in sterling
instead of the more easily understood roubles,
liras, francs, marks, escudas, yen, kronen, milreis,

JEW-
BAITING

Is doing Hitler's work, whether it
is in Germany or Britain. What
is the basis of anti-Semitism ?
What is the solution of the Jewish
problem ? Read

ANTI-SEMITISM

& the Jewish Question

/. Rennap 2/6

LAWRENCE & WISHART LTD.
2 Southampton Place, W.C.1

Trade Dept. : 100 Gt. Russell St., W.C.1

pesos, tael, drachma, lei and dinars. The obstinate
insistence on English being used as the official
language is deprecated in certain quarters, it being
argued that the upkeep of a special staff of inter-
preters is an unwarranted extravagance in these
times. Even those with a knowledge of English are
protesting that the plain English spoken by cer-
tain union officials gets a little too plain on occa-
sions.

Technical Notes

A reversible microphone has caused a sensation
at the studios where it has been tried out. The
microphone, a normal enough looking instrument,
behaves in the usual way. sucking in the sound,
until it is turned inside out, when it acts as a
play-back. Need we add that the invention is an-
other proof of the versatility and ingenuity of that
unsung genius " Screencomber. " It is not gener-
ally known that he also blows trumpets — his
own.

I

STRAND FILMS

MAKERS OF DOCUMENTARY
FILMS SINCE 1934

40

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 19-43

THE SUB-STANDARD SOUND FILM

Describing a method of printing 35 mm. sound on 16 mm. film without reduction, and its attendant

advantages.

By T. USSHER SMITH

TO understand this article thoroughly it is
necessary to revert to the introduction of
sound attached to moving pictures. The
35 mm. silent him traversed the projector at a
speed of one foot (i.e., 16 frames) per second. A
sound track was then attached to one edge. This
was the first talking picture of the present type,
but it was found that although at this speed per-
fect animation was obtained, the sound was very
poor. The speed was then increased to eighteen
inches per second (i.e., 24 frames) which resulted
in a commercial reproduction. This is the stan-
dard tuda\ .

With a knowledge of the above facts, the great
and powerful organisations of the Film Industry
in Germany, U.S.A. and Great Britain have ex-
pended enormous sums of money in research to
obtain 35 mm. results by attaching a sound track
to a sub-standard film which can only provide a
sound track space for a traversing speed of 7
inches (i.e., 24 frames) per second. This is the
present situation of the 16 nun. film with the
attendant poor results and the sacrificing of per-
forations on one side of the film.

An entirely new system of 16 mm. sound film
has recently been demonstrated in a small but
efficiently equipped laboratory in the centre of
London. This system provides a film of 16 mm.
to be printed with a 35 mm. track in contact in
the orthodox manner, and the track to be tra-
versed at 35 mm. speed, although the picture is
projected at 16 mm. speed.

I have seen and heard an ordinary 16 mm.
print projected in comparison (same amplifier)
with one from the same negative printed in the
new style, and the difference in quality is truly
astounding. There are several other advantages
such as central traction, no re-winding, fool-proof
threading of projector and longer life of the fin-
ished product. The film is 16 mm. wide — 3 mm.
either side is provided for a standard sound track.
The perforations are the same dimensions and
pitch as on 85 mm. film, and are positioned so
that tlie first two are side by side, with the outer
edges touching the inner edge of the sound track
space, and 8 mm. down in the centre is a single
perforation of the same dimension. The sequem
of perforations thus visually appears as on a No.
5 domino. The result is that spaces 8 mm. x 1"
mm. in between these perforations are provided
to receive the picture images. These mute

images are, of course, printed by optical reduc-
tion in the usual manner, except that the inter-
mittent mechanism displaces three-quarters of
an inch of unexposed positive as in standard 85
nun. practice, which is the equivalent of 2 frai
of 16 mm. picture. The mask in the 16 mm. gate
allows only one of the frames to be printed and
results in an alternate image and space all
through the reel.

When the reel is complete it is taken off and
placed in position without re-winding for a second
set of images to be printed in the blank spaces.

The fact that it is not re-wound, reverses it
from side to side and upside down; the intermit-
tent engaging with the two perforations which are
always at the top of the picture prevents over-
printing and forms a finished print with the
images upside-down to each other.

I now come to the printing of the Sound Track.
It will be understood by the above description that
each frame is provided with three-quarters of an
inch in length on either side of the sound track,
and is progressing at the 35 mm. speed. The
sound for the first run is on the one edge, and
on the other edge the sound for the second run,
which automatically takes its proper position over
the Photo Electric Cell as it is never re-wound.

The usual form of track printer is used, except-
ing that the gate sprocket is designed with an
extension on one end to accommodate the 16 mm.
film. The Standard teeth are left on the outer
edge to engage on the 35 mm. negative, and two
out of every four of the teeth on the opposite
edge are removed, as the perforations on the 16
mm. are the same size and pitch, and the sound
track on the 35 mm. being inside the perforations
the space left on the 16 mm. will overlap in its
propel- position to receive the track print in the
usual manner.

Reviewing the above, what advantages does
this system have over the present ?

1. Sound identical in every maimer to 35 mm.

2. Perforations providing central traction,

thereby making the life of the prints equal
to that of 35 mm. and thus allowing a much
lower commercial Library charge.

3. Re-winding (which causes wear on films) is

considerably reduced.

4. Fool-proof in use.

."). \n\ oo nun. projector can be modified to pro-
ject this film.

March— April, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

41

CINEMA

It All Started in 1918

Yes, the Studio Agreement has been signed at
last. But few members know of the first meeting
of the old Kine Gamer. mien's Society in 1918 at
the end of World War No. 1. It was held at
Emile's Restaurant in W ardour Street. I cycled
from Aldershot, where I was then stationed in
the Army, to attend, and alter the meeting — full
of good cheer and beer — cycled back. Amongst
those present were the late Bert Bloomfield, Jack
Wiggins, Billy Boole and Walter Davis, then there
were George Woods-Taylor, Jack and A. St. A.
Brown. It was this meeting that first started
trade unionism amongst film technicians. While
we discussed the measures we ought to take to
protect ourselves, we drank rough red wine which
tasted like old files and vitriol — the price of the
room. We finished the meeting at the "Ship"
in Wardour Street, cleaning our palates with hon-
-i English beer. It's a long time between World
Wars No. 1 and 2, but it just shows perseverance
pays.

The Newsreel Section of A.C.T. will soon be in
full blast and then we shall have completed the
job these old pioneers envisaged.

Do You Know "The Bishop"?

Perhaps not, but he runs a film studio in a
church complete with steeple in Marylebone Boad.
The Marylebone Film Studio is in the annex of
a church and is run by A.C.T. member Henry
Halstead — better known as "The Bishop." This
bijou studio has been associated with the produc-
tion of 51 pictures, both on location and in the
studio. These films have been made for the Admir-
alty. War Office, Air Ministry. Ministry of Informa-
tion, Ministry of Food, Ministry of Supply, Minis-
try of Health, Central Council of Health Educa-
tion, Ministry of Agriculture — also the Fighting
French, Czechoslovak M.O.I. , Polish M.O.I, and
Netherlands Government. Henry organised the
cameras and lighting and personally recorded inter -

\ iew s with the Queen. ( i-eneral MacNaughton, etc.
Such famous actors as Emlyn Williams and Nova
Pilbeam have acted at Marylebone. Three of the
pictures made during the \ ear were in Technicolor,
one of which was The Life of Faraday. The small
permanent staff includes Henry Halstead, Art
Director. Sound Cameraman, three Carpenters,
one Painter, one Properly Master, one Stage-hand
and two Electricians — all union men who handle
80 hw. direct current from the studio's generator.
The greatest joh of the Marylebone Studio is the
initiation of film technicians to higher jobs — many
directors and camera men now- playing the " tops "
must Mess the da\ they worked at the studio in
a church.

Airgraph from Ceylon

Harry Kratz. one of our old stalwarts who is
serving as a Pilot Officer in the R.A.F., Ceylon,
writes to tell us he bumped into Captain Bryan
Langley looking very fit and in his usual good
spirits, none the worse for his experiences. He
says Bryan has just started a most ambitious pro-
duction and he (Harry) has been given official
permission to assisi in the film — squadron duties,
of course, permitting, They have been drama-
tizing it around the island, where they met an-
other A.C.T. member, brother Sydney Payne, ex-
Humphries Labs, who is with the B.A.F. Photo
Seci ion and who has also been roped in to help
with this epic.

Bryan Langley was armed with A.C.T. Journals
and llarn says would it be too ambitious for him
to expect one now and again. "It is good," he
says " to hear how things are going back home and
to know about the good work A.C.T. is doing.
Keep it up." We are sending Harry some Jour-
nals and hope he likes this issue with news of the
Studio Charter being signed. Harry was a great
helper in getting A.C.T. going and was on the
Council in our early days, so he can take some'
personal pride in the final signing of the Charter.
(Concluded on page 35)

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them -the name that matters is

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12

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

FINE GRAIN

by
JOHN A. OJERHOLM

March— April, 1943

■I

ALREADY in Britain, even' in the midst of
war, motion pictures have been shown which
reveal a marked advance both in the defini-
tion and relief of the image, and a remarkable in-
crease in the frequency range of the sound recorded
on the sound track. There is a definite step in
the direction of stereoscopy, an increase in volume,
and a clearer sound definition.

These advances have been made possible by
the use of fine-grain film, either in the studio,
or the positive processing plant, or in both. Fine-
grain film has, in fact, quietly, behind the noise
of war, brought about, not a revolution, but
emphatically an incalculable reform in the tech-
nical reaches of the motion picture.

Fine-grain recording is not being operated in
England to-day, but fine-grain dupes and laven-
ders are being imported here increasingly. On these
the increased visual definition, and the greatly
improved sound, has been reported and saluted
in the columns of the trade press without excep-
tion.

Fine-grain has come to stay. It will inevitably
be used here, in British laboratories, in the post-
war period. It is being increasingly used for dub-
bing prints. A naturally progressive step in the
march of the modern motion picture, its forward
movement is an inevitable as was sound and
colour.

What then is fine-grain? Whence did it come?
What are its precise technical achievements?
What are the exact relations of fine-grain in studio
recording, photography and laboratory printing in
the picture theatre itself? These questions are
easily answered.

Look at a fine-grain film as projected to-day,
and the technician will see, less boiling of the
image, because of the greater resolution of the
fine-grain film. Where fine-grain film is used for
dubbing, he will find that the use of it in printing
has brought a material advance in volume range,
which permits greater latitude in the original re-
cording. There is an improvement in sound quality
because of the reduction of noise and modulated
noise effects which, it is well known, tend to mask
the signal, where coarser grain types of emulsion
are used. Both ear and eye, in fact, are given a
closer contact with reality.

For years past the limitations of the older and
established types of emulsion have been recog-
nised, and the need for a finer-grain stock never

needed argument. The use, nowadays, of fine-
grain stock for dubbing and release prints, in addi-
tion to its use on master positives, duped negatives
and back projection prints, has brought about a
solution of that problem.

The normal type of film emulsion in general
use to-day has a coarse grain structure. As a
consequence, sound prints are subject to much
extraneous noise, modulated noise effects, loss of
high-frequency resolution, image spread, halation,
and other deficiencies and defects. Picture prints
have marked limits of definition and clarity. Early
experiments, dating back to 1937, with fine-grain,
on duplicating and back projection prints, led to
the belief that if suitable films of this type were
applied to recording and release printing, there
would be material improvements. Experiments,
dealt with more exhaustively below, were launched
in Hollywood, fruits of which are being harvested
in England to-day.

Numerous devices have been essayed and per-
fected by motion picture technicians, aiming to
reduce the basic film noise of positive type emul-
sions. Noise reduction equipments, push pull re-
cordings, track-matting devices, wider original
sound-tracks, pre- and post-equalised push-pull
recordings, have all been tried. Ultra-violet print-
ing of sound track, on positive type emulsions, was
found to bring about some reduction of film noise,
as well as improving the high-frequency response,
and reducing halation. It is the only method, in
fact, which basically affects the source of film
noise.

First experiments with the use of fine-grain film
were made in the studios of Hollywood. Since
1938 research and experiment has been carried
on by ERPI and Paramount, with a view to using
fine-grain emulsion for variable density negatives
and re-recording prints. Metro have adopted the
fine-grain stock for all purposes. Goldwyn Studios
experimented with both Dupont and Eastman
stock. For some time all re-recording prints at
Paramount have been made on fine-grain stock,
from a normal sound negative, and one complete
picture was re-recorded on fine-grain release nega-
tive, with a limited number of release positives
printed also on fine-grain. These were, in fact,
the first complete adaptations of fine-grain stocks
to release.

Simultaneously, ERPI have been constantly
active in investigating the sensitometric proper-

.March— April, 1943

T HE CINE-TECHNICIAN

43

ties and signal to noise relationships of all the fine-
grain emulsions. In order to incorporate the acti-
vities of the various experimenters a Committee
was formed in 1940 on which sat representatives
of ERPI, the Western Electric licensees, and the
major film suppliers.

Interest in fine-grain was stimulated by the pos-
sibility of reducing background noise and the inter-
modulation of sound and signal. While much pro-
gress has been made in the use of noise reduction
circuits to enhance the signal to noise ratio on
standard stocks, a reduction in film noise itself
was considered essential to accommodate fully the
volume range available in modern sound recording
systems. Further, while the use of noise reduction
devices has brought about an increase in signal to
noise ratio on standard stocks, the quality of the
sound tended to be impaired when noise in excess
of IOdb was applied, for beyond this point the
breathing of background noise tended to offset the
quietness of silent passages.

It was long felt that less grain in the negative
would reduce background noise, and enhance the
signal to noise ratio. Until 1937 no suitable film
was available. Eastman's 1360, which, when ex-
posed to white light, was a fair substitute for
ultra violet exposure standard stock, was intro-
duced. Dupont also brought in their 216 for the
same purpose. Both were intended for variable
area work, and with their high contrasts were not
ideal for variable density, low gamma develop-
ment. In 1939 Dupont introduced 222 for vari-
able density and re-recording print use.

One of the problems confronting the use of any
type of fine-grain emulsion for recording, is the
relatively slow speed of the emulsions. Standard
sound emulsions call for the maximum exposure
from a tungsten lamp in recording. Fine-grain
being offered at a speed of about one-fifth that of
standard film, either a new light source or drastic
improvement in old light sources and optical sys-
tems was imperative. Fortunately, the develop-
ment of the high pressure mercury arc offered a
possible solution. The problem of sufficient ex-
posure involved the print as well as the negative.
The high pressure mercury arc has, since then,
been greatly improved, and is more suitable to-day
than it was at the outset. Forced air cooling of
the arc makes possible a great increase in illumina-
tion by operation at a higher wattage than was
designed. A great range of exposure is now pos-
sible. Recent improvements at Paramount and
Metro's Labs show that with improved recording
optics, combined with ultra-violet printing, it is
now feasible to substitute completely the use of a
standard tungsten filament source for exposure of
low gamma fine grain negatives.

Experiments, backed up by studio recordings,
reveal a marked improvement in signal to noise
ratio of at least IOdb on a fine-grain print made

from a fine-grain negative. The actual improve-
ment to the ear seems more of the order of 18 to
20 db, because of the almost complete freedom
from breathing in the background noise. Labora-
tory research shows that with a fine-grain stock,
signal to noise ratio of 45db may be obtained.

These sound improvements are not, however,
the end of the story. Improved image definition
is achieved, dueto the reduced flare in the emul-
sion. There is a great increase in the higher
frequencies. A very low distortion is indicated
when measured by intermodulation or harmonic
analysis on fine-grain prints made from a fine-grain
negative, especially if ultra violet light is used
in exposing the film stock. This is responsible for
the pleasing quality of fine grain recording. Tests
at a number of Hollywood studios in 1939, on ex-
perimental and existent fine-grain emulsions, led
to the development of fine-grain stock. Since tests
on this particular slock suggested that it fulfilled
all the requirements laid out by the experimental
committees, and in a special syllabus drawn up by
Paramount, further experiments were launched, to
work out all phases of operation necessary for its
application to release printing. The slowness of
the emulsion and the greater susceptibility to
abrasion, and to picking up dirt, are problems in-
volved. The greatest care was necessary to keep
the negative clean since reduced background noise
made noise printed through dirt, even more
obvious. There are various technical aspects of
fine-grain printing, which are worthy of record.

Printing. The increased light calfed for because
of the slowness of fine-grain film was greatly
assisted by Paramount adopting an optical system
for printing with tungsten lamps. The neces-
sary control to obtain Hie desired mean exposure
was obtained by adjusting the ground glass and
filters. While Model E release printers require
a still higher intensity light source, it is now prac-
ticable to equip them with improved printing

(Continued on page 45J

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Telephone Gerrard 5223

44

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1943

TRAINING FILMS

THE subject of training films can', for the
present at any rate, only be discussed and
written about in a very general way. Much
of this work is, of course, very secret, and can
only be seen by those engaged on the actual pro-
duction-and the audience for whom it was designed.
Some of those engaged in the production of train-
ing films have had to sign documents declaring
that they will on no account discuss their work
with anyone other than their immediate collabora-
tors. A very few of us have been permitted to
see a little of one another's achievements, and
have, of course, welcomed these opportunities for
discussion and mutual criticism. So it will be seen
that even those engaged upon this type of work
have very little idea of the scope and volume of
the work being turned out by the industry as a
whole and by the Services themselves. No com-
plete statistical record of these films has been
compiled as yet. Private records exist, of course,
in the hands of each branch of the Services, but
these obviously are not available to the film indus-
try for the information of individuals.

The following observations can, hjowever, safely
be made. In some cases complete courses have
been specially designed to incorporate the use of
film. The number of reels involved is anything
from one to twenty. In no case that I know of
are these films planned to eliminate the instructor.
Some subjects have recently been designed so
that the projector can be stopped at intervals for
discussion to take place, after technical points
have been made. Methods have also been worked
out, by means of questionnaires and the like, by
which the instructor can discover how much has
been absorbed by the trainee. Some consideration
has also been given to the amount that can be
absorbed at one sitting. When intelligently planned
these films clearly make available to every man
and woman, even in remote areas, the very best
methods of instruction.

Many of the technicians working on these films
have had experience of work in the major film
studios on feature entertainment films. Whilst
this experience is very useful in the imparting of
a professional polish to their work, they here find
themselves faced with an entirely new set of
problems. Many a successful feature has relied on
a good fast tempo which did not give the audience
time to think. Training films, on the other hand,
can only succeed for quite the opposite reason. It
must be remembered that many of the trainees
have not had to exert themselves mentally outside

certain well-defined grooves for a long time, and
that at the same time the interest of the more
nimble-witted must not be lost.

The directors and technicians working on these
films often have to begin by becoming trainees
themselves before they can start to translate their
subject into film form. Certain difficult subjects
demand considerable skill in interpreting the tech-
nicalities involved. Often every technical device
has to be brought into play, and a few reels may
involve more trick-work, models, diagrams, etc.,
than are needed in several feature productions. In
using all these resources, the governing factor, of
course, should always be that the same results
could not be obtained by any other simpler means.
In view of the technicalities involved, it would
obviously be unwise to have several disconnected
units working on different stages of a complex
course. It is clear that if the same unit covered
the whole course, its understanding of the subject
would progress with its work. Liaison officei'S are
usually appointed by the Services to work with
the film unit, and whilst their guidance and criti-
cism is of inestimable value, their knowledge of
film technique is usually very limited.

In the assembly of the material accumulated,
another new set of technical problems arises. For
instance, it may be necessary to hold a diagram for
quite a time after the commentary has finished
so that the trainee can turn over in his mind, and
memorise, the points made. When a point is com-
plex and difficult to explain a scene may have to
be repeated twice or even more often, perhaps
twice with commentary and once without, as the
subjects demands. It must be remembered, too,
that in many cases trainees are given several
opportunities of seeing the same reel. It can be
imagined how boring the forced gag or wisecrack
can become under such circumstances. It is obvi-
ous that no rules can be laid down for the making
of these films — that each subject should dictate
its own requirements in technique of picture and
sound track.

Large numbers of these films, good bad and in-
different, are now in circulation, black-and-white.
technicolor, 35mm, 16mm., being screened by fixed
and portable projectors. A number are also in pro-
cess of production. We who are engaged on this
work can only hope that we shall improve with
each subject, and never become smug and imagine
that we have found a formula. Some of us are
pressing through A.C.T. for opportunities which
will give us a more comprehensive view of the
work being done. Some technical units have
already wasted a good deal of time and thought
wrestling with similar problems, ignorant of one
another's efforts. It just does not happen to be
anyone's job to correlate what is being done and
to draw conclusion therefrom.

C. Tomrley

March— April, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

45

FINE GRAIN — (Continued from page 43)

optics combined with ultra violet niters using a
tungsten lamp.

Release recording. Fine-grain films for release
sound negative also call for an increased brilliance
in the recorder lamp. Additionally the Western
Electric D-86715 recorder is equipped with track-
matting devices which still further reduce the
available exposure. Tests on the coiled filament
tungsten lamps normally used indicated that
sufficient exposure could not be obtained at a safe
operating current. The GEC 85 watt high pres-
sure mercury arc was tested, as a new light source,
and found usable under certain conditions, but in-
volved complications.

Development of the H3X arc, modified for
forced draught air cooling, suggested advantages.
(aj Twice the normal exposure was obtainable.

(b) Starting time was reduced to a minute or less.

(c) No delay in restriking the arc if this was neces-
.sary. (d) Arc self-extinguishing if air or power
suddenly interrupted.

New Negative Developer. Since the objective of

the new development was to provide a satisfac-

I tory fine-grain release positive, and a fine-grain

' release sound negative, the sound negative would

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have to be developed to a low gamma if a high
quality sound print were to be obtained. Tests
on fine-grain, in the normal sound negative deve-
loper, indicated a gamma control of approxi-
mately 0:5 at the shortest time of development.
Since the distortion obtained at this gamma was
too high when printed with a mercury arc, a group
at Paramount Laboratory in. Hollywood engi-
neered a special borax sound negative developer,
which has proven satisfactory for the proper low
gamma development of fine-grain release positive.
Processing controls. Tests on fine grain stock
suggested that improved quality could be obtained
on £>rints by developing the stock in the release
developer at the normal time. It was then neces-
sary to find the optimum constants for the nega-
tive, and the optimum print density. To aid this,
use was made of the intermodulation test equip-
ment developed by EEPI. With the aid of this
it is possible to determine readily the dynamic dis-
tortion of sound prints, using standard theatre
type reproducers with the measuring apparatus.
The tool is of great advantage in variable density
film research, since no corrections can be applied.
Static sensitometry provides the needed labora-
tory research controls, but since the source of light
and the methods of exposure are not the same as
(Concluded on page 47)

HIGHEST POSSIBLE
PRICES OFFERED

for

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SOUND & SILENT

ALSO 8 mm and 9.5 mm
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We are also offering exceptional
prices for

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and similar Miniature Cameras and
all Accessories and Lenses for
these. Prices for all the above are
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City Sale & Exchange

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PHONE: CITY 1124

46

THE CINE-TBCHNICIAX

March— April, 1943

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

Warner Bros. : Discussions with some of our
members at Warner Bros, have been going on
for the past few months. You know the sort of
tiling : a quiet chat in the local pub, correspond-
ence and telephone conversations. Then there was
a meeting between Messrs. Royce and Salomon
representing the Warner Bros, management,
and the General Secretary and myself. Aris-
ing out of this meeting Mr. Royce undertook
to place his observations on tin- Studio Standard
Agreement before the Managing Director, Mr.
Max Milder, on Mr. Milder 's return from America.
It is anticipated that discussions will shortly take
place between Mr. Milder and A.C.T. To keep the
ball rolling a meeting of our members at Warner
Bros, was called and the invitation was extended
to any non-members who cared to come along.
The response was excellent and in this respect we
are indebted to the Warner Bros. Works Com-
mittee who gave us their full support and were
represented at the meeting by Mr. Tom Hennessy
and Mr. W. Hiett. George Elvin gave a full
report on the Studio Agreement.

A resolution was carried unanimously authoris-
ing A.C.I1, to approach the Management with a
view to negotiating an Agreement. An A.C.T.
Committee was elected with Mr. Russell West-
wood as Shop Steward. He was also elected to
represent A.C.T. on the Works Committee. It
anticipated that Warner's will in future be
represented at General Council meetings and will
consequently be in close touch with all the activi-
ties of the Union.

To round it all off, Warner Bros, (as we go to
press) have agreed to observe the Studio Agree-
ment .

Just Part of the A.C.T. Service! Peter Searl,
camera loader at Riverside, under six months con-
tract to Butchers, had to go into hospital. Through
Miine misunderstanding it looked as though he
would be paid a week's salary and lose his job.
Fortunately, Head Office was able to put the
inai tei- right. Consequently he received what sick-
ness pay he was entitled to and his job will be
open to him when he is fit for work again.

Pathe Laboratory Dance : Pathe held another
of their popular dances at the Trade Union Club
on Saturday. February 27th. Charlie Kay's Swing

Band supplied the music and were an entertain-
ment in themselves. They are well worth booking
for future events.

Attendance has gradually increased from dance
to dance so that it looks as though it will be neees-
sary to book a larger hall for future dances. The
proceeds of the last two are to go to the A.C.T.
Benevolent Fund and will include the takings from
a rattle run at the last dance. The winner gener-
ously handed over the prize money to the Fund.

The Pathe Dance Committee, Miss A. M.
Cooper, 'Mr. F. Fuller and Mr. F. Baker, have
done a lot to further the social side of A.C.T.
among laboratory members. Their next dance is
on May 1st. details will be made known later.

Essential Works Order: The Ministry of Labour
proposes substantively to schedule certain under-
takings in the Film Industry under the Essential
Works Order some time in April, provided, among
other things, the terms and conditions of employ-
ment are not less favourable than those provided
for under the Conditions of Employment and Na-
tional Arbitration Orders. Needless to say. A.C.T.
can never agree in the case of one or two firms
until we are satisfied that certain adjustments in
wages and conditions have been put into opera-
tion.

The Beveridge Report : British National gave us
Walter Greenwood's Love on tlie Dole as a
screen classic. What an opportunity is provided
through the Beveridge Report to make a film with
even greater potentialities! A east well chosen,
in touch and in sympathy with the common peo-
ple, and a team of brilliant film technicians, could
spread the message of Beveridge to all the people
in the land and prepare them to fight for it. The
theme, of course, simple: a peep into the future :
the brazen attempt of Big Business to sabotage
the implementing of the Report through Parlia-
ment and the Press ; a picture of what would
have happened had they got away with it ; and
finally the rising wrath of the people surging for-
ward irresistibly and forcing their will on the
Government until the Report as a whole was
adopted — and with improvements.

It's a great idea, but, remembering Love on
the Dole, would it gel past the censor? And who
would finance it — Mr. Bank?

Bert Craik ,

larch— April, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

47

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Seventeenth
List

Miss BIKNSTINGLE (Clerk, Eotha Films)—

Attached to American Air Force.
Miss V. BOND (Optical Printer, Brent Labs.)—

H.M. Forces.
r. CHAMBEKLIN (Sensitometry, Humphries.

Labs.)— L.A.C./R.A.F.
LAURIE EDMUNDS (Asst. Prod. Manager,

Denham)— B.A.F.
NEIL GEMMELL (G.B. Labs.)— Army Film

Unit.
D. G. DOFF (Dryer, Humphries Labs.)— Royal

Navy.
TACK HICKS (Prod. Manager)— R.N. V.R.

D. HILL (Camera Assistant, G.B.)— Sgt. Army
Film Unit, North Africa.

A. JONES (Humphries Labs.)— Royal Navy.
W. T. LEIGH (Stock Joiner, Denham Labs.)—

H.M. Forces.
PETER PICKERING (Prod. Asst. Rotha Films)

— H.M. Forces.

E. POWICK (Technicolor)— U.S. Army.

^. J. PROVIS (Assist. Camera, Publicity Pic-
tures)— Royal Navy.
H. READ (Humphries Labs.) — Royal Navy.
I. RICHIARDI (Fox Labs.)— Army Film Unit.

F. SAVAGE (Dryer, Humphries Labs.)— Royal
Navy.

Miss S. SHEAFF (Technicolor)— A. T.S.

H. SNOWBALL (Technicolor)— Armv.

PETER TAYLOR (Cutting Assist.', Denham)

— R.A.F.
LARRY THOMPSON (Boom Operator, Denham)

—R.A.F.

Promotions and Transfers
A. W. GARNER (A.C.T. Head Office) promoted

Staff Sergeant, R.A.S.C, M.E.
L/Cpl. A. R. ELVIN, R.A.S.C— transferred to

Army Film Unit.

FINE G R A I N — [Concluded from page 45)

in a recorder, it does not give the true projection
characteristics of the film.

In order to find out the processing constants of
the fine-grain negative best adapted for fine-grain
printing, static sensitometer tests were made with
the new developer. 60-400 cycle intermodulation
tests were then recorded at approximately 80 per
cent, modulation on the light valve. The test was
repeated several times to provide a family of nega-
tives covering the range of negative densities and
gammas to be investigated. Prints of these were
made at various densities and measured on the
distortion analysis equipment, the results were
plotted, and the optimum operating points deter-
mined. This test serves independently to define a
satisfactory negative exposure, negative control
gamma, and positive print density, the print
gamma being fixed by the positive developer. Tests
made in this way also disclosed dubbing prints of
materially improved quality, and lower surface
noise could be made on fine-grain stock using the
normal low gamma. In view of this all dubbing
prints at Olympic will in the future be printed
on Fine Grain Release Positive.

WHO'S WHERE

Apology. We have to apologise to Mr. Eugene
Pizey whose name, through an oversight, appeared
in the last issue of " Who's Where " as Mark
Pizey. The mistake was all the more inexcusable
on our part as Mr. Pizey — affectionately known
throughout the industry as the " Professor " —
is a stillman of very long standing, having been
in the film business for fifteen years and a stalwart
member of A.C.T. for over seven of them. We are
very sorry, " Prof ", and it won't happen again.

Held Over. Owing to shortness of space and
late arrival of copy, there is no " Who's Where "
in this issue. We take this opportunity of asking
all concerned with giving information for this fea-
ture to make sure that their information, and
- spelling, is correct and their copy in on time.

FILM SCRAP OR JUNK WANTED

for the recovery of the Nitrate and

Acetate Cellulose, also Photographers

films and stills.

Send particulars and quantities to : —

LLOYDS (Dept. C.T.) 72, Bridge St.,
Christchurch, Hants.

48

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1943

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

Mass Radiography in Industry — (British Journal of
Photography, April 17th and October 30th, 1942).
This brief account of the method used in mass
radiography of the chest for diagnosing pulmonary
tuberculosis is interesting, particularly as the Gov-
ernment has stated that mass radiography of the
lungs of workers in industry is to be applied in a
number of centres. The method consists in what
is called indirect radiograph}', in which a minia-
ture camera, is used to photograph the image of
the patient's chest thrown on the fluorescent
screen by the X-ray tube. The resulting miniature
photograph is then projected to give a life-sized
picture which is easily examined. Experience has
shown that about 120 cases an hour can be com-
fortably dealt with.

A distance of 36" is used between the X-ray tube
and the screen. The miniature camera is about
35" from the screen. An 1.5 lens of 2" focus has
proved satisfactory. The camera is joined up to
the fluorescent screen by a light-tight tunnel and
exposure is made by switching on and off the cur-
rent feeding the X-ray tube. The only camera
adjustment is the moving of the film between'
exposures. Exposures of between 0.3 and 0.45
sees. (30 to 45 milliampese seconds) on Ilford
H.P.2 film have given good results with thousands
of subjects.

X-Ray Motion Pictures — (Jerry Fairbanks, Inter-
national Photographer, May. 1942).
The author describes how the difficulties of
photographing in motion the X-ray image on a
fluorescent screen were overcome. Exposure and
tube life were the main problems. The fastest
50 mm. coated lens available was used.. Eastman
Kodak supplied a special 35 mm. filnrwith X-ray
emulsion and spooled in motion picture lengths.
The intensity of light necessary to make an expo-
sure on the film produced a degree of heat thai
caused the X-ray tube to collapse. A solution was
found in the recently perfected rotating-anode
tube, which operates at 100,000 volts and 500 mil-
liamps. rl'he tube could only work at this inten-
sity for a few seconds at a time. To extend this
period of time long enough to make motion pic-
tures a circuit braker synchronised with the
camera shutter was used, so that the X-ra\ tube
was off and resting during the film change period,
and was accordingly able to supply a high radia-
tion over a longer period. The film was protected
from fogging b\ the X-rays by special lead-lined
containers.

New 16mm. Sound Camera— (Wm. stub. A.S.C..

American Cinematographer, April, 1942).

In the U.S.A. where 16 mm. is being widely
used in the production of training and defence
films, the E.M. Berndt Corporation have put on
the market the Auricon 16 mm. Sound Camera to
serve as a companion to their successful 16 mm.
Auricon Recorder. The new camera may be used
alone for single-system sound and picture record-
ing or interlocked with the Auricon recorder as a
double system unit. The camera is of box form.
The case, made of wood and lined with foam-rub-
ber sound insulating material, does the double
job of acting as a blimp as well as a carrying ease
for the camera. The operating mechanism, built
of tool steel, with precision cut gears and sprockets,
is mounted on a heavy steel frame-plate inside
the case and suspended on vibration-damping
mountings.

The film moving mechanism is of the single
claw, pressure plate type, and it is claimed gives
registration only surpassed by the best pilot-pin
design. Recording is done at the main driving
sprocket, which is fitted with precision cut teeth
and a heavy fly wheel. The motor drive is of an
ingenious and unconventional type. A small high-
speed (1800 R.P.M.) synchronous motor is em-
ployed to drive the camera mechanism and a
separate non-sync motor is used to power the
take-up, governed by the smaller main driving
unit. The motors operate on 60 cycle 110 volt
current. For field use the unit may be driven from
a battery fed portable power unit. The camera has
a 200 foot film capacity (using standard daylight
loading spools). Lenses from most Filmo 70, Bolex
or Victor cameras may be used with the Auricon
camera, as it is designed to take any type-C lens
mounting. The finder is the simple open-frame
type. Parallax correction is obtained by lateral
adjustment of the near eye-piece along a calibrated
scale. The forward frame is fitted to take cut-out
mattes of coloured celluloid.

The sound is variable area. The recording gal-
vanometer is of rugged design, capable of taking
considerable overloads. All the adjustments to
the optical system are made at the factory and
locked permanently in position. The frequency
response of the system is stated to be greater than
the reproducing range of most standard 16 mm.
projectors. The amplifier is a separate unit. It
makes use of the type of batteries and low-drain
tubes used in most portable radios.

^^^ ^) "J^^ t t / ^^^7 ' TABLE TOP PHOTOGRAPH by K. H. GASEIT/NE f.R.P.S.

C c. n!\//C £ In heac£ or war

ILFORD LIMITED • CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL HOUSE • WARDOUR STREET • LONDON • W.I

Telephone : GERrard 2763 (3 lines)

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD.

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WARDOURST.,

LONDON, W.I.

Telephone: GERrard 6711
Cables: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 9, Bromefield, Stanmore, Middlesex,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

MAY
JUNE |

THE hftU«£UM

or NoasMd jaht

J

BERT CRAIK

KENNETH GORDON

FRANK LAUNDER

KAY MANDER

R. K. NEILSON BAXTER

FRANK SAINSBURY

DESERT VICTORY
DECADE OF PROGRESS

i

WHO'S WHERE IN FILM PRODUCTION \\

CLOSE-UPS— ANTHONY ASQUITH

HIDDEN VALUES

^ y ^

Rigid laboratory control sees to it that
every roll of 'Kodak' negative film has its
full complement of the hidden values —
speed, wide latitude, high resolving power,
unvarying dependability — that make
possible the perfection of to-day's screen
productions.

PLUS-X

for general studio use

SUPER-XX

when little light is available

BACKGROUND-X

for backgrounds and exterior work

KODAK NEGATIVE FILMS

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MOTION PICTURE FILM DEPT., KODAK HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C.?

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

>rial & Publishing Office: 9, BROMEFIELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX.
;rtisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I.

Telephone: EDGWARE3119
Telephone: HOLBORN 497*

Associate Editors : Darrel Catling, Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, Frank Sainsbury.

m

ber Forty-two, Volume Nine

May — June, 1943

Price One Shilling

DESERT VICTORY

A shortened version of the script for the i66th programme in the B.B.C. series, Into Battle,
interesting not only as a tribute to the A.F.U. but as an example of a radio script.

F/U Drum Roll and " Lillibullero " : Down For :

Announcer: Into Battle! The fighting spirit of
the United Nations !

Up " Lillibullero " and Out :

Announcer: This week nearly every cinema in
the country is showing a film which records the
Eighth Army's victorious pursuit of Eommel from
El Alemain to Tripoli. It is called Desert Victory,
and it shows every phase of the battle as seen
through the lenses of some thirty cameramen of
the Army Film and Photographic Unit who were
always in the front line. But behind the film lies
a story which the camera could not record — the
story of the cameramen.
F/U Tanks Moving: Add Dive Bomber: Whistle:

Tankman 1 : " What are those two chaps doing
out in the open ? ' '

Tankman 2 : " They're taking pictures."

Tankman I: (surprised contempt) "What!"
Peak Stuka Dive : Stuka Receding :

Tankman 1 : " Looks like one of them camera
chap's has got it."

Tankman 2: "Come on — we'd better go and
give him a hand."

Metal Lid of Tank Thrown Back and Fade :

Tankman 1 : (fade in) " Where's it got you,
mate? "

A.F.U. 1: "It's nothing much. Where's
Jack?"

A.F.U. Serg. : (come in) " Here I am. Let me
give you a hand . . . ."

A.F.U. 1: "No — look after the camera, will
you? "

Tankman 2: "Don't you worry — we'll look after
your pictures, chum."

Narrator: The cameraman went back to the

base hospital and three weeks later he was out

again taking the shots you see of the battered

nces of El Agheila. All through the Battle

of Egypt Army cameramen were attached to every

arm of the Forces that seemed likely to yield the
pictures for which the world was waiting — the
pictures of Britain's Army in attack. But the
work of the A.F.P.U., as it is now called, didn't
start with the battle of Egj-pt. Individual camera-
men had been working with the Army before
Dunkirk, and it was after that that an official
unit was formed. Although there were many fewer
cameramen then than there are now they were'
with Wavell's thirty thousand in the beginning of
1941. During the advance a cameraman and two
others were heading west in a car towards a small
coastal town where they expected to find British
patrols. As they entered the town ....
F/U Car Engine Running :

A.F.U. 2: " My God! The place is stiff with
Italians. The boys can't have got here yet."

A.F.U. 3: " Well, we can't go back now, what
are we going to do about it ? "

A.F.U. 2: "Put a good face on it, I suppose.
We'd better find the Italian CO."
Car Speeds Up :

Narrator: An Italian conducted the three men
to his commanding officer. They announced that
the British Army was outside the town and called
upon the garrison to surrender. To their immense
surprise the Italian CO. at once gave in, and so,
repeating that their Anu\ was about to enter, the
three Englishmen left their prisoners to make a
tour of inspection.

F/U Noise of Smashing of Wood : Metal :
Distant Explosions :

A.F.U. 3 :" It ciMt ainh Looks as ii they'd mi
up their minds to get out."

A.F.U. 2: "And they're not going to leave
much tor us. ( lan'1 we stop them destroj ing every-
thing? "

A.F.U. 3: " We can try. Ill talk to the officer.
(rather slowly and clearly) Captain, you under-
stand English?"

50

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May — June, 1943

Italian Capt. : "A little, yes."

A.F.U. 3: " Well, the town has been taken by
the British. Order your men to stop demolition."

Italian Capt. : "Yes, yes, I understand." (shouts
orders in Italian F/O)

A.F.U. 2: "I wish they'd come. I'm beginning
to get nervous."

A.F.U. 3: " What we need is a drink."

A.F.U. 2: "That's an idea, let's get back to-
old Antonio."

F/I Clink of Glasses : Slight Chatter :

Italian 3: "Another glass of Chianti, gentle-
men."

A.F.U. 3: "Thank you. (mutters) How much
longer can we keep this up."

Italian 3: "You were saying ....

A.F.U. 3: "Oh-e-r, er . . ."

A.F.U. 2 : " Excellent wine you manage to get
here, I don't know how you do it."

Italian 3 : "Ah, yes, we pride ourselves on that."
F/U Lorries and Armoured Cars Coming in Fast :

A.F.U.: (aside) "Do you hear what I hear?
Thank God it won't be very long now. (up) Your
very good health, Colonel!"

Lorries Peak and Out :

Narrator: With the increasing importance of
propaganda, the whole British Army was
combed for men with photographic experience.
They were drawn from a varied assortment of
regiments, corps and units: the R.E.s, the Bine
Regiments, the Boyal Artillery, the Pioneers, the
Scottish regiments, and so on. They were then
sent to the first film unit training depot ....

O.C. Instruction : " While you are here you will
learn how to load and handle cameras under the
most impossible conditions. You will be taught to
develop a journalist's sense of what is a good camera
story, and you will be encouraged and expected to go
any lengths for the purpose of obtaining that story.
Because 'for a great deal of your time you will
be working singly or in pairs you will learn to
take your own decisions ; and yet your discipline
must be that of guardsmen. Reading a compass
or a map has got to be as simple to all of you as
reading the morning news. You can't live without
either in the desert. If you're fit now you're going
to be doubly fit by the time you finish this course.
And you must never forget that your camera is
your gun. It is your weapon, and what you do
with it will be used to counteract German propa-
ganda all over the world."

Narrator: By the middle ofOctober, 1042. the
men who had been in training were in the Middle
East, seeing desert warfare with theEighth Army.
As each unit arrived it reported to the Inti-lligence
Officer at Divisional H.Q. . . .

A.F.U. 4: "Section Officer, Army Film Unit
reporting, sir. I've got eight cameramen here."
Int. Off. : Good. Here's a list of the Units your

men will be working with — tanks, infantry and
guns."

A.F.U. 4: "Thank you, sir."

Int. Off.: "By the way, what happens if any
of your fellows get knocked off ? "

A.F.U. 4 : "There'll be a mobile reserve at H.Q.
sir, ready to go anywhere they're wanted."

Narrator : As the moon rose on October the 23rd,
complete silence lay over the desert. On either
side of the deep fortified belt of the Alamein line,
two great armies were still. In the British lines,
in slit trenches, at gun positions and observation
posts they waited, watching the seconds tick by.
And in front of the line, in No Man's Land, thej
waited too.

A.F.U. 5: "Your camera all set, Harry?"

A.F.U. 6: "Yes. I suppose the damn thing'.ll
jam directly the show starts."

A.F.U. 5 : " Much longer to go ? "

A.F.U. 6: "Almost on it. It'll be a few minutes
before the Scotties come forward, though." (short
pause)

A . F. U . 6 : " Just six more seconds to go. " (short
pause)

A.F.U. 5: "I'm going to start turning."

F/U Whirr of Camera Turning and Hold for 4
Sees. : Barrage Opening : Hold to Pipes and F/O : »

Narrator : From the opening of that tremendous
artillery barrage at 9.30 p.m. on October the 23rd,
for eleven days, the Eighth Army battered Bom- :
mel's lines. And with them were the army camera- _
men, filming bursting shells and blazing tanks and
smashed enemy guns — engineers clearing mine-
fields, infantry charges and Germans alive and
dead. And as night fell on each day's fighting, :
dispatch riders rushed photos and film back to
Cairo for distribution to newspapers and cinemas
throughout the world. On the twelfth day — Nov-
ember 3rd — came the break-through. General
Montgomery passed his main armour through the
gap to destroy Bommel's panzers.
F/U Tanks Advancing: Tank Near Slowing Down:

A.F.U. 7 : (shout) " Can you give me a lift for-
ward, sir."

Tank Officer: " Who the heck are you?"

A.F.U. 7: "Army Film Unit, sir."

Tank Officer: "All right — jump on the back —
you won't find it very comfortable I'm afraid."
Tank Speeds Up : Tank Noise Down For :

Tank Officer : " Gun traverse right ! "

A.F.U. 7 :" If it comes round much further it'll
knock me off."

Tank Officer : " If we have to fire it'll blow you
off."

Effects Up and F/O :

Narrator : Black smoke from wrecked and
burning tanks swirled over the desert darkening
a scene of terrible devastation ; making a picture
for the cameramen that resembled one of the

Mav— June, 1943

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

51

lowest circles of hell. There was no question of
using telescopic sights for the desert haze limits
normal visibility to half a mile and this is greatly
reduced by the smoke and dust of battle. Yiy night-
fall up to four hundred tanks had been destroyed,
and in the hours of darkness, R-ommel pulled out
— the great pursuit had begun.
Music :
Narrator: November the 8th — Mersa Matrub ;
November the 9th — Sidi Barrani ; November the
10th — Halfaya Pass ; November the 11th — Solium.

Music : X/F Lorries and Tanks : in Foreground
Lorry Slows to Stop •
Voice : " D.R., do you know if we're in Tobruk
yet?"

D.R. : " Must be. Some chaps were taking mov-
ing pictures of it when I left."

Lorry Up and Off :

Narrator: But desert fighting is not all action
nor do the cameramen expect to shoot a high speed
drama every day. They know how to find good
camera stories in the work behind the lines, the
dressing stations, the superb organisation of sup-
plies, the maintaining of communications over
hundreds of miles while positions change every
half minute.

By November the 20th, the Eighth Army was
in Benghazi and here it paused to build up sup-

plies for the next big advance.

Major : " What pictures have you got this morn-
ing, Sergeant? "

A.F.U. 8: "Nothing to film here, sir, except
the brewery — and that's empty."

Major : " Well, you get down to the docks right
away. The Navy'U be in any minute now with
petrol and water."

A.F.U. 8: "Bight, sir."

Int. Off. 2: "Excuse me, Major, we've got a
prisoner who might interest you. He's the Officer
Commanding your rival unit, the German propa-
ganda company."

Major : " Really. I'd like to see him, Stiffy. I'll
be across right away .... (fade)

Major: (fade in) "How d'you find things out
here ? ' '

German : " Oh, pretty much the same as you
do I expect. The desert's the same for both sides.
You know a good picture is like a well of fresh
water — -it is there but you have to know how to
find it."

Major: "I couldn't agree with you more."

Laughter and Quick F/O :
Narrator: In retreat the Germans kept only
two cameramen in the front line whereas British
cameramen are with the fighting troops both in

(Concluded' at foot of page 53 J

G.B. INSTRUCTIONAL Ltd.

THE STUDIOS, LIME GROVE, SHEPHERDS BUSH, W.12

w0*„g(or_ ADMIRALTY
WAR OFFICE
AIR MINISTRY
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
BRITISH COUNCIL

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'Phone: SHEPHERDS BUSH, 1 20

52

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN May— June, 1943

Edited by Frank Sainsbury

ANTHONY ASQUITH must be one of the
very few A.C.T. members who can claim to
have spent a large portion of their childhood
playing in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street
with Megan Lloyd George as playmate. Practi-
cally the only one, in fact, I should say. For the
first 30 years of its existence the cinema was
hardly considered respectable in high-toned circles
and it was not till after the great war that it began
to attract the university-type man as a career.
King Vidor, I suppose, was one of the first college
graduates to go to work in Hollywood ; whilst in
England Anthony Asquith, by joining the industry
in 1926 and choosing film direction as a career,
gaye the film world the final cachet of respecta-
bility. Today the impression you get is that the
vast majority of Oxford and Cambridge under-
graduates, together with the products of all the
co-educational establishments and those " edu-
cated privately," are all as enthusiastic as good
breeding will allow to grace the film business with
the charm of their presence. And it must be said
that they're an unmitigated nuisance and do very
little but harm. What they forget is that it's not
enough to have a university education, social con-
nections and so-called artistic leanings to make
a famous film director: if you're going to be any
i at all, Mm need, like Asquith, enthusiasm,
integrity, staying power and. perhaps most of all,
the capacity really to care about what you're
doing. But we can't blame him for their short-
ngs.
On the face of it Tony's background would
appear distinctly unpromising for a would-be film

CLOSE-UPS

No. 21 — ANTHONY ASQUITH

director. His mother, of course, is the famous
Lady Margot Asquith, one of the most refreshing
personalities of high society oyer the past 40 years.
His father, Herbert Asquith, was Prime Minister
from 1908 to 1916. which accounts for Tony lning
at No. 10, and during that period (the period of
the Unemployment Insurance and National
Health Acts) Lloyd George as Chancellor of the
Exchequer lived next door, which accounts for
him having Megan Lloyd George as playmate. The
Asquiths were a big family of boys and girls mixed
(his father had married twice) who all got on
well together in a friendly no-nonsense kind of
way, and Tony was the youngest of the whole lot.
Their holidays they spent together partly at
Downing Street and partly in the country on the-
Firth of Forth, between North Lerwick and the
Forth Bridge. Tony always enjoyed Scotland
and made particular friends with the local joiner,
but on the whole he admits to being essentially a
town bird, and a cockney at that.

Tony went through the conventional process of
education at Winchester and Balliol College,
Oxford, and he was a Scholar (that is, bright boy)
of both places. So far the dark shadow of the film
game had not crossed his path at all, thou<j'
showed signs of slipping by getting only Seconds
instead of Firsts at Oxford, which was nearly un-
heard of for a Classical Scholar of Balliol. The
trouble was that although he got on well with
Plato and Aristotle lie couldn't get interested in
history. As a matter of fact at this time his great
love was music, and he had had hopes of taking
it up permanently as a career. But by nov
had convinced himself that he'd never be a great
composer and reluctantly abandoned the idea. Oi
course he always kept and still keeps his interest
in music, as anyone can see who looks at the way
he cut his films (when he used to cut them him-
self), for music and film-cutting are very similar
crafts. Anyway, when he left Oxford he hail no
very clear idea of what he wanted to do. The
family had vague leanings towards the Law. which
was somewhat of a family pursuit, but Tony knew
very well that he wasn't suited for that. B
never thought of films seriously until he was
Oxford. and then not until he saw the old German
The Golem with Paul Wegener. Then he realised
for the first time that film could be used, as he

.lay— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

53

ays, for creating a mood or communicating an
smotion, and from then on he saw every German
ilm he could and his interest grew more and
nore. Well, shortly after leaving Oxford, and
)efore anything definite had been decided, Tony
uherited a small legacy from his grandfather and
nade up his mind to spend it on a trip to America .
3o off he set, armed with a batch of introductions,
aid in the end spent six months over there, three
>f them, naturally enough by now, in Hollywood.
3e had a fine bunch of introductions and made
some very good friends in Hollywood. * Most of
die time he stayed with Douglas Fairbanks and
Mary Pickford, whom he found lively and charm -
ng. He met Lilian Gish and watched her at work
m her current film The Scarlet Letter, which was
Deing directed by the great Swedish director
Victor Seastrom. Poor old Seastrom was very
nuch a ■ fish out of water in Hollywood though
le did later make a very fine film The Wind.
All in all Tony had a very enjoyable time in
Hollywood and was fascinated by all he saw,
and the result was he came back to England
determined to look for a job in the film
business. Easier said than done, even for (or
perhaps particularly for) somebody with introduc-
tions. He'd written a few scripts already and he
used to tout these round with him, but nobody
seemed to think much of them until finally he
showed them to Bruce. Woolfe, who was then
Production Manager of Stolls at CricMewood.

Desert Victory— (conclude d from page si)

advance and retreat. Throughout the eighty days.
of forced march, over fourteen hundred miles,
they kept up with the Army, travelling as self-
contained units in trucks or jeeps and sending
back to base their records of the rearguard actions
fought by the remnants of Pommel's army. On
January the 23rd at 5.00 a.m., the Eighth Army
entered Tripoli, and cameras turned on the cere-
monial entry of the pipers of the 51st Division . . .

F/U Pipes "Bonnie Dundee" and Hold Behind:
Narrator: . . , . . followed by General Mont-
gomery's review of his victorious army.

F/O Pipes :

Narrator : Desert Victory, the record of a great
army on the move, ends there. But the closing
shot is not of the parade through the city but of
tanks, infantry, artillery on the move again —
westwards.

Xow thanks to the military training, the courage
and the film experience of Army cameramen, Bri-
tain, and the world, can see the magnificent
achievement of the Eighth Army.

Up " Lillibullero " : Peak and Out:

Bruce Woolfe thought there was something to
them and on the strength of them took Tonj on
as general assistant. Genera] assistant in those
days meant general assistant all right, and covered
everything from driving the unit about to doubling
for the stars. The first picture Tony worked on was
Sinclair Hill's Boadicea, and he had to double for
Lilian Mall Davies. It must have been quite a
sight to see him and Cyril Maclaglen, who was
doubling for Phyllis Neilson Terry, tearing along
in an ancient British chariot with their blonde
curls streaming out behind them in the wind.
Meanwhile he had written another script and sent
it in to Bruce Woolfe. It was a story somewhat
on the lines of The Student of Prague (written
before he'd seen that fine film) about a man who
can detach his reflection from himself and send it
out to do murders. The milieu was a cheap lodg-
ing house (such as, today, Hitchcock might use)
and the end of the film was to show the man make
a slip up and get killed by his own reflection. The
final shot would show him sitting dead in a chair,
whilst in the mirror his reflection stood beside it.
He still thinks it would have made a good film,
and in fact Bruce Woolfe very nearly gave the O.K.
— but not quite. At last, however, he sent in the
script of Shooting Stars, and that was put into pro-
duction. F. Bramble was put on to direct it, as

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54

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

May— June. 1043

Bruce Woolfe did not consider Tony ready to direct
yet. but he was allowed to supervise the produc-
tion and to cut it. It was his first cutting job, and
be had to manage with only a flat rewinder and
an old projector, as they had no movieola.
Shooting Stars turned out quite a success, so
finally Bruce Woolfe agreed that he should direct
his next script. Underground, and with that film,
confirmed by his next, A Cottage on Dartmoor, he
was launched as a full-scale film director.

From then on he kept busy making films ; some
good films, some not so good, with successes at
one time and great disappointments at another.
But the main point was, he kept on making films,
thereby proving he was no dilettante ; and he kept
his sense of craftsmanship and kept learning,
thereby proving that he really cared for his job,
, which is unfortunately only too rare in the British
film industry. We have far too many "shooting
stars " who last only a year or so and far too many
"old hacks" disillusioned by years of routine.
Anyway, with the coming of sound he moved with
Bruce Woolfe to British Instructional at Welwyn,
where he made his first talkie Tell England, from
Ernest Raymond's book, and followed it with
Dance, Little Lady from Compton Mackenzie's
Carnival. About 1934 he went to GvB. to direct a
very successful light comedy-musical The Lucky
Number, with Clifford Mollison and Gordon
Harker. Then followed, as for so many people
in the film industry, those depressing years of
slump, unemployment, false hopes and disappoint-
ment. Tony was unlucky enough to get tied up
with Max Schach, and for four long years the only
film he made was the unfortunate Moscow Nights,
which he'd sooner forget all about. At the end of
that time he was pretty well in despair, and it
says much for his tenacity and staying power that
he kept plugging away at the film business and
didn't cut his losses and get out into something
else, as with his connections no doubt he could
so easily have done. I remember well the day in
1938 when he came to see me, and we had a drink
together and he told me he was just on his way to
an appointment with a man called Gabriel Pascal.
and did I know anything about him. Well, we nei-
ther of us knew anything much about him then,
but agreed that anything was worth trying once,
and so Tony went along to see him. The result, of
course, was Pygmalion, which was a tremendous
success, made Pascal's name for him and put
Tony back right on the map. As a matter of fact
t.h;it meeting was just as fortunate for Pascal as
it was for Tony: Pascal had been dickering with
Lee Grarmes to direct Pygmalion, and with all due
respect to Garmes as a cameraman it was
Vsquith's direction of bhe film that made all the
difference between success and failure. Once re-es-
tablished by Pygmalion, Tony has been busy direct-

ing ever since. First he went to Sound City, his
favourite studio, and made French Without Tears,
Freedom Radio and Quiet Wedding. Then he went
back to G.B. (to whom he is under contract for
two films a year) and made Uncensored and. his
.best yet, We Dive at Dawn. Next, back to Denham
to make The Demi-Paradise, with Laurence Olivier,
and today he's working on the script of his next
one for G.B., Fanny by Gaslight.

Of all the films he's made, Tony has a special
affection for Tell England, or rather for one
sequence in particular of it. This is natural enough,
as it was his first talkie (though they did do a
version of Cottage on Dartmoor with sound on
disc). On this particular sequence he hardly
left the cutting-room for a week on end, working
away sound-cutting, as they had to in those days,
without a four-way. This sequence, for which he
has such a great affection as the child of his brain
only, is the unsuccessful attempt of the "River
Clyde " to land troops on the beaches of Gallippli
by daylight. The whole of the sequence, incident
for incident and word for word, had been built up
from the official records and from eye-witness
accounts, and they had gone to Malta to shoot it.
Shooting was done very carefully and success-
fully, particularly of the troops trying to land from
the barges under machine-gun fire. One little
device which came off completely was to get a
camera assistant to tie a Newman Sinclair round
his neck by a handkerchief and then wade ashore
with the troops. As he reached the beach, bullet
holes tore across the sand in front of the camera,
the assistant stumbled on to his knees and then
turned on his back leaving the camera pointing at
the sky, and at that moment a soldier, shot,
appeared over the camera and fell full upon it.
The result was a shot that made the whole scene
come alive to the audience ; and the whole of the
cutting too was aimed at maximum effect. For in-
stance, where the four Turk machine-guns open
fire on the barges, he took 8ft. lengths of shots of
troops landing and frame-cut (alternate frames)
into each of them 2ft. lengths of the firing of
each machine-gun in succession. The result was
a very successful effect of staccato superimposi-
tions.

Anyway, that is his favourite sequence, and I'm
bound to admit that it came off completely. But I
hope his affection for that sequence and a nostal-
gic feeling for his early days doesn't blind him
to the fact that We Dive at Dawn is by far his best
film to date, much better than Tell England, and
altogether a very fine piece of work indeed. Xo
doubt he misses from those early days the chance
to cut Ins films himself (and in tact they do often
need it these days') and he looks back with regret
to those youthful times of enthusiasm for art ; but
whatever he's lost in that way he's more than

Mav— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

PLANNING

Upon the plans now being made depends the standard of life of
future generations. In every field there is a conscious endeavour
for improvement— in industry, education, agriculture and medicine
— tremendous advances are taking place under the stimulus of
war. In this progress we are taking our part and we shall be happy
in the future to make our specialized knowledge freely available
wherever photographic technique can be of use and assistance.

ILFORD CINE STOCKS

ILFORD LIMITED, CINE SALES DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL HOUSE, WARDOUR ST., LONDON, W.I

56

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

Mav — June, 1943

made up for in greater sureness of touch, more
warmth in handling people and a finer sense of
proportion in what matters most in this life. Most
people are poor judges of their own attainments
and tend to disparage their most valuable contri-
bution in favour of something which is important
only to them. And so we'd willingly see all the
camera angles and artistic cutting of Tell England
go in favour of any one of those fine human scenes
in We Dive at Dawn. And those two reels of the
attack on the Brandenburg and subsequent depth-
charging are pure film-making at its best and
prove he's been learning all the time, since the
days of Tell England.

Tony enjoyed making We Dive at Dawn a lot.
It was a good subject, a fine cast and technical
crew (with a particular pat on the back for Jack
Cox) and they had full Admiralty co-operation.
They spent a long time on location, together with
John Mills who has the leading part, watching
submarines and crews at work, and when .the}
came to work in the studio they had everything
built to scale, which caused a few headaches but
made sure the sets would look real and the cast
act real. The total result is as good a picture of
real people doing a real job as we've had. They'd
noticed in Scotland" the far-off abstracted way in
which the officers gave their orders in moments
of excitement, and determined to try and repro-
duce it on the screen ; after searching for the key to
it for some time, Tony and John Mills came to the
conclusion that it was because their minds were
always working one move ahead of the actual
order they were giving, and with this clue to work
from John Mills gives his best performance yet.
In fact all the crew of the "Sea Tiger" are
first-class, and this is an interesting development
for Tony. He doesn't mind admitting that he
doesn't get on too well with actors usually ; he's
a bit scared and uneasy with them, and, as he
puts it quite kindly but very truly " there's very
seldom any relation between talent and intelli-
gence," but on We Dive at Dawn, partly because
of the subject and partly because must of the cast
were old friends with whom he enjoys working.
the people were the real strength of the film —
which is a good augury for the future. Inciden-
tally, since then he's tried his hand at directing his
first stage play — Flare Path— by his friend Terence
Rattigan. Ee enjoyed doing it verj much, particu-
larly the lack of the long waits you're bound to gel
in film production, and he's found that doing a
stage play has helped him to get on much C
with actors'.

\n\ way, let's hope he carries on \\ ith this new-
found warmth of human touch, without losing
anything in the waj of technical finesse. It would
be nioe, for instance, to have him cut his ovs a films

again, and heaven alone knows the} could often

do with a bit of attention from him on the musical
side. Recently he's rather had to let that go by
the board, though on Pygmalion he and Arthur
lionegger worked together very well and happily
and made a very good job of it musically. Tony
distinguishes three kinds of film music: back-
ground music (a general atmospheric noise drool-
ing on as a background to dialogue, etc., and just
making a nuisance of itself), imitative music
(where you get a descending trill on the flute, for
instance, to accompany a man running down-
stairs, which can be quite helpful in comedy) and
true film music, that is music which is an integral
part of the film, without which the film would mean
nothing, or very little. When you ask him to give an
example of this last sort ot music he somewhat
apologetically produces a sequence from one of
his own films, Dance, Little Lady. This is the
sequence immediately following the two lovers'
first sight of each other, which in the book was a
series of charming little love-scenes. Instead of
trying to reconstruct these scenes (which would
have taken much too long) Tony achieved the
same effect by following on the music of the bal-
let, where they met, with a few bars of Tschai-
kovsky's " Swan Lake " music, and carefully cut-
ting to the beat of that music idyllic scenes sug-
gestive of young lovers' meetings and outings
together. This was a proper use of film music,
where the shots would have meant nothing with-
out the music, and the two blended perfectly into
a whole which gave in thirty seconds a result
which would have taken the best part of a reel of
dialogue, and not halt so vivid at that.

Tony has no particular plans for the future,
beyond to keep on making films and to keep on
making them better. He'd like the chance of mak-
ing the film version of Flare Path, if it is filmed,
as Terence Rattigan, its author, is a great friend
of his. And some day he'd very much like to
have a shot at filming Conrad's Lord Jim. which
with its simple theme of " coward makes good"
he thinks would make a very fine film if done
properly.

lie's been a member of A.C.T. ever since he
heard about it eight years ago, and for the past
seven of them, until the last Annual General Meet-
ing, was our President. I expect pretty well all
of you have heard all about the controversy which
caused him to resign from the Presidency then,
and no doubt you have strong views about it one
wax or the other. The real issue, to some of us.
from which the controversy arose (though most of
(lie arguments took place on other subjects) was
the status and future of A.C.T. in a rapidly chang-
ing world. (Asquith. ot course, insists that the
issue was the powers and behaviour of the General
Council in relation to local members and their
- committees. In his opinion they behaved in a die-

May— June, 1943

THE C INE - TE C H NICI A N

57

tatorial and undemocratic way. As we know the
Annual Meeting thought otherwise, and he felt
honour bound to withdraw his nomination.)
Some of us believe that if A.C.T. is to fulfil its
role properly it is our business more and more to
take a full share of responsibility in the direction
and shaping of our industry, in the kind of films
we make and the use to which they are put. In
fact, the only real alternative to that is the dic-
tatorship of some monopoly, Rank's or somebody
else's. But Tony is a Liberal born and bred — his
family have a great liberal tradition to uphold and
he has always been a staunch supporter — so it is
by no means easy for him to accept and adjust
himself, with his liberal ideas, in a situation where
the old values begin to mean less and less. We
all know how hard and how loyally Tony has
worked for A.C.T. as President all these years,
and he must be the judge if he feels no longer in
tune with that office. But one thing must be made
quite clear; however the film industry is run, the
one essential is that it should turn out good films,
and for this it needs its workers to be not only
political paragons but craftsmen. There are, I'm
afraid, too many of our politically minded workers
who haven't got sufficient respect for the medium
in which they're working, who imagine that a cor-
rect line can take the place of creative sweat. But
unless we get people in the industry who really
care for what they're doing, who respect their
medium enough to worry over it, and who have
that little creative something — men whose life is
bound up with films — then in ten years or less the
industry will be dead. And that is why Asquith,
who has spent 17 ungrateful years in the film busi-
ness for no other reason than that he cares for
it, will always be a valuable member of A.C.T.,
never mind whether as President or plain rank
and filer, and, of course, his loyalty to the Asso-
ciation remains unshaken and unshakeable.

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58

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

Mav — June, 1943

A.C.T. v. British Movietonews

Important Arbitration Award

A dispute affecting a principle of great import-
ance to newsreel technicians arose between A.C.T.
and British Movietonews when the latter die-
missed A.C.T. member A. A. Tunwell, owing to
failure to reach agreement on the question of ade-
quate insurance for a hazardous assignment. A.C.T.
failed to obtain satisfaction either from the com-
pany or the Newsreel Association. Consequently
the dispute was referred to an independent arbi-
trator under the Industrial Courts Act, 1919. The
result was a complete victory for the Association
and a vindication of the action of Mr. Tunwell in
insisting upon adequate insurance before com-
mencing his assignment. The following is the
full award of Sir Charles Doughty, K.C., who was
appointed as arbitrator by the Ministry of Labour.
INDUSTRIAL COUETS ACT, 1919
Association of Cine-Technicians and
British Movietonews Limited

1 . A difference arose between the above-named
Association and British Movietonews Limited and
the Minister of Labour and National Service duly
appointed me, Sir Charles Doughty, K.C., to act
as arbitrator to determine this difference.

2. The terms of reference were: — " To deter-
mine the claim of the Association of Cine-Tech-
nicians that Mr. A. A. Tunwell should be rein-
stated in the employ of Messrs. British Movieto-
news Ltd."

3. I accordingly having accepted the burden
and duty of determining this difference sat at the
Ministry of Labour, St. James Square, London,
on Monday, May 3rd, 1943. and heard Mr. Elvin
Mr. Cole and Mr. Tunwell on behalf of Mr. Tun-
well and the Association of Cine-Technicians and
Sir Gordon Craig on behalf of British Movieto-
news Ltd.

4. Mr. Tunwell has been employed for fourteen
years by British Movietonews Ltd. as a first-class
cameraman and no question as to his character
or competence has ever been or is raised, and he
was in 1943 paid a wage of £16 a week. He was at
the time of his dismissal working under a con-
tract made in July 1939 under which he had
agreed to work wherever required.

5. The Ministries of the Fighting Services and
the Ministry of Information attach importance to
the recording by cinematography of battle scenes
and other incidents of the war. The Newsreel
Companies (of which British Movietonews is one)

have endeavoured to take and make such films
and I am satisfied that this work is an important
war effort. This involves the necessity of camera-
men carrying on their work in situations that may
be very dangerous and there have been casualties
amongst such men. though no-one employed by
British Movietonews has been hurt.

6. All Cinematograph Companies insure their
cameramen when they are exposed to risk of death
or injury by enemy action whilst performing such
duties. By agreements between the Association
of Cine-Technicians and the British Film Pro-
ducers' Association, and with the Association of
Short Film Producers, technicians earning more
than €10 a week are insured for £5,000. The Asso-
ciation of Cine-Technicians have no agreement
with British Movietonews Ltd.

7. British Movietones s do as a matter of prac-
tice insure their cameramen for £2.000, and in
case of short and extra hazardous employment
increase this cover up to £5,000.

8. On May 20th, 1940, Sir Victor Warrender
speaking for the Admiralty informed Mr. G. C.
Amnion, M.P., that an agreement had been made
between the Admiralty, the Ministry of Infor-
mation and the five Newsreel Companies that
cameramen are all to be " properly " insured by
the Companies against death, injury or loss in-
curred while in the camera unit.

9. On February 1st, 1943, Mr. Tunwell was
informed that he was to join one of His Majesty's
ships in the Western Mediterranean. He saw Sir
Gordon Craig on the morning of February 2nd and
was informed that he would serve on the flagship
which would almost certainly be a battleship. He
pressed Sir Gordon to insure him for £5,000 and
pointed out that £2,000 would provide but a mea-
gre pittance for his widow if he were killed. The
interview was very short and Sir Gordon refused
this request, and desired an immediate answer
as to Mr. Tunwell's readiness to go upon the Com-
pany's conditions.

10. On February 8th. or 9th, Mr. Tunwell . x-
pressed his readiness to go but only on condition
that his insurance was raised to £5. 000.

11. Sir Gordon then promptly, and 1 think
without sufficient consideration or explanation of
all the circumstances, paid Mr. Tunwell one
month's wages and dismissed hini from the Com-
pany's services.

May— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

59

12. In so acting Sir Gordon broke no contract
and had a perfect legal right to terminate as he
did the employment of Mr. Tunwell.

13. The question therefore arises as to whether
I can go behind and nullify a perfectly legal action.
I am of opinion that I can. The Company have
under war-time legislation submitted to arbitra-
tion the question whether Mr. Tunwell should be
re-instated in their employ. I have to enquire
whether a good employer acting with full know-
ledge of all the relevant facts and all the circum-
stances and considering the question calmly and
judicially would be acting with ordinary consider-
ation and fairness in terminating the employment
of a man who had served them well for 14 years.
I also have to enquire whether Mr. Tunwell was
in all respects acting reasonably towards his good
employers, having regard to all the circumstances
of the case and his duty to accept an assignment
involving danger to himself.

14. I find that further enquiry would have
shown that Mr. Tunwell did reasonably anti-
cipate the possibility of his being sent on smaller
boats for a time on such expeditions as a Malta
convoy or other extremely hazardous work. Being
carried on one of His Majesty's ships at the
request of the Admiralty it was clearly his duty
morally and probably legally to obey the orders of
his Senior Naval Officers. If the matter had been
more fully discussed it might well have resulted
in Sir Gordon settling the matter by agreeing to
increase the insurance if it turned out that Mr.
Tunwell was required to undertake extra hazardous
duties.

15. Further, having regard to the fact that the
Admiralty had an agreement with the Newsreel
Companies that the cameramen should be pro-
perly insured, and to the fact that the only collec-
tive bargains between employers and Cine-tech-
nicians provides for a cover " of £5,000 for men
earning over £10 a week, Mr. Tunwell was not
putting forward an unreasonable condition.

16. I NOW THEREFORE MAKE MY
AWAHa) AND DECLARE that: Mr. Tunwell
shall be re-instated in the employ of Messrs.
British Alovietonews Ltd. His re-employment
shall date from Monday, May 10th, 1943, upon
the same terms and conditions as existed on
February 2nd, 1943, and his wages shall start
again from May 10th, 1943.

(Signed) CHARLES DOUGHTY
Witness: (Signed) CHARLES FLEMING.
Dated this 4th day of May, 1943.

OTHER A.C.T. SUCCESSES
Shorts Film Production

Sir Charles Doughty, K.C., also acted as inde-
pendent arbitrator in four disputes between the
A.C.T. and the* Association of Short Film Pro-
ducers. In the first two cases he met A.C.T. 's

claim and awarded that two members, former
employees of Merton Park Studios, were entitled
to payment of salary in lieu of holidays they had
not taken before they left the company's employ.

The third case concerned the up-grading of a
learner. In this the award was against the A.C.T.

The fourth claim was for an increased Cost of
Living Bonus to technicians engaged in the Shorts
Film Industry. Sir Charles Doughty awarded the
full studio rate of 6d. a point for adult employees
and 3d. a point (against 4d. in the studios) for
employees under 21 years of age. The award is
retrospective to April 19th. Members have thus
obtained a substantial increase.
Laboratory Employees

Following an application for a substantial wage
increase for laboratory members, negotiations have
been successfully concluded with the Association
of Film Laboratory Employers. As a result all
laboratory workers have received retrospective to
May 1st an increased Cost of Living Bonus at the
studio rate (21/6d. for adults and 14/4d. for em-
ployees under 21, an increase of ll/6d. and 9/4d.
respectively). Further, an undertaking has been
received to negotiate forthwith rates for new
grades (such as clerical workers) who are not cov-
ered by the present Agreement and to negotiate
for a general new 'Agreement for all workers in
September of next year.

STRAND FILMS

MAKERS OF DOCUMENTARY
FILMS SINCE 1934

60

THE CINE-TEOHNI C I A N

May— June, 1943

DECADE OF PROGRESS

A.C.T.'s 10th Annual General Meeting

IT was fitting that the Tenth Annual General
Meeting should have had the best attendance

of any in A.C.T.'s history. Despite a glorious
sunny day. 260 members (including many in uni-
form) attended the Caxton Hall to deliberate on
a varied and at times exciting Agenda.

President Anthony Asquith opened the proceed-
ings. The main part of his address was devoted
to a review of A.C.T.'s first ten years. He
reminded the meeting that every section of the
industry is now covered by standard agreements,
with the exception of the newsreel side which was
being tackled during the forthcoming year. He
paid tribute to George Elvin, Winifred Pearson
and other officers who had done such yeoman work
for the Association, and continued by mentioning
some of the pioneers of trade unionism for film
technicians: Ken Gordon (who on one memorable

asion cycled to London from Aldershot, and
back, at the first attempt to organise film tech-
nicians), Stan Jolly, Roy Kellino and Bill Allan
who in 1933 were responsible for starting A.C.T.
at Gaumont-British Studios, Cyril Stanborough
(the original President), Ivor Montagu. Jack Cox,
Thorold D ckinson, John Dennis and other earbj
stalwarts. The President concluded with a refer-
to films as a war weapon. At the beginning
of the war the Governmi I to realise their

imp " That they have seen the error of

their ways." Mr. Asquith continuedj "is suf-
ficiently proved, to mention only one example,
by Desert Victory, which is nol only a magnificent
film and tribute to the courage, daring and

technical skill of our \ eace-time coll s • but
also, as is shown b\ - mendous success in
Eussia, a powerful piece ot propaganda. The whole
nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the *
technicians who are making the war a concrete .
reality instead of something you read about in
the newspapers. And 1 feel that it is up to us to
ensure that when they come back to the industry
it shall be an industry worthy of them."

" Finally," the President ended. I do wanb
to impress upon you as strongly as I can that
A..C.T. is not a remote body which governs you.
We — all of us — AEE A.C.T. And it is our respon-
sibility to make it the A.C.T. we want. And the
A.C.T. we want is one which will carry on and
improve upon what has been achieved in the last
ten years."

George Elvin. himself justifiably proud of the
t progress the A.C.T had achieved on its tenth
anniversary, introduced the Annual Report, and
commented on the large volume of work that
had been got through. During the period 23
separate agreements had been nej 1, three

with employers' ass itions and twenty with
individual companies. The most important of
these was the completion of the Studio Agree-
ment with the B.F.P.A.

The present membership of 2908 was the high-
est in our history, -aid Elvin, and about
'the pre-war membership was now serving in the
armed forces — a veiy substantial contribution.

Other General Council members ampliri
tain sections of the Report. Sid Bremson made an

May— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

61

eloquent appeal for the laboratory workers — the
lowest paid section of the industry. Their present
wages were totally inadequate. Only 17% of
them were getting above the basic rate laid
down in the Agreement signed before the war
and their cost-of-living bonus was less than half
that received in the Studios. The General Council
had now made application for a substantial wage
increase for these workers, and he appealed to
the Studio workers to back this demand for all
they were worth.

Ken Gordon gave good news about the News-
reel Section which had now been reformed with a
large influx of membership. Grievances were
many, particularly in connection with conditions
and insurance, and a draft agreement was being
prepared for submission to the Newsreel Associa-
tion who so far had always refused to treat with
A.C.T.

Bert Craik, whose untiring work as Organiser
received the special appreciation of the meeting,
dealt with a number of organisational questions.

It was a happy sign of the growing part played
in A.C.T. by the women members that the first
resolution in the morning was moved by Miss
Rosanne Hunter of Realist, who pleaded most
eloquently for assistants, as such, to have special
representation on the General Council. Ken
Gordon, with all his customary gallantry to the
ladies, nevertheless opposed on the grounds that
it was unwise to create special sections, but
appealed to the meeting to elect some of the
younger members from their units to serve on
the Council. The meeting shared his views and
the motion was defeated.

Sid Cole then moved a special motion for the
General Council on Production Efficiency. He
reminded the meeting of A.C.T. 's original
Efficiency Eeport, of the all-union , committee
that met the Producers, of the failure of the
Producers to take any interest in the matter.

Why do we want Production Committees? " he
asked. " To gear the industry to the war effort
and to its maximum contribution for victory."
Such committees in the war industries received
the official support of the Government and the
T.U.C. Films were a weapon for war — for train-
ing, for propaganda, for sustaining morale.

A. R. Cooper of Technicolor supported. ' We
are willing to make any effort, however intense,
to win the war," he said, " but when it is over
we will not allow the employers to take advan-
tage of the sacrifies we are making now."

The resolution was carried unanimously, as also
was a resolution moved by Jack Chambers for
Paul Roth a Productions urging a pooling of tech-
nicians and equipment for all Government film
production.

The morning session closed with what everyone
agreed was a model speech from the fraternal

delegate, Mr. Llewellyn Rees, Secretary of Bri-
tish Actors' Equity Association. ;< Our two
unions," he said, " have much in common as
representatives of skilled workers in an industry.
We must insist that as skilled workers we have
more to s,i\ as to what use our work is put. The
Employers are living in an age when they think
that only the'j have any right to control the pro-
duct of our labour. This out-of-date attitude we
contest." His sincere and inspiring speech was
heartily applauded by the entire meeting.

After lunch, Ralph Bond moved an emergency
resolution strongly opposing the proposals that:
(1) production of quota films for the major Ameri-
can companies be monopolised by one group of
companies, and (2) a private company, controlled
by individuals associated with the same group of
companies, operates to purchase the film rights
of novels, original stories or screen plays, and to
make work available to writers, members of the
Scenario Institute. He produced a wealth of
facts showing the extraordinary growth of J.

Charlie Wheeler

Llewellyn Rees

Arthur Rank's monopoly of the British film indus-
try, and of the tremendous profits that these
companies were making. Control by Rank covered
two large cinema circuits, and a host of subsi-
diaries, four studios, two news-reels, laboratories,
equipment and furnishing companies, to mention
but a few. Bond got roars of laughter bj quoting
Rank's activities in the Odeon National Cinema
Club for Boys and Girls where children took an
oath to obey their parents and clean their teeth.
He suggested that Rank was probably President
of a toothbrush combine.

The protest was full\ endorsed by the meeting,
who carried the motion with acclamation.

At this stage the President left the chair to
speak against a section of the .-General Council's
report concerning the action of the JVnham
Works Committee, in connection with the film
Demi-Paradise. Space forbids a full and ade-

62

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May— June, 1943

Lyndon-Hay ncs— Teller

quate report of the debate, so it will riot be
attempted. Sufficient to say that in addition to
Asquith, Percy Dayton and John Dennis sup-
ported the reference back of the section concerned,
and Ivor Montagu and George Elvin defended the
General Council's action. On being put to the
vote the General Council's attitude was approved
by 133 votes to 63, after the lengthiest debate of
the meeting.

Several resolutions covering such subjects as
amendments to the rules governing membership,
and the establishment of a fund to assist wives
and dependents of A.C.T. serving members, were
referred to the incoming General Council for
appropriate action.

Other resolutions supported the Beveridge Plan,
protested against the tendency of the Govern-
ment to co-operate with Fascists and other anti-
democratic elements, and pledged the full mobi-
lisation of the film industry for the eagerly awaited
Second Front in Europe. Two other resolutions
must be mentioned — one, from the Shell Film
Unit, instructed the A.C.T. to approach all the
appropriate Government Departments to ascer-
tain what their plans were for post-war documen-
tary and instructional film production.

Finally, there was a resolution to ballot the
members on the question of establishing an A.C.T.
Political Fund' and affiliating to the Labour Party.
This was moved for the General Council by Ralph
Bond, wlui emphasised that if the ballot save
a majority for such a course, membership of the
Labour Party would be optional to every member.
There was no compulsion and members not wish-
ing to contribute to the Political Fund would suf-
fer no loss of any rights guaranteed them under
A.C.T. 's rules. He argued effectively for the
motion, showing that all through their history the
Trade Unions had been compelled to fight a politi-
cal battle, firstly for their very right to exist as
free organisations and latterly, for proper repre-

sentation in all matters affecting the functioning
of the State. A.C.T. had benefited by these past
battles and had itself been forced to resort to
political methods to win the fight for the Quota
legislation. Further, he argued, we should take
a broader outlook- of our responsibilities. We
should play our part in achieving a higher form
of society based on social ownership for the bene-
fit of the community ; none of us wanted to plunge
back into the chaotic conditions of the past. The
Labour Party, with all its faults, was the broad
political party of the Trade Union Movement and
si » k1 for a policy of social advance. Michael Gordon
of the Crown Film Unit seconded, and the resolu-
tion was carried by a large majority.

Eod Baxter, the Treasurer, was as pleased a* a
stockbroker with six bank balances at being able
to present such a healthy financial statement to -
the members. Everyone" else was pleased too. for
the statement was unanimously endorsed.

So ended a most successful meeting — a record
attendance and many excellent speeches and dis-
cussions. The one unhappy note was the resigna-
tion of Anthony Asquith from his duties as Presi-
dent— duties he has carried out with such loyalty,
enthusiasm and energy for the past several years.

But this apart, it was a grand meeting, and
adequately reflected the power and influence that
A.C.T. has acquired during its brief but momen-
tous historv.

ELECTION RESULTS

President :

(Position temporarily vacant)

Vice-Presidents :

Kenneth Gordon Sidney Cole

S. J. Bremson Thorold Dickinson

Ralph Bond

Treasurer :
R. K. Neilson Baxter

Trustees

Basil Wright

Toni Roe

Geoffrey Bell

Auditors

John Dennis

General Council :
(Studio)
Ivor Montagu Bernard Knowles

C. Wheeler C. Tomrley

Kay Mander Desmond Dickinson

Michael Gordon May Dennington

Max Anderson

(Laboratory)
A. R. Cooper Florence Munden

George Irons W. Sharp

Leo Cass G. Vale

Slay— June, 1943

THE C I N E - T E C H N I < ! J A N

63

Kenneth
Gordon

They film from Flying Fortresses

The sad news has been recorded that Xewsreel
cameraman Ernest Lewis of Paramount News is
reported missing after a raid in enemy territory.
He was filming for the British Newsreel Associa-
tion from a Flying Fortress and after completing
his training was making his first operational flight
over Germany. It is with great sorrow that A.C.T.
records the loss of this respected technician, and
to his dependents we offer our deepest condo-
lences.

A number of newsreelers are taking part in these
perilous operations and I myself went through
the training and qualified, but was grounded before
I went on a mission. Jimmy Wright of Paramount,
whom Lewis relieved in North Africa, made a
number of operational missions also. Jack Rams-
den of Movietone and a number of other camera-
men are under training. To fly for hours at 30,000
to 35,000 feet all the time dependent on oxygen
and with the temperature 40 below reduces the
faculties of even the most robust camera-man to
little more than an automaton. To take your heavy
gloves oft for only a moment means severe frost-
bite and very often the loss of fingers or hand,
and the failure of your oxygen supply means in
30 seconds a black out or death.

Your camera is likely to freeze up. Your lens
gets coated with oil if the enemy busts a pipe, and
when you reach the target you are likely to meet
cloud or mist. If everything goes O.K. and the
other planes' bombs are bursting on the target the
30 or 40 feet of film recorded looks like a model
shot because of the great height your plane is fly-
ing. It is quite impossible to move about the plane
when in action to record any air fights. I wonder
if the risk is worth the films the newsreels obtain.

The man who runs the Cairo Labs.

We arc pleased to welcome home on a month's
leave Chas Martin, the cameraman, who now runs
the M.O.I. Labs, in Cairo. Charles was war corre-

spondent for Pathe Gazette in France during the
opening phases of the war ; he filmed Dunkirk and
later joined the M.O.I. I always remember going
on a job with him during the Battle of Britain.
The line was bombed three times that day but
we got back to London 8 hours late, which was
a great credit to the rail workers and their light-
ning repairs. Glad to see you again Charles.

From Overseas

Dickie Bird now a Squadron Leader, writes to
Charlie Wheeler from A.H.Q. Levant, says he came

across an old A.C.T. Journal and saw Charlie's
name. He says: "I saw many names very well
I.Mnw n to me and also noted the G.B. names in thi
, J&.A.F. Film Unit. Please remember me to all those
with whom yon are in touch. I have had many
ad\ c n t urn 3 since 1 saw you last , but the most out-
standing (and I trust the most lasting) is m\ mar-
riage We met in the services and we were married
at Cairo. Since then I have had several postings bu1
we are now together again somewhere in Pales! ine.
I very seldom go to the pictures although my
is by way of being a fan. Those pictures I have
seen are several years old. The sound chat
over late and the film breaks once every perform-
ance. The manager also insists on an interval of
fifteen minutes after the show starts, no doubt to
enable the patrons to brace themselves for the
feat in e. ( >ne recent picture I saw w as Next of Kin,
an excellent effort. Our local cinema has I
advertising several old G.B. productions for some
weeks now but they do not appear to be any
nearer showing. Possibly the poster- are hiding
holes in the walls."

"I am seeing Bert Bates, late chief editor of
Warners. He is now a Flight Lieutenant in the
R.A.F. He arrived here today so I am having
a short session with him and a few others tonightj
if we can ge< anything other than local stuff to
drink.

" Price ( mi 1 here are shocking. The local people
here regard the war as a special device b
them to build up a big reserve balance from catch-
ing British Troops, lam well." We hope you had
a good part;} . Dickie.

To Charlie also comes a letter from an intern-
ment camp in France, sent by sound c
Cliff Sandall. Tells us his wi it to ha

child, all goes well with her and everyone is most
kind in bringing her tie He .

how flic film world is going and all those connected
with it. " Do remember me to all the-,, you m
We long to see some good pictures again and hear

Sollle gOOd I eke What je.\ In l\\V | ifrol

of a receiver. Have you seen my brother in his
glad rags — LI .-Col. now and T am stuck here." We
all understand his feelings-'-good luck to him and
his wife and kiddie. It won't be long u<
you'll be home again Cliff.

64

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C 1 A X

M ay— June, 1043

Edited by Kay Mander

WHO'S WHERE IN FILM PRODUCTION

DENHAM STUDIOS

Noel Coward — Two Cities: "This
Happy Breed "

P. : Noel Coward. In charge of pro-
duction : A. Havelock-Allen, David
Lean, Ronald Neame.

Cast : Robert Newton, John Mills,
Stanley Holloway, Celia Johnson,
Kay Walsh, Amy Veness.

D. : David Lean.

Story : Noel Coward. Shooting script :
A. Havelock-Allen, David Lean,
Ronald Neame.

AP. : Anthony Havelock-Allen.

LC. : Ronald Neame.

C. : Guy Green. (Technicolor Tech-
nician— Harold Haysom) .

Asst. C. : George Minassion, David

Lytton.
R. : C. C. Stevens.
SC. : Winston Ryder.

B. : G. McCallum.
Asst S. : P. A. Lloyd.

A. : C. P. Norman.
Asst. A. : A. Lawson.
DR. : Harry Hurdell.

E. : Jack Harris.

Asst. E. : Marjorie Saunders.
Cutting Asst. : Sis Walsh.
PM. : Ken Home, Jack Martin
Asst. PM. : B. Foord.
Asst. D. : (i) George Pollock.

(2) R. Marks.

(3) A. Hearne.
Con. : Margaret Sibley.
Asst. Con. : Pat Arnold.
ST. : Eugene Pizey.
Special Effects : P. Day.

Hanging Miniatures : George Black-
well.

Back Projection : C. Staffell.

Two Cities IJd.: "One Pair of
Feet " (Temporary Title).

P. : Leslie Howard.

Cast : Rosamund John, Stewart Grain-
ger, Godfrey Tearle.

D. : Maurice Elvey.

Scr. : Major C. Nelson, E. Barron.
AP. : P. C. Samuel.
LC. : R. Krasker.

C. : Jack Hildyard.

Asst. C. : Norman Foley, P. Allwork,

I. Pannaman.
R. : John Dennis.
SC. : H. Raynham.

B. : Stan Lambourne.
Asst. S. : P. Jackson.
A. V Yetchinsky.
Asst. A. : J. Tillvei.
DR. : W. Richards.
SE. : R Beck.

E. : F. Wilson.

Asst. F. : A. Poulton, H. Cranston.

PM. : V. Pcrmane.

Asst. D. : (1) W. Boyle.

(2) V. W.irk.

(3) D. O'Dell.
Con. : E. B. Callaghan.

Key to Definition of Crades

A

ART DIRECTOR

AP

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Asst.D

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

B

BOOM

C

CAMERA OPERATOR

Con

CONTINUITY

D

DIRECTOR

DR

DRAUGHTSMAN"

E

EDITOR

LC

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN-

Mus. D

MUSICAL DIRECTOR

NC

NEGATIVE CLTTEk

P

PRODUCER

PM

PRODUCTION MANAGER

R

RECORDIST

SC

SOUND CAMERA

Scr

SCRIPT

SE

SUPERVISING EDITOR

ss

SOUND SUPERVISOR

ST

STILLS

UM

UNIT MANAGER

Asst. Con. : Angela Carey.

ST. : W.

Newton.

Denham

Studios Dubbin? Crew

R. : D. Dew.

Asst. : A

. Whatlev.

SC. : T.

Kay.

EALING STUDIOS

Ealing Films Ltd. : " My Learned

Friend " (shooting completed).
P. : M. E. Balcon.
Cast : Will Hay, Claude Hulbert.

D. : Basil Dearden and Will Hav.
Scr. : Angus McPhail, John Dighton.
AP. : S. C. Balcon.

LC. : Wilkie Cooper.

C. : Stan Pavey.
Asst. C. : Micky Dean.
R : Len Page.

SC. : Peter Davies.

B. : Bert Minnell.
A. : Michael Relph.
Asst. A. : Jim Morahan.
DR. : H. Armitage.

SE. : Sidney Cole.

E. : Charles Hasse.
PM. : Jack Rix.

Asst.D. : (1) Mick McCarthy.

(2) Muriel Cole.

(3) Spike Priggen.
Con. : Daphne Heathcote.

ST. : Jack Dooley, Bobby Penn.
Back Projection : Syd Howell, Wallv

Dolbear.
Ealing Films Ltd.: "San Deme-

trio, London."
P. : M. E. Balcon.
Cast : Mervyn Johns, Robert Beattv.

Charles Victor.

D. : Charles Frend.

Scr. : F. Tennyson Jesse, Charles

Fr< ad, Robert Hamer.
AP. : Robert Hamer.
LC. : Ernest Palmer.

C. : Jack Parker.

Asst. C. : Harold Julius, Michael Shep-
herd.
R. : Yal Valentine.
SC. : Peter Davies.

B. : Bert Minnell.

A. : Duncan Sutherland.
Asst. A. : Charles Wolveridge.
DR. : H. Armitage.

SE. : Sidney Cole.
E. : Eily Boland.
Asst. E. : Leslie Allen.
PM. : Ronnie Brantford.
Asst.D. : (1) Mick McCarthy.

(2) Muriel Cole.

(3) Spike Priggen, Cyril

Pope.
Con. : Madge Nettleton.
ST. : Jack Dooley, Harold Saunders.
Special Effects : Roy Kellino, Lionel

Banes, Cliff Richardson.
Back Projection : Syd Howell. Wally

Dolbear.
Ealing Studios Shorts Unit
Supervisor : A. Cavalcanti.
PM. : Billy Russell.
LC. : D. Slocombe.

C. : Hal Britten.

GAUMONT-BRITISH STUDIOS
(Shepherds Bush)

Gainsborough Pictures Ltd. : "Time

Flies."
P. : Edward Black.
Cast : Tommy Handley, Evelyn Dall,

George Moon, Olga Lindo.

D. : Walter Forde.
Scr. : Ted Kavanagh.

In charge of production : Maurice
Ostrer.

LC. : Basil Emmott.

C. : Jack Asher.

Asst. C. : Charles French. Paul Wil-
son.

In Charge of Camera Room : George
Hill.

Asst. : Bill Law.

SS. : B. C. Sewell.

R. : Victor Wilson.

SC. : Edith Kanturek.

B. : Dennis Mason.
Asst. S. : John Levwood. Michael

Knoll.
Sound Maint. : Alf Witcomb.
A. : John Bryan.
Asst. A. : Tom Verity.
DR. : John Elphick.
SE. : R. Dearing.

E. : R. Walter.
Asst. E. : June Hardy.
PM. : Arthur Alcott.
Asst. D. : (1) J. W. Dodds.

(2) Eddie Cross.

(3) Reg South worth.
Con. : Rita Coleman.
ST. : Ted Reed.
Special Processes : Jack Whitehead.

GAINSBOROUGH STUDIOS (Isling-
ton)

Gainsborough Pictures ( 192S) Ltd.:
" Bees in Paradise."

In charge of Production : Maurice
Ostrer.

May— June, 1943

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

65

-r^^-rrr==r -r^v- .■?_*

Attack at nightfall . . .

An enemy stronghold successfully stormed at r.ightfall by a handful of men . . . grand
work . . . but one man wounded .... blinded.

There are many men who have lost their sight while serving their
King and Country — men, and wom:n, too. St. Dunstan's is helping
them to become useful citiz^ is once more . . . helping them to over-
came one crthe greatest handicaps. Will you help in our great work?

Please remember St. Dunstan's when making your Will.

*
All information from Lt.Col. Sir Ian Fraser, C.B.E., M.P.

ST DUNSTAN'S

REGENT'S PARK

N .W.

St. Dunstan's L registered under the Blind Persons Act, 1920

This space has been presented by —
NORMANS FILM LIBRARY, 54-58, WARDOUR STREET, W.l.

Tel. No. G<r. 641~,

66

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

May — June, 1943

P. : Edward Black.

Cast : Arthur Askey, Anne Shelton,

Peter Graves, Jean Kent, Ronnie

Shiner.

D. : Val Guest.

Original Screen Play : Marriot Edgar

and Val Guest.
LC. : Phil Grindrod.

C. : George Stevens.

Asst. C. : (ist) John Harris, (Clap-
pers) Neil Gemmell, (Loading) Jo
Singer.

SS. : B, C. Sewell.

R. : M. R. Hobbs.

SC. : Micky Jay.

B. : Charlie Wheeler.
Asst. S. : H. Soameson.

S. Maint. : F. G. Sloggett (in charge).
Projection : Doug Morgan.

A. : Maurice Carter.
Asst. A. : John Gow.

DR. : Iris Wills, Roy Dorman.
SE. : Robert Bearing.

E. : Alfred Roome.
Assembly : A. C. Knott.
Asst. E. : James S. Groom.
PM. : Fred Gunn.

Asst. D. : (i) Tommy Tomson.

(2) Ginger Baker.

(3) Duncan Campbell, John

Draper.
Con. : Maisie Kelly.
ST. : George F. Cannons.
Anglo-Soviet : "Tanya."
Dubbing Crew : (Mixer) S. G. Wiles.

(SC) Fred Davidson.

(Asst. S) Robin Hole.

RIVERSIDE STUDIOS (Hammer-
smith)

Butchers Film Service Ltd. : "Some-
where in Civvies."

P. : F. W. Baker.

Cast : Frank Randle, George Doonan,
Suzette Tarri.

D. : McLean Rogers.
Scr. : Con West.

LC. : Geoffrey Faithfull.

C. : Bert Mason, Terry Turtle.

Asst. C. : A. Hicks, G. Lyons, R.

Deall.
SS : George Burgess.
R. : A. R. S. Jolly.
SC. : A. Kelly, A. Clark.

B. : D. Tate.
A. : Jim Carter.
DR. : John Clements.
SE. : Ted Richards.

E. : Flora Newton.
Asst. E. ; M. Parsons.
PM. : E, S. Laurie.

Asst. D. : ( 1 ) Don Weeks.

(2) Bert Dorsett.
Cpn. : Mickie Norton.
ST. : Eric Gray.
Columbia British: "We Love to

Sing."
P. : Ben Henry and George Formby.
Cast : Vera Lynn, Peter Murray-Hill,

Charles Victor.

D. : Gordon Wcllesley.
AP. : George Formby.

LC : Geoffri 5 I lithfu] (for Erwin
Hillier).

C. : Bcrl Mason, Terry Turtle.
Asst. C. : A. Hicks, P. Dunbar.

SS. : G. Burgess.

R. : A. R. S. Jolly.

SC. : A. F. Kelly, A. L. Clark.

B. : D. Tate.

A. : G. Pro vis.

Asst. A. : L. Clements, A. Scott.

SE. : Alan Jaggs.

Asst. E. : S. Hawkes.

PM. : E. Gartside.

Asit. D. : ( 1 ) Mike Johnson, Jnr.

(2) Bert Dorsett.
Con. : Peggy Singer.
ST. : Eric Gray, H. Devereux.
WARNER BROS. FIRST NATIONAL

(Teddirgton)
Warner Bros. First National :

" Youth Looks Ahead."
Cast : Anne Crawford, David Farrar,

Frederick Leister, Mary Clare,

Richard Attenborough, Nial McGin-

nis.
D. : Brian Desmond Hurst.
Scr. : Brock Williams.
Srudio Manager : " Doc " Salomon.
LC. : Otto Heller.

C. : Gus Drisse.

Asst. C. : R. Day, E. Day.
R. : Cecil Thornton.
SC. : J. D. Ghogan.

B. : G. Whetstone.

Asst. S. : R. Alport, E. Dighton.

A. : Norman Arnold.
DR. : T. Goswell.
SE. : Terry Fisher.
Cutting : Rita Murison.
Cutting Asst. : Audrey Bennett.
PM. : Hal Richmond".

Asst. D. : (1) Percy Hermes.
1(2) Bruce Gordon.
Con. : Mrs. Vera Pavey.
ST. : Russell Westwood.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

New Realm Pictures : " Up with the

Lark."
P. : Edward Fancey.
Cast : Revnell and \\ est.

D. : Phil Brandon.
LC. : Stephen Dade.
C : Morton Lewis.

Asst. C. : John Wiles, Norman Allen.
R : Cecil Mason.
SC. : Richard Smith.

B. : Brian Hunter.
A. : Victor Hambro.
Asst. A. : Anna Duse.
SE. : Sylvia Cummings.
PM. : Lionel Claff.

Asst. D. : (1) Jack Tomson.

(2") Phil White.
Con. : Mickie Norton.

DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT
FILM UNITS

Byron Films :

D. : jack Raymond.

C. : Hal Young.

Asst. C. : George Scanlon.

E. : Monica Kimick.

Asst. E. : Laurie Goldwater.
Coombe Productions Ltd.
D/Scr. : Montgomery Tully.
PM. : Ernest Holding.
LC. : Pat Gay.
E. : V. Sagovskv.
Asst. E. : J. Newhouse.

Spectator Short Films
P. : Michael Hankinson.
PM. : Arthur Barnes.

D. : Robin Carruthers, Gilbert Gunn.

C. : Billy Luff, Cyril Bristow, H. X.
Edwell.

Asst. C. : Derek Sawes (Trainee).

R. : W. S. Bland.

SC/C. Proj. : Curly Lovell.

Asst. S. : Philip Warner 'Trainee).

E. • Ralph Kemplen, Jack Ellitt.
Asst. E. : Joan Mason, Patricia Mur-
ray.

2nd "Proj. : A. C. Baker.
3rd Proj. : M. Samuel.

Seven-League Productions

D. : Hans Nieter.
PM. : Pam Paulet.

P. Asst. : Mrs. Sainsburv.

P. Sec. : K. Hunter.

Paul Rot ha Productions

P. : Paul Rotha, Donald Alexander.

PM. : Joan Duff.

D. : Jack Chambers, Budge Cooper,

"John Page, Kay Mander.
Scr. : Ara Calder-Marshall.

C. : W. Suschitzky, Peter Hennessey.
P. Asst. : Roland Lcewe, S. Logie,

Leslie Shepard, R. Bicker.
NC. : Lola Currie, D. Barnes.
Shell Film Unit
P. : Edgar Anstey.

D. : Geoffrey Bell, R. K. Neilson Bax-
ter, G. Tharp, J. B. Napier-Bell, A.
Womersley.

C. : S. "Rodwell, S. Beadle.
Asst. D/E. : Alan Gourlay.
Animation : F. Rodker, Cynthia

Whitby.
P. Asst. : E. Royde, B. Mason, J.

Rhodes.
Secretary : B. Leared.

Verity Films
In charge : Sidney Box.
P. : Ronald Riley.
P/Scr. : .Max Munden.
PM. : William McQuitty.

D. : Dan Birt, Louise Birt. Muriel
Baker, Henry Cass, Tristram Stack,
Alfred Travers, Ken Annakin.

D/E. : Lister Laurance.
Asst. D. : Gerald O'Hara.

C. : Ray Elton, Reg Wyer.

Asst. C. : Bernard Lewis, Albert Ray-
ner, Ronald Still.

Scr. : Cossar Turfery, Jim Phelan,
Paul Potts.

SE. : Peter Tanner.

E.- Carmen de Beliaeff, Veronica New-
man.

Asst. E. : Michael Barden. Gladys
Bremsoh, Leslie Hughes. Harold
Holding.

Librarian : Mrs. Larou.

NC. : Lilian Shephard. Lilian South.

Strand Films

P. : Donald Taylor.

Scr. : Reg Groves, Dylan Thomas,
Diana King.

PM. : Mrs. Buck.

D. : Ralph Bond, John Eldridge, Ivan
Moffatt, C. Lautour, J. Fraser Foul-
sham, St. John Clowes. John Bant-
ing.

.May— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

67

C : Jo Jago, Charles Marlborough, J.

Burgoyne-Johnson, C. Arapof.
Asst. C. : Douglas Ryan, John Havin-

den.
P. Assts. : Peter Price, Gaston Char-

pentier, Fred Brown, H. Laurie.
E. : Alan Osbiston (in charge),

Oswald Hafenrichter.
Asst. E. : Leslie Pohler, John Vernon,

Ernest Whitehall, — . Fisher.
NC. : Connie Mason.
G.B. Screen Services Ltd.
In charge of production : Eric Dane.
P/D. : Francis Searle.
D : Francis Searle, Frank Cadman,

John O. Douglas, Denis Kavanagh,

Walter Harvey.
Scr. : Harold Goodwin.
C: Walter Harvey, Oscar Burn, Bren-

don Stafford, Ray Densham.
E. Organiser : Denis Kavanagh.
E. : Denis Kavanagh, Enid Mansell,

John O. Douglas.
Cutter : Nora Cassidy.
NC. : A. M. Weston, F. Pye.
Asst. PM. : John Rowal.
UM and Casting : Ernest Metcalf.
Asst. C. : Jack Green, Peter Johnson.
World Wide Pictures
In charge of oroduction : James Carr.
PM. : Hindle Edgar.

D. : Clifford Hornby, Terence Bishop,
Graham Cutts.

C. : G. R. A. Williams, A. K. W.

Webb.
Scr. : Clifford Dyment.

E. : Alice Baker.

P. Assts. : Alistair Scobie, Anthony
Mavrogordato.

Citting Asst. : Rene Short.

CROWN FILM UNIT PRODUCTION

STAFF (Pine wood Studios)
AP. : John Monck.

D. : J. B. Holmes, Humphrey Jen-
nings Pat Jackson, Ralph Elton,
Jack Lee, R. Q. McNaughton,
Michael Gordon.

PM. : D. Wright.

Asst. PM. : E. Quin, A. Matthews.

UM. : Isobel Pargiter, Nora Dawson

Diana Pine, G. Bryant.
Asst. D. : Peter Bolton, J. Go\vers, J

Krantz.
Con/Sees.: Phyllis Ross, Gwen Bartle

Pauline Roberts.
LC. : F. H. Jones, H. E. Fowle, C. J

Pennington-Richards, W. Gamage

E. Catford.
C. : W. Chaston, N. Rowland.
Asst. C. ' D. Simpson, G. Lankford,

K. Reeves, F. Leather.
C. Maint. : F. W. Jones.
Moviola Maint. : S. C. Bradford.
ST. : Walter Bird.
R. : K. Cameron, J. May, K. Ash.
SC. : K. Scrivener, D. Chatterjee, C.

Gould.
B. : D. Edwards, P. Clarke.
Asst. S. : S. Romilly, D. Hurring.
Scr. : L. Lee, G. Wallace.
SE. : S. Stone.

E. : S. McAllister, Lt. Russell Lloyd.
Cutters : Donald Ginsburg, Frances

Cockburn, Gordon Hales.
Asst. Cutters: W. Freeman, T. Trench,
J. Jackson, G. Sturt, J. Hutt, J.
Reeve, P. Davison, J. Langfield.

Librarian : Miss Pentecost.

Asst. Lib. : Miss Dibble. Miss P.
Smith, Miss Ma< Kenzie, Miss Mason,
P. Shorthall, H. I sill, R. Bannister,
C. Squires, J. Bulford, R. Hanna-
ford, Mary Russell-Wood.

Asst. NC. : Miss Lee.

Mus. D. : Muir Mathieson.

G.B. INSTRUCTIONAL

In charge of production : H. Bruce
Woolfe.

D. : Mary Field, Donald Carter, Dar-
rel Catling, John Alderson, E. S.
Morris, — -. Dobson.

LC. : Jack Parker, Frank North,
Jimmy Taylor.

Asst. C. : Jack Morrison, John New-
mark, Desmond Crowley.

E. : Charles Tokeley, Jack House.
Asst. E. : Peter Bentley, Alan Knight.
P. Assts. : Rene Wilson, Kitty Wood.
Scr. : Mary Borer.

NETTLEFOLD STUDIOS (Maida
Vale)

Studio Manager : W. H. Norris.

D. : Harry Hughes, Bladen Peake.
A^st. C. : W. Richards, Nobby Smith

(Trainee) .
R. : T. H. Meyers.
SC. : R. Hole.
B. : D. Love.
A. : V. Hembrow.

E. : Mrs. C. Hone.
Asst. E. : Mrs. Bennison.
PM. : George Shurley.
Con. : Pat Cantwell.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

^ A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,
where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff
are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone, liberty tin

Ona mile from Wimbledon Station

68

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May— June, 1943

OBITUARY

LESLIE
HOWARD

At any time the death of Leslie Howard would
have been an irreparable loss to films. Not only
was he an aetor of incomparable charm and dis-
tinction, a director of the highest integrity with
a rare, gift for inspiring his fellow actors, and a
producer in the true sense of the word, both
enterprising and imaginative in his choice of sub-
s, he was that rarer and almost indefinable
tiling a great personality. But at the present time
his loss is the greatest individual blow British
Films could suffer. He was uniquely fitted for the
unofficial post of Britain's screen ambassador to
the world at Large — a post which he did not seek,
hut which seemed to grow, naturally around his
personality. He was the perfect embodiment of
many of our national characteristics, and he was
able to make those characteristics internationally
intelligible and. what is far more important, lov-
able. To millions all over the world, Leslie
Howard's diffidence of manner and indifference to
dress, his courtesy, independent of outward form,
his self-deprecating ironical twinkle, his under-
statement, more eloquent than any peroration,
had come to be the hall-mark of the Fmsdishman,
and behind all these qualities he was able to con-
vey a steely strength of purpose which was all the
more formidable tor the casual way in which it
was revealed.

As a craftsman he showed the same qualities.
The immense amount of thought, the iron sell-
discipline which nm i have -one to building up
his extraordinary technique, one could only guess
at. No one ever made mi little parade of his
accomplishments. He was eni irely without "non-
Sense " of ;in\ kind. To the casual onlooker he
ared to treat his work with the same careless

indifference he so often displayed as the hero of
his films. He would come on to the set (some-
times, it must be admitted, a little late) glance at
the scene, walk through the mechanics and then
act it as if it was the merest matter of office
routine. It was only the performance itself wdiich •
revealed the imagination, the sensibility, the
acute intelligence which were its invariable ingre-
dients. But that was all it did reveal. You were
faced with the accomplished miracle — but you
could never see the processes by which it was per-
formed. With him the thing to be expressed and
the means of expression were so intimately fused
that it seemed irrelevant to talk of technique at
all. And yet he had the most amizing technique.
He would repeat a scene over and over again with-
out the faintest detectable variation of movement,
expression or inflection. But the performance was
never mechanical. He seemed to have the power
to re-create the scene every time within the strict-
est framework. He combined in an extraordinary
way the precision of a machine and the creative
imagination of an artist.

I was intimately associated with him for more
than six months on the making of Pygmalion. I
confess that before I met him I looked forward to
our combined work with trepidation. He was a
great Hollywood Star, accustomed to the best
Hollywood directors : T felt there was bound to be
either acute friction or, more likely, that I would
be charmingly but firmly brushed aside and
ignored. Even after our preliminary conferences
I felt that his courtesy and eager responsiveness
to suggestions were too good to be true. It was
only when we got on to the floor that I realised
how true an artist he was. Nothing, including his
own performance, mattered except in so far as it
contributed to the film as a whole. I can truth-
fully say that throughout Pygmalion he made me
feel that I was working on equal terms not only
with a great artist but a colleague and friend for
whose consideration and for what he taught me
I shall always he inexpressibly grateful.

At the beginning of the war he could, with every
justification, have continued his American eai
In doing so he would no doubt have rendered valu-
able service to the British cause. But he saw
thai he could render it even higher service by
staying here. Our gain was immeasurably the
greater. So now is our loss.

A. A.

May— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

69

Flt.-Lt. Donald Gallai-Hatchard,
" Hatch "

R.A.F.

It is with a very heavy heart and deep regret
that I write this obituary of one of the finest fel-
lows I have known in our industry, and I am sure
that the news of his death in action in North
Africa was felt in the same way by several brother
technicians.
Over six foot in height,
with a broad back, mas-
sive head, muscular with
terrific strength, Hatch,
>re entering the in-
dustry, was an " iron-
fighter," erecting girders
on the building of Shell-
Mex House, a fact that

Frames from Flt.-Lt,
Gallai-Hatchard's film
of attack on I,a Bassee

all tripod heads knew only too well, for once
locked off by him only he could unlock them.

His first production was Men of Tomorrow,
followed by all London Film Productions — Henry
VIII, Catherine the Great, Don Juan, Sanders of
the River, etc., etc.

In 1985 he married and started a home in an
old world cottage in Denham village, a very happy
union which ended in tragedy in 1938, by the
death of his wife four days after the birth of a
little daughter Jennifer.

Christmas 1939 found him in France, filming
atmosphere shots for the production Old Bill &
Son. He joined the R.A.F. in 1941 as an A/c.2
and eight months later was one of the first mem-
bers of the R.A.F. Film Unit, supervising the
equipping of the Camera Department. He took
operational pictures of many famous raids includ-
ing Dieppe, and exceptional shots of a low level
attack on La Bassee which appeared in the news-
reels last year.

A keen A.C.T. member, a deep reader and
thinker, a »;reat golfer and a lover of Cornwall, a
man's man loved by all. Such was " Hatch."

A. W. Easey

W. J. Hemsley

It is with deep regret we announce the
death of W. J. Hemsley. Art Director. He
was a grandson of the late W. Hemsley, R.A.

His passing will be felt very keenly in the film
industry, as he was a most popular and clever
fellow, and very much respected by all who know
him. He was a member of A.C.T. for many years
and took a keen interest in it. He leaves two young
children who in years to come will be proud and
keen to carry on the name and the work their
father has left behind him.

J.N.

-for Studio and
laboratory equipment,

plant., andH>rthe solution of any
technical problem concerning
them - the name thai matters is

W.VINTEN LTD. NORTH CIKCUUR HD..CHIWIEWOOD. N W.2.
L. GlnhlwK 6373

70

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May-^June, 1943

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

Cartoon, Diagram and Rostrum Camera Section.
men1 has been reached with Air. Hopkins,
director of Publicity Picture Productions Ltd., to
r the Animation, Diagram and Bostrum
( amera departments. This Agreement sets a stan-
dard for a section of the Industry which up to the
presenl has not been properly organised, and all
oJ you know what that means in this enlightened
age.

The rates in the Agreement are as follows: —

Cartoon

Key Artist or Animator £10 0 0

[n-Betweeners— Grade 1 £7 10 0

Grade 2 £5 0 0

Tracers— Grade 1 '£5 0 0

Grade 2 £3 10 0

Colourists £3 10 0

Background Artists £8 0 0

Not less than 50% of Tn-Botweeners and Tracers
employed by Publicity Pictures shall be in Grade
1.

Diagram Department
ram Artist (able to plan his own

work) £10 0 0

Diagram Artist (working under super-
visions) £7 0 0

Diagram Artist (Assistant) £5 10 0

Title Department

These rates apply only where technicians are
exclusively employed on title work: —
Background Artist, Title and Aero-
graph Work £8 0 0

Title Artist £7 0 0

Camera Department
Rostrum Cameraman (able to photo-
graph Diagrams, Cartoons, etc.) £7 0 0

Assistant Cameraman £4 10 0

I A- re are clauses to cover conditions of em-
inent and to provide for Trainees and New-
comers, You will see, therefore, that this is a big
step forward.

Certain emploj ers who cater mainly for the type
of work covered 1>\ this Agreement have persis-
tently done all in their power to keep their
employees outside the scope of A.C.T. The\ are
ig to find it much more difficult now, unless
decide to bring the salaries up to the level of
this Agreement. But as the main reason for stop-
ping workers from joining trade unions is to keep
es down, we ean't imagine them doing that!
This journal will get into the hands of several of

the workers employed at stich firms. We advise
them to get in touch with A.C.T. at Edgware 3119
and have a word with the Organiser on the matter.

Technicolor

The Technicolor Laboratory Agreement has been
revised after several meetings with the manage-
ment and put into operation. In the past there
was some confusion and bad feeling in certain
departments because workers, felt they should '
have been in higher graded jobs but had no basis !
on which to make their claims. They know exactly
where they stand now with regard to wage rate-.
and it has meant increases for some of them. ,
Thanks go to Alf Cooper, Ken Daniels and i
George Patten, who were on the negotiating com-
mittee.

Correspondence

A letter from the father of one of our members ,
ends : " Somewhere at sea Photographer George
Duff can finish any job with the finest tool in the
world — his Union Card."

Another letter from an old Lab. member : Ernie I
Welsh, who has served with the Navy since the j
beginning of the war, sends his best wishes to all !
who know him. He has been through the mill
since then and writes "when my last ship got i
cracked — we lost a lot of jolly good fellows." He
is looking forward to the day when he has a home
and a garden again. I well remember his garden,
it was always a picture. Good luck Ernie, and
best wishes from all of us.

Humphries Laboratories

It can be said that Humphries are better orga-
nised now than ever before. Their new shop
steward, Arthur Williams, is a live wire who knows
that trade unionism means something more than 1
fighting for increases in wage rates. He is also
aware that to keep the members well organised
every effort should be made to cater for the social
side of their well-being, and he has already done
much to put this into practice. He is being ably
assisted by a practical committee, including our
old friends. Leo Cass and Eric Paske. We shall
always remember Eric for bis staunchness in the
davs when he was the only member at Kays.
Kiiishury Park. Much has happened since then
and he must feel proud to know that both the Kay
Laboratories are 100% A.C.T.

Bert Craik

May— June, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

71

CORRESPONDENCE

Scriptwriters

We are puzzled, to put it mildly, by the man-
ner in which you announce (in your January-
February edition) the formation of a Scriptwriters'
Section of the A.C.T. From the head line " Par-
nassus Quits Isolation Policy," and the tone of
the encomiums and messages of greeting which
follow, it is made to appear that writers have
religiously refused to organise until the blessed
moment when the A.C.T. took the matter in hand.
Yet, as the A.C.T. well knows, Parnassus quitted
isolation seven years ago, and the Screenwriters'
Association, comprising in its membership almost
every writer in British feature production, has
been actively operating ever since then.

Our bewilderment is not lessened by the fact
that our relations with the A.C.T. have always
been most amicable, and that there has never been
any diminution of our wish to continue working
cordially together wherever and whenever the
interests of our two associations might be jointly
concerned.

Eecently we have had friendly discussions with
representatives of the A.C.T. and correspondence

BALLOT OF MEMBERS.

In accordance with the resolution passed at the
Tenth annual General Meeting on April 18th, 1943,
a ballot of members is being held to determine
whether the A.C.T. Rules shall be altered by adding
Rules approving the furtherance of political objects.

Members should note the following:

1. All individuals who are members of the A.C.T.
on July 1st, 1943, will be entitled to vote.

2. Ballot papers will be distributed not later than
July 31st, 1943.

3. Ballot papers shall be returned not later than
September 30th, 1943.

4. Ballot papers will be counted on Sunday after-
noon, October 3rd, 1943, at the offices of the
Association of Cine-Technicians, 9, Bromefield.
Stanmore, Middlesex.

Members should also note:

(a) Those who claim not to have received a ballot
paper should apply to Head Office in writing as
soon after July 31st as possible giving their
name, address and membership number.

(b) There is a two-months gap between distribution
of ballot papers and the last date for their return
in order to allow all members, including serving
members, an opportunity to vote. Members who
can do so are advised not to leave the return of
their ballot paper until the final date, thereby
running the risk of losing or mislaying it.

GEORGE H. ELVIN.

General Secretary.

w ith Mr. Elvin on the subject of the newly-formed
Scriptwriters' Section, and we agreed that there
are some writers " in the documentary and shorts
field " (as your contributor, Harold Goodw in puts
it) who might be better served by the A.C.T. than
by ourselves: but it was acknowledged that tl
was no reason why this should trespass upon tin-
functions of the Screenwriters' Association, now
so well-established, which was freelj formed by
the writers themselves and which embrace-, the
main body (in fact virtually the whole body of
feature writers in this country).

Why, then, was there no reference to this in
announcing the new Scriptwriters' Section of the
A.C.T. ? The A.C.T. and ourselves are both agreed
thai it would be imbecile to present the Producers
with two organisations which they could blithely
play against each other. Should it not have been
made unmistakeably clear in the beginning that
the newly-formed section of the A.C.T. is intended
to supplement the writers' organisation already
existing? Why, instead of that, announce the
new section as if writers have just decided to
organise, and as if the new section is the only
organisation of writers ?

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72

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May— June, 1043

If the position is not stated openly and honestly,
and at the earliest possible moment, it may be
found that Parnassus has not quitted Isolation,
but that, to our mutual dismay, the Mountain has
Laboured and brought forth a rat. — Yours faith-
fully,

FRANK LAUNDER,
Hon. Sec, The Screenwriters' Association.

Psycho-Analysis

On more than one occasion since the
last issue of The Cine-Technician appeared I
have found myself involved in discussions which
have tended to become violent on the subject of
the article by John Pratt entitled "Psychoana-
lytic Notes on the Screen as a Medium."

To put it bluntly, certain technicians seem to
think it "a lot of bunk," criticise the Editorial
Committee for having accepted it and view with
alarm the implication that any technician might
be disposed to consider it relevant to his work.

An attitude like this is symptomatic of a sort
of wilful myopia which seems to be widely preva-
lent in our industry. I am bound to say that I
find a sad lack of analytical interest amongst film-
technicians generally in their medium.

The scientific approach to problems of everyday
environment is being more ami more widely accep-
ted by thinking men and women everywhere. A
rational and objective outlook upon all the prob-
lems that beset the average citizen is not only
desirable, but essential if a new social order is to
come out of the current world upheaval.

The cinema plays a great part in the life of the
average citizen. It is, to use a word from Mr.
Pratt's psychoanalytic vocabulary, a projection of
himself. As such it can and will do much to con-
dition his mental processes — even more strongly
than the Press and the radio; for it has an emo-
tional impact which neither of the latter possess
to the same degree.

We , as film technicians, are given the guardian-
ship of this medium, which wrongly used can
become as dangerous as it is powerful. We. then,
must apply that same rational and objective out-
look, that scientific approach to OUT everyday
problems — the problems of film-making.

Psychology is a science - the science of the
human mind — and psycho-analysis is the process
used by the psychologist for investigating the inter-
action between the conscious and subconscious
mind. The motion-pictun especially the fic-
tional motion picture — is designed to stimulate
certain given emotional reactions in the mind of
each member of iis audience. It must therefore he
admitted thai psychology and ils handmaiden.

psycho-analysis, have in facl a very direct bear-
iipon our work.

I will, however, join the critics of the Editorial
Committee on one issue. The Committee's inten-
tions were doubtless excellent, but to have flung
a somewhat technical discourse on a compara-
tively unfamiliar aspect of film-making without
preamble, without terms of reference, without
even introducing the writer, into (what I hope I
may be forgiven for calling) so prosaic a journal
as The Cine-Technician was, I think, a little
thoughtless. Such articles Should be of interest to
film-technicians and Mr. Pratt's undoubtedly de-
served publication. Since The Cine-TccJinician is
the only technical journal available to us the Com-
mittee was probably justified in accepting it, but
I should like to record a plea for editorial comment
on occasions like this one, where a writer is un-
known to most of our readers and whose relation-
ship with film-making though indirect has some
bearini? 'to his subject-matter. — Yours truly,

R. K. NEILSON BAXTER

ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC FILM ASSOCIATION

The English Scientific Film Association was
formed on Saturday, May 15th, 1943. at a meet-
ing convened by the Scientific Films Committee
of the Association of Scientific Workers.

The acting Secretary is Mr. M. Michaelis, 51,
Fitzjohn's Avenue, London, N.W.3. Aims are: —

1. — To promote the national and international
use of the Scientific Film in order to achieve the
widest possible understanding and appreciation
of scientific methods and outlook, especially in
relation to social progress.

2. — To collect, collate and distribute informa-
tion on the Scientific Film.

3. — To publish comprehensive lists of Scientific
Films graded according to scientific merit.

4. To establish relations with Government de-
partments, Public bodies and other organisations
which are in a position to make, use or circulate
scientific films.

5. — To support and consult a representative
panel of scientists to advise producers of films ot
all types on scientific matters.

('). — To promote the production and distribution
of scientific films.

7. — To encourage the setting up of Scientific
Film Societies.

8. — On request, to select or book Scientific Film
Shows.

9. — Generally to promote the appreciation of
Science through other related media suitable for
the mass-diffusion of knowledge.

10. — In order to carry out these aims, to raise
funds by subscriptions, fees for service- and in
other ways deemed suitable.

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Pinewood Studios, Iver
" March of Time," London, W.i
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Radio- Keith-Orpheum, Hollywood
Republic Pictures, Hollywood
R K O Pathe News, New York City
Tri-State Motion Picture Co., Cleveland, Ohio
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Van Beuren Corporation, New York City
Walt Disney Studios, Hollywood
Warner Bros., Hollywood
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TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

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SPAIN

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FILMING WITH THE FORTS
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THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

1-orial & Publishing Office: 9, BR0MEF1ELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX.
» -ertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I.

Telephone: EDGWARE3119
Telephone : HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editors : Darrel Catling, Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, Frank Sainsbury.

mber Forty-three, Volume Nine

July — August, 1943

Price One Shilling

FILMING WITH
THE FORTS

By

E. J. H. WRIGHT

THE smoke from the burning flying suit didn't
choke me because I had an oxygen mask on.
I could see the bursts of the bombs from the
Fortresses leading the formation ... I turned the
camera handle like mad as the bombardier yelled
"Bombs gone," and I felt the lurch of the ship
as the load left her. Then the pilot's voice on the
inter-com : " Close those goddam doors " — and the
bombardier's indignant retort: "What the ruddy
hell do you think I'm doing? " Then " Doors
closed, Sir." " Let's get out of here."

It all started one morning when the Ser-
geant shook me from my fitful sleep to get
ready to present myself with the others for brief-
ing. My mind seemed too confused at the time
for me to take in much of this, but it came back
to me afterwards. I had just been posted to an
American Operational Bomber Station somewhere
in England . . . after completing a special short
course which the U.S. authorities had arranged
for War Correspondents who wanted to go on day-
light bombing raids. We learnt all about oxygen,
electrically heated clothing, first aid, dinghy drill,
parachutes and a host of other things besides to
enable us to look after ourselves, if need be. The
British Correspondents on this course w7ere J. H.
Morley (Gaumont), "Admiral" George Oswald
(Universal), Jack Bamsden (Movietone), Kenneth
Gordon (Pathe) and myself (Paramount) ; in addi-
tion, eleven or so American War Correspondents

" sweated it out " with us. Of this bunch Gordon
and Oswald were the top boys in the final written
and oral examinations; and I had occasion to
wish fervently that I had been as diligent as Gor-
don. This was when, on one of our raids over
Lorient. my oxygen mask froze up on me, due to
negligence on my part, having forgotten the
" drill," and I passed out for a couple of minutes.
We were about 29,000 feet up at the time,
damned cold, hands and feet frostbitten, and after-
wards 1 thought ruefully that Gordon or Oswald
might have fixed it in a couple of seconds.

Out of that course, the first one of its kind, only
Bamsden and myself were left to carry on : Gor-
don, Morley and Oswald w'ere forbidden by their
doctors to undertake any altitude flying. It's all
in the luck of the game. From the course.
Bamsden and I were posted to our operational sta-
tions, the names of which must of necessity
remain secret. Since then, Eric Barrow (Univer-
sal) and Jack { nwins (Gaumont) have taken the
course and have both been on daylight raids.

It was not until aboul 6 o'clock on the nighl
before my first raid t hai we started I ruci

some kind of gadget on which to mount the
camera. This was made principally out of an oat
plank and a few pieces of aluminium scrap to
which the Akeley gyro head was bolted. It looked
a haywire proposition when we fixed it into the
ship, hut it worked, which was the main thing. I

74

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August. 1043

used the contraption for the next four raids but
in the meantime worked on a more permanent
device which I now use. This camera mount also
assists me to stay attached to the floor of the
ship and so to the camera, should the pilot have
to employ evasive action at any time ; my legs fit
in behind the mount and I can hold myself in posi-
tion by hooking my toes under it. I have also
a special belt which I strap across my back and
hook to the floor on either side of my body ; in this
way I become a definite fixture in the aircraft (this
is absolutely necessary if I am to keep the centre
of the target in the middle of the screen).

My next problem was to construct a different
view-finder for the camera. The target looks small
enough as it is from 30,000 feet without reducing
it further, so I asked my very good friend, Arthur
Kingston, to make a very special view-finder for
me which now makes the job much easier. Then
the question of what type of lens to use had to be
considered. Obviously a telephoto lens was called
for. I woidd have liked to use the 50-inch lens
Paramount have, specially made for the King
George VI Coronation ceremony, though probably
it would be next to impossible to keep the target
centred up with so much movement in the air-
craft, but I will try it out one day. Remember the
old horse operas, when Tom Mix leapt through the
screen into the auditorium, or the Chicago Flyer
doing likewise? I think you'd get the same effect
with the 50-inch lens focussed on a power house or
submarine slipway, when it went sky-high from
the effects of a block-buster.

A 1-inch wide angle lens gives the best impres-
sion of the enormous height at which the ship is
flying, but all detail is really too small, so I finally
tried a 4-inch lens which at certain altitudes gives
the best all-round results. I used a 2J-inch F1.3
lens on one raid because we flew at a lower altitude
than usual.

What type of filter to use was my next worry.
I found when flying in the sub-stratosphere that
one's sense of light values went by the board, and
the reading on an exposure meter did not tall}' with
my own judgment. For instance, the sky gets
more intensely blue the higher you go, and some-
times after I had stared at it for a while it seemed
to get really dark, yet everything against it was
actually crystal clear. The main problem, how-
ever, was to penetrate the ordinary haze ; there is
([uite a lot of it between the aircraft and the ground
and its extent is not always apparent. I found I
obtained best results with No. 15 or 23a Wratten
filters, according to the climatic conditions preva-
lent.

My first mission turned out to be a nice quiet
comfortable ride to llannn, right on the end of
Goering's Happj Valley, the Ruhr. Being a " new
bo\ " on the job, I didn't know enough to be able
to duck this one, so alter being wrapped up like

an Eskimo with all sorts of electric wires attached
to me, plus oxygen tubes, etc.. we set off on what
was to have been one Hell of a big raid. We had
taken off, and were climbing steadily before I had
disentangled the heater cord attached to my elec-
trically heated clothing, oxygen tidies and various
paraphernalia, this with the good-natured help of
the radio-operator, Sgt. Taliercio, more generally
known as " Turk," who was to be my companion
on many subsequent "missions." We finally
achieved some sort of order and I set up the
camera which was then snugly wrapped up in an
electrically heated suit — then I started to take
stock of the situation. I listened to the laconic
voices of the crew as they called to each other on
the inter-com. "Turk" was again helpful here,
as I was not yet used to the American intonation
and nearly everything said was completely unin-
telligible to me then. I don't miss a word now !

The problem of keeping a movie camera warm
so that it would run freely at such extreme alti-
tudes Over the target was one which we had to
solve by various hit-and-miss methods over several
missions. For this one we had, as I have said,
wrapped it in an electric suit, tied it into position
and hooked it up to the ship's power circuit. Un-
fortunately, these electrically heated suits are
made to fit the human body and are not meant to
go around a movie camera. It was, however, all
we had at the time. Later we made a special
heated jacket to fit snugly round the camera, but
this made the camera too hot — so hot. in fact, that
the gelatine filter half-melted. The' solution to this
particular problem only became apparent after
trial and error efforts over four raids. The answer
was to keep the camera just cold enough not to
interfere with its proper functioning or to make the
film brittle. This I found out to my cost on a raid
over Rennes, France, when the camera became so
cold that the film snapped after 60 feet had run
through. I now use an electrically heated bag
which encloses the whole camera, its motor and
the gyro-head. I have a small temperature gauge,
similar to that used in motor-ears, attached to the
camera casing inside the bag. There is no set drill
for using this heated hag. From time to time I ask
the navigator or co-pilot to tell me the tempera-
ture, and as soon as it reaches 30° below, I slip
on the bag, turn on the heat, and wait until the
temperature of the camera is up to 40° C. when I
switch off. When the temperature starts to fall
again, I switch on once more. I keep up this
procedure until we are about twenty minutes from
the target, when I turn the heat on fully for about
10 minutes, before starting actual shouting pre-
parations. The whole of the camera, including the
film in the magazine, is now at an equal tempera-
ture, which it retains for more time than is neces-
sary to enable me to secure my film record. After
that the whole works can freeze solid for all I care ;

•July— August, 1943

T H E C I N E - T E C H N I (' T A N

75

it does no harm to the camera, which soon thaws
out again at ground level. Access to the camera
hatch is obtained by lifting the trap-door in the
floor of the radio compartment.

My next worry was in trying to adjust my oxy-
gen supply to the rapidly decreasing temperature
caused by the rapid rate of climb. This is where
] almost came to grief, for it wasn't long before
ni\ oxygen mask froze up completely solid, but
" Turk " noticed that I was slowly turning a lurid
purple, and snatching off my useless mask quickly
slapped on a spare one through which I inhaled
gratefully. One becomes incapable of doing any-
thing for oneself when suffering from annoxia —
the medical, term for oxygen starvation. This is
one of the main dangers of high altitude flying,
because you don't know you're about to pass into
oblivion until it's too late and you've keeled over.
However, to return to the raid, soon after crossing
the enemy coast line we ran into dirty weather and
the groups of aircraft got somewhat scattered. The
group I was in, however, found a clear lane through
the clouds and naturally carried on until we sud-
denly came into clear weather again. Within a
few minutes, it seemed to me, we were jumped on
by some forty to fifty enemy aircraft. The sky
appeared to be full of them. Our group numbered
17, but one of us had got knocked down going in.
The bombing run was done according to schedule
and a fine job the American boys made of it. I
was fortunate to be able to prove this afterwards
with some of the film I took, but my first effort
was not very satisfactory from my point of view.
The evasive action taken by the pilot after the
bombs were dropped was so violent that it made
decent photography of any kind impossible. The
pilots and crews who took part in that Hamm
raid still speak of it as one of the worst they have
ever experienced. Such was my baptism. Here I
may say that two more ships of our group were
knocked down on the way back from the target,
and by this time the original bunch of F.W. 190s,
M.E. 109s, etc., etc., were joined by another
bunch who, I suppose, thought they were in for
a fine killing. The official number of enemy fighter
aircraft encountered by us on that raid was given
at over 80 — to me a very conservative figure. Cap-
tain Bill Clancy, my pilot, said afterwards that
the total " fighting time " of the aircraft was just
about three hours; this was about the time we
took to go into enemy territory and fight our way
out. For most of this time, with the exception of
the few minutes over the target itself, I was an
interested and very, very frightened spectator.
It being, as I have said, my first Fortress raid, and
knowing nothing about it, I only took one camera
with me which was mounted inside the camera
hatch pointing vertically downwards — so I just
had to watch the party— and what a party ! The
temperature was more than 40° below zero, but

J was quite warm, believe me! I still sometimes
dream of that raid.

After Hamm came Wilhelmshaven, Yegesack,
Hennes, Rotterdam, Paris, Lorient and so on,
until I read in the press that the only way the
Germans and Italians could get out of North
Africa was by trying a " Dunkirk." This conjured
up in my mind some swell picture possibilities, so
I asked to go to Tunisia. I musl hand it to the
Americans-- just give them an idea and if they
like it, it's in operation within twenty-four hours.
I was rushed through all the procedure necessary
for a trip of this kjnd, given an Al priority ticket,
and by devious routes was soon on my way to
another adventure. But for the weal her, and other
delaying factors, I should have arrived in Tunisia
within the day. Tropical storms can be extremely
awkward where air' transport schedules are con-
cerned, and every day found me more on edge.
worrying whether the Tunisian campaign would
end before I got there. However, my luck held,
and after ten days and devious routes I arrived.

Within twenty-four hours I had covered my
first raid — over Tunis it was, a very nice example
of high altitude precision bombing. Various raids
then followed in quick succession, over Sardinia,-
Sicily, etc. And then at 10 a.m. on May 13th we
were told that the campaign was over -- no
Dunkirk and no final mopping-up, therefore no
pictures of the kind I had hoped to get. 1 had
not forgotten Westerplatte, Warsaw, Rotterdam,
Coventry, Guernica or a very graphic description
once given to me by one of my colleagues, .Maurice
Ford (just returned from India) who witnessed and
filmed the machine-gunning by the Nazis of the
French refugees during the debacle of 1940, or
Jim Gemmell's expressive account of Stukas
dive-bombing our convoys in the Straits of Dover
when we were almost powerless to protect our-
selves, so 1 wanted badbj to film the German get-
ting a taste of his own medicine. It was not to
be — hut at least I can imagine what they felt
like at Palermo, Trapani, Mila, Marsala, Messina
and other Italian "soft" spots, and believe me
the softening-up process was very effective.

Life in Tunisia is no Led of roses, taking all tilings
by and large. I was fairly comfortable after I had
wangled ten blankets for myself. It's extremely
cold there at night and an inferno during the day
if it doesn't rain. The country is very fertile and
under good cultivation. The desert doesn't start
until a good way inland. Lizards are plentiful and
stork's can be seen even, w here. I don'f know
why, they have no chance to ply their legendary
trade! The airfields are extremely

ven bad; there are ants bj the million, outsize

i. ni^ at that, mosquitoes like dive-bombers with a
sting like thai of a scorpion, Thej don't seem to
he satistied with jusl a -ting, they biti out

of one's skin. But in spite of these disadvantages

76

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A X

July-

-August ,

1943

I wouldn't have missed the trip for all the tea in
China, and I did manage to buy just one bottle
of whisky (John Haigj for eight shillings and six-
pence — just one.

I arrived back at Algiers, which seemed as good
a jumping-off place for England as anywhere, only
to be told that I would either have to wait at least
five or six weeks for air transportation, or go home
by sea. Being in a hurry to get somewhere, as
usual, this didn't suit me. Once again, however,
my luck was in, and without disclosing any mili-
tary secrets as to how it was done, Colonel Elliot
Roosevelt, the President's youngest son, arranged
for me to travel in a special plane bound for Eng-
land. The journey was fixed up so quickly that I
did not. have time to bring home a bunch of
bananas or a crate of oranges, and we were home
in 10J hours' flying time.

Of the original bunch of War Correspondents,
Bob Post, of the New York Times, was lost on his
first raid over Wilhelmshaven, Sgt. Tannenbaum,
one-time Hollywood Paramount man, went down
over France, and Ernest Lewis, Paramount
cameraman, is posted as missing after a recent
raid on Kiel, but as a lot can happen in 30,000
feet, it is hoped that he was able to get clear in
time and pull his rip cord. From those high alti-
tudes it is not possible to follow an aircraft going
down all the way, and many times the boys get
out in time.

I shall always be grateful to my chief, G. T.
Cummins, for allowing me in the end to under-
take tb is work, although it. took me some time to
persuade him to let me have a crack at it. For
two years I had been trying to get the Air Ministry
to let me do this very thing, without success ; they
said, amongst other things, that I was too old,
which didn't make sense to me.

I would like to pay a sincere tribute to a very
fine bunch of American gentlemen, ordinarily
known as P.E.O.s, both here and in North Africa.
Colonel Morrow Krum, to whom I owe my North
African trip, was recently killed in an air accident,
and his loss is very keenly felt by all War Corre-
spondents who have had contact with him; I was
extremely shocked to hear the news one night at
m\ Tunisian airfield. Major Jack Reddin, Major
Newman and Captain "Tex" McCreary, at the
London Office of U.S. Public Relations, deserve
a special mention, and in Algiers there are Colonel
Phillips and Major Max Boyd doing a tremendous
job and doing il well. Further afield are Captain
Bernal Clarke, Captain Phil Porter and Lieut.
Max Marple, ever ready to help a member of that
nomadic tribe— the War Correspondents — along
mi his weary but interesting and often exciting
way. I mention these men especially because of
the many kindnesses and good services which they
gave me, in spite of the fact that I was a green-
horn out there and somewhat inclined to be a little

intolerant of situations which cropped up from
time to time. I know, however, that if any other
Correspondent passes their way, there is a very
ready welcome waiting for him. No words of mine
are adequate enough to thank them for their many
kindnesses to me.

Finally, some people have said to me that
there's no future in this kind of job, but I feel
that from a propaganda and a morale point of
view a good bombing picture has more cumulative
effect than a 1,000 lb. " block buster." If these
raid films give some measure of satisfaction to
people who have had to take it in the past, then
I am more than repaid for the effort taken in get-
ting them.

FILM "CLASSICS"

Dubbing Sessions : —

' What, hath this thing appeared again to-
night? " — Shakespeare, Hamlet

Continuity Girls : —

The lady doth protest too much, me thinks."
— Shakespeare, Hamlet

* * *

Play-backs : —

Low, sweet, faint sounds, like the farewell of
ghosts." — Shelley, Prometheus, Unbound

Assistant Directors : —

"Ah me," quoth Venus, " young and so un-
kind !" — Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis

Boom Swingers: —

' Nature hath framed strange fellows in her
time." — Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

Documentary Directors : —

' Forgive them, for they know not what they
do." — New Testament

Editors : —

" Still o'er these scenes my memon wakes
And fondly broods with miser care!

— Burns, To Mary in Heaven

July— August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

77

LETTER FROM

Capt. BRIAN LANGLEY

I have received a large number of letters from
A.C.T. members showing their interest in my life,
which becomes more and more like a " continued
next week Fitzpatrick "; letters which delighted
me no end, containing as they do little scraps of
news about the film business, who is working
where — or otherwise. One letter which pleased
me more than somewhat was from an erstwhile
employer of mine, one known in Wardour Street
as a Big Shot, who expressed his interest in my

goings on." Bather pessimistically, I thought,
he gave me an address in New Zealand should I
ever get that far. (It is a business address).

For your amusement and entertainment I now
present to you, for the first time ever and in un-
impeachable black and white, another episode of
my life as an Army Film Unit Cameraman, which
is rapidly becoming more and more akin to that
of a tennis ball inasmuch as I whizz from here to

there on the slightest provocation and am hardly
settled on the racquet of authority before I am
driven off again ....

The small group of us who had accompanied
H.B.H. The Duke of Gloucester on his tour of
India and Ceylon stood on Karachi airport wav-
ing " God Speed " to his departing aircraft. When
out of sight we relaxed, opened our magnificent
presentation silver cigarette cases embossed with
Royal Coat of Arms, and asked " What now? "
" What now " turned out to be an assignment to
cover one of those non-stop North West Frontier
wars (see The Drum). Everything has to be done
on foot up there, the terrain being too moun-
tainous for motor transport, and so thinking my-
self no end of a strategist I teamed up with a
mountain artillery battery on the principle that
gunners cover less ground than infantry. Well,
I was horribly wrong — up there the artillery lead

Sni/e 76% Mem Hours with the

DIXON

POWER FLOOR
SCRUBBING
MACHINE

A demonstration will convince you that the
Dixon Power Floor Scrubbing Machine not
only covers the floor seven times faster but
leaves it infinitely cleaner than by the old-
fashioned and costly charwoman method.
The Dixon is made' to scrub any type of
floor, is easy to operate and can be used by
any available labour. It is power-driven and
perfectly balanced and will not tire the
operator. It is easily converted into a Floor
Polisher and Burnisher. Write and let us
show you how to save valuable labour and
maintain your floors in a healthy and
hygienic condition.

R. G. DIXON & CO., LTD.

CAPITOL WORKS, EMPIRE WAY, WEMBLEY,

Middx. Phone: Wembley 41 39.

Area of floor

cleaned in

one hour by

one person

using

ordinary

methods.

Area of floor
cleaned in
one hour by
one person
using the

Dixon

Town- Floor

Scrubbing

Machine.

As supplied to Government Departments,
Municipalities, Hospitals, Sanatoria, Insti-
tutions, Commercial and Industrial under-
takings, etc.

78

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1943

the way, and each time the mules move all pedes-
trian personnel are obliged to do a half-walk half-
run covering five miles in the hour up and down
mountains. Stragglers, I was told, are cut off by
the hostiles in such a manner as to make the
casting couch a superflous piece of set dressing.
Therefore I did not straggle ! As I had to hump
my own camera and film, I discarded the case,
and hung my eyemo on a shoulder strap with a
handkerchief over the lens and mounts for the
double purpose of keeping important parts free
from dust and for wiping sweat from my brow. It
was a grand war for movies — the column packed
tightly down the bottom of some dusty nullah
whilst scouts and pickets kept to the hill tops.
Unfortunately for the movies this marching ex-
hausted me so much that very often when I should
have been shooting I was gasping like a fish flat-
on my back during the all too infrequent halts.
Just as I was used to this life, and could both
march and shoot, I was recalled and sent off on
a " routine tour " during which I went to Madras
and many places in Southern India covering
manoeuvres, un veilings and so forth. Then I went
to Calcutta to shoot Sikhs firing A. A. guns; flew
to Assam with General Wavell, during which I
was lucky enough to shoot him pushing ox-carts
out' of the way of his car one morning before sun-
up ; unfortunately there was just not enough light
and even at f /2 it was under-exposed. During this
Assam part of the tour my eyemo packed up, and
as I was out of Newman film I had the unpleasant
task of winding eyemo spools into Newman mags
by hand inside my changing bag. It is not nearly
so easy as it sounds, owing to the extreme curly-
ness of the black leaders, which seemed deter-
mined not to go through the Newman magazine
traps. After this I visited a jungle warfare school
where one is taught how to be unpleasant to Japs.
Even Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi would have
appeared sissies here!

Back in Delhi, I had a script thrust into my
hands and was told to go to Ceylon and " make
this film." I was goggle-eyed with delight — at
last, after two years of newsreeling, I was to do
the job for which I had rushed into the Army
Film Unit. So I leapt into the first south-bound
train and during the week which ensued before
arriving in Ceylon I had doped out the script.
Being a cameraman, I have never actually done
the doping or analysis of a script, and in future
I will treat assistant directors with the respect
they deserve; I now realise that they must have
the perseverance of the devil ! The story, briefly,
is of a typical Ceylon family seen, prior to the Jap
entry into the war, at their business, pleasures
and home life. Then 'the Japs decided to commit
hari-kiri, and this family " goes to it " by joining
various A.E.P. services. There being no blood-
suckers or casting bureaus in Ceylon, my first

thought was to cast from the amateur acting socie-
ties, but I soon discovered that they were free
only on Sundays, and for the sake of my schedule
I ruled them out. Then I decided to do a Bob
Flaherty and use people whose jobs were the same
as those they had to play on the screen. Therefore
I got a coastal gunner, a fireman, a Bed Cross
nurse, a telephone girl, and a boy scout, who were
all built up around the central character of the
Father in the family. Naturally, when playing
their normal war-time jobs they were beyond
reproach, and when playing pre-war domestic
scenes I gave them so much business to do, such
as winding wool into balls, eating or sewing, that
they could not help being natural, which, aided
by" a bit of directorially inspired eye-rolling turned
them into a first-rate cast. My camera was a New-
man Sinclair, and as many of the scenes were
played underground in the A.R.P. headquarters
I got much exposure assistance by undercranking.
I found that by placing a photoflood lamp on top
of the camera I could get a full exposure (at 24
f.p.s. at f/2) at five feet from the subject, and
by plentiful use of 28 mm. lens I got some fine
long-shots, the distance being lit by odd photo-
flood bulbs screwed into off-stage lamp sockets.

Excepting for a bit of unofficial assistance from
Harry Kratz, who was grounded at the time, and
the development of hand-tests by Sid Payne (late
of Humphries Labs and now helping the B.A.F.
in the Photo Department) I did everything my-
self. My programme was to shoot in the morning
and spend the afternoon making arrangements
for the following day's work. One unexpected
development was " publicity," which I overcame
by ringing up the local press whenever anything
juicy was about to happen and issuing them with
a short precis of the scene, upon which they based
their adjectival work. One rather amusing incident
occurred during the filming of this opus — the two
girls had a scene in which they were playing table-
tennis, and as a relief from their normal dress,
the sari, I suggested that they wore European
tennis frocks. One girl had such an outfit while
the other hadn't, so in a broad-minded directorial
manner I offered to buy her one. In a flash we
were in the loewt. heading for the best ladies'
outfitters in Colombo, where I ordered a tennis
frock for the young lady, whereupon all the lady
customers and shop assistants opened their ears
and eyes scenting a scandal. I could hear
them saying " What is that officer buying those
frocks for? " Apparently what puzzled them was
whether the young lady was my mistress or my
fiance. But this trouble was nothing to that which
I got from the Army Paymaster when I presented
my accounts — " What the so-and-so was the
Army coming to, buying frocks for girls, etc.. etc."

(Concluded on page 8o)

iuly— August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

79

MONOPOLY TENDENCIES HALTED

The monopoly tendencies in
the film industry were first
raised at A.C.T.'s last Annual
General Meeting. Subsequently
the matter was taken up by the
Cinematograph Films Council
{representing all sections of the
industry and the public) and the
Film Industry Employees' Coun-
cil on behalf of all the unions in
the industry. We reprint from
Hansard a statement in the
House of Commons by the
President of the Board of Trade
on July 13th which has halted
the monopoly tendencies. Whilst
expressing our approval to Dr.
Hugh Dalton for such positive
action, we must remain vigilant
and keep the matter under con-
stant review.

Mr. Glenvil Hall (Lab., Colne Valley): To ask
the President of the Board of Trade whether, in
view of the serious concern which has been
expressed by the Films Council and others regard-
ing the tendency towards monopoly in the film
industry, he has any statement "to make.

Mr. Dalton : Yes, sir. I have discussed this
question with Mr. J. Arthur Bank, who is Chair-
man of two of the leading cinema-owning com-
panies and controls a number of other film enter-
prises, including several production studios. I
informed Mr. Bank that the Government could
not acquiesce in the creation of anything like a
monopoly at any stage in the film industry. He
has assured me that he fully understands this, and
has been good enough to give me an undertaking
not to acquire additional cinemas or studios with-
out the prior consent of the President of the Board
of Trade. I am circulating in the Official Beport
the exchange of letters in which this undertaking
is confirmed. I should like to take this oppor-
tunity of expressing my appreciation of the public
spirited manner in which Mr. Bank has responded
to the Government's wishes in this matter. Mr.
Bank has already done much for British films and
will, I do not doubt, play a great part in their
development in the years to come.

I have also received undertakings from the chief
shareholders in the Associated British Picture Cor-

poration — the other large cinema-owning com-
pany— that they will not dispose of their shares
without first consulting the President of the Board
of Trade, and I should like to thank all those con-
cerned for their co-operation.

Following is the exchange of letters referred to :

28th June, 1943.
My dear Mr. Bank,

During the course of our recent discussions, I
explained to you that the Government, who desire
to see the development of a vigorous and success-
ful film industry and look to you to play an
important part in achieving this aim, have lately
been much concerned at the appearance of certain
monopolistic tendencies in the industry. I empha-
sised that the Government could not acquiesce in
the creation of anything like a monopoly at any
stage — production, distribution or exhibition. I
was glad to learn that you fully appreciated (his.
and to have the assurance that you had no inten-
tion of securing for yourself, or the companies with
which you are associated, any undue measure of
control.

You were also good enough to say that, to pre-
vent misunderstanding, and to make sure that no
action should be taken which might be contrary
to the Government's wishes in this matter, you
would undertake that neither you nor the com-
panies which you control would take any steps to

80

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July — August, 194.

secure control, directly or indirectly, of additional
cinemas or their booking arrangements, or of pro-
duction studios, without the prior consent of the
President of the Board of Trade, such consent not
to be unreasonably withheld.

I should be very glad if you would confirm this
undertaking, which will, I believe, go far to allay
the anxieties expressed in many quarters.

I understand that you wish to conclude some
negotiations which are already far advanced for
the purchase of certain cinemas, and you were
good enough to send me a detailed list. In cases
in which bids already made are accepted I raise
no objection, but I should like you to agree to
make no new bids and not to increase any bids
which prove unacceptable to the vendor. The total
number of cinemas operated by Odeon and Gau-
mont-British Companies would therefore be some-
thing less than 607.

I shall be most happy to discuss with you at
any time any problems which may arise out of
this undertaking, or, indeed, any other questions
concerning the British film industry, to the pro-
gress of which you have already contributed so
much. — Yours sincerely,

(Signed) HUGH DALTON.

J. Arthur Bank, Esq.

Heathfield,

Beigate Heath,
Surrey.

30th June, 1943.
My dear Dr. Dalton,

Thank you for your letter of the 28th instant,
in the second paragraph of which you set out the
undertaking which I gave you verbalby, and which
I now have pleasure in confirming.

I can assure you that I have no desire to see
anything in the nature of a monopoly created in
the film industry ; but I believe you appreciate
that some degree of rationalisation was required
if the British Industry is to be built on a sound
basis, and given sufficient solidarity to compete
in fields where powerful elements were already
established.

It is with very real pleasure that I have received
your assurance that I can come and discuss with
you any problem which affects the British
Industry . — Yours sincerely,

(Signed) J. ARTHUB BANK.
The Right Hon. Hugh Dalton, M.P.,
Board of Trade,

Millbank, S.W.I.

BRYAN LANGLEY— f concluded from page j8j

After production was over, and before I had
time to see the rushes, I was whisked off to the
Chin Hills in Burma where I made the usual
routine newsreel shots. These Chins are most
amusing chaps, and some have been converted to
Christianity. One such Christian Chin and my-
self were standing on top of a hill one day and I
asked him if a cemetery near by was a Christian
one. In horror-stricken accents he replied "Oh
no, sahib, not Christian, it's a British cemetery."
These converted Chins have so many restrictions
placed upon them by the missionaries in the name
of religion that there is little connection between
the stern religious life they lead and our British
way.

Returning to India after this Chin Hills tour
I was sent to cover a BESA touring show (similar
to ENSA shows here) and I had a delightful week
on tour with the show folk. It was quite like being
back in the film business to hear all the squabbles
and tittle-tattle. One of the most common expres-
sions was " not for all the rice in China would I
appear before those gorillas to-night "...
when the curtain went up, there they were singing
and dancing and acting, on the old stage principle
that " the show must go on."

The lady performers of BESA are mostly ama-
teur, gifted no doubt but still amateur. One of the
girls in the show to which I was attached had
only her looks to raise her to stardom and con-
sequently she .was known as " the Dumbell."
Needless to say, she did have a very fine waist. As
is well known by all film technicians who have
made a back-stage picture, the stage manager
goes around just before the show is due to com-
mence shouting " OVERTURE AND BEGIN-
NERS— Please hurry up there, five minutes — over-
ture and BEGINNERS." This went on for a
week or so at the start of the tour until one night
poor Dumbell burst into a flood of tears, saying
' Boo-hoo, please don't rub it in, Mr. Stage
.Manager (sniff, sniff) — I know I'm only a begin-
ner but I do try so very very hard."

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY

We are sorry that broken type made it difficult
for readers to see the telephone number of j
Norman's Film Library in their advertisement in
the last issue. It is

GERRARD 6413

We apologise to Norman's Film Library for
any inconvenience which they may have been
caused.

Julv— August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

81

PLANNING

Upon the plans now being made depends the standard of life of
future generations. In every field there is a conscious endeavour
for improvement— in industry, education, agriculture and medicine
— tremendous advances are taking place under the stimulus of
war. In this progress we are taking our part and we shall be happy
in the future to make our specialized knowledge freely available
wherever photographic technique can be of use and assistance.

ILFORD CINE STOCKS

ILFORD LIMITED, CINE SALES DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL HOUSE, WARDOUR ST., LONDON, W.I

62

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July — August. 1943

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Nineteenth
List

XOREEN ACKLAND (Assistant Cutter, Kodak)
— A.K.S. Film Unit.

PETER ALLEN (Cutting Assistant, Denham)—
H.M. Forces.

MAX ANDERSON (Director, Realist Film Unit)

— Navy.

HAL BRITTEN (Camera, Ealing. A.C.T. Shop
S te w ar d) — Army .

PHYLLIS CROCKER (Continuity, Denham)—
A.K.S. Film Unit.

ROY DORMAN (Junior Draughtsman, Gains-
borough)— R.A.F.

J. DRAPER (Assistant Director, Gainsborough) —
H.M. Forces.

P. EMERY-PRESLEY (Assistant Cutter, Den-
. ham and G.B.)— A.K.S. Film Unit.

J. R. FINN (Assistant Projectionist)— H.M.
Forces.

ROY GODDARD (Assistant Director, RKO)—
A.K.S. Film Unit.

HARRY GORDON (Camera Assistant, British
National) — Merchant Navy.

L. GOWER (Humphries Laboratories) — Navy.

L. E. GREEN (Cutting, Paramount News)—
R.A.F.

S. D. HAWKES (Assistant Cutter, Riverside)—
H.M. Forces.

MISS PEGGY HICKMAN (Technicolor)— Royal
Naval Film Unit.

F. IIORTON (News Editor and Commentary.
British Pictorial Productions) — Army.

H. HUTCHINS (Kay's West End Labs.)— Army.

A. IBBETSON (Camera Assistant, Denham)—
H.M. Forces.

ALAN IZOD (Cutter)— Royal Naval Film Unit.

RICHARD LAKE (Research, Kodak)— R.A.F.

MICHAEL LAW (Assistant Production, Strand)
— Royal Naval Film Unit.

MISS K. LAWRENCE (Negative Cutter— G.B.)
— A.T.S.

G. LYONS (Camera Assistant) — Photographer,
Royal Navy.

R, C. MILLS (Editor)— A.K.S. Film Unit.
KENNETH NELSON (G.F.D. Labs.) — H.M.
Forces.

HONORIA PLESCH (Assistant Art and Dress
Design, M.G.M. and G.B.)— A.K.S. Film Unit,

E. F. REED (Boom Assistant, G.B.) — H.M.
Forces.

PHYLLIS RETCHINGS (Continuity)— A.K.S.
Film Unit.

P. SEABOURNE (Assistant Cutter, Denham)—
—R.A.F.

J. SHIRLEY (Assistant Cutter. Denham}—
R.A.F.

A. J. SKENE (Assistant Cutter, Crown Film
Unit)— Royal Naval Film Unit,

R. E. STAFFORD (Assistant Sound Camera,
Crown Film Unit) — Royal Naval Film Unit,

JOHN STANFORD (Camera Assistant, Denham)
—H.M. Forces.

S. R, STONE (Assistant Cutter, Ealing)— H.M.
Forces.

H. THOMPSON (Camera Operator, British Lion)
— Royal Naval Film Unit.

J. VERNON (Assistant Cutter. Strand)— Army.

G. WHETSTONE (Sound Assistant, Merton
Park) — Army.

BRENDA WHITBY (Continuity)— A.K.S. Film
Unit.

E. WHITEHALL (Assistant Cutter. Strand)—
Navy.

Casualties

GORDON DREW (formerly Camera Assistant,
G.B.I.) — Killed on active service with R.A.F.

E. (i. LEWIS (Cameraman, Paramount News) —
Reported missing from operations.

JOHN LOCKE (formerly Boom Operator. B. &
D., Pinewood, etc.) — Prisoner of war. Address:
Py O John Locke, Prisoner of War No. 026, M."
Stammlager Luft 3, Deutschland.

July — August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

83

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

Technical Abstracts

Lab. for Field Service (Wm. Stull,
American Cinematographer, November,

Portable

A.S.C.
1942).

The H. W. Houston Co. of Hollywood are turn-
ing out a complete 16mm. reversal processing
plant for field service with the U.S. Armed Forces.
Its compact dimensions — 30" wide, 54" high, 70"
long — and its weight of only 15001bs., make it
easily transportable to any location. The machine
is designed for daylight working, and once the
exposed film has been attached to the leader
threaded through the machine, all operations are
entirely automatic until it emerges processed and
dried 30 minutes later. The film travels first
through a " dark " compartment, then in succes-
sion through the first developer, stop bath, rinse,
past the "flashing" light, through the bleach,
clearing bath, second developer, hypo rinse and
drying box, and is finally fed to a take-up reel
beside the feed magazine. Only three connections
are needed to operate the machine, one to an
electric power supply, one to a water main, and
one to some form of drainage. Built-in refrigerat-
ing and heating units maintain the solutions at a
constant temperature under any climatic condi-
tions. A device incorporating a photo-electric cell
measures the film processed by the apparatus and
also stops the machine if there is no film passing
through. Compensation for under and over ex-
posure is provided by a light control system. A
test negative exposed at f3.5 in fl6 light still gave
a recognisable image in the final reversed posi-
tive.

Chemicals for the baths are supplied in pre-
measured packages. The operator has only to dis-
solve the contents in the specified amount of water
and in the order indicated by numbers on the
packages. Each package provides sufficient solu-
tion to process 10,000 feet of film.

Several hundreds of these machines are already
in use with the U.S. Army Air Force.

A similar machine to handle 35mm — for fixed
base operation in a dark room — has been built.

Combat Camera (Wm. Stull, A.S.C, American
Cinematographer, November, 1942).

Harry Cunningham, head of E.K.O.'s camera
machine-shop, has designed and built a motion
picture camera specifically for combat use. Sam-
ple prototypes are being tested by U.S. military

photographic units prior to mass production.

Designed primarily as a hand camera (it can be
used with a tripod) it is fitted with a gun stock
and pistol grips on each side. Loaded and with all
its lenses, it weighs 15 lbs. The magazine has a
200 foot capacity and also contains the film move-
ment and take-up. The movement is of the pilot-
pin registering type. Two sprockets are used ; one
feeding the film to the gate and the other feeding
it to the take-up. The take-up method is novel,
doing away with belts and friction clutches. The
film feeding out from the feed spindle passes under
a spring tensioned idling roller — the edges of which
also contact the take-up roll. So, as one foot of
film is fed from the feed spindle it automatically
drives the take-up roll to take up one foot of film
from the movement. The magazine is inserted in
the camera through a hinged opening in the top
and automatically engages the drive and footage
counter connections. An electric motor in the gun-
stock mount drives the camera, current comes
from two small radio type batteries carried in a
pack hooked on the user's belt. Three camera
speeds are provided, 16, 24 and 48 frames per
second. The present camera is fitted with 35mm,
75mm, 6 inch and 101 inch lenses on a turret. A
quadrant next to each lens mount carries the dia-
phragm scaling, visible from the rear and operated
by the index finger of the left hand. Focussing is
carried out by moving the magazine and film back
and forth in relation to the lenses. Not only does
this allow a greater degree of rigidity in the lens
mountings but also means that a single lever,
operated by the thumb of the left hand, controls
the focussing of all four lenses. The simple posi-
tive tj'pe finder is mounted on top of the camera.

A New Camera Car (Wilton Scott, American
Cinematographer, December, 1942).

When Eepublic found themselves needing a
new and better camera car they decided to build
one from the ground up instead of following the
usual practice of adapting a large car or truck.

Apart from the frame and body, which was
specially built, extensive use was made of stock
parts and assemblies. The main constructional fea-
tures are dual rear axles each equipped with dual
wheels. Dual power plant consisting of two Lin-
coln Zephyr 12 cylinder engines, each driving one
of the rear axles. The steering is also dual, so
that when necessary, as in the case of keeping
pace with a horseman or another vehicle, the
driver can concentrate on speed control and leave
the steering to an assistant. There are low camera
platforms at the front and rear, an intermediate
level platform over the rear wheels and a high
level position over the cab. Auxiliary mounts are
fitted for microphone booms and booster lights.

84 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

A PT. OSMOND H. BORRADAILE

July — August, 1943

SHOOTING ACTION MOVIES

IN THE

AFRICAN DESERT*

THEEE is little that I can add to what' has
already been printed about military cinema-
tography, but, nevertheless, here are a few
of the difficulties I experienced in trying to get
a- photographic war record. Although I held an
Army commission, I was very fortunate to have
seen action in the three branches of the service,
all of which offered different problems for the cine-
matographer. Those of the Army, I consider the
most numerous and varied. If the cinematographer
is permanently attached to one unit he is well
established and his problems are fewer, for he
has not to worry about such matters as rations,
transportation, winning the good will of the senior
officers (without which he will not achieve much
during a campaign), but his scope is limited.

When a roving cinematographer such as I was
visits a unit — usually because he has been tipped
off that interesting things might be happening
there — he must, first of all, be able to definitely
prove his identity; secondly — and this is not
always an easy job — to convince the Commanding
Officer, of the value of propaganda and of the
importance of getting a historical record ; a i>er-
suasive line that I often found successful was that
the folks back home may have a chance of seeing
his men in action on their local screen.

This procedure is always easier if the visitor
can assure his host that he has an understanding
of military behaviour, and will not unnecessarily
jeopardise the lives of his men. Another point of
importance is that the visitor is self-sufficient as
to rations and transportation. To give an idea of
some of the problems the cameraman has to be
prepared to face, I shall recall a typical Western
Desert incident.

Things had been comparatively quiet, when
suddenly the enemy broke through the wire with
two hundred tanks and three hundred supporting
vehicles. I lost no time in collecting my driver :
together, we drew thirty gallons of petrol, a week's
rations, twenty gallons of water (which was plen-
tiful at our base). We packed all this, together
with our bedding and equipment, into our open

*By courtesy of "The American Cinematographer"

light truck, taking care to secure it well and
endeavouring, by the use of tarpaulins, to do the
almost impossible; protecting it against the pene-
trating desert dust.

We drove to a famous Armoured Division where
I was known and with whose tanks I hoped to go
into battle — but they retired, hoping to coax the
enemy into a more suitable place before giving
him battle. That night we slept under the bright
stars, feeling confident that with the coining of
, dawn we would be busy, for surely the battle
would be joined that day.

Instead, dawn brought us signals that Jerry had
already turned back to his own lines. No. he would
not fall into our trap ! This was bad news to me,
so I took leave of the CO. and with warnings and
the latest information as to the enemy's position,
we set out on a compass course into the desert.

It was a hot windy day with poor visibility due
to the dust. The wind was on our tail which,
together with the soft sand frequently caused
the old bus to over-heat and boil. At first I was
generous with our precious water for I was anxious
to reach the escarpment where I hoped to leave
the dust and possibly see some signs of Jerry.
But we soon found that radiator much too greedy,
so after filling her up again, we tried a new -
tern of driving on our course until she began to
boil, then swinging the car around into the wind.
Slowly, she would cool off enough to allow us
another run of perhaps a mile. This was slow going
and it was a tired, dusty pair of soldiers who
finally reached the escarpment and found a trail
up just before sunset.

1 [ere we found tracks leading west ; we identified
them as British, so we followed them. As dark
overtook us, we drove into a wadi and were chal-
lenged by a friendly sentry. After I had estab-
lished in\ identity to the satisfaction of the In-
telligence Officer, I was paraded before the
General- a plucky little fellow who a tew weeks
later was captured and succeeded in escaping.
leading many of his men back through the enemy
lines.

After winning the General's confidence and
asMiring him that I had my own water supply and

July— August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

85

Would not therefore encroach upon his — which
was, at that time, nearly one half gallon per man
per day for all uses: washing, cooking and drink-
ing— it was agreed we would start off at dawn,
hoping to find some evidence of the invaders.

A few miles beyond the wadi we picked up Ger-
man tank tracks; these we followed until climb-
ing out of a little depression our two cars stopped
short for, coming over a rise and bearing down
on us were two armoured cars: Friend or foe — ?
We grabbed our rifles. On seeing us, they sepa-
rated, took up position of advantage and stopped.

We scrutinised each other through our field
glasses; satisfied we were friendly they closed in
on us. I grabbed some pictures of them as they
came alongside, as they had a couple of prisoners
aboard, Italian airmen whom they had just picked
up.

These armoured car boys told us that our
bombers had caught a concentration of Jerry tanks
refuelling at a point ten miles to the south and it
was in that direction that I stood the best chance
of meeting up with some Jerries. As the General
was more interested in spotting new gun positions,
we parted company.

Yes, the bombers had had a bit of sport, for
there lay one of Jerry's latest tanks, with its muti-
lated crew still smoldering away, giving off that
strange, unpleasant smell so distinctive of human
j flesh. Besides the tank, there were two burnt-out
petrol lurries, two ammo-carriers and a staff car.
Too bad I didn't get a shot of that ! But twice we
had to " lie doggo " as enemy planes came over,
though I could never resist a shot at them with
my rifle.

While we were trying to scrape together the
remains of a German and bury them, another
armoured car drove up and told us that all the
Jerries were now back behind their own wire ex-
cept for a few more tanks which had been knocked
out. So. feeling a bit disappointed, we set com-
pass course and headed for our wadi where the
General treated me to a drink and what at that
time seemed a damn good meal.

The foregone will give you some idea of days
spent by those who seek to get action shots on
the desert, but fails to give all the problems, for —
had 1 been able to catch up with Jerry — the next
thing would have been to get into a position from
where I could photograph them without being
spotted and knocked out. The shimmering heat
waves, which so often prevail, make the use of
long local-length lenses impractical, and to make
tlie job more difficult, desert warfare is a war of
dispersal, and the camouflage boys' are far too
good at their jobs.

Learning of our coining November offensive and
believing it would be from the low-flying bombers
strafing Rommel's tanks that the best shots could
be secured, I managed to win myself a home with

a South African Squadron who were at that time
flying Martin Marylands — a four-crew medium
bomber.

At first, the CO. would only allow me to go on
test flights as carrying me meant that one mem-
ber of the crew would be left behind — a very un-
pleasant and unfair situation for the kite and other
crew members in the event of an attack by fighters
when all members depend on each other to do
their job and fight their way home. It was how-
ever agreed that I should be allowed to take a
course in air-gunnery and if my score proved
satisfactory I would be allowed to ride as No. 4
(rear gunner), with the understanding that should
we be attacked the guns immediately took priority
over the camera. This latter stipulation I planned
to overcome by camera-mounts and remote con-
trols so that both guns and cameras could be
worked together.

Long years of pointing cameras seemed to aid
me in aiming machine guns, for I was very soon
accepted as an air-gunner. The first few raids I
went on were very interesting, but not too spec-
tacular. They were high-level shows around the
20,000 foot mark.

We would be called before dawn, enjoy a hot
breakfast in the cool air, go to the briefing tent,
be given all the details of the job on hand, includ-
ing information from Intelligence gained by recon-
naissance flights and other means ; the latest wea-
ther reports and so on. We then piled ourselves
and flying kit into trucks wdiioh drove us to our
planes, which had already been revved up and
taxied to the take-off point.

At the last minute, we pulled on our heavy kit
and climbed into our kites, me with my cameras
which, in an endeavour to protect from the dust,
I carefully wrapped in silk which I had salvaged
from an Eyetie parachute which had not done its
wearer much good. We then tested our oxygen
supply and our intercommunication system, the
latter a most important procedure for it furnishes
the only possible means of contact between the
foreward members: No. 1, the pilot, and No. 2,
the navigator bomb-aimer, with the rear memb
No. 3, the radio-operator, and No. 4, the gunner,
tor between the forward and aft stations is the
bomb-bay with its unfriendly load.

To me, our take-off was always dramatic. As
No. 1 opened the throttle and we slowly began to
move, the ground crew always gave us a. eh
smile and wave. As we collected speed, the huge
plume of cream-coloured dusi blotti «l thi m from
view. Tearing along, we would see. a few hun-
dred yards beyond the starboard wing, our tents
our desert homes — with the lm\s watching, slide
by to he swallowed up by that ever-growing and
• pursuing dust monster. Our old I rmed

heavy, and heavy she was, for our tanks were
full and we usually carried eight 250-pound bombs.

86

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1943

It was always a relief to me to feel her lift her-
self clear and see the dust serpent die in its tracks.
We generally circled the field a couple of times
gaining height and getting into formation before
running out to sea or into the desert, as the case
might be, before crossing into enemy territory.
As we climbed up into the freezing level, my posi-
tion was not a comfortable one for the rear half of
my turret was open and it was my job to watch
for possible enemy fighters coming from the rear
or from above. As we had no heating appliance,
my main concern was : "Would the cameras freeze

up

-a thought that made me feel even colder

than the icy oxygen tube I held between my teeth.

I was always glad to hear No. 2 telling No. 1
over the inter-com that we had reached the posi-
tion from which we would turn and run for our
target. It was always a thrill to hear No. 2 an-
nounce that he had spotted the target and to hear
his quiet voice directing us into position.

I would then start operating my camera, shoot-
ing the opening of the bomb doors and the bombs
tumbling out. As the mount for following the
bombs to the target was not complete — and be-
sides we were too high to make it a good shot —
I used to lean out over' the side and try to follow
them down.

After the flight, I always wondered at the great
anxiety I felt from watching those deadly missiles
sailing down on their mission of destruction, and
at the great satisfaction I would have if the target
seemed to be well plastered. With our bombs
gone, the flak generally started; these black puffs
appearing in the sky beyond our tail made a good
shot.

Our mission accomplished, we would turn and
streak for the wire. Sometimes we would see the
dust plumes of enemy fighters taking off from their
fields. These did not worry us, for our old kite
had a fair turn of speed and we had the advantage
of plenty of altitude ; our concern was for the
fighters which might already be in the air.

When we crossed the wire, No. 3 would be told
to open up his sending set and notify our base that
the target had been bombed and that all planes
were returning. This signal sent, No. 1 would ask
for music, and we would fly home with music in
our ears, usually coming from Eadio Eome. For
us, it is well that Musso did not equip his army
with violins instead of guns, for with the former
they would have been sure of victory !

All flights were not as easy and as pleasant as
this, as a few notes from my diary will show :

" 7-10-41 : Took off 7.30 a.m. ; flew 60 miles to
sea; damn cold. 8.40: Keported to No. 1 twelve
planes flying on parallel course between us and
shore. They were about 8,000 feet below us. I
checked my 'chute and cursed myself for having
forgotten my Mae West.

"As we turned and ran for target, they also

cut in toward shore. I lost sight of them. Didn't
like their movements. Bombed target at 9.30
exactly, from 17,500 feet. None of our protecting
fighters in sight. (It was arranged that our fighters
should meet us over the target and escort us back
over the wire).

"About 9.30, I spotted what I thought to be
four of our escort fighters overhead. Eeported same
and decided to get some footage of them. Got
camera into position, but saw the 'planes were
carrying black crosses.

"Told No. 1 fighters were Jerries; passed
camera to No. 3, grabbed guns and fired at diving
Jerry who was firing with cannon and machine
guns. He levelled off below our tail. Other Jerries
dived on squadron. They got a good reception
from our guns. Squadron closed to very tight for-
mation, nearly wing to wing.

One German badly hit; he dived away. Xo.
3 plane of No. 3 flight attacked by two Jerries;
port motor threw out oil and black smoke. Saw
tracer bullets splashing on Jerry ; he pulled up and
turned over just above me ; could clearly see pilot
clawing at cowling before he fell off into spin.
Two remaining Germans break off fight.

"Our No. 3 'plane unable to hold formation:
he dropped away. No. 2 'plane followed him. No.
3 'plane landed at emergency field, badly shot up.
Two rear crew members seriously wounded, gun-
ner died on way to dressing station. All other
'planes of squadron landed safely.

"Army rejDorted finding one German Me-109F
just on our side of wire. Very sore because camera-
mount not ready for flight ; missed marvellous
chance for sensational footage."

Yes, I missed a chance which never presented
itself to me again, for a few days later I received
a signal from Cairo telling me to report back to
Headquarters. So I said " so long " to my South
African friends, a grand bunch of men, promising
to return as soon as possible.

As I was leaving, a mount which carried my
camera between the guns was completed ; it gave
a fine angle showing the muzzles of the guns and
the course of the tracer bullets. A remote-control
to operate the camera fastened on to the gun
handle near the trigger. The main difficulty was
to get away from vibration when the guns opened
up. Another mount was to allow the camera to
follow the bombs down to the target ; it was to
be operated by No. 2, the bomb-aimer.

At H.Q. I was told they wanted me to go back
to Tobruk for awhile, but promised to try to get
me back in time for my low-flying strafing shots.
Fearing they might fail, I was not altogether
happy with this assignment although Tobruk was
always a thrilling place to be in during the siege —
this I had learnt during a few weeks' stay in the
early summer.

We left port before dawn on a very modern

July— August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

87

beautiful new type of ship. It was a beautiful
trip until 3 p.m when a high-flying Eyetie plane
came over and let go six bombs. I was lucky to
get three of these bombs hitting the water between
us and a destroyer, really a good shot, and as they
caused no damage, I was very pleased.

Things were again quiet until just after sunset
when I think we were attacked by everything the
Axis possessed : torpedoes, bombs from both high-
level and dive-bombing planes, flare after flare.
All this together with our ack-ack guns, which
were many and varied, really made a spectacular
display and provided me with enough light to get
something really worthwhile.

I believe it was three rolls I exposed ; however,
it does not matter : the results are the same ; no
record, for a heavy bomb hit us and set our cargo
of ammunition ablaze. ... I regained conscious-
ness a few hours later in a destroyer. What grieved
me more than my wounds was to learn that my
cameras and negatives had gone down with the
ship.

All the foregone sounds like a mission that
failed, mostly due to bad luck. Well, war photo-

graphy is largely a matter of luck ; but it also
calls for the right equipment for the job, advance
information, and the full co-operation of the senior
officers.

The photographer with the Army should be as
mobile as possible; his equipment must be light;
therefore, 1 have long been an advocate for the
man in this service to be supplied with 16mm.
equipment.

The man with the Air Force must have his vari-
ous camera-mounts to fit the types of 'planes from
which he is likely to operate, and should also be a
fully trained air-gunner: Here again, the size
and weight of the 16mm. camera has great advan-
tages over the " Standard " 35mm. equipment.

The man with the Navy is lucky, for his equip-
ment can usually be Standard 35mm, and when
he gets action, it is generally spectacular.

The war cinematographer must be keen on his
job; he must have a cool head, an appreciation
of danger; an understanding of maps and the use
of the compass may prove to be of great value,
and good deportment has never been a hindrance.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

■^ A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,
where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff
are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone-, liberty an

On* mile from Wimbledon Station

88

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1948

STRAWS IN THE HAIR

by

SCREENCOMBER

of the " Kincmatograph Weekly
Illustrated by Land.

The idea has got around that we write this
column purely for the love of our art. The truth
is, if we did not need the money we would have
told the Editor to go and hang himself — or some-
thing worse — long ago. Life is full of troubles and
there is nothing we can do to get them rectified.
If we don't send in our copy, our name is imme-
diately erased from the free list, and when we
do, away ahead of even that inveterate early copy
sender-in, Ken Gordon, our name is left off the
front page credit titles. (See the May issue).
Perhaps, had we written on " The Metaphysical
Aspect of Cinematic Psychotherapeutics in Rela-
tion to Pteridology," we might have been splashed
all over the front page. Our omission can hardly
be excused on the grounds of the celluloid shortage
but it can be accused on the score of sharp prac-
tice. Take just one case. The touts are going

around the studio bludgeoning j'ou into buying a
copy, holding up production, spoiling takes and
taking their spoils. You glance hastily down the
fronl cover and think, "Good, no Screencomber,
now 1 can take a copy home to the wife and kids."
All innocently, you hand it in at the nursery and
when the wife looks in she sees the little ones
smirking at each other meaningly and giggling
suggestively over the latest issue. Hoping they
had been improving their minds with " Psycho-
analytic Notes on the Screen as a Medium " she
looks aghasl on finding that it is that crude
' Screencomber " that has brought this distort-
ing leer to their innocent little baby faces. The
paper goes in the fire and you go in the dog house,

and if you think for one moment that an unscrupu-
lous, money-grabbing Editor is likely to return
you your sixpence, ask the Producers' Association
and they'll die of laughing.

The Outcast

Who is that furtive, shrinking figure, hiding i
the shadows or averting his head
to escape the cold, accusing
looks of his fellow documen-
tarians? Can it be ... is it .. .
that millionaire play-boy. man
about town, bon viveur and
stout fella— Donald Taylor:' It
can and is! But Don. the bar-
ber's friend? . . . Damme, sir,
if you're doubting my word it'll
he pistols for two and coffee's on
you . . . Then what has brought
him to this sorry plight-arson, robbery or murder'.'
. . . He. once the toast of the town, the cynosure
of all eyes, scorned, repulsed, avoided? It's a sad
story, sir, a sad story. Another ease of a weak lad
selling his birthright for a mess of montage. He
broke the first code of the documentaries, sir. They
say he has taken to making his pictures from a
script. He is no longer one of them— an out
and. by gad sir, lucky not to be horsewhipped!

So Y'Won't Talk?

Have you noticed the production head
Although quite often quite well read
When you touch on the subject of dough
His vocabulary sinks to " No."

July— August, 1943

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

89

The cutter
Can only mutter
Softly or with a shout
" S'outl "

The first assistant

Is equally consistent

So is the second and the lesser

With their ever ready " Yessir

The Elvin cry is more insistent
Loudly, repetively persistent
In a voice you'll hear from here to Vimy
" Gimme."

Don't Be Cruel Boys

Those Technicians who have protested against
the making of advertising shorts might regret
their attitude could they but see with what eager-
ness this weekly piece de resistance is awaited at
our local hall. Having sat impatiently through
Gone With the Wind, having fidgetted through-
out the Organ Interlude and coughed and
shuffled and shifted through the News there is a
sigh of contentment and an air of suppressed

excitement and anticipation as the great momenl
arrives when the advertising short is thrown on
the screen. Eagerly (hey lean forward the better
to savour each word, for all the world like so many
gourmets relishing some subtle new culinarj crea-
tion; ecstatically they enjoy each one of its all
too fleeting feet, like connoisseurs lingering long-
ingly over the bouquet of some rare and priceless
old brandy. As it triumphantly unwinds its all

too short length with the clarion call that " Bloxo
Removes Pimples," there comes a roar of hysteri-
cal shouting, cat-calls and rasping sounds, whis-
tles and shrieks -and yells of what one might
almost be tempted to describe as sardonic laugh-
ter and even — yes, even — ironic cheers.

STRAND FILMS

MAKERS OF DOCUMENTARY
FILMS SINCE 1934

HIGHEST POSSIBLE
PRICES OFFERED

for

16mm PROJECTORS
SOUND & SILENT

ALSO 8 mm and 9.5 mm
PROJECTORS

We are also offering exceptional
prices for

LEICAS, CONTAXES, KORELLES

and similar Miniature Cameras and
all Accessories and Lenses for
these. Prices for all the above are
probably now at their peak, so now
is the time to sell. You can rely
on us for a fair and square deal.

City Sale & Exchange

Est. 1870 (1929) LTD.

2 POULTRY, CHEAPSIDE, EC. 2

PHONE: CITY 1124

90 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN July— August, 1943

Edited by Frank Sainsbury

CLOSE-UPS

No. 22 — SYD BREMSON

THIS film business of ours is certainly a funny
old business, and our union, composed as it
must be of film workers, is certainly a funny
old union. What with the big shot financiers and
producers spending all their time in and about the
Savoy and Claridge's, and most of the rank and
file doing all they can in their own little way to
imitate the bigtimers, it's small wonder that the
film business has very little real contact with the
life, people and problems of the rest of the coun-
try. I remember a film worker, who liked to con-
sider himself left-wing, telling me about five
years ago, before the cost of living had doubled,
that nobody could bring up a family of wife and
two children decently on as little as £15 a week.
This, mark you Hamilton, at a time when a sur-
vey had shown that the income of over 70% of
the families in Britain (not workers, note, but
families, which may include several wage-earners)
was less than £4 a week. And today, with the cost
of living more than doubled and the workers with
even the smallest pay-packets paying income-tax,
the workers' average wage (men's only, of course,
women's being much less) is still only £5 13s.,
according to a survey which did not include two
million or so railway workers and miners who get
about £4 a week, nor nearly a million agricultural
workers who get £3 a week. All this is by no
means intended as an encouragement to our bosses
to try to cut our wages; an industry which, under
its present organisation, can afford^ to have its
gaudy figureheads disporting themselves at
Claridge's and the Savoy, can certainly afford to
let the people who do the real work visit the
Corner House and the Cumberland. But it does
show the real danger for our industry of losing
touch with the rest of Britain and soaring away
into a dream-world of its own. And that is why our
great over-inflated gasbag of an industry should
be grateful for the only anchor that keeps it firmly
down to old mother earth — the labs — and why our
union should be thankful for its thousand or so
lab-worker members. Just as the lab bosses, when
their day's work is done, shun the bright lights of
the west-end, return to their solid suburban villas,
and, like every normal boss throughout the coun-
try, bring out the bank books and spend a happy
hall-hour wondering how to double their profits

without being caught, so the lab. workers, when
they come to A.C.T. meetings and talk of their
long hours, bad conditions and low wages, bring
in the freshening breeze of normal working-class
life in this country. Time and again, at Execu-
tive, General Council or Annual General Meet-
ings, you'll find a lab worker getting. to his feet
and bringing the discussion right back to earth.

And often enough the lab worker will be Syd
Bremson.

Syd must have had as wide an experience of
the different labs as anybody, but you could hardly
call his background quite typical of the average
lab-worker. His grandparents were all Russians
who in the days of the pogroms sought refuge in
Ireland and settled down in Cork. The Russian
refugees made a little self-contained community
there of about 50 families, most of whom were
traders, and Sid was born and spent his first few
years in his father's grocery store. His father
had married from among the little community,
and Syd was the baby of fourteen children, a mixed
bunch of boj'S and girls. They all survived but one
of a pair of twins, but Syd has never seen three of
his elder brothers who emigrated to America before
he was born. In fact he has a nephew older than
himself. When he was only a few years old his
parents died and his sisters moved to Dublin, took
a house and proceeded to bring up the rest of the
family there. In Dublin the close family relation-
ship continued, with one of the sisters keeping
house and the others going out to work.

One of his sisters had married a him renter with
an office in Dublin, and when in about 1926 Syd
left school, he went to work there. As he was
one of the family, Syd was very well treated by
his brother-in-law, with easy working hours and
a starting wage of £2 a week. He did mainly office

July— August, 1943

THE CINE -TECHNICIAN

91

work, filling up contract forms, checking copies
in and out and so on, and as soon as his brother-
in-law saw that he was picking it up well, his
wages were raised to £2 10s. In fact at this time
the film business looked to him (as it has done
at the start to so many future lab workers) a
really enticing Eldorado of big money and little
work. However, at this stage the Bremson family
in Dublin began to break up, and Syd came to
London to live with one of his married sisters.

Determined to pursue the golden trail of the"
cinema Syd next applied to an uncle who ran the
little Gaiety cinema at the end of Praed Street
(now a newsreel house) and was given a job in the
projection box. But now he soon began to find out,
first, that uncles are not so easy to please as
brothers-in-law, and second, that it's not as easy
as all that to hit the film business jackpot. For
one thing, his money came down with a thump
to 35 /6d. a week, he had to work like a nigger all
hours of the day, and even when he had become
a competent projectionist, his uncle showed no
sign of meaning to give him a rise and every sign
of meaning to get as much work for as little money
out of his nephew as possible. So Syd decided to
try his luck elsewhere, and after a tour of War-
dour Street landed a job at Ideal Films by virtue
of his previous experience in a renter's office. The
money was only 37/6d. a week, and he had to
work in the despatch instead of the office, but they
promised to transfer him into the office as soon as
the opportunity arose. Meanwhile he used to stand
in the doorway and watch the girls going by to
work, particularly one girl who looked very smart
in a black costume and white blouse (her father
had died recently) and turned in to work a few
doors up the street, at Film Laboratories. As time
went by and the promised shift into the office at
Ideal seemed just as far off as ever, Syd decided
on a move, and after failing to land a job at Pathe
struck lucky at, of all places, Film Labs. It wasn't
long before he'd struck up a friendship with his
girl in the neat black costume, and very soon they
were walking out together. Syd's wage was £2 a
week now (back at last to what he'd started at
years before) and presently he was put on to print-
ing, though without getting any rise. He was
still living with one of his married sisters in Maida
Vale — he shifted from one to another as they
changed their addresses — and altogether did not
seem to be making much progress. Anyway, one
night as he was seing his girl home to Tottenham
after an evening at the Palladium (they were
showing silent films in those days) she gave him
a very serious talking to. She pointed out that he
was getting nowhere as things were, and that if
he ever wanted to make anything of himself and
rise in tfr? world he'd have to make a real effort
and push himself a bit. Syd saw the force of this
and at once began doing something about it.

Elstree Labs had just started, so Syd helped
himself to the morning off and went out there to
try his luck. Sure enough he landed a job as
printer, to start the next Monday, at the fan-
tastic wage of £3 10s. Od. a week, which went to
prove his girl was right. Needless to say there
were some very black looks and some remarks
when he got back to Film Labs and gave in his
notice. " Elstree, I suppose," grumbled the boss,
for Elstree's so-called high wages were proverbial
in the street at that time and a perpetual annoy-
ance to the bosses, as they drained away their
best labour. The atmosphere at Film Labs during
Syd's last few hours there was distinctly chilly,
and he was closely watched to see that he didn't
slack or run off with the equipment.

Syd got on very well at Elstree for a time, and
met a lot of the good lads such as Bert Craik and
George Irons. But after a time it looked as though
the only way to get a rise would be to change
jobs again : the employers seem to think that if
they're hired you to do a job at a certain wage,
that's the wage you're going to get for the rest of
your life. Even today there are employers, par-
ticularly in the labs, stupid enough to regard mini-
mum rates as maximum rates top : on their theory
10 years' experience doesn't make a man a more
useful employee to them at all, and that's why
they're always finding their staff trying to change
their jobs. And so Syd found himself scouting round
again. He wrote to Skittrell at Olympic Kine
and was told they'd keep his name in mind, and
a bit later went round to Kays at Finsbury Park.
At Kays he saw Ernie Boy and was soon fixed up
to start the following Monday as a printer at
£3 15s. Od. a week. ' As he came out of his inter-
view at Kays he realised that in spite of the extra
5s. a week he didn't like the atmosphere there
(this was before Kay's was rebuilt) — he found it
depressing — so after a moment's thought he went
across the road and rang up Skittrell. Skittrell
was annoyed at his importunity : in fact in a few
minutes Syd was in possession of a second job as

THE CROWN
THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE AT
ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

Two Double-Heads. Full Range Sound.

Mixing Panels for Tracks.
Seating for 100 Persons.

86 WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W. 1

Telephone Gerrard 5223

92

THE CIKE-TECHNICIA.V

July — August. 1

printer to start on Monday at £3 15s. Od". After
weighing up the pros and cons he plumped for
Olympic, started on the Mondaj and stayed there
everal a ears.

Syd always reckons that his time at Olympic
was the happiest he has spent in the labs. He
wasn't long there before he went on to night shift,
and on night shift he stayed till he left. Skittivll
did all he could to make the men happy at work
and they all joined in with a will. They had a
Sports Club, with cricket and football teams, and
a recreal ion room attached to the lab. The lads were
a very cheerful crowd and. as they could run their
job to suit themselves, they always took time
off on night shift to play a few games of table-
tennis, darts, etc.. in the club room. The result
\\ as that work went with a swing, and to make
up for the time off they had taken they always
made it a point each shift to do a few extra " con-
science " reels over and above their regular quota.
It's a wonder more bosses don't realise that much
more work gets done if the men have some respon-
sibility in their job and can work it the way that
suits them best. Altogether it was a gay time for
Syd: he'd finally taken the plunge and left his
sisters to live in lodgings and he was liking it very
much. He had good lodgings and many of his
fellow lodgers were young Swiss students, sent
over here by their fathers to polish up their Eng-
lish, who were out for a good time and were
allowed plenty of money to spend. Syd, who by
now was getting a share of the money sent over
to the family by his brothers in America, used to
go round with these lively lads, and a high old
time they had, often finishing up sitting at the
bar at Appenrodt's drinking lager. On one cele-
brated occasion they arrived home late and one
of the students fell over in the hall, bringing to
earth a large gong, which fetched down the land-
lady and left Syd to explain as best he could.

Still, all good times must come to an end, and
his was no exception. Syd's girl had decided that
this gay life and living in lodgings was doing him
no good, and she was pressing him to try for a
rise so that tln\ could gel married. Syd was all
in favour too, and quite determined on marriage,
even though he expected trouble from the rest
ol his family who were pretty strict in these
things. So, knowing it was not much use to
look for a rise where he was, he put in for a job
at Humphries and collected one on the night shift
breaking down rushes negative, at £4 10s. Od. a
week, lie was sorrj to leave Olympic, as he'd
always been happj working there, and he still
thinks it had the be^t working atmosphere of any
lab in those days. Bui now at any rate he could
gel married, and within six months bis family,
seeing that his wife was a sensible urirl with his
best interests at heart, were quite reconciled and
welcomed hei into their midst. Today, they have

two little girls — Pamela and Norma, aged ten and
seven respectively.

But Humphries was a bit flat to work at after
Olympic and it wasn't long before Syd was look-
ing for another job. Denham Labs were just being
built, so Syd got his name in quick and when they
started up he went there at £5 a week in charge
of printing. And at Denham he's been ever since.
There was a certain amount of trouble before Den-
ham began working smoothly, mainly through
the inexperience of most of the original staff; but
as they began to learn, and the completely hope-
less were weeded out, things went better. Syd's
had quite a run through the Denham depart-
ments: printing, then a spell on the optical prin-
ter, 16mm processing, a series of quite successful
experiments on 16mm optical work, and finally,
is now insert and titles cameraman and also L
after the equipment for Denlab's own production
unit. This development is a very welcome one for
Syd. He's always had strong views on the present
lack of interchange between lab and studio work
and it's always been a point of his that lab worl
should have the chance of moving over to studio
work and that studio workers should have had spells
in the lab. Not only would this give lab workers
a chance of getting the better studio wages, but
it would improve understanding and relationship
all round, and Syd's very pleased to have made a
start in that direction. He'd like to see much
closer and more regular contact between studio
and lab workers, with camera and sound crews
and cutting room staff taking a much greater
interest in what happens to their work in the labs;
nowadays a lab worker seldom hears from them,
unless a cameraman has mucked up a job and
is hoping to have it rescued in the developing bath.
Syd bad plenty of other ideas too for improving
lab work and efficiency : for instance, he holds that
the optical department should have its own
separate processing plant, and their stuff, with its
special requirements as to gamma and so on,
should not have to take its chance with the
of the footftge in the routine developing bath.

But Syd's main interest always has been and
still is in the working conditions of lab employees.
He's bad years of night work and years of dark-
room work, so he knows what he's talking about.
People who have never tried it cannot realise what
a strain on health and nerves constant mechanical
work year after year in depressing conditions can
be. It's bad enough to be on night shift, or in
the dark-room, always to be working like a n
or one of those subterranean fishes that have lost
their eyes, in a half-human world of darkn
but on top of that lab workers live in an atmos-
phere poisoned by all sorts of chemicals. That
is why the working atmosphere, such as the -
going feeling at Olympic, can make so much
difference to the health, happiness and effici.

July — August, 1943
Edited by Kay Mander

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

93

WHO'S WHERE IN FILM PRODUCTION

We print for the first time a complete list of Service Film Units personnel. Restriction of space
compels us to hold over details of feature and shorts production units.

ARMY FILM UNIT, Pinewood
Studios

Officer in Charge : Major H. Stewart.
Adjutant : Capt. G. del Strother.
D. : Capt. Roy Boulting.
Asst. D. : Lieut. P. Jenkins,

Sgt. N. Watson.
Scr. : Lieut. D. Bull.
Cutting : Lieut. R. Verrall,
S/Sgt. R. Carrick,
Sgt. R. Best,
Sgt. F. Clark,
Sgt. G. Anderson,
Cpl. J. Durst.
NC. : Mrs. A. White,

Sgt. E. Davidson, A.T.S.
C. : Capt. H. Glendining,
Lieut. A. Lawson,
Lieut. G. Lang,
Sgt. P. Bryan,
Sgt. Val Stewart,
Sgt. J. Goddard,
Sgt. J. Rudkin,
Sgt. G. Groom,
Sgt. L. Carpenter,
Sgt. H. Parkinson,
Sgt. L. Harris,

Key to Definition of Crades

A

ART DIRECTOR

AP

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Asst

D

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

B

BOOM

C

CAMERA OPERATOR

Con

CONTINUITY

D

DIRECTOR

DR

DRAUGHTSMAN

E

EDITOR

LC

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN

Mus

D

MUSICAL DIRECTOR

NC

NEGATIVE CUTTER

P

PRODUCER

PM

PRODUCTION MANAGER

R

RECORDIST

SC

SOUND CAMERA

Scr

SCRIPT

SE

SUPERVISING EDITOR

SS

SOLTND SUPERVISOR

ST

STILLS

UM

UNIT MANAGER

Sgt. C. Baynes,
Sgt. G. Rottner.
R. : Capt. D. P. Field.
SC. : Sgt. J. Aldred.
B. : Sgt. G. Croll.
Section Leaders : Lieut. J. Palmer,

Lieut. P. Handford,
Lieut. L. Evans,
Lieut. T. Keyes,

ST. : Lieut. J. Barkei.

A.F. and P.U. No. 1 (Middle East)
Officer in Charge : Major D. Mac-
Donald.
D. : Capt. B. Keyes,
Capt. A. Cash,
Capt. E. Beacon,
Capt. G. Massey-Collier.

Section Leaders : Lieut. D. Mayne,
Lieut. D. Knight,
Lieut. J. Flack,
Lieut. C. James.
C. : Sgt. P. Hopkinson,

Sgt. T. Chown,

Sgt. E. Deeming,

Sgt. K. Rodwell,

Sgt. C. Windows,

Sgt. W. Jordan,

Sgt. J. Slade,

Sgt. J. Herbert,

Sgt. N. Neille,

Sgt. A. Taylor,

Sgt. R. Ackland,

Sgt. D. Fox,

Sgt. R. Morris,

Sgt. Wernham,

Sgt. S. Legge,

of lab workers. And Syd thinks that every lab
worker should have a regular physical examina-
tion and overhaul ; however healthy you are when
you start, the constant wear of the working con-
ditions will, as you grow older, get you down in
the end. So he welcomes the introduction of
these miniature X-ray examinations for lab
workers, and strongly urges everybody who can,
no matter how healthy he may think himself, to
try it.

With all his interest in working conditions, Sid
has naturally been a member of A.C.T. since
the very beginning, and today he's Vice-President
representing lab workers. There are very few meet-
ings when he doesn't get up to put the lab
workers' point of view, or to argue a case from
a wider political standpoint. For his interest in
working conditions naturally led Syd to politics,
and today he's a keen and active political worker.
In fact, now that he's been able, with his wife
to urge him on, to make the first step out of
the labs proper, there's no saying where Syd might
not finish. But there's one thing we can be sure
of : he'll always remember his days on night shift
and in the dark-room, and he'll always speak up
tor the lab workers.

-For Studio and
laboratory equipment,
CamerasJripodsfiinfing'ProcessiiKf
plank., ana for the solution of any
technical problem concerning
them - the name that matters is

W.VINTEN LTD. NORTH CIRCULAR RD..CRICKLEWOOD. N W I
k GUditont 6373

We are requested by our Client, Mr. John
Tufnell Rose, chief cameraman of British Films
Ltd., who is known familiarly in the industry
as " Jack " Rose, to state that he is in no way
related to or connected with any other person
in the industry with the same surname. He
desires us to make this statement as a certain
amount of confusion has arisen in connection
with his engagements. Dated July, 1943. Croft
and Russell, Solicitors. Maxwell House, Arundel
Street, Strand, W.C. 2.

94

T HE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1948

Sgt. C. Garnham,
Sgt. J. McArdle,
Sgt. — . Barnes,
Sgt. L. Ostinelli,
Sgt. A. Day,
Sgt. — . Brown,
Sgt. G. Grayson,
Sgt. D. Wolfe,
Sgt. M. Berman,
ST. : Sgt. L. Chetwyn,
Sgt. — . Drennan,
Sgt. F. Nott,
Sgt. C. Travis,
Sgt. J. Mapham,
Sgt. — . Silverside,
Sgt. L. Palmer,
Sgt. H. Curry,
Sgt. R. Lambert,
Sgt. R. Berkshire,
Sgt. — . Lansdown,
• Sgt. — . Gladstone.
A.F. and P.U. No. 2 (North Africa)
Officer in Charge : Major G. Keating,

M.C.
D. : Capt. H. Rignold,
Capt. A. Black,
Capt. P. Fletcher.
Section Leaders : Lieut. R. Gade,

Lieut. A. Whicker,
Lieut. J. Cliff.

C. : Sgt. M. Wilson,

Sgt. J. Gemmell,
Sgt. R. Day,
Sgt. Bob Day,
Sgt. J. West,
Sgt. A. Elvin,
Sgt. W. Best,
Sgt. A. Richiardi,
Sgt. R. Meyer,
Sgt. J. Gunn,
Sgt. — . Radford,
Sgt. H. French,
Sgt. H. Lupson,
Sgt. H. Penman,
Sgt. D. Hill,
Sgt. W. Huggett,
Sgt. G. Wootton,
Sgt. V. Weber,
Sgt. B. J. Spittle,
Sgt. R. Bower,
Sgt. D. Courtney.
ST. : Sgt. C. Bowman,
Sgt. G. Loughlin,
Sgt. A. Stubbs,
Sgt. C. Bourne,
Sgt. F. Wackett,
Sgt. C. Dawson.
INDIA : Major A. Bryce (Officer in
Charge),
Capt. G. Keen,
Capt. Bryan Langley.
MALTA : Lieut. J. Cotter,

Lieut. J. Deakin.
GIBRALTAR : Sgt. Hutchinson.

FILM PRODUCTION GROUP-
ARMY KINEMATOGRAPH
SERVICE, R.A.O.C.

Officer in Charge : Major G. Rayner.
P. Asst. : C.S.M. Tilly Day, A.T.S.

D. : Capt. R. Pitt,

Capt. F. Young,
Capt. J. Lewis,
Lieut. R. Goddard,
Lieut. R. Kinnoch.

Asst. D. : Lieut. R. Baker,
Lieut. P. Leacock,
Lieut. Campbell Logan,
Sgt. T. S.Lyndon-Haynes,
Pte. P. Dixon.
Con. : 2nd. Sub. A. Martelli, A.T.S. ,
2nd Sub. P. Crocker, A.T.S.,
Cpl. P. Ritchings, A.T.S.,
Cpl. M. Owens, A.T.S.,
Cpl. B. Whitby, A.T.S.
Scr. : Lieut. R. Cooper,
Lieut. J. Durden,
Lieut. J. House,
Pte. T. Brown.
Commentator : Lieut. P. Slessor.
SE. : Capt. B. Porter.
E. : Lieut. R. C. Mills,

Lieut. D. Hyde-Chambers,
Lieut. G. Foot,
Lieut. E. Hunter,
Lieut. J. Corbett,
Sgt. C. Brunei,
Sgt. R. Johnson,
Cpl. E. Burbeck, A.T.S.
Cutters : Cpl. P. Rignold, A.T.S.

L/Cpl. N. Ackland, A.T.S.
L/Cpl. S Emery-Pressley,

A.T.S.
L/Cpl. E. Holden, A.T.S.
L'Cpl. P. Kelly, A.T.S.
Pte. E. Dillon, A.T.S.
NC. : Cpl. D. Lee, A.T.S.
Asst. NC. : L/Cpl. J. Spanton.
Librarian : Pte. J. Mountford.
Studio Manager : Capt. H. Coward.
Asst. SM. : Sub-Comdr. F. Capon.
Asst. A. : S.Q.M.S. M. Nicol.
LC. : Lieut. B. Francke,
Lieut. G. Williams.
C. (1st) : S.Q.M.S. A. A. Englander,
S.Q.M.S. F. Francis,
L/Photo J. Wilcox, R.N.

att.
P/O. E. Steward, R.N. att.
C. (2nd) : Sgt. P. Newbrook-,
Sgt. D. Harcourt,
• Sgt. F. Lansdowne.

1st Asst. C. : Sgt. F. Ellis,
Sgt. J. Reid,
L/Photo D. Cooper,

R.N., att.
Sgt. J. Atchelor.
2nd Asst. C. : Cpl. T. Day,
L/Cpl. D. Davis.
C. Maintenance : S.Q.M.S. G. Ash-
worth.
Chief Sound Engineer . Lieut. J. Cox.
R. : Sub.-Cmdr. W. Burningham.
B. : Sgt. L. Hebburn,
Pte. D. Furderer.
Asst. B. : Pte. G. Martin.
SC. : Sgt. R. Palmer,

Sgt. K. Rawkins.
S. Maintenance : S Sgt. W. Howell.
Make-up : Cpl. J. Johnstone, A.T.S.

R.A.F. FILM PRODUCTION UNIT
AT HOME

In charge of production : S Ldr. E.

Baird.
Asst. Production : F/O. W. Rensen,

(W.A.A.F.).
D. : F/Lt. J. E. Boulting.
Kit. J. Shearman,

P O. P. Baylis,

P.O. I. Scott.
Asst. D. : F O. G. R. Collins.
Scr. : F Lt. H. Gray,

F/Lt. T. Rattigan.
SS. : F/Lt. W. H. O. Sweenv.
Asst. S. : P/O. C. Poulton.
R. : Sgt. R. C. J. Jones,

AC. G. E. Almond.

B. : Sgt. L. Reeve,

L.A.C. C. Collick.
Maintenance : Sgt. E. C. F. Gray.
Electrician : Cpl. R. Fitch.

C. : F O. W. B. Pollard,

F O. E. W. Coop,
Sgt. H. Waxman,
Sgt. G. Taylor,
Sgt. C. Challis,
Sgt. D. G. Towler,
L.A.C. B. Till,
L.A.C. G. D. Rushby,
A C. H. Hughes.
A. : F/O. J. K. M. Howell.
Asst. A. : Sgt. F. C. Morse,
A C. T. Bryan,
ST. F/O. R. E. Pilgrim,
^gt. J- Jay,
Sgt. D. E. M. Knapman

(W.A.A.F.),
Cpl. L. Norvell,
Cpl. L. T. Lewis (W.A.A.F.),
ACW. M. G. Plowman

(W.A.A.F.),
ACW. F. G. Pocock (W.A.A.F).
Con. : ACW. D. North (W.A.A.F.),
ACW. O. M. Acason
(W.A.A.F.).
E : Sgt. R. T. Stocks,

Sgt. G. Turney-Smith,
Sgt. H. E. Hodges,
Sgt. J. E. Morris,
Cpl. A. Eggleton,
LAC. W. Hyde,
A C. C. C. Boote,
A C. A. E. Caraco.
NC. : Sgt. A. Yendall (W.A.A.F.),

LACW. D. Brown (W.A.A.F.).
Asst. N.C. : ACW. A. Scaife
(W.A.A.F.).
ACW. C. Bores
(W.A.A.F.).
Library : Sgt. G. L. Norman,
Cpl. R. F. Chillman,
LACW. M. Short

(W.A.A.F.),
ACW. V. Gunn (W.A.A.F.).

OPERATIONAL DETACHMENT

In charge : S Ldr. E. P. G. Moyna.
C. : F Lt. J- D. Hill,
F Lt. L. G. Peace,

1 O. G. W. Kelly,

F (). F. S. Charman,

2 Lt. Bergan,

F Sgt. Lee Howard,

Sgt. B. Davies,

Sgt. McNaughton,

Sgt. T. H. Kimberley,

Sgt. T. T. T. Hunt,"

Sgt. J. Mills,

A C. D. Prosser.
Asst. C. : Sgt. D. G. Mountenej

(W.A.A.F.).
E. : AC. P. J. B. Taylor,
AC. M. R. Anderson.

July — August, 1943

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

95

Processing : LAC. T. H. Chamberlain,
LAC. J. L. Bishop.

POLISH DETACHMENT

In charge of production : F/Lt. ,H.

Sarnicki.
C. : F/O. Z. Perzanowski,
Sgt. W. Kunicki,
Sgt. J. Pryzybycien.
ST. : P/O. J. Bielec,

F/Sgt. P. Pszczolkowski.

OVERSEAS DETACHMENT
MEDITERRANEAN
In charge of production : S/Ldr. A. R.
Taylor,

F/Lt. G. H. Brown,

F/Lt. W. E. Wilbur,

F/Lt. J. Clayton,

F/O. W. E. Sheridan,

P/O. J. Wright,

Sgt. Sayer,

Sgt. Kettlewell,

Sgt. A. E. White,

Sgt. H. Gillam,

Sgt. R. Shears,

Sgt. R. Cavender,

Sgt. A. Dinsdale,

Sgt. L. Thompson.

INDIAN DETACHMENT
In charge of production : S/Ldr. J. A.
WUloughby.

ROYAL NAVAL FILM SECTION

Officer-in-charge: Cdr. G. V. A. Phelips,

R.N.
P. (in charge of production) : Lieut.

A. C. Izod, R.N.V.R.

D, : Lieut. J. P. Carstairs, R.N.V.R.
LC. : Lieut. G. P. Dines, R.N.V.R.
C. : Ldg. Photographer M. Curtis.

Ldg. Photographer H. R. Thomp-
son.
Ldg. Photographer P. Beeson.
Asst. C. : Ldg. Photographer J. Welsh.
Ldg. Photographer E. Orton.
Ldg. Photographer H. Smith.
SS. : Lieut. C. L. Mounteney,

R.N.V.R.
Asst. R. : J. Allen, Esq.
SC: Ldg. Photographer A. T- Stafford.
B. : Photographer R. E. Stafford.
Proj. : Ldg. Photographer A. Carey.
SE. : 3rd Officer H. Wilkinson,
W.R.N.S.

E. : Photographer A. Michelin.
Cutters : Photographer J. E. Mendoza.

Photographer A. J. Skene.
Asst. Cutters : WRN B. Campbell.

Ldg. WRN J. Cooper.
PM. : Warrant Photographer E. G.

Robins.
Asst. P.M. : Ldg. WRN M. Hickman.
Con. : WRN K. Hill.
Asst. D. : A/B H. Munro.

O/S J. Williams.
Library : Ldg. Photographer S. Hay-
ward .
WRN C. Schofield.
A. : Lieut. I. Hassall, R.N.V.R.
Key Animation Artists : Ldg. Photo-
grapher K. Hardy.
Ldg. Photographer R. Wansborough.
Artists : Ldg. Photographer J. Pilk-
ington.

Ldg. Photographer O. Brab-

bins.
Ldg. Photographer E. Blun-

dell.
Ldg. Photographer H. Mul-

cock.
Ldg. WRN C. Wright.
Ldg. Photographer A. Rob-
ertson.
Photographer J. Ewbank.
Draughtsman : A. Bryant, Esq.
Animation Camera : W. Traylor, Esq.
Photographer J.
Smallwood.
Scripts (films) : Sub. Lieut. John
Argyle, R.N.V.R.
Sub. Lieut. Baker-
Smith, R.N.V.R.
{instructional "stills" and films)

Lieut. D. G. Leslie,

R.N.V.R.
Lieut. C. A. P.

Trippe, R.M.
Lieut. M. Law,

R.N.V.R.
Lieut. J. Aspinall,

R.N.V.R.
Sub. Lieut. Hicks,

R.N.V.R.
Ldg. Photographer
A. Hyman.

Correction to previous issue: Reggie
Back was shown as Supervising Editor
on " One Pair of Feet." This is in-
correct. Fred Wilson was responsible
for the Editing.

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

American Labour, by Ernest Davies. George

Allen and Unwin Ltd. 2/-.

To cover the story of the American Trade Union
Movement in a hundred pages is impossible.
Ernest Davies contents himself with sketching
the outline of its growth and development. If the
book is considered merely as an introduction to
the subject, it achieves that excellent purpose.
As Harold Laski points out in the preface, Mr.
Davies' subject " must be seen in action to be
intelligible, and requires a pretty detailed know-
ledge of American life and history before it yields
its inner secrets." We know all too little about
the American Trade Union Movement, and I hope
this book will lead to further study and more pub-
lications on the subject. As far as our own indus-
try is concerned, it is just as essential for film
technicians to understand and know about the
American Trade Union Movement if they are to
have close co-operation with their American col-
leagues as it is for the latter to be acquainted
with A.C.T. if they are to learn about British
film technicians and the British Film Industry.
I understand that even now there are moves in
Hollywood for the camera locals to break away
from the I.A.T.S.E. and link up with the C.I.O.
The differences between these bodies and a greater

understanding of the policy of the Bailway Unions
and the John L. Lewis Miners Union, which are
outside both these main groups, is all the more
easily understood by reading Ernest Davies' book.

G.H.E.
Honest Injun, by John Paddv Carstairs. Hurst and

Blackett. 12/6.

For those who want to hear about all the people
Carstairs has met and all the places he's been to.
I guess there's an average of fifteen names to a
page, some of them arbitrarily dragged in — Botha
and Brunei, for example, are mentioned because
they once both appeared in the same course of
lectures as Carstairs. There are inexcusable blun-
ders. Bernard Knowles is credited with the light-
ing of Young Mr. Pitt: Sybil Thorndike is mis-
spelt ; as is Beginald Baker (though from the con-
sistency of this spelling maybe Carstairs meant

In fact the whole book's thick with rapid and
careless writing. The only chapters I found of real
interest were those devoted to early experiences in
Hollywood, when he puts over atmosphere and
people well. But descriptions of sunrise in the
Pacific and "the artist's paradise of Ceylon
. . . . " ! Honest Injun. Paddy, they're just
boring.

S.C.

96

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1943

Organiser's Notebook

Laboratory Committee: The General Council
have endorsed an application from the laboratory
members to re-form the Laboratory Committee.
It was felt that such a committee would help to
relieve the General Council of routine laboratory
business and also do much to consolidate mem-
bership in the laboratories. One of the main pur-
poses of the committee during the next few
months will be to redraft and amend the present
Standard Laboratory Agreement prior to submit-
ting it to the Laboratory . Owners as a basis for
discussion in September of next year.

We woidd remind those who consider this a long
time to wait, that we came to this arrangement in
order to obtain an increased cost-of-living bonus
for all our members in the laboratories. As you
know this bonus is now the same as that paid to
members working on the production side of the
Industry.

The Committee has already got down to work
and submitted to the General Council a list of
grades (including clerical grades) which are not
covered by the present Laboratory Agreement.
The rates suggested for these grades have been
approved by the General Council and have been
placed before the Laboratory Owners and an early
meeting asked for to discuss them.

British Thomson Houston: Recently I was in
Rugby attending a meeting of our members
employed in the laboratory and on production at
B.T.H. A report was given to the members of
our attempts to persuade the Management to
observe the terms and conditions of the Standard
Agreements. The firm conduct all their negotia-
tions through the Engineering and Allied Em-
ployers Leicester and District Association. Dur-
ing the past few months there has been a consider-
able exchange of correspondence between A.C.T.
and that Association. Mr.-Elvin has also paid a
visit to Leicester and discussed the matter with
the Association. Finally we had a letter from them
stating that B.T.H. could not see their way clear
to observe the terms and conditions of A.C.T.
Agreements. Our members at B.T.H. on hearing
of this passed an unanimous resolution calling on
A.C.T. to take what action it thought necessary,
including representation to the Ministry of
Labour, drawing attention to a breach of the.
Essential Works Order and subsequent reference,
if necessary, to the National Arbitration Tribunal
to ensure the observance of fait- wages and working
conditions to the employees concerned. The mat-
ter is now in the hands of the Conciliation Officer
at the Ministry of Labour, Birmingham, who
appointed a Chairman to preside at a meeting be-
tween the employers and ourselves. This meeting
has now been held. Certain proposals have been

made by the Conciliation Officer which met with
A.C.T. approval. B.T.H. are considering them
and we are awaiting their observations.

Mass Radiography : Most of you must have seen
reference to the Mass Radiography scheme in the
daily papers. Briefly, it has to do with X-ray
examination of factory workers as a means of
detecting tuberculosis. Detection of this disease
in the early stages simplifies and makes more
certain the cure.

We know that T.B. is liable to attack those
working in unsatisfactory conditions. Lack of air
and light help the disease. Experience shows that
workers in film laboratories are likely to contract
it.

Accordingly we have set in motion through the
Trades Union Congress and the different health
departments of the counties around London the
machinery so that all our members in laboratories
can have priority of examination when the radio-
graphic units are available.

The examinations will be on a factory basis and
the employer will be notified of the date. It will
be some time yet before arrangements are com-
pleted.

In their own interests we would strongly advise
all our laboratory members to take advantage of
this examination when the opportunity arises.

Cinematograph Trade Provident Institution: I

attended the Annual General Meeting of the In-
stitution on Wednesday, 14th July, at the offices
of the Kinematograph Renters Society Ltd. The
Institution has done much for our members.
Reports show that such of our members as have
been in need of convalescence were always wel-
come and received every care and attention at
" Glebelands." I know I was voicing their opinion
and the opinion of all our members in recording
at the. meeting our sincere appreciation and
thanks.

A suggestion by the Chairman. Mr. Reginald C.
Bromhead, that I should be elected to serve on
the management committee was moved, seconded
and carried unanimously. It was felt that an
official representative of A.C.T. who was also a
member of the Institution would have many use-
ful proposals to put forward.

Pathe Laboratories. Wardour Street: After
extended negotiations, the problem of a satisfac-
tory rest-room for the women and improvements
in Washing facilities and sanitary conditions has
been settled. It was necessary on one occasion to
call in the Factory Inspector. Their conditions at
the best of times, working in dark rooms and a
humid atmosphere are not to be envied. We must
add in all fairness to the new management thai
most of the improvements have taken place since
the change over.

Bert Craik

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA

RECORDER LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-Thames

and at 72 Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

Welwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited, Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Director of Army Kinematography, Wembley, Middx.
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinewood Studios, Iver
" March of Time," London, W.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta

Kali Films, Calcutta

Film Corporation of India Ltd., Calcutta

Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore

Imperial Film Co., Bombay

Madan Theatres and East India Films Co., Calcutta

Seidle Bros., Colombo, Ceylon

Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta

Prabhat Film Co., Poona

Saraswati Cinetone, Poona

Sarjo Movietone, Bombay

Pragati Pictures, Bangalore

Etc., etc.

AUSTRALIA

Efftee Films Ltd., Melbourne

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood and

New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros., New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films, S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

RCA PH0T0PH0NE LTD., Electra House, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.2

Telegrams : IRCAPP, Estrand, London Telephone : Temple Bar 2971 8 (lines)

Pitchfords

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WAR DOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.1.

Telephone: GERrard 6711
Cablet: KATJA

1

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 9, Bromefield, Stanmore Middlesex,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

^7 1 -.-J

1/-

SEPTEMBER
1943 OCTOBER

DARREL CATLING

ROY KELLINO

Capt. BRYAN LANGLEY

IVOR MONTAGU

SCREENCOMBER

Major HUGH STEWART

CINEMA LOG
PHOTOGRAPHING OF MODELS
NEWSREELING IN THE TROPICS

r £UM

^"■""frRMY FILM UNIT IN TUNISIA

»ived:

GENEROUS
CONTRIBUTORS

j

Because of their exceptional ability —
each in its own field — to record com-
pletely the details of every scene,
Kodak negative films have contributed
their part to the success of modern
screen productions.

PLUS-X

for general studio use

SUPER-XX

when little light is available

BACKGROUND-X

for backgrounds and exterior work

KODAK NEGATIVE FILMS

/ * ! »

KODAK LIMITED

MOTION PICTURE FILM DEPT., KODAK HOUSE. KINGSWAY. LONDON. W.C.2

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

•orial & Publishing Office: 9, BROMEFIELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX. Telephone: EDGWARE 311&

-ertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editors : Darrel Catling, Sidney Cole. George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, Frank Sainsbury.

lumber Forty-four, Volume Nine September — October, 1943

Price One Shilling

PHOTOGRAPHING of
MODELS

By

ROY KELLINO

TO write an article on the "Photographing of
Models" is quite a difficult assignment in
view of the many problems and var\ ing types
of work one is confronted with during a prqjduc-
fcion. J would like to approach the subject as
generally as possible for the interest of all readers.
1 think that in England we are broadminded
enough to admit that up to the outbreak of war
trick photography here has been sadly negle< bed
except by one or two specialists. Naturally, as
in many* industries, it is the war that has forced on
u- conditions that have necessitated adapting old
bods Eor new, in order to maintain a pre-war
of product. Shortage of building materials
ould only be surmounted by rinding a substitute.
That substitute was the building of scale models.
The sudden increase in companies requiring
models to be photographed meant that the few
specialists were soon swamped with work. Com-
panies began to realise that if their pictures were
to be finished t hej must turn to their own camera-
men tn finish them. It was in this position
Ealing Studios found themselves in 1940 — when
I was approached 1>\ the management and asked
fco form a Model Department.

It was not easy, as I had no previous experience
<i. this work. The first consideration obviously
was to obtain an assistanl who could help in
reproducing the effects necessarj to bring realism
to the screen, h\ a good knowledge oi chemistry
coupled with sound common-sense. 1 was Lucky
in my choice, Cliff Richardson, who has proved
a tower of strength during our association of fchi
las! three years.

After a few weeks of practical experience the
existing equipment was found to be inadequati
Each job tackled brought additional requirements
but the number one obstacle remained, the lack
of any high speed drive for the camera that would
allow flexibility and freedom to the operator. The
use of the Bell and Howell high-speed gear-box
coupled l>\ rigid shaft to the camera, although
.i lite i fficiently driven by motor, was like wearing
.i strait-jacket. This obstacle, like main othi rs,
was overcome by Sid Howell, fco whom 1 p;
to pay tribute. Sid produced a variable speed
or, coupled to the camera by a flexible drive
of sufficient length to allow complete freedoi
camera movement. Incorporated in this flexible
drive is a multi-spring loaded clutch, a safeguard
against camera jams at any speed.

The interesting features of this motor are its
extreme range and its simplicity of operation. Its
perform in e is, I think, unique. The lowest s]
holds stable at 12 pictures a second, hut can he
increased to anj given speed up to 128 pictures
a second. This can he done while the camera is in
on without any mechanical adjustment,
'\ :i greal ad\ antage. I '>_\ compensate

exposur ris oi lens, it is quite pr: I cal either

to increase or dei rease the speed of the camera
during a shol .

Ahout this time. 1 was laced with the many
problems in using foreground models in conjunc-
tii n ■ ill full size sets, and came up against the
immobility of th inn I came to tl

witti another unique pre- e oi equipment thai
ingl\ hears i ho nan Th< 1 1 iwell I >ollv."

98

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, 1943

there is nothing foolish about this already patented
acquisition to film production. Although primarily
designed to permit panning and tilting on fore-
ground models, it has also solved many of the
problems of aerobatics with model planes. To be
asked to reproduce a slow ' ' Immelmann Turn ' '
with a model suspended by wires would tax the
ingenuity of most model photographers. With this
invention it is quite simple. While Sid was
designing the head so that the lens of the camera
would pan and tilt on its nodal point, he also
incorporated a movement whereby the lens would
turn around on the same point. This naturally
meant that the whole camera had to be able to
turn upside down. In fact it can rotate at any
speed required.

These are only two of the additions to the Ealing
Studios equipment since the advent of our depart-
ment. It has been necessary to dwell on the
improvement in equipment to illustrate in a small
way how the original restrictions referred to have
compelled us to be model-minded.

Amongst other problems tackled is the simpli-
fication of split matt shots. The natural difficulty
of finding the second or third part of the matt has
been overcome by a new method whereby the
remaining pieces of the image to be added are
determined from the start.

Necessity teaches quickly and it is with the
experience gained by it that I feel qualified to
express some views on the subject.

It was obvious from the start that over a period
of time the cost of model set construction had
to be lowered before our department could operate
without extremely heavy labour costs. The
amount of detail required in plaster work, as in
all departments, soon showed the vital necessity
whenever possible of salvage against the even-
tuality of similar sets having to be built for future
productions. All work undertaken on sets that
required model buildings included the making of
extra casts, so that these might be stored for
stock. In the same way it is realised that it is
false economy to build any model vehicles in a
cheap slapdash way. The making of such working
models as aeroplanes and transport vehicles of all
kinds being a specialised and lengthy job, it was
necessary to employ model-makers to help out the
normal studio personnel who had in the past
undertaken this work. As each picture is finished,
the models that have been used on it are
returned to the shops for repair and so are read\
lor future use. As this system developed, not <>nl\
were our ensts lowered but the standard of work
w:in raised. By retaining the same personnel in
all departments from picture to picture our <>fh-
ciencj grew . Any ideas or suggestions from mem
bers of the crew were investigated and more often

than not accepted. Chippies, electricians and grips
alike contributed to the finished production.

In the last three years, in fact, it would be hard
to find a production out of the Ealing Studios that
has not had some help from the Model Depart-
ment.

It would be difficult to express on paper any
details of actual working as, unlike normal pro-
duction, there is no formula that can govern the
cameraman's work. Exposure and lighting never
remain constant owing to the other variable factors
that have to be taken into consideration. The
principal factor that controls the variation in
exposure from shot to shot is naturally camera
speed. The various depths of focus required are
such a major consideration that any experience of
a set lighting key must be discarded and the eye
become accustomed to working in overall illumina-
tions that would horrify production cameramen.
Consequently the nearest approach to a lighting
formula that I have been able to standardise might
sound a trifle odd in 1943. When the chief elec-
trician asks how much equipment is needed for a
given model set, my answer is always, "How
much can I have ? ' '

It has proved safer to start on a set with the
full realisation that some unknown problem may
arise. At the last moment before shooting the
camera speed may have to be increased to a figure
that necessitates compensation of lens exposure
to such a degree that the original depth of focus
seems likely to be impaired. To me nothing looks
less convincing than a model shot made with in-
sufficient depth of focus. A woolly foreground
immediately destroys the illusion of reality.
Always have exposure in hand and if the unknown
problem does not arise, then the additional stop
or two on the lens can always be used to advan-
tage in giving that crispness so often lacking in
model shots.

It would be absurd to elaborate in any detail on
the methods used by either myself or our depart-
ment in photographing our models. There are
many ways to kill a cat but I think all will agree
that the surest approach to perfection in models is
to use tin in whenever possible in con junction with
reality. By this I mean that a painted sky. no
matter how good, is not nature, nor is a model
sea, so whenever possible we combine our efforts
with natural backgrounds. Model planes riving
againsl real skies, model ships in real sea. and
real artistes seen against model backgrounds, bring
a truer sense of realitx to the cinema-goer, who
at all times must believe in our ability to tool them
convincingly. What the eye doesn't suspect the
producer will pa\ for. So let this war time boom
in model photography he stimulated now and after
the war by the competition that compels a com-
pany to keep on its toes or be left behind.

September— October, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

99

DARREL CATLING explains

HOW TO BECOME A CAMERAMAN

in

SIX EASY LESSONS

FIRST of all throw away your hat. No good
cameraman would be seen dead in one. If,
after this, you still insist
on wearing such a thing,
make sure that it's a quite
extraordinary one in every
respect.

Now you can begin as
a number boy on mute
stuff, and graduate up to
the clappers when some
sync work comes along.
'I he great thing to remem-
ber is that the scene and
take numbers should be
chalked on so clumsily that they're completely
illegible. If, in a distracted moment, you should
chalk the board too clearly — then make sure it's
shot out of focus. In fact it's a good thing to mix
your technique — this shows ingenuity. On the
other hand should you ever find that, despite your
worst, the numbers are legible, and, in addition,
that you've been told just where to stand to be in
focus, then hold the slate at such an angle that
a highlight kills all the reading matter. Remember
that a cameraman, budding or otherwise, is never
outwitted.

When using clappers it always helps a lot if the
actual clap occurs ou1 of picture, and circling the
wrong take is a sure way to success. Other forms
of refined torture will present themselves to you
in time, such as going on location and leaving the
number board behind, or, better still, forgetting
the chalk.

When you eventually become a camera assistant
or an operator there is one golden rule that must
never be broken. What happens is this : the direc-
tor says, " Here's the next set-up," and indicates
the camera posit inn exactly. Well, the thing to do
is to surprise him by putting it just where he
indicated, but take great care to see the tripod
is not level. The director then lines up the camera
just as he wants it, and now's your chance to do
your stuff. Now, and not before, you can level
up the tripod, and thus throw the camera off his

chosen field of view. The director also loves you
for this, and anyway it's much more fun letting
composition look after itself.

Quite early in your career you should develop a
complex for adhesive tape and string — these items
always help to patch the gear up after you've
dropped it or banged it around.

The camera department is the best equipped for
alibis in the whole studio; it's a good plan to
learn most of them off by heart. The more obvious
ones, of course, are easy. If you can't blame a
scratch on to the labs, then blame the stock manu-
facturers ; if your panning is more than usually
shaky, say the equipment's lousy (or if the direc-
tor's not around, say you weren't given the chance
of another take).

There will come a time when you're at last
allowed out alone with

— -, • a camera — alone in the

.: sense that no camera-

"V — — man's bossing you and

you're not yet bossing
an assistant. Should
the director start to do
his own panning -
throw a sulk or raisi
shindy ; this is import-
ant, otherwise you'll
merely feel like a walk-
ing exposure meter.
That you rel\ upon an
exposure meter anj u ay
*iw#>u^- v«3SSH is beside the point,

unless it makes things
even worse by giving the impression that you're
only a labourer who carries the equipmenl around.
When you're given a job of lighl bag do, and
have to duplicate sunlight in the studio, then
make sure thai your principal object casts at least
sixteen shadows. Thai there aren'1 Sixteen suns
in actuality is also beside the point. On ext< riors
you can gel nice - Sects b a hard

reflector on the shadow side: the impression that
the sun shines on both sides of an objeel placed
at ri; hi angles to it, can always be relied Upon to

h

Kid

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X September— October, 194:j,

look pretty.

Another corking good wheeze — especially when
shooting a close up — is to get the number board
pin sharp, but have the subject either wooly or
right out of focus. And when you're shooting a
series of inserts linked by dissolves — turn the
objects upside down (if you're shooting without a
sound mask) so that you can see them the right
way up. This'll give you the last scene first, and,
conversely, the first scene last, and virtually
makes you the editor.

Another marvellous trick is to get part of your
lens hood in the shot ; you then say you thought
this was to be a telescope-mask scene. The effect
is even more startling if you shoot with the lens
cap on — when your alibi is that yon thought this
was a shot of a nigger in the black out, and laugh
it off that way. The great thing is that, what-
ever happens, it's not your fault; no cameraman
must ever admit he's wrong. Remember, too, that
a certain amount of temperament is necessary to
bolster up your self-esteem.

lint one of the very best tricks of all is to run
out in the middle of a scene; after all it does
rather spoil the fun to announce before a take
that there's only 15 feet left in the mag. However,
a dodge that runs this pretty close is to choose to
reload just when everything's at last running
smoothly ; never reload during a hold up.

It's also rather amusing not to announce when
you've finished lighting, so that when the direc-
tor says, "Going to be much longer?" you can
reply with superb nonchalance, " Oh, I was readj
half-an-hour ago ! "

A useful wrinkle, when you suddenly notice a
very bad lighting patch during a take, is to cough
and splutter quite uncontrollably, and get another
take for sound : you then quickly modify your
lighting before they're ready for the next take.

Apart from occasionally producing a night effect
when it's not wanted, your general rule will be
to overexpose. Damn it, with the varying English
light , you can scarcely lie expected to get the right
exposure, even if you have got an exposure meter.

it's an extremely good plan not to agitate for
up-to-date equipment — then, when by some over-
sight, you turn out really superb stuff, you can
say, " Pretty good to be able to do that with this
equipment." On the other hand, when the rushes
are more than usually duff, you can then blame
the equipment . This even enables you to announce
your alibi in advance.

Try to become gadget-minded. The fact that
you forget to bake your box of tricks on location

dnesn't lessen the fun you have in playing around
with it at the studio when you've nothing else to

do.

The element of surprise is of the greatest
import a nee : trotting out your older tricks too ot ten

will prove useless, as the experienced director will
be ready for them.

If you're going up a church tower, a mountain,
or any place where it's reasonable to travel light,
then leave the mag case behind, and make sure
there's only 20 feet in the mag that's in the
camera ; this is guaranteed to get that surplus hair
off the director, and make him behave like a
drunken sprocket. It's good for a chuckle for
several ds»ys after, at the very least.

Shooting off the set is of course an old game,
but not to be despised, and to get the mike in
now and again enables you to have your own back
on the sound dept.

Always be on good terms with the chief charge
hand — after all he practically lights the set for
yi'ii. And use a sign lan-
guage with your hands for
signalling to the sparks,
as it's far more amusing
— apart from taking agi -
longer — than tell ngthem
simply to spread it, spot
it, or kill it ; it also makes
you look more like a pukka
foreigner. Stand about
artily while lighting, then
if the producer comes on
the floor he's not so likely
to wonder what the hell he pays you for.

Oh and supposing you ever have to undercrank
(say at JG frames per sec) on a static shot becaus
the light's foul, or because great depth of focus
is wanted and you daren't stop down any more
without some concession to exposure — then at
all costs refrain from the urge to set the indicator
back to 24 afterwards; speeded-up action always
looks SO funny.

When you have to do a spot oi reverse shooting
there are two courses "pen to you: either omit
to wind the raw footage forward beforehand, or.
if you've already wound it forward and done the
reverse shot, then omit to wind it forward the
second time — most people are only too pleased
to have some double-exposed stuff handy for a
montage that gets written in at the last moment:
with a bit of care you can even get triple-exposure.
I admit there was once a case of a cameraman
who hadn't got an alibi, but he hastih made the
sign of the maltese cross — and promptly thought
of a beaut \ . .Mind you, it takes an ace cameraman
to land the entire production in the soup — but
what a goal to aim for.

In England you're an ace as soon as you've lit
a comedy, but you'll be a cameraman (within the
meaning of the Act | long before you reach ace
status. In fact when you've mastered these few
simple miles — you're a cameraman, my son. Hot
dog !

September— October, 1943 THE CIX.E -TECHNICIAN

101

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after destruction. Dimly the shape of post-war Britain, finer

than she has ever been, is looming behind the bombed outlines of her

cities. Photography will play its part photogrammetry

enabling historic buildings to be restored X-ray examination

ensuring perfection of machines and materials cinematography in

recording progress. ILFORD LIMITED — manufacturers of photographic
materials for more than 60 years — will be able to offer their services
to the many who will need advice on the applications of photography.

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ILFORD LIMITED, CINE SALES DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL HOUSE, WARDOUR ST., LONDON, W. I

102

THE CINE-TECHNICIAK September— October. 1943

CINEMA

Gordon

The Battle Cameraman

I was one of a Board recently sitting to select
personnel for the Army Film and Photo Services.
Readers will, I am sure, be interested to learn
something of the very strenuous training they
must pass through before they are qualified as
Sergeant Cameramen. A candidate must first
pass before a Board composed of officers and tech-
nicians under the Chairmanship of a senior Pub-
lic Relations Officer. A very friendly and under-
standing attitude is taken up by this Board, and
after military courtesies have been exchanged the
candidate is given a seat. His qualifications are
then enquired into and his papers and history
sheets examined, and after he leaves the room the
vote is taken as to his suitability. His military
bearing as well as his technical background have
an equally important part in his ultimate selec-
tion for training as a battle cameraman.

If the, vote goes in his favour, he is sent to the
Army Film Unit School at Pinewood, where the\
go through a very thorough course of camera-
craft, both theoretical and practical. They also
attend a Mechanical Transport course from which
they must pass out with the knowledge how to
drive any War Department vehicle. They are
then sent for two weeks to a Guards Battalion to
be given that little bit of extra smartness. Now
comes the Battle School, a real tough course. The
candidate lins had to handle all arms that the
British infantry uses — now he has to go over the
various assault courses with his camera, taking
actual films under battle conditions. These are
screened each day and criticised by his officers
and instructors. Finally he is passed out, and
awaits posting to one of the Army Film and Photo
('nits in the field as Serjeant Cameraman.

When in actual battle, lie must take as many
and even more risks than the front-line soldiers.
Most of the time in action he will be his own Com-
manding Officer; his military conduct must at all
times be above reproach, and no matter what the
hazards he must get his picture.

In this connection I would draw your attention
to Major Stewart's fine article in this issue (page

108).

Aif Tunwell Joins Canadians

An interesting sequel to our recent award
against Movietone News and the reinstatement of
cameraman Tunwell in that firm was his Com-
mission as a Lieutenant in the Canadian Army
Film Unit, negotiations for wdiich office had com-
menced before the Court Award was known. Bri-
tish Movietone News very sportingly granted per-
mission for Alf Tunwell's release, and he pro-
ceeded to Aldershot where he underwent a
month's intensive training " on the square
being taught military bearing and the use of
modern infantry arms. A very smart officer Alf
has turned out.

I have had the pleasure of covering a number
of Canadian Army assignments under Lieut.
Tunwell, who has been acting as P.R.O. Every-
thing has gone with a swing — he has been able
to conform his first-class knowledge of cinemato-
graphy and news with the exacting requirements
of the military authorities.

Alf is very lucky to be serving under Captain
J. E. R. McDougall, that pleasant and helpful
Canadian Scottish Officer who commands the film
side of the Canadian Film and Photo Unit.

American Labour Day

The Commanding General, European Theatre
of Operations U.S. Army, held a very pleasant
reception for the Press and Newsreelers at the
Senior Officers' Mess in celebration of American
Labour Day. A very lavish buffet supplied re-
freshments for the Public Relations Section ami
their friends of the press.

How well the Americans run these popular get-
togethers. All the British newsreels. bar Movie-
tone News, had representatives from their camera
and sound crews. These soon got tor/ether to dis-

A.C.T. Group ;it the Americas Labour Day reception

September— October, 1943 THE CIKE-TECHNICI AN

103

cuss the coming meeting between the Newsreel
Association and A.C.T. The Newsreel Association
was represented by Clifford Jeapes (Universal),
Fred Watts (Pathe Gazette) and Gordon Craig
(Movietone News). A very happy ending was
spent and our hearty thanks are extended to the
General and his Officers of the Public Relations
Section. I do trust that the mention of Labour
Day on the invitation card was not the cause of
the Movietone lads not turning up, or it may have
been the mailed fist of the noble Knight keeping
labour in its place.

Billy Jeapes Retires from Newsreels

Billy Jeapes, the man who has made a fortune
out of newsreels, has just sold out to Mr. Arthur
Rank and has retired to his Surrey mansion.

Starting Jeapes Animated Graphic he showed
it at music halls. Developed and printed in a
back room, it was dried on drums in a church
yard. Later he was with the Warwick Chronicle
— he sold out his interest and started the Topical
Budget in Grays Inn Road, with Bert Wrench.
They moved to Wardour Street later and enlarged
their plant. Billy Jeapes was responsible for a
number of inventions in connection with film pro-
cessing. He sold the Topical Budget to the Gov-
ernment in the last war, and ran it for the Minis-

try of Information, acting as General Manager.
He re-purchased it after the war and later did a
deal with the late Sir Edward Hulton. He retired
from the Topical Film Company and joined his
company — Film Laboratories — where he started
the Empire News Bulletin, which later, on the
introduction of sound, became Universal Talking
News. He also made a number of shorts for
his firm, British Pictorial Productions. Now he
has sold out again, I am sure at a very nice profit,
leaving his son, Clifford, to act as manager for
the Rank interests.

Billy Jeapes has many good points and has
looked after those who served him in the early
days and could still work, but he was very reac-
tionary in his attitude towards Trade Unions. This
was because he never tried to understand them.
Perhaps in his temporary retirement he will study
these matters with a cooler head. I say tem-
porary retirement because I know Billy Jeapes,
and I am sure he will be back in the film game
soon. He lias a first-class recording plant at Gos-
terwood Manor, his Surrey home, near Dorking,
and his workshop will be turning out many more
inventions. His was the first newsreel to use
automatic developing machines, and in a small
way J helped t<> instal them, when I worked for
him after the last war.

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104

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, 1943

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twentieth
List

J. E. ALPE (Neg. Inspection. Denham Labora-
tories)— Army.

LEIGH AMAN (Asst. Director)— Captain, Eoyal
Marines.

A. A. BARHAM (Projection, Denham)— R.A.F.

B. CESAR-GORDON (Olympic Kine)— H.M.
Forces.

Miss B. CHAPPLE (16mm. Pos. Joiner, Kay's,

Finsbury Park) — H.M. Forces.
A: CLAMPITT (Assistant Printer, Kay's Fins-

burv Park) — Army.
R. F.' CLEMENTS (Matrix Developer, Techni-
color)— H.M. Forces.
S. T. COOPER (Positive Printer, Technicolor)—

H.M. Forces.
P. COVENTRY (Library Assistant. Denham

Laboratories) — Arm v.
M. T. COVINGTON (Sound Asst., Riverside)—

H.M. Forces.
P. (.. DA VIES (Dryer, G.F.D. Labs.)— Navv.
VICTOR ENNESS (Camera Assistant. Tech'ni-

i olor) — Royal Engineers.
E. J C. EVANS (Lab- Projection, Denham

Labs.) — Navy.
I). GEATER (Olympic Kine Labs:)— Army.
L. GOLDWATER (Assistant, Cutting and

Camera, Byron Films) — HAL Fore
K. G. GRAY (Negative Assembly, Technicolor)

An i j ,
WALTER GREENWOOD (Writer, Dramatist

Producer R.A.S.C.
K. H. GRI1 I mis (Pos Developer, Denham

Labs \ - ; i\ .
T. V. II W 5 ON,,, pic Kin,. Labs.)- Naw.
R HERRING Stocls Keeper, Denham Labs

Navy.

T. HOGAN (Neg. Cleaner, G.F.D. Labs.) —

R.A.F.
E. J. HOWELL (Despatch Assistant. Columbia)

— H.M. Forces.

E. HUGHES (Transfer Dept.. Technicolor)—
Army.

BRIAN HUNTER (Sound Assistant, Merton

Park)— H.M. Forces.
TED JUETT (A.C.T. Shop Steward, Humphries

Labs.) — H.M. Forces.
H. S. JOHNSON (Pos. Assembly. Technicolor)—

H.M. Forces.

F. KNAPMAN (Art Dept., Gainsborough)— H.M.
Forces.

F. W. LAWMAN (Neg. Developer. Kay's. Fins-
bury Park) — Army.

B. MACHIN (Camera Asst., Technicolor) — Armv.
J. W. MACKEY (Printer. Denham Labs.)—

R.A.F.
A. MAY ( Stock Joiner, Pathe Labs.)— R.A.F.
A. MILNER (Transfer Operator. Technicolor)—

H.M. Forces.
E. J. NINON (Transfer Dept.. Technicolor)—

Navv.
T. NURSE (Negative Cleaner. Denham Labs. I—

Navv.
H. J.' ORCHARD (Camera Operator. British

Films)— R.A.F.
K. PETLEY (Denham Labs.)— Navv.
A. D. SEGALLER (Prod. Assistant. Techni-
color)— H.M. Forces.

C. SKINNER (Printer, G.F.D. Labs.)— Navv.
H. J. SKUDDER (Film Cleaner, Denham La: -

—R.A.F.

V. SOUTHWORTH (3rd Assist. Director. Gains-
borough)— H.M. Forces.

C. TANZILLI (Title Artist. Brent Labs.)— R.A.F.

E. G. R. TURNER (Pos. Control. Technicolor)—
H.M. Forces.

Miss UNDERWOOD (Transfer Operator. Techni-
color)— H.M. Font s

Maillette de Buy WENNIGER (Camera Assist-
ant. Technicolor) — American Army.

Casualties
TERRY HUNT (Sgt. Air Gunner R.A.F. Film

Unit) — Prisoner of War.
SKEETS KELLY (R.A.F. Film Unit)— Miss

from Operations (see page 120).
HARRY RIGNOLD (Captain, Armj Film Unit)-

1 >ied of wounds in Sicily - _■ 120).

(I. A. D. MOSS (Camera Operator) has been,
invalided out ol the R.A.F. ami is now with
British National.

Promotions
NYv. - - hand thai " Sash " Fisher has been

promoted Lieutenant-Commander. Royal Navy.

September— October, 1943 THE CI KE- TECHNICIAN

105

WORKERS' FILM SCHOOL

The Workers Film Association held their
Fourth Annual Film School at Brighton com-
mencing on Saturday, September 11th. I spent
two days at the school and found it exceedingly
interesting and instructive.

The programme covered much ground, includ-
ing Feature, Documentary, and, particularly, In-
structional films. On each day there were lec-
tures in the morning and afternoon, with film
shows in the evenings. Such well-known tech-
nicians as Michael Balcon, Edgar Anstey and
Arthur Elton spoke in their own particular field.
Joe Reeves, Secretary-Manager of the Workers'
Film Association, is to be commended on the orga-
nisational arrangements, on which the success of
the school so much depended. This is especially
so in view of the fact that the venue had to be
switched from Peterborough to Brighton at the
last moment, due to accommodation difficulties.

I recommend that as many of our younger tech-
nicians as possible attend the next summer school.
As a rule the school is of four days' duration, but
I am sure employers will do all they can to grant

the necessary time off.

While down at Brighton I learnt much about
the good work the Workers' Film Association is
doing. Since its inception in 1938 it has built up
a library of 600 films, which is still being added
to as time goes by. It is entrusted with the dis-
tribution of a great majority of sub-standard films
prepared by the Soviet Government for distribu-
tion in this country. The Czechoslovak, Chinese,
Polish and Norwegian Governments likewise dis-
tribute through the W.F.A. on 16m.m.

The W.F.A. was established by the Trades
Union Congress and the Labour Party to assist
Workers' Organisations in using films for educa-
tion and propaganda. It can provide an operator
and equipment and arrange a show on any given
subject, such as, for example, The Problems of
Education, Social Security or Town Planning.
Those interested should get their local trades
council, trade union branch or other workers'
organisation to fix up a film show through the
W.F.A. As the films are printed on non-flam,
any public hall can be used for the showing.

Bert Craik

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

■^ A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,
where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff
are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

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MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone-, liberty H9i

One mile from Wimbledon Station

100

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A N September— October, 1943

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

What is Trade Unionism? As I write Italy has
just surrendered and the Trades Union Congress
is in full swing. H.M. Shvernik, Secretary of
the All -Union Council of Trade Unions in the
U.S.S.R. spoke to the T.U.C. and was received
with inconceivable acclamation. Italy fell be-
cause the people didn't want war, and it is not
a had guess that former trade unionists were pro-
minent amongst those who sowed the seeds of dis-
sent and made it clear to their fellow nationals
that they were fighting on the wrong side.

What is this Trade Unionism which is striving
to overthrow fascism? What is this Trade
Unionism which is drawing the common people
of all lands more closely together? In simple
terms, it is a union of working-class men and
women united for the purpose of protecting and
advancing their interest. If unity be important
it must be pre-eminently so to working men and
women, whose only property, their labour, is con-
stantly in danger of being depreciated by the pre-
sent competitive system. Under such circum-
stances workers require to combine for mutual
assistance for trade purposes. They must do this
intelligently, as well as in a spirit of goodwill and
comradeship.

Workers exist by their labour, and are, after
all, dependent upon what the merest breath of
adversity may in a moment dispel. The time can
arrive when a worker may be suffering through
unemployment. Trade Unionism gives relief in
such circumstances, facilitates the obtaining oi
new employment and adds to the happiness of all
through improved conditions which can he
obtained only by collective effort. It is your duty
to aid by all means in your power a cause so
important to yourself and your fellows. Remem-
ber i ha1 in aiding others you are helping you -

In your own section of Industry, A. < '.'!'. is bhe
appri ipriate Trade I Inion, ami w e are sure all our
members will do their utmost to educate non-
members in a change of view, lint this aim should
go further and extend in all workers with whom
vdii come in contact. Cam to them the message

of Trade Unionism, and illustrate it with what
lias happened in your own industrj since A.C.T.
became strong.

This is Union Service: I make no apology for

reprinting the following item from tins month's
issue df Labour, the official organ of the Trades
Union Congress : —

Her.' is a striking compensation case as re-

corded in the official journal of the Amalgamated
Engineering Union. One of their members
evacuated from Gibraltar was killed in an acci-
dent at work about a year ago. Information
reached the Union that attempts were being made
to persuade the widow to accept £200. As she
understood very little English she was inclined
to take the offer. Union headquarters at once
informed her, her brother, the Union branch and
the Union Compensation Solicitor, as well as the
deceased member's approved society (which was
not the A.E.U.) putting them all on their guard.
The case was taken in hand before the legal de-
fence schedule was completed and the final re-
sult was a settlement for £1,500 which was paid
into court for the benefit of the widow and chil-
dren."

Laboratories: Laboratory Committee meeti _-
continue to be well attended. All laboratories are
taking a keen interest in them. By the time
this has been published we should have met the
laboratory owners to discuss rates of pay for jobs
not at present covered by the schedule in the
Standard Agreement.

There have been several general meetings at
different laboratories where clarification has been
given regarding the ballot for affiliation to the
Labour Party. Problems to do with time off for
shopping for women workers have been dealt with.
Difficulties in reinstating members discharged
from the Services may arise from now on : in
fact one has already been dealt with. It is up to
us to keep a vigilant eye on any cases of doubt.
A man may he unable to do his old job, say on
Night Work, because he is medically unfit. Never-
theless if he is capable oi work he should he re-
engaged by his old firm at a salary comparable to
that being paid to him when he was called up.
After all hut for such men laboratories (and -
dios) mighl net lie in production now.

Employment of Servicemen on Commercial Pro-
ductions : There is a tendency which crops up
ever\ now and then to employ service technicians
mi commercial productions at servicemen's pay.
The General Council, to say the least, object to
this practice verj strongly. We must admit thai
producers arc generally prepared to make up the
balance of pay to the service technicians, hut
King's Rules and Regulations forbid this. We have
known cases of this practice being put across when
members on our hooks h«ve been out of work. The
only solution seems that permission shall not be

September— October, 194H THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

107

granted unless our Employment Bureau shows no
members out of work in the category required,
and the technician needed shall be temporarily
released from the Services for the period of the
job.

B.T.H.: We have now received a reply from
the Management offering to make certain adjust-
ments in wage rates but opposing any attempt at
improvements in conditions regarding holidays,
overtime, sickness, etc. Their reply leaves us no
alternative but to take the matter to arbitration.
This has accordingly been done and the dispute
should come up for hearing shortly.

Newsreel Agreement: Almost since A.C.T.
came into being efforts have been made to nego-
tiate an agreement covering newsreel workers.
During the intervening years, A.C.T. have with
patience and determination built up a strong
newsreel section. The first meeting between the
Newsreel Association and A.C.T. took place on
Wednesday, loth September. The parties con-
cerned soon got down to work and progress was
made. Meetings will continue to be held at in-
tervals in the future until agreement has been
reached regarding rates of pay and working con-
ditions.

Bert Craik

SGT. H. MARTYN WILSON, M.M.

During the early part of the time in Tunisia,
Wilson was attached to a Commando Unit who
had been assigned a tough job in the rear of the
enemy in (he Cap Serrat area. The job started
with a wet landing — Wilson was unable to take
part in a human chain owing to the bulk of his
equipment and he went down in ten feet of
water. However, a Commando hauled him out.
Now for a twelve-hour forced march. They got
ambushed and it became evident that they would
have to retreat — and retreat light, at that. Wilson
got a Sergeant Commando to put the camera oul
with a well placed bullet. The Sergeant went
down wounded: Wilslon collected him up and
started off for our own territory. Four days later
he brought \u< little party back into Allied lines.

He proved himself one hundred per ceiii reliable
in this particular job as he. had pi-oved himsel
normal cameraman's duties.

Wilson, who has been awarded tin Military
Medal, was formerly with Realist Film I nit
Production Assistant.

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108

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, 1943

A.F.U. to TUNISIA

MAJOR HUGH STEWART
(Coram aaidliiirag Airaiy Filum Ueat)

I HAD been a Territorial gunner for 17 months
before joining the Army Film Unit in January,
1041, and so had been obliged to wait a long
time before getting a chance to go overseas at
the end of 1942. The same applied to most of
us. Captain H. Rignold, of course, was an excep-
tion, for he had been in France and on Commando
raids. Captain H. M. Glendining and Captain
Alfred Black had also been on odd raids, but for
must of us it was an entirely new adventure. With
one exception, none of the camera sergeants who
went out with me had handled a movie camera
in his life before joining the Army Film Unit for
a course of training. However, after a careful
process of selection we found all the "cine" and
" still " Sergeant's we wanted, all intelligent men,
extremely enthusiastic, and most important of
all, good soldiers.

It lias been said that the North African Cam-
paign was one of the best kept secrets of the
War, and that certainly applied to the Army Film
and Photo Section. Unlike most Units, we tra-
velled in dribs and drabs over various convoys.

Although the cameramen were always ready for
any incident that might crop up during the voy-
age, nothing at all startling happened in any of
them — with one exception. An enemy submarine
had been forced to the surface by depth charges,
and was rammed by a destroyer quite close to the
ship on which one of my men was travelling. It
would have been a wonderful shot to get. bul
unfortunately the man concerned was one of the
drivers, who naturally had no camera with him.

Army Film Unit cameramen landed witli
several different assault parties. Sergeants West
and Bowman landed at Algiers, and got the shots
you probably remember of British and American
troops landing there. Sergeant Wilson went in.
with the Commandos at Cape Serrat not very far
from Bizerta. They had to walk along a sub-
merged sand bank at night for about a quarter of
a mile before they got to the shore. After a march
of twelve miles they had a battle with an enemy
patrol during which Wilson distinguished himself
h\ evacuating wounded from under fire, knock-
ing off a few enemy soldiers with a Bren gun, quite

September— October, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

109

apart from any camera work (see page 107).

So the Army Film Unit had started its life in
the campaign with a bang. Tanks and armoured
cars were naturally considered more important
vehicles than ours, so that our first job at Algiers
| was to get transport. We were fortunate enough
to find two little Simca-Fiats about the size of a
Morris 8, and half as tough. With these and
half-a-dozen motor bikes we dashed off to Med-
jez-el-Bab. For a fortnight we had a wonderful
thru'. We were completely a buccaneer unit
operating out in the blue without one single Army
Form to spoil the view, and photographing the
battle wherever we could find it. In those days
the roads around Medjez were pretty hot ; Stukas
would often come over unescorted, so that if you
wanted to get close to the battle area it was essen-
tial to do any moving up at night. In the early
idays the forces on both sides were so small that
it was quite simple to get nearer the enemy lines
I til an our own, but our chief snag, as ever, lav in
(the fact that infantry activity when it isn't at
night is always well dispersed and well camou-
flaged. You may know that the Lancashire Fusi-
lliers are going into action a few hundred yards
Pfrom you, but all you can see is an olive grove,
I and if you go into the olive grove all you see is a
! lot of tree trunks. However, once in a while things
I turned out better for us, and we were able to get
I shots of infantry actually attacking in daylight.
I General shots and long shots were easy enough to
get. but medium shots and close shots were almost
• impossible. One without the other, from a movie
IjDoint of view, is not satisfactory, so all the
I cameramen pooled their knowledge and experi-
ence and ideas, and bit by bit we evolved a tech-
I nique of Battle Photography.

On one occasion Sergeant J. Huggett went out
j with a Guards Bren carrier patrol. They got quite
I close to Tunis when a German anti-tank gun and

A.F.U. Group including Capt. A. Black and Set. Jock Gcmmell
(Junr.)

Battle cameraman in action

heavy machine gun opened up at a few hundred
yards range from a nearby farmhouse. Thanks to
dispersal and the training of their crews most of
the Bren carriers were all right, but the leading
one in which Huggett was travelling was hit, and
two of the crew killed outright. Huggett himself
fortunately got away with his life and a 35 mm.
lens. Accompanying an attack on Long Stop
Hill in the early days, Sgt. West had the 2 inch
lens blown off his camera by shrapnel whilst
actually photographing.

When the further convoys arrived we had to
establish a headquarters. We chose a blitzed
hotel in Beja, a town at the junction of the roads
leading to the three main fronts, Sedjenane,
Medjez-el-Bab, and Bon Arada. Our billet became
quite a well-known social centre. The local French
and Arab police used to come in each evening,
and conversation would range pleasantly over all
kinds of subjects. We even taught them pontoon
— for me a disastrous experience.

During the rainy season while the Allies were
building up for the big attack the First Army was
involved in continual bitter fighting. It was a time
when Battalions held Brigade fronts — a very fluid
and exhausting business. The cameramen went
in wherever the battles broke out. Sometimes we
had the initiative, sometimes the enemy. On one
occasion the 6th Armoured Division put in an
attack near Bou Arada; the enemy tried to re-
pulse it with repeated dive-bombing attacks. Rjg-
nold. Glendining and six Sergeants were there
with our attack, so we got some pretty good
coverage of enemy planes coming down in flames,
tanks going into action with shells bursting
around them, and so on.

When the Grenadier Guards re-occupied the
Kasserine Gap they had about half an hour start
on a party of three of us, but we got across a spur
of hills, and caught them up just as they were

■

110

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October. 1943

going into their advance proper. We would have
had some really first class shots of any battle
that might have taken place, but once Rommel
had made his thrust through the Gaj) and had
been stopped at Thala by the 6th Armoured Divi-
sion he withdrew in great haste, so that the re-
entrance of the Kasserine Gap was quite unop-
posed. Towards the end of the campaign, how-
ever, we had some better luck, and when the 78th
Division put in its attack on the hilly country,
leading to the capture of Long Stop Hill,* we had
cameramen with all the main assaults. Some
rode in on Churchill tanks which were supporting
the Infantry, others went in with the Infantry
themselves, some stuck with the guns, and others
again went with the Sappers clearing the mine
fields. On another famous occasion Alfred Black
and 1 were the first into Kairouan and the mayor
read us an official address of welcome.

One of the satisfactory features about the cam-
paign in Tunisia is the beauty of the country. The
spring flowers near Beja and Medjez had the same
delicate quality and colouring as those of English
flowers, bu1 with infinitely greater profusion. You
would see a whole hillside covered with mauve,
blue, lilac, scarlet, crimson, rose pink, yellow
and orange. After a while scarlet poppies had it
all their own way. Before the corn grew too tall
for them you could sometimes see four square
miles of bright scarlet splashed across the valley.
From a film man's point of view there was some-
thing fascinating in the spectacle of this exquisite
natural background to the normal domestic Life
of the soldier, and the clamour and shock of the
battlefield.

The final assault on Tunis and Bizerta was a
sight I will never forget. The Allied Air Forces
had driven the Luftwaffe from the skies, and a
map ge forward of tanks and vehicles of

all kinds, head to toe, four abreast, in a never
ending flood, poured across the countryside in dif-
ms. The dust raised and the absence
of convenient high ground made ii hard to photo-
graph . bu1 i ven so some oi oi r material shows a
mass of tr nspi . t that is unbelii \ able. Th i I

cut i i Tunis, quite apart from its naturally

photogenic | lalities, was an intensely einotiini.il
expi pern i 'I : exuberanl joj of the people madi
itself Eell to r\rr\ soldier who saw- ii ; the extra-
ordinary b ispii alitj \ .'MM', ,.(! and the shouf
' Vi. e Churchill," 'Vive I' ^ngleterre," " Vive
la Vi', toire "and ' Vive de' < l-aulle " \\ ere a cor
tinual c ounterpoint \<> our e> istence for two daj s.

While some cameramen were in Tunis, oil
" ' tiding up d prisoners, and oi hi rs

again wenl with the 6th Armoured Division to
the i laiiuiem- Ml' Battle, and on down the \.-dlev
to 1 1 -"m i ; miet.

All- I took 200,000 led of film, cover-

ing all aspects of the Allied assault, and quite
apart from enjoying the exhilaration of a se
months' victorious campaign, at the end of which
an entire continent was cleared and million?
people freed from Axis domination, I was particu-
larly proud of the Army Film Unit.

The confidence given to a man by holding a
rifle in battle is enormous, but the business
going cold-bloodedly into action with a can
demands the highest military virtues. The epi-
sodes one remembers are quite often trifling oil
their own, like single segments of a hip
hut the main pattern of our lives and the spirit
of the Unit was undoubtedly the courage and skill
of the men and their never failing cheerfulness to
go am where and do anvthinsr.

POLITICAL FUND & AFFILIATION
TO LABOUR PARTY

TRADE UNION ACT, 1913

The Association of Cine-Technician-
Union (Register No. 1995 T.)

RETURN OF RESULT OF BALLOT
We certify that a ballot under the above
Act was duly taken by the above Union
between the nineteenth of July, 1943. and
the thirtieth of September. 1943. in accord-
ance with the rules of the Union approved
for the purpose by the Chief Registrar of
Friendly Societies and that the result was
as follows : —

Votes For 320

Votes Against 262

Votes Rejected (as per Schedule) 2
Total Number of Ballot Papers

Used For Voting 584

The Resolution was therefore Carried.

ncd) R urn Bond
Chairman of Executive Committee

Geo. 1 1. Ei \ i\

General Secretary

John S. I )] NNIS
Jo 1 [argot rt
A. E. Jeakins

Scrutineers
Date 3rd October. 1943

Address of General Office;
9, Bromefield, Stanmore, Middlesex

imber— October, 1943 THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

111

LOOK to the FUTURE

BY ALL MEANS

But it's peculiar how often one has to
refer to the past, especially so, in making
COMMERCIALS and DOCUMENTARIES

Our Millions of Feet of Stock Shots
contain a varied collection of retro-
spective material in addition to PRESENT
DAY SHOTS.

Then there are our CUTTING ROOMS with
a comfortable Projection Theatre avail-
able, and coupled to this our reputation
FOR SERVICE

And you have the answer : —

HHK

WB

TELEPHONES:
GERR ARD
6413-7481.

54 50

WARDOUR ST
LONDON. W.I.

112

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October. 1943

STRAWS IN THE HAIR

by

SCREENCOMBER

of the " Kinematograph Weekly "
Illustrated bv Land

Where Were We?

This paper appears with such charming incon-
sequentiality that we are never quite sure whether
we are writing for the Summer Annual or the
Christmas Double Number. To get the right
atmosphere then, we don't know whether to think

of Father Christmas or lots of beautiful sun-
tanned bathing girls — so we think of lots of sun-
tanned bathing girls.

Here is a game that you can while away the
long lazy summer evenings by the sea, or, if we
are writing for the Christmas Number, the jolly
festive nights around the Yule Log. It is called
" Few Cliches" and the prize goes to the one
who can think up most. For instance, clock hands
turning to denote passing of hours ; calendar
leaves dropping away to show passing of days ;
rapid dissolves of snow-clad trees, blossom-covered
trees, fruit-laden trees and leaves falling, for the
seasons ; close-up of engine wheels revolving to
show nobody is going anywhere ; clouds rolling
up in front of the sun, clouds rolling away from
the sun, lovers walking into the sunset, the Statue
of Liberty ; a series of posters showing the
heroine's name getting bigger and bigger on each
bill, to prove that she is either a talented actress
or good at something or other ; and a public house
with a sign reading " No Beer " to prove that the
Editor has at last realised that his favourite con-
tributor has a thirst.

Apology and Correction

Because of advertising and commercial consid-
erations this section has been asked to apologise
for a scries of serious errors that occurred in our
report of the Blotcheim epic " Desire Among the

Parsnips." A printer's error resulted in our saying
that the picture was " stinking," when of course
what we intended to say, according to what our
advertisement manager tells us, was " striking."
Again, he points out that instead of saying " the
picture smells " we meant to say " the picture is
swell." Our other references to it being a piece
of cheese and a lump of tripe must have been mis-
understood by the vulgar, but the discerning
reader — and how a non-member of the A.C.T.
came to get a copy of the paper we wouldn't know
— the discerning reader (Hovyya, reader!)" will
recognise that this is a delicate tribute to the
that both cheese and tripe can be a delicacy to
the epicure, but WE STILL THINK IT STINKS !

How Much You Don't Know

When you wish to say that someone has a fa<£
that films well, would you describe it as : Prophy-
lactic, photographic, paregoric, pyrotechnic, pho-
togenic, pornographic or polytechnic?

If you say you are out of sync, do you mean:
You have just had a bath, you have washed up
the dishes, you are out of step or, if you ai
submarine commander, you have run out ol
pedoes?

Miracles Can Happen

" No ! " an assistant
once bleated,

Because of " Yessing "
he'd tired.

Then, "Sorry" he said,
" I got heated."

The director cried
"Heated? — You're
fired ! ' '

September — October, 1943

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A X

113

Half a league, half

half a league onwards."

Story Conference

So it goes this-a-way .
i league,

I get it ! All about a ball game ?

Ball game my eve. It's about this Light Bri-
gade that wore these balaclava helmet things, and
ras Errol Flynn as O.C., remember?

Oh, yeh. A corps of blondes, huh?

Baloney! They weren't no blondes, they wus a

1 anions Britisher regiment. Say, where were you
■dicated not to have heard "Into the valley of
leath rode de six hundred"? Xow d'ye get it —
lie Xoble Six Hundred, see?

S;>\ , maybe you'll tell me how come these Bri-

ish nobles are rowing in Death Valley — why it's

here in California and there ain't a drop of

water around in hundreds of miles. Still, if you're

3et on the idea it might be a good publicity gag

it that to ship a few hundred tons of water down

there and flood the place. Then we can send over

£oi some British nobles, only we want to do it

n a big way so we'll make it a round t'ousand

and there they are, complete in spats and eye-

5, rowing around Death Valley and away in

th. distance they hears this voice singing "The

Eton Boating Song" — and sure enough it's a

beautiful white goddess — but say, first ring up

paramount and see if Dot Lamour's available.

Good Gad!

The Editor, who will shove his nose into this
section, except when we're thirsty, tells us the
true story of an elderly high ranking officer watch-

Please give an

EXTRA
PENNY

a week to the

RED CROSS

Penny-a-Week

Fund

In support of the

DUKE OF GLOUCESTER'S

RED CROSS & ST. JOHN FUND

registered under the War Charities Act, 1940

|g manoeuvres. The brass hat, noticing an RAF.
Sergeant-Cameraman filming near by, tottered
:r and asked if lie might take a peek through
t]u' camera. '"Certainly, Sir" said the camera-
man. The brass hat peered through the view finder
"Good Heavens!" he cried. "Quite incredu-
Bjus — it's in colour! "

Y\ e ourselves have been equally surprised at the

number ol incompetent cameramen, yes.

i] members of the A.C.T., who somehow man-

- get the image upside-down in their camera -

.1

114

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N September— October, 1943

Newsreeling in the Tropics

by

Capt. BRYAN LANGLEY

HAVING very nearly completed my third year
abroad as an Army Film Unit and Public
Belations Cameraman I feel it would in-
terest A.C.T. members to know of some of the
problems incurred whilst newsreeling in the
tropics.

As those with long memories will doubtless
recall, I am, sometimes I feel as though I was,
a lighting expert (in America " director of photo
graphy ") and upon the formation of the Army
Film Unit I offered my services as I felt that
cinematography was a much needed addition to
our war machinery.

It was with something akin to horror that I
realised that I was to be used as a newsreel man ;
because of some strange ignorance I felt that in
becoming one myself I was sinking down to the
lowest form of motion picture work. I had never
met any of them (with the honourable exception
of Ken Gordon) and had never so much as shot a
wedding. How wrong I was ! I have come to
realise that a man requires as much intelligence
to be a newsreel man as to be a camera operator,
and that a first class newsreeler is even rarer than
a first class lighting expert. The fact of the
matter is that there is no similarity between news-
reel and studio work except that both use motion
picture cameras, as indeed does Micky Mouse.

It is useless whilst newsreeling to shoot any-
thing that is not of news value. What- one does
shoot has to be in story form which one has to
create, shoot and then fully write up for the
benefit of the commentator, who is speechless un-
less he knows what it is all about.

I have seen Maurice (Paramount) Ford type
four pages of dope sheets to illustrate, or explain
would be more correct, one hundred feet of film.
There is the other side of the story, where the
cameraman writes a hell of a storj and does not
have the pictures he talks about. Newsreel Won;,'.
a Chinese cameraman working for News of tin- Bay,
fcells a lo\cl\ storj of how he was covering the
Sino-Japanese war and as he could not then
write English he employed a journalist in Shang-
hai to receive his negative, write the dope sheets
and dispatch them both to America. Well, one
day this journalist got poetic and wrote a hell of
a spiel about the horrors of war as the dope sheet
for some perfectly routine shots which Newsreel
bad sent him of a bit of bombing. A little while
later back came a cable from the Boss saying

Fine dope sheets, where are pictures."
The first of my many newsreel mistakes
occurred because I did not realise that news pic-
tures are virtually useless unless accompanied by
copious details. My first major assignment when
reaching the Middle East was to go to Crete and
photograph Jerry paratroops floating down from
heaven like snowflakes. Fortunately for me we
never landed, and all I got of this campaign was
the survivors coming ashore at Alexandria. My
dope sheet for this read, " 1000 feet, Plus X.
Cretan survivors arrive at Alex." A few days later
I had a personal telegram from the War Office
saying " Langley's Cretan Survivors story use-
less owing paucity dope sheets stop Study Dope
sheet other newsmen stop." Since that time I
have seen hundreds of dope sheets, some of which
are fine examples of journalese and practically
bring tears to one's eyes. I have come to the con-
clusion that the newsreeler is a Journalist with a
moviecamera.

If the course of your life makes you go a-news-
reeling, don't despair as I did. but treat il
something entirely fresh in which there is lots
to learn, and you will find in the end that your
studio technique will be invaluable to put <
such things as direction of looks., exits and en-
trances, and all those things which make a mi
flow as smooth as milk.

To those who are commercially minded, the
newsreel man does not earn as much as the stu
chap, but it is tor 12 months each year and ex-
penses, which are very good. Here below are
some observations on Tropical Newsreeling, for
what they are worth. Maybe they w ill be of some
use to someone someday.

Choice of Equipment. Before somebody .

ready to sine me, let me say that every piece of
cinematic equipment has some decided advan-
tage over every other similar type. No one thing
in the film business is incapable of improvement,
and all the following are my personal n
based on the fact that it's very hot in the East
and cameras seem much heavier nowadays,
here we have no assistants, and so if 1 offend
one please at least do not sue me.

Before I left England the War Office kindly
allowed me to choose my own equipment, and so
I obtained the latest model " E " Newman Sin-
clair equipped with 5 mags and 28mm, 50 nun.

September-October, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

115

75mm, 8 inch and 13 inch lenses, plus filters and
tripod. I also got a turret Eyemo with 35 mm,
50mm and 75 mm lens.

By selecting two radically different cameras I
made my biggest mistake because this involves
carrying' around two types (can sizes) of film,
with all the worry of having enough of each in
case one camera breaks down.

Two types of film makes tremendous difficul-
ties in the simple matter of tying up a parcel for
dispatching to the labs. Try making a parcel out
of three 200ft. cans and 5 Eyemo rolls; it's not
easy. When I ran out of 200ft. tins I squeezed
three 200ft. rolls into a 1000ft. tin and tried to
tie the Eyemo rolls on top. Finally I overcame
this problem of maldng up a parcel by putting
everything. Eyemo rolls and 200ft. rolls, inside
the 1,000ft. tins. But it took me two years to
find this out !

The objections I have to a Newman for Army
newsreeling in forward areas are as follows (this
is for the tropics, don't forget, where it's very hot) :

(1) Its weight. (2) Having to load and unload
magazines in a changing bag which may be lull
of ant holes, and is a very hot job any way. (3)
Difficulties of getting film in other than 1000ft.
rolls, which means either carting around a re-
winder to break them up into 200ft. rolls or doing
it by hand. (4) Unless a turret model, which is
very heavy, the danger of spare lens becoming
damaged whilst in one's haversack. These objec-
tions only apply out here where so much of the
war is of a pedestrian nature, because M.T. can-
not drive through swamps and jungles.

The Newman has definite advantages for work
of a documentary nature which is normally car-
ried out in a civilised manner. (1) Because of its
reliability. (2) Length of run. (3) Ability to look
through the lens, which is very comforting when
doing inserts or artistic filtering of a sky. (4) The
fine range of speeds. (5) Possibility of changing
a magazine whenever wanted. (6) Ease with which
hand tests can be made. (7) Being a studio worker
I like its serious aspect, and all the gadgets.

The Eyemo has the following advantages for
work out here in forward areas. (1) Lightness.

(2) Ability to change focus as seen through view-
finder whenever desired.

As I said before, these are my personal opinions,
and I know moviemen who have very decided
opinions in other directions. To summarise, I
think the Newman is ideal for documentary work
and the Eyemo for newsreels. In case DeVry gets
upset, my preference for the Eyemo is due to the
fad that I can see the focus through the view-
finder.

Now that I know a bit more about war cine-
matography my choice would be, for work in for-
ward areas, as follows: —

An Eyemo with turret, 28mm, 50mm and 80mm
lens, spirit level, positive finder, range finder,
screw-in filters, focusing prism for checking lens
calibration, a light tripod.

Also a DeVry camera for extreme portability,
single lens 35mm and 6in. No tripod, as one
can always use some flat object. One can also
carry this camera in one's pack as it is flat.

Lenses and the care of them. Only on very
rare occasions in the tropics does one use lenses
at an aperture greater than f/5.6. I think that a
lens with a maximum aperture of f/4 must be
more critical than one of f/2 type owing to the
less use of glass. I should be interested to see
the results from a battery of lenses having small
maximum apertures. Naturally there would be
one lens available at f/2 for the rare occasions on
which wanted.

In climates where there is great humidity a
kind of fungus grows over the lens and while
with care one can keep the exterior surfaces clean,
there is nothing that the average technician can
do about interior growth.

In Singapore there was a department for clean-
ing the interiors of ships' optical equipment every
six months with rouge, but somehow I did not
fancy them playing about with my movie lenses.

Even if there is no need of a filter it is a very
good idea to have at least an Aero 1 before the
lens, as it keeps the dust and rain off the lens,
and a new filter is easier to get than a new lens.

Filters. Sandwich type filters are definitely
unsuitable for humid tropical weather as they
soon wrinkle and distort.

The only ones of any use are those made from
coloured glass, like a church window, and while
perhaps in the laboratory they are not so accurate
in passing one particular wave band of light, they
do at least keep in one piece and are unaffected
by dampness.

Gelatine filters are impracticable as one cannot
cut them without dropping great blobs of sweat
on them.

Negative and its care. At first I was extremely

worried whether my film would melt or not in the
extreme heat, as in the majority of cases it is
impossible to keep it in air conditioned rooms.

Oddly enough nothing seems to happen to it
except a small loss of speed, which if one draws
always from the same hatch is not important. I
have had super NN go and fog itself inside a tin
owing to heat, but not so Plus X. Fungus which
grows over still camera film does not appear to
enjoy movie film, maybe because it is so tightly
wound.

However, it is a wise move when in a Kodak
town to keep one's bulk in their air conditio

;

110

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, 1943

chamber, and otherwise keep it in the shade.

A smart thing for the keen type is to have con-
structed an air tight box containing some dehy-
drating agent such as dried salt, rice and tea.
Each week redry the agent. This will keep the
film at least free from humidity troubles, which
sometimes cause the film surfaces to stick as
they unwind with a consequent jam.

It is v< r\ important to have the film developed
as soon after exposure as possible as the latent
image appears to fade.

Exposure and Meters. One day in the desert
T discovered that my meter was all screwy, but
fortunately remembered an "old timer's" tip
passed on to me by Borradaile, which is to look
at the pupils of a man's eye. If just a dot, the
aperture is f 16, and if an innocent and trusting
look is present it is f/4.5. Kodaks will look after
the rest. However when the light looks yellow.
as it does about sun-up or sun-down, give much"
niore than you or your meter think is correct.
Inside jungles, when the light is dappled and
umbrageous shoot full Open, which is equivalent
to shooting indoors lit by green safe lights. The
decks of sunshine will be hard and chalky,
which is quite realistic. It is very important to
remember that green is a colour to which film
is more or less blind. I overlooked this fact
once while shooting Spies of the Air for David
Macdonald. It was a night location in a fir tree
forest: I exposed per meter on the principals and
built up the resi of the picture visually, taking
great care to make the trees look like Christmas
ones. Unfortunately none of the background came
out at all, and Dave was pleased to say that it
was a good night scene against black velvet. We
live and learn !

Light meters want to be watched with great
suspicion as the magic parts inside them are sen-
sitived In heat and often over-read the light.

Speed Of working. One very essential thing in
the make-up of a newsreel man is the ability to
work fast. There are no retakes in this racket.
The ess. ntial thing is to get the picture, even if
it has 1c be badlj exposed and not quite sharp,
depending on the importance of the story. But
the newsreeler is seldom caught out in these mat-
ters as lie plans his battle beforehand and has all
ready tor action.

While covering the tour of the Duke of Glouces-
ter in India 1 evolved the following technique for
fast working.

As often as possible the camera was out of 1 he
box and ready to shoot by having a fully loaded
magazine of film in the camera; the springs wore
always lull\ wound; a 28mm lens used as a stan-

dard to reduce errors of distance judging to a
minimum ; the focus scale set at 15 feet at which
distance most things are sharp on a 28mm and
the aperture adjusted in accordance with the d
light, usually f/11. Thus to shoot was simph a
matter of sighting the subject and firing
trigger.

I got candid shots in the following manner with
my Eyemo, by using a 75mm lens and setting the
focussing scale to, say, six feet. Then I would
the range finder also to six feet, ease in to
subject until the two images overlapped and then
fire, meanwhile looking through the sights. .
is a very successful bit of ju-ju.

When about to cover a job I would quickly
decide from where to have a long shot, close up
and so forth, and get them as soon as possible
so as to have these essential things in the
After which I could iook around and do the build-
up stuff, and maybe retake one of the essential
shots if something better occurred than I had
taken.

This premeditated planning does not always
work out that way. however, as can be seen from
the following story. I was sitting in a Singapore
slit trench waiting for the bombers to appear, my
Eyemo was at the ready with a 4in. lens in place,
with the focus at infinity, the stop ai f 11 aud a
23a filter in front to darken the sky s() chat the
ack-ack fire would be more contrasty. Over came
the bomber's, I sighted through my \
finder; to my horror I could not hold them, -
swung in the 50mm, and even this was not wide
enough and so had to use the 35mm. Suddenly-
the realisation what this meant struck me like
a ton of bricks .... It was a nasty moment
which cameramen will appreciate.

Some tips for the even more efficient operation
of the model "E" Newman. The first time I

took my model " P^ " up in an airplane the wind
pushed the lens over from the shooting position
to tin' focusing one. This was cured by In
cut, on all lens panels, a slot so that to shift
shooting position one has to depress the locking
lever. Exactly a reverse operation to shifting from,
focusing to shooting. When using the camera in
the hand I invariably twisted the speed regulator
from 24 to some other speed: this was prevented
by having notches cut at each speed indication on
the dial and into which a small spring plunger
fell. Now these things are adjusted the camera
is a pip and" works like a charm, even though it
has been horribly ill treated from a camera point
of view.

1 trust these above notes will serve some useful
purpose. Who knows that after the war he will
not come out East and make a movie.

September— October, 1943 THE CINE- T E CHNICI A \

scg^ot^maOT^

ROYAL

THE N TYPE PORTABLE

35mm Sound Film Equipment is too
well known to require detailed ex-
planation to the cine-technician. On

active service with

NAVY, ROYAL AIR FORCE, and with GOVERNMENT CIVIL DEPTS.

117

Manufactured by :

BRITISH ACOUSTIC FILMS LTD.

Offices: FILM HOUSE, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.1

118

THE CINE-TECHKICIAX September— October, L943

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

The Film Sense, by S. M. Eisenstein. Edited

and principally translated bv Jay Leyda. Faber

& Faber. 10/6d.

Any theoretical writing by Eisenstein is a veri-
table parade of erudition, as scintillating as the
Disney reflection of a peacock's tail in the water,
which he cites on Page 117.

Russian, English, French, German and Spanish
are at his tongue-tip. The literatures of these and
other languages, the histories of Asiatic and primi-
tive peoples, a score of sciences — all these are
levied to illustrate his points.

All this tends rather to put off the ordinary film
man. There is among practical film-workers out-
side U.S.S.R. almost an anti-cultural and anti-
humanistic tradition. Essentially decadent, it
seems to regard interest in any technical field
besides machinery (or maybe chemistry and phy-
sics) as in some sense unmanly. It has something
akin with fascism or, more exactly speaking, with
that morass of the mind that forms the humus in
which fascist ideas spread their mycelium. Highly
abominable, but there it is. There are many
readers who, having reached, if they get as far,
Page 52, to find Eisenstein quoting large tracts
of Milton and explaining that he does so because
he doubts " whether many of my British or
American colleagues are in the habit of dipping
often into Paradise host, although there is much
in it that is very instructive for the film-maker,"
will discard this book with the exclamation:
" What the hell, anyway!

Eisenstein's theoretical contribution is in the
realm of aesthetics. There *is probably no living
man who has written so profoundly, so originally
and so instructively in this field, relating the sepa-
rate methodologies of the separate arts, synthe-
sizing a general " art " methodology on the basis
of common and parallel experiences of means and
effect among each of them.

There will always be a rea< bionarj school which
will reject altogether the necessity for aesthetics.
in. M innovations and achievements may, it
is true, he attained quite unconsciously. Wl.it

did 1>. W. Griffith and de Mille. to nan nl\ two

supreme masters of cinematic effect, know
awarely- of the methodology they employed?
Thus mankind in pre- scientific days achieved
miracles of plant and animal breeding, br< ad
bearing wheal and rnilk-yielding cows, accumulat-
ing lore and habil bul wuthoul reallj any .communi-
cable understanding of what had been done, or
iio\.\ it came to p.iss.

But the cur)- n! o| advance oi man lies in Eis

mastery over nature by conscious knowledge, by
communicable science, and Eisenstein's contribu-
tion to this advance by his analyses, based on
Marxist understanding of methodology and nature,
is prodigious.

All film people must take pride in the fact that
it is on the basis of experience in film creation
that this contribution to general aesthetic theory
has been made possible.

But from what I have said it will already appear
that, beneficial from the general cultural stand-
point as a study of this book must be to all, it
would be a misunderstanding to suppose that even
its complete absorption is necessarily directly
helpful in their professional work to all engaged
in cinema under Western conditions. The complex
of cultural ideas that forms its background is
general cultural possession, through the scientific
aesthetic, and philosophic curriculum in the Soviet
State Cinema College, of most Soviet film men.
But, alas, to how many impresarios, manag< rs
accountants and the rest in our Western world are
they utterly incommunicable, and therefore of not
\er\ practical use here for explanation and defence
of our creative notions in production.

With all this very necessii;\ Eon go ng warning
and definition, let me now praise this volume in
the highest terms. It is not that general mono-
graph on the cinema and production methods that
we are entitled to expect one day from Eisenstein,
but which he has as yet never got down to writing.
It is a group of four essays, all of importance.
though varying in their significance for film men.
Outstanding is the first — Word and I»ia<^c — in
which, the conception of montage is analysed and
conclusively established, not as a mere snipping
with the scissors in the cutting room, but as a
method o! artistic expression, expressive in all the
arts, if not the most essential of all availab
art. and deriving its powei Erom parallelism
the mode of apprehension fchroug I senses
nature, .No thoughtful creative film worker can
fail to be stimulated l>\ it. The second and third
are essays showing the existence ol a correspon-
dence and inter-influence between the var
senses, and the hollowness of claims for abso
significance for particular colours, the choice of
colour Eor significance being properh dictated by
t ho ci mtent oi the associaH tons ■ particular

context and not by any arbitrary and constant
absolute. Tb-ese two are pi - cial film in-

terest, althouj i their general relation to the filn
makers' task air obvious Finally, the tour
a minute •■ \aiuiuat ion of the composition

September— October, 1943 THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

119

tions of the image and sound, unified by content,
in a short sequence of shots from Alexander
Nevsky. It takes to a higher plane this type of
analysis for a silent sequence by the same author,
included in The Cinema as a Graphic Art (Nilsen).
This last essay is as particular as the first was
general; although the general principles exempli-
fied are, by hypothesis, also basic to other types
of film construction, the balance of importance
of the particular forms found is true, of course,
only for a sequence of this particular type, corre-
sponding almost to ballet and opera in the theatre.
The appendices comprise a bibliography and
iconography of Eisenstein's work, with extracts
from his scenarios (some written in collaboration
with the present reviewer). These are less import-
ant to the general student of art but invaluable to
the thorough student of film methodology. It only
remains to be noted that the translation, of such
difficulty with this type of material, is splendidly
carried out and the information in the appendices
carefully assembled and containing few errors.

Ivor Montagu

Target for Tomorrow, Pilot Press. 3/Gd. each.

Before the war most people were content to do
their own jobs and leave others to their own de-
vices. There were therefore few who had a general
picture of economic and social conditions, and still
fewer who realised that these could be changed
for the better. Now however that the whole
organism, social, political and economic has been
disturbed by the War and reorganised for it, there
is an obvious opportunity for incorporating
improvements when we settle down to the busi-
ness of peace.

' Target for Tomorrow is a series of books on
post-war planning; a series moreover written for
the ordinary man by some of those who are in the
best possible position to talk on such a collection
iof subjects, for it has an Editorial Board consist-
ling of Sir William Beveridge, Br. Julian Huxley
'and Sir John Boyd Orr, and is edited by Charles
Madge. The completed series will deal, among
other things, with Industry after the War, Food.
The Beveridge Plan, Health, Education, Civil
Aviation, Leisure, Colonies, Demobilisation and
Agriculture.

The first to appear is " Industry after the War :
Who is going to run it?," by Charles Madge in
consultation with Donald Tyerman of ' The
Economist."

Why, asks Charles Madge, was it that at the
v<t\ moment when technical advances were so
striking and when there seemed good reason to
look forward to a not very distant Promised Land,
the wheels of industry slowed down and stuck,
and this generation had to content itself instead

with the wilderness? Not because we lacked tech-
nical resources, but because of the way in which
industry was organised. From this, these ques-
tions follow : —

Who controls industry now ?

What does this control involve and what have
been its effects for the past 20 years?

Madge then compares experience in this country
with that in the U.S.A., U.S.S.E., Sweden and
Germany, before asking, What is the ideal solu-
tion? It must be one that gives full employment,
is efficient, that organises production in the right
order of priority, that still leaves time for enjoy-
ing what we have produced, that does not raise
our own standard of living at the expense of that
of other nations, and that gives the key jobs to the
most able men. Everyone should have the best
incentive to creative work and should feel that he.
is in the picture. Accounts should be published
where, desirable, and inventions should not be
stifled by the patent laws.

Mr. Madge quotes rather fully suggestions for
the organisation of industry put forward by the
Federation of British Industries and by the 120
Prominent Industrialists, and counters them with
quotations from three papers with a harmony of
views which must surprise even themselves : The
Economist, The Times and The Daily Worker.
The gist of their criticisms is that these plans
mean that the majority of producers in any indus-
try at large could compel the minority of such pro-
ducers, and that that amounts to Industrial Feu-
dalism. The only safeguard against this enormous
concentration of power being used to compel the
Trade Unions, the Consumers and the Govern-
ment itself lies in the adherence of the indus-
trialists to a "code of duty" towards employees
and towards society ; the three papers differ in
their methods of expressing scepticism.

Mr. Madge's own suggestions for an immediate
and practical target are that there should be three
types of industry; State-owned and State-man-
aged ; privately owned but with some or all of the
directors State-appointed; privately owned and
managed. The Government wotdd decide which
concerns were to come under which heading, but
in all cases Labour interests would be safeguarded
by joint consultations between management and
trade unions. There would be a sort of Watch
Committee of independent experts drawn from
management, the professions, trade unions and
the universities, and it would have power to call
for government intervention. Perhaps most im-
portant of all, the general public would be aroused
to take interest in this experiment which aims a1
combining democracy with industrial efficiency.

Brett Porter

120

T HE CINE-TE C HNICIA N September— October, 1943

OBITUARY

Captain Harry Rignold's death in action in Italy
is a hard blow to documentary as a whole and to
the Army Film Unit in particular. To his personal
friends, it is as yet impossible to realise that liis
cheerful, hard-working, never-grumbling self will
not again be around the place. Starting at a youth-
ful age in the studios, he joined documentary in
1932, and in the early years learned much from
-Jack Parker, Jimmie Rogers, and the late George
Pocknall. He shot footage for .Mary Field i nil
myself, first at British Instructional and then at
G.B. Instructional, and in 193b joined us at
Strand. Later he worked with the G.P.O. Unit
and Realist. By 1938 he was lighting admirably ;
his exterior work was as good as you could wish ;
his operating smooth, quick and always reliable.
Among the many films on which he shot were :
Contact, Shipyard, Face of Britain, Tliis Was
England, Wealth of a Nation, Speed the Plough,
New Worlds for Old, Here Is The Land and The
Islanders. In summer 1939 he worked right
through my 5-reeler for The Times — The Fourth
Estate, then on the G.P.O. 's The First Days. He
was the first cameraman to join the Army Film
Unit. Of his military work since then one hears
the highest praise. There was the characteristic
report of how he refused to be parted from his
camera on the quay at Boulogne in the fall of
France. Perhaps the best all-round job he did was
Blood Transfusion in 1941, for which the A.F.F.
loaned him to our Unit. Had he come back to
documentary after the war, as we all hoped, he
would have been certain of an outstanding future.
His presence on a unit was a guarantee of good
relations. One thing I always remember out of
the hundreds of days that we spent on location
together — he was never too tired to clean his
camera no matter what time of night it was. He
was twenty-nine this year and h id been awarded
the Military Cross for bravery in action.

Paul Rotha

We have also received the following apprecia
linn of Captain Rignold from his colleagues in

the Arm; film Unit : —

1 1 am Rignold went all through France where
he shot a greai deal of material, though handi-
i apped by static conditions. Later he covered the
raids on Lofoten and Vaagso, i lie latter being i ited
the best single coverage oi the war. The invasi m
oi North A Erica took him to Algiers on the second
com - v\ He wen! straight up to the fronl where he
distinguished himseli on severa] occasions, notably

it I he l».it t le near Bou Arada w here he eonl inued

photographing amid verj heavj action until a

piece of flying debris hit him in the Small of the

back.

The report of his death as a result of wounds
received in action came as a great shock to every-
one. He did not like being in danger any more
than anyone else but his courage was proverbial.
Apart from that, he had the kindest disposition in
the world : he never said a mean or ungenerous
thing about anyone. The Army Film Unit has
suffered a great loss, and he will be mourned by a
large number of friends who had the deepest affec-
tion for him.

All members of the Film Industry who knew
Skeets Kelly feel a great sense of regret at the
news that he has been posted missing by the
R.A.F. We all hope that by some miracle of chance
he may after all be returned to us.

Skeets came into the industry about fifteen
years ago, if my memon serves me. as a junior
member of my camera staff at the old British and
Dominions Studios at Elstree, where his father.
.Jimmy Kelly, was Assistant Director to Herbert
Wilcox. Jimnn was always apologising to me
for his lanky son, but he was really terribly proud
of him, and would have been prouder still today,
bad he lived to know of Skeets' successful advance
as a cine photographer, and his final greai work
in the R.A.F. Film Unit. I was talking with
Skeets at Pinewood a month or so ago, and he
told me he enjoyed his work with the R.A.F. but
got a little restless in between the flights ovei
enemy territory.

He also s] oke ol i iur trip to Canada in 19 10 oi
the film The 4.9th Parallel. Looking back, lie said.
what a grand experience it had been, and hov
would like to visit Canada again after the war.

Although on this film we had some pretty I

times and lots oi h, rd v ■ k, Skeel - w
down — always a tower o strength to tin
■i \ en amusi ; ci mpanion, and , grand tell
storii s.

Michael Powell will, 1 think, agree with me
when I say 1 don'1 know what we should hav«
i\^wc without him.

I i annot finish without mentioning the sad loss
oi Harry Rignold, a contemporary oi Skeets, wh<
was also with me at Elstre Onh a few v
go I had a letter from I [arry in w hieh he sen ,
irds to all his old friends back home.
Skeets and I Carry, a couple oi gn n I sc iuts w\
ha\ e brougb.1 greal bom ir industry.

F. A. Young

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NICAL ABSTRACTS

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

A VISIT TO THE PAST

AFTER THE WAR

MICHAEL BALCON
SIDNEY COLE
P. L. MANNOCK
J. ARTHUR RANK

SYDNEY BOX
KEN CORDON
L/P MICHELIN
A. T. BURLINSON

MICHAEL CORDON
MAX MUNDEN
COSSAR TURFER/
ROBERT CLARK

SIR ALEXANDER

KORDA

RONALD NEAME

CHARLES WHEELER

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THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

orlal & Publishing Office: 9, BROMEFIELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX. Telephone: EDGWARE3119

ertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editors : Darrel Catling, Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, M. J. Land, Frank Saintbury.

N mber Forty-five, Volume Nine November — December, 1943

Price One Shilling

AFTER THE WAR

Opinions on post-war trends
in the film industry

Collected and Edited by J. NEILL BROWN

NOTE. -The opinions presented hen in debate form wen
actually collected at individual interi'iews. Readers must hear in
mind that such opinions might have been differently expressed if
the particip<tnls had actually met in each <»///< A presence, hut it is
doubtful ij the conclusions reached would have been substantially
diffi rent. The " ( 'hairman ' is n sponsible jm putting the vietx s <</
///<• A.C.T. Genera! Council.

Lfk

The Chairman

.1 . NViU Hi i ... i

Chairman: ACT wishes bo extend its besl
thanks to all those people who have come Eor
ward tn assist us in presenting the various view

I is of different individuals engaged in manj

differenl branches of the trade, from the man who
w ni es the storj to t be man who crii icises the
finished pn duel on l he screen . We are liappj to
welcome as contributors (in alphabetical order, to
avoid class dist inct ions I

Michael Balcon, of Ealing Studios. Sydney Box.
connected with both studio and document arj w ml
through Two Cities and his own company Verity,
A. T. Burlinson. bis fellow managing-director of
Verity, Robert Clark, of \ ,B T C. Sidney
Cole, associate producer aj Baling, Ken Gordon,
an hbishopof \\ ardour Street and cameraman w ith
Pathe, Michael Gordon,. editor and director with
Crown, Sir Alexander Korda. head oi M.G.M,
British, P. L. Mannock, film critic of the Daily
Herald, Leading Photographer Michelin of the
Na\ al Film Unit, Ei irmerbj cut ter of Universal
News, Max Munden. scripl writer and producei

of documentary films, Ronald Neama, cameraman
al Denham, J. Arthur Rank, whose activities in
the industry .arc legion, Cossar Turfery, film pro-
ducer at Verity Films, and Charles Wheeler,
\ C T. Shop Steward at Shepherds Bush.

We have manj big problems in front of us
Hi men, and of them all perhaps the most import
ant is I li.it connected with t he conl n 'I oi the

indusl v\ .

Ken Gordon (verf Joad like). W hut exactly do

\ on mean h\ " conl L'i 'I " '.'

Chairman; I mean overj aspect of film produc-
tion, distribution, and exhibition affected bj the
forms nl financial (or an\ other) management thai

in an\ w a\ has an influence u| the t \ pes oi pii

ture we make in Britain and the condition in
which we make them. If alternatives exist, thej
iua\ be roughlj described as private monopoly on
the one hand and govemmenl participation on
the other.

Clark: We haven'l go! much govemmenl con
1 n .1 now nd ii is prettj certain we'll ha\ e even

12-2

THE CTNE-TECHNICIAN November— December, 1943

less after the war's over and M.O.I, passes on
from the scene of its labours in the documentary
Held. Personally 1 cannot see that any form of
<j"\ ernment control can he of benefit to the indus-
try, although the Government can always help
by freely affording to producers such help as is
needed in the making of films such as The Way
Ahead, hi Which We Serve and Ships With \frings.
The quest ion divides itself into three parts — before,
during and after the making of the film. In the
first stage the producer must be absolutely free
to write or acquire the rights of a story, decide his
budget, and select his staff and artistes. In the
second stage the government never does — and, I
suppose, never will — interfere with actual shoot-
ing. In the third stage there certainly is a mea-
sure of assistance through the 1938 Films Act,
but the producer still has to make a good picture
in order to get it rented or screened at all. How-
would government control assist or hinder him?

Burlinson : In stage one you have to get facili-
ties to shoot in certain locations; you have to
submit your scripts to get certain stock shots from
M.O.I. ; you have to submit your script to get cer-
tain stock shots from M.O.I. ; you have to submit
your script to get from the Board of Trade enough
stock to shoot it on.

Clark : That's only a formality due entirely to
war conditions.

Burlinson: Not in documentary films.

Ken Gordon : Even if it is a formality there is
no reason why it shouldn't be extended. Why
should censorship only take place after your film
is made? Why shouldn't the industry get together
as a wdiole and either under its own or under gov-
ernment authority set up an advisory body — a cul-
tural committee — to go over scripts and budgets
before the films are made?

The Producers (with one voice) . Heaven forbid !

Chairman : A.C.T. would certainly advocate
some form of pre-shooting scrutiny to avoid the
danger of an artificial boom in production. Some-
thing must he done to discourage Irresponsible
interests from seeking fame and fortune through
films, usually bad ones. That is surely in the
interests of the whole trade.

Ken Gordon : You know, producers would save
themselves an awful lot of headaches, worries and
money if they faced their problems at the outset
and no! alter the difficulties arise.

Clark : 1 have ideas about that. Maybe we'll
come to them later.

Korda : 1 agree to a large extent with what Mr.
Clark said about good and bad films. Either you
make a lmuhI picture or a had one, and I cannot
see tbat you can change the one into the other
b\ Act of Parliament. You must first make pic
1 1 ires the public will like and will want to see. an, I
in our country and in America you can't dragoon
the public into going to look at films it definitely

dislikes. Not all the Gestapo in Germany can do
that. And if a film cannot stand on its own 1
by its own innate entertainment value, then yon
should never have made it. And an Act of Par-
liament which enables it to be shown to the pub-
lic becomes only an encouragemenl for the pro-
duction of the mediocre. It is against the inter -
of the trade that any action should be taken by
the government that will favour the second-rate
at the expense of the first. Alediocre films are the
pro I nets of mediocre minds. If there is to be a
fixed policy amongst us, let it be one of " raising
the standard" and eliminate the unworthy.

Balcon : I heartily endorse the policy of "rais-
ing the standard," but I cannot accept Sir Alex-
ander's suggestion that it can be done without
government assistance. Air. Clark has referred to
control "before, during and after" production.
I accept the proposition that no Act of Par-
liament will change a bad picture into a good
one, but I insist that even if we make a good one
we still need some over-riding outside authority
to enable us to have our own British films shown
on our own British screens. Possibly Mr. Clark's
company has less need of such protection than
others. The most important thing we must work
for in any post-war policy is, in my opinion, a great
tightening of the Films Act and a bolder attempt
by the Films Council to encourage the making
and showing of such films. Just now it is a
gamble, with the odds against us.

Cole : It is a matter of simple logic that we can-
not "crash" the American market. If we make
bad pictures, obviously the Americans don't want
them ; we don't want that kind ourselves. If we
make good ones the Americans want them still
less, for then they are in direct competition with
their own, and so reduce their profits. In Britain
itself we know only too well the history of
American support of the quota quickie, in order
to discredit home production. If an American
company now makes better pictures than they
have before, they are liable to be, in the words
of Sir Adrian Bailey in the debate on the 1938
Films Act in the House of Commons, merely
Hollywood productions made on location.

Wheeler: Certainly we want to see the founda-
tion of a healtln and independent British Film
Industry, but surely there is a danger tinder the
present social system of "control" becoming
simpK control of the workers and not of the in-
dustry as a whole. 1 cannot see that the govem-
ment can assume control of the film industry with-
out a radical change of policy — in fact, without the
socialisation of all the main industries (>t the coun-
try, films included. Otherwise, if films were run
b\ the present government we should have to be
careful we did no! jus! become another branch of
the G-.P.O., with technicians getting a nice uni-
form and two pairs bJ boots per annum. Tn pre-

November— December, 1943 THE C I N E -TECHNI C I A X

123

sent circumstances I am opposed to the creation
oi a super G.P.O. film unit.

Mannock : It seems to me that there are grave
dangers in the film industry becoming nationa-
lised. Would it not reduce films to being merely
a reflection of the social outlook of the particular
government of the da\ — a boomerang that the
advocates of nationalisation would hardly want fco
hear responsibility for? in any case you have an
existing example of nationalisation to judge by,
in the B.B.C., so devitalised of creative energj
and so much a compromise between extremes that
t lie " left " accuses it of being a pillar of die-hard
Toryism, and the " right " of its being run by and
for communists. I think the film industry should
plaj the nationalisation theme with a very soft
pedal. There are many broad social issues which
can be tackled without taking political sides and
without producers having to play tricks with their
consciences. The film is a medium of entertain-
ment, not a means of political propaganda, and if
it is used as such it may only do irreparable barm.

Mlinden: Why should it? Why should we not
be allowed to try and educate the public? This
most potent means of influencing opinion is all in
the hands of one class. Why can't the other class
be able to use it too ?

Mannock : Because of the simple realistic faci
that most of the public go to the cinema for enter-
tainment and not to he invited to take sides in
the claims of different ideologies. There is time and
place for that, but not in the cinema where the
people are of mixed political sympathies. Once
you started to do that you would soon have no
industry at all.

Balcon : I am not opposed to ;my particular
aspect of politics in him making. At present we
operate on a capitalist basis and I am content to
accept the situation as I find it. If a change
of government should introduce a different atti-
tude to films and production I should probably
accept that too, so long as I knew that 1 was
working for the sound establishment of the whole
industry. At the moment we haven't got such
an establishment, and unless producers, renters,
exhibitors and technicians can get together now
and agree to a joint policy, then I'm afraid that
with all our hopes and ambitions, all our plans
for a brave new world will avail us nothing when
the war is over and the Americans are once more
free to exploit the gains of war. Yes, I can see
it coming, and I can see the same situation aris-
ing as arose after the last war. What were we be-
fore the present war but poor imitators of Holly-

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124

THE CIKE-TECHNICIAN November— December, L943

wood, not only ignoring our own national culture
but often allowing America to express it for us, a
state of affairs that however flattering could never
be satisfactory? It took the impact of war to make
us realise that we had something worth while to >a\
to the world. We have said it, and the result is that
the prestige of British films stands higher todaj
than ever in our history. Is all that to be thrown
away ? Will our efforts lead to nothing but frustra-
tion ? We can only continue to exist as a real inde-
pendent British industry if we can continue to put
over our own ideas in our own way. And how
can we do that without legal government assist-
ance unless the industry here combines to combat
the Americans on their own terms. By the way I
use the word " combine" in its spiritual and not
its financial sense.

Rank : That obviously brings me in. In the first
place there has been a great deal of loose and un-
critical talk about this monopoly that I am
said to be trying to establish. I am not trying to
establish anything of the kind. I certainly have a
position in the industry, and a certain power,
which I admit I am trying to build up, not in
order to secure a monopoly or for the questionable
pleasure of playing with power, but in order to
do a service to the trade which I consider I
must do. My position imposes certain obli-
gations which I accept gladly enough at the mo-
ment because I think I am doing a service to the
industry in Britain as a whole, but at the same
time obligations which I will drop tomorrow if
the Government decides that it lias other plans in
which I will have no part. It is all very well to
talk of being able to make good pictures here
without bothering about American or world mar-
kets, but in all honesty the continued existence
of British film production depends on overseas
trade. And to get that trade you must have
power. Americans are as sweet as pie to me when
they come asking for playing time in my theatres ;
it is a very different story when -I want playing
time in theirs. To get that I must be in a
position to bargain. And if I can't do it — nobody
else can — no British producers making British
films.

I am not trying to crush out the independent
producer. If an independent makes a good picture
and wants to show it- through my organisation I
shall do honest business with him. Is "that
monopoly ? The whole future of British films is
bound ii]) in the question of overseas trade. With-
out it we must be resigned to a position as bad
as — or worse than — the position before the war.
I feel a great sense of responsibility to the indus
fcrj and naturally to the technical staffs. We would
We Eoolish not to try to anticipate certain post
war developments and the time to consider these

develop] ts and to Laj plan-, is NOW. \i,,l

the onh wa\ to reach success in laying such plans

is for all parties to realise thai each must give up
something, however small. Granted that entry
into foreign markets on a suitable basis, most of
the other things we hope for will follow — trade
agreement, apprenticeship and so on. Without
that foreign trade all other things are idle drei
My position carries that responsibility — I am con-
scious of it and I think I will win.

Mannock : I should think there is the basis of
a good case there, though the idea of monopoly
must be repugnant to many people. The difficulty
about too strong a personal control, however, is
that it is a short-term policy, even when it is for
worthy ends. The personal controller has the de-
fect of not being eternal. What is to happen when
the one strong man goes?

Korda: Personally I am not worried about the
question of monopoly. It is, sooner or later, a sui-
cidal policy. Supposing anyone does attain to a
monopoly in Britain — what happens then? In
absence of healthy competition his standai - 1
production will decline, and there will then be no
independent production to keep the interest of
the public alive.

Mannock : I hold no brief for monopoly — far
In an it. But on the point just made, the answer
Is that no intelligent monopoly ever does commit
suicide.

M linden : Tn so far as all technicians are partly
creative, or are expressing themselves through the
medium of film making, monopoly would certainly
tend to crush their initiative.

Rank: Why?

Munden: Because the monopolist is hardly
likely to produce films that do not correspond :
his own set ideas on social matters, politics and
religion. If I, or anyone else, has any other idea.
T have no means of expressing it. Besides, a
monopolist, however good he may be in one direc-
tion, lias always equally the power for evil in any
other.

M. Gordon: The question of monopoly fa a
many of us with a dilemma. For years we I
complained of the inefficiency <>t general produc-
tion methods and have demanded measures of
rationalisation and reorganisation. Now a man
comes along who says in effect: "I am the one
person who can do just those things," and wi
" No, that'> not what we want after all." Well,
what did we want'.' What did we mean
i think it i- thai we still want re I ion and

efficiency, bul no! in the hand- of anj one man.
Tn fact, the possibility of monopoly is the besi
possible answer to the question "1- national
tion advisable?" Independent companies don't
seem to he aide to gel together to solve their dif-
ficulties; monopolies are too -real a risk : w
tS lelt ?

Munden: There is also the poinl
motiopolN that it is one of the easj roads : Fas

\, „ ember— December, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

125

cisni .-is we have seen it in Italy and Germany.
The monopolist becomes his own legislator, or in
er words, the private industrialist becomes the
rnment.
Chairman : Air. Munden and Mr. Michael Gor-
don have opened the way tor A.C.T. to have its say.
We are opposed whole-heartedly to complete or
even partial monopoly. In face of all key cinemas
a " tied " houses, independent producers have
ee options — going mil of business, being bought
up by the monopolies, or keeping to second-class
md features booking only to the few remaining
(and much less important) cinemas. Every
other problem after the war is really subsidiary to
Already every important studio and everj
ke\ cinema is under the control of the Rank in-
-!- or A.B.P.C. Where do we go from there'.'
In our opinion films are more than a commodity
manufactured and sold like pots of jam. They
have a far-reaching cultural value to the nation
and will be as important, if not more important.
, the war as during it. Consequently we do
consider that it is in the public interest that
British Film Industry should be guided by the
profit-making interests of one or two great finan-
cial corporations.

We advocate some form of public control, lead-
ultimately to state ownership. There should
bi ' state film bank to finance worth-while inde-
pendent productions. There should be an exten-
of direct officially sponsored films. The acti-
vities of such units as "Crown" should be ex-
tended to feature films. The state should acquire
studios to off-set the control of the monopolies.
With the raising of the'schedules in the Flms Act
an official distributing organisation seems to be
called for.

And we suggest a " Plan." A two-or-three-year
plan, worked out by producers and Trade Union
bodies and put into effect as quickly as possible
Burlinson : And what about the documentary

panies?
Ken Gordon: What about foreign technicians'.'
Ciark : What about a revised apprenticeship

ne ?
Turfery : What about publicity and propaganda

is ?

Wheeler: What about sub-standard?
Michelin : And the men coming back from the
forces?

Balcon : And the men who have bad their first
■ Hence of film making in the services?

All: And what about ?

Chairman : Yes, I know there are so many ques

lions to be gone into that it is quite impossible for

us to deal with them in detail here. But let us

goon h\ e(is\ stages. We have all had something

13 about American encroachments, studios.

i opolv. and government control. Are there am

views, however, on the actual films to be made in

those studios ?

Korda : Yes, I have some views, and what I
have to say ties up with what I already said about
good and bad films. I think it is time the British
producers opened their eyes to a general trend in
films in other parts of the world — the trend to-
wards "fewer and longer," or by implication, if
you like, towards "fewer and better." And the
first and most important thing is that you must
get the right people to make them. Film making
is a "flair." YTou must learn its technique, of
course. For instance, no-one should attempt to
direct a picture without at least six. months ex-
perience of the cutting room, for cutting is the
basis of films. You will not learn to be a cutter in
six months, maybe not in six years, but you will
have learned the A. B.C. To make good films you
must find those people with that " flair " for show-
business, and teach them to make films. And hav-
ing got your staff you must have time and infinite
patience to get the best results. A.C.T. has said
you cannot turn out films like pots of jam, and 1
agree. The film is the result of creative energy,
team work and patience. But most importantly,
the " play's the thing." And if in Britain we
start off with an intelligent, interesting story,
there is no reason why we should not produce as
good films as any country in the world. Britain
has never been successful at producing the second-
rate or shoddy material ; think of our engineering,
shipbuilding, clothing, leather goods and so on.
But when we try to produce a really first rate
article, no one in the world can produce better.
It would be the same in films. We must make
fewer, and take more time to make them. Of
course, there will always be a place for the film
that is just produced for the home market, such
as the typical British comedy. It should be made
still, for it is a type of film that is much appre-
ciated in Britain itself. But for the rest "fewer
and better. "

Munden : We know, of course, that that is the

ridency in America to-day, adit might be a good
policy if there weren't other considerations. There
is money, for instance. Actually the American
advocacy of "fewer and longer" is not dictated
by any interest in public entertainment at all, but
is an economic move to gain a further grip on the
exhibitors. In addition, less pictures means less
work for the technicians, therefore more unem-
ployment.

Clark: I don't think so. And I agree with Sir
Alexander that Britain can produce the lust films
in the world if she tries, and if studios are efficiently
inspired and organised. It would not result in the
employment of less labour but of more, for labour
won id be retained over much longer periods □ ■'!>>•

<^ood picture than on several small ones. Bui

t studio running comes first, and that is what
1 am concentrating on for post-u ar de\ el pments.

T*7?

L26

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN November— December, 1943

[ want a studio where the leading technicians are
luITj efficient, capable of working harmoniously
as teams, reasonably well paid without making
salaries fantastic and out of all proportion to the
value of the work done, and having under them
assistants and juniors who are being property
trained, undergoing an efficient and recognised
apprenticeship.

All (with one voice): Ah! Apprenticeship!

Chairman : There is an appreticeship clause in
the Standard Agreement.

Clark : And the weakest one. It deals only with
rates of pay. and implies that a beginner can be-
come a qualified man in his grade or department
after about three or four months, which in its
turn implies that the qualified man isn't worth the
money you are asking for him.

Korda: I regard the clause as a protection
against the use of cheap labour and unqualified
men. I agree with the Union's policy.

Clark : Ah ambition is to see men trained, not
just to be cutters, or cameramen, or art direc-
tors, but film men, knowing the rudiments of the
whole -nine from the time the story is bought to
the time it is shown on the screen, as well as being
specialists in their own line. But ot'er-specialisa-
tion in film making is not an advantage. I would
like to see the youngsters coming into the trade
presented with, say, a real workmanlike handbook
of instruction on studio work and methods. In
the past it has been altogether too easy to enter
8 studio, and once there the only way to leant is
by your native intelligence and faith in God. It
has been largely a bluffer's paradise, and the real
pit\ is that it is not an easy industry to master.
Newcomers have seen incompetence in high places
and have gone out to emulate this and " get to the
top " -by any means whatever. Why should it be
assumed that every clapper-boy is a budding light-
ing man or a film director? There are focus-pullers
in Hollywood who, realising their limitations, are
content to he focus-pullers for the rest of their
lives. I want to see a rationalised, well-organised
industry, run without bluff and with a lot less
stress put on the "great producer" idea. I'm
half inclined to think that the "producer" is an
expensive luxury. Give a good story to a com-
petent technical staff and maybe you can then do
without the "humbug."

Korda: I don't agree with Air. Clark's point
ahout limited technical ability. A focus puller
who realises his limits and wants to remain a focus
puller lor the rest of his life is surely a very had
focus puller. I do want to see in the film industry
young people with the highesl <>t ambitions spe-
cialising in whatever part of the craft they are
in, hut h\ all means he intelligent, ambitious and
vital, and I rj to gel to the top at the first possible
opportunity. In their tool boxes bbej should carrj

the marshal's baton of the film director or film

producer. I cannot forgel that 1 was one. a film
cutter.

Balcon : I feel ver\ strongly on Air. Clark's last
point. You know, in the matter of publicising
the work done in the studios themselves we are our
own worst enemies. I'm sick of hearing of "pro-
ducers" sitting in gorgeous, chromium-plated of-
fices, smoking big cigars and talking rubbish. It's
high time we showed that this industry is being
run by people who are working for their li\
just as much as miners, engineers or green-grocei-.
On the general question of apprenticeship I am
all with Mr. Clark there, though I think the
A.C.T. clause should stand for the time bei _
What we want is a " School " for trainees. ;
perly planned and organised.

Neame : It seems to me that in this question of
apprenticeship A.C.T. should have a big part to
play. I could not agree more heartily with any-
thing than with wdiat Mr. Clark had said. We do
stand in great need of a proper training scheme for
apprentices and my idea is that it is something
that ought to be taken up seriously by the union
and its senior members. I think that in certain
eases in the past, owing to the haphazard way in
which people are selected for jobs in studios, we
have not alw'ays had the right type of person com-
ing into the trade, or being attached to their spe-
cial departments. In future there should bi
sort of pre-training scheme and then when men
are attached to a special department such as. say.
the camera department, it should be the dut
the senior and responsible technicians to see that
a proper course of training is given. Evening
classes should be run at which lectures and demon-
strations could be given by those senior men. Per-
sonally I am as keen as mustard to engage in
such work. I have not done it so far, simply be-
cause I have not been asked. But I should he
only too glad to help in any way possible to see
that those youngsters get the right start. A.C.T.
has in its ranks all the leading technicians of the
trade. Surely it is possible for them to work out
;i satisfactory solution in conjunction with the
producers.

Ken Gordon : Yes. hut it should he under thj
control of some outside body, such as the L.C.C.

M. Gordon : Better still, on tin' plan of the Rus-
sian industry, which is a combination oi theoreti-
cal training in a film school and practical training
in a studio.

Chairman: Air. Neame's proposal runs on j -
such lines, of course. We would all agree, I think,
on the need for a clear-cut policy on apprentice-
ship. Tl utstanling question is "Does the nei -

sarj good-will exist amongsf us to put it int.
operal ion ;'"

Balcon : I think the education authorities should

(( 'ontinued mi page 128)

lovember— December, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

127

R

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ensuring perfection of machines and materials cinematography in

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L28

THE ' C I X E - T E C • H N I C I A X Xovember— December, 1948

AFTER THE \N AR— (continued from page 126)

be asked to co-operate. A Polytechnic course of
pre-studio grounding seems to be called for.

Clark : It is surely possible for the main part of
the training to be done in the studios themselves,
especially in the waiting period between produc-
tions. When a set is left standing it might very
well be used for teaching the apprentices their
trade instead of them losing valuable shooting time
by having to learn on the floor.

Chairman : We must have new blood, of course,
but it is not in our opinion an immediate post-
war problem. Personnel already in the industry
together with technicians released from the forces
should be adequate for initial post-war require-
ments.

Michelin: And how are those technicians to
be released?

Chairman : We advocate the general rule of
"First in, first out." Any exceptions should be
after consultation and by agreement with the
unions.

Balcon : It is one of the strongest arguments
for getting together now to form a joint policy
that we owe an enormous debt to the men who are
in the forces. It is for us to see to it that they
come hack to a sound, healthy industry, capable
of guaranteeing them that essential " freedom
from fear and want." They ask for security and
we must he able to give it to them.

Chairman : A.C.T. advocates the framing of
a joint policy to eliminate the evil of insecurity
and unemployment so rife before the war. There
must be security of employment and provision
for retirement after a life's service to the indus-
try.

M. Gordon: Such security of employment is a
necessity before we can have a successful appren-
ticeship scheme.

Michelin: Can all the men now in the forces
be re-absorbed?

Clark : Personally I see a period of expansion
after the war, and I am quite confident that the
industry will he able to re-absorb the men as soon
as they arc released.

Chairman : That would be so if all the people
at present engaged in documentary work continue
after the war, which we doubt. Many of them
lod,i\ are engaged on M.O.T. and services films.
The need for them will cease with the coming of
peace.

Balcon: Surely government departments can
be persuaded to take up the work of sponsoring
films after M.O.I, stops. It seems to me that the
industry as a whole also owes much to the docu-
mentary film group. They have done much to
raise the prestige of British films, and we must
see to it thai thai good work continues.

Neame : Education seems to be a fruitful field

for the use of such films. They could be of enor-
mous value to teachers and pupils alike, and add
greatly to the standing of the film industr
being of real importance and help in such a great
social work.

Wheeler: Every school in the country should
have a projector, for use with sound, and a per-
manent committee set up by the Board of Edu-
cation, the National Union of Teachers and the
film industry to carry the work out.

Box : And there is a very interesting sphere in
which the trainees could get their elementary
training while performing a useful service to the
industry. Documentary films can be developed be
an indispensable preliminary to studio work while
being a properly functioning unit in their
right.

Munden: The use of the screen in education
should apply to adult education as well, and
should also be encouraged by other government
departments as well, such as Agriculture, Health
and the Ministry of Reconstruction.

Chairman : I think the industry as a whole
would be agreed about those points, but it re-
quires a co-ordinated policy to achieve them. It
must also be borne in mind that some of the ser-
vice departments have their own film units, main
of the members of which had no experience of th<
work before the war. They may want to com.
into the industry when they are demobilised.

Michelin: I think it should be left to the in-
dividuals to decide whether they do or do not
want to enter the industry. My experience in the
Naval Film Unit (which, of course, is a verj
small one), is that only about 50% will want to di
so.

Wheeler: I think thej should all be definitely
discouraged from entering. If they had other
trades before the war they should be ad\ is
to return to them, rather than add to our own
labour reserve, where they might only encouragi
the fly-by-night producer to exploit them as
cheap labour.

Korda : If they are used at all. it could not be
in the capacity they filled in the service units.
An arm\ cameraman with no experience of studio
work could not he accepted as a qualified camera-
man. He vwuilil have to go " back to school " l>
starting studio work on a much lower rung •
t he ladder.

Ken Gordon: Another source of dis
amongst us in the past has keen the importatio
of foreigners. Arc we to go hack to that again?

Neame: As a cameraman too. that is a sub-
jecl on which 1 have vcr\ strong feelings. I think
we should be wrong to adopt a policy of keeping
out all foreign technicians, hut it is unfair I
it should he one\\a\ traffic. 1 think we havi
reached the point in this country where, though
we can still learn a lot from abroad, we have also

November— December, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

129

.

something to give them. More than one British
cameraman (myself included) has been offered a
contract in Hollywood, but though a producer
might be willing to employ you there are labour
regulations or trade union conditions to fulfil that
prevent it. The A.S.C. (American Society of
Cameramen) should be induced to come to some
reciprocity arrangement with A.C.T. for the
mutual exchange of personnel.

Chairman : The Union is working on just those
lines now, and is in communication with the
I.A.T.S.E. (International Alliance of Theatrical
and Stage Employees) of America to seek agree-
ment on a joint post-war policy. The Ministry
of Labour and the British Film Producers Asso-
ciation have expressed their approval of the nego-
tiations.

Box : There is a general feeling amongst us,
I fhink, that British films are better to-day than
ever they were. There seems to be a general con-
fidence in our powers, also, to express our national
culture in our films. I am hopeful that we will

I be able to make first-class films in future that,
without sacrificing one iota of entertainment
value, will be to us what those excellent French
.films of 1936 and later were to France .

Mannock : I agree that no films before the war

[so expressed the best in their national culture and

way of living as the French pictures of that period,

and they are almost entirely made by French tech-

inicians. A study of their methods might repay

British producers. The well-made British comedy,

i'ii. is a thing that does not "go" very well

d, but is excellent for the home market. I

[understand that commercially firms like Trinder's

and Formby's have been highly successful.

M. Gordon: I think it is wholly a mistake to
try and make films to suit American taste at all.
We should concentrate on home-based product
and turn our remaining attention to the Continent.
Balcon : I, too, think that we should aim at
films not just made in English but in other Euro-
pean languages. We would thereby reach a much
Larger audience and spread an understanding of
our national habits and ways of living much fur-
ther afield. It might make for closer international
appreciation and be a bulwark of peace. Sub-
standard film, also, surely presents possibilities for
the future that the industry would be well-advised
to study now.

Turfery : There is also the problem of the pub-
licity film pure and simple. There we do require
a clear-cut policy. Personally I think it should be
stated at the beginning of a film that it is an
advertising film, and not be so presented to the
public as to make them believe that they are goinp;
tn see an interest short. A special certificate would
do that. And the very low standard of the pub-
licity short should be enormously raised before it
is foisted upon the public in the same programme

}

a

as an 'American feature. It would, however, be,
like documentary in general, a valuable training
ground for beginners.

Neame: Another of the wasteful tilings that
bring discredit on the industry is the time and
money that is spent by producers and employees
in going for each other's throats. We could do a
lot worse than try to reach common understand-
ing there.

Chairman : 1 think we have gone over most of
the points that would be the main items of any
post-war development programme. On some there
is a large measure of agreement, and on others
I am afraid there is none — as yet. But granted
the necessary goodwill on all our parts there is no
real obstacle, I think, to reaching common ground
on every subject before us. On one point particu-
larly there has been marked agreement by every-
one— the time for preparation is NOW. If the
war has taught us anything it is surely that we
cannot successfully face emergencies without a
common plan and a common goal. Big as has
been the emergency of war to the film trade, a
still bigger may arise with the coming of peace.
A.C.T. is not unhopeful that we shall by that time
be fully prepared to face it — with a plan prepared
by the whole industry.
Appendix

Members who have any further observations to
make on this subject of post-war development in
the film industry, should write to me, or to the
Secretary, at the A.C.T. offices. Selections from
such letters could be published in later issues.

THE ASSOCIATION OF CINE-TECHNICIANS

SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING

to consider revision to the Rules proposed by

the General Council

SUNDAY, 23rd JANUARY, 1944
at 2.30 p.m.

CAXTON HALL. CAXTON STREET.
WESTMINSTER, S.W...

All members are entitled to, and should, attend.

FILM SHOW at 10.30 a.m.
(before the Special General Meeting)

" THE END OF THE BEGINNING "
(the film of the Tunisian campaign) and

" CAMERAMEN AT WAR"
Ritz Cinema, Leicester Square, W.i.

(by kind permission of Mr. Sam Eckman)

Admission on production of fully paid-up A.C.T.
membership card.

FOR SALE

Arc Lamp, also Kodak Folding Camera in Ln a

the)- Case with Tripod.- Appl\ In letter only I
E, 9, Bromefield, Stanmore, Middlesex.

130

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N November— December, 19 1-'<

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

Kodachrome in the Air (Elmer Dyer, A.S.C.,
American Cinematographer, February, 1943).
Called in to do the aerial photography for a
Kodoachrome instructional on the handling of the
Lockheed P. 38 " Lightening," Elmer Dyer found
himself faced with some new problems. Exposure
was one. Shooting for duping, as in this case,
best results are got if the Kodachrome " original "
is on the soft side both as to colour and contrast
— that is, slightly overexposed. Dyer worked to
a film speed of Weston 5 instead of the Weston 8
recommended for getting correctly exposed
"originals" for projection.

Camera used was a Cine-Kodak Special. While
its compactness and quick magazine change were
advantages, the viewfinder was found to be rather
inadequate for the tricky business of following
the evolutions of a fast fighter plane. Accordingly
Dyer had an Akeley matched lens finder fitted to
the Special. This was carried on a C-shaped
bracket which fitted round the rear of the camera
and was mounted so that it was aligned directly
over the camera lens. As all shooting was done
at infinity focus, once the finder ami camera lens
had been correctly matched there was no further
need to worry about parallax.

The tripod was a regular Akeley gym head
mounted on a high mat. This was a not entirely
satisfactory arrangement as the weight of the
Special was insufficient to balance the springs in
the Akeley head. Dyer admits lie would have been
happier with a light friction head or a Vinten lighl
gyro-

Illumination Contrast Control (Capt. Don Nor-
wood, American Cinematographer, April, 1943),

A method of using the Norwood exposure meter
to measure and control illumination contrast is
'described. An attachment consisting of a hood
which fits over the hemispherial light collector of
the meter is used. The hood has a lozenge sha
opening so that selective measurements can be
made of any sector of the surface of the light col-
lector.

Suppose a meter reading taken on the sunlit, side
of a subject indicates f.5.6 and the reading on the
shadow side says f.2.8 then the rain- between the
two readings is the illumination contrast : in this
example 4 to 1.

Where the cinematographer has decided that a

particular scene or sequence is to be lit for a
determined degree of contras 4 to 1, the

method of working would be to take a reading of
the key light ; assume this gives f .4 then it is obvi-
ous that the shadow lighting must be built u]
give a reading of f.2. This technique would be
particularly valuable in colour photography where
contrast ratios have to be kept to much narrower
limits than in black and white.

The meter with its contrast hood can also be
used to make a record of lighting set-ups for dup-
lication at a later date. For this purpose the sub-
ject is regarded as the centre of a circle which is
divided into six sectors. The meter is held at
subject position, readings are taken in each of the
six sectors and a record made of them.

New System of Lens Calibration (Daniel Clarke.

A.S.C., American Cinematographer, April,

1943).

The usual system of calibrating lens apertures
is based on the ratio of the diameter of the lens
opening to the focal length and disregards such
factors as the type of glass used in the lens, the
number of elements, their respective transmission
factors or the number of glass-air surface-,
all of these affect the light transmitting power of
a lens to such an extent that it is possibl
quite considerable variations in density li-
ferent makes of lenses. To overcome tie
tern of diaphragm calibration based on the actual
light transmitting charai be sties of each I
been developed at the 20th Century Fox S
The lens to be calibrated is screwed into one •
of a light tight tube at the opposite end of which
is mounted a photo-electric cell wired to
ammeter. In front of the lens is a diffus
source with a poltag* i ontrol and meter in circuit.
To calibrate a lens the light-source is brought to
a known intensity In means sistanee and

checked through a master lens. The lens
calibrated is substituted for thi master lens and
the diaphragm si", to produce on the photo-cell
meter a reading corresponding to thai produ
by a setting oi E.3.2. on the master-lei - T -
point is calibrated as F.3.2. Thereafter the si
above and below this point are worked out in a
similar manner. By this method it can be m

ain that every lens transmits exactly the same
amount of light at any givi □ - op, regardless
; design or construct

N) member— December, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

131

NEW BOOKS
REVIEWED

" Watch and Make." The Art of Scale Model
Aircraft Building, by V. J. (i. Woodason. Use-
ful Publications 4/11.

Most of us are interested in Aircraft, in fact
we have all become "Airminded."

' Watch and Make " is an excellent publica-
tion by the most successful model aeroplane
builder in the country. Every aspect of model
plane building is thoroughly explained and there
are numerous diagrams and photographs of models
built by the author.

With this book at hand it would be possible
for almost airyone to make a very good model
plane. All the pitfalls and " snags " which are
encountered in making model planes are pointed
out and the correct methods carefully explained.

The opening chapter explains how to build per-
fact scale models from paper, and the rest of the
book is devoted to the construction of model
planes from wood. Diagrams and working draw-
ings of many types of war planes arc included in
the following chapters. Everything connected with
planes is included in the book and the author con-
cludes this very interesting work with a complete
list of war planes, with their dimensions etc.

In my opinion it is the most complete book of
its kind and I would recommend all who are
interested in model aeroplanes to avail themselves
of a copy.

George Blackwell

Keep the Lamps Burning, by Dr. J. van den
Tempel. Robert Hale, 10/6d.

Dr. Tempel is Minister of Social Affairs in the
Netherlands Government. He is a leader of the
Netherlands Trade Union Movement and was
Secretary of the Netherland Federation of Trade
Unions for 12 years. In his temporary exile he
has got down to a study of political and social
post-war problems. This book is the result.

The author covers a wide field, clearly setting
out his views and plans for the creation of a
democratic international commonwealth of na-
tions. It is a thought-provoking book, and such
differences as some readers may find from Dr.
Tempel's conclusions should in no way be allowed
to detract from the merit of a clear exposition of
the views of a leading Continental Trade Unionist
and Socialist whose influence is sure to be fell
in pest-war reconstruction.

G.H.E.

CORRESPONDENCE

.My friend, William Cagney, of Cagnej Produc-
tions, Hollywood, California, has sent me news of
his brother's new film, Johnny Come Lately, in
which some interesting technical work has been
achieved by cameraman Theodor Sparkuhl.

For years one of the most annoying things aboul
motion pictures is that when a wheel moves on
the screen it seems to go forward at first then
backwards. Die movement of the camera wheels
never seem to coincide with the movement of
wagon wheels. But this problem has been solved
by Sparkuhl who worked out a colour ratio of
wagon wheels to camera wheels.

As I am sure this will be of interest to the
camera boys over here, this is how he did it : —

He painted the first spoke black and the second
one green; then one spoke black and the next two
green, repeated twice ; and finally one spoke black
and the next three green, repeated three times.
When this was recorded on film the mechanisms
of all wheels coincided perfectly.

In other words Sparkuhl has at last synchro-
nised the movement of wheels on the screen with
the movements of the camera.

Val Guest

THE CROWN
THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE AT
ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

Two Double-Heads. Full Range Sound.

Mixing Panels for Tracks.
Seating for 100 Persons.

86 WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W. 1

Telephone Gerrard 5223

-For StuJig and
laboratory equipment,
s,lnpodsJ^inting,?rocessing
planf... aha -krthe solution of any
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them - the name thai matters is

W.vinten LTD. N0«THCIRCUU«RD..CRICKIEW00D.NW2
k CladttoM 6373

132

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN November— December. L943

A VISIT

TO

THE PAST

by FRANK SAINSBURY

Neither the Fund, nor " Glebelands," are of
course in any way responsible for such comments
and criticisms as are made in the following article.
They are entirely our contributor's. But we, like
him, publish this article in order to pay tribute to
the very excellent work which the Cinematgraph
Trade Benevolent Fund is doing to help those in
need who either are now or were formerly asso-
ciated with the industry. Editorial Committee.

AS you leave the pleasantly warm red brick
of Wokingham behind, and turn up the drive
that leads to Glebelands, you wonder a bit
anxiously just what you're going to find there.
You can see it's a fine big house all right, and
there's certainly nothing wrong with the park,
lawns and kitchen garden, all of which til
nicely into the picture of a wealthy country estate
of some forty years ago. But what are you
going to find inside? Is it going to be like ha Fin
du Jour, with pretty squabbles, dee]) underground
plottings, and rival groups reliving their past suc-
cesses and outdoing each other in boasting and
exaggeration? True, there won't be many actors
there, but film people can usually bold their own
when it comes to telling the tale. Or will it be
more like the workhouse atmosphere of May Rob-
son's retreat in // / had a Million — silent or care-
fully whispering groups, anxiously waiting for the
postman, the cold dry air of respectable poverty
and no card games allowed (" Cards create ill-feel-
ing." " Bui they never make us feel ill, ma'am.")
So it is with a certain amount of nervousness thai
you enter the big living room where nearly every-
body is gathered in deal silence, Listening to the
Satiird;i\ 6 o'clock news. At first the silence
seems a bit ominous: then you notice it is the
football results that are coming over, and finally
that everybody is quiet because he's intent on
checking his football coupon. And then yon know
it's going to be all right.
There are several reasons which more than any-

■

*"ia

Glebelands

thing else account for the pleasant atmosphen
( ilebelands — money, good management, the young
convalescents, and the fact that quite a few of the
residents are at work again. Money is obvio -
one of the most important : the fact that Glebe-
lands can afford good management and sen
good food and comfort and. above all, reason-
pocket money (7/6 a week) makes all the
difference in giving a feeling of indepi
And there's always a stream of a nvi ' nts pass-
ing through on their few weeks' stay, bringing
En sh faces, young ideas and news from outside —
operators, doormen, managers, usherettes and
cashiers from cinemas all over the country,
workers from Kodaks or from the labs and an
worker or two (though rather seldom, surprising
from the production side. Besides all these people
who still have both feet firmly in the outside world,
there are those of the residents who since the war
work themselves. Frank Canham, for ne-
wborn hundreds of technicians must remei
well us a cameraman, has a job i- the local Food
Office and gets on ver\ well there. Joe R -
at one time carpenter at the Met. in Edgware
Road and well known in NATKE circles
their first studio organiser), works on aircraft parts
at the local firm of .Metalair. Another - has

i;i! en a job as special policeman. Mary Coleman
is back at work on the stage while Walter Ho
old-time exhibitor, still works full time at G.l
and joins his wile at Glebelands for t! e w< ek-ends.
Then, main of the womi □ residents help around
the house with cleaning and washing-up. and a
Eormer doorman, Mr. Peacock, acts as storekeeper
and furnaceman and looks after the black-out and
the Glebelands chickens. Ml this activity tub <; the

Lents to keep a sense oJ pro]
vents them from turning inwards and brooding
much. Of course, as in any mixed community,
\ ou're hound occasionally to ps nly

natural. Von ma\ come ai ss some old bo\ tell-
ing another ho\ \ er\ firmly and forcibly to mind

November— December, 1943 THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

1 33

; Top left we see Mr.
and Mrs. Griffiths.
while top right is
Teddy Rockett with
his new " infant "
which shows every sign
of growing into a
healthy lad. Matron,
on the left, supervises
the Cod-Liver-Oil-and-
Malt session, and on
the right is Frank
Canham ex-camera-
man and an old ACT
member. Below we
have Mr. Hook left of
A.B.F.D. doing battle
with Capt. Marshall,

manager at " Glebe-

184

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN November— December, L943

his own business ; but in a day or so everything is
gotten, and there's really very much less of thai
sort of thing than you'd expect.

Glebelands was given to the Cinematograph
Trade Benevolent Fund some seven years ago by
their President, Sir William Jury. The fund is
kept going by donations from firms and by contri-
butions from workers to the " Penny-a-week
Fund." Some firms have adopted the plan of en-
dowing a room, which costs them £2,500, or endow-
ing a cubicle or bed which costs them £1,000, both
of which entitled them to a permanent plaque over
the door or bed. There's a resident Nurse and the
doctor comes at least three times a week, but the
main work of running the place falls on the Mana-
ger an I the Matron, Captain and Mrs. Marshall.
Theirs is a seven day a week job of tact and firm-
ness, giving advice and sympathy , keeping the
place running smoothly, and sorting 'out the quar-
rels and complaints that crop up from time to
time. For instance some one may be in with a
moan that his cubicle neighbour keeps him awake
by having the light on to read, and Captain Mar-
shall has to sort that out and sec rough justice
done. There are few restrictions at Glebelands:
there arc definite meal times and the house is
locked at 10 p.m., but beyond that people do much
as they like. The main difficulty really is to find
something to do for those who have no work or
hobbies, and whose working life lias left them
nothing to fall back on but tales of their former
exploits. There is just one prohibition which will
cause no surprise to film people — drink. They can
of course, go out to the local pubs, and a lot of
them do so, but they can't have drink inside
Glebelands except at Christmas.

Walking round Glebelands and chatting to the
residents, you get a marvellous idea of the origin
and background of this industry of ours. The
film business is not yet a lifetime old, so many
of these people have seen the whole of it from
I he very beginning. Oldest resident is a campara-
fcivehj inw arrival, Tom Bogue, an exhibitor from
Hull who at 83 is still as lively as a cricket and
as fond of a good laugh as ever. Every time some
iioar; old financier, who has bought himself into
the film business as he might into armaments or
slum property, shakes hands at some dinner or
ither wilh a polilieal nobody, our loading trade
liress always comments on how far our once-
despised industry has risen in the world. Well,
seeing these good old showmen who launched the
industry and nursed it thrqugh its early years, and
paring them with the present -da\ social
climbers who have taken over the business Erom
them and are seeking their support not from the
common people bui Erom the rich, the powerful,
md (he influential, you can only think that
the change has not been tor the better,
One thing that emerges verj clearlj from

talking to these veterans is how closely the
early days of cinema were tied up with tin- Music
Halis. Now around 1900 the Music Hall was
tie' very height of the great days wheh mad
one of the true glories of the English genius. As
a natural and sponetaneous flowering of popular
culture there has been nothing quite like it any-
where since the days oi Shakespeare and the
Elizabethan theatre, and it was very fortunate
for the cinema that it found such a healthy and
hearty foster-mother. Of course the Music Hall
did have a few scroungers with social ambit
or worse; but the main stream of its lite was -
vital and so much in touch with the people that
it guaranteed the cinema a good clean popular
start and saved it from the fate-worse-than-death
of becoming the Scientist's Plaything >r 1'
tante's Delight.

Upstairs at Glebelands you can find, unfortun-
ately temporarily confined to his room, old 1
Griffiths, Cinema Veteran and onetime acknow-
ledged " King of tlie Cinema." He is a magnificent
figure as he lies there in bed with his little woollen
skull-cap on, surrounded by pictures and other
relics of his former greatness. There's the fine
tribute from Julie Neilson and Fred Terry to the
King of the Cinema, dated 1010. when they v
just off on their tour of the U.S.A. Tl
cartoons and photographs galore, including one
to the King from his Court (Cecil Court). Fred
Griffiths first showed pictures in 1890 at the Bal-
ham Empire and a few years later established his
first all-film programme at the Peckham Public
Hall. By 1910 he had quite a chain of i - and

persed now, but our modern moguls have a long
way to go yet if in their old age they will be
to hang at their bedside anything half so good as
the illuminated address presented to Fred in 1901
h\ his employees at the Empire. Hastings, on
occasion of the establishment of the annual stpff
outing. That first outing they had three four-in-
hands and went out for the day along the cot -
Naturally, everybody was prettj merry on the wa\
home and after one stop it was found that
the coachmen was incapable. Nothing daunted,
and without having driven a four-in-hand befi
Fred took the reins himself and brought the part\
safely back through the darkness to ETastin -
aft.i' he had taken the carriage into the sf
yard he carefully disposed of the drunken coach-
man so that he sh< iuld not gel illtoti mbli
employer. Fred still has 8 bi autiful big moustache
aiul you can see from his photos what a hand-
figure he was. His w ile to. i must have been a great
beaut \ in the old days, and she is still very charm-
ing and livelx as she moves Ei up to group
at Glebelands, jingling her Ci B.F. 1 •- ■ . I
ing fortunes h\ cards in the true U. b style. S
comes from Algiers: and it was in Paris thai
firsl met Bred. He was over there on busim

November— December, 1943 THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

135

The Directors, Management and Staff of: -

enuam

a

t

Dop^tone?

i

a

Send Heartiest Greetings for
Xmas and the New Year
to all members of Denlabs
serving with the Forces
wherever they may be.

i 16

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN November— December, 1943

the first man from abroad to show films in Paris.

Downstairs in his office is E. H. Rockett, con-
troller of the Staff Contributions Fund and an-
other Veteran. He started in, the 1890's at the age
of 18 by showing slides in the Music Halls. He
still has a poster from Brighton of about 1900
where their act was top of the bill and George
Robej figured about half-way down. He was
part of an act then with the great elocutionist
Sequah : As Sequah declaimed, so Teddy Rocket!
showed his slides and the lady who completed the
act sang. It all sounds rather frightening to-da\ ,
hut it was tremendously popular then. Soon after
he took up operating and for quite a time was
operator at the Alhambra, Leicester Square, for
i 'Icrlcs Urban. The film show was the most popu-
lar part of the programme and the operator

; rdingly the aristocrat of the staff. Operators

in those days always used to wear top hats and
were paid (in the top jobs) anything in the nature
of £8 a week. Projector lighting was by lines ted
from gas-cylinders and of course the whole show
w ts hand-turned. He remembers well the conster-
nation anion- operators when about 1905 the
rumour ran around their circle that the first 1,000
foot film was on its way, Melies' Trip to the Moon.
"Impossible," they all said. "We'll never be
able to turn 1,000 feet right through in one go."
But turn it they did, and films got even longer
than that. Then came the biggest change of all —
renting of films instead of outright sale at some-
thing like Id. a foot. That meant producers could
expect a greater return from each film, so that
films got better and longer until in 1913 came the
Italian Quo Vadis and the way was cleared tor
" epics " of all kinds. At that time Teddy Rockett
had risen from being an operator and was now
Manager in England for the Nordisk Film Co. of
Copenhagen. They were the first film producers
to set up their own renting organisation and their
films went like hot cakes, being popular largely
because of the beautiful scenery in which their
plots were set. Unfortunately, after war broke
out Nordisk was taken over by Ufa of Germany
and consequently blacklisted in England, which
was a hit of a blow to him as lie expected to do
vor\ well out of the arrangement. After the war
he had several years of successful cinema manage-
ment, and then took to doing designs and pub-
licit} layouts for renters, and he still does an odd
job or two of that sort to-day.

Teddy Rockett is no mean draughtsman and
caricaturist and some of his best efforts of old-
timers and the old days hang in (llebelands bil-
liard room. The billiards room is a verj popular
place : there's usually a hard-fought snooker game
going on, with half-a-dozen or so interested spec-
tai ors. Everybody . naturally, by now knows e\ vn
body tdse's form and tactics to a hairsbreadth, so
competition is keen, the atmosphere tense and the

spectators' comments caustic. Games are booked
hours ahead, with players cho >sing opponents from
their near rivals, though of course everybody likes
to gel a chance to beat Captain Marshall. By com-
mon consent, the best player at Glebelands is 76
years old W. 11. Robins, 'who knew the great John
Roberts well, and in fact wrote his book for him.
" Roberts on Billiards." His main line in thos
carl;, days was publicity, and be had wide con-
nect^ ms ranging from billiards to the big nam. s i >.
the Music Hall in general and the Oxford in par-
ticular. For years he worked for Eug Sti I ton
at the Oxford, and for Leslie Stuart too. In fact,
when films first came out, Robins saw a
great future in them and tried to persuade
Leslie Stuart to interest himself in them. But
Leslie Stuart would have none of them; he
thought them just a passing fad that would vanish
as quickly as dozens of other entertainment stunt-
had already. Its worth thinking, sometimes, just
what it was that kept films going where so many
other similar stunts had failed. The music-hall
old-timers used to say that it was just that a man
could go to the pictures straight from work with-
out having to wash and change. Well, we know-
it must have been more than that that brou _
the people in; but we can be sure that once the
pictures lose their popular magic touch, whatever
it consists in — and some people todav seem to
want to kill just that — the public will leave
the cinema just as soon and just as flat as they
left the zoetrope or the stereoptikon. Anyway, it
wasn't long before W. H. Bobins found himself
in the film game. Working for Walturdaw's, he
started their Weekly Budget, which was ':
publicity paper of its kind. Walterdaw 's was one
of the biggest renting concerns of the time, and
he can remember well the gradual growth of the
business and the coming of the star system. Asta
Nielson was the first to have her name on
picture, and then later came Mary Pickford, who
really established the star system as we know it
today. Her firsl three films A Good Little / >. .
hi the Bishop's Carriage and Caprice, did not men-
tion her at all. but soon the public began looking
for her and asking for her. and it wasn't long
before W. H. Robins and James Walker, <>! Wal-
turdaw's, put their heads together over a ean
billiards and coined for her the title 'The

World's Sweetheart." After that nothing could
stop the growth of the star system, and with it
t he growth of the cinema.

There are a lot of things aboul the -tar system
which we ma\ not like, but it is certain that
without it the cinema could never have grown as
ii did. Whether it lasts or not, it was obvioush
a necessary stage in the cinema's development;
for one 0. W. Griffith is even harder to come b\
than a whole hatful 0J Mary Pickfords, Pearl
Whites and William S. Harts. Also in the billiard

November— December, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

l:;7

>m mo freeh*:.

managwci direct

THE GENERAL PURPOSES 3YM0ICATE,
MR. X !_ QRAYOON

JNDAY, JULY 13th, 1896, and Every Mv&mL
*3r»»«a Original

EauA

MDME. HANNAWAY ROWE & MR E. ROCKETT.

Entertainment is »r»iSvenc<1 by a ««rl«s of Sterloptlcon Vlaws of Places of deep interest, HSs ftecttat* are extremely Dramatic and ?«!* of
■ of ISimtery, a»<* carries the J'^*gjjl^j_o»._o^^^c^Aotftftn<ie to a —imarkaijie dsjjire*.

FRANK SEELEY

CHARACTER COMEDIAN

tJZZiE~FI^fCHER"

LITTLE EM'LY

NELLIE LOVELL

VOCALIST AND DAMCBB

MALE IMPB8SONATOB

PEGGY PRYDE

TH8 FAYOURiTE SSRSO-COMBD1ENNE

_L __s mie ___. m D

JH A NEW SCBKA, BHTJTUS&-

0«*«s «:ff *_"*_ _B>-r»*«.w** Old €5-_i£*.-r»eI«.

GEORGE BROOKS

HELEN STUART

>NAL OANCE?

ECCKHTRSC CHARACTER COMEDSAK

EISTOSUbkCOTTB

OIF

C» JB O > JB-. *»*»

J_Op Jh_ji

>ORiTE CHARACTER COMBD1AN

L€» SB O m Cfr JBD Wlk W x~v

ETTON ^

IN A SEW MONOLOGUE SKKTOH, BNT1TLBD
SPSCU- HEW AND EyyBCTtVK 80BWBBY. ________

~__»_»_o_>_» o* __-_l:rs*_»«*_»__ , " ^Pfi^SSi
'mom __-_«, ««__cs*?.» *__ **_• _i_fmn

Poster mentioned at top of opposite page

TnUpbowlM.

138

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A N .V r\ ember— December, 1943

L'oom at Glebelands bangs an old framed pro-
gramme, a special matinee show given on Thurs-
day, November 28th, 1907, at 3 p.m. in the Albert
Hall, Swansea, !>\ Mr. Walter W, Hook of the
St. Louis Picture Co., in aid of the Poor Chil-
dren'- Christmas Dinner Fund. As you read the
■ igramme, you can see how much the cinema
lias lost of the true popular touch, and at the
ame time how difficult, if not impossible, deve-
lopment would have been without the star sj stem.

1. Overture.

■2. The Short-Sighted Cyclist.

3. The Haunted Hotel.

4. The Two Little Waifs, or Stolen by Gypsies.

5. The Victoria falls. Zambesi Liver.
(I. The Advantage of Ju-Jitsu.

7. Dumb Sagacity.

8. London to Ireland via G.W.R. Fishguard

Route.

9. Interval, during which Mr. Tom Jones,

Swansea's own Welsh Comedian, will
appear.

10. Adventures of a Bath Chair.

11 . Just in Time.

12. The Irresistible Piano.
L3. The Little Blind Girl.

14. The ( 'hronophone or Singing Pictures, intro-
ducing selections from "The Catch of
the Season" and "The Little Michus."
Also Dan Crawle\'s <_pvat hit 'They
Can't Diddle Me."
The number of people at Glebelands, of course,
is always varying as convalescents or residents come
and go, but there are generally about 50 there, of
whom 30 will be permanent residents and 20 con-
valescents. The great majority of them come
from the exhibiting side, though there are quite
a few from the renters. But what is surprising
i- liow lew there are from the production side. It
may be that technicians look after themselves too
well, or, much more Likely, that they look after
themselves so badly that they never reach retiring
• I like the old boy in Zola's book disappear
through spontaneous combustion. Anyway, what-
evei the reason, old cameraman Crank Canham
is the sole representative there of the people who
actually make the films on which our industry is
founded, and you couldn't wish tor a better re-
presentative. He must be known to hundred- of
\ .(' T. |" ople as he was one of our earliesl mi m-
- and supporters and is still proud to lie Xo.
8 in the membership hies. Like all the others,
he too started in the Music Halls. He was a top-
flight trick cyclist, billed at the Empire and
Uhambra, Leicester Square, before he was '21.

and afterwards appearing in all the big variety
halls all OV( r the continent. When, a year or two

lati r, leg i n mble tore, d him to give up appearing
on the halls, he naturalh found himself (around
L905) in the rising film business and quickly quali-

fied as a cameraman. Cor well over 30 years Crank
kept turning on any and every sort of production,
from the early days when the camera had ti
running out. from it on either side to keep the
actors within the angle of the lens, though the
days of short topicals and comedies, with a period
in the then very go-ahead and beautifully equipped
studios of Northern Italy, followed by trips all
over the world filming and jobs in pretty well
every British studio. And he's got generous and
happy memories of all the old-timers — of his
old pal Ken Gordon, of Joe Rosenthal and
Percy Strong, whom he thought in many ways the
besl cameraman we had and his lighting of George
Pearson's Love, Life and Laughter with Betty
Lalfour the most artistic of any British produc-
tion. Documentary people will be interested to
know that J. D. Davidson, who now holds import-
ant posts for the Canadian Government and the'
Ministry of Information, had his first training in
the use of a camera from Frank. " Funny sort of
fellow. Could hardly read or write his name
you might say, and yei he was always talking
about Greek mythology." One thing that Frank
regrets is the mumbo-jumbo that has grown up
around his old craft and the disappearance of the
old cameraderie among cameramen, when I
all knew each other and, in spite of the keenest
competition on the job, worked happily together
and always stood by one another. Gone are the
days when cameramen would meet for competi-
tions in even turning or to guess the length of a
roll of film, and nothing has come to take their
place. Frank- is very happy at Glebelands and
with his job at the local Food Office, though he
does rather resent the commoi — ption among
the veterans, that to own or manage a cinema
wa- tl Qg, whilst to make the films on which

the very existence of that cinema depended,
rather less than nothing.

Well, that's Glebelands, a place as

could wish for, though so much occupied with
memories. The development oi the cim
largely left these veterans high and dry. A new
typi "l p> : - : is .iken control of the industry :
i i- now the playground for monopoly, interna-
tional cartels and bigh finance, and these .
and lively old showmen with their plain vi
and down-to-earth enthusiams seem quite oul oi
place in it all (though it is interesting to find tl
Crank Canham. through being on the production
>ide. is more in touch than any of them). 01
course there are a lew i 1 old-timers left

—Sir William Jury the C.T.B.F. President, for
rice a wire-walker and fireworks
salesman — but the typical new-style magna:
more an expert at financial and political wangles
than at keeping in touch with popular taste. Well,

(Concluded at foot of next pa

November— December, 1943 THE C I N E - T E C H N I C ■ I A N

L39

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-first
List

—Army.
Denham)

R. BANNISTER (Crown Film Unit)-

I). N. BARCLAY (Boom Assistant,
R.A.F.

R. W. BENNETT (Sound Loader, Denham)—
R.A.F.

JACK BIRCH (Assistant Director)— R.A.F.

R. A. BRIMMEE (Kay's, Finsbury Park)— Navy.

L. BROUGHTON (Stock Joiner, George Hum-
phries)— Navy.

TONY CAEDEW (Sound Loader, Denham)—
Army.

M.THUR GARY (Projectionist, Spectator Films)
— H.M. Forces.

E. CHERRY (Projection Repair, British Acous-
tic)—H.M. Forces.

MISS V. ECUYER (Kay's, Finsbury Party-
Women's Land Army.

K. A. FOSTER (Sound Camera Maintenance,
Ealing Studios) — H.M. Forces.

J. W. FREEMAN (Cutting Assistant, Crown Film
Unit)— E.A.F.

J. GODDAED (British Acoustic)— H.M. Forces.

KUET GOLDBEEGEE (Sound Camera)— Czech
Army Film Unit.

JOHN' HALES (Sound Assistant, Warner Bros.)
H.M. Forces..

J. S. HA KII1S (Uunera Assistant)— Navy.

STANLEY IRVING (G.B. Instructional)— Sub. -
Lieut. Royal Naval Film Unit.

PETER JACKSON (Loader, Denham Studios)
Royal Marines.

NORMAN JONES (Sound Assistant, G.B. Screen
Services) — Photographer, Boval Navy.

G. MARTIN (Storekeeper. British Acoustic)—
H.M. Forces.

•I. MITCHELL (Sound Dept., Denham) Lieu-
tenant, Royal Navy.
P. NEVELL (16mm Printer, George Humphries)

— Navy.
F NUNNEY (Neg. Dryer, George Humphries)

H.M. Forces.
K. PAKSLOW (Camera Technician, Technicolor)

—R.A.F.
R. PENN (Stills Printer, Ealing) H.M. Forces.
S. PILBEAM (British Acoustic)— H.M. Forces.
.MISS M, REEVE (Positive Joiner, G.F.D.

Labs.) — Women's Land Army.
H. RENHAM (British Acoustic)— E.N. S. A.
DONALD KUDWELL (Camera Operator)— Eoyal

Naval Film Unit.
DENNIS SMITH (Developer. Sydney Wake

Labs.)— H.M. Forces.
V. THOMAS (Cameraman, Eoyal Norwegian

Govt. Film Unit) — Cameraman with Eoyal

Canadian Air Force.
MISS JOAN WHITE (Dryer, Kay's, Finsbury

Park) — Women's Land Army.
R. WOODARD (Stills Printer, Ealing)— H.M.

Forces.
L. TURNER (British Acoustic)— H.M. Forces.
G. A. YOUNG (Assistant Projectionist, Ealing)—

H.M. Forces.

Promotions

Sgt. BOB JOHNSON promoted Lieutenant. AKs

Film Unit,
Cpl. D. LEE promoted C.S.M., AKS Film Unit.
Sgt. S. WOEBOYS, promoted 2nd Lieutenant,

10th Buffs.

Casualties

Lieut. H. HENTY-CEEEE, R.N.V.R., reported
missing in midget submarine raid on flic Tir-
pitz.

F/Lt, JAMES HILL (Assistant Director, But-
chers Film Service) reported missing from opera
tions with R.A.F. Film Unit.

A Visit to the Past (concluded from previous page)

we can't hope to go back to the old days; but 1
think our lesson from these good old-timers should
be that as we try to -i.'. a- our industry through
the morass of monopoly and cartel to the next and
obvious goal of some form of public ownership, we
should take care to keep our feel \ <r\ lirmK on the
ground among the hie, hopes and enthusiasms of
t he ci .inn people

140

Edited by Kay Mander

THE cn'E-TEC II N I C I A N November— December, 1943

WHOS WHERE IN FILM PRODUCTION

DOCUMENTARY AND SHORT

FILM UNITS.
B. & S. PRODUCTIONS:
F/D.: Paul Barralet.
E.: Ivy Mulligan.
P. Assist.: Leslie- Fuller.

BRITISH FOUNDATION

PICTURES:
P/D.: Ronald Haines.
PM.: Jean Haines.
E/NC: Dorothy Stimson.

COMMON GROUND LTD.:

P.: C. F. Rawnsley.

D. and AD.: D. W. Rawnsiey.

FILMS OF GREAT BRITAIN:

P/D.: Andrew Buchanan.

E.: James Anderson

C: Charles Francis, Henry Cooper.

P. Assist.: Patricia Latham.

Research and Scr.: Vera Denis-Earle.

PUBLICITY PICTURE
PRODUCTIONS LTD.

D.: A. E. C. Hopkins.

Assist. D.: Marjorie Hopkins.

Scr.: Chris Millett.

C: Charles A. Smith.

Trick C: A. C. Croxford.

Assist. Trick C: Joan Baker, Cyn-
thia Whitby.

E.": B. Terry.

Animators: L. W. Price, B. Privett,
W. J. Palmer. C. de Mornay, C.
Shuff, R. Potter, R Moore
(Trainee) .

Titles; A. R. Langley.

Diagram Unit: R. J. J. Jeffryes, L. A.
Pearce, F. Daydi, C. Marshall, R.
Eames (Trainee).

REALIST FILM UNIT:

P.: John Taylor.
PM.: R. Hawes.
D.: F. Sainsbury, Alex Shaw. Len

Lye, Margaret Thompson, Yvonne

Fletcher, Brian Smith, R. Hunter,

Bert Pearl.
C: A. Jeakins, Cyril Phillips.
P. Assists.: Jane Massy, Patt Pullen,

D. Waterman.
E.: Gwen Baillie.
Assist. E.: Olive Ferrari.

PAUL ROTHA PRODUCTIONS:

P.: Paul Ri tha, Donald Alexander.

PM.: Joan Dull.

D.: John Page, Budge Cooper. Kay

Mander, jack Chambers.
Scr.: Ara Calder-Marshall.
C: W. Susi hitzky.
P. Assists.: Francis Gysin, Ronald

Bicker. Seymour Logie.
E.: 15. I )ixon Spain.
" Worker and Warfront Uni/ ": Dun

can Ros'-, Leslie Hiepard.

Key to Definition of Crades

A

ART DIRECTOR

AP

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Asst

D. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

1 B

BOOM

C

CAMERA OPERATOR

Con

CONTINUITY

D

DIRECTOR

DR

DRAUGHTSMAN

E

EDITOR

LC

LIGHTING CAMERAMAN

Mus

D MUSICAL DIRECTOR

NC

NEGATIVE CUTTER

P

PRODUCER

PM

PRODUCTION MANAGER

R

RECORDIST

SC

SOUND CAMERA

Scr

SCRIPT

SE

SUPERVISING EDITOR

ss

SOUND SUPERVISOR

ST

STILLS

UM

UNIT MANAGER

SHELL FILM UNIT:

P.: Edgar Anstey.

D.: Geoffrey Bell, R. K. Neilson Bax-
ter, J. B. Napier Bell, G. Tharp, A.
Womersley. Alan Gourlay.

C: S. Beadle, S. Rod well."

Assist. C: A. Fabian.

Projection: G Emmett.

P. Assists.: Eileen Royde, J. B.
Rhodes, B. Mason, A. Mavrogor-
da1 i, L. J. Cole. H. Griver.

NC: Lola Currie. Dora Barnes.

P. Sec: B. Leared.

SEVEN-LEAGUE PRODUCTIONS:

P/D.: Hans Nieter.

PM.: Pamela Paulet

P. Assist.: Ruth Sainsbury.

C. Assist.: K. Hunter.

SPECTATOR SHORT FILMS:

P.: Michael Hankinson

PM.: Arthur Barnes.

D.: Gilbert Gunn.

C: Billy Luff, Cyril Bristow, II. X.

Ed well.
R.: W. S. Bland.
SC/C. Proj.: Curley Lovell.
E.: Ralph Kemplen.
Assist. E.: Joan Mason, Patricia

Murray.
2nd. Proj.: H. C. Baker.

WALLACE PRODUCTIONS:

P.M.: A. V. Curtii e

Scr. and D.: Barry Delmaine.

C: Leslie Wyand.

Assist. C: \ . II. Veevers.

E.: N. Krass.

NC: I). Deveson.

B.T.H.. RUGBY
D/C: I>. S. Morfey.
R.: K. Taylor.
Assist. C: B. R. Tuppen.

E,: Joan Alkins.

WORLD WIDE PICTURES:

In Charge of Production: James Carr.

AP.: Ralph Bond.

PM.: Hindle Edgar.

D.: Clifford Hornby. Terence Bishop,

Graham Cutts, Robin Carruthers.
C: G. R. A. Williams.
Scr.: Clifford Dyment, Hilary Taylor.
E.: Alice Baker.
P. Assist.: Mary Francis.

PIONEER FILMS

In Charge of Production: F. H. W.

Cox.
R.: H. R. Dance.
E.: J. Crosbee.
LC: S. L. Webber.

OTHER PRODUCTION UNITS

Shop Stewards or members in the
following units should obtain the
necessary form for completion from
the Editor in order that full details
can appear in a subsequent issue :
Strand Films, Verity Films, Publicity
films, Merton Park Studios, Public
Relationship Films, Gee Films, Byron
Films, Selwyn Films, Technicolor,
Topical Films, Coombe Productions,
G.B. Instructional, G.B- Screen Ser-
vices, Film Traders, British Pictorial
Productions, Guild Films, Analysis
Films, Diagram Films, Halas-Batche-
lor, Science Films, Viking Films,
Marylebone Studios, Nettlefold Stu-
dios, British Films, New Realm Pic-
tures, Berkley Film Productions,
Horace Shepherd Productions, Wid-
gey Newman Productions.

DENHAM STUDIOS.

Archers Production Co.: "Canter-
bury Tales."

P.: Michael Powell and Emeric 1':
burger.

Cast: Sheila Sims, Eric Portman,
John Surer, Denis Prici

D. Michael Powell.

Scr.: Michael Powell and Emeric

.•-burger.
LC: Erwin Hillier.
C: Cecil Cooney.
R.: C. C. Sua
S.C.: Winstom R;
B.: Gordon lv Hum.

Assist. S.: P. A. Lloyd.
A. Alfred Jui

Assist. A.: (Not \>i .ippointed.)
DR.: Harold Hurdell. Elliot Scot.

E. I hn 5e bourne.
Assist. E. i ' id Powell.

R i erril.

PM.: ' • ird.

Assist. D.: i,

John Ami ild, ' '. . K.

AIik isley.
Con.: Pal An
Assist. Con.: June Able.
ST.: Gibson Smith.

November— December, 1943 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 141

Wishing all Technicians

A Happy Xmas dz

A Prosperous

J\[ew Year

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY

54/58, Wardour Street, LONDON, W.I
Ger. 7481 Ger. 6413

142

THE CINE-TECHKICIAX November— December, 1943

Two Cities Films, Ltd. : " Way
Ahead."

P.: John Sutro and Captain Norman
Walker.

Cast: David Niven.

D.: Carol Reed.

Set.: Eric Ambler, Peter Ustinov.

AP.: Stan Haynes.

LC: Guy Greene.

C: Norman Warwick.

Assist. C: P. Alhvork, W. Fair-
weather.

R.: C. C. Stevans.

SC: Winstone Ryder.

B.: G. K. McCallum.

Assist. S.: P. A. Lloyd.

A.: David Rawnsley, Arthur Lawson.

DR.: Harry White, Elvin Webb.

E.: Fergus McDonell.

PM.: Stanley Haynes.

Assist. P.M.: E. Coventry, N. Spensor.

Assist D.: (i) Frank Bevis.

( 2) Mark Evans.

(3) Harold Griver.
Con.: 13. Callaghan.

ST.: Cyril Leiston.

RKO : " Epitaph for a Spy."

P.: Victor ilanbury.

Cast: James Mason.

D.: Lance Comfort, Max Greene.

Scr.: Bob Ambler. (Screen Treatment:
Joan Davenport.)

LC. : Max Greene.

C: Arthur Ibbetson.

Assist. C: A. Law.

R.: John Cook.

SC: G. Lewis.

B.: Percy Dayton.

Assist. S.: D. Barry.

A.: W. Andrews.

Assist. A.: Ann Head, Arthur Tack-
sen.

DR.: W. Bowden, W. Full.

SE.: Sid St< >ne

PM.: Ernest Holding.

Assist D.: (1) Knox Laing.
(2) Tony Hearne.

Con.: Constance Newton.

ST.: Max Rosher.

Two Cities Films, Ltd. : " English
Without Tears."

Cast: Penelppe Ward, Lili Palmer,
Michael Wilding.

D.: Harold French.

Scr.: Anatole de Grunwald and
Terence Rattigan.

LC: Bernard Knowles.

C: W. McLeod.

Assist. C: Chick WaterhoiiM

R.: John Cook.

B.: Peri \ I >ayt'on.

A.: Ward Richards.

E.. Alan Jaggs.

Assist. E.: [da Barker, Fred Thomp-
son.

PM.: Pinkie Green and James Carr.

Assist. D.- (1) Frank Hollands.

(2) Bill Asher.

(3) Eddie Cross.
Con.: Olga Brook.

ST.: H. W. Devereux.

Two Cities Films, Ltd. : " Tawny
Pippit."

P.: W. Sistrom.

Cast: Bernard Miles, Rosamond John,
Nial McGinnis.

D.: Bernard Miles and Charles Saun-
ders.

Scr.: Bernard Miles.

AP.: Herbert Smith.

LC: Eric Cross.

C: Ray Sturgess.

Assist. C: Chick Waterhouse, Phillip
Pendry.

R.: Charles Tasto.

SC: E. Jodrell.

A.: A. Vetchinsky.

E.: Doug Myers.

Assist. E.: David Daniels.

Assist. PM.: John Tunstal.

Assist. D.: (1) W. Boyle.

(2) Jack Cooper.

(3) Norman Harrison.
Con.: Angela Carey.

ST.: Herbert Devereux.

Two Cities FiJ)ns, Ltd. : " Henry

V."
P.: Laurence Olivier.
Cast: Laurence Olivier.
D.: Laurence Olivier and Reggie Beck.
Scr.: W. Shakespeare.
A. P.: Dallas Bower.
LC: Robert Krasker.
C: Jack Hildyard.
Assist. C: Norman Foley, Irvin

Pannaman.
Technicolor Technician: George

Minassian, T. Lewis.
R.: John Dennis.
SC: H. Raynham.
B.: Stan Lambourne.
Assist. S.: Geof Labrum.
A.- Paul Sherrif.
Assist. A.: Carmen Dillom.
DR.: W. Bowden, Mrs. Pierce.
SE.: R. Beck
Assist. E.: Gordon Hale.
PM.: W. Bangs.
Assist. D.: (1) Vincent Permaine.

(2) John Alexander.

(3) Pat MacDonell.
Con.: Joan Barry, Dorothy Thomp-
son.

ST.: W. Newton.

Special Processes: P. Day.

EALING STUDIOS.

Ealing Films Ltd.: "For Those in

Peril."
P.: Michael Balcon,
D.: Charles Crichton.
AP.: S. C. Balcon.
LC: Ernie Palmer. (Exteriors: D.

Slocombe) .
C: H. Julius, Austin Dempster.
Assist. C: M. Shephard, R. Maasz.
R.: E. N. Daines.
SC: W. Robson.
B.: A. Rossister.
A.: Michael Relph.
Assist. A.: J. Morahan.
SE.: Sidney Cole.
E.: E. Cripps.

UM.: Bill Russell.

Assist. D.: (1) Roland Douglas.

(2) C. Hudson.
Con.: E. Schryeck.
ST.: H. Saunders, R. Armour.
Special Processes: Roy Kellino, Lionel
Banes.

EALING STUDIOS.

Ealing Studios Ltd. : " Halfway

House."
P.: M. E. Balcon.
Cast: Francoise Rosay, Tom Walls.

Mervyn Johns.
D.: Basil Dearden.
AP.: A. Cavalcanti.
LC: Wilkie Cooper.
C: S. Pavey.

Assist. C: M. Dean, C. Pollack.
R.: L. Page.
SC: P. Davies.
B.: A. Minnell.
A.: M. Relph.
Assist. A.: J. Morahan.
SE.: Sidney Cole.
E.: Charles Hasse.
Assist. E.: B. Bennett.
PM.: J. Rix.
Assist. D.: (1) M. McCarthv.

(2) M. Cole.

(3) J. Martin.
Con.: Daphne Heathcote.
ST.: M. Doreen, R. Armour.
Special Processes: Roy Kellino, Lionel

Banes.

WELWYN STUDIOS.

Associated British Pictun 1

tion : " She Met Him on Sundav."

P.: V. Skudetski.

Cast: Barbara White, Robert Beatty.
Irene Vanbrugh.

D.: Karel Lamac.

Scr.: V. Skudetski.

LC: Basil Emmott.

C: G. Dempster, R. Anscombe.

Assist. C: Manny Yospa, J. Speck,
Maurice Cohen.

R.: Bert Ross.

SC: J. Davie.

B.: K. Ritchie.

A.: D. K. Daniels.

DR.: M. Felling, J. Digby.

E.: Flora Newton.

Assist. E.: P. Woods 1.. Pohler.

PM.: Jock Dean.

Asst. £>.: (1) F. Hollands.

(2) G. Mitchell J Bi •

Con.: M. Rossier.

ST.: (.. Daley.

Special Processes: R. Anscombe.

OTHER STUDIOS IN
PRODUCTION,
Gaumont-British
Gainsborough
National
Riverside
Teddington

November— December, 1943 THE CIXE-TECHNICI A N

1 \:\

Organiser's Notebook

Mass Radiography : The first batch of labora-
tory workers have now been examined at Redhill
Hospital. They were from Brent Laboratories
where just over 50 per cent, of the staff volun-
teered. This is disappointing in view of the fact
tli. it even in large factories 90 per cent, is con-
sidered a fair average.

As the management gave their full co-operation
they must feel as we do about the poor response.
One would have thought that all the employees
would have taken advantage of the scheme. The
examination is so simple : a few seconds in front
of an X-ray camera and the job is done. If there
are signs of tuberculosis the patient is informed
confidentially and can receive treatment; if not,
then his mind is at rest.

It is common knowledge that the disease, if
caught in the early stages, can easily be cured.
We earenstlj advise, therefore, that all laboratory
workers take advantage of the scheme when the
(opportunity arrives.

Technicolor Laboratories: Some time ago an
amended agreement came into force at Techni-
color Laboratories. It meant increases in pay for
certain of our members, but also made it difficult

to get an increased cost-of-living bonus. We are
glad to report, however, that after prolonged nego-
tiations, which culminated in a meeting between
Mr. Oliver of Technicolor and the General Secre-
tary of A.C.T., all our members in tin' laboratory
are now being paid a cost-of-living bonus equal
to that operating at other film processing labora-
tories. In co-operation with the Electrical Trades
Union, rates have also been fixed for electricians
as follows : —
Skilled installation and maintenance

electricians ... 2/6d. per hour
Maintenance electricians' mates. ..2/0d. per hour

All other terms and conditions of employment
for electricians will be as per A.C'.T. Agreement.

We are happy to place on record our apprecia-
tion of the part played by the Electrical Trades
Union. They had one aim before them, i.e.. to
obtain improvements for their members through
friendly co-operation with another trade union.
This they achieved, and set an example we shall
always remember.

Negotiations with the Laboratory Employers'
Association : Progress is being made on grades not
at present covered by the Standard Laboratory
Agreement. The following rates have been agreed
and come into operation as from November 1st,
1943 :—

STRAND FILMS

MAKERS OF DOCUMENTARY
FILMS SINCE 1934

HIGHEST POSSIBLE
PRICES OFFERED

for

16mm PROJECTORS
SOUND & SILENT

ALSO 8 mm and 9.5 mm
PROJECTORS

We are also offering exceptional
prices for

LEICAS, CONTAXES, KORELLES

and similar Miniature Cameras and
all Accessories and Lenses for
these. Prices for all the above are
probably now at their peak, so now
is the time to sell. You can rely
on us for a fair and square deai.

City Sale & Exchange

Est. 1870 (1929) LTD.

2 POULTRY, CHEAPSIDE, EC. 2

PHONE : CITY 1124

lil

T II E C I NE - TEC II X I C I A X November— December, 1941

Optical Printing Assembly
Assembler ...
Assistant Assembler

£4 10 <>
£3 0 0

Multi-Printers (defined as being per-
sons who operate a machine with
three or more positive heads
producing an equivalent number
of prints from one negative in
one operation)

In relation to each machine:

Operator in Control ... ... £5 0 0

Cutting Printer Control and S.I.T.

Bands £4 0 0

Analytical Chemist (where em-
ployed as such) ... ... ... £6 0 0

Regenerative Film Treatment

Operator £4 10 0

Camera Department

Rostrum Cameraman (able to
photograph diagrams, cartoons
and animation) ... ... ... £7 0 0

Title Cameraman ... ... ... £5 0 0

(These rates are to apply only
where technicians are mainly
employed as such)
Meetings continue to be held to discuss other
outstanding grades which include those for Cleri-
cal and Despatch Departments.

Welfare : We are constantly being approached
by our members regarding canteens, rest rooms
and cloakroom facilities. During 1942, according
to the Chief Factory Inspector's Report, there
was an increase of nearly 3,000 canteens in indus-
try. He goes on to say that even in 'smaller fac-
tories where the employer is not subject to legal
compulsion the workers expect a canteen as a
right and many complaints received during the
year refer to the absence of canteens. We have
bad complaints from our members regarding in-
adequate canteen facilities, and also with regard
in tiny box-like cloakrooms, lack of hot water for
washing and total absence of rest rooms.

All or some of these items are at fault in nearly
every laboratory. There have been no complaints
from the studios, which is significant.

No-one will gainsay that the nature of work in
lab " •■'< ( >ries is. generally speaking, of a kind which
demands that welfare arrangements should be
ideal. We regret this is no! so. Rest room- ar<
practically non-existant, cloakrooms are often
much too small and canteens could be improved
eon- I rably. We are forced to the conclusion
thai employers are so taken up with output that

the\ lend to Overlook the welfare of their em-
There is also a tendency to give as a
on for inadequate weli.n, arrangements the
fact that labour and materials are unobtainable

This is not altogether true, because where an em-
pli iyer can show good cause why improvements tor
the benefit of his staff are necessary, he will re-
ceive sympathetic co-operation from the Factory
and Welfare Advisory Board of the Ministry of
Labour and National Service.

I sum up then : it is time something was done
lot ransform canteens into places where emplo
can -it and eat in comfort. Bare tables and forms
should be things of the past. Cloakrooms should
be adequate and have facilities for drying wet
clothing. There should be sufficient wash bash -
avoid queuing, with an ample supply of hot water.
Finally, a decent rest room in every laboratorv
wotdd be a good investment. Far too often in
accident cases and illness the patient has to be
dumped down in any room available. Further,
employees who have been working in dark rooms
would appreciate some place where they could
spend half-an-hour after lunch or at such odd
tiim - .-i- they might be waiting to go on shift.

We are confident that if efforts were made to
instal improvements along the lines here indicated
the workers would react accordingly, because wel-
fare conditions do affect quality and output.

Pensions Schemes: Pensions schemes seem to
be in the air at the moment. How closely they tie
up with excess profits and the Beveridge Report
it is difficult to judge. It is significant, however,
to note that tluy are not all-embracing. Much
seems to depend on length of service with a firm
and in what capacity a person is employed. The
higher the salary the more likelihood of a p> n-

Under this arrangement one may have given
a lifetime of service to the Film Industry and
yet not be eligible because that service 1 -
divided between two or three companies.

\; irt from Kodaks there is no provision nor any
signs of a scheme to cover laboratory work -
There are men who have spent 20 to 30 year-
laboratories, often with one firm, yet all the)
can look forward to is ten bob a week in their old
age. We don't want a position where the Cinder-
ellas of the Industry, after patiently and humbly
toiling and drudging all their 1 - conveniently
forgotten -

No ! The only sensible way to tackle am Pension
scheme is to make it all-embracing for the produc-
tion side ot the Film [ndustry, and in this
course, we include the tilm processing labora-
tories. By sinking prejudices and going al
through one central organisation, set up for the
purpose, we are confident that a scheme could

i it into operation which would take car
all employees

Bert Craik.

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER

LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-

Thames and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

Welwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Director of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex.
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinewood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, W.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Associated Productions Ltd., Calcutta

Bharat Movietone, Madras

Bombay Pictures, Bombay

Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay

Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore

Chitramandir Studio, Bombay

CIRCO Productions, Bombay

Gemini Studios, Madras

India Artists Ltd., Bombay

Minerva Movietone, Bombay

Modern Theatres Ltd., Salem

National Studios Ltd., Bombay

New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta

Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore

Prabhat Film Co., Poona

Pragati Pictures Ltd., Madras

Prakash Pictures, Bombay

Ranjit Movietone, Bombay

Seth Manecklal Chunilal

Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta

Siedles Cineradio Ltd., Colombo, Ceylon

Vel Pictures Ltd., Madras

AUSTRALIA

EStee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros., New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sev.illa Films S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
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Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 9, Broraefield, Stanmore, Middlesex,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

JANUARY
1t44 APRIl

RALPH IOND

SIDNEY COtl

•EtT CRAIK

KENNETH GORDON

RRYAN LANGLEY

FRANK SAINSRURY

PAY AS YOU EARN

THE CRITICS REVIEWED

MURDERED BY GASLIGHT!

POST WAR PLANNING

'KODAK
FILMS

More than ever the main-
stay of the motion picture
industry, with every foot

contributing its full share
of exceptional quality.

KODAK LIMITED.

Motion Picture Film Department
KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C.2

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

Editorial & Publishing Office: 9, BROMEFIELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX. Telephone: EDGWARE 31)9

\dvertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editort : Darrel Catling, Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury.

Number Forty-six/Forty-seven, Volume Ten January — April, 1944

Price One Shilling

Murdered by Gaslight!

II 'e publish, without comment, the foil owing letter sent by Sidney Cole to Lady Yule.

Dear Lady Yule,

Some year.! ago, Miss Ellen Wilkinson wrote
a lather bitter book about the Constituency she
represented in Parliament — Jarrow, and called
it ""The Town That Was Murdered." This is a
rather bitter letter about a film I once helped to
make, which at the moment I feel like calling —
" The Film That Was Murdered." I think it is
very likely that the other technicians who worked
on it would share my taste in titles.

The film is, of course, the British National pro-
duction, Gaslight. Those of us who worked
on it in the dark days of 1940 felt rather pleased
that we had been able to show that the British
Film Industry could not only survive in time of
war, but could produce what was generally
acclaimed as a very fine British picture.

When we subsequently found that the picture
was not to be shown in the United States of
America, those of us who understood the economic
and political set-up in the world film industry
were not really surprised. Wedmow that if we
make bad pictures in this country the Americans
don't want them — even our own countrymen are
not very keen on bad English pictures. Perhaps
even less, although this fact is not widely appre-
ciated, do the American want good British pic-
tures. Since when has a powerful industry
encouraged foreign competition? Therefore, we
were not surprised that America was not anxious
to show Gaslight and we waited eagerly to
aee if British National had succeeded in breaking
down this opposition. But we were staggered to
find that, on the contrary, it had apparently acqui-
esced in the banning of Gaslight from American
screens by selling the American film rights of the
story. The price, I must admit, was satisfactorily
large. But somehow it did not strike us as the

most effective way of drawing attention to the
merits of British pictures. Hollywood proceeded
to make its own version and America will pre-
sumably never know that the British original
existed.

What seems really monstrous to us, though, is
that the British rights of the story were also
necessarily (I use the word in a commercial and
not a moral sense) sold at the same time, in
order, I take it, to clear the way in the British
market for the Hollywood picture. Filmgoers in
this country must forget that there ever was a
British film of this name ; they will certainly never
again be able to see it.

Feeling a little sentimental about all this, I
tried recently, through British National and
Anglo-American, to borrow a copy, in order to look
once more at a job of British film craftsmanship
in which I was proud to have assisted. But T
was told I was too late. Not only every copy but
the original negative itself had been destroyed.

The film is of course an ephemeral medium, but
even so, it is still sometimes possible to see films
which were made as many as 80 years ago — some
material record remains of whatever skill and
enthusiasm went into the making of them. But
with Gaslight — OUT Gaslight — barely four years
have elapsed and it seems that nothing whatever
remains of our work, except the satisfaction that
all of us felt, and still feel, at having worked on a
very fine British jdcture. But speaking for British
technicians generally, we need a greater incentive
than memory. We need encouragement too.
The history of Gaslight is many things, but ii is
not encouraging.

Yours sincerely,

SIDNEY COLE.
February 21st, 1944.

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — April. 1944

RALPH BOND

POST WAR PLANNING

THE tremendous impetus given to documen-
tary, training and instructional films by
the requirements of the Ministry of Informa-
tion, the Services and other official sponsors is a
fact familiar to most workers in the film industry.
Most of the skilled technicians specialising in this
type of film have been reserved and despite cer-
tain difficulties of administration their output
has been very considerable.

The possibilities for the post-war use of the
documentary film are equally great, but this needs
planning in advance. This necessity was fully
comprehended at the A.C.T. Annual Meeting last
year when the following resolution was passed : —
That the General Council be instructed to
approach the Ministry of Information, the
Board of Education and other relevant Ministry
or official body to ascertain whether considera-
tion is being given to plans for post-war docu-
mentary and educational film production. The
great increase in the use of such films which
has arisen out of the war has fully established
their value to the community, and it should be
urged that continuance of such film production
can be an important factor in social reconstruc-
tion when hostilities end. If it be discovered
that no planning has taken place, the General
Council should press for machinery to be set
up as soon as possible under Government
auspices to initiate such action."
Not satisfied that any Ministry was preparing
planned schemes for the post-war use of the docu-
mentary film, the Genera] Council appointed a
committee to prepare a detailed report.

After intensive research the Committee drafted
its report, which was accepted by the General
Council and is now published as a printed
memorandum.

It is fair to say that this is the most exhaustive
study that has yet been prepared on the subject,
and A.C.T. can take pride in having made a valu-
able practical contribution to a section of the
British film industry that is assuming yearly a
greater importance in the educational life of the
nation.

In an introductory section the memorandum
emphasises that the documentary film has a part
to play in the whole sphere of post-war reconstruc-
tion and planning — in agriculture, housing,
health, reconstitution of industry, social services,
finance, civics and so on — not merely in recording
what is being done or is proposed to be done, but
in helping to create both an enlightened public

opinion which will be receptive to new ideas, and
a habit of objective thinking which is essential if
democracy is to survive.

The position of the documentary approach to
film in a modern democracy should here be under-
lined. A basic assumption of democracy is that
the opinion of each individual of the community
is important and, at each given moment, contri-
butes something to the organisation and activity
of that community. It stands to reason, there-
fore, that democracy can only be healthy if the
opinions of each individual in it are soundly
inspired and founded on facts — not illusions. But
the basic community to-day is the population of
the world — not merely Britain, or even the British
Empire. The developments in communications
in the last quarter-century have brought all the
people of the world into very close touch. Thus
individual opinions nowadays, if they are to.be
sound, need to take into account this new con-
ception of life, and an enormous new range of
facts. Only film, with its immense flexibility of
expression, is equal to the task of informing
people, by eye and by ear, and in emphatic terms,
of what kind of world they live in. Thus informed,
each individual's opinion becomes a sound brick
in the structure of democracy.

A considerable part of the memorandum is
concerned with the use of film in educating chil-
dren. It is recognised that improved educational
standards should be one of the first post-war aims.
and that the film as a teaching aid must be further
developed. Instructional films for schools and
technical colleges have as regards presentation
of the subject special requirements which have
hitherto been denied proper consideration owing
to economic limitations. Previous to the war the
number of such films produced for the purpose of
technical training was small and the number pro-
duced for classroom use even smaller. In fact,
the films available in the latter category were in
the main either out-of-date or produced primarily
for other purposes.

The reason for this lay in the fact that only
a very small proportion of schools possessed pro-
jectors, and almost all of these were silent
machines incapable of projecting a film with
commentary or natural sound. This meant that
as a commercial product the teaching film was
a poor commodity because the market was too
limited to provide a return sufficient to cover
production costs. Some producers tried to make
their educational films in a way acceptable to the

January — April, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

3

cinema-going public as well as to the schools,
relying on the theatrical distribution which the
films thereby received to bring in an adequate
return. Even though they were re-edited this
■method could not fail to impair the films' suita-
bility for school use. Other producers sold copies
of their films at exorbitant prices in an attempt
to meet production costs. The schools could not
afford to buy, but could only borrow copies when
they happened to be available from the few film
libraries existing. A third type of producer was
the industrial sponsor, making films for prestige
purposes on subjects allied to his industrial
activities. Where such films had general appeal,
their sponsors made copies of them available to
educational establishments, in many cases free
of charge. Here again, however, the films were
i.ot made primarily for school or college use and
made their way into published lists of " films
suitable for schools " only for want of something
better.

After pointing out that before the war the docu-
mentary film had to rely mainly on haphazard
and uneo-ordinated commercial sponsorship, the
memorandum insists that a body with similar
functions to those of the present Films Division
of the Ministry of Information is essential t-o act
both as sponsor and co-ordinator after the war.

If the Ministry of Information itself is to con-
tinue, the present Films Division with its terms
of reference expanded to peace-time needs would
be suitable. If it is not, the choice lies between
attaching the present body to some other appro-
priate Ministry or creating a wholly independent
Government Films Department. Direct Govern-
ment sponsorship is indispensable if the antici-
pated demands of all users, particularly the
schools, whose requirements are additional to the
war-time programme, are to be adequately met.

The wide scope of the work undertaken by the
Films Division of the Ministry of Information
may not be generally realised. It has developed
a great network of non-theatrical distribution,
and in each of its twelve regional centres there is
a Films Officer. There are approximately 140
Mobile Projection Units and nine portable 35 mm.
outfits for larger shows. Between September 1st,
1942, and August 31st, 1943, an average of 4,985
shows were given each month. The programmes
are carefully selected and the requirements ol
different types of audience are taken into con-
sideration. Over the year, audiences at non-
theatrical shows reach an approximate total of
eighteen million people.

(Continued overleaf)

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T HE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

January — April, 194-1

The memorandum rightly points out that it
would be a tragedy if this work were to be sus-
pended or interrupted at the conclusion of
hostilities. Wisely, the memorandum does not
insist that the present Ministry of Information
Films Division must remain as a peace-time co-
ordinating body, but it is emphatic in its view
that there must be some central State department
which will continue and develop the work started
during this war by the Films Division.

After classifying the documentary film into a
number of separate categories — scientific film,
propaganda film, educational film, instructional
film, newsreel, and the record film — the memo-
randum proceeds to discuss the question of
audienci s.

The spheres in which documentary films
are most useful fall into two main classifications :

(a) Films for general exhibition: —

(i) In the public cinemas,
(ii) Non-theatrically in factories, clubs and
institutes, town halls, village halls,
public libraries.

(b) Films for specialised exhibition: —

(i) In the classroom and lecture-room
(ii) In the Technical College and Training
Centre.

The requirements of all these audience cate-
gories are thoroughly discussed, with particular
reference to the requirements of schools.

It is a lamentable fact that we in this country
are still very far from the position where even
school has its own film projector. Only in a
minority of our schools are films used as an aid
to education and there lias been little or no
attempt to plan films as part of the normal educa-
tion curriculum.

Those two factors, projection equipment and
planned film programmes, are inseparable. It is
no good having one without the other. Every
school should be provided with a projector, but
at the same time they must be certain of having
not only an ample supply of films, but an ample
supply of the right type of films.

With compelling logic the memorandum leads
up to one of its main proposals — that there should
be a committee composed of representatives of
the appropriate Ministries, the Board of Educa-
tion, the film makers, and specialised users of
documentary films, including the teaching pro-
fession. The functions of such a committee are
set forth in great detail, and one of its tasks
should be to carry out a survey of requirements
in the spheres of educational activity, with the
object of estimating the degree of assistance
which the film can provide in every type of school
and college curriculum, and in even- type of sub-
ject with which adult education is concerned.

Tt is self-evident that the drawing up of a

workable plan for the production, distribution and
use of the film in all spheres of education is one
of the tasks for which the proposed committee
would be responsible, but before submitting the
memorandum the authors investigated and have
set forth a possible method of operation.

After discussing problems of production,
administration, finance and distribution, the
memorandum suggests that the co-ordinating
committee must remain as an advisory panel to
whatever Government department is responsible.
This department should function as a clearing
house for the requirements of all Government and
official bodies, without denying them the right to
their own Films Officers where they have special
film needs, as in the case, for instance, of the
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agricul-
ture. The committee should advise where neces-
sary on the desirability or otherwise of films. It
thus becomes in a sense the focal point of a pool
consisting of all the units producing for it. and
should maintain the closest contact with the film
makers through their representatives on the com-
mittee, planning ahead sufficiently far for
technicians to be used to the best advantage.

In its final conclusions the memorandum
visualises the proposed scheme as a permanent
social service. Films become out-of-date like
text-books and must be re-made. Policies and
viewpoints change, knowledge increases daily and
new films must be made to keep pace. Moreover,
films from other sources must be integrated with
those produced as part of a planned production
scheme. Other nations can make their contribu-
tion to our education, as we can to theirs. In
fact, the international use of film is one of the
most important of its uses, and in the course of
time copies of the documentary and educational
films of other nations, translated where necessary,
should be found in our film libraries.

It is impossible to give more than a brief sum-
inary of a report which is so thorough and com-
prehensive in its scope, and we strongly advise all
members of the A.C.T. who are interested in this
question to obtain a copy for themselves and study
it closely.

A.C.T. has produced this memorandum in no
narrow sectarian spirit. We regard it as a useful
contribution to a subject winch directly concerns
a large body of people unconnected with our own
industry. It is being circulated to all organisa-
tions concerned either with the teaching profes-
sion or with planning future lines of educational
development, and we hope to secure the co-
operation of many of these bodies in approaching
the appropriate Government departments, parti-
cularly the Board of Education, with a view to
inducing them to put into operation as quickly
as possible some such scheme as has been proposed
in the memorandum.

January— April, 1944

T.H E CINE-TECHNICIAN

LETTER from IKDIA

i

India is a very strange country : the longer one
is here the stranger and more incomprehensible
it gets. The merits for and against Pakistan, for
example, are most confusing, and the same for
Congress also. However, I will not go into that
now, as I am sure it is an undesirable topic in the
eyes of the censor, except to advise you that
matters are not nearly so simple as they would
appear to be from the English newspapers we get
over here.

I do think that this country's solution lies in
the early application of trade union and collec-
tive methods. There are too many men (Euro-
pean and Indian) with too much money, and
hordes of other men with not enough to eat. The
relationship between employer and employee is
largely an Indian problem, as most of the White
Burra Sahibs out here are in Government employ
and earning salaries somewhat similar to those
at home of the better-off middle-class. There is
one factory here called Tata, iron and steel works
(the biggest in the Empire, they advertise) which
employs its members on a profit-sharing basis
over and above a much higher salary than is paid
elsewhere in India. One of the Indian indus-
trialists' problems is that Indians are mainly agri-
culturists and visit the towns to make a nest egg
and then return home. Tata's idea is to build- an
industrial generation and to that end they have
provided fine houses near the works and other
amenities with the hopes that their employees
will be content to stay there. This seems to me
to be an excellent idea.

One type of trade unionism which I came across
here was simply the collection of all the workers
in one factory, irrespective of their job, into one
union with no connection with anybody else. If
Trade Union leaders in England are ambitious
there are obviously the makings of a very interest-
ing development out here, even to the overthrow
of caste restrictions and religious aversions. Mark
you, I don't think any ordinary man could do it —
he would go mad after a few years. But he might
be able to inculcate into his disciples the practices
of trade unionism. Maybe the T.U.C. would start
such a school out here for such a purpose. I don't
think that the workers as a whole would object
either. There seems to be a general feeling of
admiration for the way in which our people have
gone in for arbitration rather than strikes in this
period of emergency.

The other day I picked up at the enormous ex-
pense of 21 rupees Botha's book, "Documentary
Film." I must say that I did not realise there was
so much to this type of work as he claims there
is. From my experiences as a one-man film unit
out here I have come to the conclusion that the
major reasons for having such large staffs on a
film is. mainly to save production time. This, I
realise, is an irreverent remark. Unfortunately I
have seen very few documentary films. Upon
return home I must see what they are all about.
I like his reasoning that documentary films are
made in order to make people aware of their social
obligations and to see how the other half exists.
During my travels overseas I have seen that there
is an appalling lack of knowledge between the
Indian and the Briton. I believe it would be a
worth-while idea for a reciprocal scheme to be
instituted between us and India for the showing
of a compulsory amount of documentary footage
per week ; a certain amount of the entertainment
tax to subsidise the scheme. You will hardly cre-
dit it, but one thing which strikes all native-born
people arriving in Europe is the sight of the locals
sweeping streets and doing menial jobs. Few
Indians would believe that in England it is prac-
tically impossible to starve to death. Here, it's
very common. India, to the Englishman, appears
to be the dark continent, full of mystery and
romance. In fact, it is nothing of the sort.

Bryan Langley

WANTED

BACK NUMBERS

" The Cine-Technician "

Nos. 9, 10, 1 1, 12, 13, 14, 16, 24, 28, 30,

32,

33.

" Sight and Sound "

Nos. 1, 4, 6. 7, 14.

" Documentary News-Letter

t

Vol. I, Nos. 3, 4, 10.

Phone or write A.C.T. Head Office.

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — April. 1944

"PAY AS YOU EARN" INCOME TAX

We are grateful to the Income Tax Advisory
Bureau of the Inland Eevenue Staff Federation
for the following notes : —

1. The " Pay as You Earn " system is intended
to arrange tax deductions to fit the pay. When
pay goes up, tax goes up ; when pay goes
down, tax goes down; when pay stops
(through sickness or unemployment) tax will
be refunded.

2. The tax deducted by employers will be the
tax due for the year as near as it is possible
to work it. For the ordinary worker the
largest undei'-deduction is not likely to be
more than 26s. in the year — or sixpence a
week. Over-deductions will be much smaller
in most cases.

3. At the end of the year, i.e., some time in
1945, an assessment will be made by the Tax
Office, and a notice sent to the taxpayer show-
nig ins exact liability and how much he has
underpaid or overpaid. Over-payments will
be refunded, and under-payments will be
collected with a later year's tax.

4. To achieve this result a good deal of simplifi-
cation has become necessary. The employer
will be given a set of Tax Tables by which to
work out the tax, and an official Tax Deduc-
tion Card for each worker. This card will
show the worker's Income Tax Code number,
but it will not show any details as to how the
Code number has been arrived at. These
details will go only to the individual taxpayer
on his " Notice of Coding."

5. These Notices of Coding were issued all
over the country in the last fortnight of
January. If they are wrong it is important
that an appeal be made at once so that the
Tax Office can correct the coding before send-
in the Tax Deduction Cards to the employer.
Wherever possible in large factories, arrange-
ments have been made for someone from the
Tax Office to attend the works to deal with
appeals, and thus save writing letters or call-
ing at the Tax Office.

If no such arrangements are made, Trade
Union officials can ask for a speaker from the
Tax Office to address a Branch meeting or
any other gathering at which general points
can be explained. If in any exceptional case
there is some difficulty in securing a speaker
for a Branch meeting, reference might be
made to the Income Tax Advisorv Bureau,

I.R.S.F., 7 and 0, St. George's Square,
S.W.I, (which is, of course, an unofficial
body) and we may be able to help.

6. The notice of coding is similar to the familiar
notice of assessment. There are printed
entries for all the usual allowances, and it
is not proposed to go into detail about these,
but only to mention those which are different
from previous years.

7. Housekeeper Aliowance is now extended to
any case where a housekeeper is maintained
to look after a child. No allowance can be
claimed for an " unmarried wife," unless
child allowance has also been given.

8. Dependent Relative Allowance is increased
to £50 maximum on a sliding scale. The rule
is to deduct the dependent's total income
from £80, and the difference is the allowance
subject to the £50 maximum. If two or more
people contribute to the dependent, the allow-
ance must be shared, and, of course, the
allowance won't exceed the amount of
the contribution to the dependent, i.e., if a
man sends 5/- a week to his aged mother
living somewhere else, he is not entitled to
more than £13 a year allowance.

9. Life Insurance is allowable at 3/6d. in the
£. As the Tax Tables issued to the em-
ployers only deal with tax at 6/6d. in the
£, and 10/- in the £, the Life Insurance is
halved, and included with the Personal
allowances. This means that instead of get-
ting £2 at 3/6d. = 7/- tax. the ordinary
worker gets £1 at 6/6d. This obviously doesn't
make any difference to the weekly deductions,
and any little adjustments will be cleaned
up at the end of the year. (See Note 3.)

10. A few workers have dividends from which tax
is deducted at 10/- in the £, (Notably Co-
partnership stock in the G-as Industry). If
the worker is only liable at 6 6d. in the £ he
gets an allowance for the extra 3 (id. This
again is done by halving the dividend, ami
adding it to the allowances. The result is £1
at 6/6d. instead of £2 at 3 6d.— another tiny
difference for the end of year adjustment.

11. The Tax Tables sent to the employers are
worked out on the basis that everything is
earned income. But some items such as
expenses, superannuation, interest, payments
and payments to wives under Court Orders

««i

January — April, 1944

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

Of

1 HE demands of the Services have
made it impossible for us to give you
that service which is customary with us.
Please be assured, however, that we
have your interests very much in mind.
When Victory is won we shall again
be able to provide an unrestricted
flow of photographic materials of the
highest possible quality.

CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL HOUSE, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.i

Telephone: GERRARD 2763

8

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — April, 1VI44

have to be deducted before the earned income
allowance is calculated. Where the amount
is small no adjustment is made, but it over
£30 is involved the amount allowed is nine-
tenths of the payment, the other one-tenth
representing the earned income allowance not
due on these items.

12. In addition to wages some taxpayers have
other items of income, but it is intended that,
so far as possible, the deductions from wages
will cover the total tax liability. This is done
by reducing the allowances due by roughly
the amount of the other income. The details
are shown on the Notice of Coding in the
lower part of the form. The commonest
items of other income are Pensions, Part-
time or Casual Earnings, and for married
women, their husband's Service Pay. These
items are all earned, and entitled to the
Earned Income Allowance of one-tenth. So
the amount of Personal and other allowances
to set against them is only nine-tenths. For
example, a pension of £40 a year is entitled
to £4 Earned Income Allowance, leaving £3G
to be wiped out by Personal Allowance. In
some cases the full details will be shown,
e.g., £40 less Earned Income Belief £4 = £36.
In others only the £30 will be shown, but
since the taxpayer usually knows what his
other income is likely to be it is easy to
knock off one-tenth, and see that the correct
allowance has been made.

13. If the other income is unearned, e.g.,
Savings Bank or War Bond Interest, or pro-
perty there will, of course, be no Earned In-
come relief. But people over 66, with under
£500 a year, will be entitled to Age Allowance
on these items, and that will be one-tenth
dealt with in the same way as Earned Income
Allowance.

14. Where both husband and wife are working,
or the husband has two jobs, both over the
taxable limit, a complication arises. The Tax
Tables allow £165 at 6/6d. in the £ for every
job from which tax is deductible. But only
one lot of £165 at 6/6d. is allowable, even to
a married couple. If it looks, on an estimate
of the wages, that more than £165 will be
charged at 6/6(1., an adjustment has to lie
made so that the extra 3/6d. in the £ is
collected week by week instead of piling up
as a debt at the end of the year. This means
reducing the allowances, and thus making
more of the income chargeable. If the hus-
band's job or his bigger one will have tax
chargeable at 10/- in the £, the allowances
will be reduced by £1 for every £3 due at the
extra 3/6d. In other words, if on the second
job a man pays £3 at 6/6d. = 19/6d. instead

of £3 at 10/- = 30/-, the first job will be
charged an extra 10/- to make up the
difference. "Where the wife is working, this
adjustment will usually only be made where
the amount of income involved is over £50.
In a few cases, where the first job will only
be taxed at 6 6d. the adjustment will be £1
for every £2 excess, i.e., £2 at 3/6d. equals
roughly £1 at 6/6d.

15. Where both husband and wife are working,
or the man has two jobs, liable to tax, there
will be separate Notices of Coding for each
job. The main notice will show all the allow-
ances for the year, and anything set off will
be shown in the lower part. The other notice
will show only the allowances due from that
job. For example, a husband might get a
notice showing Personal Allowance £140.
Children £100, total £240, and in the deduc-
tions space "Wife's Earnings" £40. In such
a case the wife's notice should show this £40
as Personal Allowance, and, of course, the
£80 Wife's Earned Income Allowance.

16. Al these notices have been prepared on the
latest information available. If a man hasn't
sent in his Income Tax claim for allowances
it's his own fault if the notice is wrong. On
the other hand, he may have got married,
or become a father since the form was sent
in. Let the tax people know at once, either
when someone calls at the works or by writing
to, or calling at, the Tax Office.

17. It is just as important to notify over-
allowances as under-allowanees. Mistakes
can occur in the best of circumstances, and
this job has been done in a hurry for sixteen
million codings have been made in about two
months. Over-allowances mean under-
deductions and a large amount of tax owing.
Although this tax may be collected by increas-
ing later deductions, it may happen that
overtime will have dropped off, and under
this scheme the minimum issue of wages will
not apply. The idea is that within a shilling
or two the correct tax is deducted each week.

18. At the bottom ot the Notice the Allowances to
be set against pay are converted into a code
number. A table showing the code number
is printed on the notes sent with every notice.
It will be seen that one code number covets
every £5 or £10 of allowances, so a pound or
two difference won't affeel the coding, and
it's not worth arguing whether the expel

or life insurance should be a small amount
more. These small differences will be put
right in 1945.

19. If a taxpayer's circumstances alter after he
has received his coding notice he should
notify the Inspector of Taxes Office at once

J anuary — April , 1944

T HE C INE- TECHNICIAN

9

Thus under this new system, as soon as a
baby arrives the allowance is given, and that
will usually mean a refund of tax, and in any
case, a reduction in future deductions.

20. Please advise all members to make a note of
the reference number shown on the Notice of
Coding, and to quote it in all letters. One
office deals with ten to fifty thousand people,
and it's hopeless trying to trace them without
reference numbers.

21. Further notes will be issued later, regarding
procedure after April .

February and March Deductions.

22. Manual wage-earners assessed half-yearly are
paying tax on 1942/43 wages up to the end of
January. No assessments have yet been
made for the half-year to 5th October, 1943,
or tf> 5th April, 1944 ; but employers are being
told to continue deductions at the same rate
for February and March.

23. These February and March deductions will
roughly cover the liability for the whole year
to 5th April, 1944, because the remainder of
the tax for that year is being cancelled. It
is obvious that tax under the old system could

not be collected at the same time as tax was
being deducted under " Pay as You Earn."

Full details of the assessment for the year
to 5th April, 1944, showing what has been
paid, what more is due, or what is to be
refunded will be issued in the autumn. Mean-
while, if a worker has had increased wages
he can ask his employer to increase deduc-
tions. If he has got more allowances due or
has had a drop in wages he can ask the
Collector Of Taxes to authorise lower deduc-
tions. For this, he should ask the pay clerk
for the address of the Collector, and his con-
secutive number on the employers' deduction
sheets.

Post-war Credits.
24. Relatively few people will get Post-war
Credits for 1943/44. The tax now being can-
celled will be set against what would other-
wise be the Post-war Credit. In other wor'ds,
getting the tax cancelled now is better than
getting a " Post-war Credit " some time in
the future.

For 1944/5, i.e., the first year of " Pay as
You Earn," Post-war Credits will be worked
out as usual.

"IS THIRTEEN UNLUCKY?"

Looking back upon our career we do not think so — let's see why.

THIRTEEN YEARS ago IMPERIAL created the first documentary
recording studio, when such a thing was unheard of.

THIRTEEN YEARS ago IMPERIAL created the first fixed-price recording
policy, then undreamed of.

THIRTEEN YEARS ago IMPERIAL created the first guaranteed
recording policy — at that time considered impossible.

And as a result, to date we have recorded over 19,000,000 feet (nineteen
million) of successful recordings — no mean achievement.

And now we create the first royalty free noiseless recording policy for
our regular customers.

We are still the leading documentary recording studios with a reputation
for high quality work.

" Recorded by Imperial Sound Studios " is a household word in the
trade, and your guarantee of a good job well done — by a studio with
THIRTEEN YEARS specializing in documentary recording.

For your next session remember

IMPERIAL SOUND STUDIOS

Recording engineers to the Trade

84

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Telephones : Gerrard 1963 and 2088

'BEHIND EVERY FOOT OF SOUND IS A MILLION FEET OF EXPERIENCE"

TEN equipped CUTTING ROOMS and VAULTS at your SERVICE

J

10

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — April, 1'»44

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

Laboratory Social Committee. The Committee,

composed of on© representative from each labora-
tory, is doing a grand job of work. The secretary,
Miss Ann Janes, asks me to point out the
importance of all members of the committee
attending the meetings. One or two laboratories
have been rather neglectful in this respect.

Already a Darts League has been set up and a
cup or shield is to be purchased which will be
played for annually.

'lit,' Darts Tournament Rules are 1001 up
straight off, ending on a double. Best out of
three games per match. Winning team receives
two points per match. Each team to play every
other team twice. In the event of two tenuis
sharing the top place at the end of the tournament
a final match will be played to decide the winners.
An entrance fee of sixpence per player will be
charged for each match played. The fixtures are
as follows, dates for playing off to suit the con-
venience of the teams : —

Kay's "A"

v.

G.F.D.

G.F.D.

v.

Humphries

Humph ii ii;s

V.

Pathe "A"

Pathe "A"

V.

Kay's "B"

Kay's "B"

V.

Pathe " B "

Pathe "A"

V.

Pathe " B "

Kay's "B"

V.

Kay's W.E.

Pathe " B "

V.

Kay's "A"

Kay's W.E.

V.

G.F.D.

Kay's "A"

V.

Pathe "A"

Pathe "B"

V.

IWs W.E.

Kay's W.E.

V.

Kay's "A"

Kay's "A"

V.

Humphries

G.F.D.

V.

Pathe "A"

Humphries

V.

Kay's "B"

G.F.D.

V.

Kay's " B "

Humphries

V.

Pathe " B "

Pathe "A"

V.

Kay's W.E.

Kay's " B "

V.

Kay's "A"

Pathe " B "

V.

G.F.D.

Kay's W.E.

V.

Humphries

There is still time for laboratories that have not
entered teams to do so.

The Social Committee have also fixed up a
dance at the Hammersmith Town Hall, details of
which appear on this page.

Rules Revision. After months of patient toil

A LABORATORY DANCE

WILL BE HELD AT

HAMMERSMITH TOWN HALL

ON

SATURDAY, 18th MARCH
DANCING 7—11 p.m.

BAR ON THE PREMISES

ADMISSION 2/6d. BY TICKET ONLY

Obtainable From Shop Stewards

Studio Members Cordially Invited

.

we have at last drawn up a completely revised lis:
of rules which we are sure will do credit to all
who took part in the job. It is hoped that soon
copies will be back from the printers and be cir-
culated to all our members. Of particular intere-:
is the model standing orders for branch ineetin> -
which will fill a long-felt need. Some of our local
committees have been at a loss as to how to cor-
duct meetings : the members had no guide
were often new to trade unionism. They will now
have something to guide them without necessarii-
tying them down to hard and fast procedure.

A Sign of Things to Come. I was chatting t >
one of our members the other day in the Trade
Union Club. He was assigned to a job at Lever
Bros., Port Sunlight. When he got on the job and
commenced setting up his camera one of the shop
stewards at the firm came up to him and sain:
" I'll have to see your trade union ticket, chun .
before you get cracking "! — which only goe-
show how things are shaping.

Recruitment. Recruitment is going ahe
several firms where in the past it has been diffV
to make progress. It is heartening to observi
that workers generally are realising the importaiiee
of trade union protection. They note that tiny
are losing on wages, holidays, sickness allowar -
and conditions generally as compared with trao.e
union firms. There are. however, black spots in
our industry where employers, by threats of dis-

January — April, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

11

missal, withdrawal of deferment and a hundred
other methods, attempt to keep their employees
outside the unions. If only the workers at such
places would get in touch with us and give us
concrete examples to act upon we would soon
clean up some of the muck still raking around.

The News Angle. This small item is addressed
to Laboratory workers. We are always glad to
receive items of interest for publication either in
paragraph form on this page or as full length
articles of interest to our members. Studio mem-
bers keep us fairly well supplied, as you will have
noticed in past issues of the journal. So what
about it, lab. members'? We know that things
are happening every week in the laboratories
which would be of interest to all members. Let
your news be amusing, interesting or technical ;
it will all be welcome. It might be a good idea
to appoint a news editor on each laboratory com-
mittee. Think it over.

Obituary. We announce with regret the death
of Mr. W. Donovan. He had been in the employ
of Pathe's for nigh on thirty years and died in
harness at the Elstree Laboratories. He was
known as " Pat " to his colleagues and most of

the older lab. worker's will remember him. As
one of the "back room boys" of the industry, a
highlight in his career occurred on Sunday, 3rd
April, 1921. It was on the occasion of a reception
at the New Gallery to the Prince of Wales. Pat
was respons'ble for developing the neg. and
print of the reception. The print was rushed
back to the cinema and shown to the
Prince before leaving amidst scenes of greai
enthusiasm and surprise. Still photographs taken
by the Press did not arrive until an hour later.
This is believed to have been the first occasion
that the Film had beaten the Press in presenting
news and was commented on in the " Bioscope."
Pat leaves a wife and kiddy, who have many
memories of him, one of which is the Press cutting
from the " Bioscope."

Bert Craik.

TWO ISSUES IN ONE.

Difficulties of publishing to time have caused us
to merge in this issue the January/February and
March /April numbers. We promise to try and
be more regular in our appearance in future.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,

where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff

are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone ■. liberty 4291

One mile from Wimbledon Station

12

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — April. 1944

The

Critics
Reviewed

by Frank Sainsbury

" The Critics are those who have failed in Art and Literature."

I DON'T know where this quotation comes from,
but I can well remember having to write an
essay on it at school. At the time there
can have been few subjects that interested me
1< ss than the critics, and after reading my poor
attempt at an essay the English master asked
me to name one. Frantic searching of my mind
produced the single effort, " St. John Ervine,"
whose name I'd happened to notice in the
' ' Observer. " " Pooh ! That reviewer ! ' ' exclaimed
the English master in disgust, and there for the
moment the matter rested. However, as the
years went by and I began to take more of an
interest in the critics I've finally come to the
< onclusion that the very large majority of them
have failed not only in Art and Literature but in
everything else as well, including particularly
Life!

A year or two after my first brush with the
subject a growing interest in films led me to
read regularly the film column in the "Observer,"
in those days signed with the cryptic initials,
C.A.L., which was enough to fire anybody's
imagination, so economically and enthusiastically
was it written. From there my eyes would some-
times stray across to the opposite page, and there
would be my old mate, St. John Ervine, fulminat-
ing from that well-known centre of culture.
Seaton, Devon, against the vulgarity of the
cinema compared with the refinement of the
theatre. Week after week his lack of know-
ledge of films did not deter him from giving
the cinema the nearest equivalent of a good
hiding of which that jolly bravo was capable.
And then, one fateful week, whatever's this?
An article from our finickv connoisseur headed.
"At last— A Good Film.''' With bated breath
our eyes race down the column to try and find
what master-work it is that has at last won
the approval of our chubby purist — ah ! here it is
— and what an anti-climax — Grace Moore in One
Night of Love, a fairish routine middle-class
picture that couldn't hurt a fly!

Well, that's the sort of thing the cinema has
had to suffer for far too long, ill-informed com-
ment from outsiders. Incidentally, the week after
St. John Ervine 's momentous discovery it was
very nice to find C.A.L. showing him up good and
proper by gently pointing out that Tullio Car-
minati, whom he had much admired in the film as
an unknown, had, in fact, been Duse's leading
man many years before. And his discomfiture was
complete when some months later Elsie Cohen
took the trouble to run a few good films for him
at the Academy, and he had to take it all back and
apologize.

Now there can be no art that needs good
criticism so badly as the cinema. The fact that
it is also a great industry, tied up with inter-
national cartels on the one hand and with all
the ballyhoo tradition of the great showmen on
the other, means that it simply must have the
discipline and encouragement of good public
criticism if it is ever to develop and get anywhere.
And yet during all its 50 years' history there can-
not have been more than a dozen or so even
reasonably good film critics. It's a job : hat's
considered good enough for any old hack on the
paper — '"Old so-and-so's not got much to do these
days — put him on to doing film write-ups." And
what could be nicer for some weary and dis-
illusioned old journalist than to spend his morn-
ings and afternoous snoozing in the dark in the
comfort of an armchair with the prospect of all
the free drinks he can swallow afterwards. X
need to look at the film — he can easily write up
his stuff from the publicity hand-out and what
he overhears from his fellow-drinkers, bearing in
mind all the time that film companies are some
of his paper's best advertisers. And so the weekly
cheap, trashy gossip continues.

Now before anyone even begins the job oi being
a film critic I should say that he should already
have three qualities in particular — knowledge
wide taste and enthusiasm. Knowledge mean-
that he should have a wide experience of films ol

January — April, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

18

all times and of all countries. How can a critic
hope to write with a due sense of proportion about
the latest so-called epic if he has never seen,
say, Intolerance or Earth? If he doesn't
know what has already been achieved he can't
very well measure the importance of what is
being done now. Nothing is more annoying than
to find some footling critic hailing as a master-
piece something that was done twice as well ten
years ago; though, of course, you can have a good
laugh at their regular howlers, such as that of
the bright bird who, in reviewing King's Row,
referred to Sam Wood, who has been directing
films for over 20 years, ever since the days of
Wallace Keid, as a clever new director well worth
watching. Knowledge means, too, that a critic
should have at any rate a smattering of music,
painting, literature and the theatre, a rough
general idea of what has been done and is being
done in the other arts, or he may easily make a
fool of himself. Wide taste means that if a high-
brow he should still be able to enjoy a good
musical, or if a lowbrow a good piece of serious
work; otherwise his p'ersonal tastes and prejudices
will always be getting in the way of a proper
judgment. And enthusiasm, most important of
all, means that he should really care for films as
a medium, that he should find the cinema, for all
its drawbacks, the most exciting and the most
potentially influential of all the arts. What's the
good of writing about films if all the time you
really like plays or literature better? And yet the
vast majority of film critics secretly despise the
films they praise so lavishly and the eager, lively,
good-humoured audiences they invite in to see
them.

the theatre critic, when he
reviews puts on an air of
condescension as though what he was reviewing
did not call for him to extend himself or use
his full powers. I remember how when he re-
viewed Earth, which naturally he had to take
seriously, his habit of treating films merely as
subjects for gossip had left him with little to
say except how nice it was to listen to Russian
music and how the close-ups of apples reminded
him of Cezanne (though how anyone could com-
pare Ekelchik's luminous Renoir-like photography
to Cezanne's hard geology I really can't think).
You can see the difference at once when he's
reviewing plays: Agate really knows something
about the theatre and his hear! is engaged in it
— he writes then as though what he was writing
and what he was writing about really mattered.
If he can't feel the same about films I wish
he'd stop writing about them.

Of course, there are many other qualities that
come in useful for a film critic (being able to write
well, for instance, doesn't do any harm), but
those three — knowledge, wide taste and enthu-

James Agate,
is writing film

siasm — are by far the most important and it's
surprising how few film critics possess even that
simple minimum. In fact, film critics as a whole
could be divided into two simple classes — the
cheap and the snooty.

The cheap, to whom it is simply a question of
earning » living, write with one eye on the adver-
tising manager; they are slick, knowledgeable
and disillusioned, their god is the box office and
they heartily despise and detest the films they see
and the public who go to see them and for whom
they write. They refer snivellingly to themselves
as " your film reporter " as though they were
expected to write up a film like a football match.
Why, even sports reporters use more taste and
judgment, and condemn a poor performance more
readily than these cringers of the popular press
who always abjectly apologise before expressing a
personal opinion of any kind, and even then hastily
qualify it with " of course, that's only my opinion
— you may find it grand entertainment." And
it's a constant joy to see these jolly boyos con-
fronted with a. film that raises some wider or
political issue, like Mission to Moscow or
For Whom the Bell Tolls. How they hum
and haw and clear their throats and look ner-
vously this way and that for someone to take
the plunge and give them a lead. Finally, after
scratching around like an old hen, they come out
with something like " There's bound to be a lot
of discussion about this picture. Of course, the
issues involved are none of the business of your
film reporter. I can say, however, that the
photography is very good, the acting excellent and
you'll find it great entertainment." What a gut-
less crew ! These petty hirelings make up for their
sense of guilt and inferiority bjr feigning a close
friendship with all the stars and big shots of the
cinema world — ' Sir Alex was telling me the
other day, etc."

The snooty gang, on die other hand, never
have the slightest hesitation in airing their
opinions. They've taken up film criticism not
so much to earn a living and certainly not because
they really care for films, but because it flatters
their vanity and gives them a good opportunity
to throw their weight about and acquire a certain
notoriety. With what scorn do they flay the
popular Hollywood films with their crooners and
jazz bands. How they wring their delicate hands
over this vulgarity here or that lack of taste there.
Being for the most part amateur outsiders (un-
successful book reviewers, authors, artists, art
critics and aesthetes), they have never taken the
trouble to understand the workings of the film
world, the limitations of one individual and the
many different difficult things that must happen
before a good film arrives. The result is that they
think of films as the artistic effort of one indi-
vidual and their columns are full of the names

14

THE CINE-TECHNI C I A X

January — April. 1044

of people they regard as great artists — Eisenstein,
I >isney, Preston Sturgi -. I >uvivier and, of course,
and pre-eminently, our old pal, Orson Welles.
What fools they made of themselves over little
Orson Annie and his thimble-sized epics! They
even bad the " popular " boys worried over him
in the end. so thai when that dreary, third-rate,
unthrilling B thriller, Journey into Fear,
appeared, poor Ernest Betts in a dither of panic
proceeded to give it four stars in the " Sunday
Express " and describe it as' directed by and star-
ring Orson Welles, in full face of the fact
the direction credit was Norman Foster and little
Orson Annie fortunately appeared for a few
minutes only in the hammiest performance ever.

But to do the " popular " boys justice, they
don't make bowlers of simple fact so often as
tbc " snooty " tribe. William Whitebait, of the

New Statesman," is the real champion of them
all at that ; it used to be quite exciting each week
waiting to find just how he'd given himself away.
One week it would be the wrong name of the
Mini, another tbc wrong theatre given, another
some old-stager or other called a promising new-
comer; some vintage weeks there'd be as many
as three howlers, but I think my favourite of all
was when be identified Rudy Vallee as Bing
Crosby. Next week he apologised for that one,
and the number has fallen off so badly now that
it's really not worth while following his column
any more.

Of course you can't deny that a film critic's
job is not a very happy one. He lives a curious
cut-off sort of life, seeing his films cold with a
lot of deadheads in the artificial atmosphere of a
pre-view theatre, and seldom if ever visiting an
ordinary " local " where the warmth and quick
response of an audience which has paid good
money really brings the film to life. Every critic
should make a. point of visiting his local at least
once a week just to see the people for whom
the films are made, what it is they want out of
them and what it is they do to them. As it is,
the enthusiasm of even the very best of the critics,
like C. A. Lejeune, flags, and their columns get
peevish and sarcastic, under the welter of
mediocre stuff that is poured onto them, unless
they seek the corrective of feeling again that
sudden lift and aliveness you get with a real
audience from even a poor film, which suddenly
makes the whole thing worth while.

And then there's always the threat of the adver-
tiser's blackmail hanging over your head.
Dilys Powell can be as snooty and high-hat as
she likes because the " Sunday Times " doesn't
care twopence whether it carries film adverts or
not. But when it comes to the popular press.
and, still more, the trade press, you've got to
watch your Ps and Qs. No advertiser is going
to take several pages of space with pull-out and

all in lovely art colours to boost one of his films
if he thinks there's any chance of it getting a
poor review in the same paper. A few advei -
reviewed J 5 productions is all right, if onlv to
keep the paper's subscribers in good humour, for
they are in general under no illusions about the
quality of the productions offered, but an A pro-
duction really slammed, -look out fior squalls.
A few years ago, " The Daily Film Benter " was
banned from 20th Fox film shows for unfavour-
able reviews, and it is not so many months back
that the film moguls were protesting to the
B.B.C. against films being reviewed unfavourably
over tbc air. Their argument, if you please, was
that if the broadcaster could find nothing good
to say about a film he should just give a resume
of the story and the names of the stars — as a
free advertisement. T suppose. What colossal
impudence !

Then there was the case, about 1932, of Cedrie
Belfrage. Cedrie Belfrage was a lively journalist
of the Alistair Cooke-Paul Holt- Anglo- American
style (he, like Alistair Cooke, has since been
naturalised a United States" citizen), who in spite
of all his fundamental lack of belief , at least knew
a good film when he saw one — ■ he gave
Kameradschaft four large stars in the "Sun-
day Express." Well, after a B.B.C. broadcast of
his attacking the rapacity of the Wardour Street
boys, all film advertising (bar that of the Hyams"
cinemas, whose offices were in Regent Street) was
withheld from the " Sunday Express," and the
next thing we knew Cedrie Belfrage was no longer
doing his film column.

Best of all perhaps was Graham Greene's little
lapse. Graham Greene, at any rate, was a good
writer and whatever one's opinion of his view of
life it was always entertaining to follow his Roman
Catholic nose in its constant search for a secret
smell, the hidden dirt. Anyway, one week his
column ir " Night and Bay " — you remember,
the pale imitation of the " New Yorker " — was
devoted to a spiteful, penetrating and extremely
amusing analysis of the attraction exerted by
Shirley Temple on the elderly. The next thing to
happen was a whopping great action for libel by
20th Century Fox, smashing damages and " Night
and Day " forced to close.

Well, the job certainly has its little difficulties
of one sort or another, but I do feel they should
make a better show of it than they do. The popu-
lar boys might try to take their job a little move
seriously and not be so cynical about it all ; the
snooty gents might be a bit more patient, have
a bit more faith and make some real imaginative
effort to understand the industry and what it is
that the public gets from it. What is particularly
disappointing is the poor quality of film criticism
in Left Wing circles. Unfortunately, anybody
who takes his politics at all seriously, whether

January— April, L944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

15

ISSUED BY THE BOARD OF TRADE

CIOTHES RATIONING

for

xtrn Coup

in Agriculture and Industry

THE 'INDUSTRIAL TEN' FOR 1943/4

Many classes of manual workers will again receive 10 extra coupons in the
current rationing period.
The trades and occupations eligible for this supplement are the same as in the last
rationing period and are set out in the leaflet called ' The Industrial Ten ' (I.T.44).
This is now obtainable — by employers, self-employed workers and trade union
officials ONLY — from local offices of the Ministry of Labour and National Service,
and employers are asked to post copies on works' notice boards. The list of
eligible workers will also be displayed on posters at Employment Exchanges,
Citizens' Advice Bureaux ; W.V.S. local offices ; and in the rural areas by the
Women's Institute.

Read the ' Industrial Ten ' leaflet and if you consider your work qualifies you for
the extra coupons, fill up the application form without delay.

to apply

Employers should obtain a supply of
application forms E.D.292 from the local
office of the Ministry of Labour and dis-
tribute them to their employees. As soon
as these forms have been filled in and
returned to him, each employer must
make a collective application (on form
E.D.294) for the total number of coupons
required. This should reach the local
office by mid-day, Saturday, Feb. 26th,
1944. This office will then issue the
coupons to the employer for him to dis-
tribute to the individual workers.

Employers should note that this year un-
employment books should not be sent in.

Employed Workers if eligible for the
extra coupons must obtain their appli-
cation forms E.D.292 from their em-
ployers or from their trade union. But
the form, when filled in, must be returned
to the employer, who will issue the
coupons as soon as he receives them.
These coupons will be usable immediately.

Self-employed Workers. If you consider
that your work qualifies you for the extra
coupons, you should get application form
E.D.293 from your nearest local office of
the Ministry of Labour, fill it up, and
return it to reach that office by mid-day
Saturday, Feb. 26th, !944.

% As last year, special arrangements are being made to
prevent hardship among workers in certain exceptionally
heavy industries. Details of these arrangements will be
made known through the Employers' Organisations and
Trade Unions in those industries.

ENQUIRIES. Please note that if
you want any further information cr
explanation ol the scheme, you
should ask; your trade union, or, if
you have no union, a*k your
employer. Employers should make
their enquiries through employers'
organisations.

'VAAAAWWAMAVW\<

16

THE C.IXE-TECHNICIAN

January — April, 194-4

Eight or Left, seems to have a profound contempt
for the importance and effect of any activity at
all except politics, and that goes double for films.
Any Torv or Trade Union leader up to London
for a couple of days and you can bet your boots
where he's gone of an evening — to a " show " —
the Windmill, a musical comedy or some highly
coloured leg-show film. Neither side believes that
the imagination of the people can be touched,
their human spirit roused and action achieved
through the hours they spend starry-eyed in the
cinema. To the politicos it's all either Entertain-
ment or Propaganda. And so" Reynolds,"" Tri-
bune,' ' ' The Daily Worker " and the rest of them
have never yet had a good film column — they're
either hack film-star write-ups or cheap political
tirades that totally underestimate the imagina-
tive power of what they're writing about. The
one real exception was the late Leon Moussinac,
whose column in the Communist "L'Humanite"
probably did more to build up the native genius
of the French cinema than any other single
agency. Over here a few people now and then
have written good reviews in Left Wing papers :
John Grierson used to do a good column in the

New Clarion " and some others do good articles
now and then, but there's no good Left Wing
writer whose full-time job is film criticism. And
that goes for America, too, if you make a possible
exception for people like Meyer Levin, Herman
(i. Weinberg or H. A. Potamkin. It's a sad, sad
fact, but true, and shows a sadly unrealistic
attitude on the part of Left Wingers. What we
need is somebody of the stature that Edmund
Wilson has in literature to do our film criticism.

Trade-press reviews are a little subject all on
their own. Of course, the Trade press of this
country cannot hope for the comparative indepen-
dence of " Variety," but it is true to say that if
your read the reviews regularly and carefully you
can, after long experience, often read between the
lines of fulsome praise the little haunting phrase,
"another stinker." Their reviews, anyway, are at
least factually accurate and, I should say, prove
a good guide to the knowledgeable exhibitor. And
to anyone interested in such matters their literary
style is a source of constant delight. Particularly
Charlie Walker's, of wdiich a random example like
"animated succession of knockabout hilarities
involving coy terpsichorean prancings" cannot
hope to give the full distinctive flavour. And then
you'll meet him in the street, fresh from the latest •
terrific epic. ' Seen any good films lately,
Charlie? ' ' No, not since 1923." ' What's
that then?" ' Fritz Lang's Destiny." They're
certainly pleasant company, particularly drinking
company, some of those boys, and some of the
hard-boiled Fleet Street boys, too, such as Peg
Mortimer, who used to be on " Empire News."
But unfortunately they're all too cynical, all too

tied up with the business side of the cinema for
their writing to be any real help in its develop-
ment. Though, to do them justice, most of them
respect and will put in a good word for a man
who they feel has real faith and the courage to
try and do something about it — not you, Orson,
Bil down.

Well, that's the general set-up, and it's not a
very happy one. Of course, good film reviews do
get written sometimes, but usually, unluckily,
in some periodical with a very limited circulation.

Close-Up," for all its posing, used to have some
good stuff in it from time to time. Robert Herring
used to do good reviews in a rather finicking kind
of way. Charles Davy and Alistair Cooke were
quite bright and breezy. ' The Spectator "
carries solid, sensible stuff from Basil Wright and
Edgar Anstey. But unfortunately that's all
coterie stuff that doesn't get to the public and
so has very little influence over films and film-
making. What we want is more critics with
courage, standards and a love of the cinema in
the popular press.

And now let's get to the prize-giving. First
Prize for more than 15 years' conscientious work.
few bad lapses and for keeping her belief in films —
C. A. Lejeune. Prizes for good honest columns
in the popular press and for giving British films
a helping hand — Ewart Hodgson and Elspeth
Grant. Prize for the most promising newcomer
(ii he will guard against becoming sour and snoot \ |
— Richard Wilmington. Prize for the choicest
vocabulary — Charlie Walker. Prize for the big-
gest drinker — I daren't say, but you know who
I mean. Booby Prizes: For hoity-toityness, Dilys
Powell ; for looking lost, worried and willing over
column after column, Ernest Betts ; for most
howlers, William Whitebait ; for calling a regular
feature, " My Friends the Stars." Jympson Har-
mlan ; for calling anything the Disney factory
does "a work of genius." almost everybody: for
taking the backbone out of every critic they use.
the B.B.C.

That's all lor now : dismiss, boys, and tile out
quietly.

-For StuJio ami
laboratory equipment,
Comerasjripo&j'rintindfiocessiiy
planL, ana far the solution of any
technical problem concerning
them - the name thalmathn is

W.VINTtN LTD. NO«IH CI«CUIA« «0 CRKKUWOOO-H .# 1
k .Glidilor* 6173

January— April, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

17

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY

ENCIRCLES THE WORLD

Ger. 6413

54/58, Wardour Street
LONDON, W.l

Ger. 7481

1«

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — April, 1944

THERE must be very few members of A.C.T.
who at some time in their lives have not met
Sid Cole, either in the Studios (he has
worked in most of them) ; at A.C.T. meetings (he
attends most of them) ; or in some hostelry devoted
to the sale of alcoholic liqtior (he knows most of
them).

Sid is the sort of chap who never makes an
entrance anywhere. One moment he isn't there,
and the next moment he is. He mixes quietly
into the proceedings, lights his pipe if he can't
cadge a cigarette and before you know where you
are he will have taken charge of the discussion
with logic and clarity. In fact, one of his chief
attributes is precisely the possession of a logical
and orderly system of reasoning. While some of
the more exuberant members at A.C.T. Council
meetings are occasionally inclined to fly off the
handle, Sid never loses his calm, and when he
speaks you feel he has thought it out very care-
fully and marshalled his points with great pre-
cision. That doesn't mean to say he is a brilliant
orator; he is more conversationalist than orator
and there was one famous occasion, about which
we still pull his leg, when he had to move an
important policy resolution at an Annual Meeting.
He made the worst speech anyone has ever lis-
tened to and the resolution was promptly defeated
out of hand. He thinks that perhaps the fact that
for the five weeks preceding the meeting he had
been working sixteen hours a day seven days a
week may have had something to do with it.

However, that might — and does — happen to
everyone sooner or later, and the value that mem-
bers place on his abilities is shown by the fact
that he has been elected Vice-President of A.C.T.
for years running and has been nominated for

CLOSE-UPS

No. 23 — SID COLE

President this year.

His loyalty and services to A.C.T. are consider-
able. A foundation member, he and a few col-
leagues fought a great fight for the technicians of
the film industry long before most of them appre-
ciated the benefits of Trade Union organisation.
He was prominent among those who in the early
days reorganised A.C.T and brought George Elvin
into the administration. He has been on innum-
erable Union committees and played a notable
part in negotiating the Studio agreement. He was
one of the three A.C.T. representatives who gave
evidence to the Moyne Commission on the Quota
Act. From its inception he has been on the Edi-
torial Committee of the A.C.T. Journal and one
of the sights of London is the spectacle of Sid wad-
ing through great piles of Journal proofs what time
sundry humble contributors hover respectfully in
the distance with jaundiced looks watching Sid
blue-pencil their purple passages or correct the
peculiar spelling adopted by so many of the film
industry Hteratti.

Sid Cole first saw the light of day in London in
1908, and after attending various L.C.C. Elemen-
tary Schools he won a scholarship to the West-
minster City School. From there he won another
scholarship to the London School of Economics
where he plunged into a whirl of social and
sporting activities, devoting such odd moments as
he could spare from these pleasant pursuits to the
study of economics and sociology.

He joined the amateur dramatic society and
while he admits that his acting didn't exactly set
the world on fire he thinks he did reasonably well
in plays by Shaw and Toller.

This sort of thing might have gone on for a long
time, but he broke a leg at football (he was keep-
ing goal and still resents the fact that the opposing
centre-forward scored a goal at the same time).
A few weeks lying in bed at Parts Hospital,
against whom, by the way. he had been playing,
gave him time to do some serious thinking about
the world in general. When he came out he
plunged into the activities of the Students Union.
became its secretary, and joined the Labour Party
group at the L.S.E.

His thoughts and future convictions were
greatly influenced by Harold Laski whose lectures
he attended, and eventually he passed out with
a degree in Economics and the problem of finding
a job.

Bv this time hi was tremendously interested in

January — April, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICI.W

19

films and, like many of us, was a worshipper at
the shrine of the Avenue Pavilion which at thai
time was showing picked programmes of all the
famous Continental films. Sid determined to enter
the film .business, and, of course, spent the next
six months interviewing everyone and getting no-
where. Finally, at the age of 21, he got taken on
as a reader in the Stoll script department, and
later was promoted to the post of clapper hoy at
35s. a week.

It was at Stolls that lie first met Thorold Dick-
inson, with whom he formed a close friendship.
Sid admits that he owes a lot to Thorold's guid-
ance and help which accounts for the fact that
tiny have worked as a team on many films. In
fact he left Stolls to go to Gainsborough to work
with Thorold on a George Pearson film. The next
two years he spent at B.I. P. editing numerous
epics, including the first picture Marcel Varnel
directed in this country.

He then went to Ealing to cut Carol Eeed's
first directorial effort, Midshipman Easy, and
worked there until the end of 198(3. In the mean-
time he had got married. His wife is American
and Sid says their marriage is about the most
enduring piece of international collaboration that
he knows.

By this time he felt he had earned a holiday.
For long it had been his ambition — shared by his
wife — to visit the Soviet Union and see at first
hand how things were going in the first country
to achieve a Socialist order of society. So, travel-
ling by way of Denmark, Sweden and Finland they
arrived in Leningrad and then visited Moscow.
Kiev, Sevastopol, Yalta (where they met Eisen-
stein) and Dhieperstroy where they saw the gigan-
tic Dnieper Dam, the great engineering triumph
of the Soviet Union. When the Russians had to
blow it up before the advancing Nazi military
machine, Sid felt its loss as keenly as any Russian
worker.

Altogether, Sid was away two months and the
trip made a profound impression on him. He was
a Socialist before he went and he came back
strengthened and heartened in his convictions by
what he had seen at first hand in a country where
Socialism was no longer a dream but an accom-
plished fact.

Back in England in the year 1937 he cut several
pictures at Rock's and Ealing, including Thorold's
High Command- He also did a lot of work for
the Film Society, helping to prepare their Sunday
programmes, and eventually became a member
of the Council.

Then came the Spanish Civil War. Franco and
his Fascist clique aided by the Moors, the Nazis
and the Italian Fascists waged armed rebellion
against the Republic, and the people of Spain,
poorly equipped as they were, fought back. It
was a Fascist rehearsal' for the next World War,

and most of us realise now, I should think, that
if it had not been for the treacherous policy of
"non-intervention" adopted by the British and
French Governments, Republican Spain would
have emerged victorious and the history of the
next few years would have been altogether dif-
ferent.

Sid, like all good democrats, was on the side
of the Republic and when the Republican Govern-
ment asked for a British film unit to go to Spain,
he jumped at the chance. Ivor Montagu, Thorold
Dickinson, Alan Lawson, Phil Peacock and Sid
Cole set off and lor three months they shot docu-
mentary materia] at and behind the lines of war.
They came back with two excellent films, Spanish
A.B.C. and Behind the Spanish Lines. Both films
were, tremendously valuable in informing the Bri-
tish public of the truth of the Civil War and the
social achievements of the Spanish Republic.

When Sid arrived back in England the British
film industry had pretty well collapsed. The mas-
ter minds who never learn anything had botched
things up so completely that hundreds of skilled
technicians were out of work, and Sid was one of
them.

He got a job directing a documentary short —
Roads Across Britain -- for the Realist Film
Unit under John Taylor, and thoroughly
enjoyed it. Sid is lull of enthusiasm for

STRAND FILMS

MAKERS OF DOCUMENTARY
FILMS SINCE 1934

20

THE CINE-TECHNICI.VX

January— April . 1 i )A 4

documentary and the people who work in it,
and he believes that the future of British films
lies in merging the integrity of the documentary
method with the craftsmanship of the studio.

It was nearly 18 months before he got another
job in a Studio and that was editing Gaslight
for British National at Denham. Unemployment
— as Sid says — is not just a question of going hun-
gry but also of skill rusting with disuse — a point
that some of the great ones of the industry might
well remember after the war. He still recalls
how keenly he realized this when he took up the
scissors to make his first cut on Gaslight. It was
a terrifying moment and it took some time to
recover full confidence.

Once back on the job again, Sid was given plent \
of work at Denham, Rocks and Ealing. He cut
Pimpernel Smith, First of the Few, and the first
Soviet film to be shown in Britain after the inva-
sion of Russia — One Day in the Soviet Union.

At Denham he played a big part in the produc-
tion of Our Film, the co-operative contribution of
the Denham workers to Anglo-Soviet unity and
friendship. He likes, by the way, to point out
that the only sizeable scene cut out of the film
was one in which he himself acted !

For the last two years he has been working hard
at Ealing, first as supervising editor (San Demet-
rio,Nine Men, etc.) and now as associate producer
on Priestley's They Came to a City and a film
about Norway's fight, The Return of the Vikings.

Despite his hard work in the studio and many
spare-time activities for A.C.T. Sid somehow finds
time to do a prodigious amount of reading. Any-
one who has visited him at his home in Ruislip
must have noticed the bookshelves which run all
round the room. There are several hundred books
there and they are books that have been read. His
tastes are wide and varied — you will find classic
works on Socialism jostling with volumes of poe-
try, modern American novels and bound volumes
of Peter Arno next to Wisden text books on
political economy..

Sid has always been a keen Socialist (very much
on the left-wing) and that is probably one of the
reasons why he is such a good trade unionist. He
knows why he is a trade unionist, and that is much
more important than it sounds. In Sid's view
being a trade unionist means something more than
the day-to-day economic struggle. That is all-
important, of course, but trade unionism must
have a long-term objective and that objective
should be the elimination of private ownership and
profit and the transformation of industry to social
ownership and public service.

That, as Sid points out, means fighting on the
political as well as the economic field, and if any-
one thinks that politics " is not for the likes of us "
they would do themselves a lot of good by listen-
ing to Sid interpreting the problem of the world

to-day in the light of his studies of Marx, Engels,
Lenin and other great masters of political theory
and practice.

Sid is, naturally and logically, an internationa-
list. That does not mean, as some shallow critics
maintain, believing in a policy of flooding the Bri-
tish film industry with foreign technicians. In
actual fact Sid is a staunch upholder of A.C.T. 's
policy of restricting the importation of foreign
technicians while British technicians are available,
and he is very keen on the Union's other proposal
for an international exchange of technicians on a
reciprocity basis.

No ; Sid is an internationalist because he realises
that the working peoples of the world are one,
with very similar problems and worries, ideals and
ambitions. Race, creed, religion — these things
don't make much difference either. If a man is
out of work, and hungry, it doesn't matter whe-
ther he's a Jew, a Negro, a Baptist — he's hungry
and out of work and that's wrong and something
must be done about it. Sid has long been a cham-
pion of Indian independence and numbers many
Indian writers and politicians among his friends.
He's against Imperialism in any shape or form.

If all this sounds as if Sid Cole is so burdened
with the serious things of life as to exclude all
else, let me correct any such impression. As a
social companion he is all that could be desired. I
have known him intimately for a good many years
now, and I would as soon be with him on, say, a
pub crawl as anyone. This, of course, may be
accounted for by the fact that he always laughs
uproariously at my jokes. In the good old days
before the war, when he lived in Camden Town,
he and his wife, Jean, used to throw an occa-
sional party which was considered by the hosts to
be a dismal failure if at least half the compam
failed to sink on the floor in an alcoholic coma. I
don't think he plays games very much now, but
in the summer he sneaks away as often as he
can to Lord's or the Oval. He eats like a horse
and his friends' wives shudder when he is brought
home to a meal, because he will very quickly eat
everything in the house and still have a hungrj
look in his eye.

Well, that, roughly is Sid Cole — a technician ot
high repute, a staunch and active trade unionist
and Socialist, and a good companion. He's a cre-
dit to the British film industry, and a loyal cham-
pion of all progressive causes.

Ralph Bond

Corrections to Last Issue: WHO'S WHERE
Henry V ' R< ggie Beck should have appeare I
as Supervising Editor only, and not ! -
Director with Laurence Olivier.

"Wallace Productions. - - V. H. Veevers should
have appeared as Cameraman and not as Assis-
tant Cameraman.

January — April, 1044

THE CINE-TECHNIGIAN

21

OBITUARY

Cadet A. J. Oakley, R.A.F.

The cavalcade of heroes from the ranks of
A.C.T. who have made the supreme sacrifice in
the great struggle must surely be enriched by the
presence of Tony Oakley. How can those of us
who knew and admired "Young Tony" measure
our loss? He was killed in a flying accident near
.Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

Educated at East Sheen County School, at 1(5
he entered the Camera Department at Shepherds
Bush under the wing of George Hill, who soon
developed his latent skill. Following the example
of big brother Maurice Oakley, it was not long
before he was in the front rank of first camera

assistants. Soon after his seventeenth birthday
he was promoted first assistant to Roy Fogwell
on important location jobs calling for initiative
and self-reliance. From then on, until he was
called up as a volunteer to the E.A.F. at the age
of eighteen, he never looked back in the im] or-
tance of his assignments, either studio or location.

A personality almost shy, yet bubbling over
with suppressed fun, he had a grasp of his job
and life in general way above his boyish appear-
ance ; his father was an invalid and when it fell to
his lot further to assist his widowed mother he just
took it in his stride.

On joining the R.A.F. he was soon selected
for special training and was sent to Florida,
U.S.A. — and he loved it. In a letter to the
"Studio Call Sheet" (sent by G.B. -Gainsborough
Forces Fund to all their serving members) he
once wrote: " I'm beginning to fly the 'plane
instead of the 'plane flying me. We fly on Sun-
days, too, but it is a pity we don't get ' double

bubble,' eh? Aerobatics are great fun!

And that was Tony. " Great fun," with a
quiet, confident grin in his eyes. We are proud
of him and we shall miss him. He was just
twenty. " Young Tony." C.J.F.W.

CORRESPONDENCE

After the War

It's good to see from your last issue the healthy
interest that is being taken towards post-war con-
ditions. However, it is unfortunate that the
views of those in the Services have been repre-
sented in so small a voice. Surely basic troubles
should be tackled before many of tiie minor jioints
that have been raised.

After the war we do not anticipate that mianciai
backing, technicians or floor space will be hard
to find, but there still remains the all-important
question of market — what, if anything, is being
done to ensure that our films will have a fair and
proper chance of distribution at home and abroad ?

The value of films sent overseas for creating
better understanding between nations is readily
agreed. We must not take a back seat in this
important field, but must have a firm footing

(Continued on Page 23).

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• ANIMATED DIAGRAMS

• PRECISION PROCESSING

BACKED BY AN ORGANISATION
WHICH HAS PROVED ITSELF

RELIABLE

EFFICIENT &

PROGRESSIVE

Studio Film

Laboratories Ltd

Telephone Gerr. 1365-6-7
80-82 WARDOUR ST., &
71 DEAN STREET, W.1.

22

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

January — April, 1044

NEMA

Festivity for the Kiddies

The New Year heralded a day of mueh happi-
ness for the many children of the serving mem-
bers of A.C.T. It was their Christinas Party

—just films, fun and buns. 20th Century Fox.
Warner Bros., the Colonial Film Unit and the
boys and girls of A.C.T. made the show go with
a swing, and our Winifred Pearson with much
hard work and lots of laughter consolidated our
efforts at giving the children a good time. There
were so many guests that the film show had to
be given in two theatres, 20th Century Fox and
the Colonial in Soho Square, E.K.O. with great
kindness letting us have two copies of Pinnochio,
which was received with loud acclamation. The
parties were then shepherded to the Warner Can-
teen, which Mr. Max Milder had put at our dis-
posal for the Christinas Tree and Party. A jolly
clown greeted the .youngsters and handed them
over to " Uncles " John Heddon and Roy Norman
from Pathe, who entertained them with a ver\
fine conjuring act, their magic producing many
exclamations of " It's up his sleeve," and other
nerve shattering remarks; it was then discovered
that Heddon's young son, who had been brought
along to help, was amongst the audience explain-

ing how his lather's feats of magic were performed.
Then tea, buns, cakes and sweets, the coupons
for which were provided by the sacrifice of many
of our members, a kindness much appreciated by
the little ones. ' Uncles" and "Aunties," who
included Gladys of the office and her mother, Mr.
and Mrs. Craik of A.C.T., Seymour Logie of
Rotha, Jock Gemmell of Pathe and George Elvin
and Winifred Pearson soon had everybody served
with tea, and then came the Tree with presents
for all and Father Christinas, played by the writer,
to give them away — if ever a man sweated ! And
as we see our happy guests depart we strip the
cloak of make-believe from our robust form, wipe
the dripping make-up from our steaming coun-
tenance, and retire to the local to drink the health
oi all those whose co-operation made the Party
such a success.
Strange News from Ivor

Wire received from Ivor Montagu — " Sorry not
back for General Council. Smartly uniformed
ladies were wearing A.C.T. badges. When 1
claimed acquaintance they say it means Aber-
deen Corporation Tramways and is very exclusive.
]■; this right?" Ivor should know he must always
be introduced to strange young ladies through tli-
Shop Steward, badge or no badg< .
Fighting Troops Demand Newsreel

From North Africa a British mobile kinems
operator writes to the Kinematograph Weekh
complaining that there are no up-to-date news-
reels to show the troops. He says the firsl ques
tion the troops visiting his show ask is: " IU\
you a newsreel?" All he has is some very ok.
Pathe Gazettes of 1041 42, which he says he feeh
almost ashamed to screen. ENSA are doing a good
job but have inadequate resources for obtaining
modern films. They in no way compare with the
programmes provided by the American Red Cross
which are up-to-the-minute. Surely the British
Newsreel Association in return for the great facili-
ties provided free by the Government Depart-
ments could arrange to produce once a week a tab-
loid reel for overseas troops. The small cost of tlii-
could be borne jointly by the M.O.I, and ENSA
It would be very welcome to the troops who ar
fighting abroad and would have a very powerful
influence on morale, especially if plenty of hom i
new s was included. There are two newsreels being
made at the moment by the troops themselves —
the Canadian Army Film Unit publish one a fort-
night and the Norwegian Army Film Unit one
every month, with a training or interest film in
between. The Canadian reel is under the Deputy
Director of Public Relations. Colonel Abel. Cap-
tain Gordon Sparling is Director of the Film Unit .
and Lieut. Thorn and Lieut. Alt Tunwell, late of
British Movietonews, are joint News Editor-.
Lieut. N. Spencer is in charge of library and ship-
ping and Sgt. Newhmds cuts. Thirty "battle

January — April, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

■_'.".

cameramen," divided into two units, one at home
and one in Italy, provide the excellent material
for this very welcome product.
A.C.T. Camerman Wins D.F.C.

Pilot Officer J. A. F. Wright, who before joining
the R.A.F. was in the Camera Department at
Technicolor, has just been awarded the D.F.C.
for his outstanding devotion to duty while making
a film record of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns.

During his service with the R.A.F. , Wright has
been torpedoed while aboard a ship in the Medi-
terranean by a Heinkel 111 and made a parachute
descent when his plane was hit while filming an
attack on a road junction north of Isernia, landing
safely three miles inside our lines. He had pre-
viously taken his camera on day-light bombing
operations over France and Belgium.

His father, E. J. M. Wright, News Editor
Cameraman, British Paramount News, was then
filming our attacks in Italy, and by a coincidence
the pictures shot by father in Italy and
son over France were exhibited in the same
issue of the newsreel. "Jimmy" Wright is one
of the few newsreel executives who has real feel-
ing for newsreel technicians. He obtained his
wings in the last war and left the comfort of the
Paramount News Desk to become a War Corre-
spondent Cameraman. His work in Flying For-
tresses and low-flying attacks on Germany and Italy
lias brought him much fame, and now the know-
ledge of his son's honour must- make him indeed
very proud — as A.C.T. is of its brave member.
News of S/Ldr. J. Willoughby

News just received from India that after relin-
quishing command of No. 2 RiA.F. Film and Photo
Unit (Mediterranean) Sq. -Leader J. Willoughby,
who was well known in the studio camera world
and a long-standing member of A.C.T., has formed

and taken over the command of No. 3 R.A.F. Film
and Photo Unit for service under the South Easl
\sia Air Command in the Far Eastern theatre of
war. He returned home from India I ■ air and (hir-
ing his stay he co-ordinated the ground work lie
had carried out in India and formed the unit at
the Air Ministry.

The Squadron Leader has a very fine record
during his overseas services and bakes very valu-
able war and technical knowledge to his new job.
While tendering him our hearty congratulations
we wish him the best of luck.

CORRESPONDENCE— (Continued from Page 21).
against our competitors. It is only too evidenl
that even our own cinemas are top-heavy with
American films, to an extent that is detrimental
to our citizens and our industry.

First and foremost, the answer to this market
problem must be found, or after the war we will
perhaps not be concerning ourselves with qties-
tions of control, apprenticeship or foreign techni-
cians, but the very existence of the film producing
industry itself.

We must not too easily forget thai ten years
after the last war our studios were revived by
artificial respiration in the form of the much
abused Films Quota Act. This film history mast
not be allowed to repeat itself.

Yours, etc., STANLEY IRVING.

S Lieut., R.N.V.R.

I lth ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING

SUNDAY, APRIL 23rd
commencing at 10.30 a.m.

CAXTON HALL
WESTMINSTER, S.W.I

(off Victoria Street. Nearest underground
St. James Park)

All members are entitled to and should
attend. Many important policy decisions
will be taken and officers elected for the
ensuing year.

A copy of the Annual Report and Agenda
for the Meeting will be sent to each
member a week before the Meeting.

-; I THE C INE-TECHNICIA N

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

January— April, 1944

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

New Back Projection Equipment at Paramount

Studios (Edouard Farciot, S.M.P.E. Journal,

June, 1943).

When the Back Projection process was first
introduced in 1931 the equipment used was neces-
sarily of a makeshift character. Technicians would
take the best projector head available and fit it
with a camera type pilot pin movement. It was
the same with projection lenses, lamp houses,
electrical control systems and the rest. This
state dI affairs continued ior a number of years.
Meanwhile the demand was for larger and still
larger screens. The 6ft. to 8ft. picture width of
the early days grew progressively to one of 24 feet,
and colour added its own problems.

In 1938, under the sponsorship of the Academy
Eesearch Council, the leading process specialists,
and manufacturers and engineers, were brought
together to work out standard specifications for
the industry's process shot requirements. In 1939
the specifications were finally approved and the
first complete sets of equipment were delivered in
1942.

Each equipment forms in itself a complete unit
for single-head transparency projection with
illuminating power and ease of operation hitherto
unknown. Any three of these units can be com-
bined to form a triple-head assembly by mounting
the projection heads on the new standard triple-
head base. The centre unit is the key machine
and directly faces the screen. The two outer
units face inwards at right angles to the centre
machine and their images are reflected on to the
screen by front surfaced mirrors. The three
images are accurately superimposed on the screen.
The resulting 280 per cent increase of illumination
makes it possible to work with a 36ft. screen in
black and white and a 24ft. screen in Technicolor.
In a recent colour film a 48ft. wide background
was produced by using two triple-head units side
by side. Ease and precision of operation are also
features of the equipment. For example,
synchronism of camera and projector is automatic,
focussing can be controlled from camera position,
the projector may be panned or tilted with the
freedom of a camera, and the new units have been
silenced to a degree comparable with that of a
blimped studio camera.

Mitchell Single-system Sound Camera (E. J.
Tiffany, American Cinematograpber, Septem-
ber, 1943).

The Mitchell Camera Corporation have
developed a new single-system sound and picture
camera. Just now it is being supplied onlv to
Government departments, but after the war it
will become available for educational, newsreel
and travelogue work.

The camera is based on the standard Mitchell
model and has the standard focus tube, filter slide,
veeder counter, buckle trip, revolving four-lens
turret and 175 deg. shutter, plus a recording
impedance drum. The camera is driven by either
a 12 or 24 volt motor; the standard 100 volt
Mitchell motor can also be used. The matte box
and sunshade with pola screen holder bellows,
3in. filter and gauze holder, is capable of handling
a 24mm. lens. An opening in the side of the sun-
shade permits the finder to be fitted close to the
lens to reduce parallax. The finder is of the erect
image type with built-in mattes. A new feature
is the finder mounting which allows the finder k
swing upwards and clear of the camera door for
threading.

Another new feature is the rack-over lever,
which is at the side of the camera. A forward
movement racks the camera over to viewing posi-
tion and a backward movement brings t lit
camera to the taking position. The magazines
(1,000ft. or 400ft. capacity) are fitted with wind
guards to prevent the belt being blown off tin
pulley when the camera is used in the air or as a
protection in bad weather.

Either B.C. A. or Western Electric sound
systems can be used with the camera. An B.C. A
galvanometer is fitted on the camera described
This is controlled from a portable amplifier which
has two microphone connections with two mixing
pads and one main gain pad which feeds the
galvanometer. The amplifier is a push-pull type.
Class B amplification, which results in automatic
noise reduction. The sound track is positioned
a standard distance ahead of the picture system

WANTED
WANTED Debrie or Vinten 35mm Cine
Camera; condition immaterial. — Write Box CT.
101. 5-6. Red Lion Square, London, W.C.i.

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archil',' Id Nettlefold Production

Thami and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

VVehvyn Garden Citv Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited.

is -held
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Director of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex.
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinewood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, VV.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Associated Productions Ltd., Calcutta
Bharat Movietone, Madras
Bombay Pictures, Bombay
Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay
Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore
Chitramandir Studio, Bombay
CIRCO Productions, Bombay
Gemini btudios, Madras
India Artists Ltd.. Bombay
Minerva Movietone, Bombay
Modern Theatres Ltd., S
National Studios Ltd., Bombay
New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta
Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore
Prabhat Film Co., Poona
Pragati Pictures Ltd., Madras
ish Pictures. 1 ' mb
jit Movietone, Boml
Seth Manecklal Chunilal
Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta
Siedles Cineradio Ltd., Colombo, Ceylon
Vel Pictures Ltd., Madras

AUSTRALIA

Eiltee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Bui ton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

News, New York City
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles
Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.
Reeves Sound Studios, New York City
Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood
20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros., New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

R 0 A PHSTOPHONE LTD., Electra House, Victoria Embankment, London, Y/.C.2

Telegrams : IRCAPP, Estrand, London Telephone : Temple Bar 2971 8 {lines)

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD.

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WAR DOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.1

Telephone: GERrard 671
Cablet: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians. 9. Brprnefield. Stanrnore. Middled*,
and printed tor them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

LIBRARYf

MA'

1944 JUN

RALPH BOND

JACK DOOLEY

TER HOPKINSON

A. E. JEAKINS

THE MUiSUW

©FMOD««*MHT RONALD NEAME

SCREENCOMBER

OUR BUSIEST YEAF
BIOFF "GETS RELIGION'
FROM PERSIA TO ITALY

A TALK ON TECHNICOLOI

WITH CERTAINTY

ON MANY FRONTS where vital pictures
are made without rehearsal, the camera-
men have utmost confidence in the un-
varying high quality of 'Kodak' films.
This certainty is built on a half century
of unexcelled performance.

KODAK LIMITED, Motion Picture Film Department
KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C.2.

'KODAK9 FILM

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journai of The Association of Cine-Technicians

diforial & Publishing Office: 9, BROMEFIELD, STANMORE, MIDDLESEX. Telephone: EDGWARE 3119

advertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Asiociate Editon : Darrel Catling, Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin. Kenneth Gordon, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury.

• umber Forty-eight, Volume Ten

May — June, 1944

Price One Shilling

A.C.T.'s Eleventh Annual Report

OUR BUSIEST YEAR

If this year's report of the General Council to
the Annual Meeting was a longer document tnan
usual it was because A. C.T. in its eleventh year has
had the busiest period in all its existence. For
one thing, our membership continues to grow. We
now have 3744 members as against 2908 last year
and an expanding membership involves more
work, more meetings, more negotiations, more
discussions and decisions on broad issues of policy.

The Annual Eeport appears at a stage in the
war when all our thoughts are on early victory
over the common enemy. The members of A. C.T. ,
whether in the fighting forces (seven hundred of
them) or whether engaged in the civilian industry,
have worked hard to aid the war effort. Although
not relaxing their efforts their thoughts have
naturally turned to the position of our industry
after the war, and the Annual Eeport details the
activities of the General Council on this question.
Considered expressions of A.C.T.'s views have
been prepared and deputations sent to voice them
at meetings with the Board of Trade and the Cine-
matograph Films Council. In particular the
General Council has not relaxed its campaign
against the great commercial monopolies, British
and American, that are trying to attain a strangle-
hold on the industry.

One of the most practical and constructive mea-
sures has been the publication of an exhaustive
memorandum on the post-war use of Documentary
and Instructional Films.

Again, with an eye to the future, the Council
has approached the American Trade Unions in an
effort to arrange a reciprocity agreement concern-
ing technicians of one country working in another.
We are determined that never again will our indus-

try be inundated by a one-way flow of foreign tech-
nicians. We shall always welcome the good ones,
but only on condition that our members get a
cham to go abroad in equal cumbers.

As usual a good deal of the work undertaken
by the General Council and the office staff has been
concerned with negotiating agreements. The
Studio Agreement has been the subject of several
conciliation meetings, with on the whole favour-
able results for A. C.T. An agreement, based on
the Studio Agreement, has been signed with Tech-
nicolor, and several additional companies have
signed the Shorts Film Agreement. For the first
time comprehensive agreement is being nego-
tiated with the Newsreel Association, although
due to the intransigence of the Employers it will
have to go to arbitration before finality is reached.
A substantial increase in the Cost of Living
Bonus was secured from all Laboratory Employers
and our members in this section are busily pre-
paring a new basic agreement for early negotia-
tion.

An immense amount of detailed organisational
work has been undertaken during the year by
George Elvin and Bert Craik. Much of this is
unspectacular but its value cannot be overesti-
mated. Such things as addressing recruiting meet-
ings, representing members- at Tribunals and
Appeal Boards, obtaining alarm clock permits for
early-rising members, attending to clothing coupon
problems, assisting the widows of members, advis-
ing individual members on personal problems,
settling small local disputes and grievances — all
this is the " bread and butter work " of any Trade
Union. Without it being done properly no Union
could survive and we are fortunate in having in

26

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May— June, 19-44

Elvin and Craik two such efficient and energetic
officials. No call for their help is ever left un-
attended.

Our relations with other filrn industry Trade
Unions have been maintained on a friendly basis,
and it is hoped that when certain differences be-
tween the E.T.U. and the N.A.T.K.E. have been
ironed out, the former will become a member of
the Film Industry Employees' Council.

Contacts with the broader Trade Union move-
ment have also been maintained — the Trades
Union Congress, the Labour Research Department,
the Women's Parliament, National Council for
Civil Liberties, the British Workers' Sports Asso-
ciation and Unity Theatre. A.C..T. branches in
Westminster, Hammersmith, Harrow and Rugby
have affiliated to their local Trades Councils.

The Employment Bureau has continued to ren-
der efficient service to members and 165 applica-
tions for staff were handled. The Journal has

enjoyed a consistent popularity, particularly witL
members in the Force?, and the larger papei
ration we have now obtained will ensure an in-
creased circulation.

Other sections of the Annual Report describe
what the Union has done on such question-
Income Tax, the Benevolent Fund (still far short
of the £5,000 target), the return to civil employ-
ment of serving members, the recently completed
revision of Rules and many other matters. How-
ever, every member has the chance to read the
Report for himself as it will be sent by post to
everyone. Read it carefully, take pride in a good
year's work, and above all play your part in
making next year an even better one.

Ralph Bond

Note. — A report of the Annual Meeting on April
23rd will be given in the next issue.

"PAY AS YOU EARN" INCOME TAX

Supplementary notes to memorandum published in last issue, supplied by the
Income Tax Advisory Service of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation.

1. This memorandum is chiefly concerned with
procedure on and after 6th April, 1944, the
date on which Pay As You Earn begins. Be-
fore that date every worker receiving £2 a
a week or more, should have received his
" Notice of Coding " and should have had any
adjustments made if it was wrong.

2. Change of employment before 5th April. If a
worker starts a new job before 5th April it is
important that the Inspector of Taxes' office
should know so that a Tax Deduction Card
can be sent to the employer showing the cor-
rect coding. Any enquiries from the Tax Office
should be answered at once. If a form is issued
by the Tax Office it should be filled up at
once. There is little time to make enquiries
and the taxpayer should do all he can to help
get his coding correct.

3. It is important to note that under Pay As You
Earn an employer must deduct tax from em-
ployees getting over £2 a week if he has not
received a code number on a tax deduction
card. If an employee getting over £2 a week
is not liable to tax, it is the code number which
tells the employer this.

4. Change of employment after 6th of April.
Whenever a worker getting over £2 a week
leaves a job he should see that he gets parts

2 and 3 of form P. 45 from his late employer.
This is important even if no tax is being de-
ducted. On starting a new job he hands both
parts of the form to his new employer. This
form notifies the new employer what tax has
been deducted and the worker's Code Num-
ber. If it is not handed in the employer must
deduct tax on the basis that the worker is i
single man, with no allowance for life assur-
ance, pensions, contributions or anything else
i.e., Code XI.

5. Lost Form P. 45. If a worker loses parts 2
and 3 of form P. 45 he should notify the office
of the Inspector of Taxes or ask his new
employer to do so, and should give the nam*
and address of his old employer, and his work^
number, and any other details such as brand
or contract, which will enable his Code Num-
ber to be traced. Until the Tax Office traci
his previous papers they cannot tell the new
employer what the code number should be,
and the new employer must therefore deduct
tax as if the worker were a single man and
continue to do so until a Code number is noti-
fied.

6. Unemployment. If the worker goes to his new
job within a week or two of leaving the old
one. any refund of tax which mav be due will

May — June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

27

be made by the new employer, after the
amount due has been checked by the Tax
Office. If the worker is out of work for more
than 2 or 3 weeks he should produce both
parts of form P. 45 to the Inspector of Taxes
office so that the refund can be made. The
exact procedure on this point will be notified
later — it will probably be posted up at Em-
ployment Exchanges.

Change of circumstances. If the worker gets
married ; if his wife has a baby ; if he takes
out a new life insurance policy ; if aged parents
become dependent on him or if any other
event occurs which may affect his tax, he
should notify the Inspector of Taxes' office at
once. Enquiries may be necessary and if made
should be replied to at once.
As soon as the Tax Office is satisfied that a
new allowance is due, the employer will be
told the new code number. The effect of this
notification will be to reduce the tax payable
each week or month, and in many cases it
will result in an immediate refund of tax. This
refund will square up the tax position as from
the beginning of the Income Tax year, i.e.
6th April to the current date, and there will
be no need for any claims to be made for
refund of tax previously paid. It will all be
dealt with by the employer when he is told the
new code number.

Refunds not made. If the worker has lost the
form P. 45 on an earlier change of employment
and the Tax Office has been unable to trace
his previous papers, these refunds must be
left over to the end of the year.
Delay in making refunds. There may be a
week or two delay in making these refunds.
It should be remembered that the Tax Office
may have to make enquiries before the new
code number can be sent to employers. The
employer may make up his wages sheets some
days before pay day and some employers may
be operating the alternative scheme' whereby
adjustments are only made every second or
third week.

Give reference number. When writing to the
6ffice of the Inspector of Taxes to report
change of circumstances or for any other pur-
pose the employee should give the reference
number appearing on the notice of coding, or
the name and address of his employers, his
trade, and works number. This greatly assists
in presenting delay.

EVERY DAY
IT COSTS £12,000
TO SEND PARCELS

^WH PRISONERS

OF war —

Sending parcels to prisoners of war
in Europe is only one of the many
services of the Red Cross and St. John.
It is because of the increasing need
for these services that you are asked so
urgently to give a little EXTRA help.

PLEASE GIVE AN

EXTRA PENNY-A-WEEK

TO THE RED CROSS

PENNY-A-WEEK FUND

Supporting the Duke of Gloucester •. c\«.d Cress & St. John Fund
Registered under the War Charities Act, 1940

28

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May — June, 1944

FROM PERSIA TO ITALY
By Sergeant P. Hopkinson, A.F.P.U.

SINCE my last letter much film has flowed
through the camera in a variety of places.
After Persia I spent four months in the
Western Desert, from September to December
1942, one of the many cameramen whose
material became Desert Victory. I can only endorse
other people's opinion that the desert doesn't
make the happiest background for pictures. The
only possible style that to me could represent the
weird contrasts of its life is surrealism, many land-
scapes with their utterly incongruous relics of
human habitation recalling forcibly paintings by
Dali. An illustration of this. Driving along one
day, nothing in sight on any side, my attention
was caught by something white in the sand. It
turned out to be the complete works of Oscar
Wilde.

The tirsi four months of 1943 I passed in
Cairo, which possesses at least four studios with
varying degrees of efficiency, so I felt quite at
home. The best equipped is the Misr, out by the
Pyramids, where the equipment is very good — N.
i Mitchells, the latest Bardwell spots, an-!
several Tobis Channels. They produce the Arab
prestige pictures, the most lavish of which costs
F. 10,000. After two _years of intensive showing
in the Arabic world they hope for F.5,000 clear
profit. One of the independent producers told me
that with the low cost of production (a lighting
cameraman is lucky if he gets F.15 a week) and
the huge market, Arabic production is a paying
game. I noticed all the way from Persia to Egypl
that every small town possesses one or two thea-
tres specialising in these films, which seem to run
indefinitely. An Arabic version of Aida ran in
Cairo for months, and only gave way to even more
ornate Cleopatra. The technical standard is sur-
prisingly high, but the tempo of the pictures is
terribly slow to our standards, the Arab mind lik-
ing !<> take its time over entertainment. I bor-
rowed .i battery of lamps from one of these ever-
obliging studios and lit an instructional film in an
ordnance factory. This we succeeded in turning
upside down ; and having converted one of its trol-
leya into a makeshift dolly, changed its atmos-
phere completely into that of -a studio. Using its
overhead galleries as lamp gantries, and tracking

merrily up and down amongst the Palestinian
A.T.S. working there, I could almost feel that I
was back on a stage, a very7 welcome change from
the everlasting sun.

From the pleasant life of Cairo, superficially
very remote from the war, I flew to Algiers for
the end of the African campaign. In the hope of
an Axis Dunkirk I spent my time with the Navy,
but as the Germans did not co-operate, all I got
was bouts of seasickness. The atmosphere of
Algiers was very different from that of Cairo, one
definitely felt that one was in France, with little
trace of Africa in evidence. Francoise Rosay was
there then, and with many new Vichy-inspired
films showing alongside a series of Marcel Pagnol
revivals and the evergreen Cornet du Bal, the
atmosphere of the French cinema was much in
evidence. Then followed a lull, broken by the
King's visit, and the preparations for the invasion
of Sicily.

From the very beginning, the loading of men
and equipment into the fleet of landing-craft, I
covered this campaign very fully. I operated this
time as a free-lance, a more productive method ot
working than being attached to any oe formation.
The invasion fleet at sea. absolutely unmolested
li\ the enemy, was a terrific sight.

A fascinating country to work in, as rich in pos-
sibilities for the camera as one could wish. The
people were grand, only too willing to help. They
received the news of Mussolini's eclipse with
scenes of great delight, for Fascism quite obviously
meant nothing to the Sicilian. One finds a modern
cinema, very well designed and built, existing
in a town in which the houses of the people, are
the last word in dirt and poverty, a fitting symbol
ul the benefits of Fascism. Their obvious delight
in our arrival, bringing with it the freedom for
which they have always yearned, must really
bring home to the ordinary soldier just what this
war is really all about. As one of the arrested
Fascists was being driven away to captivity, he
said to the Sicilian policeman " Move over and
let me be comfortable."

' You've been comfortable tor 21 years,"' was
the reply. ' I hope you'll lie uncomfortable foi
just as long."

May -June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

■2'.)

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-second
List

1. ALSTON (Assist. Developer, Sydney Wake
Labs)— H.M. Forces.

\. G. BALL (Mechanic, Denham Labs). — Army.

P. J. BAKRY (Sound Assist., Leevers-Rich)—
H.M. Forces.

MICHAEL BAYLEY (Camera Assistant)— Navy.

J. BIGG (Camera Loader) — Navy.

r. BOYLE (Technicolor)— Navy.

IAROLD BULL (Technicolor)— H . M . Forces.

!. COLEMAN (Cinit Labs.)— R.A.F.

tfiss M. COX (Negative Cleaner, Kav's West End
Labs)— A.T.S.

P. DAVIDSON (Sound Camera Operator. Cains-
borough) — Navy.

N. R. DOLBEAR (Projection and Camera Main-
tenance, Ealing) — United States Strategic

! Services, attached Naval Film Unit, in civilian
capacity.

'LIVE DONNER (Assist. Editor, Denham)—
H.M. Forces.

<\ H. DRAPER (Olympic Kine)— Armv.

l. ETHERINGTON (Despatch Department,
G.F.D. Labs)— H.M. Forces.

l. L. GALLUP (Chemical Mixer, Kay's West
End)— R.A.F.

'r. GARDNER ('2nd Projectionist, M.O.I.)—
Army.

ft. HAMMOND (Paramount News)— Armv.

,'. HARRISON (Ncg. Dryer, Kay's West End)—
Merchant Navy.

I. J. HESKETH (Sound Camera Operator.

National Studios) — Navy.
... HODGSON (Pos. Dryer, Kay's West End)—

I Navy.

I). JACKSON (Developing, Denham Labs.)
H.M. Forces.

JOHN JORDAN (Cutting Assist., Pathe Pictures)
—Navy.

Mrs. D."LAROU (Cutter, Verity Films) - Free
French Film Unit.

ARTHUR LAWSON (Draughtsman)— R.A.F.

G. LEWIS (Follow Focus)— Army.

L. LINZEE (Assist, Cutting, G.B. Screen Ser-
vices)— 'H.M. Forces.

W. T. MORGAN (Denham Labs.)— H.M. Forces.

D. RYAN (Camera Assist., Common Ground) —
Army.

M. J. SAMUELS (Assist. Projectionist, Specta-
tor Films) — H.M. Forces.

D. SAUNDERS (Kay's West End Labs.)— Navy.
K. SOFTER (Projectionist, Pathe Pictures)—

R.A.F.
A. J. SPECK (Clappers, Welwyn Studios)— Naw.
S. S. STREETER (Prod, and Unit Manager,

British National)— R.A.F.
IVOR THACKER (Neg. F)ryer, Kav's Finsbury

Park)- Navy.
R. USILL (Assist. Librarian, Crown Film Unit) —

Armv.
C. J.' WALLACE (British Acoustic) — H.M.

Forces.
R. E. WAND (Projection, Gainsborough) — Navy.

E. R. WEBB (Pos. Examiner, George Hum-
phries)— R.A.F.

J. R. WILES (Camera Assist., Merton Park)—
Naw.

PAUL WILSON (Camera Assistant. Gains-
borough)— Navy.

Promotions

ALAN IZOD, Naval Film Unit, promoted Lieu-
tenant Commander.

T. S. LYNDON-HAYNES, A.K.S. Film Unit.
Wembley. Promoted Lieutenant.

Casualties
W. LEUTY (Pos. Dryer, Denham Labs). Killed
on active service with Naw.

ARTHUR GRAHAM AND RONNIE NOBLE

Arthur Graham and Ronnie Noble both
managed to get away from their prison camps
when Italy capitulated. After a month's freedom
Arthur Graham was unlucky and got caught again.
He is now in Germany and his address is: —
Captain F. A. Graham, British IYisorer of War
No. 1214. Oflag VIII. F, Germain

Ronnie Noble appears to have been more
fortunate. When last seen by Graham he was
tree and well, and no news since then gives reason
to hope for the best.

30

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

May — June, 1044

It Happened through the Blitz. Film Labora-
tories were bombed out in a recent raid. When
.1 small building receives direct hits that pn
well finishes it. Fortunately it was not on a ni
reel night and so there was only one minor
casualty. An interesting outcome came about
because of the need to get the newsreel processed.
The Film Lab. boys were sent over to Olympic
Laboratories to do the job. When our members at
Olympic learnt they were 100% A.C.T. there was
no difficulty and every facility was given. Our
members at Film Laboratories would like to place
on record how much they appreciate the com-
radely co-operation received from all the workers
at Olympic. We are quite certain that had Film
Labs, been a non-A.C.T. Laboratory there would
have been a different story to tell. There is a moral
here for employers of non-union labour and also for
employees who through indifference have never
joined A.C.T.

Olympic. Eecently there have been great
improvements at this laboratory. The employees
with long service and experience have all had
increases over the minimum. When one con-
siders that there are fully skilled film printers who
have given years of service to the industry who
are still earning £4 0s. Od. per week, the reiterated
statements of employers about minimum rates
comes home to one with full force. How often have
we of the Negotiating Committees heard, " but we
are only discussing minimum rates ; a good man
will always be paid well above these rates." Well,
I can name many A.C.T. members who are first-
class men and women at their jobs but they are
still on the minimum rate.

National Screen Services. We are glad to report
that the boys and girls at National Screen Services
are flocking into A.C.T. A shop steward and
committee have been elected and they attend
General Council meetings regularly.

An agreement based on the Shorts Agreement
has been drawn up in collaboration with our
members. This was submitted to the manage-
ment as a basis for discussion. The Organiser has
hud two meetings with Mr. Arnold William-.
representing the management, and it was felt thai
reasonable progress was being made. Unfor-
tunately, on the return of Mr. Paul Kimberley,
the managing director, from India the position
has altered considerably. It lias been made quite
clear that the company will neither recognise
our shop steward nor discuss te question of an
agreement with us. This is somewhat surprising
in view of the fact that Mr. Paul Kimberley was
chairman of the old Laboratory Association which

negotiated the Standard Laboratory Agreement.

It is significant that the company have a mono-
poly in trailer production. Wth all that is being |
said about monopolies at the present time and the
attitude of this company one can easily under-
stand the A.C.T.'s policy regarding monopoli

National Screen Services Factorj is at Perivale
where trailer production and Shorts Films are
made. Apart from the editorial, camera and art
departments there is an extensive despatch depart-
ment where the bulk of the work is done by juve-
nile labour. A handful of laboratory workers on
the payroll are down at Henderson's pending the
building of a temporary laboratory at Oxbridge.
None of the employees receive a cost-of-living
bonus. All the employees at Perivale with one or
two exceptions are paid considerably below the
rates laid down in Agreements covering the In-
dustry.

Naturally, we shall take the company to arbi-
tration. Since the managing director returned
to this country there has been a definite move t<
smash A.C.T.'s influence at Perivale. While wi
have no quarrel with any firm which prefers
take a chance at arbitration we raise the strong
protests at any intimidation of our members, and
here we shall have the full support, not only ot
every trade unionist in the film industry, but also
of employers who are paying fair wages and of the
Ministry of Labour. We should very much regret
having to include this matter in our terms of
reference when the case is referred to arbitration.

There then ;s the picture of National S
Services at the time of going to press. It is one
of a section of workers taking advantage of their
democratic rights to organise themselves into their
appropriate trade union for the purpose of nego-
tiating an agreement and meeting with all -
of difficulties. We sincerely trust there will be 8
happier story to tell in our next issue of this jour-
nal. Bert Craik

WHO'S WHERE IN FILM PRODUCTION

There is no " Who's Where " in this issue.
Shorts were fully covered two issues ago and Fea-
ture details will in future appear in a new form.
The Credits scheme arranged with the B.F.P.A
will result in a record of each production b<
deposited with the A.C.T. as the film is finished.
Will all Shop Stewards co-operate with the Pro-
ducers to ensure that the Credits Forms, supplied
to bhem 1>\ the British Film Producers' Associa-
tion, are completed aim returned. All these
records will be published during the course oi
-y ach year.

May— June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

31

ARE IMPOSSIBLE —

Liles of Ilford Film are used in every branch of
the Services. On every battlefront history is being
recorded for posterity by official still and cine
photographers on Ilford Film. In the Navy cameras
loaded with Ilford Film fight with the guns and the
R.A.F. use Ilford Film to locate their targets and
record the results of their devastating work. The
six British factories of Ilford Limited are contri-
buting their great resources to the vital part
which photography is playing in the war effort.

The Sicilian Landings.
Dawn, July 10, 1943.
(Crown Copyright)

ILFORD LIMITED
CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL HOUSE

W A R D O U

STREET

LONDON

W

32

T H. E C I N E - T E C H X I C I A N

May — June, 1944

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

Penrose Tennyson, by C.T. A. S. Atkinson. 8 6d.

Pen Tennyson was not the sort of person whom
one forgets. He had a special kind of vitality
which was very enduring and I am sure that
many of his friends and colleagues often catch
themselves thinking with sharp surprise that he
is dead. This biography of him by his father fills
in many details which we could not know, par-
ticularly of his childhood, and adds a little to our
appreciation of the variousness of his character.
But it is perhaps too personal a book to recom-
mend to those who never knew Pen, and the
character which emerges has not quite the robust-
ness of the original.

Adding one's own knowledge of him to the his-
tory in the book it is interesting to trace the growth
of his character with its mixture of energy and
sensitivity, of a joyously rebellious nature very
content with his more conventional background.
I remember him most vividly in his first weeks at
The Bush in the days when old Etonians were far
less common among us than they were in Mr.
Baldwin's cabinet — or was it Mr. MacDonald's?
We wondered, and so did he, how his manners and
mannerisms would go down ; and he professed him-
self determined to "live down" Eton. That he
succeeded there can be no doubt. Those who pro-
fessed themselves unable to stick him at any jjrice
became his warmest friends and admirers and he
managed through the real generosity of his charac-
ter to be a real and interesting person and a pro-
mising director.

Michael Gordon

The British Journal Photographic Almanac. Henrj

Greenwood, 5/- (cloth), 3/6d. (paper).

While the current shortage of materials has
inevitably restricted the activities of the profes-
sional and amateur photographer in the full ex-
pression of his medium, the war has given an
impetus to the development of its potentialities
in the scientific and technical field. That these
potentialities will be open to everybody to turn to
his profit or pleasure in the post-war years is one
of the encouraging messages of the current I iril isb
Journal Photographic Almanac.

Battledress appears actually to have improved
this admirable handbook. Thus, while it has been
found necessary to omit certain relatively unim-
portant matter, a complete revision of the rest of
the contents has allowed space for an enlargement
of the formula? section — particularly in regard to

developers — and to augmented data on the more
scientific applications of photography, such as
oscillograph recording. An entirely new and ex-
tremely valuable feature has been introduced — a
glossary of technical terms. Here are explained
many terms, both photographic and chemical,
which are continually cropping up in current litera-
ture but for which a definition is often far to seek.

Among many interesting articles is one by Mr.
H. W. Greenwood putting forward a reasoned plea
for the rationalisation of recipes and formula?.
Other featured articles deal with the photography
of wild flowers, the photography of lightning,
enlarging from small films and photography in the
school physics laboratory. An " Epitome of Pro-
gri s> " describes new methods, processes and gad-
gets for the most varied branches of photography.
while the advertisement pages are tempting
enough to make any enthusiast's mouth water for
the feast of opportunities ahead !

The book is further enriched by the inclusion
of a pictorial gravure supplement whose range ex-
tends from a dramatic British Official photograph
of the looting by the fascists of freed Catania to G.
L. Hawkins' leisured study of " Polperro." My
own particular favourite is J. E. Lugton's beau-
tiful child portrait. "Athenae."

To sum up — every photographer, amateur and
professional, should get the British Journal Photo-
graphic Almanac (1944) — and keep it by him.

J. Dooley

CORRESPONDENCE

" Gaslight "

Sidney Cole and his fellow technicians, who
worked on Thorold Dickinson's film, Gaslight, may
like to know that not quite every copy of it was
destroyed; one is being preserved in the vaults of
the National Film Library, evidently the only copy
now in existence. This in no way effects the main
point of the impassioned protesi which lie made
in your last issue, but it may be some small con-
solation to him and his co-workers to know that
all traces of their work have not been lost. — Yours
faithfully.

EENEST LINDGBEN,

Curator. National film Library.

May— June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

33
RALPH BOND

BIOFF "GETS RELIGION"

Our old friends Bioff and Browne have been
back in the limelight again. Journal readers will
recall that they are currently serving 10 and 8
year sentences for their part in the extortion of
more than $2,000,000 from the American film
industry.

This sizeable fortune was collected not for the
members of the I.A.T.S.E. (the American Film
Trade Union) whose leading officials they were,
but for their own pockets. Their method was to
threaten Hollywood film companies with strikes
which would close down production. The com-
panies bought off the strike threats by paying these
two Union racketeers vast sums of money. The
trial created an international sensation, especially
as it was suspected that Bioff and Browne were
acting as agents for the Capone gang in Chicago.

This suspicion as now been amply confirmed by
the trial and conviction of seven more I.A.T.S.E.
officials, all of whom turned out to be former
Capone gang associates.

Bioff was brought out of prison to testify against
these seven, and announced that while in jail be
"got religion," and decided to help the Govern-
ment prosecute his former pals. He also an-
nounced that he had gone all patriotic and wanted
to join the Army. A more likely explanation is
that he hoped to get a remission on his sentence
by testifying for the prosecution.

The ramifications of these gangster " Union "
leaders were many and various.

The Chicago mob operated mainly through their
control of the projectionists in the cinema theatres
in the big cities and their methods differed from
the Bioff-Browne strategy in Hollywood.

In Chicago they entered into a conspiracy with
the theatre owners to deprive the projectionists
of their rightful wages. The number of emplo\ ees
in each projection booth was reduced from two to
one at a saving of $6,500 yearly for each man
eliminated from his job (Unlike here, American
projectionists are paid a very high wage).

Later the theatre owners paid the gang leaders
$1,065 for every man eliminated.

Not content with this, the gang agreed to a 20%,
and later a 30% pay cut for the members.

The power of these gang bosses can be seen by
the fact that on one occasion Bioff, with an in-
dividual called " Machine Gun Jack " warned the

manager of a thi atre that they would " move the
building off the lot " if he exhibited Scarf ace. They
"considered the picture unfriendly to the boss,
Al Capone."

The editor of a film trade paper, The Hollywood
Reporter, testified during the trial that Bioff
organised his printers and then objected to an
article appearing in the paper. The editor, a Mr.
Wilkerson, quickly grovelled to Bioff and sent him
a telegram reading: " For whatever mistakes I
made I am willing to do whatever you dictate.
There was no intention not to take care of you
as you have of me. I stand ready to do anything
you command."

The njierations of the gang assumed such pro-
portions and their racketeering methods became so
obvious that the Union members of Hollywood
Local 37 made a determined effort to break away
from the I.A.T.S.E. and a majority of them
formed the United Studio Technicians Guild.
However, Bioff, with the aid of the producers,
soon succeeded in regaining control of the situa-
tion.

After a length}- trial, during which many pro-
minent Hollywood figures gave evidence, the
' boys from Chicago " were convicted, receiving
maximum sentences of 10 years and fines of
$10,000 each.

Further charges will be preferred against them
by the Government. At this second trial they will
be accused of defrauding 42,000 union members
of $1,500,000 by imposing a 2% wages tax on all
members. Needless to say the proceeds never
found their way into the Union treasury.

Meanwhile 800 Chicago projectionists, members
of the I.A.T.S.E., have filed a suit against Union
officials and theatre owners for back wages total-
ling $5,000,000.

If these trials and convictions finally lead to
the complete extinction of gangster control and
influence in the I.A.T.S.E. they will have served
a valuable purpose, despite the fact that at the
moment they must have done a lot to discredit
trade unionism and encourage the enemies of
organised labour.

Our sympathies and best wishes go out to our
colleagues in the U.S.A. who are fighting for
healthy, virile and democratic trade unionism.

.1

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

May — June, 1944

STRAWS IN THE HAIR

by

SCREENCOMBER

of the Kinematograpli Weekly
Illustrated bv Land

How It Began

It has often been asked how I, a humble black
pudding bleacher, came to found the mighty
A.C.T. Hitherto, for security reasons, it lias been
impossible even to hint at certain of the details.
The full facts of the secret meeting between
Churchill, Stalin, A. J. Rank, Widgey, Newman,
Uncle Tom Cobleigh and me — must wait until
after the war. Whackpickle and myself were dis-
cussing a remedy for the spots on giraffes' necks
over, strangely enough, a cup of coffee. You
wouldn't know Whackpickle, but he was always
one to digress and I had to point out to him gently
thai all tins was hardly relative to the Mulbridge
Report on the trend of the wearing of brighter
bowlers among Chilean marble players. It was
then I remembered young Elvin, a poor cheese
sorter, poor, let me add. in the financial rather
than the technical sense, for Elvin had picked up
the rudiments of cheese sorting from years of asso-
ciation with various renting concerns and was an

adept at the art — may I
again digress to say that
I still cherish a delicate
little model of the Taj
Mahal, laboriously carved
by young Elvin out of a
piece of gorganzola. T use
the adjective " delicate "
in the material rather
than the olfactory sense.
Nor will I forget the
drama of the day when
Elvin walked into my
office under the second table of the Intrepid Fox.
' Meet Mr. Spilpudding, " he said, and noncha-
lantly replacing his nose clip, he went back to
his cheese paring, which has often caused me to
wonder whether some of our producers' ideas of
wage agreements could not be traced back to an
earlier apprenticeship tmder young Elvin.

A Critic of a Critic of the Critics.

With their customary humility and kindly
toleration, the critics have meekly accepted the
criticisms of the rascally Frank Sainsbury. Nor
will they permit bitterness or rage to change the
serenity of their shining faces. Like the kind good
Christian gentlemen they are, they bow patiently

before the libelous onslaught, ignoring the thresh-
ings and the frothings of a hate-distorted brain.
Nay, one must go farther. They are the first to
rise in defence of their persecutor. To the sug-
gestion that he drinks has own bathwater, tl
gently point out that such stories are evilly

inspired and obviously
untrue for to do so would
mean that he must first
make a practice of bath-
ing. Neither will they
allow that it is his habit
to take the pennies out of
blind mens' cans, for the
blind. gifted with a
strange sixth sense, in-
variably empty their cans
of coppers when Mr. Sainsbury is in the vicinity.
This lack of rancour or spleen is rather lovely to
behold in a world torn with hatred and envy. And
we have yet to meet the one among them whi -
any desire to kick Mr. Sainsbury in the face— after
all, tlie\ sa^ , there are many more accessible and
much more vulnerable spots for them to choos. .

Failing a defence by themselves, however, we

must take up the role of St. George to the per-
secuted maiden, for to us the critics are sacred.
like the cows of India or the baboons of its Tem-
ples. The sadist Sainsbury, having no knowledgi
of fair play, is probably more at home with a cork-
screw than a straight bat, but he hits below the
belt when he gets on to the distressing subject •
snoozing at press shows. Come. Mr. Sainsbury.
is not this rather like jeering at a deformity or
infirmity ? Or maybe you are ignorant of the pain-
ful outbreak of insomnia among critics since
Tunisian Victory and other war subjects I
blasted them in the very quiet of their theatres
into a chronic state of sleeplessness. Wasn't it
"Ryron who wrote?

As from yon sparkling glass the wearied critic sips.
Be tolerant, my lovely one, lest you go too far
And ere the tasty morsel shall reach those drooling
lips
Snatch not away, cruel taunter, the las'
caviar,

Mav — June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

35

STRAND FILMS

MAKERS OF DOCUMENTARY
FILMS SINCE 1934

THE

GROWN THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE
AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

TWO DOUBLE HEADS

DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM
MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS

SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS

86, Wardour St., London, W.1

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

■^ A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,
where more than I20 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff
are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone-, liberty 4291

One mile from Wimbledon Station

36

THE CINE -TECHNICIAN

.May— June. 194

A TALK ON TECHNICOLOR

By Ronald Neame

LET'S face it, colour has come to stay. There
are some of us that like it and some of us
that don't but, whether we do or we don't.
it's not going to make the slightest difference.
East year for the past five years the percentage
of Technicolor production has increased, and it's
my guess than in five years' time Black and White
will be on the way out for good. Of course colour will
be vastly different from what it is today. I am
convinced that before long we shall be able to
dispense with three negatives and when Monopack
or its equivalent is in general use, the present
Technicolor camera will go the same way as the
" camera booth " of the early talkies went. Mind
you there's nothing wrong with the camera, some
of its features are first-class, and should be
adapted at once to all Black and White cameras.

Remote control focus, what a joy that is, and how
much superior the viewfinder with its minimum
of parallax. But size is against it, and although
Technicolor will support it up to the hilt and main-
tain that it really is quite mobile, there is no doubt
that it considerably slows up production and is a
poor substitute for the comparatively light and
up-to-date Mitchell. Soon too taster him will enable
us to get rid of some of the oversize lighting equip-
ment which at the moment makes colour a heav\ -
handed business.

Lighting for Technicolor is rather like drawing

with a piece of charcoal after having got used to
a very fine pencil, but it is surprising how quickk
you get used to working with a "key" light ■
800 foot candles instead of the 100 foot candle-
that you have probably been working with in the
past. Yes. 800 foot candles. Just eight tim -
much light as you work with in Black and Whiti
at F.2. This will enable you to work at stop l..~
in Technicolor. Technicolor stops are different
from Black and White. The following chart wil
be a useful sniide to cameramen new to colour : —

Black and

Black and

White Colour

White

Colour

F 2 = Stop

1

F 4.5 =

Stop 5

F2.8 = ,.

2

F 5 =

.. 6

F3.2 = ,,

2.5

F5.6 =

.. 8

F3.5 = ,,

3

F6.5 -

.. 10

F4 = ,.

4

F8 =

.. 16

It is not advisable to

work at Stoi

1. becaul

although this is possible with the 50 mm and ~<
mm lenses, the wide angle lenses are full open a'
Stop 1.5, therefore it is obviously better for p
tical purposes to treat this stop as being the wides
aperture.

Colour lighting in this country at the momeii
is practically all arc, incandescent light 1
too red to be of any use. It can, however,
used to great effect when creating firelight scenes
Idie average interior set should be rigged with
mixture of Mole Richardson 150 amp. H.I arcs.
and 120 amp. H.I arcs, and in view ol the |
state of some of the lighting equipment in this
country at the moment, the 150's should ire-
dominate. Nothing smaller is of very much us(
on the rail.

The following might be of some help vvhea
working on colour for the first time : —

Where in Black and White you would use
Mole 5 kilowatt, use a Mole 150 amp. H.I.

Where in Black and White you would use
Mole 2 kilowatt use a Mole 120 amp. H.I.

Where in Black and White you would use i
Mole 500 watt use a Mole 6~> amp. H.I.

Where in Black and White you would use a
Can (floodlight) use a Twin arc, Broad or Scoop.

The usual Mole incandescent lamps can be
verted for colour by incorporating a blue condenser
these lights have little strength hut are very us
for shadow or filler light.

May— June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

37

For all straightforward lighting use white flame
carbons and cover all arc spots with a Y.l gela-
tine filter. Without this filter the light is too blue
and cold to give a natural daylight effect. For
night exterior shots in the studio, work without
the Y.l.

When even experienced technicians go on to
a Technicolor set for the first time they get the
impression that a great mass of light is turned on
to set and artists from every direction, without
any apparent system, and this has led to the quite
wrong impression in some circles that lighting for
Technicolor is a haphazard affair. In actual fact,
lighting for colour is almost in all respects the
same as lighting for Black and White, with the
exception of contrasl .

Contrast is one of the great problems of Tech-
nicolor today. In Black and White, if negative
contrast is increased the blacks look more black
and the whites look more white, shadows go
heavier and highlights stronger. In colour, some-
thing else happens as well — the reds look more
red, blues look more blue, pink faces look more
pink — • sometimes " lobster" — and before you
know where you are you are faced with very
glorious Technicolor. As in Black and White, the
higher the contrast the better the definition. Holly-
wood has realised this and that is the reason why
all colour pictures from America are extremely
colourful. With them, definition and visibility are
of paramount importance, they are prepared to
sacrifice more subtle tones of colour for clarity of
vision. In England this becomes somewhat of a
prohlem for the lighting cameraman, producers
and directors not for the most part being tech-
nicians want the best of both worlds, they quite
naturally want good definition but are determined
not to put up with " Red White and Hot Techni-
color " as served up by America, and it is ver\ dif-
ficult to make them realise to wdiat a large extent
these two things are bound up together.

Out of this arises another problem — " colour
separation." This again plays a large part in
deciding the quality of results. If a face is photo-
graphed up against a bright blue, no matter how
flatly it is lit, it will stand well away from the
background. . If, on the other hand, the back-
ground is pink, only the most carefully modelled
lighting will give reasonable results. Here again
you can see how Hollywood technicians work!
In all their big musicals (The Girls They Left
Behind is a perfect example) sets and costumes
are all designed to give the greatest possible
''colour separation," thus even the flattest flood
lighting will give good bright results on the screen.

However, let's get back to straight forward
ghting. Start off by using a three-quarter front

and having got that

key light of 800 foot candles

fixed, carrj on as though \o\i are working in Black
and White and then just throw in a little more
shadow light for luck. In my opinion the use oi
a photometer is essential, hut whatever happens
don't let it destroy originality — it can so easily do
so — read your key light to make sure that you are
exposing correctly, then put the meter away and
do the rest with your eyes. How often cameramen
ruin good effects by refusing to disobey the photo-
meter.

As in Black and White, a key light should be
strengthened according to how far round to the
side of the artist it is taken, and therefore weak-
ened if it is brought further front than three-quar-
ters. The reading of 800 foot candles is just a
guide, it does not have to be strictly adhered to;
for special effects very little light indeed can be
used, and as little as 40 f.c. will register on the
screen.

There is no doubt that seeing your first test
in colour is a great thrill. Technicolor always " do
you proud " on your first test — two, or at the most
three, days after you shoot, it will arrive back from
West Drayton, its quality good and true in every
detail. I'm sure your first reaction will be — " But
this is easy" — and so it is in theory, and when
everything goes right. Bid making a test is one
thing, shooting on the floor — perhaps in confined
spaces — another, and there are still plenty of
hurdles to get over before Technicolor becomes
easy. Some of these hurdles are going to remain
until after the war.

One of your first major problems will be getting
enough foot candles out of a light while still having
it sufficiently near full flood to cover a reasonable
area of subject matter. Most of the lighting
equipment in this country is getting pretty old
and worn. Naturally the studios stick up for it, and
claim that lighting cameramen are fussy and un-
reasonable people, but it is undeniably a fact that
we are not getting nearly as much light from our
lamps as we used to. and it has become necess.M\
to have your 150 amp. key arc not more than 25
feet from your actors in order to get a good even
light of 800 foot candles. This means that if your
set is on the large size, you cannot light your
artists from the rail, it being too far off. There-
fore tile best thing to do is to put your lamps on
stands on the floor, or on rostrums. In Black and
White there is no problem here : it is only a two-
minute job to bring in a Mole "Junior," but in
colour the increase in lighting time is extensive;
carrying a 150 amp. II. I are around is not a very
quick business. I became convinced that Holly-
wood must have found a way round this problem,
and sent a cable to Mole Richardson of America
asking for photometer readings from one of their
150 amp. arcs. When 1 receiped the reply I took
the same readings from one of our own lamps —

38

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

.Mav— June, 1044

the result, printed below, makes rather a sad
story : —

Readings with ISO amp. H.I arc with Y.I Filter,
25ft. from Weston Meter —

Hollywood Studio Home Studio

Full Flood 885 foot candles L60 foot candles
10 turns spot 610 ,. .. 230 ..

20 „ .. 1,410 .. .. 160 .,

30 „ .. 4.22D .. 1,360 „

There would appear to be two main reasons for
this pitiful discrepancy. The first, "Pool" car-
bons, and the second that the Americans are put-
ting 150 amps through their lamps, whereas up
to now we have only been using 13(3 amps. I am
glad to say that recent experiments with higher
amperage have already proved a greal success and
I hope before long all studios will convert then-
grids in this way. In addition to the light being
brighter it is also much cleaner and whiter, and
this is indeed important.

It is essential when lighting for colour to make
sure that your arcs are burning correctly. If the
gap between the positive and negative carbons is
too large, in addition to loss of light the colour of
the light will change to pink instead of white, and
our old pal " lobster" will crop up again.

While writing about the colour of light, it would
be as well to mention another problem, the prob-
lem of " practical " lamps on sets : wall brackets,
table and standard lamps, etc. The ordinary 60
watt or 100 watt bulb is far too yellow to look
natural, therefore it is necessary to dip these in a
blue cellulose before using them on colour sets.

So far I have discussed only straight forward
lighting, and before passing from this to night,
and effect stuff, I would like to sum up by stress-
ing the importance of getting fully exposed nega-
tives with plenty of detail in the shadows. There
is no doubt that sometimes excellent results can
be obtained by breaking this rule, but generally
speaking a well-exposed negative will give the
most consistent and most pleasant effect. I think
it is right to say that Technicolor exteriors are
lovely, and not a little of this loveliness is due to
good bright daylight and its accompanying strong
and healthy negative. The amount of " control "
that Technicolor have to exercise in order to give
you a good result on the screen is something to be
marvelled at, and it is not fair to make their prob-
lems greater by giving them a negative that be-
cause of thinness, or contrast, has little or no lati-
tude. Don't forget that a negative printing cor-
rectly on light 12 will look reasonably good printed
on light 14 or light 10, thus allowing for a margin
of error — but a negative that is so thin that its
correct printing light is light 4 will look quite
impossible on light 6 or light 2.

Here is a still of a shot taken from This Happx
Breed with particulars of lighting used. (At the
time This Happy Breed was in production, Tech-

nicolor negative stock was faster than it is at pre-
sent, but I have adjusted photometer readings to
suit the stock we are using today).

] have picked this still for its simplicity of light-

ing.

Lighting plan — Still No. 2: —

1 120 amp H.I arc three quarters back, on
John Mills, reading 800 foot candles, kept from
burning up Kay Walsh by two thicknesses of
net in kidney frame.

1 120 amp H.I arc three quarter back on Kay
Walsh, reading 800 foot candles, kept from
burning up John Mills by two thicknesses of
net in kidney frame.

2 twin arc Broads, one either side of camera,
each with one silk, giving together a front
liudit meter reading of 400 foot candles.

1 three-quarter front 150 amp H.I arc from rail
of set striking wall behind artists, with two
twin arc Broads, with two silks each, one either
side of settee on wKich figures are seated, giv-
ing total meter reading for set lighting of 400
foot candles.
Now to pass on to effect lighting. This is so
much a matter for the individual that I do not
intend to deal with it at length. " Night Exterior "
in the studio is, perhaps, the most generally used
effect. I have already mentioned the necessity of
dropping the Y.l filter, which will result in a colder
more realistic night light. Hollywood obtain their
romantic moonlight shots with the aid of light
blue gelatine filters placed over their lamps, and
these in conjunction with Y.l filters covering lamps
lighting the interior of windows, etc., can be very
effective indeed. As a rough guide a key light read-
in," of about 300 foot candles to 350 foot candles
will give a good rendering of moonlight strength,
hut this is naturally dependent on the amount of
shadow light which accompanies it.

Firelight effects, as I have already mentioned,
.ire besl obtained with the use of incandescent

M: iv— June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

39

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Ger. 6413

54 58, Wardour Street
LONDON, W.l

Ger. 7481

to

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C ■ I A X

May — June, 1!

light, or by putting panchromatic carbons in arcs.
When shooting the seance scenes for Blithe Spirit
in dickering firelight, I used a key light from the
floor of about ."iiiD foot candles, but the effective
light was reduced to about 400 foot candles by the
use of paraffin torches held in front of the lamp to
create flicker.

Before dropping this photometer reading busi-
ness 1 must once again repeat that there is no cut
and dried ruling on the matter. Conditions vary
all the time, so does Technicolor film stock. Colour
film deteriorates very quickly, and in six months
time, if we are still using the present batch of
negative, we may well be using 33% more light.
On the other hand, if new supplies arrive from
America we may find that 500 foot candles will
give us a good strong high light, Lei us hope that
the latter is the case.

Technicolor is great fun, but it is spoilt for me
at the moment by one great handicap, the fact
that all rushes are viewed in black and white.
printed from the blue record. The result is hardly
pleasant to the eye and one never enjoys seeing
them, they give little or no indication as to what
the colour will be like and are as often as not mis-
leading. The short sections of colour that one does
see (very often many days alter the scenes are
shot) are on and off the screen so quickly, and are
so very often out of balance from the colour point
view, that they are only just worth while. These
short sections are known as "pilots," and after
viewing a few one begins to understand very
quickly just what problems Technicolor technicians
have to cope with. A "pilot " can be too red, too
blue, too green or too yellow, too flat, too con-
trasty, too light or too dark and at least half a
dozen other things besides, small wonder that
Mr. Kay Harrison is putting up a strong fight to
prevent all his experts from going to the Forces,
and experts they truly are.

Yes, of course, colour has its handicaps, but

THE TECHNICOLOR CAMERA ON
LOCATION (Still No. 3i

Director David Lean, with Ronald Neame and Camera Opera
Bunny Franeke shooting a scene for " This Happy Breed "

Shot in average three-quarter front sun, medium dark subje
matter, with 150 amp booster arc. Technicolor Stop 4

colour has been born, and this healthy and some- I
times unruly child is growing rapidly every day.
] think it is true to say that at the moment
suited b.st to costume and colourful subjects, but
as each new production is added to the now 1
Technicolor list the colours will improve and
become more subtle, until one day colour w<
be a child any more. It will become, just .is
Sound " has. an integral part of every film. and|
the hackneyed phrase "Glorious Technicolor'
will die a natural death in the same way as " 100
All Talking, Singing and Dancing" did ten year- I
ago.

Continued from Page 45

"turn 'em over" at the studio. 17 miles each
way he had to go, and wdien there were no trains
he push-biked it in spite of the fact that, even after
his early tussles with the headmaster's bike, he
had a good fifty spills on the ice-bound roads
before he had finished.

Charlie is a General Council member and shop-
steward ol ( 1 11 /Gainsborough, all within three
years of joining A.C.T. He was a member of
A.C.T. in the old Captain Cope days, but the
E.T.TJ. ruled that he could not hold two tickets
and he had to drop A.C.T. for the time being,
When he rejoined Gainsborough in 1040, parleys
with Tomrley and other A.C.T. stalwarts there
convinced him that his place was in A.C.T. in-

stead, and he finally left the E.T.U. and join*
us, bringing with him the best wishes of tin
E.T.U. and many thanks for the work he'd don
for them. He's a member of the Executive Coil
mittee and served on the Negotiating Committa
which after many wearing years finally got tin
producers to sign the Studio agreement. And
can't imagine m\ meeting or committee thai
wouldn't be the wiser for his views or the strong!
for his backing. For after 25 years ion and off) ill
what must be the most dehydrating business iij
the world — onl\ the B.B.C., perhaps, is a mofl
ghastly drier-upper — Charlie is still as fresh an
alive as ever. And as this goes to press we cfj
congratulate him on being elected a Vice-Presi
di nt at A.C.T.'s 11th Annual Meeting.

.-—June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

41

'— ,AR out on the bald-beaded prairie of North
H Saskatchewan a model T Ford appeared on
the horizon and chugged slowly towards a
ork party, 50 miles from anywhere, busy laying
•acks for a Canadian Pacific Railway extension,
'be outfit consisted of about 30 men working at
ill belt to the speed of the engine, which
dvanced at a steady two miles an hour on to
le new-laid track, dragging their food car and
leeping cars behind it. As it came on, it fed
ies, or sleepers, down a convex or in front and

man on a crane swung up the rails from a
rock behind and dropped them ahead. The
•orkmen slung the ties into place, heaved the
ails into position, secured them on the ties with

couple of spikes and tightened up the bolts at
he joints. And all the while the engine came
teadily on and the men sweated away under
he hot prairie sun. Now and again they stole an
iterested glance at the approaching Model T.
ut the only thing they were allowed to stop lor
.as a drink of water. A boy was kept busy
muring up and down the lines with a pannikin
I water so alkaline that after an hour or two
very man's mouth was coated with white. When
-lie Ford finally arrived the driver pulled up
pposite the work party, stood on the seat gfaid
roceeded to harangue them. What fools they
.ere to sweat their guts out like this for the
ailroad; why didn't they come and work for him
—a far better job and $5 a day all found. Where
wis his place? Why (pointing), about 10 miles
i that direction; you couldn't miss it. Now this
ounded like sense to a lot of the men. The
'P.R. were only paying them s:i..",n a day and
•1.50 a day of that was stopped for grub. They
lorked all the hours of daylight till their hands

ere torn and every joint ached, and at night,
s cold as the days were hot, they had only
traw to sleep on in their bunk car unless they
ould afford tbe $5 deposit for a Hudson Bay blan-
et. Not to mention that the water had upset them
11, though in different ways, causing near-

CLOSE-UPS

No. 24 — CHARLIE WHEELER

dysentery in some and a complete stoppage in
others. So the stranger's proposition sounded
very attractive to them, and to none more so
than to two gallant representatives of the British
Film Industry— Charlie Wheeler and his mate
Cliff Sandall.

After a week or so of their job our two churns
were already heartily regretting having joined the
little queue' in Winnipeg who they were told (and
had been suckers enough to believe it) had all
been promised cushy jobs as station agents
(station masters) by the C.P.R. They had jumped
at this proposition as they had only just arrived
in Winnipeg and the fearful tales they had heard
had put them oft their original idea of doing
farm work. The next thing they knew, of course,
they were all working like niggers in the w ilds
of Saskatchewan. But how they came to be in
Winnipeg at all is quite a story.

Charlie Wheeler is a cockney born and hied.
He started in Bermondsey, but as his father,
who was a master baker, worked on the principle
of buying up tottering businesses, building them
up. selling them out, spending the money and
then starting at the beginning again, Charlie
spent his childhood all over London, but mostly
in the East End. By the time he was six he
was helping on the round, and his reward for that
was to join the men in the pub afterwards and be
given a half of beer. In 1907 (Charlie was born
in 1901) the Liberal Government passed their Act
making the Long Pull illegal and forbidding
children to come into pubs, so Charlie's drinking
career suffered a temporary check. Later on he
got a part-time job at 2/- a week (of which he
gave his mother l/9d.) looking after the front
of an ironmonger's shop in the evening and fetch-
ing him his dinner at midday. For some time
he doubled with this the Id. a week job of fetch-
ing his headmaster's dinner. This meant a rather
tight dinner-time schedule — work had to be done
at the double, in fact — so it was not surprising
that on rounding the final bend before the school
one da\ a collision occurred and the headmaster's
dinner shot out into the road under a passing
dustcart. That meant that the headmaster took
him off that particular job, but on Charlie point-
ing out that he needed that Id. a week, he °
him the job of cleaning his bicycle and an after-
noon period off to do it in. All went well for a
time, until one afternoon Charlie crashed hoavih ,

42

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

Ma; -June, 104:

bike and all, right outside the classroom window,
and that meant the end of that Id. a week.

When he left school at the age oi 14, Charlie's
lather got him a £5 "apprenticeship" with an
engineering firm in Upper Thames Street. His
wages were 5/- a week and his work and " train-
ing " consisted in oiling, brushing and sorting
load upon load of assorted nuts and holts which
his firm bought by the ton as scrap, smartened
up and resold as new. Charlie soon realised that
all he was going to learn there was about nuts
and bolts and how to work the fiddle, so he decided
to brave his father and pack it up. His mother
gallantly hacked him up over this, and Charlie
had soon got himself a film job at 10/- a week
with International Exclusives, run by J. J. Sall-
mayer and Low Warren. Their place was in Litch-
field Street, off Charing Cross Road, where they
carried on a renting business, with their own pre-
view theatre, and they also used to produce their
own films in all the London studios, Bushey, Wal-
thamstow, etc., with directors like P. Nash and
Maurice Elvey making such films as Westward
Ho .', Adam Bede and Nelson, in which beautiful
Ivy Close, Eonme Neame's mother, appeared.
Charlie soon got the hang of the projectors
and used to run their trade shows (which meant
a rise), worked in all the renting departments,
and when they went to the studios on production
acted as general assistant and camera assistant.
In a firm in the next street was another lad just
starting, and Charlie soon became firm friends
with him — George Noble. For years George and
he worked and went around together, and Charlie
still has some photos that I bet George would
give pounds not to have published. The last time
Charlie saw George was when he paid a surprise
visit to Shepherds Bush in the uniform of a
Lieutenant in the Canadian Army Film Unit,
driven up in style in his famous sidecar outfit. A
few words dropped neatly here and there by
Charlie and George was soon the head of the
Canadian Film Unit, a native of Toronto and
busy parleying with Bucquet and the other MGM
big shots on important matters of film big business.

Anyhow, Charlie carried on with Sallmayer,
mainly on the production side. Gradually the
renting side of the business faded away and
finally Sallmayer dropped it altogether and
started the Master Film Co. for production only.
Shortly after the war they set about building
new studios at Teddington, and at the time these
were the last word in British studios. They mule
all sorts of film down there, Hard Cash and
Daniel Devonda, with Evelyn Brent and Clive
Brook, and a series of two-reelers (2 a week)
of the most thrilling moments in famous
books, with all sorts of directors to make them
such as Thomas Bentley and Maurice Elvey, and

Charlie worked hi all production departments
from props to camera, and under Bill Crisp ii
the labs. Sallmayer suggested that he sh
finally decide on camera work, but just at that
time Tom Carrick arrived from Universal in N
York to revive the studio and equip it for what
then the most modern lighting in England, an
Charlie elected to go and work with him. Aft*
they had very proudly and successfully fini-
their wiring and equipment, Charlie carried oa
there as electrician. But soon things were
going at all well with the British Film Indus
The Americans were exploiting the ,
they had gained during the war years and v
bit by bit getting a stranglehold on the Bri1
market. By 1923 there was hardly a single Bri
film in production, and down at Teddington t
were one by one reluctantly given the sack. Chi
was one of the last to get it, and for a while 1.
managed on odd free-lance jobs from time to til
Then, late one night, he and a film business pal i .
his, Cliff Sandall, were walking home across Tr: ■
falgar Square when they noticed a big C.P.R. -
pricked out in lights — "Canada for £12."

The only difficulty was the money — £13
each for the fare and £3 each which tht
must have to be allowed entry. Howevei
Cliff Sandall thought of a manufacturer friend •
his who wanted photos taken of his plant. Ch
dug out his old postcard camera and tin
work. A day of photographing was followed I
an all-night printing-session, and in the mori
the kitchen and living room were festooned 1
floor to ceiling with drying prints. The whol<
only cost them £3 for materials, their client
delighted, and with the tial £30 in tl

pockets off they set for Canada in one of the
C.P.R. "Empress" class.

They had a very nice crossing, particularly ti e
first few days before it was found out that they
didn't hold 1st Class tickets, and then steamed
the St. Lawrence to Quebec. Here a slight dif-
ficulty arose as several of the £12 travellers hi I
drunk or gambled away their £3 entrance money
and looked like being sti ppi d from ente
Canada. However, this was neatly overcome
Charlie and anyone else who slid had his
intact showing it and being let through, and I
going round the side and pushing it through
liars for the rest to use a second time. And sol
all got through, and off to Winnipeg, which v -
as Ear as their 812 to 1-. them, and where Cliff andfl
Charlie, as | said, had heard such dreadful a
of farming conditions that thej had signed on ;is
" station agents."

But by now anything seemed b< tter than th t.
so < lliff and Charlie and half-a-d' i - decid

to accepl the sti aj nd went to demand

their back money. Oh, fchej were told, there was

May — June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

43

no money up there, they'd have to go back to
the depot at Elrose, the nearest town, 50 miles
away. As luck would have it a supply train was
shortly doing the journey, but as the brakesman
wanted to demand full fare the party had to ride
the rods all the way, only to find when they got to
Elrose that they'd have to wait a few days there

(before the money came up from down the line.With-
out a bean between the lot of them, they spent the
intervening days in chopping wood for a Chinaman
who kept the local cookhouse, laundry, etc., in
return for their grub and a bunk. When the money
finally arrived they left the Chinaman with a wood
pile as high as his roof and were just in time to
jump a flat car on the train back. Making their
way in the dark along the train, they managed
to get into an empty box-car. For some reason
the floor of the box-car seemed a bit knobbly and
uncomfortable, so as the train slowed Charlie
jumped down and running alongside threw up
sheaves of wheat from beside the line till everyone
was supplied with bedding, only just managing to
jump the train again as it picked up speed. When
at daybreak the train reached the head of the line
and they jumped down, they saw why they'd been
uncomfortable — it was a coal car and everyone was
black from head to foot, the worst spectacle being a
renegade Major who was dressed in what had for-
merly been immaculate white riding breeches.
Incidentally, this jolly lad shortly afterwards bor-
rowed money all round and then disappeared into
the blue and was never heard of again.

Once dismounted, they set off on foot to try
and find their new jobs from the stranger's vague
directions. They found the place all right with-
out much difficulty, but it wasn't very long before
some of them wished they never had, and, as I
said, the Major was soon off. Their new boss ran
a harvesting and threshing outfit. He had 640 acres
of wheat himself which he sowed in the spring
and, after resting all summer in Nebraska, came
i back to harvest in the fall. Besides that he con-
tracted-out his outfit to do other farmers' har-
vesting. Anyway, our lads were soon hard at it
reaping, stooking, carting and threshing, and as
Charlie says, a field up there isn't a field, it's the
whole of bloody London. On the railroad they had
just worked all the hours of daylight : now when
darkness fell they lit the straw and chaff and car-
ried on by the light of the leaping flames — thej
certainly earned their $5 a day. Charlie soon
found that he and Cliff seemed to have collected
the worst job of the lot — spike pitching. The field
pitchers could hope for a bit of a blow between
filling one waggon and the arrival of an empty
>ne, the teamsters got a quiet sit down on the
long haul from field to thresher and back again,
hut the poor spike-pitchers, feeding from the wag-
gon into the thresher, always had a couple of full

waggons waiting and never got a rest ai all. Hour
alter hour, by sunshine during the daj and b\
firelight after nightfall, the thresher poured out
its stream of wheat, not into sacks as here, but into
horse-drawn tankers or straight into heaps on the
ground, from which it would later be shovelled
into the tankers.

Anyhow. Charlie had ouh been on spike-pitch-
ing a couple of days when he tackled the boss
about this, and. suggested they should go as team-
sters, pointing out they were only getting $5 for
a job that was worth at least $7.50 a day. The
boss countered with an offer of $6, but Cliff and
Charlie were firm and finally got the teamsters job
they wanted. And so the weeks went by; it was
as hard work as you could imagine, but they really
enjoyed it in the end — the long hours in the open,
the gigantic feeds, the feeling of being ready to
wrestle and grizzle, the quiet evenings round the
wireless, sound sleep, the wide horizon and the
rough and cheerful friendliness of the men. At
last Charlie remembered the words of a Yank
they'd worked alongside on the railroad. " Don't
stay too long in this part of the world, boy. In
a few weeks it'll be as cold as it's hot now — frozen
solid." They'd both $100 or so saved (there was
not a thing to spend it on in that part of the world)
so they decided to make tracks for Vancouver,

A.C.TVs New President

ANTHONY ASQUITH

Elected at E 1 e v e n t h

Annual General Meeting,

April 23rd, 1944

1 1

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

May— June, 1944

where they'd been told before leaving England a
( aptain somebody-or-other was starting film stu-
dios and going into production in a big way.
Arrived in Vancouver they put up in a posh hotel
to cause a good impression and next day climbed
to the select quarter of Shaughnessy Heights where
their Captain's residence was. '"We've cer-
tainly come to the right place this time," said
Cliff, as they pressed the bell and looked round
admiringly at the palatial surroundings. " Cap-
tain so-and-so?" said the butler enquiringly.
Why," as he shut the door firmly, *' he's heen
dead a year."

So with their dreams rudely shattered our two
heroes descended back to town, moved out of the
posh hotel and after a few days found themselves
a shack on the outskirts which they rented very
cheaply and where they lived all winter on their
savings. With the coming of Spring and the
dwindling of their money it was high time to look
for work again. Charlie remembers well how wild
he was with Cliff, when with their joint savings
reduced to about £6 Cliff saw a special golfer's
cap complete with all sorts of flaps, pockets and
gadgets priced at 80s. and insisted on buying the
thing. Anyway, Charlie kept his eyes open,
spotted in the papers an advert for a baker's
roundsman at Port Ilaney. went up there and got
the job. Port Haney was a little township about
50 miles up the Eiver Eraser, with a tew shops, a
railway station, a baker's shop and pool room.
Charlie at once got on good terms with his new
buss, was fitted out with white overalls with the
firm's name, Sinister, embroidered on them back
and front, and a wage of £5 a week plus commis-
sion on cake sales. His round covered about 500
square miles, villages, isolated farms and home-
steads, lumber camps and an Indian reservation,
to all of which he rushed at high speed, charging
along over rough tracks or no tracks at all in his
Model T. Looking back, he wonders that he never
broke his neck dozens of times — often he's looked
over the side of the van to see one of his tyres
bowling merrily along beside him. Anyway, he
enjoyed every moment of it. He met and made
friends with all sorts of people, got on well with
the boss and his wife, with whom he lodged, spent
the week-day evenings at the local pool- room, and
at week-ends drove down the Pacific Highway to
Vancouver to see Cliff Sandall or others of his pals.

By now the autumn was coming on and
Charlie's thoughts turned towards home. His boss
promised to keep his job open for him, he could
be home for Christmas and he'd got £100 saved
to wave in his old man's face. So off he set, fully
determined to come back to Canada in the spring.
but as things turned out it was not till 1936 that
be was back in Canada again, on the Great Barrier
unit. Cliff Sandall wouldn't come, ho was sup-

posed to be courting seriously — but Charlie man-
aged to collect a couple of fellow-travellers. Deter-
mined to arrive home with their savings intact,
they worked or rode the rods nearly 3,000 mihs
as far as Montreal. Here they set about finding
how to work their passage back. Charlie finally
fell in with a firm that promised to find him a
berth if he would do some dock work and boiler-
scaling for them meanwhile. By the time
November came and the St. Lawrence was three
parts frozen (it's impassable all winter) he began
to get a bit worried and asked them to fix him
up a passage, no matter what sort, as soon as pos-
sible. So on November 7th, 1924, Charlie sailed
from Montreal, with no passport .or papers, as coal-
trimmer in a Norwegian cargo ship loaded with
wheat and bound, quite simply, for Europe. Going
down the St. Lawrence was all right, but when
they got out into the Atlantic and the ship began
really to pitch and roll in the November gales.
Charlie became very unhappy. Every mile they
went meant a bit further to letch the 50 tons of
coal a day from the bunkers to the stokehold, and
there would be poor Charlie staggering along, sick
as a dog, with a barrow of coal, or. as the firemen
went sick, taking their place and trying to shoot
shovels full of coal into furnaces that just
wouldn't keep still. And for grub, some filthy Nor-
wegian lobscouse that Charlie just couldn't
stomach. Finally, Charlie caught a glimpse of
himself in a mirror, dark eyes and sunken cheeks,
and that so scared him that from then on he got
the food down, nauseating or not, and at once
began to feel better. They were supposed to be
going to Kotterdam, an easy distance from Lon-
don, but after running through the Pentland Firth
they changed course and made for Gothenburg in
Sweden where they discharged their cargo. Then
they went up the coast to X. Sweden, took on a
cargo of iron ore and ran south to discharge it at
Emden. Charlie was getting worried, as Christmas
was getting near, and when he heard that Potter-
dam was out of the reckoning, and the next -
likely to be America, he with some difficulty
got paid off and decided to chance it overland.
Armed with a Discharged Seaman's pass kindh
provided by the Norwegian Consul at Emden. he
began ploughing across Europe with £100 he was
determined not to spend and a knowledge of the
English language. After a night in the cells (and i
6/- fine) on the German-Dutch frontier and som<
quite unnecessary coolness and obstruction fi
the British Consul at Rott< rdam, he at last board*
the ferry, was violently sick, and arrived in Lor
on Christmas Eve to flourish bis £100 ti iumphanth
in bis old man's face.

from then on the film busini ss began slowi.v
but surely to get him into its (dutches again
I iefore it was time to go ;>a«-k ti Canada his mone

-May — June, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

45

was all spent and he bad to take odd jobs. Be-
sides, be and bis girl were now thinking seriously
of getting married. So the odd jobs were followed by
going with his old cameraman friend Phil East and
a still man called Jonas into the photography and
shorts business. This did all right for a time, but was
finally wrecked by a sharper who called himself
Bud Pollard, claimed to be Snub Pollard's brother
arrived from Vienna, set up in the Savoy with
trunks full of bricks, and contracted with them
to do film tests. Needless to say they didn't get a
penny and only just escaped being jailed, so
Charlie was on his ear again. Firmly forswearing
the film game for ever, he got a job with
McNamara's driving G.P.O. vans and on this
steady basis chanced his arm and got married.
All went smoothly, and he quite enjoyed the work,
until in 1926 came the General Strike and that
was that. Charlie, as a member of the Transport
md General Workers, naturally took an active
part in the strike and after it was ' ' settled ' ' was
Mie of the many who was victimised and never
got his job back. With a wife and kiddy to think
tA now, this was a bit upsetting, but he managed
somehow or other and finally landed a regular
job driving a delivery van for a boot firm. This
time he swore that nothing should lure him from a
safe job, and so it seemed for a while. But in
1927 the activity of various people, particularly,
Charlie says, George Bidgewell and Captain Bex
Davies, of the Film Artistes' Guild, caused the
passing of the first Quota Act, and the British Film
Industry began to perk up a bit. One day an
old film-electrician friend of Charlie's told him
that any experienced electrician could get £10 a
week at the newly-built B.I. P. Studios at Elstree,
md because of the long shut-down they were cr\ -
ng out for men. Charlie resisted the temptation
or a long time, but £10 a week was very tempting,
uid finally on the understanding that the job
vould be permanent, be succumbed. Two weeks
ater the production he was working on finished,
md Charlie was given the sack.

That should have been enough for anyone, but
Charlie soon after managed to land an electrician's
ob at Gainsborough, and there he stuck. He
vorked through the silent days of such films as
The Rat, and when sound came accepted George
j-unn's offer of going into that department, where
le's stayed ever since, mostly on the boom. He
is near as not met a sticky end at Gainsborough's
slington fire. He did have one long spell in sound
'ffects, including doing the effects for Flaherty's
Man of Aran, which he enjoyed very much. Bui 's
t's mainly on the boom that he worked, from the
lays of Sunshine Susie, Friday the 13th, Michael
md Mary, and The Camels in Egypt. Then, after
lis two year spell on sound effects, the location
ob in Canada on The Great Barrier, till 1937, when

G.B. closed down, and he had a happy year with
Emie Gartside's Fox-British Wembley outfit.
After the big shut-down in 1938 he free-lanced for
a time on Selznick's tests at Wembley, Jamaica Inn
at B.I. P., and Botha's Times documentary, but
when war broke out he was out of work solid for
months at a time. He used to sit at home, at
Welling, Kent, and entertain the creditors and
bailiffs alone, as his wife and three kiddies had
been evacuated. He did think of volunteering
once and actually went to the recruiting office, but
when he found the family allotment was even less
than he was getting on the dole he decided
to stick to the good old dole. And then once
again the film business began to pick up and
Charlie found himself back on the boom with
GB /Gainsborough, where he still is today.

I've told of Charlie's Canadian travels adven-
tures at much greater length than of his film
career — because that seems to me to be much
the more important side of his build-up. Charlie
is a first-rate technician — but we have dozens of
first-rate technicians. Charlie is a good debater
and an active political worker — but slick speakers
and good committee-men are ten-a-penny at a
time when a show of left-wing views and political
activity is the fashion with every up-to-date
careerist. What Charlie has that the others haven't
got is a solid basis of experience and conviction,
a view and way of life that have become instinc-
tive, so that you know at once that after all the
shouting, the political wire-pulling and coat-turn-
ing is over, old Charlie will still be there the same
as ever, talking about the " tutt " or whatever
it is that that is fundamental then.

Lurching about in a wallowing tramp's coal
bunkers and sweating his heart out on the Cana-
dian prairie have taught Charlie something you
can't get out of any book, how it is that the world's
essential work gets done, what it is that keeps
going the miners and the dockers, the farmworkers
and the trawlermen, the labourers and the steel-
workers, on whose sweat and strength and never-
ending goodwill the whole artificial edifice of our
i.iiK-v and deodorized civilisation is based, and
without which it could not last a week. And be-
cause he understands just that, Charlie is modest
in his demands and unextravagant in his hopes.
He'll be satisfied if he can see people working
together a bit more happily than they did before,
with a greater control over their job and more
decent conditions of living. It may seem a mod-
est, or even sentimental, programme, but it's
based firmly on the fundamentals of society, which
the political tyros so recklessly ignore. It's typical
of Charlie that he sin mid be proud of the fact that
all through the blitz he was never once late for

(Tarn to Page 40)

40

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

May— June, l'.tU

CINEMA

War Office Cine Production Committee

Good work is being done by the newly formed
Kiematograph Production Committee under
the able chairmanship of Brigadier General
N. M. Carstairs, Director of Army Kinemato-
graphy. The members of the Committee are
Mr. Hugh Roberts, M.V.O.. the Government
Cinematograph advisor, the Deputy Director Army
Kinematography A.K.I, A.K.2 and A.K.4, and
representatives of the Short Film Producers,
Newsreel Association, Association of Film Labora-
tory Employers and British Film Producers Asso-
ciation; the Association of Cine-Technicians and
the National Association of Theatrical and Kine
Employees representing the Unions. After a pre-
liminary skirmish by the trade for position, Bri-
gadier General Carstairs, by his keenness and tact,
wove the Committee into a harmonious body work-
ing whole-heartedly for the betterment oi Army
Training Films. I cannot tell you more because
the proceedings are confidential but I have every
confidence that the work of the Committee will
be of great assistance to the National effort and
to the Film Industry. A.C.T. is very proud to
serve on it.

Crown Theatre Reopens

I am pleased to hear from Mr. Frost that the
damage suffered in the recent blitz on Wardour
Street has now been put right and The Crown
Theatre has again reopened. We are sure the
many firms who use his facilities will be glad to
hear this, as also will the Westminster Branch
and other sections of A.C.T. who accept Mr.
Frost's hospitality to hold their meetings in hos
theatre .

" The Critics Reviewed "

Frank Sainsbury received the following tele-
gram, unfortunately with a Crewe and not a Holly-

wood postmark, following his article " The Critics
Rev tewed " in the last issue, in which he had quite
a lot to say about Orson Welles . . . "Am very
very cross with you — Orson."

"Tunisian Victory"

This second triumph of the Service Film Units
w as indeed a combined operation between the Ser-
vice technicians of Britain and America. The British
Unit was headed by Major Hugh Stewart, who
spent six months in North Africa superintending
the actual shooting, with Captain Roy Boulting as
supervising editor. The American side was headed
by the famous Hollywood director, Colonel Frank
Capra, of the United States Signal Corps. . Hi?
team included Captain John Huston, Captain
Anthony Veiller and several assistant technicians.
The whole film was shot by front-line Army and
PAP. Film Unit cameramen, whilst actual
fighting was in' progress.

Representatives of A.C.T. sat on the Boards
who selected a large number of these battle
cameramen and they feel very proud that they
helped in the selection of these soldier technicians
who go into action with the Commandos, jump
with the Paratroops, advance with the P.B.I, or
fly with the Fighter Bombers, their only weapon
the cine-camera. Their work is excellent.

It is with deep regret that we note the loss of
three cameramen who shot scenes in this film —
F/Lieut, Gallai-Hatchard, of the R.A.F. Film
Unit, who shot much of the flying material, Cap
tain Harry Rignold, M.C., and Sgt. Colman, both
of the Army Film Unit. In addition Driver Tay-
lor, Driver McGee and Pte. Ford, of the Army
Film and Photographic Unit were also killed while
serving the battle cameramen.

The chief negative cutter, Mrs. White, is the
only civilian in the Army Film Unit. She was
assisted by a team of both Army and R.A.F. film
technicians. Mrs. White had sergeants working
under her instructions but apparently sergeant-
don't mind taking instructions from a civilian
because they made her an honorary member of
the Sergeants' Mess at the studio.

Never before has a film carried as main credit tie
names of Governments of the United States and
Great Britain. The verdict of Fleet Street wal
that the film was far too short. A fine job and a
great credit to all concerned. Pictures on the right
show some of the people responsible for Tunisian
Victory.

lay — Juno, 1944

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A .X

47

Top: Private Brown, of the A.T.S., and Lieut.
Claxton, of U.S. Signal Corps, working on the
cutting of the film. Right : The late Flighi-
Lieutenant Gallai-H ate hard . Below : Composite
group including Col. Frank Capra, Major Hugh
Stewart and Capt. Roy Boulting, and extreme right,
a fully equipped airborne cameraman.

48

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

.May— June, 1944

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

Effects of High-Intensity Arcs on 35mm. Projec-
tion (E. K. Carver, R. H. Talbot and H. A.
Loomis', S.M.P.E. Journal, July, 1943).
Tlic study of the effects of high temperature
arcs on 35mm projection shows that screen-image
sharpness is affected by changes in the intensity
of the heat on the film in the gate aperture. The
him does not lie flat in the projector gate but takes
different positions at different temperatures. The
behaviour of the film during projection was studied
by cutting away a part of the gate and taking high
speed Cine-Kodak pictures (about 1500 frames a
second) of the film as it passed the aperture. The
pictures show that most films enter the gate with
a slight positive curl (emulsion side concave) and
then develop a negative curl during the instant
they are exposed to the heat of the arc. This
change of curl is caused by the expansion of the
emulsion layer under the heat. The effect of the
change of curl on the quality of the screen image
was studied by taking high speed pictures of the
screen during projection of a test roll. The pic-
tures show that each frame comes into view out of
focus and gradually becomes sharper until just
before the pull-down when it reaches its maximum
sharpness. Such pictures are of good screen
quality if the projector is focussed carefully.

Sometimes when the film is in a moist state,
and when the heat from the lamp is excessive,
trouble occurs with " in and out of focus " pheno-
menon, that is, the pictures goes out of focus for
several frames. High-speed pictures of the film
in the gate show that this is caused by the normal
change from positive curl to negative curl being
interrupted by a reversal back to positive curl ; so
that just before the pull-down the film is curved
towards the lens of the projector whereas it nor-
mally does the opposite. In this position it is
outside the depth-of-focus range of the lens and
produces an out-of-focus screen image. It is be-
lieved that this reversal to positive curl is due
to a contraction of the gelatine caused by loss of
moisture. As a result of their research the autlu >rs
recommend that the heat intensity of the projec-
tion aperture should be kept below 1250°Fby using
heat absorbing glass or other means, and thai
prints should be dried thoroughly.

A New Optical Printer (Linwood Dunn, American

Cinematograplier, January, 1944).

The Acme-Dunn optical printer claims to be the
first commercially built all-purpose optical printer ;

it lias been developed from years of practical ex-
perience in the studios. All operations and
adjustments can be made from one position. The
camera has been specially designed for opt
printing and is an integral part of the machine.
Effects such as lap dissolves, wipe-offs, slide-offs.
etc., can be made to any length, either manualh
or mechanically. Automatically focussed zoom
shots, with a range of size from full screen to less
than a 16mm frame, can be worked by turning i
single wheel or mechanically by engaging witf
the wipe-over drive. Printing speeds are 10, 20
30 and 60 feet per minute. Camera and project.
have separate clutches controlled by a master dis-
tributor. The distributor can be set to make three
colour separation negatives or to double ever
second frame to change film speed from silent t
sound. Skip frame work can be done while run-
ning continuously at any speed. The wipe-off de-
vice is driven by changeable sprockets which pei-
mit a wide range of speeds; it can be moved to-
ward or backward for any degree of softne>-
edge. Horizontal and vertical lens movement-;
are calibrated to a thousandth of an inch by di;il
indicators. A variable audible timer is fitted as
an aid to timing manual operations. The 35min
projector is inter-changeable with a 16mm 1
for blow-up work. A rear lens in the projector pet-
mits aerial image work, so that paintings, matte-,
animation and so on can be set at any distance
behind the projector head and focussed at tie
aperture.

-For StuJio and
laboratory equipment
CanKrasJripodsJrin1in<j~?rocessiiKj
plant... ana nr the solution of any
technical problem concerning
them - the name thai matters is

W.VINTEN LTD. NORTH CIRCUURRD.CRflKUWOOD.MW?
—i »373

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School o£ Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-

Thamcs and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
■ dated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

VVelwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Dire ctor of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex.

ig Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
.Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinewood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, W.i
Rational Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames

tator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Associated Productions Ltd., Calcutta

Bharat Movietone, Madras

Bombay Pictures, Bombay

Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay

Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore

Chitramandir Studio, Bombay

CIRCO Productions, Bombay

Gemini Studios, Madras

India Artists Ltd., Bombay

Minerva Movietone, Bombay

Modern Theatres Ltd., Salem

National Studios Ltd., Bombay

New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta

Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore

Prabhat Film Co., Poona

Pragati Pictures Ltd., Madras

Prakash Pictures, Bombay

Ranjit Movietone, Bombay

Seth Manecklal Chunilal

Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta

Siedles Cineradio Ltd., Colombo, Ceylon

Vel Pictures Ltd., Madras

AUSTRALIA

Efitee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros.. New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

R C A PH1IT0PHQNE LTD., Electra House, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.2

Telegrams : IRCAPP, Estrand, London Telephone : Temple Bar 2971 8 (lines)

MS &

EQUIPMENTS

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MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WARDOURST.,

LONDON, W.I.

Telephone : GERrard 671
Cables: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, Thu Association of Cine- Technicians, 9, BromefieKl. Stanmore, Middlesex,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

1/-

JULY'
1944 AUGUST

SIDNEY COLE

BERT CRAIK

FRED J. HYSON

R. K. NEILSON BAXTER

R. S. W. POLLARD

FRIEDRICH WEISS

LAB TOPICS
A LESSON FROM AUSTRIA
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

WHAT SERVING MEMBERS ARE THINKING

STEADILY
IMPROVED

THE PREFERENCE of cameramen and
directors of photography for 'Kodak'
Films has a sound hasis. In the face
of wartime pressures, the exceptional
quality of these films has been not merely
maintained but steadily improved.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Department,
Kingsway, Loudon, W.C.2.

'KODAK9 FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

Telephone : GERRARD 8506
Telephone : HOLBORN 4972

sociate Editors : Sidney Cole, George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon, Walter Greenwood, Fred Hyson, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury.

itorial & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 .
fvertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I

umber Forry-nine, Volume Ten

July — August, 1944

Price One Shilling

What the Services are Thinking

Compiled by SIDNEY COLE

WAR has meant that young men who looked
forward to graduating from follow-focus to
operating, or even already dreamt of them-
seh es as a Bernie Knowles, or a Freddie Young, or
a Ronnie Keame, found themselves in submarine
or cruiser, tank or trench, ack-ack battery or coal-
mine. For sonic, the rook-laden trees outside Den-
ham, the " Red Lion " opposite Ealing, gave way
to the sandhills of Libya, a Naafi canteen in the
Burmese jungle. But most of them found them-
selves, if not at first, eventually after A.C.T.
had done its work, in one or other of the Service
film units. And for the majority of these, I sup-
pose, this has meant home-service and a geogra-
phical change only from Elstree or Hammersmith
to Pinewood or Portsmouth. Not for all, of
course. Our Service film unit members have
flown on thousand-bomber raids and low-level
attacks ; have followed the Eighth Army from El
Alamein to Rome ; have endured German and
Italian prison camps ; were in Singapore and
wondered at its fall ; felt their way through ice-
bergs and minefields to Murmansk. But whether
here or there, in actual battle or on a routine
assignment of photographing an assault course
from the inside, where the mud flew thickest and
the cautionary fire miglit go astray, they've done
their job and we're proud of them. But knowing
that pride doesn't pay the rent or fill jour belly
or send the children to school, we've been prac-
tical too. We've tried always to focus A.C.T. 's
picture of the post-war industry through the needs
and deserts of our returning members. How suc-
cessful we've been, we didn't know. So we asked
them. And we asked them to tell us what they
hope and expect and fear of the future. What
they said follows. Because of service regulations,
it is necessarily anonymous. I don't think it L >si -
anything because of that, especially since to many
questions the answers were unanimous, or nearly

so. Some of the answers perhaps will be a shock
to you. I hope so. They certainly were to me
and set me thinking carefully back over the
activity of the Union in the last four years. No1
only declared policy, but particularly the presen-
tation of that policy to our members.

WHAT'S A.C.T. DOING?

For example, the first contributor I read says,

Service members are most certainly worried
about getting jobs after the war, but whether or
not these interests are being watched, there seems
to be a distinct lack of concrete evidence that
they are. . . ."

Another says : "At the moment our interests are
apparently not being watched." The first adds:
"A.C.T. should state now and firmly that at the
cessation of hostilities and on demobilisation, a
closed shop will come into force immediately and
no one who was not) a member of the industry
should be employed whilst even one serving mem-
ber is unemployed. Provision should also be made
for jobs to be of a reasonably lengthy period and
not just for a month or two, to avoid the issue.
War emergency members of A.C.T. must be
secondary or serving members."

Nasty suspicious minds, you say? Perhaps.
But their attitude is probably symptomatic of
many in the Forces to-day (generally, I mean, not
merely film technicians).

As yet another contributor puts it: " For once
our members are agreed in one respei I We are
concerned about getting jobs after the war." (He
adds, by the way, that there agreements ends, and
we shall see how right he is). You can'1 bli me
them. Maybe they remember ho\n things were
after the 1914-18 war, and are not too sure thai

Homes for Heroes" won't have a re-issue. As
it happens, as far as the Union is con. i n d. but
only insofar as it is able to control events, most of

50

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1044

the points can be answered. " Closed shop " is a
fundamental policy of A.C.T. ; and we intend that
the next batch of agreements, negotiation of
which commences in the autumn, will incorporate
it in binding clauses. The doubt about War Emer-
gency Members can be dismissed immediately.
Full members, whether serving or not, have pre-
cedence over them. This is made quite clear to the
War Emergency members when they are accepted.
If the industry has room for them, they will be
taken into full membership and then strictly on a
merit basis. If not, not.

But remember, brothers, that these War Emer-
gency members have their worries too. Says one
of them who's in the Army : " Having entered the
industry through the service . . . frankly I am not
at all happy about our position. On various
occasions, I have felt that the A.C.T. would very
much like to lose us, but doesn't quite know how
to do it." He's not strictly correct of course;
we don't want to lose them unless absolutely
necessary, but if we do, we do know how to do
it! He goes on to urge — " I believe it is against
the interests of the industry in general, and the
A.C.T. in particular, to enforce any scheme which,
whilst not actually fostering the second-best, may
on certain occasions protect it."

None of this is grumbling for the sake of grumb-
ling, mind. The Service technicians are alive to
the sort of difficulties involved. One particularly
sums them up very well. " Generally speaking,
the idea that each firm should re-employ its
demobilized personnel would not work, since some
firms may have declined or even gone out of pro-
duction in the meantime. On the other hand,
there is the point that priority given to any par-
ticular class of members might result in a fatal
policy of protecting the second-rate. If any mem-
bers require special attention, surely it is those
who though technicians before the war, have not
since been working with any of the Service Units
and whose skill therefore has suffered through
lack of practice and whose contacts with film pro-
duction have been severed. There is almost
general agreement that at least due consideration,
if not actual preference, in the allocation of post-
war jobs, should be given to those who left their
pre-war jobs to go into the Services. We are
afraid that if some control is not exercised in this
direction and if there are not enough jobs to go
round, then people on the spot will get the jobs
which are going while the man who is still wait-
ing for his demobilization papers — which may not
come for a considerable time after the Cease Fire
— will be left out in the sold. What is wanted is
some middle course which would be morally just
without being impractical] v charitable."

Another points out that "many technicians, like
myself, just before the war were on free-lance
work, consequently we shall have no employer to

claim us back after hostilities have ceased. There-
fore many of us will be looking to the A.C.T
Employment Bureau for help." He asks: "Has
A.C.T. formed any scheme to deal with the order
in which they will nominate members for jobs'.
Will they adopt the Government proposal ot
release from the Forces on length of service, and
whether married or single? "

You will have already noticed, I hope, the fine
unselfish way in which many of our contributors
regard this problem. They want jobs of course,
but they give a thought to the other fellow, and
are worried if they envisage newer technicians
who've made the grade being turned away fron
the industry. We, who are in the Services pro-
duction units, imagine that we shall have to jostl.
for jobs cheek by jowl with all comers, and we an
the more anxious because we do not know how
long after the cessation of hostilities it will be
before we are released from the Services. Mam
grades of technicians can start from scratch and
become efficient in five years and there are
the opportunities offered during this war ; we do
naturally, many who have availed themselves of
not blame them but we wonder how we are all
going to fit in.

It is, therefore, evident that there may be
considerable internal strain placed upon the
Association of Cine-Technicians in the event of
the supply of technicians exceeding the demand
and it will be in those days that the Association
wll be in its gravest crisis. A faulty step would
be liable to lose it much of its goodwill. Never-
theless, if we do not support the Association, we
are jettisoning the only mainstay we have, other
than our own personal ability."

Some of them attempt to solve this problem in
different ways. One says : "There has grown up a
band of new personnel, who, as time goes on have
become proficient. ... It is suggested a system of
grading be arranged, whch should apply to all
members of A.C.T., whether Service or otherwise,
experience and results being the deciding factors.''

A member in the A.T.S. is very thorough an!
methodical. She suggests the following: —

"a) Not to allow new people into the industn
until all experienced personnel have found
employment.

b) Plan for the re-distribution of workers wl. I
have taken the jobs left vacant by tl ■
called-up.

c) Stop people getting into the industrv
through influence and not ability.

d) Married women with supporting husbaius
should not be allowed to take jobs frOia
single girls."

Another member, from A.K.S., is euual.v
thorough. He suggests an order of priority i< r
employment as follows : —

"1. Technicians who were in the industry pri

July— August, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

51

to and during the war and who were not
affected by call-up.

2. Pre-war technicians who have been serving
in the Forces.

3. Technicians who have entered films as
civilians dui'ing the war.

4. Services personnel who have entered films
since their call-up." (On this point, there
seems to be universal agreement. I myself
have heard Service members in this cate-
gory agree that it is a fair view and state
that they have no intention of trying to
remain in pictures after the war).

On the whole, these comments give a clear lead
to the General Council, which I'm sure will agree
I hat they are sensible and practical. There is a
divergence of opinion on one point. "In many
cases," says one, "experience gained by Service
members during the war will be valueless. The
men who have served in fighting units should be
given the first breaks. If the Army position is
allowed to influence the civilian job, the men who
have had the toughest time will be penalized."
This is refuted by another who declares: " It
cannot be stressed too strongly, nor too often, that
Servi -e members are not losing their skill, but on
the contrary are adding to it." And a third states
unequivocally, " Service personnel should be
graded for the job they are doing in the service,
just as they were graded pre-war for the job they
jwere doing then."

But most of them feel that the details of the
problem should be sorted out by the Union. Some
hink that there should be formed a "Services sub-
committee, preferably governed by ex-service
nembers who have served with a Service Film
''Jnit."

The real moral of it all in fact is pointed by a
ailor — "Our first concern should be to build a
lealthy industry which can give assured employ-
nent both to service technicians and to the War
Emergency members. This is as much a bread-
nd-butter question as are wages and conditions."

HINGS TO COME

The shape of the post-war industry, that's the
rux of it. Here's a number of relative comments
bat came in, arranged to form a connected argu-
ient : —

A. " We are hearing a lot about British films
nd the American market these days. What about
le British market . . . shouldn't we capture that
rst? If we make films good enough and in suf-
3ient numbers to supply the home cinemas,
irely we will then have an industry many times
gger than it is now. If we can succeed in this,
think the problem of the American market can
en be raised and we shall find it already rartly
ttled in our favour."

B. "I agree we should try to base the imme-
diate post-war productions on the type of picture
that we know will show a fair return from the
British market, but let us make these pictures on
a higher standard than we have in the past."

C. " On the other and, if the British film
industry is to become healthy in all aspects, it is
essential that a fair and proper release system is
obtained in the United States."

D. "But the only way to compete with the
U.S. market is to turn out as many good quality
films as possible consistently for this country and
the liberated European countries (the latter is
nearly as important as the American market). Our
native methods, at their best, are pre-eminently
more suitable for the latter (San Demetrio, Thunder
Rock, Millions Like Us, etc.) than the synthetic
star-filled U.S. epics and their shouting-down
entertainment."

E. "We should base our plans not on the
whims of financiers but on the public's need for
good films and our own technical ability to supply
them. Big money is not the solution — the
1937-1940 slump proved that. We would do better
fo develop the national film idiom we have found
during the war (here, a greater exchange of ideas
and personnel between features and documentary
would be useful) and to gain control of the domes-
tic market first. Then we shall be able to offer a
product which can't be imitated or bettered by
our competitors — and to back it up with commer-
cial bargaining power.

"A healthy industry implies also that we who
do the work should have a say in how that work
is used, and to what ends it is put. A.C.T. has
already drawn up an excellent Nationalisation
Statement. Immediately, a good deal could be
done by extensions of the Joint Production Com-
mittee idea."

F. ' The film industry must never be allowed
to sink back into the pre-war days of unplanned
productions. To maintain a steady industry, the
Government should embark now upon a large
scale programme of educational films (in the wid-
est sense) which will add immense value to the
new educational scheme that the Government
intend to launch. Further, nobody can deny that
the Crown Film Unit and the various Service Film
Units have done a good job (even though the out-
put is small, through no fault of their own, but
vested interests.) Why cannot their scope be
enlarged after the War? England and English
ways and customs should be shown to the world,
and shown by the Government, not by some pri-
vate enterprise, who always have some axe to
grind."

G. "The business as a whole wants pepping-
up and purifying. The industry has national

52

THE C T N E - T E C H X I C I A X

July— August, 1941

importance far greater than that of the vested
rests involved. This national importance would
justify the Government in taking a very firm line
with Hollywood. The industry should develop
n.it I'tvlK as an expression of British life, without
attempting to imitate American product. There
should be some definite method of raising and
maintaining the standard of film production.
' Quickies ' and the reason for them must dis-
appear. "

H. "On the other hand, again, producers
should give full consideration to their choice of
subjects, so that our films are suitable for distri-
bution abroad."

I. "But Britain is surely what foreign coun-
tries expect and would wish to see on the screen
in British films? "

J. ' Yes, and steps should be taken to prevent
the Gasliglit scandal!"

K. " Might not the point made by H disbar
the possibility of producers making films of cul-
tural and philosophical value to this country, in
seeking to gain wide international distribution.
Who is to decide ' suitability ' any way? "

L. "And whatever else you do, don't take a
person who has attained sudden popularity and
1 naive three or four films quickly without giving
due consideration to the story and situations. Also,
don't write such a player into every shot. Give
the supporting roles more scope and don't use
them just because the star must have somebody
to talk to."

LONDON TRADES COUNCIL
DISCUSSES MONOPOLY

The following resolution in the name of the
Association of Cine-Technicians was discussed at
the July meeting of the London Trades Council : —
' The London Trades Council regards the
creation of a flourishing and independent British
Film Industry as an indispensable national asset
for the expression of British ideas and ideals on
the screens of the world. It views monopoly
control of the industry, whether by British or
American capital, as contrary to public interest
and regards as inadequate the measures taken
by the Board of Trade to limit the development
of sudi a monopoly. It draws the attention of
the Labour and Trade Union Movement bo the
proposals put forward by the Trade Unions in
the film industry for countering the grip of
monopoly capitalism on the industry, i.e.,

(a) Maintenance and extension of Government
film production and sponsorship and the preser-
vation of the Central Film Library as a public
service.

(b) Government acquisition of Film Studios,

Laboratories and equipment to enable indepen-
dent production to continue.

(c) The creation of a State Film Bank to
advance credits for films of national importance

This Council regards these as praci
measures pending full public ownership ot tl.
industry."

The resolution was moved by George H. Elvin
(A.C.T. General Secretary). The main points m
by Mr. Elvin were : It was a. vital matter of pub-
lic policy that an industry which is an important
public service should not come under the eontn
of private monopoly. The strength of any medium
of expression was dependent upon complete free-
dom of expression and unfettered access to it~
means. It would be suicidal not only to films a<
such but to the national well-bein» if the p<
over the film industry was wielded 1>\ one man
or one set of interests. There were at the mom
two sets of interests with powerful influence in
the industry : —

(1) The Americans, who by reason of being th
manufacturers of the major proportion of English
speaking films — and therefore the chief source of
supply to British cinemas — had a power and in-
fluence which if used to that end could consider-
ably jeopardise ordinary British film interests.

(2) The Bank interests, which were building up
an all-powerful position in the British Film Indus-
try. They were in somewhat of an anomalous
position as the recent deal with 20th Century 1"
showed. On the one hand they claimed to 1
building up a vast organisation to safeguard
interests of genuine British production. On th
other hand they were completely dependent on
American product to supply the bulk of the films
for their cinemas and had to come to business
arrangements with them. Mr. Elvin gave details
of the Bank holdings and control in the indus
and claimed it was increasingly difficult for am
interest to make, distribute or exhibit films witl -
out using Rank facilities, and therefore to a 1
extent doing so under Bank terms and under Ban
control. Any understanding between Bank an!
A.B.P.C. organisation would make Bank virl
controller of the film industry. For this reas
the film Trade Unions, the Films Council an 1
other bodies made urgent representations to the
President of the Board of Trade last year. Tli •
action taken by him was only satisfactory as
temporary measure. It did nothing to restrict
Rank's existing powers — which were already
great — and did nothing constructive to aid th -
development or ensure the maintenance ot
independent film industry.

Mr. Elvin stated that the proposals in the
lnt inn were a necessary prerequisite to the main-
tenance of an independent industry free from any
control by large private interests. \ State Film
(Continued on page 59)

-August, 1944

THE C IKE - TE C HNIC I A N

53

ARE IMPOSSIBLE —

.iles of Ilford Film are used in every branch of
the Services. On every battlefront history is being
recorded for posterity by official still and cine
photographers on Ilford Film. In the Navy cameras
loaded with Ilford Film fight with the guns and the
R.A.F. use Ilford Film to locate their targets and
record the results of their devastating work. The
six British factories of Ilford Limited are contri-
buting their great resources to the vital part
which photography is playing in the war effort.

The Sicilian Landings.
Dawn, July 10, 1943.
(Crown Copyright)

ILFORD LIMITED
CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL HOUSE

WARDOUR STREET

LONDON

W

54

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

Julv — August, 1944

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

A.C.T. Benevolent Fund. To those of you who
have helped in any way to build up the Benevolent
Fund the following letter is an example of how
much that help is appreciated : —

I cannot find words to express how deeply I
was moved by your most generous actions and the
time and trouble you have taken in your efforts —
I must confess that the very welcome grant has
made me feel a little guilty, because with so much
trouble I've had to face in the past two years I
was beginning to lose faith with everybody, but
since my first letter from you, and subsequent let-
ters, I am convinced that there are still at least a
few ' human beings ' left in the world, and as
this is the first good turn I've had done for me
for many a long year, I feel that just thanks are
most feeble and inadequate for the good you have
done, not only from a monetary point of view,
but you've bucked me up tremendously."

Our file of such letters makes us realise the
great need among those of our members who fall
upon bad times.

Marriage Bar. Trade Unionism will never acquire
the power and influence it deserves until it has
won over to its ranks and its way of thinking our
great industrial army of women. It will never do
this if it discriminates against them.

The tendency against certain working-class
organisations to favour the withdrawal of women
from industry directly they marry pre-supposes
that on marriage a woman should by right be con-
fined to home life and smacks strongly of the
Turkish harems. We, of course, understand the
reason behind it, but is the figure of married
women who wish to remain at work in peace time
so great that it will affect the livelihood of the
average man? Without statistics to guide us we
hazard a guess that it is not. Surely the correct
way to deal with this problem is not to try and
make a right out of two wrongs, but to view the
matter in its true perspective. To begin with, a
trade union is failing in its duty if it presupposes
that there will always be a colossal unemployment
figure in this country during times of peace. It
is up to the unions to see that the unemployment
problem is solved in the only way that it can be
solved — through Socialism. In the meantime
don't let us endanger freedom by discrimination
between the sexes. There can be no freedom with-
out equality. The trade unions and the Socialist
movement must continuously have in their mind's
eye this equality of the sexes in all decisions the\
make. Unless they do so, that large army of
women workers will never join the trade unions in
sufficient numbers to give us the democratic

thought and power needed to achieve the freedom
we so desire — freedom from want.

The Five Day Week. In this time of war with
the immense strain on every working man and
woman the idea of a five-day week seems Utopian.
In the film industry for example, the six-daj
week has more or less established itselt. Then wt
have Home Guard and fire-watching duties thrown
in for good measure.

The British worker, and we include all thosi
men and women who are temporarily in the Fight-
ing Forces, however, has stuck doggedly to his
task knowing how much depends on it.

This combined strain of working under pressure
and for long hours is burning indelibly into tin
people's minds the determination that things musl
be different after the war.

They will want to see an advance on whal
obtained prior to 1939. And here will loom largeh ;
the question of the five-day week. There are tw<
main reasons which few will dispute in favour c
the five-day week. In the first place it will east
the unemployment problem ; there were too mam
instances before the war in our own industry when
workers were doing excessive overtime while their
fellow technicians were on the dole. Secondly, r
is time the working man, the backbone of thi
country enjoyed a measure of leisure compatibli
with that of the middle and upper classes. This
w ill never come to pass unless the working class
do something about it

Inevitably of course, the issue will be decided"
between the trade unions and the employers' asso-
ciations. Consequently, the unions should be look-
ing ahead and be paying careful attention to an;
agreements negotiated in the future.

Servicemen — How to Get Your Vote. " It is
important to get your name on the new Voters'
Register," says a message from the Labour Party
to men and women in the Forces. This is how t
do it I Ask at vour unit or ship for a declaration
card (Army Form B2626, Navy Form S1300 IV
or B.A.F. Form 2040).

The declaration card should be filled in witii
ful! name, rank and the number and lull pos
address of the house where you would lie living
if you were not in the Forces. An attesting officer
will add his signature.

If you are abroad or likely to go overseas, yo I
can obtain a proxy vote by filling in Part 2 on
the back of tlie card. This entails giving the
address of an adult British subject in the con-
stituency win") will vote on your behalf.

Whether you have appointed a proxy or not.

Jul v— August, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

00

if you are in Britain at the time of the election
you may yourself vote by post.

Every member of the Forces who wishes to be
on the new register of voters must make a declara-
tion whether previously registered or not. Mem-
bers of the Merchant Navy can obtain similar
[eelaration cards (M.N. E.K.I.) at official offices
at the ports.

Bert Craik

CORRESPONDENCE

Newsreels for the Troops

Sir, — I have just received my copy of the Jour-
lal covering period January to April, 1944. I
ind it very, very interesting, and it keeps me in
ouch with activities of fellow members of our
Lssociation.

I was particularly interested in the short article
' Fighting Troops Demand Newsreels." Although

am engaged in the Technical Department ol an
5NSA Area, I share a billet with the N.C.O. i/c
11m Distribution for these areas, and we natur-
!ly discuss our various difficulties with ea< h
ther.

Although the Newsreel position has improved
»nsiderably since that article was sent to the Kine
\'eekly, it is not yet possible to arrange for Troops
i all Areas to be supplied with up-to-the-minute
ews.

Occasionally, it has been necessary to approach
ie Public Information Officer for the Area (Agent
»r War Pictorial News) for an up-to-date copj
>r Mobile Exhibition. Seldom can this be
ranged, and at present we are showing News-
els from this source 14 weeks later than 1st run

the Civilian theatres.

I noted that two Newsreels are being made by
e Troops themselves. This should have read
Filmed by the Troops themselves." The N.C.O.
c Film Distribution for Ensa in this area has a
und argument when he says " The fighting men
e contributing 95% towards all Newsreels in the
►rid today. Their news dwarfed the recent Erup-
>n of Vesuvius, which would have otherwise
en headline news. They are making news every
y all over the world. They deserve to see pre-
•ws instead of mere memory joggers, and caval-
ries of the campaigns already dimmed by the
•sent events which are making the Newsreels
\y, and in which they themselves form the
tire action and design."

Yours faithfully,

D. J. GOLDSMITH,

S/Sgt., M.F.F.

tear i

Suppose, for a moment, you found one of our
wounded soldiers at your door — you wouldn't
hesitate to give all the help you could, would you?
Your help was never needed more than it is
now. The calls on the many auxiliary services
of the Red Cross and St. John become greater
and greater as the fighting develops. Will you
help to answer them ?

PLEASE

GIVE AN EXTRA PENNY A

WEEK TO THE RED CROSS

PENNY-A-WEEK FUND

the Duke <i Glouc

Kegistered unde

56

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July — August, 1944

-

A Lesson from Austria

Friedrich Weiss, the writer of this article, is
an Austrian Cutter, now working in England

LISTENING to a lecture by George Elvin at
the League of Austrian Socialists I not only
learned that he was a delegate at the Inter-
national Workmen's Olympiad at Vienna, but was
struck by the similarity of experience of British
film trade unionism and our Austrian film trade
union, "Filmbund." I was a member of the
Executive of the Vienna Filmbund and its chair-
man for some years.

The struggle /of the British film industry
against American domination had its counterpart
in Austria in our struggle against the German film
industry (before Hitler). German industrialists
first came as friends, they bought our Austrian
films, which did show the Austrian national
characteristics, the music, the gaiety, the
beauty of our capital cities Vienna and Salzburg,
the beauty of our mountains, our baroque
buildings. Naturally, our language was under-
stood in Germany, except in our peasant films
where the dialect was stronger. The Austrian
industrialists were pleased ; Germany with a ten
times larger population made possible larger finan-
cial returns.

But soon our "friends" became our masters.
Scenarios had to be sent for O.K. to Germany.
German artists had to be used, Austrian dialect
was suppressed, Austrian natural scenery was cut
out, and we technicians learned soon that we were
inferior to German technicians, who came to our
country thick as locusts. We had to emigrate to
Berlin, try to find work there, in order to be
accepted for films produced in our own country.
I think that was the first " Gleichschaltung "
even before Hitler.

Our only major banking institution, the Credit
Anstalt, bought Sascha A.G., the firm where I
worked for many years, secured control of the
major studios and so created a monopoly. These
Austrian monopolists soon sold us to the Germans,
the Tobis A.G. (Siemen's Halske).

A ray of hope came when with almost every
Austrian technician unemployed a British firm
appeared in Vienna and bought the Vita Studios.
Widgey Newman was the only British technician
who came with this firm and I and an art direc-

tor, Arthur Berger, who now works in films in the
Soviet Union, were engaged. Unfortuately this
firm was interested more in the British Stock
Exchange than in producing pictures, very much
to the distress of Widgey and of us Austrian tech-
nicians, and it did not bring about our salvation.
Soon the Germans had swallowed the whole Aus-
trian Film Industry. Austrian technicians who
did not like to dance the " Prussian goosestep
were unemployed, and it was an easy thing to
transfer everything to the Herman Goering Com-
pany. By 1934, after the heroic but unsuccessful
February revolution of the Austrian working class,
Goering's little brother, Wilhelm Goering, had
moved in as manager of Sascha.

Now, with victory for the United Nations in
sight, with the Moscow declaration of Austria's
independence, with the Austrian Freedom Front's
active fight against the Nazis (already Austrian
partisans are fighting in the mountains and
together with Tito's Army of Liberation) the
future looks brighter. I am glad to have had a
chance to work in the British Film Industry and
proud to be a member of A.C.T.

At our last General Meeting I saw how much
we Austrian Trade Unionists can leam from you.
We shall certainly copy your " Standing Orders "
and the democratic way you conduct your busi-
ness. We shall certainly try to get our future
government, the government of the Austrian
people, interested in stimulating and controlling
tin- new-born Austrian Film Industry, and we shall
be on the "Alert," as you are, for any monopoly-
minded persons.

We hope to welcome British technicians in a
liberated, democratic Austria, making full use of
the natural beauty of our country. We hopi
show British films, and especially your documen-
tary films, in our country, and to bring both our
peoples closer, and we hope that you will show
our new Austrian films showing the history ami
dr\ elopmenl ot our nation, which has always been
— so far as the ordinary people were concerned

— a tolerant nation which in future wants I
be nothing more nor less than a good member of
the World family of Nations.

July — August, 1944

THE CINE -TECHNICIAN

57

40-HOUR WEEK

The Trades Union Congress has circularised
affiliated unions putting forward suggestions and
asking for their views on proposals to establish a
40-hour week as a maximum in post-war indus-
try. It is stressed that the 40-hour week must be
without reduction in earnings. If this point was
omitted the projected reform would become
merely a device for increasing employment. We
want everybody to work less hours, but we don't
want their earnings to suffer thereby.

The A.C.T. General Council has replied to the
T.U.C. circular putting forward its views on the
possibility of the adoption of the 40- hour week
in the film industry.

Dealing with the position generally, Sir Walter
Citrine writes in the current issue of The T.U.C.
in Wartime : —

" One of the most important industrial reforms
which succeeded the last war was the reduction
of the working week Irom 54 to 47 or 48 hours,
and this the Trade Union Movement has been
able to retain in spite of the unprecedented econo-
mic depression.

" During the inter-war years, the trade unionists
of all countries aimed at securing through the

International Labour Office a universal 40-hour
week without reduction in earnings, in order to
make, up for increased mechanical efficiency. But
the attempt was obstructed by reactionary Gov-
ernments and employers, and cheap labour com-
petition from Germany, Japan and Poland, and
usually subsidised by governments of these coun-
tries, made further advance impossible in this
direction.

" The position at the end of this war will be
radically changed. Japan will not be able to flood
the world with goods produced on a "coolie" basis.
Neither will Germany be able to engage in her
"dumping" activities for quite a long time. No
doubt some of the occupied countries will have a
say in the matter. So it looks as if the three main
industrial units of the immediate post-war period
will be the United States of America, Russia and
Great Britain — in other words, three high level
countries."

On our part, A'C.T. will give full support to
every effort made to a move which in our own
industry is, in our opinion, an immediate and
necessary post-war desirability.

MERT

STUDIOS

A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,

where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff

are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone ■. liberty tin

One mile from Wimbledon Station

THE CINE- T E C II N I C I A N

July — August, 1944

Edited by Fred J. Hyson

LAB. TOPICS

No Fanfare!

Devoid of ballyhoo, advance publicity and free
dinners, we present the first of a regular series
with the above title. Our aim? To let non-lab
technicians know what we are doing and thinking,
technically and socially, and endeavour to close
the gap that exists between the two sections.

Over to U.S.A.

Recently we heard that Bill Harcourt, Denlab

boss, is in the States taking a peep at the latest
lab machinery. With post-war plans in mind we
wonder if he is peeping at any colour machinery.
Other lab bosses will want to make the trip too,
we guess.

Over to Us

Fraternal greetings to the many American lab
technicians who have been drafted over here as
technical members in the U.S. forces. Many of
the major labs are well represented. We have
heard some highly coloured accounts of the lab
conditions and wages — a six-hour day, one job per
person and double and treble wages paid over
there. We are trying to get a detailed account for
you.

Multi-Lingual Props

(We've pinched this from the Press) You

probably read, as we did, that a start is to be made

in producing 35mm multi-lingual propaganda films

eially made for presenting the United Nations'

viewpoint. As lab technicians we wonder what

particular shade of propaganda will be used, and
as the labs are working at full pressure it means
that without additional staff the productive
capacity of technicians is to be stepped-up con-
siderably. If anyone says there's a war on. he'll
bet a biff or a bundle (apologies to B. Bond).

Up the Garden Path

Many of the Olympic boys have recently taken
home some fine tomato plants grown from
American seed by their general m John A.

Ojerholm. If they can emulate their boss, the
boys are likely to get some gigantic specimens.
John Ojerholm is a keen horticulturist ; in fact,
we think that if he had not entered film labs he
would have made a successful farmer. He grows
all kinds of produce, including sweet corn, and
grows them well. A tomato weighing 1 lb. 12 ozs.
was a typical specimen grown last year. We shall
have to see if we can interview him on his plot
and get the lowdown on his methods for your
benefit.

Form Queue the Other Side

Listen, you greybeards of the labs. The other
day we heard of a youth of nineteen who cut a
short after two months in the industry and became
a director in less than twelve months. What's
that. Uncle? You've been in a lab for twenty
years and you're only a grader at £6 per week,
tch, tch, tch. You need ambition, or, better still,
read Darrel Catling's article in the Sept. Oct.
1943 issue of the Journal.

HOLLAND PREPARES for FILM IMPORTATION

One of Holland's first demands when she is sel
tree will be for British and American films. Iso
Dutchman will want another of the Nazi produc-
tions with which he has been forcibly fed ever
since the occupation began.

In anticipation of this, the Dutch Government
in London set up a Board of Film Examiners
some time ago, to take the place of the Board of
Film Censors which existed in Holland before
the war. The new Board consists of twenty-five
members of both sexes and is split into five com-
mittees i five members, w ho do the actual
soring, guided by the provisions of the Dutch

Cinema Act which is directed to the two main
considerations of public order and morality.

A slight revision of this Act now provides for
the division of films into those for universal exhi-
bition and for show ing only to people o\ er 1 1 years
of age.

At the requesl of British and American autho-
rities, the committee also gives political advice,
to prevent the introduction of films capabli
offending political susceptibilities in Holland.

We are informed that the Hoard has already
examined more than thirty films.

July— August, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

59

LAB TOPICS— Continue d

Rush Priority

There are some of the producing fraternity who
once went to Southend in their youth and were
invited to "have their photo taken while they
waited." Result, an unintelligent mess stuck
on a white decorated pasteboard delivered in
(id seconds or less, which they had to believe
was a reproduction of their features. Every lab
is a fully equipped, highly organised plant, with
an efficient staff standing (or sitting, if one can
sit) at the ready, waiting for any chance rush job
that might come in like a bolt from the blue. Can
you imagine what agony of mind and unspeakable
torture the technicians suffer, if, after standing
keyed up all day no rush or priority job shows up.
Watch out for a series entitled " How Hypo
Sweats " or "The Film Lab from Start to Finish"
beginning in the next issue, especially written for
those who have never been told.

A Veteran Passes On

Many of the older technicians will have heard
with regret of the passing of Tom Day of the
Olympic. The boys at the lab and the Union
sent expressions of sympathy to try and make life
easier for Mrs. Day and young Tom, who is serv-
ing in the Army.

Whodunit?

This page is for the views of all lab technicians,
so please let us have your views and news of your
own particular lab in time for the next issue.

LONDON TRADES COUNCIL— (Continued from
page 52)

Bank and State-owned Studios, Laboratories and
equipment facilities would be available to all bona-
rtde producers untrammelled by any obligations to
their financiers or the owner of the facilities they
were using. This was essential if independent
iproduction was to continue and flourish.

The resolution was seconded by Ralph Bond
(A.C.T. Vice-President).

Mr. Bond, in seconding, dealt specifically with
rhe State Film Serivice that had been developed
luring the war, with particular reference to the
.vork of the Crown Film Unit, the Films Division
>f the Ministry of Information and the Central
Film Library. Since September, 1943, he said,
he Central Film Library had lent films to 5,000
leparate organisations of every type. They had 800
ilms in the Library — 500 of them made since 1010
-and some 12,000 copies of these films were scut
tut each month. In addition, the M.O.I, had 140
aobile units giving 1,400 shows every week in
(Continued at foot of next column)

First "Closed Shop" Agreement

Agreement has been reached between Halas-
Batchelor Cartoon Films and our Association. The
company is one of the pioneers in the making of
cartoon films in this country and is actively
engaged on work for the Fighting Forces.

The Agreement provides that all employees of
the company shall be members of A.C.T. This
is the first time in our history that we have estab-
lished the " Closed Shop" principle in an agree-
ment.

The general conditions of employment by the
company are covered by the Shorts Film Standard
Agreement. We append herewith the schedule of
minimum wage rates : — •

Per 47-hour week

£ s. d.
Key Artists or Animator (capable of

action planning from the script) ... 10 0 0
Animator (not responsible for action

planning) ... ... ... ... 9 00

Background Artist ... ... ... 8 00

In-Betweeners : Grade I ... ... 7 10 0

Grade II 5 0 0

Tracers: Grade I 5 0 0

Grade II 3 10 0

Not less than 50% of In-Betweeners
and Tracers employed by the
Company shall be in Grade I
Supervisor of Colourists ... ... 5 0 0

Colourists 3 10 0

Rostrum Cameraman (able to photo-
graph Diagram Cartoons, etc.) ... 7 0 0
Assistant Cameraman ... ... ... 4 10 0

To these, of course, must be added the cost-of-
living bonus payable under the Shorts Film Stan-
dard Agreement.

In addition to Halas Batchelor we hold simi-
lar agreements for the Animation and Diagram
sections of the Industry with Publicity Picture
Productions, British Industrial Films and Techni-
color Ltd.

LONDON TRADES COUNCIL— (Co ntinued)

factories, villages, hospitals, etc.

All this work was a public service and no charge
was made for the hire of the films. The issue, said
Mr. Bond, was whether this would continue to be
a public service or whether it was to be handed
over to private monopoly interests . Strong interests
were at work to close down the M.O.I. Films Divi-
sion, the Crown Film Unit and the Central Film
Library after the war. If this were done it would
be a disaster and a defeat for democratic progress,
and it was the responsibility of the Trade Union
Movement to ensure that these services did not
pass into the hands of interests whose primary
concern is profits.

(Concluded at foot of page 67)

60

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July — August, 1944

\

ELEVENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HAVE you ever seen a dream walking? Well,
I have. And talking, too. Eleven years ago,
a few technicians dreamt of a strong well-
organised Association of Cine-Technicians. And
here, eleven years later, it is. Four thousand mem-
bers. A healthy balance-sheet. A record of ser-
ice to its members that any union would be proud
of. And this year the members at the Annual
Meeting were talking better than ever before. In
particular, the General Council motion on Mono-
poly produced one of the best A.C.T. debates I've
ever heard. Not only because of the quality of
the speaking, but also because of the number of
members intervening. Too often, members have
been too shy or cautious to get to their feet. It's
a good sign that they're becoming bolder and los-
ing their modesty.

In the chair, appropriately enough, was Ken
Gordon, veteran Vice-President. He hoped the
reason he was in the chair was not that the
General Council despaired of finding any other
way of keeping him quiet, though he confessed
that he had been known to bang the table at
General Council meetings. But he insisted that
respectable methods didn't always get results —
had A.C.T. always followed them, it wouldn't
be in such a strong position today.

This point was also raised by one of the fra-
ternal delegates, who declared that we were a
much more orderly crowd than he was used to.
Perhaps we were a little too orderly for our own
good. In his experience, a little disorder on the
part of members made the executive get down to
constructive work. This was Sergeant Jimmy
King, in this country on operational duties with
the 4th American Army Air Force Combat Camera
Unit. He was previously Eecording Secretary of
I.A.T.S.E. Local 659 (Cameramen) in Hollywood.
On behalf of his unit, he paid a special tribute to
the work of British laboratory technicians.

Material shot under the worst possible conditions
had been processed to look like real photography.

It was proper in the year of the Second Front that
our other fraternal delegate should also be repre-
sentative of an Ally. This was Lieut. E. Hauge.
of the Royal Norwegian Government Film Unit,
who said how happy his Norwegians had been
in their co-operation with British film tech-
nicians. He hoped this co-operation would con-
tinue after the war. Norway had used British
technicians before the war, but he didn't think
we had seen any Norwegians in our film industry
until now — a friendly dig at our policy about
foreign technicians. On this subject, of course.
A.C.T. 's policy has never been chauvinistic. Dur-
ing the past year, it has moved a stage further.
with efforts on the part of the General Council
to conclude with the American Union an agree-
ment governing the exchange of technicians.
Pending such agreement, the Council were oppos-
ing all permits.

In many other ways, A.C.T., as Ken Gordon
pointed out, had been busy seeing that the Servia
members will have a reasonable industry to return
to. There are 700 of them in the Forces — mostly
in one or other of the Service Film Units. They
have done magnificent work on such films as
Desert Victory and Tunisian Victory. They have
also shot a gi-eat deal of the informative and ofter.
sensational material in British and American
newsreels. Four of them have been decorated and
twenty-two of them have been killed. The Con-
ference stood for a moment in silence in their
honour.

A new agreement is being negotiated with the
laboratory employers — conditions in the labora-
tories certainly need improvement. Jack Cham-
bers, of Botha Films, speaking to a resolution on
the subject, said that documentary workers wen
shocked at the conditions thev found in the

July— August, 1944

THE CINE - TE CHNICI AN

laboratories. Wages are lower than in any other
section of the industry, and laboratory workers
represent practically half of our membership.

Sid Bremson gave some startling figures. A
j night staff of ten people can process up to 40,000
I feet a night, the receipts from which show approxi-
mately £125 profit, because the silver recovered
from the negative is sufficient to meet the cost of
running the department.

If ever a resolution should receive support,
Ronnie Neame said, this one should. Laboratories
are vitally important to the success of our pictures
on the screen and we must take care of them. The
voting showed how unanimously members agreed
with him.

The only employers who have not so far con-
' eluded an agreement with the A.C.T. are the
Newsreel Association. The Chairman said they
had indulged in every form of reactionary antics to
break down negotiations. They had even had the
impudence to declare that newsreelers should
receive lower wages than other technicians,
because they joined newsreels for glamour and
adventure ! Only the approach of the Second Front
• had prevented the General Council from taking
strong action, since the national importance of
newsreels for public morale was weightier than
A.C.T. 's demands for an agreement.

The main debate of the day was on the General
Council's motion on the present position and pros-
pects of the industry. It was moved by Ralph
Bond in his usual forthright and well-argued way.
The old conception of a Trade Union as being only
concerned with immediate
issues of wages and condi-
tions had gone with the
wind, to be replaced by a
newer conception which
held that there was no one
better situated to plan and
organise an industry than
those working in it.

During the past year, the
General Council had dra \vn
up two documents — a
memorandum on Post-War
Reconstruction submitted
to the Board of Trade and
the Films Council and a
special memorandum on
Documentary and Educa-
tional Films. These docu-
ments crystallised A.C.T. 's
conclusions about the
future of our industry and
members should arm them-
selves with them as wea-
f. Keiiy. of Riverside studio> pons in the struggle ahead.

Frank Sainsbury

61

Many bad conditions
of the past had gone, but
there was no guarantee
they would not return.
Meanwhile, a new dis-
quieting factor had
emerged — monopoly.
Bond denied vigorously
that it offers a panacea
for all the troubles and
grievances that have
affected the industry. A
much better cure for
these ills lies in mea-
sures of immediate pub-
lic control, leading even-
tually to full public
ownership. There should be a films credit bank.
There should be Government studios and labora-
tories. If necessary, there should be a Govern-
ment distributing organisation.

Documentary had expanded tremendously in
wartime — 5,000 shows, for example, are given by
the M.O.I, every month to an audience of between
eighteen and twenty million people. This organ-
isation must not be thrown away after the war.
There are dozens of films which will be needed
to help post-war reconstruction. And the making
of them must not be left to unfettered private
enterprise .

Something will also have to be done about the
scandalous position of teaching by films in this
country. Before the war, only 2,000 schools were
equipped as against 10,000, for example, in France.
Here again monopoly thrusts in its hand. Rank is
opposed to the State being interested in making
films, even for the schools of this country.

Sidney Cole, seconding, gave some startling
examples of the ruthless way in which monopoly
worked and warned technicians against being
deluded by temporary good conditions offered by
the monopoly. They must reflect what their posi-
tion and that of the A.C.T. would be in an indus-
try in which monopoly was dominant and in which
Rank could, if necessary, shut down British
studios for six months in order to defeat the
Unions.

Ivor Montagu foresaw an enormous post-war
boom in films in this country. With the shrinking
of our invisible exports during war time, the Trea-
sury could not permit the continuance of a situa-
tion in which twenty million pounds went out of
this country to America every year for films. We
should need immense Government assistance. It
would be intolerable that that assistance should
be given to a monopoly.

There was some spirited defence of Rank from
the floor, though not one of the defenders ex-

&2

T H E C I X E - T E C H X I C I A N

July— August, 1041

pressed themselves as in favour of monopoly.
Harold Huth felt that Bank sincerely desired to
build up the industry. David Lean said that cer-
tain technicians had been given greater financial
freedom than they had had before in making their
films, with which Bonnie Xeame agreed. They
deplored sneers at Bank's religion. (A speaker
had remarked that Bank was a self-made man
who believed in his Creator.) Miss Cooper sug-
gested that if we were going to have monopoly, it
would be better to have one over which we could
have a more democratic control, i.e., public
ownership.

An Austrian refugee technician told us what had
happened to the Austrian film industry. It became
a monopoly which finally sold out to the German
monopoly — U.F.A. Shortly afterwards, the Xazi
took over U.F.A. and with it the Austrian him
industry, thus dictating what went on to Austrian
screens long before Hitler's Storm Troops
marched into Vienna.

It was an extremely good and stimulating dis-
cussion which mostly kept to fundamental issues.
Apart from minor reservations, the view of our
members was shown by the overwhelming vote —
only two opposing the resolution.

A.C.T. was the first Union to hold a General
Meeting after the enactment of Begulation IAA.
It therefore became the first Union to have the
opportunity of discussing it, the General Council
submitting an emergency motion deploring the
regulation, which was passed unanimously.

In a very clear and forceful speech, George
Elvin pointed out that there was no disagreement
with the Government's view that strikes in war-
time must be avoided. But the General Council
could not accept the view that Trade Union offi-
cials needed protection from outside agitators. We
had to look to the future. This Begulation, added
to the 1927 Trade Disputes Act, could be a very
dangerous weapon against the Unions. It is true
that the T.U.C. was consulted and introduced
quite a number of safeguards, but in his view
these were not enough. It was a fair reading of
the Begulation that talking about the possibility
of strike action casually in canteen, pub or on the
way to work would be indictable under the Begu-
lation. Finally, you cannot stop industrial unreal
simply by regulations. You can only stop :t by
abolishing its cause or through the voluntary ell-
restraint of the workers concerned.

Bod Baxter, Treasurer, introduced the accounts,
which were looking very healthy. The only com-
plaint to be made was that the target set for
the Benevolent Fund had not nearly been reached.
He and other members from the floor urged
strongly that everyone, but especially the higher
paid technicians, should ensure that the Fund

should reach £5,000 during the coining year. (A
twinge of conscience? Well, you know the A. ('. I
address.) In this connection, I refer you to a
paragraph in the Organiser's Beport on page 54.

Other discussions centred round such question-,
as the employment of unskilled technicians and
non-Trade Unionists, and of inexperienced persons
as Directors or Associate Producers. Tied in with
the second motion, was the insistence on the close'l
shop principle, which was endorsed unanimously

All the discussions were good and keen and
showed a strong sense of responsibility about the
future — economic, political and technical — of th
industry. Let's hope we keep this up, until it
can be reinforced by the vigour and determina-
tion of our members returning from the Forces.

For the first time in A.C.T. history, there was
a contest for the position of President, Anthony
Asquith and Sidney Cole both standing. Asquith
won, and in a graceful speech afterwards said that
had he had an opportunity of a word with Sid
before the meeting, he would have felt like using
the words of Thackeray, who, when approached by
a competitor with the words — " May the best man
win," replied "Oh, I hope not."

S.C.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

ASSOCIATIONS OF
CINE-TECHNICIANS

The Address of

THE ASSOCIATION OF

CINE-TECHNICIANS

AND

"THE CINE-TECHNICIAN"

IS NOW

2, SO HO SQUARE,
LONDON. W . 1 .

Telephone: CERRARD 8506-7-8

Nozi- installed

Inly —August, 1941 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

03

64

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A X

July— August, 1914

REINSTATEMENT IN CIVIL EMPLOYMENT

Reprinted from " Labour " official organ of the Trades Union Congress

THE phrase "reasonable and practicable" is
the linch pin of the Reinstatement in Civil
Employment Act which has now been passed
by the House of Commons "to make provision
for the reinstatement in civil employment of cer-
tain persons who are, or have been, in the service
of the Crown, or in a civil defence force."
Such persons are mainly : — ■

(a) Whole-time members of the armed forces,
and certain women's Services (W.E.X.S.,
W.A.A.F., A.T.S., etc.), who entered
into their service after May 25, 1939.

(b) Men and women who commenced their
service after April 10, 1941, in full-time
civil defence.

These persons are substantially the same as
those covered by Section 14 of the Xational Ser-
vice (Armed Forces) Act, 1939, and Defence Regu-
lation 60 D.A.A., except that the Reinstatement
Act includes volunteers who were formerly not
covered.

This new Act clarifies the position of members
of the armed forces and civil defence workers
considerably. The trouble with the former rein-
statement provisions was that not only were volun-
teers excluded, but the guarantees given were both
vague and hazy. Had reinstatement been left to
depend on the previous legislation, the only people
who could have been at all happy about it would
have been the legal fraternity, and consequently
it was recognised by every responsible person that
the returning Service man and woman should not
be called upon, after leaving the battlefront, to
enter into a legal battlefront in a struggle to obtain
what apparently the old Acts and Regulations
promised.

The T.U.C., who along with the Employers'
Organisations were called into consultation by the
Minister of Labour, as is customary on these mat-
ters, have given the Reinstatement Act their
general approval.

The Act provides that a person claiming his
reinstatement rights should apply to his former
employer not later than the fifth Monday after
his war service has ended; and at the same time
or later must indicate a date on which he will be
ready to start work. That date must not be later
than the ninth Monday after his war service lias
elided. Both periods may be extended in case of
sickness or for other reasonable cause. The former
employer is described as the last employer for
whom the applicant worked during the month

prior to him (or her) entering the service of
( n iwn. Thus even a person who was uneinployi I
for a period of say three weeks, before enterii _-
the forces, will be able to make a claim for reii -
statement to his former employer.

It may so happen that the employer is not in a
position to re-employ an applicant immediately.
His business may have been closed down and n< t
yet re-started. Or the particular department in
which the applicant worked may have been " tele-
scoped " out of existence for the tinae being.
" concentration." The applicant's claim does n t
lapse on that account. He can keep his claim ali\e
by renewing it at intervals of not more I
thirteen weeks. The original application or
renewals can be lodged either directly with tie
employer by the person concerned, or through a
local office of the Ministry of Labour, or through
some person acting with the applicant's authority,
such as his trade union.

One other important point must be remembered
in connection with these applications. They are
only vaiid if they are in writing. A verbal appli-
cation will not do. It is quite likely that applica-
tion forms will be provided by the Government to
each person concerned, on demobilisation, and
some Unions might wish to draw the attention <>f
their members affected to this requirement, by
themselves providing a simple and suitable appli-
cation form.

The employer's obligation on receiving such a
claim will be to reinstate the applicant at the first
opportunity (if any) at which it is reasonable and
practicable to do so, on or after the date on which
the applicant will be available. Reinstatement s
to be in the occupation in which he was employ t. 1
before the beginning of his war service, and on
terms and conditions not less favourable than tl
which he would have had in thai occupation had
he not joined the forces : if it is not reasonable and
practicable to reinstate him on those conditio
then the employer must reinstate him in the n
favourable alternative that :s reasonable and p
ticable.

" Notional " or hoped-for advances in status
would most likely be excluded. For example, if
an applicant were to claim that if he had not join* 1
the forces he might have become his company 's
secretin . his claim would hardly be consider*
be reasonable and practicable, unless, of cou
he was the assistant secretary; but if normal pie-
motion for clerks in the firm was by way >{

July— August, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

65

seniority from one grade to another, the applicant
would quite well be putting forward a reasonable
and practicable claim if he claimed that he should

!be reinstated to a higher grade than the grade he
left.

The minimum period of reinstatement is 26
weeks, or for so much of that period as is " rea-
sonable and practicable " (but where the applicant
had one year's service or more with his firm before
altering the forces the minimum period of rein-
statement is 52 weeks instead of the 26 weeks in
)ther cases) ; and during that time the terms and
conditions of his employment are not to be changed
o his detriment unless it ceases to be reasonable
uid practicable to maintain them unaltered. That
neans that if a reinstated person commits a mis-
lemeanoour for which he would normally be
'sacked," the mere fact that he is a reinstated
icrson does not mean that he could not be dis-
charged, even though he may only have been rein-
itated for a period of two or three weeks.

He would have the right to take his case to a
•einstatement committee, composed of one trade

union representative, one employers' representa-
ive, and an independent chairman, and if they
lecided unanimously against him his employer

' vould be considered to have discharged his rein-
statement obligation. (If the reinstatement com-
nittee was not unanimous, or if they gave him

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a further right of appeal, or if his trade union
appealed on his behalf, the matter would be fur-
ther considered by the Umpire, whose decision
would be final.)

If, on the other hand, the reinstatement com-
mittee found in his favour, they could order the
employer to reinstate him, or order the employer
to pay a sum by way of compensation, up to the
amount which the worker would have been paid
if he had remained in the employment for the full
reinstatement period.

An employer also has the right of appeal under
the same conditions as the worker. It should be
noted, too, that a "short-time" working week
would count as a full working week for the purpose
of calculating the reinstatement period, provided
that other workers in the same grade and occupa-
tion were also on " short-time."

The employer's alternative offer to reinstate-
ment is governed by the term "reasonable and
practicable " and the effect of the Reinstatement
Act is to give a preference to seniority in employ-
ment. If there are two applicants for reinstate-
ment, and it is reasonable and practicable to rein-
state only one, the job will go to the applicant
who entered into employment with the firm first.

For example, say Mr. Jones started with a firm
in 1937 and Mr. Brown in 1938, and Mr. Brown
was called up in 1939, and Mr. Jones in 1943.
Although Mr. Brown has four years' war service
more than Mr. Jones, the reinstatement rights
belong to Mr. Jones because he was the first
(Concluded on page 6y)

Company planning world-wide distribution
cinema and studio equipment and supplies wishes
contact men whose experience would qualify them
for overseas selling jobs. Knowdedge of equipment
and trade essential; languages advantageous.
Applications welcomed from men now in services
or war-time jobs seeking post-war employment
abroad. All replies strictly confidential. Fullest
details of experience and qualifications to Box
C.T. 102, Charles Sell, 5/6, Red Lion Sq., London,
W.C.1.

-For Studio and

laboratory equipment,

Camerasjripodsftinfing, Processing

plant... ahatirfne solution of any

technical. problem concerning

them - the name thatmattm is

Tel: GERRARD 5223

W.VINTEN LTD. HORIHCIRCUUB RD..CRKKIEW00D. N W J
k GUditont 6373

66

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

July— August, 104 4

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-third
List

K. W. ASH (Sound Becordist, Crown Film Unit)

— H.M. Forces.
BOXALD BEXXETT (Dryer, Olympic Kine)—

B.A.F.
MISS H. BILGOBTE (Prod. Secretary, Welwyn)

— A.T.S.
HABBY BOXE (16mm Mechanic, Pathe Works,

Mitcham)— H.M. Forces.
G. BOTTEBILL (Assist. Cutter, Gainsborough)

— 'Merchant Navy.
ABTHUB BROWN (Splicer, Humphries Labs)—

Xavy.
J. M. BBOWX (Art Trainee, Gainsborough)—

U.S. Navy.
J. BUBGOYXE-JOHXSOX (Assist, Cutter.

Strand) — Xavy.
G. BUBLEIGH (Electrical Test, British Acoustic)

— Army .
JOHX BUBMAN (Sound Loader, Gainsborough)

— Army.
W. BUSH (Lab. Assistant, Humphries)— H.M.

Forces.
M. G. CABTEB (Draughtsman, 20th Century

Fox)— H.M. Forces.
J. CLEMENTS (Draughtsman)— Army.
J. CONNOCK (Cutting Assistant, Gainsborough)

—B.A.F.
ABTHUB COOPEB (Printer, Technicolor)—

Army.
L. W. COWLEY (Titles)— B. A. S.C.

B. J. CBEEDEN (Assist. Projectionist, G.B.)—
B.A.F.

MISS H. DAVIS (Printer, Olympic Kine)— H.M.
Forces.

C. DAY (Printer, Film Labs)— Navv.
PETEB DUXBAB (Assist. Camera, G.B.)—

Navy.

FBED EMNEY (National Studios)— H.M. For
J. A. FOOT (Printer, George Humphri< s
B.A.F.

C. FRENCH (Camera Assistant, G.B.)— R.A.F.
W. GREEXLEAF (Despatch, George Humphries

— H.M. Forces.
J. GWINNELL (Printer, George Humphries) —

B.A.F.
ALFRED HICKS (Assistant Camera, Riverside)

—B.A.F.
W. HODGSOX (Soviet War News Film Agencj

—B.A.F.
B. HOLE (Sound Trainee. G.B.)— Navy.
W. HOLLAND (Sound Assist., I, rers Rich)—

H.M. Forces.
MISS J. HORSEY (Pos. Examiner, George Hun -

phries)— A.T.S.
PETEB HUNT (16mm Editor, Guild Films)-

H.M. Forces in Italy.
T. HUNT (Maint. Dept., Studio Film LabsVj

B.A.F.
CYRIL JOHXSOX (16mm Printer, Denham

Labs) — H.M. Forces.
P. L. KIRK (British Acoustic)— R.A.F.
G. B. KNIGHT (Camera Operator, National

Studios)— B.A.F.
F. LAMBEBT (Printing, Denham Labs)— B.A.F.

D. LANKFOBD (1st Assist. Camera, Crown Film
Unit)— H.M. Forces.

W. H. LOMAS (Projection Trainee, Gains-
borough)— B . A . F.

J. MACE (Sound Assist., Denham)— Royal Artil-
lery.

J. MARA (George Humphries) R.A.F.

R. D. XEYILL (3rd Projectionist, Paramount
Xews) — Navy.

R. B. NEWBERRY (Stock Joiner, Olympic !.
— Roval Marines.

W. NEWMAN (Treatment Boom, George Hum-
phries)—B.A.F.

J. PA VIE (Dev. Assistant, Denham Labs
H.M. Forces.

B. PLESTED (Diver. Kodak)— R.A.F.

CYRIL POPE (Prod. Assistant, Ealing)— H.M.
Forces Overseas.

J. REEVE (Cutting Assistant, Crown Film Unit
—H.M. Forces.

J. W. ROBBIXS (Prod. Assistant, Film Centre)
—H.M. Forces.

W. T. ROUS (3rd Projectionist, M.O.I.)— HAL
Forces.

D. J. SKINNER (Transfer Operator, Teehnicolffl
— H.M. Forces.

MISSK. SMITH (Pos. Assembly, Denham Labs
— WRNS.

A. STEADMAN (Assist. Sound Recording,
Leevers Rich)— R.A.F.

R, TREDWEN (Neg. Developer, Kodak)— Fleet
Air Arm.

July— August, 1944

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

67

B. UNDERWOOD (Kay's, Finsbury Park)—
R.A.F.

D. WALKER (Printing Trainee, Cinit Labs)—

L. F. WASHBOURNE (Printer, G.F.D. Labs

— Army.
B. WATERSON (Assist. Camera, Denham)—

— H.M. Forces.

E. R. WEBSTER (Despatch Clerk, Paramount
News) — Navy.

MISS R. WHITE (Drying. Kay's, Finsbury Park)

— A.T.S.
T. WILLIAMS (Art Assistant, Ealing Studios)—

H.M. Forces.
\NDREW WILSON (Tracer, Halas-Batchelor)—

Navy.

Promotions

PETER HOPKINSON, promoted Lieutenant,
Army Film Unit.

Casualties

. C. CRAWLEY, formerly Camera Assistant,

Welwyn Studios, killed in flying accident while

serving with R.A.F.
ROBERT DAY (Sgt. Army Film Unit). Killed

while scrying with the Army Film Unit on the

Cassino Front, March 17th,* 1944.
M)XALD GILES, former Assistant Projectionist,

Denham Labs. Killed in action in Italy, April

30th, 1944.
\.. H. HARTNFP, King's Royal Rifles. Reported

Prisoner of War.

OBITUARY

There can be few old-timers in the film busiin ss
vho did not know and respect Charles Tokeley,
vho died, after a few weeks' illness, on April 30th.

He entered the film business in 1910, and, join-
ng the Gaumont Company, remained under their
lanner throughout his career except for the spell
if service he saw in the first World War. For the
>ast few years he had been with G.B. Equip-
nents, G.B. Screen Services and, finally, sini e
he war, with G.B.I.

All his work was characterised by thoroughness
nd reliability; C.T. was an incurable, irrepres-
ible optimist, to whom no situation was beyond
olution ; before his disarming personality every-
hing fell into line. Toke, in fact, had become an
istitution.

He leaves a widow, two sons and a daughter.
5oth boys are in the Forces — the elder, a prisoner
l Jap hands.

D.C.

REINSTATEMENT — (continued from page 65)
employed by the firm. If this Mr. Jones had not
been called to the forces and had continued in
employment with the firm, it would not be rea-
sonable and practicable under the Act to dismiss
Mr. Jones to make room for Mr. Brown.

Let's take am tther example. Say Mr. White had
started with the firm in July, 1939, and Mr. Green
had started in August, 1939; Mr. White was called
up in September, 19,39, but Mr. (ireen was not
called up at all. On the demobilisation of Mr.
White, the firm would be under the obligation to
reinstate him, even though it meant dismissing
All'. (Ireen, whose service with the firm would be
five or six years compared to Mr. White's two
months.

Special provision is made in the Art for cases of
changes of ownership, amalgamation, etc.

In cases where a person is released from the
sen i( 1 s but is prevented from exercising his rein-
statement rights because of his direction to other
work by the Minister of Labour, the reinstatement
righls are preserved, subject to certain qualifica-
t ions, until the end of the further period of service.

In addition to these reinstatement proposals the
Government have already introduced training for
the disabled, and in framing this latter measure
the T.U.C. played a full part. Resettlement gener-
ally and full employment are problems of a wider
character, and both the Government and the
T.U.C. have these questions under active con-
sideration. The T.U.C. have raised during the last
two years, but without success, the proposal that
reinstatement rights should include those workers
who in the interests of the nation have been trans-
ferred from their own jobs to others more urgently
necessary for w inning the war. The Reinstatement
Act is a valuable contribution towards general re-
settlement in industry. It is not regarded, hew-
ever, either by the Government or the T.U.C, as
being the last word on general resettlement.

LONDON TRADES COUNCIL— (Concluded)

After a resolution to proceed to next business
had been defeated, the A. C.T. delegation agreed
to refer their resolution to the Executive Com-
mittee of the London Trades Council for necessan
consideration and action. This was agreed unani-
mously, after the speeches of Elvin and Bond had
been most favourably received by the delegates.

The A. C.T. delegation expressed its keen plea-
sure at the outcome, as it believes that the mono-
poly danger in the British film industry requires
the most careful investigation and discussion by
the entire Trade Union Movement. A subsequent
resolution on the Agenda, which was carried
unanimously, put on record that the London
Trades Council was in favour of the national
ownership of the most essential industries in
Britain.

68

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 194!

WHO'S WHERE IN FILM PRODUCTION

SHORTS AND DOCUMENTARY

SEVEN-LEAGUE PRODUCTIONS
LTD.:

P/D. : H. M. Nieter.

PM. : Pamela Paulet.

Seen. /Res. : Francis Bieber.

E : Stella Smallwood.

Asst. E. : Peggy Hunter.

G.B.I. DIAGRAM DEPT.

AD/PM. : Walter Murton.

AD. : H. Stringer.

Rostrum C: Gwyneth Parker, William
Oxley.

Diag. Artists : Y. Dormell, H. Dunt,
D. Griffin, VV. Lambert, M. Low-
dell, C. Laurentzch, S. Mollar, R.
Hurt (trainee).

Maint. Dept. : A. Inglethorpe, D. Wil-
liams (trainee) .

C.W.S. FILM UNIT :

P/D. : George Wynn.

C. : Bert Hampson.

WORLD WIDE PRODUCTIONS
LTD.:

P. : Ralph Bond.

In Charge of Production : James Carr.
PM. : Hindle Edgar.
P. Sec: : Betty Harley.
Seen./ Res. : Clifford Dyment, Hilary
Taylor, Mary Francis.

D. : Graham Cutts, Robin Carruthers,
Kenneth Hughes.

LC. : Geoffrey Williams, Clifford
Hornby, Ronald Anscombe.

C. Assts. : Peter Hubble, John Arm-
strong.

E. : Alice Baker.

Cutting: E. K. Gardner (trainee).

SHELL FILM UNIT :

P. : E. H. Anstey.
Asst. PM. : B. Leared.

D. : Graham Tharp, R. K. Neilson
Baxter, J. B. Napier-Bell, G. L.
Bell, A. Gourlay, A. Womersley.

P. Assts. : R. H. B. Mason, A.

Mavrogordato, E. Royde, J. Rhodes,

R. Whitehouse (trainee).
LC. : S. Rodwell, S. Beadle.
Lib. : L. Currie.
NC. : D. Barnes.

Diag. Artists. : F. Rodker, A. Shaw.
Proj. : G. Emmett.

BRITISH COUNCIL FILM DEPT. :
In Charge of Production : Frank
Bundy.

E. : A. Felton.

Dir. of Foreign Recordings : Barbara
Frey.

VERITY FILMS LTD. :

In Charge of Production: Sydney Box.
P. : D. Birt, R. Keene, M. Munden,

R. Riley, C. Turfery.
PM. : Betty Taylor.
Asst. PM. : W. Asher.
P. Sec. : B. Gilchrist.
Seen. /Res. : F. Brown, R. Groves, W.

Hardman, F. W. King.
D. : K. Annakin, D. Birt, L. Birt, H.

Cass, R. Keene, L. Laurance, Max

Munden, R. Riley, J. Neill Brown,

P. Price, T. Stack.
Asst. D. : L. Hughes, D. Morgan, R.

Nelson Keys, G. O'Hara, H. Reu-

bin, A. Scobie, Zachary Booth.
P. Assts. : D. Bjork, A. Rayner.
LC: R. Elton, P. Hennessy, B. Lewis,

R. Wyer, A. Willis.
C. : G. Still, P. Cutter.

C. Assts. and Trainees : A. Heller, T.
Jones, P. Myall, D. McKeand, P.
Ward.

SE. : Compton Bennett.

E. : C. de Beliaeff, R. Hill, D. Hop-
per, D. Myers, J. Wintle, J. Neill
Brown.

Asst. E. : M. Barden, D. Holding, H.
Holding, D. Holmes.

NC. : L. Shepherd, L. South.

Lib. : J. Davidson.

Cont. : S. Barnes, B. Callaghan, M.
Norton.

SELWYN FILM PRODUCTIONS
LTD.:

P. : C. A. Radley.

P. Sec. : M. de la Pole.

Sc./D. : D. M. Watt.

GRYPHON FILM UNIT:

P. : Donald F. Taylor.

P. Sec. : Renee Harrington.

Seen. : Dylan Thomas, Colin Brisland.

D. : John Eldridge, Charles de Lau-
tour.

Asst. D. : Les Wilkinson.

P. Asst. : Dennis Shand.

LC. : Jo Jago, Charles Marlborough.

C. Asst. : Teddy Fader, Jean Ander-
son.

E. : Oswald Hafenrichter.

Asst. E. : Connie Mason, Biddy Cook.
Cont. : Fanya Fisher.

REALIST FILM UNIT:

P. : John Taylor.
PM. : R. Hawker.
Asst. PM. : L. K. Hayes.
P. Sec. : K. Parker.

D. : F. Sainsbury, Alex Shaw, Brian
Smith, A. Pearl, M. Thomson, R.
Hunter, Y. Fletcher.

P. Asst. : J. Massy, P. Pullen, P.

Geary, R. Davies, D. Waterman.
C. : A. Jeakins, C. Phillips.

E. : J. Ellit, G. Baillie.
Asst. NC. : O. Ferrari.

CROWN FILM UNIT:

P. : J. B. Holmes.

AP. : John Monck.

D. : Pat Jackson, Ralph Elton, Jack
Lee, R. Q. McNaughton, Michael
Gordon, Gerard Bryant, Peter Bol-
ton.

PM. : Lilian Buck.

Asst. PM: Anna Matthews, Enid Ken-
nard.

UM. : Isobel Pargiter, Nora Dawson,
Diana Pine, Elaine Quin.

Asst. D. : Graham Wallace, Jack
Gowers, Jack Krantz, Richard War-
ren, M. Lofting, J. Spencer.

Cont. : Pauline Roberts, Jean Graham

Gladys Reeve.
Chief C. : Jonah Jones, Chick Fowle.
LC. : F. Gamage, E. Catford.
C. : D. Densham, N. Rowland, W

Chaston, C. Arapoff, F. McLachlan.
Asst. C. : K. Reeves, F. Leather, L.

Hawkes, E. Tilling.

C. Maint. : F. W. Jones.
ST. : Walter Bird.

ST. Assts. : Pauline Baer, E. Harris.

SS. : Ken Cameron.

R. : Jock May.

SC. : K. Scrivener, D. Chatterjee.

S. Assts. : D. Edwards, P. Clark, D

Hurring.
Scr. : F. O'Connor, J. Mortimer.
SE. : S. McAllister.
Cutter : T. Trench.
Asst. Cutters : Jocelyn Jackson, G.

Sturt.
2nd Asst. Cutters : P. Davison, Jenny

Hutt, J. Langfield, C. Squires.
Cutting Room Boy : T. Pullinger.
Lib. : Adelaide Pentecost.
Asst. Lib.: Wyn Dibble, Rhona Mason,

Catherine Fraser.
Lib. Assts. : Maureen Lawrence J

Legard, B. Gribble, J. Martin.
S. Lib. : M. Elliott.
S. Lib. Asst. : Man,- Russell- Wood.
Asst. NC. : Frances Lee.
Lab. Contact : W. Crisp.
Mus. D. : Muir Mathieson.
Chief Proj. : D. Smith.
Proj. : W. T. A. Munn, J. W. Keepin.
A. : E. Carrick.
Asst. A. : S. MacGregor.
DR. : T. Freeman.
Jnr. DR. : D. A. Home.
Assts. : J. H. Morrish, Iris Plester.

TECHNICOLOR :

P'D. : F. George Gunn.

PM. : F. N. Bush.

P. Sec. : J. Fergusson.

LC. : G. Unsworth.

Trick C. : E. Hague.

Rostrum C. : R. Cross.

Asst. C. : J. Tulloch, P. Faulkner, P
Harman.

E. : C. Tomrley.

Asst. E. : N. Williams.

Diag. Artists : D. Towse, R. Mar-
shall, L. Manners, A. Burden, P
Tracy.

WIDGEY R. NEWMAN PRODUC
TIONS (Associated Independent
Producers Ltd.) :

P. : Widgey Newman.

AP.: Joan Widgey Newman. A. Fried.

P. Sec. : Mary* Williams, Glady>
Phillips.

Seen. /Res. : Jean Honour.

D. : Widgey Newman, Joan Widgey
Newman.

Asst. D. : Fred Lack.
LC. and Trick C. : W. Roy Plaskitt.
E. : Fred Lack, Jean Honour.
A. : Anthony Griffin.

July— August, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

69

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

Films, by Roger Manvell. Penguin Books. 9d.
Topics for Discussion: No. 6: The Films, by S.

B. Carter. Workers' Educational Association.

3d.
The Art of Walt Disney, by Robert D. Feild.

Collins. 30/—.

Many of us bave been saying for some time
i bat a good cheap book on films is urgently needed
— a book which would place a general survey of
film-making, its economics and technique, and its
soi ial implications before the largest possible
public. There are plenty of books about the film
in all its aspects, but most of them are too dear
to reach anything but a limited number of readers.
At the present time we are beginning to think
about post-war reconstruction and how war-time
developments in the industry can be made to
serve as a new foundation. But there is very little
we can do without the help of the customers,
and there's a lot the customers don't know. Before
thc\ can understand what is happening now, what
they are going to get from the monopolies, what
they should get from the M.O.I. Films Division,
and so on, they must know something about the
tilings which have led up to the present state of
itfairs.

A Penguin or Pelican book is obviously one
good way of making this sort of information
ivailable. At ninepence a lime they are within
•each of most pockets, the bookstalls and news-
igents feature them, and all that's necessary
:o insure success is that they should be readable.

All of which describes what Dr. Manvell's book
night have been — I won't say should have been,
Mise what he writes a book about is, after all,
Imsiness. The odd thing is that one has the
mjiression that he set out to write just exactly
he sort of book that is wanted — but he hasn't
line it. On the first page appears a Guide to
Reviewers and Readers, which says that the book
ittempts to deal with the following: —

Why do we go to the pictures and what we get
for the money.

Why films are like they are.

Why they influence the way we live.

Why and how they get themselves censored.

Why the film can be called a new industrial
racket ....

Why America has cornered pictures . . . etc.

Maybe the book does deal with all those points,
lit unfortunately Dr. Manvell hasn't the sift of
larity. He is not " readable." In fact, it takes

great effort of concentration to get through the

book at all. A film technician reading it will call
it diletantte — if he doesn't use a more pungent
adjective. Readers who belong to the class that
just likes " going to the pictures " will be sur-
prised, and probably annoyed, to learn that Dr.
Manvell regards them as " culturally under-
privileged." But some people may be taken-in
by his air of thoroughness. The book is full of
quotations, of classified lists, of definitions and
interpretations, technical analyses, dates — and
inaccuracies.

Its inaccuracies are, to me, its most entertain-
ing feature. There are too many to quote them all
but, for example, we are told that Von Stroheim
directed The Blue Angel and that John Watt col-
laborated in the making of Night Mail. We learn
that Zolton Korda is an art director and that Richard
Baxter (presumably the 18th-century divine) made
Love on the Dole. He misquotes Grierson — •
which is unpardonable seeing that he reads Docu-
mentary News Letter — and it was foolish, I Chink,
to embark at the end of the book on a glossary —
in which he defines no less than twelve technical
terms. But had he not done so we should have
been deprived of the information that " since light
travels from screen to audience more quickly than
the sound from the amplifiers, the sound precedes
the image on the celluloid by some nineteen
frames." For this alone it was worth while read-
ing to the end.

Penguin Books, Ltd.,
hility on their shoulders,
of " books for the people.

have a great responsi-

They are the publishers

Is this their standard

of accuracy ? How many other books have they
published, with whose subjects we are less fami-
liar, containing incorrect information? Would it
not have been a sensible precaution, knowing that
Dr. Manvell was not a film technician, to have
had the proofs read by someone who was ? You
may say that mistakes like these don't matter to
the general public, and I might go a long way
towards agreeing with you, but only if the book
had any real critical merit.

One has the feeling that Dr. Manvell has tried
hard to be objective and realistic. Frequently he
starts to talk about the really important aspects
of film-making, but peters out, or gets distracted
after only a tew paragraphs on to aesthetic con-
siderations— where he evidently feels on safer
ground. And so one is left with the impression
that his book might possibly add up to something
if one had time to take it all to pieces, put it
together again in the right order and cut out

70

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

July— August, 1941

most of the many references to the film as an
art-form which obscure the fact that film is pri-
marily a science.

It is true that this would make the book con-
siderably shorter, but there's nothing to be afraid
of in brevity — witness the W.E.A.'s pamphlet
on The Films. I don't think you could find a
better contrast to Dr. Manvell's book than this.
In twenty pages it presents an admirable survey
of the industrial and economic set-up ,the reasons
and the arguments for and against the American
and British monopolies, the relationships oi
feature, documentary and educational films to the
community and the technical considerations
involved.

The pamphlet is one of a series designed to help
discussion-group leaders. It doesn't pretend to
be exhaustive or to draw conclusions. It sets out
to provide enough information to enable any
intelligent person to discuss objectively his
cinema-going and his opinions about the films he
sees — and in this it succeeds completely.

In fact, I can. only find two small things to
criticise. One is the statement that " in this
country the Association of Cine-Technicians is,
for all practical purposes, a Trade Union."
Why "for all practical purposes"? Perhaps the
W.E.A. will tell us which of our purposes is im-
practical— it might help.

The other criticism is of the list of recom
mended literature on the last page. This is by
no means comprehensive and omits many of the
best books. Another omission is any reference
to the availability of films through the free loan
service of the Central Film Library. If the pam-
phlet is to be reprinted at any time these faults
would be worth rectifying, to clean up what is
otherwise such an excellent effort.

It's a big jump from a threepenny pamphlet to
a thirty shilling de luxe edition, for that's almost
the category in which The Art of Walt Disney
can be put. There's no conformity to war-time
standards about it and you may wonder just ex-
actly how Collins have managed to get away with
it. The book is producted by Adprint, Lid., so
it goes without saying that the colour reproduc-
tions are first-class, but in this case the line
drawings and, I think, the printed matter have
also been processed by Adprint with a very
pleasing result. Anyone who likes a book Eor its
appearance as well as what it says will enjoy this
one, for the content is on a par with the presen-
tation.

Robert Feild is a Professor of Art, till recently
at Harvard University. He has written a most
detailed and informative account of the history
and technique of the Disney product. There are
chapters describing the production method, the

Burbank plant and its organisation, the technical
mechanics, how story ideas are developed and
so on. But although his analysis is based on fch
conception of cartoon films as an art-form, he,
unlike Dr. Manvell and too many other writer?,
avoids approaching the subject from the acadt
viewpoint. He says in an early chapter:

"Art cannot be evaluated statistically , nor mil
any amount of technical analysis reveal the artist's
purpose. If we are to understand how a Disne\
picture comes into being .... we must first of all
try to discover what the artist is trying to do. Once
that is clear, the rest becomes nothinp more than
a study of methods .... (and) the more we knm
about the methods the artist adopts to express his
ideas, the more we shall be able to enjoy the idea
expressed."

It's refreshing to find someone, with this atti-
tude when so many writers plunge into print with-
out realising how far all the processes of produc-
tion can affect the sesthetic value of the finished
article.

Processor Feild carried out his investigation into
the methods of cartoon-film making so thoroughly
(he spent a year in Hollywood doing it) that he
has produced not only an analysis of the art of
Walt Disney, but also a fully comprehensive text-
book which makes extremely interesting reading.
It would he silly to say that every film technician
ought to get the book, because only a limited
number of copies were printed and the London
booksellers are already sold out, besides which
it's expensive. But it's worth going to some
trouble to borrow it it you can, for animation is a
branch of film production which all too few of us
understand, and this book contains a lot of infor-
mation which will help us to appreciate the work
and the problems of our fellow technicians eng;_
in it.

R. K. Neilson Baxter

How to Reform Parliament, by Robert S. W.

Pollard. Forum Press. 2/-.

We all know the interminable time it takes t
get reforms through the Houses of Parliament,
and indeed how often the Parliamentary machi-
nery can lie vised by a minority of discontents t i
prevent progressive legislation ever reaching the
Statute Book. That there is a case for reforming
Parliament no-one will deny. How it is to
done is another matter. Mr. Pollaixl — who inci-
dentally i- A.C.T.'s solicitor — faces up in his book
to all the difficulties and makes practical and
sound proposals for overcoming them. His pro-
posals merit serious consideration and will, we
trust, pave the way to ensuring that actual lav-
making is as intelligently adapted to the aims of
democrat as it ought to be.

G.H.E.

July— August, 1944

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

71

Workmen's Compensation Up-to-Date, by W. H.

Thompson. Labour Research Department. 2/'-.

Anyone who has anything to do with workmen's

- compensation is waiting anxiously to learn from

I the Government White Paper on social security
that it is to be abolished in accordance with the

[ recommendations of the Beveridge Report and a
new adequate payment substituted which will be
integrated with the general system of social insur-
ance. Some eighteen months will have elapsed,
however, between the Beveridge Eeport and the
White Paper and the period between the White
Paper and the passing of its proposals into law
cannot be foretold. It is wise, therefore, for those
who have to advise injured workmen, to have

[isome knowledge of the existing workmen's com-
pensation Acts.

The Trade Union movement owes W. H.
Thompson much for the work he has done on
workmen's compensation and for his continual
advocacy of radical reform. The evidence he gave
to the Eoyal Commission just before the war,
which was later published by L.R.D., was a vivid
exposure of the present system. The publication

! being reviewed sets out in 70 pages in language
which all can understand, the elements of the
present law and is a book which ought to be in
| the possession of all shop stewards and branch
secretaries. The author makes it clear that those

Jwho read his book should not pose as experts, but
that his aim is only to teach his readers to be very
careful or at least not to give wrong advice or to
reach wrong conclusions.

The Acts of 1940 and 1943 increasing the rates

j; of compensation are fully dealt with and the new
anomalies to which women are particularly sub-
ject are pointed out. A woman under the Act of
1943 is not entitled to any marriage or children's
allowance although she be a widow or has an
invalid husband or a number of children depen-
dent upon her !

Readers of this book may be surprised that the
Labour movement has for so long tolerated the
exploitation of injured workmen by insurance
companies and employers and that the right to
compensation is dependent on the interpretation
of an Act of Parliament as explained by thousands
of legal decisions. I hope, therefore, that constant
pressure will be kept up for the passing of the
Beveridge Report into law as a whole; in the
meantime wring out of the present law the maxi-
mum benefit which can be obtained and to do that
read this book.

R. S. W. Pollard

The Director, by L. A. G. Strong. Methuen. 8/6d.

The plot of " The Director " is quite interesting,
set in and about a small priest ridden village in
Southern Ireland. Many interesting characters
pass through its pages, but any charm the story
may have is spoiled, for this reviewer at least, by
the screwballs that inhabit his film world.

There is Votty, the Russian cameraman (obvi-
ously Tsarist Russia) who is such an artist he
cannot even bear to have a crew about him. Not
only does he hump his own camera about, he
pulls focus, operates, loads and apparently holds
the clappers.

But this is not the end of Mr. Votty's accom-
plishments. When the weather is bad in the vil-
lage, blythly he sets about converting a large Barn
into a studio. Ah there Mr. O'Brien seems
N.A.T.K.E. is not functioning very well in ould
Ireland. There is also a sound man, Ted, who
anatomically must resemble a Gorgan monster.
He tends the boom in one hand, keeps an eye, and
probably a couple of hands on the sound camera,
and uses the rest of his hands for mixing. Oh yes,
before we forget Votty, when rushes are to be
shown who processes them and then projects
them ? Why Votty the boy genius with the
camera.

And then there is the Director, what a hive of
activity, a veritable dynamo of energy. Are there
some facilities needed, off gallops our hero to the
seats of Government to lay the law on. Have
some props gone astray, just ask the Director, he
knows where they are. Artists calls, sure. Set ups?
What then. Make up? Why not. Laying tracks?
Undoubtedly. Look at the script. Don't be silly.
(Mr. Strong must have done a bit of research
there). Surely it's about time somebody whispered
into Mr. Strong's ear that we may be artists, but
we are certainly not supermen. And besides, the
Union wouldn't allow it. What the E.T.U. would
do when they saw Votty switching on a light, I
shudder to think, and as for Tom O'Brien, the
studios would be tied up for months.

No, it would appear from a study of this book
that the problems of labour are Mr. Strong's weak
point.

Bernard Lewis

FILM PREMIERE

The premiere of Blithe Spirit is to be made avail-
able by Mr. Rank, through the Film Industry
Employees Council, to the Benevolent Funds of
all the Unions in the industry. The date is some
months off and further details will be announced
later.

THE CINE-TECH X I C I A X

July— August, 1944

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

The Fastax High-Speed Camera (C. L. Strong,

American Cinematographer, August, 1943).

The Fastax camera was designed by the Bell
Telephone Laboratories primarily as an instru-
ment for analysing the performance of telephone
equipment, electric relays, switching devices,
etc., which move too rapidly to be studied by nor-
mal visual methods. There are two models of the
Fastax, taking 8mm pictures and 16mm pictures
respectively. The 8mm camera has a top-taking
speed of 8,000' frames a second. (The well-known
Eastman ERPI camera has a speed of 2,500
frames a second).

The camera is of simple and robust design. The
film comes off the 100 ft. feed spool under an
idling roller round the 20 tooth driving sprocket
and on to the take-up spool. The lens is a stan-
dard 2" 1.2. Framing and focussing are done by a
prismatic finder which picks up the image at the
focal plane through a hole in the sprocket roller and
projects it right way up on a ground glass at the
rear of the camera.

The film movement is non-intermittent. A 4
or 8-sided glass prism with parallel opposite faces
takes the place of the conventional rotating shut-
ter and intermittent movement. An exposure slit
is provided in front of and behind the prism. The
prism rotates in synchronism with the film sprocket
and the image is displaced by the refraction and
rotation of the prism so that it travels in step
with the film across the exposure slit. When the
prism reaches the point where the light-rays might
strike two adjacent prism faces, the prism hous-
ing blocks the light from the film and forms the
frame line.

When the camera is running at its highest speed
the prism rotates at 60,000 r.p.m. and the film is
travelling through the camera at 70 m.p.h. Dura-
tion of exposure with the 4-sided (16mm) prism is
about 83 millionths of a second and with the
8-sided (8mm) prism about 33 millionths of a
second.

Among the many applications of the camera have
been high-speed pictures in Kodachrome of the
production of speech by the vocal chords and shots
taken by polarized light of stress and impact con-
ditions in transparent materials.

Mitchell Background Projector (E. J. Tiffany.

American Cinematographer, October, 1943).

An outstanding feature of the new portable
background projector produced by the Mitchell

corporation is its silent operation which does away
with the necessity for using a booth or blimp.
When working at a normal distance from the back-
ground screen no noise is picked up by the sound
system.

The projector head consists of a film moving
mechanism, upper and lower thousand foot maga-
zines and interlocking motor drive system rnounte
on a base plate. The head can be rotated through
an angle of 18U° whilst in operation. The lens
Bausch and Lomb f.m super cinephore, can be
focussed by the cameraman by remote contrr
worked through a Selsyn motor. The threading of
the projector is similar to a Mitchell sound camera.
The movement can be removed easily and replaced
by an auxiliary aperture plate for lining-up the arc
and size of picture. The magazines ai-e equipped
with a reverse clutch so that the projector can be
run backwards. A water-cooled cell prevents the
heat falling on the film from becoming too intense
The lamp house is designed to accommodate i
120-180 amp. arc.

The projector head and lamp house are mounted
on a base plate which can be rotated 360° and
tilted 10° up or down. The height of lens can be
altered between 58 inches and 72 inches from tl.
floor by a control wheel. A control panel in
base plate permits the projector to be operate .
forwards or backwards, independently or inter-
ior ked with the distributor as desired. The S]
of the projector can be controlled by a rhe.
while out of interlock.

The whole equipment is mounted on a sturd;
base running on castors, which are jacked up who:.
the projector is set in its operating posit
Dhnensions ai"e : Base 61 feet bv 4i feet. H< _
7^ feet. Weight about 2,000 lbs.

FOR SALE

A Few Boi \n Volumes

" THE CINE-TECH XIC I AX "

Volume I 1935

Volume II 1936

7/6d. EACH

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-

Thames and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

VVelwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., VV.6
Director of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex .
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinevvood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, VV.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Associated Productions Ltd., Calcutta

Bharat Movietone, Madras

Bombay Pictures, Bombay

Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay

Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore

Cbitramandir Studio, Bombay

CIRCO Productions, Bombay

Gemini Studios, Madras

India Artists Ltd., Bombay

Minerva Movietone, Bombay

Modern Theatres Ltd., Salem

National Studios Ltd., Bombay

New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta

Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore

Prabhat Film Co., Poona

Pragati Pictures Ltd., Madras

Prakash Pictures, Bombay

Ranjit Movietone, Bombay

Seth Manecklal Chunilal

Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta

Siedles Cineradio Ltd., Colombo, Ceylon

Vel Pictures Ltd., Madras

AUSTRALIA

Efftee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros., New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films S.A., Barcelona

ARCENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

RCA PH0T0PH0NE LTD., Electra House, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.2

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FILMS &

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ENGINEERS

138 WARDOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.I.

Telephone : GERrard 671
Cablet: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 9, Bromefield, Stanmore, Middlesex,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

G. W. (BILLY) BITZER

SIDNEY COLE

JONAH JONES

KAY MANDER

[ R. K. NEILSON BAXTER

KEN RODWELL

NEWSREEL AGREEMENT SIGNEC

FILMS COUNCIL MONOPOLY REPOR1

DESERT ADVENTURES OF A CAMERAMAh

D-DAY AS THE NEWSREEL BOYS SAW II

STEADILY
IMPROVED

THE PREFERENCE of cameramen and
directors of photography for 'Kodak'
Films has a sound basis. In the face
of wartime pressures, the exceptional
quality of these films has been not merely
maintained but steadily improved.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Department,
Kingsway, I ondon, W.C.2.

^#MK' FILMS

i

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

Jioria! & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 .

f/ertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I.

V ociats Editors : Sidney Cole. George H. Blvin, Kenneth Gordon, Walter Greenwood, Fred Hyson, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury

Telephone : CERRARD 8506
Telephone : HOLBORN 4972

s mber Fifty, Volume Ten

September — October, 1944

Price One Shilling

EVERYTHING IT TAKES

A.C.T.'s Treasurer reviews the Films Council Monopoly Report

BY the time you read this H.AI. Stationery
Office will have published the Films Council
report on Monopoly*. I conceive it to he
A.C.T.'s duty and the duty of every one of our
members to see that it gets the widest possible
circulation. Here's my reason.

The film industry is one of the most complex
structures in our national life. It is no more than
fifty years old and yet has already become one of
the largest industries both here and in America,
outstripping many others three or four times as old
and more. Thirty million people go to the cinemas
of this country every week — which, averaged out
over a year, probably represents most of the forty-
six million inhabitants of the country. Films are
shown in schools, in clubs, in village halls, in fac-
tories. Every age of person and every kind of person
se ss and understands films. In other words, as a
commodity the film has so large an amount of
capita] invested in it that we must look upon it as
pari of our national wealth : as a means of expression
it has an influence probably more powerful than
either press or radio because it is more direct and
can appeal to all ages and all types of intellect.

Partly because of its rapid development and
partly because of its associations with the tradi-
tional methods of show business, the economics of
any industry comprise the manufacture, distribu-
tion and marketing of its products. In a well
developed and well organised industry these activi-
ties follow orthodox and well known principles.
Tn the film industry they are anything but ortho-
dox. In this country, until quite recently, each
• ■' the three main trade divisions — production,,
distribution and exhibition — formed a separate
independent grouping of individuals, of capital and
manpower. Each was suspicious of the others.

Tendencies to Monopoly in the Cinematograph
Film Industry." Report of a Committee appoin-
ted by the Cinematograph Films Council. H.M.
Stationery Office, (jd.

and as a result a great many trade practices grew
up based on cut-throat competition and a blind
preoccupation with the profit-making motive. The
place of the film in national life was forgotten.
The fact that the exhibition of films has become
a public service was hardly considered.

Xow we are hearing a great deal about the
tendency in our industry towards " vertically -
integrated monopolies" - a frightening phrase
which simply means the combining under one
financial control of the means of production, dis-
tribution and exhibition. In view of the way the
film industry jn-ew, this is a perfectly natural deve-
lopment. It is the obvious way to overcome the
muddle which existed as long as the three sections
of the industry were separate and to a great extent
in opposition to each other.

But it has one aspect of ever-riding importance.
Because film making is a very expensive progress,
and public consumption of the product requires
large numbers of expensive cinemas all over the
country, only an individual or a group with vast
financial resources can afford to combine the facili-
t ies necessary for production, distribution and exhi-
bition within one organisation. And because such a
large capital investment is necessary, in order to get
an adequate return the organisation must be a large
one. So a comparatively large proportion of pro-
duction, distribution and exhibition facilities have
to he grouped together to make it worth while.
That is why in this country at the present time
two organisations alone — the Bank group and the
A. I '>.!'.( '. group — together control the greater part
of the cinema industry as a whole.

An additional respect in which the British film
industry differs from most other industries is, as
we are all only too well aware, that for nearly
thirty of its fifty years of existence it as been
dominated by American interests. The grip which
America has maintained on the British market
was obtained by a Dear-monopoly of distribution

71

THE CI N E - T E C HNI C I A N September— October, 194 I

facilities. This is what is meant by a "horizon-
tally-integrated" monopoly or combine.

All these aspects of British film industrial
activity have been sifted and analysed by the com-
mittee set up by the Films Council to investigate
monopoly tendencies. The investigation was
undertaken at the request of the Board of Trade,
and the committee appointed by the Films Coun-
cil consisted of three of its independent members
■ — not persons connected with the Trade who would
have been unable to avoid sectional biases affect-
ing their judgment. The members were: Mr.
Albert Palache (banker), Sir Walter Citrine (sec-
retary of the T.U.C.), Professor Arnold Plain
(economist) and Mr. Philip Gruedalla. The last-
named retired on account of ill-health at an early
stage. The three remaining members of the
committee took evidence from an impressive
number of representatives of all sections of
the industry, and in six months produced a
reporl which gives a clearer and more compre-
hensive picture of trade practice in the film in-
dustry to-day than anything which has yet been
published.

Now, T started off by saying that we ought to
sec that this report gets the widest possible cir-
culation. Why should we consider that trade
practice in the film industry is a topic of import-
ance to the general public? The answer is that it
is wholly due to prevailing trade practice that we
don't get the films in the cinemas of this coun-
try which, broadly speaking, we should like to
see. And as far as we ourselves as technicians
are concerned, it is the reason why we have never
had continuity of production and consistent em-
ployment.

To amplify this answer one looks for a few-
relevant sentences to quote from the Report. They
are difficult to find when every sentence is to the
point and worth reading. In the introduction the
committee states that it conceives its task to be
to investigate "tendencies which appear to
threaten the future prospects of an independent
and unfettered British Film Industry. By inde-
p lent we have in mind both freedom from
foreign domination and freedom from dominating
British control. By unfettered we mean enjoying
mable access both to means of production of
films and to screen time, and freedom from res!
five practices in the field of film distribution."
The Mbyne Committee which sat in 1936 was
concerned with the American dominance ol the
British market, but now a new danger has arisen

by the emergence in this country of one oi two
dominating British interests, apparently threaten-
ing, equally with American influence, the survival
and development of what in war conditions is lefi
of independent British production." 'The \ iew
is held in some quarters," the Report continues,

" that the British cinematograph business is to
regarded merely as one business among otl

which may claim no special consideration, and that
it i- out oi place for Parliament to show sp
concern for its conduct and future development.
We do not share that view, and we are confident
that Parliament will continue in its endeavour to
safeguard its future by means of special legislation
not applicable to industry in general. A cinemato-
graph film represents something more than a mere
commodity to be bartered against others. Already
the screen has great influence both politically and
culturally over the minds of the people. Its poten-
tialities are vast, as a vehicle for expression ot
national life, ideals and tradition, as a dramatic
and artistic medium, and as an instrument for
propaganda .... The British public are vitally
concerned that the British cinematograph indus-
try should not be allowed to become either a mere
reflection of a foreign atmosphere or a channel
for disseminating the ideas and aspirations,
matter how worthy in themselves, of one or I
dominating personalities in this country."

Now. this does not imply that the America1:
film is to be banned from British cim mas nor
that the combines are to be ruthlessly broken up.
though the more hysterical sections of the trade
press tend to assume that to be so. Cogently, the
Report builds up a ease, backed by logical reason-
ing which no (dear-thinking individual could deny
for a complete review of the means of ensuring
screen time to independent British films, of ensur-
ing that the money will be available to finance 1 1
and a return sufficient to cover their produd
costs obtainable on their merits. It recognises I
importance of fair access to studio space and <
" the indispensability of continuity- of production
as a condition for attracting and maintaining §
adequate supply of competent technical personnel
on a permanent basis. As we understand the p -
tion. even in Hollywood, the most highly organ -
film production centre in the world, produ*
companies find it necessary to engage on long-1
contract a large proportion of their technical si
and actors. This is not to say that a strong
active market in free-lanc< professional workers
is not equally indispensable. No producing c
pany, however large, could afford to maintaii
long-term contract all the personnel required
a well-diversified production program]
films. Staff wit! spei lised competence, eii
as pla^ ers or as produ - i hnicians,

always be recruited on short-term engagements
for individual pii - groups of pictun - Tl

existence of a sufficient body of specialists d. p
upon the total volume of Eeature film produc
over the area in which product <n - oncentrati

The volume of feature film production in tins
country I'd at present by two thh

s, ptember— October, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

75

facilities in flour space and personnel left avail-
able after war-time demands have been met, and
the Quota Act.

At the beginning of the war the British footage
required to be registered by a renter under the
Quota Act was stabilised at 20% Even with re-
duced facilities, the percentage achieved for the
year L943 II was 24.19'X,. This, of course, is due
to ,i similar war-time reduction in American pro-
duction, hut it places the British industry in a
heller posit inn for building up. in competition
with parallel American efforts after the war, a
lulls developed and prosperous industry. The
Report expresses the conviction that the Quota
percentages should be raised substantially as soon
as the release of production facilities makes it pos-
sible.

The Quota Act, however, provides no guarantee
that the British films which renters are bound by its
provisions to handle will be fairly marketed. There
are a large number of common trade practices which
prevent British films from earning as much as
tin \ deserve. Conditions are imposed in contracts
both between renters and producers and between
renters and exhibitors which favour American
interests or those of the combines at the expense
of independent producers and exhibitors. This
discrimination has always been the underlying
factor which prevents independent film production
in this country from being a sound financial invest-
ment. The Beport deals with this aspect of the
industry in great detail and at some length. The
sections dealing with it are the most interesting
and informative part of the document. It achieves
i his mainly by its outsj^okeimess, which brings out
1 into the open the completely unscrupulous
i methods common in the distribution side of the
business.

Several times the Beport quotes an agreement
entered into in November, 1940, between the
United States Department of Justice and the lead-
Qg vertically-integrated American motion-picture
i distributors, which embodies undertakings on the
part of the latter not to enforce conditional con-
tracts of various kinds. The suggestion is made
that our own government might gain ideas from
this agreement. Comment on this suggestion is
not possible without fuller knowledge of what the
^reement contains, but the sections quoted cer-
tainly seem to indicate that similar enforcements
here would effect a measure of improvement. Ber-
haps its best aspect is that, having agreed to such
measures in their own country, the Americans can
hardly refuse to accept similar proposals here.

Tin last section of the Beport contains the
committee's conclusions and recommendations.
Throughout the Beport there is a recurring insis-
• nee that to achieve any improvement in the pre-

sent situation government stimulus is needed. In
the twenty-two concluding recommendations
the committee reveals unequivocally that in its
opinion this stimulus can only be effective if it
takes the form of legislation or other protective
government action. Legislation is suggested to
prevent further expansion of monopoly interests
in all sections of the industry, to prohibit all in-
equitable forms of conditional booking and to
increase the quota percentages as soon as possible.
A Tribunal to investigate disputes ami complaints,
and legally empowered to arbitrate upon them is
recommended, as is an apprenticeship scheme to
be property constituted in collaboration with the
Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour.
Also an official approach to the United States
Government is envisaged to conclude agreements
on matters of reciprocity.

The three recommendations which have already
aroused the most controversy are the setting-up
of a government finance corporation or him credit
bank and a government distribution organisation,
and the retention by the government of some part
of the studio facilities which it controls at present.
These conceptions are too well-known to A.C.T.
members to need comment. All of them figured in
the memorandum published by the Association in
1941, and have been amongst our post-war aims
ever since. Maybe this is why to some of the
reactionary sections of the industry they are sus-
pect as ideas and provoke wholesale denunciations.

For the government to provide the means
of production and distribution alongside existing
production and distribution organisations does not
band the whole industry over to the government.
It merely provides a chance of survival for the
independent producer who will otherwise be
crowded off the screen by the more powerful com-
bines— and many independent productions have
contributed much to the prestige of British film^.

Everything which the Films Council's Import
asks for is designed to ensure fair dealing. The
legislation proposed would only come into effect
where unfairness existed. Yet according, for in-
stance, to The Cinema on August 2nd. " The final
set-up would give the Government such an abso-
lute grasp of the trade that .... the industry
would thereafter be in shackles." The Daily Film
Renter of the same date looks upon the proposals
as an unwarrantable interference with free enter-
prise. Sentiments of this sort merely serve to
bring the industry into disrepute because they
can only imph a desire to perpetuate the tradition
of gangsterism and racketeering which has charac-
terised certain sections of the Trade for so long.

There will be opposition to this Beport and its
recommendations in many quarters. Even the

Filnrs Council itself was not prepared to give un-

76

T II E CINE-TECHNI C I A N S. ptember- October, 1941

qualified support to it. The resolution which the
Council passed before sending the Repori to the
President of the Board of Trade starts: "The
Council, having carefully considered the Repori of
the Committee, unanimously accept its broad con-
clusions and, without necessarily endorsing each
and every detailed recommendation, on which
certain members of the Council desire to reserve
judgment, hereby adopt the Report, etc., etc."
A guarded statement, you sec. The fact that,
when the Films Council's new term of office
started shortly after the Repori had been sub-
mitted, the Board of Trade appointed as; members
several persons closely connected with the com-
bines in place of others who had strongly advo-
cated measures to combal discrimination and the
more damaging trade practices lias caused a great
deal of comment. But it would be foolish at pre-
sent to pretend to see in this a sinister significance.
The Report has been made and has been accepted
by the Board of Trade for further consideration;
the Films Council cannot revoke it now. Its future
will be watched with close interest.

If we approve of the Repori and its recommenda-
tions, we and the people who agree with us have
still much to do to ensure that the Board of Trade,
the Cabinet and finally Parliament act upon it as
we wish. That is why it is of vital importance to
make its significance known to the public. ' The
Films Council," says the Report, "has been
actuated by the conviction that the industry can-

not function to the full and proper advai
the community unless provision can be made for
ensuring the continuance ol a healthy competition
of influenei s, methods and ideas. We have tl
fore approached our task in the belief that Parlia-
ment will insist that the Government shall e
cise continuing vigilance over all development
this industry and take prompt mi - preserve

and foster its independence from sectional and
Eoreign control." Everyone who genuinely wants
to see good British films made and shown 1
here and overseas can support such a policy. It
means, by and large, establishing the principl
equal opportunity for all. But that is imp >ss
while the Americans and the combines betv
them in one way or another control everything
takes to turn out the films and get them on
screen. R. K. Neilson Baxter.

RICHARD BROWN— A CORRECTION

Lt. -Commander Richard Brown. R.N.V.B
called in to see us the other day on his ivtur
from Moscow where he has been Assistant Nav:
Attache. He very nicely corrected the wi
information published in the Annual Repori is
both his rank and award. He is Lt. -Command,
and not Lieutenant, and he was awarded tl
D S.C. and not the D.F.C.

Before the war Richard Brown was in charg
of Sub- Standard Recording at British Acoustic.

SOUND RECORDING STUDIO

FOR

POST-SYNCHRONISING & RE-RECORDING

MOBILE SOUND UNITS

FOR

LOCATION WORK & STUDIO PRODUCTIONS

16mm. SOUND TRACKS

BY THE " ELECTRICAL REDUCTION PROCESS

35 mm.

LEEVERS- RICH

16 mm.

STUDIO: 53, BERNERS STREET, LONDON, W.1.
WORKS: 89-91, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.1.

Tel. : MUSEUM 4700
Tel. : GER. 5716

September— October, 1944 T HE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

CINEMA-LOG

II c are without Kenneth Gordon's usual feature this issue. He is too preoccupied on the Con-
tinent. Instead we print, by courtesy of British Newsreels and Pathe Gazette, some photographs taken
from his work in Normandy and Paris. They have been specially acclaimed as providing the best
newsreel shots of the war, and some of the national dailies mentioned Ken Gordon by name, as did
also Pathe in their newsreel.

We know how Ken fumed at the delays which prevented him going abroad earlier. We can
hear him saying now, " / told you so."

;s

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, L944

KEN RODWELLS

Desert Adventures of a Cameraman

Ken Roclwell of G.B.I, is now a Sgt. Cameraman
of the Army Film 1 7nil i>i Italy. We reprint extracts
from his story which appeared i)i the August, igj4,
issue of " Call Sheet." "Call Sheet " is the 8-page
duplicated monthly run by the employees of G.B.,
Gainsborough and G.B.I. , as part of their Forces
Fund. It contains news of what is going on in the
studios for the boys abroad, and news of and letters
from the boys abroad to say what they are doing.
It is full of interest, breezily written and altogether
a model of its kind. We congratulate the G.B.
Employees' Forces Fund on doing so much to keep
the boys in the Forces and the lads in the studios
in touch with one another.

Here I am, sitting in rather a shell-battered
house, way up in the line, listening to our guns giv-
ing Jerry bis nightly pasting — in reply to which
be usually lobs over two or three mortar bombs,
just to let us know that he is still there.

Now for reflections — back to that day in May
'42, when, together with eight other cine-opera-
tors, and seven Fleet Street boys, I set sail for the
Middle East.

.My first impression of Cairo was one of com-
plete bewilderment, for instead of seeing a few
broken-down shacks and wild Arab horsemen
charging around with cutlasses drawn, I saw a
modern city, complete with taxi-cabs lining the
centre of the roads. As usual in the Services, we
were quickly hustled out of town and parked in a
transit camp, tin re to await posting fco A.F.P.U.
Palestine was written on our tickets, so we soon
found ourselves in, to my mind, one of the nicest
and cleanest cities going — Jerusalem. None of that
"Shoe Shine. ( iconic" st off or "Eggis and Chips"
that we had thrown at us by the Gypos (Egyp-
tians) all day long — hut a beautifully silent city
— a marked difference from the Cairo traffic jams.
We sil ayeel in Jerusalem for about three days, so
we ha 1 plenty of time to visit the Old City, with
its Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Harden of
Olives, etc. One thing that struck me in the
latter church was an effigy of the Virgin Mary
absolutely smothered in jewellery — reputed to be
about six million pounds worth — all presents given
to the Church by Kings past and present ; ami of
course 1'iere was Christ's tonih, over-hung h\
some twe or three hundred lamps of solid gold.
the monks were a prettj queer crowd, too. shaved,

unshaved, black and white, all working the same
racket by keeping the place in complete darkness,
so that one was forced to buy candles to see any-
thing.

Three days later found us on our way north in
a three-tonner, bound for a small village called
Iladera. which lies on the coast between Tel-Aviv
and Haifa. This village was to be our home for
the next two months, so we dug ourselves well
in. After a while, a Serg< ant-Major from a
Guards' Regiment came up. to toughen us in the
duties of a Sergeant — this, of course, meant P.T. at
an ungodly early hour in the morning, followed by
a period of yelling at each other from a distance —
well ! two or three days of this, and we got a little
browned off, so we decided to break his heart 1>\
acting dumb — a couple of weeks and one of us had
to awaken the Sergeant-Major, of course, with a
cup of tea.

Eric Deeming of Strand, Cyril .Tamos of the
Mirror, and myself, at the beginning of August,
found ourselves once again in Cairo — preparing
this time for our first trip into the "blue." as
the desert was commonly called by the 8th Army.
Our cine-cameras — Devrys — turned up at
hour, for we were about to depart in our je< ps
when the crates arrived at Alex — consequently
our departure was held up for a couple of d
due to the fact that they all had to be tested and
film masks made for the malts — the cameras
to our disgust possessing " silent
Our stop for the first'night was Alain 8th Army
H.Q.. then situated on the coast between Ales
and El Alamein. Being a rookie, and having been
well and truly terrified by tales of Stuka Parades
(dive-bombing attacks In Jerry) I immediate!}
set about digging a deep hole, 'neath
of the fig trees which adorn the foreshore.
Thai night turned out to be uneventful, except
for continuous attacks on the body by ants. The
following morning, I was attached to Lieut.
Knight's (Ciown Film Unit) section — and off 1
went to the line — then at El Uamein. To -,i\ that
I wasn't Erightened would he telling a lie — 1 was
like jelly, for as we approached 1 could hear the
roar of planes, engaged in a free-for-all dog fight.
At Corps 1T.Q. we could see them, wax up Hur-
ricanes versus Aless. L09's OUT planer were lie
match for that crowd of Jerries his were t.

September — October, 1944

and more manoeuvrable. One of our planes, obvi-
oush crippled, dives to within say two hundred
feet, followed closely by a -Jerry — one burst from
the latter's guns and our chap hit the deck. All
during this set-to. I was standing, gaping in awe
— holding my camera as though it was a spade
;iii\ how, Knight yelled at me to get weaving, and
gel some shots of the plane with the pilot getting
out unscathed — it was no good, one look at what
remained of that chap finished me for a week to
Ci me. Still, after a while, as do all fellows. I
got used to these sights — travelling south I saw
ninety-eight Jerry tanks burnt to cinders with the
crews still inside — some good material here.

The next two months prior to the breakthrough,
I spent travelling around, shooting stories and
getting used to desert life as a whole. Washing
sand-sodden clothes in petrol - - sleeping with
spiders and scorpions — it all takes a little getting
used to. After a month under the guidance of the
section officer, I was placed with an old desert rat
-Frank Martin of Fox (still man) — and we re-
mained as a pair until our fateful day at Ben-
ghazi. The battle found Frank and me attached
to the Tanks; just after the last attack by the
Highland Division we lett the tanks for a morn-
ing's shooting with the Scotties. who at that time
were mopping up the Jem trenches. After getting
the usual stuff of our boys bringing Jerries out at
bayonet point, we got caught in a counter-attack
— red-hot metal was dying everywhere. Yours
truly took a header into a dug-out already occu-
pied by prisoners, whilst Frank leapt into a slit-
trench — this latter action was followed by a hor-
rible yell — Frank had landed right on top of a
supposedly dead Jerry whose face was covered by
a blanket — a common Jerry trick. After this,
things rolled along pretty smoothly — the whole
army was on the move, chasing Jerry hell for lea-
ther. Frank and I went down south with the tanks
who were perfecting an encircling movement on
Meisa IVIatruh. After three da\ s of driving through
rain and bitterly cold weather we found ourselves
within sight of the main coast road again. The
action that followed was comparatively small, for
'lie main enemy force bad already gone, leaving
some thirty men manning one anti-tank gun and
a few machine guns. In all. four prisoners were
taken, the rest having been blown sky-high by
'the 75mm. guns on the Sherman tanks. Just
ifter we had finished shooting the Jerries giving
themselves up to our tanks, three Spitfires flew
nit of the sun straight towards us, cannons and
machine-guns blazing away — hoy! did I run-
down a slit in one bound. Our hoys were turning
round for a second dive at us, when somebody in
pne of the tanks found their recognition flares and
bed them. Phew! Believe me, that was a very
hectic five minutes — our boys are too accurate
'or my liking.

[HE CIXE-TECHXI C I A X

After this episode, it was just a matter of chas-
ing across miles and miles of desert, after a re-
treating enemy. We left the tanks, left every-
thing, and tore along in the jeep through Sidi
Barrani, Solium, Bardia. to Tobruk — covering
the fallen towns, prisoners, etc., as we went.
Eventually we arrived at Benghazi — just as Jerry
was leaving from the other side of the town —
leaving behind him burning ships in the harbour,
vehicles and stores. Here my active desert days
ended — for Major Macdonald had caught up with
us and given us leave in Cairo. We packed the
jeep on the morning of 21st November, L942, with
rations and 2."> gallons of petrol, enough to see us
well on our way back in our drive east for leave.
Upon leaving Benghazi town we were directed
inland by an M.P. who said that the coast road
was for up-traffic alone that day, and that we'd
have to take a desert track to Borce, our first call
on the route hack. Well ! we took a track back,
but unfortunately it was mined - I remember
making for the train lines in the jeep, but that is
about all. I can't remember hearing any explo-
sion— it was curtains straight away. When I
came to. after some hours, it was raining, and I
was gazing up at the sky. My first thought was
" What a silly ass, sleeping outside with no
cover " — somehow I rolled ovei and started crawl-
ing around. God knows what 1 was looking tor -
must have been instinct — anyhow, 1 found Frank,
or at least stumbled across him — lying face up —
stone dead. Food and water was my next though!
— evidently I tilled m\ pockets with Army bis-
cuits, for months afterwards I was still picking
pieces out of them. The last thought before I
passed out was to walk down the rail track to civi-
lisation— but that never came about, for I was
found, so they say. running around yelling out
"Frank's dead, I've no legs and I'm blind" (the
latter disabilities are my worst fears — they must
have become impressed on my subconscious mind).
One of our own Unit found me — Outfield, of the
Standard — a War Correspondent. After covering
Frank over with a blanket, he rushed me off to
Borce hospital, fearing that mv condition was
worse than it actually was. After three or four
days I came to in Cairo, to find my head and face
well and truly swathed in bandages and my left
arm in plaster.

And so my desert days ended — although when
the campaign was almost over I was sent to
Algiers, then on to Tunis, to cover the expected
enemy "Dunkirk." But as you know, it never
came off . . . and here I am now in Italy.

80

THE CINE -TECHNICIAN Septenibei 0 r, 1944

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

New Laboratory Standard Agreement. The
Laboratory Committee, after many months of
patient deliberation, have c< implet ed discussions on
the proposed New Laboratory Standard Agree-
ment. It is anticipated that by the time this
Journal is in the hands of our members the agree-
ment will have been endorsed In the General
Council and a mass meeting of laboratory workers.
It is also hoped the document will be in the hands
of the Association of Laboratory Employers. The
new agreement aims to give laboratory workers
a decenl standard of living; too often in the past
lias \i been necessary for them to work long hou
of overtime in order to collect a living wage.
The agreement also envisages a 40-hour week after
the war with a limitation on overtime. Such pro-
posals will safeguard against the danger of exces
sive unemployment at a time when our members
are returning to civil life from the Armed Fore
The proposals will also do much to improve the
health standards of that section of our members
whose working conditions merit a strict limitation
of working hours. The new agreement also asks for
the "Closed Shop" principle to apply in all film
processing laboratories. On this all our members
leel most strongly. They claim that without it
there will never he any real security for laboratory

workers. Further, that through th

closed

shop," they could in co-operation with the Labora-
tory Employers build up a laboratory section
which would be an example to other industries
for its technical efficiency. In brief the proposed
new agreement aims to put into operation what
the average man and woman in the laboratories
considers to be their right. It crystallises in the
form of an industrial agreement part of what they
have been working and fighting for on the home
front and in the services during the past five
years.

Non-Union Labour. It is interesting to note that
both Feature and Slants Film technicians are for
all practical purpose* 100% organised and in most
cases operating on the "(dosed shop" principle.
On the other hand the Laboratories, which until
about 18 months ago took- pride of place for organ-
isation, are now relegated to the bottom of the lad-
der below the Newsreel Section. Thi^ does not
mean that laboratory organisation has fallen but
rather that the other sections have gone ahead.
This is because on the produ tion side the differ-
ence between being an ACT. member and not
being one usually means the differem i between
having a job and not having one. And this is be-
coming more and more a fact, especially as a con-
siderable number of studio technicians change

their jobs; from production topi on and n

to make full use of our employment bureau. 0
the other hand, laboratory workers seldom cliai
though no doubt this will be different after I
war. ( lonsequently thi < -till one

laboratories where there is little or no org
tion but where A.C.T. rates and conditions
operate.

It is significant that on more than one occ
in the past employees from such laboratories on
losing their jobs have suddenly " discover*
Association of Cine-Technicians and expi
desire to join, blow can we impress upon th !S
workers that their present rates and condil
would be \er\ much worse but lor tic LC.T. and
that it is only common decency to support the
organisation which has fougl I for them in th< i
and at this very moment is preparing to n
tiate with the Laboratory Employers \ sso
for an improvement on present standard-'.1 Wi
wonder how many of these workers who at the
moment are "sitting pretty" will come running
to us cap in hand when " n i ation " t;

place ?

The Cinematograph Benevolent Fund. T
nineteenth annual general meeting of the fund
was held on Wednesday, 30th August. A unani-
mous expression of the deepest sorrow and r. s
was felt at the death of Sir Willi- m F. Jury,
was the President of the bund during
twenty years. Mr. ReginaldC. Bromhead, F.C.A.,
was elected as the new President and will con-
tinue to serve as chairman. Mr. J. Arthur Rank
was elected a- trustee. Tie by the hon.

treasurer. Mr. Brooke Wilkinson, showed tin
finances to be in a healthy state, and it was men-
tioned that at one time when there was a bal
of £10,000 it seemed as though the Fund baa
achieved its object. It says much for the Boas
of Management that flu;, - looking forv

to i he da\ in the near future when the balaiu.
at the bank will be £250,000.

The problem of how best to help the empl
in the industry now the fund is really in a p -
to do so was considered. The Chairman rep.
t h 1 plans were being worked out to t
members returning to civil life from the Art
Forces and that a sub-committee was working
details ol a pensions scl ' m I be placed b
the Management Commit 1 1 i I i > msidcration. W
think- tin re are no better ways of utilising the
fund's resources than 1>\ these two projects and
ihall be int. rest d to learn details of the schemes
when lhe\ become available.

September— October, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

Nl

Darts Tournament. Congratulations to tbe Tech-
nicolor team on winning the first A.C.T. Annual
Darts Tournament. Until the last match it was
touch and go as to who would be the winners.
Pathe Laboratories "A" team put up a grand
show to finish second in the league. Alter the
shield, shown on this page, has been inscribed
with the names of the winners and runners up
it will be presented by Mr. Anthonj A.squith,
President of the Association, to the winning
team together with medals. The presentation
will take place at a dance in aid of the Bene-
volent Fund to he tain by the Technicolor staff
on October 7th, at the Osterley Park Hotel. Single
tickets are 2/6d. each and 4/6d. double. Dancing
will he from 7.30 to 11.30 p.m. and there will
he a fully licensed bar. Osterley Station, on the
I'ii cadilly Line, is just outside the Hotel so it is
fairly convenient for travelling. We hope all
A.C.T. members, and particularly those living in
the area, will do their best to attend. Regarding
the next tournament, the names of teams are
coming in slowly. Shop stewards in all studios
and laboratories from which teams have not yet
been submitted can help us by chasing the matter
up.

Bert Craik

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,

where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff

are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephohe-. liberty 4291

One mile from Wimbledon Station

82

T II i: • I \ K T E i HNIi 1 \ \ S< pti mb< r 0< tober, 1944

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

Technical Abstracts

A Direct Reading Audio-Frequency Meter
(S.M.P.E. Abstract in International Photo-
grapher, May, 1944).

This is an instrument capable of indicating
audio-frequencies of 1<i to 50,000 cycles to accura-
cies limited only 1>\ the panel meter or pen and
ink chart recording meters.

Source of audio-frequency voltage is fed into a
high impedance grid circuit and due to plate
saturation of electron discharge tube the incom-
ing wave shape is changed to a square wave which
retains the original frequency but is not affected
by variations in signal voltage amplitudes. Only
one volt is necessary to trigger the grid circuit.

Output of first tube is amplified by a direct
coupled multi-vibrator circuit, consisting of two
tubes whose circuit constants have no resonant
i ffects on above frequencies. Wave shape remains
unchanged and amplification is constant. Appro-
priately chosen capacitive and resistive networks
then permit the integrated pulses to collect on the
grid of the counter-tube circuit.

To produce a linear frequency calibration, the
grid circuit of the counter-tube is biased to plate
current cut-off with zero signal input A 5 Ma
milliameter in the plate circuit serves as a pulse
counting device, and provisions are made to use
an external recorder.

Gas-discharge tubes employed in the B voltage
supply serve to stabilize operation from 105 to L25
volts with less than 3% full scale change in fre-
quency indication.

A plate overload relay is used to protecd the
panel meter, should frequencies applied to input
circuit be greater than those for which the selector
switch is set. An overload pilot lamp is mounted
mi the front panel.

Thomascoior (Alvin Wyckoff, American Cinemato-

grapher, May, 1044).

This colour system, named after its inventor,
Richard Thomas, employs standard black and
white technique and developing methods. The
special optical unit which takes the place of the
normal camera lens produces four colour separa-
tion negatives within the limits of a single frame
at each opening of the shutter. The unit is avail-
able in various focal lengths. Bight is admitted
i rough a single aperture and is carried fco the
film plane by means of refraction and partial and
total reflection. After passing through the filters
t he images are of equal delisit \ .

The projection print is a black and white posi-
tive, each frame of which carries lour images. The

light from each image passes through a Thomas-
color projecting unit, which incorporates colour
filters, and which superimposes the tour images in
registei on the screen. It is claimed that the
sen en can be approached to within arm's lei ;
without fringing or loss of definition being e\ ident.

The negative is developed like any ordinary
black and white film. A> all the images are on the
same strip they are developed simultaneoush and
shrinkage is equal throughout. Printing foil
normal black and white technique. Xo special
equipment or chemicals are ecessary\

The Weston calibration for exposure is rated
1^ stops higher than for black and white. With
coated lenses opening up one stop is sufficient.

The Thomascoior photographing unit is a - ■ _
assembly without any moving parts. It takes the
place of the lens in all standard still and motion
picture cameras. The projection unit wine1
about the size of a standard projection lens -
equally simple to fit to any projector. Thon
color can be applied to still photography as well as
motion pictures and colour prints on paper can be
made from the Thomascoior separation negate.

Art Reeves Reflex Camera i If. Boyce, International
Photographer, April, 1944).

An interesting feature of this new camera (not
available for civilian use till after the war is I
finder which allows the cameraman to see exactly
what he is photographing through the same lens
that is exposing the film. The camera lias been
designed to work satisfactorily at both high and
low temperatures to meet the requirements
U.S. Army Air Force. Under test it has worked
well at 160° above and 70° below zero. All c: st-
ings are made of aluminium, anodized to protect
them against the action of salt water. Other
tures are variable shutter control 170° to do-
which can be operated while the camera is run-
ning; lightweight motor 111. -Jl and 48 fr: n -
second: various models to run on 16, 24 or 110
volts; three-lens turret. Bens mounts have sun-
shades which take filters fitting close to the lens.
Magazines are made with revolving di>c> in t
up compartments. This prevents buckling w
film rubs against the side of the magazine w
the camera has to work lying on it- - di 1
in^ microsc< >pe is adjustable to operator's e\ e. Pi*
iiir' is magnified righi side up and right w;o
round. An auxiliary frame finder is permanently
sel above the micro-cop,, tor emergency use. Tin
ret',, ting element in the finder optical system
lie \ aried lor two difh rent light conditions, [n

position it passes ."ill" of the light to the till:

therein cutting the Light one lens stop. The bal-
ance of the light passes to the finder. In the ol
position if passes about 95% of the light to the
film and normal stops can be used.

September— October, 1944 T HE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A X

83

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-fourth
List

Miss JUNE ABLE (Continuity Learner, Denham)
—WENS.

Miss ACASOX (Secretary and Script Typist,
Gainsborough) — R.A.F. Film Unit.

S. ALGER (Mechanic, Lathe Laboratories)—
Army.

FRANK ALLSOPP (C/H Despatch Dept., Na-
tional Screen Services) — H.M. Forces.

X. ARNOLD (Camera Trainee, Ealing Studios)—
H.M. Forces.

M. AZA-SELIXGER (Prod. Assistant, British
National) — Army.

Miss M. BARNETT (Printer, Denham Labora-
tories)—A. T.S.

H. BARRY (Assist. Scenic Artist. Gainsborough)
— Indian Army.

P. BOHY (Re-wind Boy, Geo. Humphries)—
H.M. Forces.

Miss M. CAMPBELL (Joiner, Kay's, Finsbury
Park)— AVAAF.

Miss B. CHAPPLE (16mm. Pos. Joiner, Lav's,
Finsbury Park)— AVAAF.

I). X. COLE (Lettering, National Screen Services)
—H.M. Forces.

A. J. COX (Cartoon, Merton Park Studios)—

i; a.f.

V. ('. CROXFORD (Assist. Camera, Publicity Pic-
tures)— Navy.
D. S. DAVIS (Camera Assistant, Riverside)—
K.A.F.

R. DAVIS (Printing, Sydney Wake Labs.)— H.M.

Forces.
J. DIGBY (2nd Assistant. Art Dept., Welwyn)—

H.M. Forces.
F. J. B. DOB SOX (Sou n<l Maintenance, RKO)—

Captain R.E.M.E.

F. C. EDWARDS (Negative Dryer, Technicolor)
—H.M. Forces in Italy .

W. R. EVANS (Developer. Denham Laboratories)
-H.M. Forces.

G. FIDLER (Grading Assistant, Denh'am Labora-
tories)— H.M. Forces.

F. FOLLETT (Sound Dept., British National-
Army.

Miss J. FOLLETT (Drying, Brent Laboratories)
—A. T.S.

Miss A. S. GARRARD (Assistant Continuity,
Columbia) — WRNS.

J. C. GOODAVIN (Title Printing, Studio Film
Labs)— R.A.F.

JACK GREEN (Camera Assistant, G.B. Screen
Services)— H.M. Forces.

C. V. HARPER (Projectionist, National Screen
Services) — H. M . F< irees.

J. HILL (Mech. Assemblv, British Acoustic)—
H.M. Forces.

S. HITCHCOCK (Printer)— Navy.

J. HOLSGROVE (Xegative Cleaner, Deirham
Laboratories) — H.M. Forces.

W. L. HUGHES (Assistant Director, Verity)—
K.A.F.

K. HUME (Assistant Editor, Denham)— H.M.
Forces.

J. KAVANAGH (Production Assistant) -- H.M.
Forces.

M. W. KNOLL (Assistant, Sound Maintenance,
Gainsborough) — H.M. Forces.

R. LANG-FORD (Cutting, Lathe Pictures)— H.M.
Forces.

P. S. LAW (Camera Assistant. Gainsborough) —
Army.

R. LEVESQUE (Stills Trainee, Ealing Studios)
—H.M. Forces.

P. LLOYD (Sound, Denham Studios)— R.A.F.

A. MILLS (Despatch Dept., National Screen Ser-
vices)— H.M. Forces.

ANTHONY MONK (3rd Assistant Director,
Gainsborough) — R.A.F.

A. W. G. MOORE (Developer. Denham Labora-
tories)— H.M. Forces Overseas.

HAROLD MORLEY (Newsreel Camera, G.B.
News) — H.M. Forces Overseas.

J. E. MORRISOX (Camera Assistant. G.B.I.)—
—R.A.F.

S. MUNDY (Sound Truck Driver, Pathe) — H.M.
1 orces.

R. MURRA3 (Assistant Boom Operator, Gains-
borough)— B .M. Forces.

R. POTTER (Trick Camera and Title Artist. Pub-
licity Pictures) — Army.

HENRY POWER (Technicolor)— Armv.

N. S. PRIGGEN (3rd Assistant Director, Ealing
Studios) — H.M. Forces.

K. REEATES (Camera Assistant. Crown Film
Unit)— H.M. Forces.

S4

T H E CIXE-TE C H X I C I A \ September— October, 1941

l,\ RICHARDSON (Sensitometric Control, Den-
ham Laboratories) — H .M. Knives.

J). T. EOGERS (Assistant Camera, Merton Park)
—R.A.F.

'I'. ROLFE (Animation Camera, Merton Park)—
Et.A.F.

E. -I. RUST (16mm Tester, British Acoustic)

Army.
Mis- L. SEFTON (Studio Manager's Secretary,

( iainsborough) — WE XS.
E. SETH (Clappers Ealing Studios) - E.M.

Purees.

ARTE I'M SHILLING (Lathe Laboratories)—

N.A.A.I 1
I). SKUDDER (Positive Joiner, Denham Labora-
tories)— H.M. Forces.
Miss J. STAGEY (Positive Joining Learner, Pathe

Labs)— H.M. Forces.
N. STEPHENSON (Record, Denham Labora-
tories)—H.M. Forces.
R. SURGENOB (Stills Glazing, Ealing Studios)

-H.M. Forces.
J. TALLANT (Assistant Librarian, Paramount

News) — Fleet Air Arm.
MAX THOMA (Lettering, National Screen Ser-
vices)— H.M. Forces.

G. L. TUEPIN (2nd
Assistant ( Jamera, Eal-
ing Studios) — Mines.
S. WABBEY (Negative
Dryer, Kay's, Fins-
bury Pi rk)- Army.
Miss' M WASHING-
TON (Positive Develo-
per, Denham Labora-
tories)—H.M. Forces.
LIONEL WHEELEE
(Assistant Camera) —
R.A.F.
H . FT . W H J T E
( 1 )raughtsman, T w o
Cities. Denham) ■ —
Royal Engineers.
RONALD WELKINS
i I >r\ ing, Kay's, Fins-
bury Park) — Navv.
R. WOODHAM (Engi-
neering Assistant, J ten-
ham Laboratories) —
H.M. Forces.
B. J. WRIGHT (Sound
Camera Operator. Re-
ligious Films) R.A.F.
SHAUN T. YOUNG
g. l. ttjrpin (Storj Writer and

ax .t.'s First Bevin Boy Directorial Assistant,
1.'. K.o.i H.M. Forces.

Casualties

A. E. AUBURY, Gaumont-British newsi
cameraman, fatally wounded h\ Japanese gun-
fire while filming the Eastern Fleet bombard-
ment of Sabang on July 25th.

Sgt. W. N. CLAQUE, Cameraman, Army Film
(nit. reported killed in action.

Major GERALD KEEN. Army Film T 'nit.
merly Realist Film Unit, reported killed in air
accident in India.

Canadian Army Film Unit
Congratulations to two colleagues oi the Cana-
dian Army Film Unit who have been decora
for their part in the Normandy operations: —
Leut. JOHN HODGSON SMITH, awarded I

MILE.
Sgt. JACK STOLLERY, awarded the Military
Medal. He was subsequently wounded
Falaise. We wish him a speedy recovery.
The Canadian Army Film Unit has also sufl
casualties and we regret to announce that —
Sgt. JIMMY CAMPBELL, was killed while film-
ing operations on the Canadian sector of the
Normandv front.

I REMEMBER — (concluded from next page).

cept the battle scenes taken at old Univi
Field and some cotton-field scenes al Calexico.
While working on The Birth, the New York
offices wired "Finish picture at once. We will
never get our money back al ten cents." Th<
ting of the money is a tale in itself, but happih
everyone who put money or faith in this picturi
got it back ten times over. Goldstein, a Los
Angeles costumier, furnished the uniforms oi
interest. Bill (dune, theatre owner, put in
money to have first run. Extras were paid s<
how and this picture made them all famous
This isn't unusual today, but it was then. Ma
of them were little people the world never hao1
heard of, but this picture gave them world-v
interest. The picture ran the whole gamul I
emotions — no matter what you liked in a picture
i, was there— IT MOVED!"

D. W. Griffith, after battling for money, bal
tied for the right to make the picture his v
The tremendous zeal and energy which this genii
put into everything, in having the timing
right, tlie tempo jusl as it should be: the gentle-
man from Kentucky jusi couldn't be matched. II
worked all da\ and often far into the night. I
have heard theatre-owners, roadshow men. pub-
licity men tell how thej put the picl m e over,
it was the snme then as it is n iv yon can I
a picture to the skies, but if it's not good it \\
click. If it lias what it takes— " Line forms on
tic right."

September— October, 1944 T HE CINE-TECH N I C I A X

K",

I REMEMBER

Billy Bitzer, 1). W. Griffith's cameraman, died on
April 29th, 1944, at the age of 73. He shot " Birth
of a Nation" "Intolerance," " Way Down F.ctst "-
all Griffith's famous pictures and over a thousand
others. He was in on the invention of the close-
up, the fade-out and soft focus. He began as a
mechanic and electrician with Edison, and by 1806
was working for Biograph, later helping to make
famous Marx Pickford and Blanche Sweet, Lilian
Gish, Mae Marsh and Henry B. Walthall. He made
two fortunes and lost them both. His best-known
saying was to Mack Sennelt when Sennett once ven-
tured to offer some photographic advice : " I ou
keep it funny; I'll keep it in focus." This article
written a month or so before his death, is reprinted
from the " International Photographer."

Some "t the boys have an idea that the earner is
we had in the early days were light contrapti
made by Pathe. When I started out the Amerii an
Bi< graph I used weighed close to a ton. In IP*1'
the film ran at 320 feet a minute as compared with
90 feel today. In thai year I took a picture of the
fight between Sharkey and Jeffries at the Coney
Island Athletic Club. The fighl lasted 25 founds
(2 hours and 10 minutes) and I exposed seven
and a halt miles of film. A 4-.1 lens with 8-inch
focus was used ami the pi< tures were made with-
oui the aid of a Fisher light. The old Biograph
film was nine limes larger than that used today.

The Birth of a Nation was made with Pathe
cameras. It was about then that the Bell &
Howell was coming out. I1 was a much steadier
camera, bu1 we didn't have money to buy it. All
the pictures I ever made wi re shot with a Pathe.

Being pioneers we are credited with inventive

When we took scenes for Lumiere and

Pathe. such as a man getting into a cab and ten

ing out, it was considered quite a feat. Of! n

learned new tricks by our mistakes. For in-

e, hi going out with lour magazines of film.

160 feel in each, you'd wonder when you came

back why you had five pictures. What happet

thai y u'd put the same magazine back, for-
getting that you'd already made a picture on it.
Thus it happened one day that my film showed
a Ball River steamer coming up the middle oi
l!)oadwa\ .

1 was the first man who ever photographed
Mary Pickford, and she was more than a fine
actress. Her constructive criticism improved the
■1 make-up even in those earl} davs. She com-
plained thai her face looked much too white when
photographed, that it almost resembled a mask.

by G. W. (BILLY) BITZER

She decided that if she used a darker make-up it
would improve the photographic quality, and the
first day she appeared on the set to try out her
idea Griffith wanted to know if we were going to
make a Zulu picture. However, Marj insisted
and tin' result was another step for which Bio-
graph will he remembered.

< )n The Birth of a Nation the cameraman was
Heated swell. I know he had some two hundred
and forty thousand dollars before the smoke cleared
away or while it was still clearing away from those
sandbag trenches. The author, Thomas B. Dixon,
who w ni ed $25,000 and something to saj about
the direction got his $2.1.01)1) and a promise of a
I'|| utage instead. The actual total he received
amounted to about a million dollars — the highest
price ever paid for any scenario as near as I can
find out.

Everyone who had anything to do with the pic-
ture was happy. It was a mortgage litter for
many theatres. The Birth was road-showed,
each show carrying its own complete orchestra,
operate rs, sound effects, screen ; in fact everything
hut the sour milk which used to whiten the screen.
If a theatre had its own projecting machines they
were taken out and for the first time in pictures
two projectors were used (our own) to eliminate
the "One moment, please" while the film was
changed.

All of this brings to mind the Magic Carpet — a
carpet in the Old Alexandria Hotel lobby. If
anyone had some $30,000 picture scheme tiny
would step awa\ Item the cheap talk at the bar
and on to this carpet, f "p to that time deals over
that amount never were talked of — nor even
thought of — hut when the fabulous earnings of
The Birth of a Nation became known sixty to
ninety " grand " was the line. They all thought
they could make a picture along similar lines
with similar earnings. And so The Fall of a
Nation, The Blue and the Grey, The Betrayal,
and others followed — and flopped.

The Birth of a Nation was math' practically in
the studio backyard it the corner of Sunset and
Hollywood Boulevard. (Reliance Majestic), ex-
(Continued at foot of previous page)

MISCELLANEOUS

WANTED, AEROGRAPH BlIBSH. TYPE
Ai: or E, with FULCRUM PUMP.- Particulars
Bos No. C.T. 10-1. Charles Sell, 5 6, Bed Lion
Square, London, W'.t'.l

Stl

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN September— October, 1944

JOCK C. GEMMELL

( Pathe)
D-Day Minus X

We arc summoned to
a Naval Rendezvous.
There are, I suppose,
not less than fifty Bri-
t ish War ( iorrespondents
present, and the News-
reels are represented by
five cameramen attached
to the Royal Navy and
one to the Merchant
Service. They are: Jack
Ramsden (Movietone),
John Turner (Gaumont), li. Colwyn Wood (Uni-
versal), Jimmy Gemmell (Paramount), myself
tor Pathe and Alec Tozer for the Merchant-
men. We arc transported to the ports where we
are to embark in our various ships, and as we
shake ha mis and wish each other " Goodbye " and
" Good luck " perhaps we have a wee lump in the
throat — we've all been in action before, and you
never know.

D-Day

Ibid crossing — am aboard a ship that doesn't
take i! \lau\ soldiers really had. Full marks to
a Major of Signals who was sick many times hut
who always came hack to his job even time. All]
on deck at dawn — make pictures. The most
amazing sight. Have seen part of the Invasion
Fleet the previous night, hut now no adjective
fan describe the scene. To the left, that is to the

East, the Battle wagons are blazing away, and t<
the West the same thing — the din is terrific, b
the meantime, the cruisers and destroyers are
having a go at the batteries to the East. No pic-
tures. Too far away to film. Astern, that is '
the North, there is just a procession of all kinds
of craft with balloons attached heading south-
wards. Nothing but craft and balloons as far as
the eye can sec. Ahead, the landing craft an
still going in — brave blokes.

There never was such an Armada — never sucli
a spectacle.

The ship that I am aboard is so placed that it
docs not present any great opportunities at the
moment, but by now I know that she has a spec
mission— can't tell you about that. Make all kinds
of pictures, and then sec my brother Jimmy's
ship coming up and film her escort going 1 1 1 1 ■ -
action.

Infantry landing craft comes alongside — a gon
sight. Don't film it — too gruesome! It's v
remains of our gallant young boys.

Later, the Airborne Glider Troops arrive — coin-
ing in squadron after squadron, wave after wav<
in broad daylight, with impunity - the sheer
impudence of the whole thine. Make pictures and
think "That's that." Hut 1 am wrong. They at
still coming in wing after wing. Xewsrcel camera-
men all over the world have seen mam awe-in-
spiring sights in their time but I am sure that
nothing could equal that. 1 cheer them- \
foolish cameramen shouldn't be emotional.

We move forward until we anchor right inshord

so close, in fact, that I am able to film seems

September— October, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

87

ashore bouses set alight by our landing parties;
crurj boats racking with small fire, buildings still
holding snipers. Wise Guy says " Now we're for
it." Apart from the night bombing, which was
expected, we weren't "for it "—smoke screens
and A. A. prevent that.

D plus 1

l'l> again at dawn. Discover that the enemy are
bombarding the beaches from the elevated ground
to our left. Not pleasant. When shells fall short
of beaches they are too perilously near the ship.
Must annoying can't gel pictures. Nobody knows
when Hun is going to fire, or what at.

D plus 2

Boarded a Rhino Raft, coming off-shore with
about TOO of the first German prisoners to leave
France — good story. After tying up. the L.S.T.
1st Officer shouts down from fo'ca*stle " Sergeant,
are you sending your guards aboard with these

bastards' Sorry", sir. we ain't got no bleeding

guard " was the reply.
D plus 3

An audacious attack by low-flying enemy air-
craft on the beaches — a huge dump is set alight—
good pictures, but to us all a very distressing
sight — so many men have lost their lives getting
licit stuff ashore. Still, as an old R.F.C. man,
appreciate technique.

Alter several days returned to U.K. and was
verj pleased to see the old shores again.

The Naval organisation for getting the material
back home was really first-class: full marks to
Commander Dillon Robinson and his staff. From
information received, tic public gave the Inva-
sion editions a wonderful hand, so although this
is only my own little story I do think that all
cameramen who took part in D-Day have just
cause to be proud of a good job of work well done.

R. COLWYN-WOOD

(Universal |

1 was luckier than
some in the crossing,
being aboard a Flagship
which took small heed
of a sea that brought
crevt s of little ships near
blasphemy and made so
many passengers sick
unto demonstration. Our
ship bulged with per-
sonnel and 1 snatched
some rest on the floor of
a cabin designed for one
man and now housing
five. I too remember tic
Infantry Landing Craft
and the sights that

chilled and humbled one. Yet an exalting, indeli-
ble picture remains a Tommy with a head wound,
blood pours down his face rapidly turning his bai
tledress a dirty plum colour. He struggles to his
feet when the M.O. goes aboard and. grinning,
holds up his tin hat and proudly draws Doc's
attention to the gaping rent in it — seems oblivious
of his wound. On the deck propped against an
ammo' case a Sub-Lieutenant, his left arm shat-
tered, an ever-widening crimson circle forms be-
neath. He looks up, catches my eye, notes the
camera and rinses a grin. Another man lies on the
steel decking, a blanket scarcely hides the heavy,
near-sodden dressing about his stomach. His face
is green but his eyes are bright, with little success
he tries to smoke but finds the breath to say:
" We've blasted Jerry to hell on that beach, lad."

I took a poor view (literally) of Jock's "auda-
cious attack by low-flying enemy aircraft " being
about fifty yards from the annuo dump when the
egg was laid ! I had gone ashore with Colonel Lang-
ley (inventor of the Rocket-ship) to obtain special
shots for Combined Ops. T heard the plane, and
more important, heard the bomb. Reckon I hit the
sand 1 5th second before bomb hit dump ! A luckj
strike for Jerry if ever there was one.

What goes up has to come down, and that was
a biggish dump, so I hug my camera thinking of
the two T had lost in previous action, wonder if
this is to be the third. A trooper takes cover at
my side, nurses his trophy — a German automatic
rifle with ring sights, nice weapon. A scream, a
rush of air. I look at companion — with lugubrious
expression he eyes wb.it he grasps. It bears little
resemblance to his prized trophy for sights and
breach have been sheared off cleanly. Better a
Jerry gat than my Eyemo I think.

When I got off-shore in a Duck the dump was
still putting on a fair imitation of Vesuvius writ-
ing finis in lava across Pompeii. T transferred to
an Infantry Landing Craft waiting for our Admiral,
who was carrying out a beach inspection despite
the hail storm. An enemy battery, attracted by
the dump, ranged the beach and included our
craft in its arc of fire, then a cheeky .ME tried
a little machine-gunning. Strong evasive action
whilst standing on bridge with Col. Langley and
using shelf as snack counter to partake of corned-
beef and cabbage followed by Christmas pudding
washed down with whisky . . . the British at war
are a strange people !

1 came to regard the Colonel as Combined Op's
gifl to the newsreels — till I got back to London.
I was able to accompany him in the observation
craft and secure breath-taking shots of rockel
ships in action, but despite my caustic comments
and a nice line in co-operation from the Colonel.
SHAEF Censorship remained adamant.

\bont l>-l>a\ plus I', I found comfortable accom-

88

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN Sep r— October. 1 I

modation sharing a cabin with that companionable
and conscientious worker V. W. Perfect (Daily
Telegraph). Jock Gemmell spent a night aboard
the Flagship on his way back to U.K. and 1
retain happy (tho' hazy) memories of the select
little party in our cabin. Jock took a short (but
deep) sleep on an Ante-Room settee, pushing off
on a M.L. a little alter dawn — I still wonder how
he managed it ... .

It was good to find, on getting back, that our
stories bad hern so well received and 1 feel, with
■ le nmell, (bat no one should object if we camera-
men sometimes apply a spot of gentle pressure
to our own backs. What a pity that the biggest
story is sometimes the one that got away ! I made
some pictures I'm not allowed to talk about, and
the censors have seen to it that they got away—
from the public gaze. A bit galling sometimes.

When in action I'm scared (who isn't'.'), hut
somehow it's an inspiring tonic-like brand of fright.
Back home again I'm restless, often bored — de-
flated. D-Day was something of a nightmare . . .
on D-Day. Now, D-Day seems to have been the
real thing, and tins life (I write from my home
set in pleasant country near Cardiff) a dream-like
existence !

ALEC TOZER

(Movietone)

To he the Merchant
Navy's first and only
aci ; edited newsreel cor-
respondent was a great
honour and my first
assignment with them
. . . the invasion.

Ah ship, a 12,000 ton
troop carrier, was lying
out and it was a plea-
sant afternoon's trip 1>\
launch in order to hoard
her. We steamed hack
to t he docks to pick up
some 8,000 troops. On
the wa\ I got "invasion take-off" pictures of every
type of landing craft, troop-carriers and their
escorts. The whole sea appeared to he jammed
tight w'lh ships. Assault barges crammed with
troops were already pushing off for the assembly
point. These pictures with the embarkation seems
were useful for the first invasion issue of the news-
reel as they were dispatched from the ship before
she left the dock. The embarkation took place
within full view of hundreds of people. They
must have guessed that D-Day was approaching.

\> daw n on 1 >-Day v rep nd tin

for the English Channel. A- we enti

the narrow St r. I ' . -r our escort 1)' s

belching dense columns or black smoke screens.
Slow-dying aircraft skimmed the water als
leaving a wall of smoke behind them. <)
balloons were pulled down to the mast head g
that they would not he seen ab tl sci

Em m\ coastal battel ies w en firing in1 i
screen but their shells were falling so far u
us that they did not even make good pictures. W
altered course somewhat when shells began bi
ing ahead of our convoy. With such a large shiji
as ours we were not due at the beach-head until
D + lb and 1 wondered what we were d
the Channel so near the enemy co D-D

perhaps we were aiding as a kind of decoj '.' Our
convoy got through safely. I was told we •
the first convov through the Straits since Dun-
kirk.

At anchor that night and all the following d
I thought the waiting was the most nerve rackin
part of the whole trip.

On the night of D + 1 we pushed our wa_\
the Channel, through the mine-swept lane
enemy aircraft dropped flares around us searcl
for this invasion highway. One ship far to the end
of our convoy was ablaze — an E boat was respon-
sible for this.

At first light of dawn, instead of the ex;
enemy air attacks We saw nothing hut swarms
our own air cover fighters, and abov I en tl
white vapour streaks of our bombers gone: to
from the enemy coast.

And then my firsi view of the French ci -
since May. 1940. Never have I seen so man;
ships, and so many different types I si ips.

Enemy shells from some miles inland wo
bursting on the be ches whilst terrific broad
from naval ships ae h\ '-' i c : being throw u b
at them. A landing craft hit a mine and was h
to pieces just behind me. Our troops, in -
spirits, climbed down a rope netting to landin
craft below to take them through the sh
water to the beach less than a mile away.

That night we had a grand firework display wit
all the ships flinging up everything they had agains;

the enemy aircraft which 'hardly dared to -
themselves in daylight. Thev were searching
us again the following night on the wax-
across the Channel and the droning of their
engines did nol leave us until tin first jl mn ■
daylight .

An impressive trip but in m\ case not i
so full of action as I had imagined it would '•■

September— October, 1944 THE CINE- T E C II N I < ' I A N

JACK RAMSDEN

Movietone)

I was assigned to a de-
fcroyer, and the arrival
►f a '" khaki type " with
, nads ut camera gear
so m created a buzz on
tijgjl the lower deck. Our job
was to protect the mine-
sweepers going in ahead
to sweep a channel for
the invasion craft. If we
were hit we were to
beach and continue fir-
ing.

From my all-night
station on the bridge I
could see only dim
shapes, but the coming
of the dawn was like the raising of a curtain on
the mightiest amphibious operation the world has
ever seen. It didn't seem real until our sister
ship, niil\ a few hundred yards away, blew up with
startling reality. In spite of being busy filming I
shall never forget the teii-etie-- of that moment.
Everybody was just watching — grimly — blowing
up his lifebelt as fast as he could. A Petty < (fficer
nearby grinned, and said it reminded him of one
■ it his pals — an old sweat — who was off Crete in
tin early days of the war when a similar thing
happened. He was blowing away when a young-
ster, who was on his first trip, said " Ya, winilx !"
' Listen, my boy." said the old sweat, still blow-
ing, "If you take iu\ advice" —blow, blow —
,11 do the same — it's the only air support
you'll get around here! "

We were now close in to the French coast and
the fun had started. There was no doubt about
our air support this time. Overhead the Allies were
in complete mastery of the skies. Below them,
as far as the eye could see, assault craft after
issault craft was going in. Every ship in the
• British Navy seemed to be firing. Fifteen and six-
teen-inch bricks from the big battle-wagons behind
us and the -mallei- six- and eight-inchers from the
cruisers went screaming over our bridge like
machine-gun bullets. 2,000 tons of naval shells
hit those beaches in ten minutes. The noise was
icredible. Our own guns were also going full
blast and only the footage indicator on m\ camera
told me il was still running. It was quite impos-
sible tn hear it.

During the bombardment our forward observa-
tion officer on the beach was killed. Fur a time
we had no target, much to the annoyance of our
captain who was pacing the bridge like a caged
I on. He made frantic signals to nearby ships who
ire -till firing, such as "Do you require any

galling, as we could see the enemy tanks moving
about but couldn't be sure how near they were
to ours. Although we were but a small cog in the
enormous machine he seemed annoyed that it
should continue to function very well without us!
Suddenly we found ourselves being shelled b\ a
coastal battery and sunn had plenty to do dealing
with it. Thus our captain was appeased, and a
good time was had by all, although I must - ■>
that the naval idea of a good time dues not always
conform with mine.

I was very satisfied with the pictures I got on
this trip, those especially of the Airborne Division
going over in the late evening, which I think are
some of the finest 1 have ever had the g I for-
tune to make. However, a cameraman must
always have his moan, and it was heartbreaking to
have so much material censored, particularly some
of my later stuff taken in Cherbourg. Otherwise
the general arrangements for coverage functioned
perfectly and 1 have nothing but praise for Com-
mander Dillon Robinson, R.N., and his staff, who
provided us with such excellent facilities. I only
wish they could arrange things so that we could
have a 48-hour week on these jobs and maybe we
could then get a little sleep instead of being on
watch "2 t horn s a dav '

JOHN TURNER

(Gaumont-British)

hell

-all to no purpose. It did seem a bit

When daylight re-
vealed our tloat ing Army
on June !';t h. 1 found it
hard ti i realise that this
was D-Day. So thor-
oughly had the press anal
him arrangements been
thought out ( I echo the
praise of Jock ( remmell
for Commander Dillon
Robinson and staff) that
1 was tempted to think
that they had arranged
this zero-hour to give
the picture boys a
chance !

I found the scene un-
real because we'd expected something different.
I was in a very old destroyer — it seemed unreal
to all of us in that ship — we had been keyed Up
to expect blond and thunder, and instead, when
we reached the Assault \rea. it might have been
am da\ in a verj crowded harbour. Here we wi re,
well within sight of the enemy coastline in day-
light— the centre section of the invading force-.
No wonder the scene seemed unreal for where
were the diving enemy planes, where the flashes

'.II.

THE C I X B -TECHNIC] A X September— October, I'm

of .1 hundred guns ashore, the splashes of their

shells, where the shattered ships and the cries for
help? " I don't believe it." said the Captain . . .
" it can't be Normandj ! " But it was ! " It'll be
worse tins afternoon," said some-one - - but it
wasn't ! ' They'll take two to three days to bring
up Subs and planes and other evils" a prophel
suggested — but they didn't ! They weren't allowed
to!

We were lucky no doubt. There were incidents
of course. There was a ship ahead of us which
hit a mine shortly before zero-hour. But she only
shivered, drooped her head a little, recovered and
turned for England ... a runner gone lame who
has to walk back to the start. And there was the
little tug which hit a mine too — for just a moment
it lingered, then it sighed a long, long sigh of
pure-white steam . . . and went, with all its men.
There were incidents like that — pathetic, horrible
— hut they were rare and the general scene was
one of busy little boats fussing about running
errands to the beaches, taking messages to other
ships — a quiet, efficient and splendid achieve-
ment. So much to film, and yet so little! That
was D-Day from our ship, and 1 would not have
had it otherwise for all the spectacular pictures
in the world. A naval cameraman's best picture-
in action are nearly always when be is at the wrong
end of the gun ... so when I thought of that I
wasn't disappointed at the quietness of the scene
The picture is what the cameraman wants — and
the enemy were getting plenty.

Like all tin newsreel hoys on this operation
['ve been to sea a lot since the war started. We've
all had thrills — D-Day will take a lot of beating!

JIMMY GEMMELL

I Paramount )

I was sitting in the
ward-room of the ship
that I had been allocated
to when the news came
to me that the big day
had arrived. As my ship
stole silently out of the
harbour, we passed the
ship I knew my brother
Jock was in and 1 won-
dered if he would be
there to see us <_;o out.
Yes. he was. The only
JP ^^^A khaki-clad man in the

ship. We w aved to one
another and the thought
came to me : " T wonder
if this is the finish or shall we see one another
igain?" Bui as I'd experienced other invasion

attempts these morbid thoughts soon disappear, i

and 1 set about putting my house in order. T]
chief thing was a good position in the ship for no
cameras. It is not very easy nowadays to find aj
good position as every camera position is a gun)
position, and what with the extra armamenl
the ship, one has to be careful, otherwise you
are bumped off by your guns or blasted off your
feet. Anyway, I got a good position on the
deck. There I sat all that day and night waitirr.
At last dawn broke, and at Zero hour came
oi our plane- flying verj low spreading smoke
on our left flank to cover us going in on the N
maiidy beaches. Ships of all sizes seemed I ■
up out of thi' sea all making for the coast.

'1 hen Hell was just let loose from the ship's
guns and I understand that both the R.A.F. and
the Americans had been over the target area just
prior to our arrival and had given the Hui -
8,000 tons of bombs. The whole thing v -
tastic. Big and small landing barges wet
straight for the beaches defying opposition ft
the shore batteries, mines, and those lion
things called Spiders — twisted lumps of met
semi-submerged in the sand that can rip out I
bottom of those little landing craft.

A wonderful sight was a bunch of landing
with guns in the bows shooting their way r _
on to the beaches. Heavy fighting continue;
day. shells were flung at Jerry and they n ;
from dug-in positions in the alleged impn ?\
concrete Atlantic Wall.

Night-time came at last, only to be interrupted
by Hun dive-bombers. One came so near
ship that he almost took the mast oft'. I think
this one was dropping acoustic mines as two y
off a few hours later which stirred my circulation
up a bit !

The morning after D-Day I was requested b
Admiral Vine to go ashore with him. I g i ss 1
wanted to sec how much damagi I - si ps
done. That was pretty plenty! We had to trans-
fer into a Duck to Lr" ashore a- the beaches
SO shallow. Here the scene was unbelievable. -1 -
a flag stuck in the sand denoted some ELQ. II
dreds of men were working incessantly unload
the various landing craft. There was no shoul
of orders — every man seemed to know exact J
what he had to do and principally to do it quid
Bulldozers were pushing out ol the fairway land-
ing barges which had been damaged. There were
tired-c\ ed lad- hu-\ digging fox-holes in the dunes,
and others filling in the gravi s of 1 heir fallen e
rades. While all this was going on our ships v
firing over our heads jusl up the hill, on
retreating Huns.

With all the tragedy and heartbreak that
war brings, you will always find some litt'f
bit of humour among the troops. It was in till
afternoon of the first da\ that 1 went asb.01

mber— October, 1944 THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

Septe

prisoners were being brought in, and 1 came across
[bout 200 of them being marched along with just
, Cocknej Sergeant in charge. 1 asked the Ser-
jeaut to stop them and when he saw that 1 was an
ifficial cameraman, he said " Verj good, sir.
Fliat 's fine ! I have walked these blinking baskets
iboul three miles so I will just sit down on the
sand while you muck them about a bit." But, of
Bourse, "muck" wasn't quite the word he used!
As I was going back to my ship with
admiral Vine and other staff officers, we had to
ransfer from the Duck to an American cutter.
When it came to my turn to jump from one to
he other, the boats had got adrift from one an-
ither about three yards. As I am rather a big man.
t was impossible for me to jump this, but Vine's
roice boomed out " Come on, Gemmell, jump the
ilooiK thing, otherwise we will go without you."
1 said "I am sorry, sir, I can't jump that," and
ie said " Well bloody well try." And as I didn't
want to be left floating about all night in a Duck,
I jumped! I landed on top of a most dignified
■Staff officer who was already standing in the cut-
er. When I had finished taking his boot out of
n\ ear, he stood up, brushed himself down and
;aid "Please don't do that again!" Everybody
laughed like Hell as they expected me to land in
he ditch !

'.H

There are plenty of things that could be told

ihout this marvellous achievement but 1 will

nish by saying that I was there thirteen days and

. thought that to stay thirteen days might be un-

ucky. bid it proves I was very lucky as the day

left the ship it was raked b\ rocket shells ami
ihortly after it was struck' by a mine but suceess-
!ill\ towed to harbour. I came back holding on
o the iron door of an M.T.B. on one of the rough-
■st seas I think I have experienced, for five hours.
Irenched to the skin.

May I conclude by saying " May not the blood
if these men be lost in vain."

-for StuJio and
laboratory equipment,
CamerasJipodsftintiryftocessirKf
plant... and 6r the solution at 'any
technical problem concerning,
them - the name mat matters is

A.C.T. Moves to Soho Square

After much difficulty and trouble, and to the
chanting of " Praise the Lord and keep the
engine running," A.C.T. is now comfortably
installed in its new offices at 2 Soho Square.
The amount of correspondence and the num-
ber of telephone calls still being received at
the old Stanmore address again adds weight to
the Head Office theory that there is no need to
write letters to members as they never read them.
Please note that 0 Bromefield is once again a
private residence having no connection with
A.C.T. (and the General Secretary does not live
there). All correspondence, visits and telephone
calls are wasted unless made to 2 Soho Square,
Condon, W.l— Gerrard 8500-7-8.

Those members who have visited the new offices
share the staff's delight with them. They cover
two floors in one of the most attractive of the
typical Soho Square houses. The general offices
are on the second floor. A Committee Room for
General Council, Executive Committee and other
meetings is on the ground floor. The furnishing dif-
ficulty was overcome by dint of days' hunting by
tin' Treasurer and Secretary, aided invaluably by
friends in the right places where permits and spe-
cial facilities had to be obtained.

Soho Square is quickly developing into a close
preserve for the film industry. The latest new-
comers are World Wide Pictures. We congratu-
late them on their advertisement in Documentary
News Letter announcing the fact. Talking of
Soho Square, d said : " Built in the reign of
Charles II — the ' merry monarch ' — and named
after him King's Square. Residence of Charles'
illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, and
therefore popularly known as Monmouth's
Square. With this start it is hardly surprising
that in the eighteenth century Soho Square be-
came Condon's centre of fashionable dissipation
and profligacy, to which only the titled and
wealthy had the privilege of admission. Of the
White House, which stood at the corner of Sutton
Street, Walford's 'Old and Xew Condon' says:
The character of this house can be inferred from
the fact that it was the haunt of the then Prince
of Wales, and the ruin of many a female heart
dated from a visit within these walls. The premises
are now in the occupation of Messrs. Crosse &
Blackwell, the well-known pickle manufacturers.
After this date, the Square gradually declined in
the world — from fashion to philosophy, from
artists to tradesmen — from shops to hospitals —
until at length its lowest depth seems to have been
reached.

W.VINTEN LTD. NOKTHCI«CUU««0..CRICKlEWOOD. N W 2.
k. Claditom 6373

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N September— October,

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

An Index to the Creative Work of David Warx
Griffith : — Part I. The Birth of an Art. 1908-
1815. Compiled by Seymour Stern. Supple-
ment to Sight (Did Sound.

This is a catalogue — if it were about Eisens
they'd call it an iconography — of all Griffith's film
work u]i to the beginning of The Birth of a Nation.
And fascinating to read it is. too. Anyone who
thinks of Griffith in terms of half-a-dozen films
or so should have a look at this : there ale over 3* >U
films listed in this pamphlet. That means an aver-
age of two a week at least throughout the whole
six years; I've gone through the list carefully and
as Ear as 1 can see he didn't have a single week's
holiday, without work on some film or other, from
beginning to end. Of course, they were only one-
reel sileiits mostly, but even so it is a terrific
achievement, particularly when you remember
thai during this time he was making continual
developments in shooting and editing technique,
which are noted in this list as they appear. The
creative (and money-making) spirit was alive in
those days all right: in these lifeless and consti-
pated days any old over-censored, over-careful,
over-finickey dead-as-mutton epic will take at least
a year to produce and get shown. It's worth think-
ing why, with all the improvements in knowledge,
technique and equipment since then, films are s i
much more laborious and difficult to make today,
and when made, so much less alive and worth - :e-
ing than were Griffith's. Is it that their subjects
today (and the atmosphere of the studio) are so
remote from ordinary popular feeling and the lite
of our times that the majority of the technicians
find themselves shut off from any spirit of co-
in i a1 ion ?

Anyway, our Mr. Seymour Stern ha- no use
for any idea of co-operation. He describes Grif-
fith's films as "all one-man jobs" and even has
the stupidity to call him " in the most exact and
literal sense, director of photography," when it is
obvious (read Hilly Bitzer's description elsewhere
in this issue of how Mary Pickford Hist came to
use make-up) that all films in those days were " in
the most exact and literal sense" co-operative
fforts. It is a sad thing that for everj creative
man like Griffith there sb aid be dozens ol S
moiir Sterns (after the appropriate lapse ol time
has lent a halo to hi- formerly despised work)
ready and eager to clamber upon his back like
so many old nun of the sea and earn a living and
a certain pale notoriety by listing, annotating and

generally pulling to pieces what he did from si
creative generosity. This list is interesting eno . _
but I think Air. Seymour Stern would be betl
employed boosting some at present despised an 1
down at luck contemporary who really needs .
In 1910 he would have shot a glance of s<
Griffith and the movies ami busily set about
ing and annotating the works of Ibsen or Teheko--
for the benefit of the fashionable intellectuals
the day.

F.S.

The Shame and Disgrace of Colonel Blimp. I
E. \Y. and M M. Robson. Svdnevan SocieU.
■2 I'd.

As anyone will expect who read the Eobson's
The Film Answers Back, you certainly have a lively
if topsy-turvy time with this pamphlet.
o neral effect is very much that of filmindia :
you never know quite where, from some perfe
sensible premise, the welter of words and _
met is going to land von bv the time it is finished.

The FUdi Answers Back had a pi in- -tly g 1

tral idea, that films as a rule should have a con-
structive happy ending, with people solving their
problems and good triumphant; hut by the t
tla argument was over Pabst had been turned
from a sincere internationalist into a chauv
and any American film was the cats' whisker-
Here this argument is developed in an attack on
poor old Colonel Blimp, which the authors si
a cunning and subvi rsh ttempt to laud every-
thing German and pour scorn on everything E
lish. The high-spot of the pamphlet, certainly, -
wlure you suddenly find that the authors 1
somehow conclusively proved that the shown °
Blimp was the direct cause of the rele -
Aioslex I

Now I don't think anyone would particularly
want to defend Emeric Pressl urger a- i -
writer. There is certainly something fishy al
his Squadron Leader X or C-Boat ('apt
striding unscathed through the stupid dem
cies, and 1 suppose there can be few people
know a- little a- he does about the real lite of tb 8
country. lint the author- are not satisfied wit
that; burning with their new-found vansittar; -
they would have even English dug-out. g
in-- and loutish young public-schoolboy suba I

w n as patterns ol honour, intelligence and
virtue. It they haven't found out by now that
there's something pretty badly wrong with

September— October, 1044 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

93

English (and everj other) middle class, it's high
time somebody enlightened them. The trouble is
thai in their eagerness to prove their case they
will use any argument that comes to mind, even
it it i> a direct contradiction of what they've said
bi fore. Clear thinking is not their strong suit.

For instance, on the first page oi their pamph-
let they say, verj sensibly, that as wars are made
.\ men, and men are complex creatures, the
sausi 3 oi wars are complex too. A few pages later
lay 've forgotten all about this and are busy prov-
ng a la Vansittart that all wars are caused by
sunning German imperialism. Similarly, later on.
lay very well show the fundamental weakness of
he l i-erman "expert " and how in the last instai
he " experl " is always bound to fail for lack of
hat little something extra, of which " know-
iflge " deprives him. And yet before, we've finished
hey 're calling upon the nation to "understand
uid control its mental processes," "to bring its
Subconscious into consciousness," that is. to he-
nine a nation of "experts" too! T would - ig-
;est thai ilex consider how far that " little some-

ing extra" is identified with things very firmly
lot brought into mental consciousness, and, fur-

her, how far that " little si I hing extra " of the

subconscious can be identified, nationally, with
irking class. Meanwhile, I'm afraid all this
\t r ivagance, over-simplificat ion, muddled thought
uid attempt to see the English as a '"race" has
•■lined what might have been a good pamphlet.
K< ■ I think the\ 've g< it a good case here, at bot-
oin. and their writing is always lively.

F.S.

PRODUCERS' LICENCE

We would have thought the British Film Pro-
lucers Association, in making its Annual Reporl

0 its members, would have based it on fact and
tot fiction- But on the contrary, when reporting
>n "Disputes and Awards." it takes as much

l>eit\ to itself a- authors are wont to complain
ihu producers sometimes take with their hooks.

1 They report, for example, that, the Arbitrator
tpheld their interpretation in the dispute with
LC.T. over Sunday work. What utter nonsense !

1 B.F.P.A. claimed Sundays should he paid

tin- rate i it one-third of the week's salan
LC.T. claimed one-third oi tic week's salary
pas not double time, in view of the 5J-day work-
pg week stipulated in the Agreement, and that

7 ITtle, of t In- week's salary v as the i i i rei I
nterpretation. The Arbitrator ruled accordingly
or tbose earning up to 610 per week and for those
arning between (:li> and £15 he ruled the rate
pas 17 54ths again, not one-third.

On the Welwyn dispute, the report is, if any-
thing, even more fantastic. There may he an
explanation lor this in t h j the dispute was settled,
without the intervention of the B.F.P.A., direct
between A.C.T. and the Hoard of Associated Bri-
tish, who control Welwyn. Maybe the report to
the B.F.P.A. came through a rather sore official
at Welwyn, hut in view oi the machinery used to
settle the dispute we would have thought that it
lie B.F.P.A. desired to mention the matter a
would have taken the necessary precautions to
ensure an accurate account was given. As it is.
they do not say the dispute was caused by an
alleged breach of the Studio Agreement by their
memb r, but by an overtime ban as a protest
against the rejection of a claim for higher pa\
made on behalf of an employee. They then say
the matter was settled, the union agreeing to
withdraw its claim. They don't mention at all
that the terms of the settlement included paying
the individual concerned exa tly what A.C.T.
claimed and that all A.C.T. members (including
those locked out by the management -- another
point overlooked by the B.F.P.A.) went hack to
work- on condition they wore paid for all the time
they were out.

We do ask the B.F.P.A. to he a little more
careful and a little more accurate in future.

TH E

GROWN THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE
AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

TWO DOUBLE HEADS

DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM
MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS

SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS

86, Wardour St., London, W.1

Tel: GERRARD 5223 ^S

94

THE C 1 N E - T E C H X I C I A X September— October. 1'. C

NEWSREEL AGREEMENT SIGNED >*y sidney cole

It's odd that the newsreels should be the last
section of the industry to be covered by an agree-
ment. Odd historically speaking, because it' it
weren't for the pioneer cameramen with their top-
hats and hand-cranking at headline events from
the nineties onwards, there mightn't be a film
industry for any tycoon to get ambitious about.
Odd from A.C.T.'s point of view, because the
newsreelers were among the earliest members
(wasn't Jock Gemmell one of our first vice-presi-
dents?) and because it was only the threat of
there being no George VI Coronation reels that
induced the film employers to consent to sit at the
same table with us — I say sit, because even then
they wouldn't talk. Odd from any angle, because
surely no on • who at any time in the last five
years has been thrilled or moved by a newsreel
would rind anything strange in those who may
have risked their lives to make it, belonging to a
trade union if they wanted to. By a macabre
timing of events, we received the news of the death
of newsreeler Anbury in the Ear East on the first
da\ of the Arbitration, and thereafter even the
most intransigent of the employers' representa-
tives seemed a little more comfortable arguing
about overtime than about danger money and
insurance.

The Agreement should be a fine tonic for those
new sreelers w ho held on doggedlj down the years.
It's due to them that we've now got a solid Agree-
ment, and a solid membership. That's not the
end, of cours< — it's just the beginning. We mean
to hold, and improve, both.

As members know, no understanding was pos-
sible with the Newsreel Association, and the whole
draft agreement had to go to arbitration and be
fought clause by clause. Thanks go to A.C.T.'s
representatives — in particular George Elvin and
the newsreelers Jock Gemmell, A. Bushnell and
Peter Cannon. Charlie Wheeler and myself were
there too. to show that A.C.T. was in this 1(H) per
cent, and to give advice as needed. All of us. I
fluid-;, would like to record our appreciation of the
arbitrator. Air. Gorman, K.C. The case was to
last two days but. in conventional film manner.
went a day and a half over schedule. .Mr. ( rorman
retained his patience and temper to the end. which
is more than the rest of us always did. Personally .
I was most tried by the odd effect of some of the
arguments of Mr. Cash (who led. as the lawyers
say. for the employers), which from time to time
induced in me the hallucination that it was 1844
and t rade unions were s! ill illegal.

The general importance of the Agreement is
first, that it levels up wages and conditions and
SO gives ground to build on for the future; second.

that it establishes complete recognition of A.C.T.
by the Newsreel Association.

In the main, the Agreement is excellent. At -.-.
rough estimate, 1 should say that the award m
the minimum rates put forward by A.C.T. to
80%, which means immediate considerable in-
creases for many members. In some grades. \\,
would have liked the rates to be nearer thos.
the studios, but that will be our objective
two years' time, when the Agreement is due
renewal. The working week is fixed at 44 hi
— a useful stage on the way to the 40-hour week
which is the T.U.C.'s main target in indus
after the war. For the first time, overtime .-
be paid to inside staff; and for the outside -•
a regular system of allowances is laid down. Th
computation of overtime is a little complical
being a combination of a cumulative weekly t
and of a maximum working day. But it A j -
matter of shop stew aids grasping it fully and '
seeing that the employer understands it eqn
well.'

The cost of living clause again needs vigilance.
The agreement lays down that the cost of li1
bonus (which is the same as for the studios
laboratories) shall be paid extra to the w .
unless any part of that wage is an increase sine
the war, which the employer can show to 1
been paid specifically as a war bonus. " Sp
cally " means that the employer has to produc
evidence. If he can't, the bonus, or appropi
proportion of it. has to be added to the exi-' _
wage.

There is a very good termination of employmei ;
clause — members earning over £10 a week or wl
have hail more than five years' continuous sen ict .
must receive four weeks' notice. This is betti •
than our other agreements. Dangerous work i
be paid for at the rate of £."> a day. Insuran.
compulsory, with different rates for work at home
and abroad ; there is a scaling down oi the amounts

(bom £5,( to £3.000 and from £3.000 to £2,0(1

to come into force at the end oi the war. which v !
are not entirely satisfied with.

For the first time, entrance into the m v -
industn is regulated 1>\ clauses about Learners,
of which the ieia.es are reas mablv good. Cor
rest, there are clauses similar to those in
studio agreement covering the settlement oi dis-
putes, the transfer of services, the selection
staff, temporary working in a higher or to
grade, sickm ss and holiday s.

So there's your agreement, newsreelers. It >
up to your shop stewards now to see it's operate 1.

< ri iod luck to vim all.

September— October, 1044 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

'.I.',

YOU'RE TELLING ME!

WHAT TECHNICIANS ARE ASKING FOR:

1. First Class Wages.

2. Well Equipped Cutting Rooms.

3. To compete with the American Markets.

4. Good Stock Shots.

NORMAN'S FILM SERVICE

Ger. 6413 58, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.I Ger. 7481

THEY LOOK TO US:

96

T HE CINE-TEC II N I C I A N September— October, I'M

Edited by Fred J. Hyson

LAB. TOPICS

Greetings from G.F.D.

Popped down to the " Push " the other day and
renewed acquaintance with two old friends, Pro.
George Edwards, Shop Steward of Film Labs.,
and Bro. Jack (leering, Shop Steward of G.F.D.
Labs. George was full of praise for the way G.F.D.
had received evacuated Film Lab. technicians.
Jack sends the following note: "We at G.F.D.
are glad that a page is allocated in the Journal
for exclusive lab. topics, and hope that we soon
know something of what is happening in other
labs. As for G.F.D., we are doing our share in the
evacuation scheme, for when Film Labs, were
bombed out. we received them with open arms.
When they arrived on the Monday they brought
their newsreel with them ! More work for us.
Still, they were 100% A.C.T. so we cheered up
and got stuck into it, and they are a cheery crowd
so we are getting along well together. There are
one or two on the (I. I'M), stall who are not yet
in the union, but maybe they will come along
when the new agreement conies into force."

Support for New Deal

Those lab. technicians who did not attend the
A.G.M. must have pinched themselves to see if
they were still alive when they read the report of
the eleventh A.G.M. and saw with what concern
the studio personnel viewed the wages they
received at present. It must have given them new
hope and added determination to read of sueh
unanimous support vouchsafed at the A.G.M.
To our brothei-s and sisters in the studios we say
thank you! And when our new agreement is
served up we shall welcome your generous help.

The Young Idea

For some months pasl a special committee set
ii|) by the labs, have been delving into the prob-
lem of trainees. This is one of the most perplexing
questions to be settled in the industry, and I am
sure that the lab. technicians as a whole appre-
ciate the time and thought given to this problem
by the committee. At present verj little attention
is given to a youngster entering the labs, and
months can elapse before he even knows what film
realh is. Lor a youngster to become efficient he
has to be made interested, and the manifold
processes necessary before Ling Crosbj can be
seen and heard at the local cinema would, 1 am
convinced, amuse the interest and enthusiasm of
any youngster. To many boys film is just a roll

of stuff to be carried around in a tin. like a
of catsmeat — instead of a miracle of our age.

Our American Buddies

I have had the following wage rates handed
to me by an American technician. The rate-
appended below, he tells me. are the minimum
rates paid over a year ago. so it is quite conceiv-
able that they are higher now. The differi
between East and West ('oast labs, is in tin
process of being levelled up. the East Coast up
to the West Coast level. And all rates apply n
trade printing labs. Studio labs get much higher
rates. Another point is that all labs are clos
shops, which is without question the governing
factor in obtaining decent wage rates. Most tech-
nicians over there specialise in one job only,
this rule is very rigidly enforced. Even allowing
for a higher cost of living in the States, the v
rates have no comparison to our wages. Pre-war
a 36-hour week was worked, but now a 40-hcur
5-day week is the rule.

WAGE RATES

East Coast

lies/ Coast

£

s.

d.

I'

s.

d.

Printer

9

17

G

18

10

ii

Dryer

11

0

0

12

10

(i

Posit ive 1 teveloper ..

12

10

ii

12

10

n

Negative 1 )eveloper..

12

Ki

(i

14

II

0

Positive Assembly ...

M

5

ii

12

10

o

Negative Assembly. .

10

In

ii

18

LO

0

Negative Cutter ...

12

i)

ii

15

o

11

Grader

20

0

0

27
to 31

10

5

11
0

Assistant Grader ...

8

f>

0

Assistant Control ...

9

10

11

Viewer

11

II

II

13

0

11

Tin Carrier

i

lit

II

12

Ki

0

( Ihemical Mixer

9

.)

0

12

in

0

Vault Keeper

11

0

0

12

10

0

Minimum rate

7

10

o

12

10

ii

Double time is paid 'in holidays and Sundays.
in some labs time-and-a-half is paid for Saturday

mornings and then double time thereafter. Time-
and-a-half is the general rate of overtime pay. \
Charge Hand receives 10% over the highest
and a Foreman or Department Chiet gets 20

above the highest rate.

From my talks I gathered that although the
cost of Hiring is higher, the standard ot livin
definitely higher than that of English technician-

September— October, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

97

W.F.A. Film School

Tbe Lab. Committee selected Bro. W. G. Hil-
son to represent them at the Workers Film Asso-
ciation Film School held this year at Birmingham,
from July 21st to 28th. Bro. Hilson writes in
appreciation "for being given the opportunity of
attending. A fine course of lectures and debates
was arranged. Paul Rotha, in bis lecture, was
convinced that co-operative societies should
embark upon large scale film production. Mr.
J. G. Crowther lectured upon '* the use of films
for informing the public on tbe social use of scien-
tific knowledge," and showed what interesting
films could be made. Mr. Bernard Miles gave
his views on " should an actor interest him-
self in the social contents of the film in which
he is playing? " and *' should he endeavour to use
his art as a contribution to social progress?" A
discussion followed which was quite heated,
'especially upon tbe question being put "Do
intoxicants improve acting?"

Mr. Elvin, at short notice, gave the final lecture
in place of Mr. Sidney Bernstein. I bad to return
in London by the evening to carry out CD.
luties, so I very unfortunately missed it. Thanks
must go to Mr. Joe Reeves, Secretary-Manager of
W.F.A. , for bis splendid organising and for m\
•njoyable stay at University House."

It cleans efficiently ALL types of

DENTURES

The use of denture powder and brush for
leaning artificial teeth has proved completely
;atisfactory in practice, and should become a reg-
dar habit, especially after meals, in the interests
)f hygiene and to prolong the life of the denture.
iCOLYNOS DENTURE POWDER is as harm-
ess to the new 'acrylic' and other 'plastic'
lases as it is to metal and vulcanite, vet it
•ffectivelv removes all food debris and stains,
rom all chemists — 1/3.

KOLYNOS

DENTURE POWDER

\1m>. where gum-shrinkage has affected the normal
luction grip, KOLYNOS DENTURE FIXATIVE
nakes false teeth fit firmly. — 1/3 & 3/3.

CORRESPONDENCE

Lear Sir,

The monopolist tendencies within the film
industry are causing no small amount of worrj to
those of us in the Armed Forces. We feel our
future is being loaded with hazards of the sort
we thought we wife fighting to remove once and
for all, along with other barbarous ideas. Maybe
we have become too naive in our little fighting
world, so far removed from the " natural " world
of film executives.

Our doubts ami tears were not lessened by Mr.
Rank's joining the Board of Management of the
Crown Film Unit. We bad been led to under-
stand, you see, that Mr. Rank was so very " anti-
Go vernment-production." Imagine our bewilder-
ment when a high-ranking official of tbe M.O.I.
announces to the world (or lets it be announced)
that " at the end of hostilities he is joining Mr.
Rank" (who is so very anti-Government-produc-
tion). What ate wt — all Alices ill Wonderland
(Through tbe Moviola)?

However, in spite of all this a new dawn
breaks; a new "Shape of Things to Come" is
released. The Cinematograph films Council glad-
dened the hearts of us silly boys in uniform by
publishing their swan si mg He port . which came out
so strongly against " monopolist tendencies." But
this cleansing trickle through the Augean stables
was damned by a Mr. Hugh Dalton (who made
such a gentlemanly agreement with Mr. Rank,
who is so very anti-Government-production) . Mr.
Dalton thought it opportune to re-organise the
Films Council. There was room for improvement
— but bis method was to include the " tenden-
cies " condemned. Judge, jury, counsel and
accused have joined hands. What a delightful set-
up for everybody (except tis technicians and tbe
Great British Public)!

Cannot somebody tell Mr. Dalton that he seems
to he delivering, or about to deliver, the coup de
grace to the British Film Industry '.' He is a friend
of Labour: surely be cannot: realise the part be
is playing — "Salome." in the epoch-making drama
of the century, "The British Film Industry's
Struggle for Survival."

It isn't the 6200,000— £800,000 films scheduled
for six months to a vear and hogging all the floor
space that are the essential. The £30,000-^660,000

productions with three months' schedule are tbe
soundest foundation lor the quality and quant it \
which will give us a real healthy industiy .

Yours fraternally.
TE^ SERVING FILM TECHNICIANS.

3

THE CINE- T ECH N I C I A N September— October, 1

KAY MANDER ASKS

TOO MANY CONFERENCES?

-. summer set
-
First, who goes to ti -

t. They're the

people vi - get the best seats

t
dull - atl ting attent

there who think it's good i siness

fs. Surpris-
rople wl . '
- to learn - thing.

sent by tl
rt on the conference. The"
- ■ t i " never I
time - much or,

se t can never understand

. portant thing 1

report from a conference isn't merely what is
- how the audience reacts to ? t is s

_ - t i

■ - - - - • .L in eonj

ts S ? I - i the

Brit- - I - - -

Here, in i
definitely had come to learn something and tl
- as -.1 think, import t as inter-

-~ .

-

-
otly

-

got the rig
_

I - - «r] down '

t g got g

I
to the e ttb.

J. G. f the Economist

I I

-

V L The third s

Reex - self, with a realistic speech al

attitude of the workers' movement to fill. -
s. He urged the Labour Party -

- - " se of films for the next el t

to the Trade Union and Co-
move] tents i ----- . ;

film fund of £'100T000. He gave c
isored in the past by the Gas 1
and - - t said that, despite t -

at wanted tl adit son

~ would have to finance them its-
also adv - t of a

Film Library to provide a free service

- id univ- sities E .he poi:

ties the YV.F.A. was working
- of lack of equipment and the -

- table filn

General discussion revealed once again tl
sons why commercial inte: ■---
film industry gel - is

t seel
- g film — . -

a it. A.C.T..

I - pamphlet on tl.
nal films

-

• -

the films 1

-
-

-
Minis! I Films Divis

C . . . ." .

I

-

prog

-

' -

- '

' -
I

S< ptember — October, 1044

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

99

When a conference is a success there are
plenty of ideas and enthusiasm to get things
dune: the strange thing is that in its eager-
ness to achieve something, the conference tries
tn start from scratch and ignores any existing
machinery that might help. The W.F.A. confer-
ence was very much like that. All the enthusiasm
for getting films made for the Labour movement
was there. Excellent — but films cost money and
take time to make. Let us have new films by all
means, hut what about first learning to use those
we have? There was no mention of the backward-
ness of the Trade Unions and indeed of the whole
Labour movement in this respect, no mention of
any attempted use of the more general of the
M.o.I. films, no proof that any constructive
thought had been given to criticising existing films
and formulating alternative requirements. There
was no thought of bringing public opinion to bear
first on local cinemas, and through them perhaps

m renters and even producers, by the normal

■haunels of T.U. branch and Trades Council
action. There was in fact practically no construc-
tive suggestion arising from a knowledge of exist-

nil circumstances — only a vague, but urgent, re-

(iiest for progressive films.

Following the conference, on the first day of
he Summer School proper, George Elvin gave

is now celebrated analysis of the British film
ndustry, in an attempt to provide material on
which the students at the school could build their
liscussions. But despite his lucid exposition of
he set-up and the opportunities — or lack of them

Li' getting films for the Labour movement, the
liscussion again became vague, full of pious hopes
md fervent resolutions. Disappointing, but not
mexpected.

Now the British Film Institute's Summer School

it Bangor. Two weeks in all, divided into two
'arts; the first week dealt with "Visual Educa-

on " and the second week with " Film Apprecia-
i;." I was there for the first week only, and

an write only of that.

"Visual Education" means, broadly speaking.
method of teaching which uses something
re than words. Drawings on the blackboard,
ctures on the wall, lantern slides ami models
ri all part of visual education methods, but when-
visual education is. mentioned, films natur-
figure very largely in the discussion. So this
irsl v - I oi tiie B.F.I, course dealt, among other
itters, with the production and use of all kinds
■ i rlucational films. The speakers included such
ii- on th'' use of visual aids in teaching as
i. P. Meredith, the Lecturer in Visual Education
he University College of the South-West. Dr.
iwerys, of London University, Dorothy Gray-

son of the B.F.I. , and three of our members: Geof-
frey Bell, Rod Baxter and .Maiy Field.

Apart from a faint feeling that everything about
Sims in education was said 20 years ago and has
been repeated at intervals ever since, I should
judge the course to have been a great success.
The delegates, about (in. in number, were nearly
all associated with some form of teaching. It was
an audience that hadn't very much to say, and
rather left the talking to the experts, but on tin-
other hand, a great many sound facts were laid
before it during the week, which must have stimu-
lated many members to reconsider the whole ques-
tion ot educational films - and of other visual
media — with increased interest.

The visual education experts spoke of the new
approach to teaching suggested by visual material,
on the problems of using visual materia] correctly,
and on the practical aspects of still and cine-pro-
jection in the classroom. Geoffrey Bell discussed
scientific films, their importance to the com-
munity and their application to classroom teach-
ing. It was a peaceful, academic week until the
Thursday morning, when Mary field's ta11; on
"Children's Films." raised the monopoly ques-
tion. She described the Children's Clubs run
by the Odeon and G.B. circuits. These clubs
show a programme of films on Saturday
mornings, to about an audience of about 250.000
children. Mary Field is in charge of the pro-
duction of films for these shows and is advised
by a Committee consisting of nominees of bodies
concerned with children's education and welfare.
This Committee will be responsible for the type
and content of film shown to the children, but no
adults can go to the children's shows. Following
tins, our old friend Mr. Rank, who had been quies-
cent during previous sessions, crept into the
general discussion. It was an interesting experi-
ence for us to hear the case A.C.T. has put so
often being ably expounded by a delegate working
at the B.B.C. The discussion by no means cleared
up doubts on this aspect of Mr. Rank's monopoly.
but most of them must have vanished after Rod
Baxter had surveyed the future during his talk on
"Documentary Film" the following day.

(hi balance, I think the week's course stimu-
lated the right ideas about films, in this case
mainly educational films, in the minds of the
people present. But I feel that more could have
been (Cue if .... and that's why I think there
are too many conferences.

Let's go back to the W.F.A. confet nee. In
lus speech, Uderman Reeves asked lor a film fund
and a free film library. There's nothing wrong
with either of those points as such. Bui you can't
just separate them 'iff like that from all the other

100

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN September— October, VM1

■-.>. £100,000 is ,i iiicr sum in spend on films,
tint unless something is done along the lines of
\ ( T..'s recommendations for documentary and
educational film production, Alderman Reeves
may find that there are no progressive producers
left to make his films. Again, we are in entire
agreement on the need for the existence of a free
film library. But instead of talking about a " Na-
tional Film Library," as though ii were something
entirely new that had to be created, would it not
be better to press for the continuation after the
war of the free library we have now, the Central
Film Library? Again, at Bangor. Dr. Winifred
Cullis, the Chairman of the Education Panel of
the B.F.I. , speaks of the need for co-ordinating
education film production and in doing so outlines
plans very similar to those of A.C.T.

So here we have two conferences of people
anxious for knowledge that will point to construc-
tive action, and each conference receives guidance
and advice that is only of partial value because it
is given in the narrowest terms, as being the object
of the particular body concerned. Where is the
sense in all this individualism? Why do we talk
of the Central Film Library, and Alderman Beeves

of a National Film Librarj when we mean
same thing? Why does Dr. Cullis say that "
idea is" when she could use the support of hun-
dreds of technicians to strengthen her argume
By all means let us have conferences as a mi
of exchanging and spreading ideas, but first li I -
have unity in our ideas and then we shall be able
to gain the widest and strongest support for 1 :
ideas. It doesn't matter who thought of s-
thing first; all that matters at this moment is
decide on the measures that are necessary to
the film needs of the community. If we can ag
on this — and it seems that, in our isolated org
isations, we do agree in principle — then our .
ments will reinforce each other. Our audi. •
will cease to be puzzled by speakers who imply
that they stand alone, although they seem ;
saying precisely what someone else said last week.
In fact, we may start to make sense to a public
which is getting increasingly bewildered by what
seem to it apologies for the lack of the films
wants — whether for schools, for the Labour m
ment or for the cinemas.

Perhaps we ought to have another confer-

•'D-DAY TAKE I" OR SHALL I MARK IT NOW
Jonah Jones (Crown Film Unit) expresses his impressions ol D-Day

cy/xWz^^^^^^ ^y

1 HE demands of the Services have
made it impossible for us to give you
that service which is customary with us.
Please be assured, however, that we
have your interests very much in mind.
When Victory is won we shall again
be able to provide an unrestricted
flow of photographic materials of the
highest possible quality.

CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL HOUSE, W ARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.i

Telephone: GERRARD 2763

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WARDOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.t.

Telephona : GERrard 671
Cablet: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 9, Bromefield, Stanmore, Middlesex,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

r%

[

f^,

NOVEMBER
No. 51 1944 DECEMBER

RALPH BOND

JACK CARDIFF

GEO. H. FLVIN

FRED HYSON

Sgt. C. M. LEWIS

A. G. D. WEST

ARNHEM

NEW E.R.P.I. DENSITOMETER

FUTURE TECHNICAL PROGRESS

SHOOTING "WESTERN APPROACHES

>i

STEADILY
IMPROVED

THE PREFERENCE of cameramen and
directors of photography for 'Kodak9
Films has a sound basis. In the face
of wartime pressures, the exceptional
quality of these films has been not merely
maintained but steadily improved.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Department,
Kingsway, Loudon, W.C.2.

•KODAK- FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

. rial & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 .
.... rtisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I.
4$ date Editors : Sidney Cote. George H. Elvin, Kenneth Gordon. Walter Greenwood. Fred Hyson. M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury

Telephone : CERRARD 8506
Telephone : HOLBORN 4972

N nber Fifty-one, Volume Ten November — December, 1944

Price One Shilling

ARNHEM

by
Sergt. C. M. LEWIS (Army Film Unit)

I and two other cameramen were assigned to
cover the 1st Airborne Division on their impend-
ing operation. Sergeants Smith and Walker were
transported in gliders whilst 1 parachuted down

m Holland with the 1st Parachute Brigade.

The job of the 1st Airborne Division was the
capture of the bridges across the Rhine River in

\iuheiu and to hold them until the army came
up on their drive North. The importance of this
operation can be measured 1>\ the fact that Arn-

,i in is about ten miles from Germany and is
virtually the main gateway into that country ; and
soon Sunday, September 17th, at 11.25 a.m. my
Douglas C47 with scores of other aircraft became

lirborne. At about 2 p.m. my feet touched the
soil of Holland, roughly six miles West of Arnhem.
For the successful completion oi my job 1 bad
divided the operation into three phases: —
ill To reach my objective,

(2) To get the pictures,

(3) To get my pictures back home.
Immediately upon bitting the deck I slipped

out of my parachute harness and began shooting

with my 35mm be Vry Cinecamera the hundreds

loi paratroops dropping from incoming aircraft.

Wi 1

1

1

c™T^ ' ■»*?•:«•■

^SVBHHBHKS

The day was
clear a n d
s u n n \ and
evidently the
enemy bad
been sur-
prised, be-
cause there
was no oppo-
sition. Mean-
w bile the
p a r a t ro ops
h a d rushed
on to Arnhem and seized the bridge.

The Dutch welcomed us with food and drink.
They all had pretty much the same storj to tell
of their hatred for the Germans and how glad they
were we had conic at last. Some cared for men
who had been hurt in the descent. hater 1 net
Smith and Walker and together We attempted to
gel to Arnhem. Tic reason tor this was that as
the military objectives were the bridges across
the Rhine they would therefore provide the key
photographic interest. We made several attempts
in a jeep hut by this time the enemy had begun
to react strongly with small pockets of troops and
self-propelled guns, and our efforts were frus-
trated. On the last attempt we wen- machine-
gunned as we came back and it was (inly the
speed at which Smith drove which saved us.

Going acmss country we saw tighter aircraft
and thought they were Mustangs until we -aw
the black crosses. They strafed and sel lit'
rather uselessly to the now emptj gliders. (
tin' afternoon of D-plus-1 we were all immensely
ered 1>\ further glider and paratroops arriving.
They mel - me flak. It gradually became clear
that the enemy had succeeded in preventing the
whole i I the Division reaching Arnhem. and by
Tuesday or Wednesday we were surrounded in a
box approximately a mile by a half with our backs

102

THE CINE - T EC II NIC I A N November— December, L&

to the Rhine. The box la\ in thickly wooded coun-
try with part of it in the village of Oosterbeek —
the fighting was therefore close in. It was from
this time that things really began to get tough.
The Germans threw in infantry supported by
tanks, self-propelled guns and flame-throwers. I
was with the Border Regiment in a house of which
the owner, his wife and two children sheltered in
tii. cellar. Supplies of ammo, medicals and food
were dropped by means of parachutes from air-
craft which had to brave heavy flak and at times
enemy fighters to reach us. Once I saw a Douglas
in flames — two tiny figures baled out before the
aircraft hit the ground, one of them reached us
alive, the other man's 'chute failed to open.

I made attempts to get action pictures but it
was hard, and frankly at times out of the question
with an enemy who was rarely seen but often
heard. The whole of the box was bombarded by
guns and mortars, no one place was safe. Men
were hit by strays and ricochets in the most
unexpected positions. Eating a meal in the house
was a precarious adventure — enemy fire would
come through the windows and down the passages
and the three of us were particularly lucky when
a burst of fire carried a window on to our meal
without harm to anyone.

Smith and I were going through the wood when
mortars and bombs tell without warning behind
us — the Germans were a matter of a score of
yards from our position, backed up with self-pro-
pelled guns and flame-throwers which made the
ground shake with their point-blank fire. The
flamethrower hit an officer, and it was soon after
this that it was destroyed by an anti-tank
6-pounder. We paid a visit to our gun crews
near the river and weren't there ten minutes
before the area was plastered by fire.

All this time the Germans attacked again and
again by day and night, and the din of machine-
gun fire was a strain on the ears. The Germans
suffered heavily. Then one day we heard the
blessed sound of 2nd Army guns across the river.
One evening we were told to evacuate our posi-
tions as the Army artillery were going to blast
our area. I went down to the cellar and spoke
to the Dutchman, who himself spoke English,
and told him to get a few things together and
come with us. It was dark and the baby began
to cry. I told him that he must silence the child
as it might give us away to the Germans. He
put his hand over the child's mouth, but even so
I could hear it struggling to cry. His wife and
little girl became frightened — they had not been
out for four days and nights and the village, even
in the dark, had changed frighteninglv. Ruined
houses, fallen trees, shell-holes in the road into
which we stumbled, occasional bursts of machine-
gun fire and the crash of a bomb. I helped the
woman and little girl alone whilst the Dutchman

carried the baby. They began to speak I
language as we hurried, and I told him that
must be silent as our chaps wen I -

and they would not be able to differenl
between the Dutch and German tongue. Tin -
were put into a house near Divisional U
quarters, and the next day their house was bui
down by the Germans firing incendiaries inti
thatched roof.

The situation by now was undoubtedly bad.
Everyone knew the enemy were using hi
calibre guns and mortars and were pouring
into our area, at times without cessation, [sav
man who was three times blasted by shells — h<
visibly trembling from shock. Jeeps and amm
tion were blown up, a B.B.C. correspondent -
recording unit was wrecked, trees blown d
and to add to the confusion snipers infilti
into our position, one of them only 200 ;
from Divisional Headquarters. He was wi
hidden by falling branches, but no one pari
larly bothered about him — he became part ol
scenery which was made of the tornado of tin
I was sickened by the crash of bombs. Food
very short — 70 men to a box of food which
formerly intended for 14. The water-well was
under fire too, and worst of all the men \
nearly asleep over their guns. Smith was late
hit in the shoulder by a sniper's bullet and M
Oliver in the leg by shrapnel. Our men hail cap-
tured, amongst others, a German WAAF. 1 as
her what she thought of the English soldier. S
replied: "I used to think they were bad. In;"
not now."

The Germans at one time brought up a p
ganda van and serenaded the paratroops with
and called upon them to surrender. They v
replied to with a symphony of machine-gun tit'
The propaganda van retired, still playing jazz.

Then one evening we were told that we were
going to withdraw across tin river. I believ
everyone was shocked by this. The\ had
looking forward after such a bitter strugg
being relieved by tanks, and now we had to °
up. On the evening of Monday, September "_'"
our little party of cameramen, war correspond.
censors and signals, led by Major Oliver of 1M1
wound its way with boots muffled by torn blankets
through the woods, accompanied by the clatter*
machine-gun fire. On the way we came ac -•
a paratroop with a mangled foot — I gave him
shell dressing and he said he would struggli
after us. We reached the North haul
Rhine and lay down on the wet ground. It
raining — our gnus across the river were put
down a covering barrage, flares would rise
fall, houses binning. I heard cries for help froi
the darkened river, and after two hours of wai
we erased the Rhine. Major Oliver, who cross
in another boat, was wounded again. Smith,

November— December, 1944 T H E C INE-TECHNICIAN

103

Walker and myself carried the valuable film. I
bad LOO feet Left of Agfacolor which I had taken
iff a captured G-erman. I kept this until the town
it Kijmegen was reached and used it on the sur-
vivors of the 1st Airborne Division. During the
week which these men had fought, deeds of
heroism had been dune as a matter of routine for
which men of ground units woidd have been
i wan led a decoration.

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-fifth
List

IONALD BICKER (Botha Films)— Royal Navy.
10 Y BLOXHAM (Assistant Boom, Denham)—

H.M. Forces.

. DEACON (Stores, British Acoustic)— H.M.

Forces.
\. DURHAM (16mm Learner Printer, Kay's,

Finsbury Park)— H.M. Forces.

EAMES (Diagram Animation. Publicity Pic-
tures)— Royal Navy, temporarily attached P.N.

Film Unit.
r. FREEMAN (Assist. Cutter, Crown Film Unit)

R.A.F.
[{, GINGER (Control Room, Humphries Labs.)-

H. M. Forces.

. GOULDING (Developer, Denham Labs.)—
H.M. Forces.

. I1AVDEN (Cutter, Denham)— H.M. Forces.

\ HARRISON (Neg. Dryer)— Merchant Navy.

I. MAASZ (3rd Assist. Director, G.B.)— H.M.
Forces.

. MODD (Dryer, Kodak)— Army,

1). OXENHAM (Camera Trainee, M.G.M.)—

H.M. Forces.
I. PANNAMAN (Clappers, Two Cities Films)—

H.M. Forces.
BRIAN RHODES (Projectionist)— Sgt. R.A.F.
W. H. RICHARDS (Follow Focus. Nettlefold)—

Army.
B. 1). G. SALT (G.B. Instructional)— Mines.
D. SAUNDERS (Special Effects Assist., Denham)

—H.M. Forces.
S. SHRIMPTON (Camera Trainee)— Army.
L. G. STILES (Trainee Stills Dept., Warner

Bros.)— H.M. Forces.
F. STURGEON (Kay's, Finsbury Park)— Royal

Navy.
NORMAN WARING (Projection)— H.M. Forces.
R. J. WATSON (Sound Loader, Denham)— H.M.

Forces.
W. A. Y. WILSON (Sound Recordist. Gainsbor-
ough)— Special Services, C.M.F.

Awards
¥10. TED MOORE, formerly Camera Operator,
Pinewood Studios, now R.A.F. Film Unit, has
been awarded the Croix de Guerre.

Casualties

F/ Lieut. PETER HERBERT, D.F.C., formerly
Camera Assistant G.B.I. , has been reported
missing whilst serving with the R.A.F. Film
Unit.

F/0. JOHN MILLS, formerly Trick Cameraman
at the old Rock Studios, reported missing while
serving with R.A.F. Film Unit. Awarded Croix
de Guerre.

F/0. MAURICE OAKLEY, formerly Gains-
borough Studios, reported missing while serv-
ing with P.A.F. Film Unit.

A.C.T. LIBRARY

In accordance with a decision of the last Annual
General Meeting the General Council has decided
to build up its Library, and will make everj effort
to develop it into the most comprehensive record
of film technique, history and other matters of
interest to film technicians.

We are anxious to make a start right away,
despite the difficulties caused by most of the
necessary books being out of print or in verj shorl
supply. If any member can help by donating or
selling to the Association any suitable books, we
should he glad to receive details.

Mr. Bill Mason has been appointed Librarian
and he will be glad to hear from all members who
can be of help. He can be written care of the
A.C.T. office or telephoned during the day at
Temple Bar 6856.

lul

George Elvin

T UK (' I N E -TECHNICI A N November— December. l« I

A.C.T's Delegate reports on the

TRADES UNION CONGRESS

ONE day an enterprising publisher may follow-
up some major Conference, such as the

Tr (ics Union Congress, by publishing at
the same time as the official Report a collection
of undelivered spe lies. It's the same every
year, and at every Conference. Delegates attend
instructed by their organisation to expr< ss certain
views. Often that is as far as they get. My own
experience this year is typical of what happens.
A.C.T. had two resolutions and one amendmenl
on the Agenda. Accordingly, I went prepared to
make three speeches. One of them was not made
at all, and the others had to he condensed owing
to the over-crowded Agenda into three minutes
each, which is ridiculously inadequate to make a

ni any subject. In fact, 1 was on the rostrum
for the longesl period on ,-i matter — Company Law
Reform — upon which I did not originally intend
to speak.

The War and the Ensuing Peace
But I am not complaining. Whilst the T.U.C
remains confined to five days and the business
covered is as important and extensive as of recent
rs little can be done about it. Major interna-
tional and national problems must come first, and
this year's Congress Agenda was brimful of
important items. The War and the Peace to fol-
low occupied pride of place. There was a full
debate on the Fourth Meeting of the Anglo- Soviet
Trade Union Committee which expressed the view
thai the German people cannol be absolved from
all responsibility for the crimes and atrocities per-
petrated by the Nazis. Punishment and reparation
is demanded. It was m tdi clear in an Emergency
Resolution submitted by the General Council, and
carried by a large majority, thai this did not mean
the adv. - - oi a punitive peace, nor any kind oi
settlement which will perpetuate hatred and
antagonism. The German Trade Union and Labour
Movement must be recreated and an International
Trade Union Federation formed to embrace all
bona-fide Trade Union organisations. The Pei
S. 1 1 lenient must be one not conceived in the spirit
of revenge, but which will provide a strong foun-
dation tor the ensurance of the future peace oi
tlie nations. hurt her. Congress agreed to hold
a World Trade Union Conference, prior to which
the Executive Committees oi affiliated unions
would be called together to put the T. Q.C.'s policy
in concrete form.

Soviet and French Fraternal Delegates
This debate was preceded b\ addresses fri , -
two of the fraternal delegates from fchi D S S.R.

Vasili Kuznetsov, Chairman of the All-Ui
Central Council of Soviet Trade Uni
pre- bopt — in excellent English, by

way — that the friendship between the workei
Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. would grow an
develop, and said the Soviet trade unio -
determined to do everything | ssible to ens
a stable and lasting peaci and radical impi
ment in the conditions of the working peopli
Elena Shnlga told Congn ss of the part playe
Soviet women during her country's three \
of war. Later in the day. Louis Saillant, T
dent of the French National Council of Resistanc
and Secretary of the French General Confed
tion of Labour, electrified Congress with i
moving account of the struggles and achievements
oi the French underground movement.
Post-War Reconstruction

On dome-iie matters tic two big debates
on the General Council's interim reports pre]'
following decisions of last year's Congress. Tl
first was on Post-War Reconstruction. End' -
ment was given to the proposals for nat
ownership and control of the key industries,
ably transport, fuel and power, and iron and si
For other industries, public control will nee
be exercised in different ways and in varying
degrees including, it was agreed, legislation relat-
ing to the control of prices and monopoly prac-
tices. George Chester, in moving the repor*
behalf of the General Conned, said: " Wi
longer prepared to take it for granted that tlr
policy of the industry in which we work is no-
affair, or accept without evidence that it is i;
accordance with our own or the public interi 5l
I hope Mr. Rank's representatives sitting in
public gallerx noted this point.

John Benstead, General Secretary of tin Na-
tional Union of Railwaymen, followed up tlri-
point. " Some people." lie said. " think tie
a sort of industrial herrenvolk who have all tin
ability for industrial administration. 1 refute I
entirely. The best brains in the country .
from working-class homes. Wi . as a moven
industrial, political, co-operative, are going
ward determined to see that the people enjo\
wi 'ltb of this country. "

Trade Union Structure and Closer Unity

Tie second General Council Report dealt witi
Trade Union Structure and Closer Unii
key-note of the Report was that in a chani
world the Trade Union Movement cann
its pre-war conception of organisation if it

I

ivem

ber— December, 1944 T H E CINE- T ECHNIOIA N

10.-)

lb ri&k <yff nAAe&ttot.

[By courtesy of The de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd.]

WHEN the history of the war is written the full significance of the words British Made
will become apparent. Always of the highest standard, British workmanship during the
past five years has reached the peak of perfection. No finer performance could be possible
than that given by Britain's planes, guns and tanks and the hundred-and-one other devices
which are part of the munitions of war.

Among the ancillary weapons used by all the Services the photographic materials made by
Ilford Limited are of particular importance. Ilford films have been on vital service since
the very beginning and have played a notable part in every theatre of war.

Soon they will become available for the Cine technician to give the same high standard of
performance which has meant so much to the Services during the past five years.

ILFORD LIMI FED, CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

NATIONAL HOUSE

WAR DOUR STREET

LONDON, W.l

L06

THE CINE-TECH NICI A N November- I U cember, 10-

be fully efficient. It was made clear thai greater
co-ordination in the forces ol the Trade Union
Movement are essential and that the most effec-
tive w a\ is by amalgamation of unions with closely
related trade interests. Where complete amalga-
mation is not yet possible, intermediate objectives
were proposed. Briefly . these advocate the estab-
lishment of a Federation of the Unions with closely
related trade interests, such Federation to be
responsible for special activities on behalf of all
the unions concerned including recruitment, col-
lective bargaining and formulation of industrial
policy. In effect, the Federation should embody
the principle of Industrial Unionism and by
specialisation on the problems of the industry as
a whole could efficiently conduct and co-ordinate
the work of the individual Trade Unions.
Social Insurance and National Health Service

There was a' virile discussion on the Govern-
ment's White Papers on Social Insurance. Work-
men's Compensation and a National Health Ser-
vice. The documents were warmly welcomed
but it was made clear by the various speakers that
this did not mean their blind acceptance. George
Isaacs, M.P., for the General Council, whilst
saying they were a great step forward, stated
that the proposals would be examined with
microscopic care, and he criticised, for example,
the intention to discontinue unemployment bene-
fit after 30 weeks. On a subject of this sort
Congress invariably has expert contributions based
upon the hardships experienced in practical
administration. This year was no exception, and
F. Stillwell (in charge of the Approved Society
work of the Transport and General Workers'
Union), Arthur Horner (President of the South
Wales Miners' Federation), Dr. H. B. Morgan,
M.l\ (Hospital and Welfare Services Union and
the T.U.C.'s Medical Officer) and Dr. N. Levy
(Association of Scientific Workers) all made first-
class speeches.

Monopolies

Monopolies came under discussion more than
once during the week. A resolution dealing with
the matter generally was carried. It drew atten-
tion to the growing dangers of cartels and clan-
destine industrial arrangements and of the whole
trend to monopoly in economic life. It called for
a public enquiry into their nature and activities,
and declared that in so far as the greater integra-
tion of economic units of production is inevitable,
their vast economic powers should be brought
under public control.

Entertainment Industry

A.C.T. had, of course, its own motion down
[or discussion on monopoly in the film industry.
The N.A.T.K.E. had also 'tabled one and Actors'
Equity had a resolution dealing with the Slate
Aided Theatre. These three resolutions were
merged into the following composite resolution,

which was carried unanimously : —

"Congress expresses it- concern at certai
recent developments of the integrated methods <

organisation and financial control which have I
place in the entertainment industry, particularly
in the fields of film production, distribution an

exhibition. Congress affirms that a measun
supervision of the entertainment industry is
vital necessity to ensure thai it does not
into the hands of a monopoly of any kind, b
British or foreign. It believes that a, virili Bi
theatre and film industry, portraying the tru
democratic ideals and character of British lite. :-
an indispensable factor in the post-war world.

Having regard to the Report of the Committe'
of the Cinematograph Films Council in regard t
tendencies to monopoly in the Cinematograp]
Film industry this Congress requests the Genera
Council to discuss the whole question with tin
Unions concerned in the entertainment industr;
with a view to determining the best policy to 1,
pursued to safeguard the interests of the public
and the workers in the industry.

Further, Congress notes with satisfaction tlnv
the Government has, during the war. pro\
plays, films and music through State-aided chan-
nels, and declares that the continuance and
expansion of such activities is desirable in tin
post-war period. Congress therefore instructs the
General Council to seek assurance- from the Gov
ernment : —

(a) that the temporary aid hitherto given to the
arts of entertainment shall be further
expanded and placed on a permanent bas -

(b) that the Central Films Library shall be
preserved as a public service.

Finally. Congress would welcome the productid
by trade unions of more films and plays expressing
the achievements, aims and principles of the Trade
Union and Labour Movement."

Tom O'Brien moved the resolution and ex-
pressed the view that whilst agreeing to discuss
of the whole matter with the T.U.C. General
Council and the other unions in the industry In
did not accept the tact that there was a monopoh
in the British film industry. Further, he elait
the industry was well managed. I seconded tin
resolution, but made clear that A.C.T. could
accept Mr. O'Brien's contentions in moving tin
resolution. It did, however, agree to tin
proposed in the resolution and felt it to he ot thi
utmost urgency that active step- were taken t<
curb monopoly in the industry. Further. 1 c
the Report of the Cinematograph Film- Counci
in evidence of tin' present position and the reme-
dies necessary. I.lewelbn Rees made an e\
lent contribution in support of the resolution i
said thai State-aided entertainment during til
war through C.E.M.A. and other sources had
shown there was a vast potential audience tor the

November-December, 3 944 THE C I N E - T E C HNICIAN

107

best forms <>l entertainment of which the people
j had been deprived hitherto because it had not been
commercially profitable.

Making Congress More Efficient
Fifteen minutes or so of each day's proceedings
are wasted at Congress through the reading of the
minutes about which nobodj cafes and to which
nobody listens, as the published Official Reporl
is accepted as the record of ( longress. The A.C.T.
General Council agreed to my suggestion that a
resolution be tabled to amend Standing Orders to
dispense with the reading of the Minutes and to
icl\ for the official record solely on the published
report. In addition to improving the efficiency of
Congress, it will allow nearly an extra hour during
the week for other business. Congress agreed the
proposal was a sensible one, and the resolution,
which Llewellyn Rees seconded, was accepted in
principle by Sir Walter Citrine on behalf of the
General Council who will draw up the necessary
amended Standing Orders.

Other Decisions
A host of other matters were discussed. The
most important of these were the passing of reso-
lutions advocating a forty-hour week and two
weeks' annual holiday with pay; equal pay for
equal work; legislation to enforce the observance
of agreements to replace, after the war. the war-
time powers of enforcement provided by the
Essential Work Orders and Conditions of Employ-
ment and National Arbitration Order; pressure on
the Government to ensure that the housing prob-
lem is properly and thoroughly dealt with ; amend-
ment ami improvement of the Factories Act to
>ring it into line with progressive thought and
present-day requirements; the sending by the Trade
I nion .Movement of rank and file members to
visit as delegates all neighbouring countries innne-
iately after the war ceases; the taking of more
idequate steps to ensure members of the Forces
' t on the Electoral Register; the retention by
he Government after the war of Government-
iwned factories ; and removal of the war-corre-
spondent ban on the Daily Worker.

Subjects discussed and referred to the General
louncil included the publication of a weekly
CU.C. Journal; the preparation of plans for a
iost-war programme of adequate Trade Union
iffices. Conference Flails, Recreational Facilities
nd Cultural Activities in all the principal towns;
he establishment of a residential college for work-
rig class education; increased pay and allowances
o serving men and women ; and the establishment
f greater contact between the Trade Union Move-
ten! and those serving in the Armed Forces.
A resolution opposing Defence Regulation 1\\
as defeated but received nearly three million
otes. Congress unanimously voiced its strong
anoyance .-it the continued refusal of the Govern-

■

1

ment to amend that other vindictive piece ol
legislation — the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions
Act of 1927.

The General Council received its only rebuff
when Congress referred back that section of h
reporj giving approval to the principles of the
World Trade Alliance Association.
Press Boycott

Last year's Congress passed a resolution stating
that it would c > i i 1 \ issue press credentials to mem-
bers of the National I nion of Journalists or mem-
bers of the international Federation of Journalists.
Fleet Street (the Employers, not the Journalists)
objected to this, and failing to get the decision
rescinded sought to boycott Congress. But a few
national papers (Daily Herald, Daily Worker, Daily
Minor and Reynolds News) and some provincial
papers refused to play hall, and to make matters
worse for the other papers the B.B.C. covered
Congress as usual. Therefore, whilst officially
staying away, the press covered Congress as usual,
hut used the Agencies, who also were present,
instead of sending their own reporters. Congress
refused to alter its decision of last year, and it
is adamant that it will only admit bona-fide Trade
Unionists to its press tables. All delegates hoped
that this firm attitude will help our colleagues
of the N.I'. J. in their tight against the Institute
of Journalists which, with recognition from the
Newspaper Proprietors' Association, is trying to
establish itself as a rival Trade I nion.
Elections

There was only one change on the General
Council. A. F. Papworth (Transport and General
Workers Union) replacing W. J. Farthing oi the
same union. When not attending to Union busi-
ness Mr. Papworth can lie found collecting l.uv-,
on a No. 7"2 bus. He is. 1 believe, the only General
Council member who is not a full-time Trade
Union Official, and his breezy personality and
reputation for straight speaking should, to say the
least, enliven General Council proceedings.

Tom O'Brien was again returned tor the Non-
Manual Workers Group. I was an easy runner-
up with just under two million votes. Mr. O'Brien
was also elected as one of the two delegates to
next year's Congress of the American Federation
of Labour.

The new President is George Isaacs, M.P.,
General Secretary of the National Society of
Operative Printers and Assistants. He has to
follow one of the best Chairmen ( 'ongress has e\ er
had. Ebby Edwards i Secretary of the Mine-
workers' Federation) received full mark's IV

' \e>\ delegate Eor a brilliant week'. Under his
direction. Congress faced up to all issues boldly
and reached decisions which, judging by the reac-
tions of the delegates, clearly interpreted tin
views of British Trade Unionists generally.

ins

Edited by Fred Hyson

T H E C T X E - T E C H X I C T A X Nov ember- 1 December

LAB. TOPICS

Christmas Greetings

The laboratory shop stewards and members join
together in expressing to every service member,
at home in- abroad, sincere and heartj greetings
for Christmas and the New Year. If our wishes
became facts at the mere thought, everyone of
you would lie sharing in the finest hour of the war
— reunion with those whom you love. But, apart
from wishful thinking, we in the labs do wish
yon, each one, the best Christmas and New Year
possible wherever you may be, and pray that the
great day may soon dawn " when the storm has
ceased to blow — when the fiery fight is heard no
more ! "
Playing Second Fiddle

Are there any inventive minds in our industry?
If there are, are they encouraged? Judging from
the scientific extracts published in the Journal
most progressive innovations seem to come from
America, fostered apparently by the major pro-
ducing companies and the S.M.P.E. There ap-
pears to be friendly rivalry between the companies
in the Held of invention in which all participate
profitably. Of course in due time the British
industry shares in the new innovations, but we
p.re always the beneficiary — never the benefactor !
I believe that the B.K.S. encourages the inven-
tive mind and arranges excellent lectures, but
what about the laboratory owner? How many
labs, had a research department even in peace-
time'.' < ))■ how many lab. owners encouraged the
inventive mind? May the time soon come when
the British industry endeavours to achieve some-
thing outstanding, not merely be content in play-
ing second fiddle or borrowing a new innovation.
A New Deal for Lab. Technicians

Frank Fuller, Vice-Chairman Laboratory Com-
mittee, writes: —

' The need for further improvement in wage
rates and working conditions in the laboratories has
long been evident to the majority of technicians
in all sections of the industry. The present Lab. ,
Agreement dating from 1930 showed some
improvement on the bad old days, but alas did
not go far enough and is now out of date. We in
the laboratories are determined to remedy this
state of affairs, and with this object in view our
new agreement has been drafted and submitted to
the Laboratory owners.

\'<\ the time these remarks appear in print,
your negotiating committee will probably have mel
these gentlemen at Lincoln's Inn; whatever the
outcome of this meeting we must not relax our
efforts or indulge in wishful thinking. Much work
will remain to be done before the negotiations can
be brought to a successful conclusion.

Our dut\ is clear, let each one of us - live to
play our part to the full in the drive for better
conditions. With the end of hostilities in Europi
in sight, we hope soon to be welcomng back' to
" Civvy Street " our members now serving in the
Forces. They have a right to expect something
better than the prevailing conditions ot toda;
their return in the post-war period, ft is our
responsibility to see that they are not disappoij
ted.

Our claim to revised conditions has th backing
of all sections of A.C.T. and with this knowli
we can go forward determined to see that nothing
short of the new Agreement will meet our c -

Laboratory technicians, it's up to you."

Clubbing Together

The darts enthusiasts who enjoyed the n
tournament owe a great deal to Bill Hilson of Ka

for his unbounded enthusiasm and tremend
amount of work beforehand; hi- zeal in sporting
matters goes on unchecked — lie has vision-
great things and here he is. Over to you. Bill —
"Now that the A.C.T. Darts League has heel

successfully launched we should go forward and
create a Sports and Social Section within tin
A.C.T., running Golf. Football and Cric
Leagues and Indoor Sports Leagues: this S)
Section to arrange Summer Outings and Si
Events. To enable such a sports section to func-
tion with complete success all members to lie
approached with the object of raising funds bj
increasing the weekly subs by one penny, this
money being devoted entirely to the Spotts and
Social Club. I feel convinced that such a -
forward would lead to understanding and strength-
ening of A.C.T."
An English-Speaking Union

Congratulations to Miss Elsie Padbury of Olym-
pic on her wedding to Technical Sergeant Edward
Kavorken, U.S.A.P.S., ol Los Angeles, California,
at Lambeth Parish Church last August 12th. Keep
happy.
His Clubs are Trumps

A.C.T. members will be pleased to know that
Percy Mindmarsh. of Kay's Labs., well knowi
his cricket prowess, is still going strong in tin
sporting world. He recently won the Voter -
Gold Cup at Enfield this season, playing off
handicap 10.
True to Flight

Bill Hilson. also of Kay's, has been asked to
join the British Workers Sports Association Darts
Committee. He has accepted. He tell- me that
there are several thousand entrants. Good luck
to A.< !.T. member- !

November— December, 1944 T H E C I'NE-TEC 11 X I C J A N

Log

ISSUED BY THE BOARD OF TRAD"

The 'Industrial Ten' for 1944/5

Extra Clothing Coupons

FOR MANUAL WORKERS

in Agriculture and Industry

Many classes of manual workers will again receive 10 extra coupons in
the current rationing period.

The trades and occupations eligible for this supplement are the same as in
the last rationing period and are set out in the leaflet called ' The Industrial
Ten ' (T.C.45). This is now obtainable — by employers, self-employed
workers and trade union officials ONLY — from local offices of the Ministry
of Labour and National Service, and employers are asked to post copies on
works' notice boards. A list of eligible workers will also be displayed
shortly at Employment Exchanges, Citizens' Advice Bureaux ; W.V.S. local
offices ; and in the rural areas.

Read the ' Industrial Ten ' leaflet and if you consider your work qualifies you for the extra coupons,
fill up the application form without delay.

* HOW TO APPLY

Employers should obtain a supply of
application forms E.D.306 from the local
office of the Ministry of Labour and dis-
tribute them to their employees. As soon
as these forms have been filled in and
returned to him, each employer must make
a collective application (on form E.D.308)
for the total number of coupons required.
This should reach the local office not later
than mid-day, Saturday, 21th Jan., 1945.
This office will then issue the coupons to
the employer for him to distribute to the
individual workers.

Employers should note that this year un-
employment books should not be sent in.

Employed Workers if eligible for the extra
coupons must obtain their application
forms E.D.306 from their employers or
from their trade union. But the form,
when filled in, must be returned to the
employer, who will issue the coupons as
soon as he receives them. These coupons
will be usable immediately.

Self-employed Workers. If you consider
that your work qualifies you for the extra
coupons, you should get application form
E.D.307 from your nearest local office of
the Ministry of Labour, fill it up, and
return it to reach that office not later than
mid-day Saturday, 21th Jan., 1945.

+ Northern Ireland newspapers will carry notices of the arrangements for Northern Ireland

I As last year, special arrangements are being made
to prevent hardship among workers in certain excep-
tional!) heavy industries. Details of these arrange-
ments will be made known through the Employers'
Organisations and Trade Unions in those industries.

ENQUIRIES. Please note that if you want any further
information or explanation of the scheme, you should
ask your trade union, or, if you have no union, ask
your employer. Employers should make their
enquiries through employers' organisations.

no

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A X November- 1 >ecember, l'.T

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry.
By Mae J). Huettig. Humphrey Milford, Ox-
ford University Press. Price 12/6d.
This study <>f the American film industry, with
particular reference to its economic foundations
and business methods, was made possible by a
research fellowship from the Rockefeller Founda-
tion. Miss Huettig lias produced a very thorough
survey of an industry whose financial ramification
would baffle the hardiest of research workers.

The American industry, she finds, is dominated
1>\ the rive major companies — Metro, Paramount,
Warners, R.K.O., 20th Century — who lead the
field by virtue of their combined production, dis-
tribution and exhibition activities of winch exhibi-
tion is by far the most profitable and accounts for
the greater part of their income. This vertical
structure based on control of key theatres through-
out the U.S.A. has led to the virtual elimination
of independent distributors ami the complete
enslavement of the independent exhibitors.

She gives a brilliant example of this in terms
of analog\ which I quote in full : —

' Perhaps the plight of the independent exhibi-
tor can best lie explained by using some more
familiar business as an illustration. Let US
assume, therefore, that A. a dealer in men's cloth-
ing, should apply to the several clothing manu-
facturers for a stock of specified models of suits
and overcoats and receive the following reply, not
from one hut from all : You ma\ have our line of
suits and overcoats hut we have no samples or
descriptive matter and you must agree to take
all of the garments of whatever design we see fit
to make during an entire year. Not only must
you take all of our suits and overcoats but all of
our shirts, neckties, and collars as well. Also,
you must buy all of your advertising accessories
from ns. We have or may have a store of our own
in the same town with you and you will he per-
mitted to offer our styles to the public within 30
to 365 days after they have been introduced into
our store. Of course you will have to guarantee
us a minimum price, as we are willing to share
your profits but not your losses. Wo reserve the
right to designate the particular day or days of
the week on which you may sell certain models,
and we will regulate the prices charged so as to
protect our store against your competition. Some
models ma\ he reserved for our store exclusively.
If we decide to expand in the territory, or some-
one comes in that we like better than we like
you, we will lake the line away from y>u
alt' >'.'ot her. "

Although a mass of statistics are given, the b i< >k

is always verj readable, especially a brief histori-
cal chapter tracing the development of the indus

tr\ since its early days. She describes the earh
Patents war between the Edison group and tin
others; the astonishing rise of Adolph Zukor and
Ins hat tie with the First National Exhibitors Cir-
cuit ; the rise and fall of William Fox; the regen-
eration of the Warner Brothers through sound;
the patents war between Western Electric aim
P. ('.A. and many other of the hectic events oi I
period.

Incidentally, the author blows the gaff on thj
widely held theory that the motion picture indus
try is among the ten largest industries in th<
U.S.A. Actually in terms of dollar volume
business it conies forty-fifth ! In all three bram
of employment, production, distribution and exhi-
bition, there are fewer than 200,000 pe
engaged. Xevertheless the "pickings" an
phenomenal, as she shows.

The book is valuable for many reason-; no-
least in that it devotes most space to analys
the exhibition field and its marketing methods
Again and again the author emphasises that thea-
tres, and not the studios, are the key to the bt -
uess, and she gives a wealth of facts to support
her c< intention.

Finally the book should be read if for no other
reason than to compare American developments
witli what is happening in our British industry
Many of the events connected with monopoly
here take on a clearer meaning, and those seeking
ammunition against attempted monopoly control
of the British film business will find plenty of it
in this boot:.

Ralph Bond

A POCKET GUIDE TO FILTERS

Published by the Focal Press at half-a-crown.
the focal Filter Chart comprises 17 pages of copy,
contained within a varnished card cover which
folds in four sections and carries two charts show-
ing respectively aperture and exposure time in-
crease with "Filter Factor," a reproduction in
full colour of tlie five " most important colours
the spectrum^' with a monochrome rendering
their visual values, and a rotating filter selei
disc showing the factors on Orthochromatic, Pan-
chromatic and Super Sensitive Panchromatic
types <>f emulsion for in different filters which an
also indicated in full colour. Fully open the covers
measure 5" side x 14". Closed, the chart has tin
convenient pockel size ol 5" x :U".

The chart appears to be primarily designed I
use h\ the Still worker and sub-standard camera

November— December, 104-1 THE CINE-TECH N I C T A \

111

man. as the proprietary makes of filter which are
lifted are of the varieties which are available to
these workers.

When the chart is first opened the five colours
ami their monochrome rendering are seen in juxta-
] m >-i t ii ai with a. half-tone chart showing, somewhat
approximately and generally, the monochrome
renderings of the same colours on panchromatic
film in daylight with K) different coloured filters.
These filters are then divided for consideration
into 4 sections, yellow . green, red and blue respec-
tively, two pages being devoted to each section
with easy-reference index tabs. At the top of each
pair of pages the appropriate group of mono-
me reproduction strips is repeated. Below
this the colours absorbed by l-.-u-Ii filter are stated,
together with a note of the preferred purpose for
which it may be employed. Finally there is a
list ol the proprietary filters available.

Four pages are devoted to classification of
us sensitive materials into the three classes
appropriate for use with the rotating Filter Select-
ing Disc, while three more pages deal with Choice
of Filters, under the headings oJ Subject, Effect
Wanted. Filter Required, Sensitive Material. In
this chart no distinction is made between the two
types of panchromatic material.

We cannot give the same meed of praise to this
chart as we have been able to accord to some other

of the Focal Press productions. Firstly tin i
not the same evidence of care in preparation. Of
several printers' errors one at least is likely to be
misleading to the tyro, while there an two inac-
curate cross references.

The question of artificial light is not dealt with
satisfactorily. The author refers to *' incandescent
photographic light," but does not explain what he
means by this, and has nothing to say about the
different colour content of photoflood as com-
pared with normal electric incandescent lighting
and other forms of lighting. In a publication
which purports to treat of the behaviour of filters
we regard this as a serious omission, ft greatlj
reduces the potential value ot the rotating selector
disc.

On the other hand the chart will be of con-
siderable value to the tyro in that it will tend
to dissipate the fog of uncertainty which will exist
in his mind as to the general behaviour and choice
of suitable filters By treating of them simply as
Medium Yellow."' " yellow-Green," "Orange"
and so on, and by giving a visual comparative
chart of the relative effects, it will remove much
of the mystery, and put him on the road to intel-
ligent selection. We should, however, like to have
seen a brief explanation as to why a " Filter Fac-
tor " is necessary.

George H. Sewell

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

A Modern, compact Studio with up-to-date equipment,

where more than 120 SKILLED TECHNICIANS and staff

are fully engaged in making

INSTRUCTIONAL, DOCUMENTARY
AND TRAINING FILMS

for His Majesty's Government.

MERTON PARK STUDIOS LIMITED

MERTON PARK, LONDON, S.W. 18. telephone-, liberty mi

One mile from Wimbledon Station

112

jt H E 0INE-TECHNIC1 A X November— December, 1944 I

Shooting
"Western Approaches"

by

Cameraman Jack Cardiff

The Crown Film Unit, as everybody knows,
adhere staunchly to realism in their films. Such
studio requisites as make-up, model shots, back
projection, etc.. are anathema to them: so 1
was not surprised to lean: that on " Western
Approaches" we had to shoot many lifeboat
scenes in a real sea and not in a studio, but m\
stomach rumbled nervously, for T am probably
the worst sailor in the world. When, however,
1 was toid that these scenes were to lie shot with
sound, physical apprehension turned to dismayed
incredulity, for this foretold many problems. The
hare idea of using our Technicolor blimp in a life-
boat is uproariously funny to those who are
acquainted with it ; but to those who have not seen
this Technicolor Titan J need only compare it in
size and weight to a four-foot square steel safe, for
them lo see the joke. Tn its place we had to use an
auxiliary lightweight blimp which is generally used
for crane shots, or exterior scenes where the regu-
lar heavy but efficient studio blimp is impracti-
cable. This emergency blimp is the bete noire
of an\ cameraman who has ever used it, as, being
lighl and abbreviated for soaring on a crane or
being carried up rocky mountains, it is fitted in
one piece, like a bat, over the camera, and
laboriously strapped together, for the most trif-
ling operation like changing a view finder matt, it
all lias to come off again. This is fidgety enough
on land, but at sea in a rolling lifeboat ....

Chuckling in retrospect, I suppose, m\ ass;st-
ant, Eric Asbury, was, on the whole, lucky to fall
in the Irish Channel only once !

This turned out to be only a minor headache on
a film which was the most despairing struggle a
film unit ever had.

Cor the lifeboat scenes our headquarters was at
Holyhead, Wales, which proved to bethemeccaof
film-struck gremlins. The plan was. to tow our
lifeboat twenty miles or so out to sea 1>\ a driller.
Originally, we were to have two lifeboats: one
tilted with a steel braced platform outside the aft
end of the boat for our camera, and the other fitted
likewise at (be front end- — sorry, for'ard, It

was confidently assumed that from these platforms
we could cover everything, doing Ion- shots and
close-ups looking for-ard one day, and re\
shots looking to the stern in the other boat. It
was thought that the weight of the twenty-twi
merchant seamen would counterbalance the weight
in the outside platform, but on our first trials
the boat ploughed along with the bows in th<
like a speed 1» >at and the platf< irm, and our ankle-,
under water.

This was easy t> adjust, we thought. Jusi B
couple of heav\ weights for-ard to balance things,
and off we go.

The next trip was rather like a submarine patrol,
with half-an-inch freeboard and only the camera
visible, just out of the water like a periscope !

The next day the steel platforms were taken off
and a much better idea of Pat Jackson's, the direc-
tor, was employed. This was a grooved track
running along the inside of the boat, with a plat-
form on which was a second grooved track run-
ning across the beam of the boat, and by sliding
the platforms down and across laterally, we could
get any angle desired. Of course the long track
was in sections, which could be unbolted if Si
in picture.

It took man\ days for us to overcome literal!}
hundreds of minor problems, but at last we went
out to work. In our lifeboat was crammed, every
day for six months, the director, myself and
assistant, sound man. continuity girl. Western
Electric sound gear. Technicolor camera with its
many boxes of equipment, reflectors, props for the
boat, such as a portable wireless transmitter,
water barrels, and boxes of sandwiches for the
day, and a flapping sail which swung murderously
around when one least expected it. Oh, I forgot
one other small item: twenty-two merchant sea-
men.' All this in a 28-fooi lifeboat.

1 am relieved that this article is confined tc
photographic problems only. Anyone recording
the problems of all departments would rival
Tolstoy '

M\ tirst major problem was one of skies and

November— December, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

113

xposure. Winter had been rightly chosen to give
the best dramatic environment typical of so many
frozen merchant seamen in this war. Now a per-
son seen up against a summer's blue sky. bathed
in radiant sunlight, is. to use a technical term, a
pushover; but take away the radiant sun and blue
sky, and an unrecognisable silhouette is smude.ed
against the grej horizon. On groups of seamen
this was just right for at mospbere ; but on a close-
up I emild not get enough exposure to see who it
was, unless I shot with the lens wide open — but
then thai over-exposed the sky behind. For in-
stance, the sky alone usually needed an exposure
of five ai [east, bul the face was usually under-
exposed even with the lens wide open. Conse-
quently, the laboratory could have printed on
printer point 1 lor the tee. hut that made the
skj flare from over-exposure, so the scene should
lie printed at printer-point "20. I could not use a
sky filter, as in black and white, for obvious rea-
sons, and for a few worrying days "Western
Approaches" looked like being the mystery film
of all time, until we managed, after many diffi-
culties, to get a couple of lamps in our boat — yes.
there was only just room ' — which were run from
a small generator on the drifter towing us. This
enabled me to put enough light on the faces until
1 could give an exposure of .1, and we were able
to carry on.

Tic next problem was continuity of weather.
Eaving started to shoot the scenes of the seamen's
first da\ in the lifeboat — a matter of several days'
work — in dull, rainy weather, we had to continue
that way. But the next day would he like blazing
•Tune, with blue skies and that radiant sun again,
so we decided that the second sequence would he
shot in fine weather. So. if dull, first sequence; if
sunny, second sequence; but after the first few-
days we ran into a much bigger headache — the
continuity of the seamen's beards. After shoot-
ing in four days' fine weather on the second
sequence, the seamen would show four days'
growth of beard. Then rain and dull weather

would come for a week, but in order to return to
the first sequence the seamen should be clean-
shaven !

As the weeks went by and we had got to the
sequence where the men had been adrift for twenl
days, with beards over an inch long, we would
horrified to see that one or two of the seamen had
gone to a dance the night before and were clean-
shaven !

1 made an interesting experiment at this stage,
which enabled us to shoot sunny scenes in dull
weather. The lamps I used were incandescent,
and for normal use had to have a blue filter to
correct the yellow light to white. By taking
the blue <_dass off. the face was much too yellow
lor ordinary purposes, but by over-exposing to
(dean tic dirty grey sky r<> a white one. and allow-
ing for the laboratory to print on the blue side to
correct the complementary yellow, so making the
white sky blue, T was aide to save waiting so long
for sunshine.

When a rare sunny day did arrive in the months
of October onwards, the sun was wan and orange,
and always at such a low arc that the usual
ground reflection was practically nil — but there
wasn't any ground, only dark blue sea, which was
in complementary opposition and accentuated the
jaundiced effect. Reflectors in the shadow side
were impossible with the boat rocking so much
that the angle of reflection swung off far too much
for the most adroit counter manipulation, and
the inky gloom on one side of the face would he
intermittently flared like a morse signal !

Winter sunlight is very yellow, much more than
is usually realised, and when yellow face, are cor-
rected by yellow's complementary, blue, the seas,
which are already blue, look fantastically unreal.

At the start of the film I was dismayed to see
many faces over-sunburnt, for a tomato face in
Technicolor is not very charming; but by the
time winter had been wearily passed there was
very little tan to he seen, and the difference was

f^H *(hP^ PBr^ J_j w^^^'

Ill

THE ('IX E - T E CHNICI A N November-December, l'.'l

another headache for the cutter as well as myself.
Although our camera equipment was coa

with water-proof canvas, salt water and salt
atmosphere permeated everywhere, corroding
viciously. Nearly every <la\ the pungent smell of
cur ealWes and plugs shorting, with smoke issuing
from our electrical gear told us that our salt water
gremlins were having fun again, and we must dry
the connections either by heating them with
matches or lighters, or clean them under a water-
proof while spray splashed in derisively.

The Technicolor camera is the swank; apotheosis
of movie machines, bred in million dollar Holly-
d, delicately coloured, with superb high-pre-
cision machinery and a prism which is set to a
fraction of an inch and diligently watched for the
most microscopic speck of dust, which would show
as a large coloured blob on the screen. This prism
is always placed, with tense caution and hated
breath, into the camera, keeping a perfect balance
while doing so. This meticulous operation was a
sight to be remembered in a lifeboat on stormy
Reloading the camera with fresh film was
always a nightmare, with the ubiquitous gremlins
having glorious fun, making the boat heave right
over and throwing gallons of water over us as we
si iggered drunkenh about, lifting the blimp off
and threading up the film somehow under a flap-
ping tarpaulin.

Seas, oi course, were never the same, either in
character or in colour. On one day the wa
would tower monstrously in the true Atlantic man-
ner : then on the next da\ the sea would be as fiat
as the Serpentine, and the colour changed every
few hours, from deep blue to grey-green. One
day fleecy, cumulus clouds : next day a completely
cloudless sky. Ad these changes were typical of
the ever-changing conditions at sea. but the dif-
ference can be glaringly seen when assembled
together in the final cut film, with the whole
sequence only supposed to he of five minutes'
duration.

Our sail also had to he right for continuity on
• starboard tack — that is. with the wind coming
from our left side — hut the wind changed manv
times in a day and we had to jib around so much
that either the sun was in our lens or land came
in the picture.

One day everything went off perfectly from the
start. The weather was right; so was the sea.
the wind, and all the rest of our ever-changing
conditions. Tt was quite quiet, and so perfect
for us thai it was all rather uncanny. Our nautical
nlins must have taken the day off — so we
imagined. I checked the light reading from my
photometer twice to make sure; the focus was
also double-checked. 1 set my exposure smugly :
fhe light was perfect. One rehearsal and the actor-
seamen were magnificent. Pat Jackson and T
looked at each other a little nervously and warily.

Drawing a deep breath, Pat said: " It's too g
to be true: let's put the sail up."

We both grasped the halliard and pulled
exuberantly until the sail billowed gustily in the
breeze, and hung on until it was made fast by i
seaman. Suddenly, the mast snapped loose ai
the base, the sail and mast were blown over into
the sea. with Tat and me clinging in dazed bewil-
derment to it over the side.

We went hack for the day in silence, with se"
faces

The most deadly burden of all was seasickness
Even some of the veteran sea men themselvi -
often horribly sick, so it was not surprising that
most of the unit went through the ghastly misen
of nausea nearly every day for many months
Sometimes our lifeboat looked as though ;
machine-gun had raked the whole crew down.
Ever; wr< tched victim — except the few who wen
never sick — would he inertly all over the boi I
hang limply over the side heaving spasmodically
like captured fish in a bucket. Our director was
one of the heaven-blessed ; he was not seasick
once, hut imagine how difficult it was for him t<
direct a scene when nearly all his crew v
pathetically hors de combat.

With a sympathetic look around, he would say:
"All right, let's try ami get this scene bi
the sun goes in." Someone points f<
Roland, the sound man. over the side, only his
rear and twitching lei^s to he seen. "Well. IT
take the mike." says Pat. " Ready everybody?'

But my assistant hasn't taken the focus, onh

his tape measure is left swing dramatically fron

the side, and a horrible choking vomit peculiar

i Eric, explains his ahsence.

"All right, I'll take the tape out," says Pit
desperately. " 1' v : i t two inches, is that right
•Jack?"

I have just returned from the side, and my head
is sunk down on my chest like a dead man: ni\
blurred vision tries to envisage Pat as I say some-
thing like. " Egggmmmph."

" Right." says Pat grimly, "turn 'em over."

B I now the actor-seaman himself suddenly
rises with a stifled gurgle and falls purposefulh
over the side. We wait listlessly-. He comes back

Eric returns, looking very white and battered
Roland, the sound man. crawls painfully hack in
position and buzzers are pressed weakly for tlu
recordist on the drifter I - I the machinery in
motion: but after a dreary, burping delay, it is
learned that Charlie, the American recordist. wh<
works down an evil-smelling hold on the drifter, i-
busily vomiting into a bucket which he bi
down with him every day.

In answer to feverish enquirif - \ t •lie 'phone
Charlie pants indignantly, between heaving
" Can't a guy have time to puke once in a while'1'

Our staggering setbacks would have strained

November— December, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

LIS

the most brightly ingenious person with a clear
head and resourceful energy, but having to deal
with almost insoluble problems whilst feeling
almost eager to die rather than vomit once more,
was a little trying — to use a British under-state-
meiit. For instance, when shooting a close-up
in rough seas, the seaman would roll and stagger
about so much that the focus must be smartly
changed to each lurch. Easy enough in a studio,
but with our Selson focus motor shorting from salt
water and giving hefty electric shocks to the sea-
Isick focus-puller, small wonder that he almost
loses interest !

I also was a punctual sufferer, passing every day
at sea with my soul in limbo and my stomach
in the shades below, while, looking through my
amera to see that nothing except sea and sky
were ever in the picture, for we were supposed to
be 'Hi the Atlantic three thousand miles from any-
where. This was always difficult in the Irish
Channel in wartime, with ceaseless convoys sil-
houetted against the horizon, and the Irish ma1']
boat passing us four times daily heralded for miles

Ewith voluminous black smoke and thousands of
sea-gulls ; also aeroplanes humming around all day
machine-gunning flying targets or mock-battling.
There were many buoys to watch out for. and
(lighthouses, wrecks, mine-sweepers, and. most
ridiculous of all on one occasion, thousands of
oranges floating by from a nearby wreck !

The most hated object that most often appeared
in my camera view-finder was the stern of the
drifter when we did reverse shots. We couldn't
make the bow look like the stern, because the
passing sea would show, of course, that we were
going backwards !

Apart from the thick rope used to tow us, there
was also a heavy electric cable, and other cables
for the microphone, etc., which, as they ploughed
through the seas, gave us endless induction trou-
bles— one of the million headaches that Kay As1'
the chief sound man, had to deal with. The only
way of getting the drifter out of the picture was
to let the drifter steam ahead fast for a few
minutes, then slow right down and, if the wind
was strong enough, our lifeboat would sail up
level with it. the cables stretched awkwardly at
right angles and threatening to capsize our boat
at any moment. We did this on one occasion in
a malevolent storm and our lifeboat was swept
savagely the wrong way round, crashing into the
side of the rearing drifter and nearly getting under-
neath it. I can say that by this time I was
yearning to do the rest of the film in the studio !

For six weary months we struggled through the
lifebo.it sequence, and when at last our location
same to an end, we thought that the worst was
iver and the rest of the film would be easy ; but
I should have known better.

Our next location was the real Atlantic, this

time on a cargo ship to New York. As there are
only four Technicolor cameras in this country,
1 was not allowed to take my camera over 3, 000
miles of sea with many U-boats lurking around,
so Monopack was used on a black and white
camera.

Although it was midsummer, bad luck still pur-
sued us, for the weather was very bad going out
and coming back from America, and fog nearly all
the time made us scramble many weeks' work
into a few days.

One evening, about 9.30, the ship in front of
us was torpedoed. It was carrying high octane
petrol and was soon a blazing hulk — a terrible
sight which I shall never forget. Many men were
killed that night, and I realised then, more than
at any other time, why Pat Jackson was so sin-
cere about making this film.

When we reached England again, after some
exciting incidents dodging U-boats. 1 heaved a
sigh of relief and realised that I was definitely not
a hero; but I also realised that every man in the
merchant navy is a hero, for where I was relieved
to be still alive after only one return trip, the
merchant navy have made hundreds of dangerous
crossings during the war. I hope that this film
will impress the fact on the public as it did upon
me.

After the voyage to America we made several
trips out to sea in destroyers, corvettes, and other
escort vessels, getting authentic shots of convoy
escort patrols.

By this time, having been over a year on the
film, I had given up the idea of seas and skies
matching, and fervently hoped that the labora-
tories would match the scenes up as near as
possible.

One of the last remaining thrills was on a sub-
marine which has to be sunk in the film. My
camera was tied on the stern end. and the com-
mander was asked, on a pre-arranged signal, to

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110

THE C 1 X E T E C H X I C I A X November— December, 1941

make a steep dive downwards, making sure thai
the end my camera was on was still above water.
1 started the camera on the signal, and the sub-
marine accordingly dived so steeply that it dis-
appeared rapidly, to my increasing concern, until
just my camera and the top half of me were
visible ! Of course the submarine was under
perfect control, but I needn't say how relieved
I was in see it surface again.

So ended a film which I regard as the most dif-
ficult him of my career so far. Don't misinterpret
me ; 1 am not making us out to be heroes. It would
lie fatuous to compare our hardships on this pic-
ture with those of so many soldiers and civilians
in this shuddering war; but as films go, although
I have taken my camera all over the world: on
live volcanoes, in fever-ridden jungles, scorched
deserts, and on the perishing heights of the Hima-
layas. I have never had a job that was so onerous
and nerve-breaking. I think I agree with one of
our seamen who has been torpedoed already in
this war. He said, quite seriously, that he would
rather he torpedoed again and really cast adrift
in a lifeboat, than have that him experience again.

OBITUARY

Olaf Bloch

News of the death of Olaf Bloch on 10th
October at the age of 72 will have been heard with
regret by all those who crowded into his lectures
at the Royal in Russell Square and by those who
for many years came to rely on his guidance and
help in all their problems of photographic tech-
nique. Olaf Bloch received Irs earliest scientific
training at the Finsbnry Technical College and
followed this by wide experience at the Royal
Institution in hospital work and in chemical
manufacture. In 1910 he joined F. R. Renwick
and B. Y . Storr at Ilford Limited, and the
remainder of his working life was spent in service
to photography.

At Ilford, Bloch plunged straight into all the
complexities of photographic manufacture. His first
work concerned the production of panchromatic
plates, then only a recent development, and from
this beginning he retained throughout a keen
interest in the application of sensitising dyes and
valued always his collaboration with the organic
chemists who conceived and produced them.
Research in emulsions became his main activity
and from his laboratory came a stream of new
emulsions to maintain the position of Ilford
materials in the photographic world: to mention
only one. the Sofl Gradation Panchromatic Plate,
still, in its modernised form, a firm favourite.

Blocdi took a keen interest in the affairs of the

Royal Photographic Society, and he was electei
President in 1981. a few month-, after becoming
Chief Chemist of Ilford Limited. He was eve
enthusiastic to apply new principles to production
methods and he leit no one in his company in
ignorance of the value of his laboratory.

At the Royal he was always a popular lecturer
combining a great deal of instruction with eveji
more of his unique brand of humour. The dis-
covery and application of a new sensitiser, giving
infra-red plates more sensitive than any know]
until then, led to the series of lectures and demon-
si ral ions ii >r which Olaf Bloch will be best remeni-
bered 1a most photographers. A remarkable range
of applications for infra-red photography was deve-
loped under his forceful guidance. The Royal
Society, the Royal Institution, the Royal Soc
of Arts, the Institute of Chemistry, the Institute
of .Metals, the British Association and the Phy-
sical Society, were among the distinguished bodies
which sought and obtained his services as a lec-
turer. It was fitting that he was chosen to pre-
side at the commemoration of the Centenary of
Photograph v at the Royal Society of Arts on Ma
17th." 1030. '

Through close collaboration with Dr. F. \Y
Aston. F.R.S., he produced the "Q" plate, par-
ticularly designed for the recording of chat
atomic particles of low penetration, and used in
Dr. Aston's famous investigations of the isotopes
Consulted by astronomers throughout the world.
Bloch produced many plates having speeial quali-
ties, fur the photography or the moon, the spec-
fcographic examination of meteors, observations a'
an eclipse of the sun and many other purposes
.Most useful of all. perhaps, and certainly n -
widely used, are the special emulsions, evol
under his direction, for the recording of atomic
particles derived from cosmic rays, or produced
through radio-activity, or by the breakdown of
atoms under bombardment from the cyclotron.

For these services to science. Bloch was mad
an Honorary LL.D. of Aberdeen University. II
also received the Progress Medal and the Honorar
Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.
and was a Fellow" of the Royal Institute
Chemistry and of the Institute of British Photo-
graphers.

Away from his work. Olaf Bloch was a keen
gardener at his cottage in Surrey. At the aja
•~>1 he took up mountaineering and attained tt
high honour of membership of the Alpine Club.

In 1937 deteriorating health sadly curtailed a
these activities, and after his retirement I
active participation in laboratory work in 1939 h -
wisdom and humour were greatly missed b\
his colleagues.

G.P.

November— December, 1011 THE CINE-T E CHXI C I A N

! FUTURE TECHNICAL PROGRESS
| IN THE FILM INDUSTRY

A. G. D. West M.A., B.Sc, F.R.P.S.

117

This article is based on Mr. West's Presidential
Address to the British Kinemato graph Society.

A

MONG the many things which we hope to
celebrate when Victory Day comes (or shortly
alter) will be that release from restrict. mis
which will enable us to pursue a steady programme
nt technical development, unhindered by lack of
materials, by lack of man and brain power, and
by our present inability to concentrate on any but
war needs.

Whatever view we take, short or long term, our
work must first be concerned with re-equipping
and rehabilitation -- whether it be of plant and
machinery or of personnel — we are suffering in
both directions and the cure can only be by the

[direction of material and production into the right
channels, by the release of manpower, and by
providing opportunities of education and of acquir-
ing experience.

In this short term view we can see many out-
standing problems, which, had it not been for the
war. would I am sure have been solved, and stan-
dardisation effected : the problems of Theatre
Acoustics, Uniformity of Sound Eeproduction

Iwith 100% intelligibility), Uniformity of Screen
Brightness, Maintenance of Quality in Picture
Duping ancl Sound Dubbing, Standardisation in
the use of Push Pull Recording, and Improve-
ments in 16 m.m. Sound.

On the other hand, in spite of the war, we have
nut stood still but have made progress in many

.directions — notably in optical printing work,
which <-an be so good that the results in optica]
hilling are in many cases as good, if not better,
than the original negative.

I prefer on this occasion, however, to take a
ong term view, somewhat imaginative possibly,
nit by no means impracticable; and I submit for
your consideration a 10-year plan of development,

Hwhicb if successfully carried out will provide the
jommercial leaders of the industry with all they
heed for maintaining interest in the minds of the
mblic.

j Taking the period 1945 to 1955, I allot the first

\y. years to the problems of rehabilitation, including
i solution of some of the problems outlined above
Aith particular attention to the subjects of acous-
ics and sound standardisation. (X.B. the talkie

is 15 years old and it still has not learnt to talk"
clearly and intelligibly). These two subjects alone
provide plenty of food for thought. They should
be tackle! together. The recording, laboratory
and reproduction processes by the various sys-
tems need a degree of mutual standardisation, in
terms of the average acoustic conditions (if they
would only be average) of both studio and theatre.
During this period we should also see the ironing
out of what we might call the elaborated sound
systems, using multiple tracks and al
devices aimed at cleaner and more
sound reproduction.

the various

impressive

(Continued overleaf)

THE

GROWN THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE
AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

TWO DOUBLE HEADS

DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM
MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS

SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS

86, Wardour St., London, W.1

lis

T H E C INE - T E C H N I CI A N November— December, l'.M

A new term has appeared, "Sound Psycho-
logy." Quoting from a contemporary Journal
printed in a twelve colour process on art paper,
'Yon can use sound as a direct emotional stimu-
lus (you will need a lachrymometer for measuring
that): with sound you can control metabolism:
von can increase or decrease muscular energy
(music while you work); you can increase respira-
tion ; you can increase or decrease pulse rate; you
can reduce or increase fatigue. The technique for
accomplishing all these exists. ]t still awaits full
conscious exploitation." There is a chance for
somebody.

The next 2 years I assign to settling the colour
situation with the much hoped for solution of the
problem of stabilisation of screen brightness. We
rely on the chemists for the former and the phy-
sicists for the latter, which will also include the
development of systems (electronic in operation)
for the automatic maintenance of standard and
constant screen brightness. (For example, after
the changeover ol projectors).

Then I give 2 more years, by which time we
should have developed ,-i serviceable and commer-
cial equipment and system for large screen tele-
vision in the cinema. It is here that we find our
first departure towards equipment which is fully
electronic - - involving camera pick-up devices,
cable or radio distribution, and cathode ray pro-
jection; with the added problem for our commer-
cial people to decide file best way of making use
of such a remarkable and far reaching method.

A further 2 years should see the completion of
colour television in the cinema. It is already an
engineering possibility for the home, and the
improvement in what might be called the greater
understanding of the picture by colour contrast is
very considerable. It has already been demon-
strated in a limited wa\ on a theatre screen, but
the perfection of a black and white system is of
greater immediate importance.

Lastly, I allow the /;//.'// 2 years for the achieve-
ment of commercial stereoscopy on the large
screen. It has already been seen on a small screen
for limited viewing positions. I saw a good demon-
stration once in Paris, after an excellent dinner.
It was certainly three dimensional. It might even
have heen four dimensional. But judging from
all the patent applications going through on this
subject, much time and thought is now being
given to it.

Such a ten year programme may appear ambi-
tious, but in my opinion it is no mere fantasy,
and the greater part can be achieved provided that
the Him industry can be organised as such, cap-
able of attracting good research brains, cap-
able designers and economic production engineers,
and of retaining the highest class of technician

IV :ameraman to projectionist, from director

to clapper hoy, to do full justice to the operation

of the equipmenl pen ided for their usi

To achieve our programme we must instituti
firstly the finest opportunities for training — whe-
ther at technical institutes or university colleg -
and l.\ continuation classes and refri sh r i o irsi -
so that technicians can always keep abreast
current developments.

We must then be able to offi r permanent j
year in and year Out — to those who would giv<
their services in research and development, it
design and engineering, and in technical opi
of equipment and artistic use ol materials avail-
able.

Another important aspect is the question of
economy — the saving of time and of material, and
the general saving of expenditure arising from the
close working and co-operation of all part -
whether on the studio floor or in the laboratory,
or even in such matters as care in the handling of
films, and the regular servicing and maintena
of both mechanical and electrical equipment.

] believe it is true that film production costs ar<
going up by leaps and bounds — a trend which n
in due course have an adverse effect on the in
try.

Also, what is in my opinion very important, s
the great need for manufacturers to come together
and pool ideas with a view to establishing .
supreme British product in this or that field. Take
the case of cameras. We have some fine earners
manufacturers, but is it not true that we could
produce super cameras that would command w
markets, if all such manufacturers got together tc
design and produce a piece of equipment that
equal to or better than what is available else-
where? We have done this in the war; win
in peace'.'

Above all we must have leadership instil
efficiency, keenness and discipline, directed to-
wards the goal of the cinema retaining and
improving its position as one of the leading indus-
tries.

Your question will be " How can this b(
achieved? Our industry has been subject to inter-
nal wars, opposed factions, lack of cohesion due
to widely differing points of view." Our reph is
that unity of purpose with the formulation ■
common policy must be placed above everything
else, including personal desires, if the indusm
is to achieve the position it warrants and must
have, if it is to remain alive and do its pari
the making of the new world to which we ''
forward after the war. The greater the suci -
of the industry, the better conditions for all con-
cerned apart from the reflection in the incn -
ot goodwill for Country and Empire.

sovrmber— December, 1944 THE C I X E • T E C H N I C I A N

119

F

LIBRARY

Footage Timer

24 pictures pcr second

? 6 FEET S & FEET ^ £ FEE T

7*

10- 15

/5 - 22

20- 30

25 = 37-

30- 45

35 - 52*

40- GO

45- W>

50- 75

55=62

fmiH- 90

1.45-157-

i '.50-/65

/.55 = /72>

2nm =/60

2.05-167'

210 = 195

215 -202

2.20-2/0

2 c5 - 2/7 '

250-225

255 = 232

2.40 = 240

105- 97<

1.10=105
1.15 •US*

I 20 - 120

I 25-127'

130-135

1. 35-/42

I. 40-/50

245 - 247
250 - 255
255-262

5nm- 270

3 05-277

5 10 - 265

3/5 -292

3.20-300

3 35 = 307

3.30=3/5

3.35=3??

340=330

345 - 337

350=345

3 55 = 352

Gum - 360

4.05 =367

4 10 - 375

4/5 = 362

4.20-390

4.25=397-
430=405

4 55 - 4/2 ,

440-420

4.45-427

4.50-435

4.55-442\
Sum- 450

BIG LIST
of SOUND
EFFECTS

QUICK REFERENCE
for RUNNING TIME at

NINETY FT.pir MIN UTE .

«sr mins

90..

ISO..

270.

360..

450..

540..

630..

720... 8

SIS.... 9

900. 10

990... .il
1080 ...82
1170... 13
1260 .14
I35Q...15

FEET MINS

1440.16
I530...I7
1620.18
1710.19
1800.20
1890. 2 1
1980.22
2070.23
21 CO... 24
225G...25
2340...25
2430.27
2529.23
2S50...29
2100.30

fEET MINS

2790.3 1
2880 .32
2970 33
3060.34
3150 35
3240 36
3330 . 37
3420. 38
35(0.33
3600.40
3690 .41
3780 42
3870 43
3S60 .44
4050... 45

FfET MINS

4140 46
4230.47
4320 48
4410. 49
4500. 50
4590. 5 1
4680. .52
4770 .53
4869.54
4950 55
5040.56
5130.57
5220 58
5310 59
5400 60

FEET MINS

5490 .61
5980.62
5670 63

5760 64
5850.65
5940 66
6030 .67
6120 ..68
6210 69
6300 70
6390.71
6480.72
6570 . 73
6660 .74
6750 75

FEE.T MINS

6840 .76

6930 77

7020 78

7110 79

7200 80

7290 81

7380 82

7470 83

7SS0 84

7650 85

7740 86

7830 87

7920 88

8010 89

6100 SO

NORMAN'S FILM SERVICE

54-58 WARDOUR STREET
W.I

Telephones :
GERRARD: 7481-6413

120

THE C INF.- T E C EN I CI AN November— December, 1< J;

CORRESPONDENCE

The Shame and Disgrace of Colonel Biimp

Fundamentally our case is that if the mailer
of m film is understood in all its aspects and in
all flic psychological intricacies below the mere
story structure, the maimer of making that film
wili be less of a problem. The light approach to
tins question affects the marketability of our films
in competition with America, and indeed the fate
of the Brit ish film industry and our own individual
livelihoods which are dependent on the industry.

It is surely therefore incumbent upon F.S. to
give your readers an approximately factual idea
of what we do say in The Shame and Disgrace of
Colonel Blimp, instead of doing this he puts up
a number of Aunt Sallies of his own imaginative
creation and shies at them with a terrific amount
of misspent gusto.

We emphatically do not turn Pabst "from a
sincere internationalist into a chauvinist" in Tlie
Film Answers Back. The words are not in our
hook. We describe I'ahst in no way as any kind
of " ist " at all. We simply show Pabst doing
what all the other pre-Nazi producers were doing,
spreading doubts, cynicism and despair among the
German people and so undermining their power of
resistance to the Nazi virus, or encouraging the
latent, pro-Nazi proclivities of the German nation.
whichever way you prefer to describe the process.

In The Shame ami Disgrace of Colonel Blimp
we do not attempt to establish the English as a
"race." The word does not appear in our honk.
nor does Yansittart, nor vansifctartism, nor " Ger-
man Imperialism." nor do we say that the German
"Expert" fails because of "knowledge." What
we do say is that the British have added some-
thing to technique in warfare that the Germans
haven't got — morale and the knowledge of the
end and purpose for which they are righting. And
we do not enjoin the nation to become " experts "
in matters of the subconscious or in anything else.
In fact almost even thine, that F.S. says we said
we never said at all. He reads all those isms and
spasms into what we wrote, displaying a truly
remarkable gift worthy perhaps of a spiritualist
medium but not what we expect to see exercised
in a technical, scientific professional journal.

But the thing that gives F.S. the greatest joy
is. to use his own words : " the authors have some-
how conclusively proved that the showing ol
Blimp was the direct cause of the release of
Moslex ' " Sorry to spoil his fun hut the authors
attempt lo prove nothing of flic kind. We never
said that Blimp is the direct cause of Mosley's
release.

What we do say is that Blimp by reason of its
wide national circulation and cumulative effect.
helped to establish a mood, "a social mental

atmosphere." which made the reversal of the
T.U.C. vote on the Germans, the plague oi sti
and the release of Fascists with Mosley at their
head, possible logical and understandable. Fi
these things all ha]. pencil within a few montl
Blimp's release. Alvar Biddell is not the only -
direct cause oi you getting the news at nine
o'clock. He helps but there are tens of thousands
of other " causes " that together contribute to the
one result .

F.S. is considerate enough to suggest that ah
is not well with the Middle Class and that the Rob-
sons ought to be enlightened on the point. Thanks
but we know already. We are aware that there
are among us a proportion from whom you could
pick out types like that ranting Fascist hoor.
Sub. -Lieut. Wilson or the idiotic Blimp Wynne-
Candy. Well what of it ? What do we gain, whai
purpose do we achieve by displaying our w -
types to the gaze ol the world and not our bi si
If F.S. is not yet quite clear on the elementar
commercial principle that the Americans have
long since discovered, that crying stinking fish is
bad for trade, it is time t lint "somebody enlight-
ened him." — Yours faithfully,

£. W. and M. M. ROBSON

F.S. writes

I am sorry the Robsons think I have misrepre-
sented them. I agree that they don't make much
use of words ending in -ist: a reviewer has to, in
trying to give the sense of arguments which trail
on for page after page. I hope readers of tli ■
Journal will also read the Blimp pamphlet (it's well
worth it) and I'll leave them to judge for them-
selves whether the summing-up -ist and-ism words
of the review are unfair to the Robsons.

In The Film Answers Back the authors, at the
end of a review of Kameradschaft, state that
Pabst 's purpose in finishing with a scene between
officials below ground at the 1918 frontier was t
bring up the issue of the Versailles treaty. As
the purpose and effeel of that scene was pn-eisel
the opposite — namely to emphasise the futility i
national barriers (but in a hopeful constructive
way) — I think the stupidity of the Robsons' mis-
representation would have justified much more
caustic commi nt than 1 gave it.

With their final paragraph I am quite in agree-
ment : it is indeed very p >or policy to cry stinking
fish thai is why I consider it a greal pity that
British films are almosl exclusively concerned
with the thoughts and doings of the middle-class
From a Polish Trainee

Members of A..C.T. will he aware ol the schero
for training Allied technicians for the re-estab-
lishment ol their Studios after the war. sponsored
1>\ A..C.T. and operated in conjunction with

November— December, I'M I THE OINE-TE C H N I C I A N

L21

the B.F.P.A. As a member of the Polish Film
Association in Great Britain, 1 have had the
honour of passing through a British Studio under
the scheme.

On entering the Studios at Shepherds Bush J
was very anxious to know more of the organisation
thai could make my training possible. It seemed
1,1 me that such a body had imagination, that it
was progressive. I contacted Air. Charles Wheeler,
the Senior Shop Steward, who kindly introduced
nc to The Cine-Technician, the official A.C.T.
Hides, past Reports, etc., and described how
LC.T. functions. Since then I have had ample
ipportunity of observing how A.C.T. efficiency
md organisation under Steward and Committee
■an contribute to smooth working of production
it Shepherds Bush.

In this respect it is my wish that there shall
ie reciprocity between A.C.T. and its Polish
'opposite number" once our studios are operat-
ing again. Jn fact, when that happy day arrives
t will be our duty to welcome to the Polish
Studios any A.C.T. member with that same help
mil hospitality that we have been honoured with
lere.

Having lived in Great Britain for the past five
years I have formed some opinions about my
rind hosts. T like their way of living, the way

the\ manage to strike a balance between their
work and recreation, even in war-time. 1 like
their pets, pubs, eluhs. their A. B.C., B.B.C.,
L.C.C. and now, their A. ('.'I1. .My dislikes are
confined to the architecture of those London
streets where every house is of the same pattern,
especially after a couple of pints, when one can-
not he sure which is one's own ! The other is
the game of howls. I know it is a tradition, hut
for me if is definitely a game played with a slow
motion technique which I find difficult to master'
I must he in the 24 frames per second class.

It occurs to me that there has never been an
effort to produce an essentially A.C.T. film, tli.it
is to say "by A.C.T. for A.C T.", an inspiring
stor\ about technicians, about A.C.T. if you like.
Of course, finance would he a possible stumbling
block, hut recent cents have shown that when
the British make up their minds they really get
going. As a tangible expression of the Polish Film
Unit's appreciation of A.C.T., should the idea
take on, I would be most happy to arrange to con-
tribute from our members, and will stake £/5
myself.

In conclusion, let me say that my training has
been joy and success all the way. Thank you,
A.C.T. Thank you each and every member.

M. Demidec!<i

For Thinkers the World over I

Share it with your Friends

122

THE C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N November— December, 19

A Precision Integrating Sphere Densitomete]

J. G. Frayne & G. R. Crane

(Electrical Research Products Inc., Hollywood, California)

Reprinted in part from The Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. II. No. 11. 330-355, November, 11>4« »

Printed in U.S.A.

Editors' Note. — As yet there are only two models of the E. R.P.I, densitometer in use in this country
A member of the Editorial Committee has been using one of these for some months past and elaiiv
it is the finest instrument yet designed, and for case of use, lack of eyestrain and absolute accuracy i

has no compare.

An integrating sphere type of physical densito-
meter has been devloped with a view to standar-
dizing density measurements in the motion pic-
ture industry. The instrument accommodates films
or plates up to 5" wide. Scanning beam dimen-
sions of 0.025" X 0.100" are used but may readily
be changed. Density values corresponding to (1)
the equivalent of standard visual diffuse or (2)
photographic printing density may be obtained
by insertion of suitable optical filters. Densities
up to 3.0 are read directly on a special three-scale
logarithmic meter which provides a uniform den-
sity scale. A chopper in the light path makes pos-
sible a.c. amplification using a highly stabilised
amplifier with a highly selective gain-frequency
characteristic. This latter feature permits opera-
tion in daylight or in a room illuminated with
ordinary a.c. lamps. Calibration is based on the
inverse square law.

The optica] schematic diagram of the integrat-
ing sphere densitometer devised by the authors i1-
shown in Fig. 1. Two important considerations
have been kept in mind to ensure measurement
of true diffuse density irrespective of the opacity
of the deposit. First, the cone of the angle of
incidence has been kept to a value slightly under
25°, which reduces to a negligible amount the
error introduced by having the average light path
somewhat longer than the thickness of the emul-
sion. Secondly, by proper placing of the cell and
light baffle, no direct radiation through the
entrance hole or direct reflection from the " hot
spoi " at the bottom of the sphere is permitted to
fall on the active surface of the photo-cell moun-
ted within the sphere. This ensures that the cell
response is, for all values of density, proportional
to brightness of the snhere wall which is, in turn,
proportional to total flux transmitted through the
sphere opening.

Density Range. Tn order to measure effectively
the range of densities in photographic processes,
it appears necessary to be able to read as high as
3.0. This means a range of 1000 to 1 or a 60-db
input voltage ratio to the amplifier of the densi-
tometer. Since it is extremely difficult to cover
this range in one scale, it is desirable to use 0
multiple scale with three ranges of density ;

namely, ranges of 0 to L.0, 1.0 to 2.0 and 2.0 I

3.0. This may he accomplished by inserting i.
the amplifier circuit a 40-db loss for the first range
20-db loss for the second range and no loss for tl
highest density range.

Design. As shown in Fig. 2, this instrumei
has been designed to be mounted in a table wit
its panel flush with the table top. The head assen
bly ami meter case are above the panel, located
for maximum convenience in operating and r<
ing. A steel case houses the sphere, amplifier and
associated equipment.

Optical System. The optical system is sho
schematcially in Fig. 1. The light course is a stai

c0*mns[» lehs

diffusing bloc*

objective, it us

dard lamp with a prefocus base. The filament is
operated at a relatively low temperature to en-
sure long lite and the current is supplied bj
saturation type voltage regulator which main-
tains constanl current over a wide range of line
voltages. Ballasl lamps are also used and in 1
tions where the line voltage variation is less thai
1 volt, the regulator is not required.

The condenser lens assembly consists of a pa
of plano-convex lenses whose mounting also
tains the coloured glass filters. The image of th>

November— December, 1944 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

123

lamp filament is brought to a focus on one end of
i rectangular glass block, the length of which is
[chosen to eliminate completely the coil pattern of
the filament at the exit. The cone of light falling
on this block is interrupted by a synchronously
driven disk which gives a frequency of 600 or 720
cycles per second on a power supply of 50 or 60
cycles, respectively. The light from the glass block
4s reflected downward by an aluminium-coated
first surface reflecting mirror to the objective lens,
which brings the exit face of the block to a focus
at the film plane. This lens is a well corrected
a stem of high aperture and gives a sharply defined
spot of light of 25 X 100 mils, at the film plane,
but any comparable size or shape of spot may
:he used.

The film is placed emulsion side downwards in
contact with the surface of the integrating sphere
which receives all of the light passing through the
'film in the manner previously described. It will

noted that the cell is mounted within the sphere
to obtain the greater efficiency indicated by Moon

Rnd Severance. The aperture in the sphere affords
ut slight clearance over the dimensions of the
rectangular scanning beam, and due to its rela-
tively high intensity, there is no effect on the read-
ing due to external a.c. light or daylight of ordinary
lensity.

Amplifier. To raise the output from the photo-
ilectric cell to a convenient level for measure-
ment, a high gain stable amplifier is required. To
ittain the order of accuracy required, the gain
if this amplifier must be extremely stable with
respect to temperature and line voltage changes
over a reasonable range. In addition, the gain
must be constant over a wide range of signal
level, with the lowest possible noise which includes
pathode emission noise in the first stage, photo-
•ell hiss and a.c. pick-up. The output meter cir-
;uit must be such that the meter cannot be dam-
iged when a signal 40-db above meter full scale
is applied, for example, as when a density of 3.0
s suddenly removed from the gate. In addition,
he reading accuracy of the instrument must not
be affected by changing any amplifier tube.

Since the efficiency of the integrating sphere is
inly about 5 per cent, the output from the photo-
ilectric cell without film is approximately -60-db
•elative to 0.006 watt which is reduced to a level
if -120-db when measuring a density of 3.0. Be-
■ause of these low signal levels, the input circuit
s designed for a high signal to noise ratio and a
)00-to 720-cycle selective circuit is employed in
lie feed-back path to discriminate against noise
■oinponents. In addition, several condenser
alues have been chosen to reduce power-supply
Innn and the higher components of tube and
)hoto-cell noise. By these means a noise level of
■lijO-db/0.006 watt or lower has been attained,
vhieh provides an ample margin for accurate mea-

surement of density up to 3.0

The output of the photo-cell is picked up across
a high impedance coupling circuit and applied to

a stage of amplification which uses a low noise
pentode tube for high gain and has ample cathode
feedback for gain stability, linearity, and high
signal to noise ratio. As previously mentioned,
it was decided to cover the density range in three
scales, which amounts to a signal range 20-db per
scale. A key on the panel operates on a simple
voltage divider in the output of the first tube as
shown in Fig. Ill to increase the gain of the
amplifier by 20 and 40-db relative to the "0-1
range. A push-button on the same voltage
divider reduced the gain by 20-db for calibration
purposes.

Two more pentode stages further amplify the
signal and employ feedback from the plate of the
second to the cathode of the first. A variable
resistance in series with the resonant circuit in tin-
feedback path serves as a gain control for adjust-
ment of the zero density reading of the indicating
meter as described under '"Operation." The
output circuit to the meter is similar to that
employed in certain volume indicators, using a
twin'diode rectifier and a power pentode connec-
ted as a triode for the output tube. The output of
this tube is made completely degenerative to in-
crease stability. A part of the cathode resistance
voltage drop is used to apply a threshold voltage
to the diode. A ballast lamp is included in the
heater circuit of the output tube to increase its
stability with normal changes in supply voltage.

The meter settings, which are dependent on
amplifier gain and plate current of the last tube,
exhibit good stability over long periods of time,
with the exception of a slight drift during the first
few minutes of operation. Even during this period,
errors may be avoided by occasionally checking
the end points of the scale.

Meter. Since density is fundamentally a loga-
rithmic function, any attempt to indicate density
using linear elements will l-esult in an uneven

l_'l

['HE CINE-TECHNICIA5s November- December, 1944

scale mi the indicating device with crowding oi
the scale at the bigher density values. To over-
come this difficulty, a special indicating meter
was developed having essentially a linear loga-
rithmic response with a scale approximately 5"
long. It is illuminated by two lamps located
within the meter housing, hut external to the
meter itself. The damping of a meter of this type
is difficult to control because of the wide variation
of rlux density at different scale positions, hut the
meter period is sufficiently high that little incon-
venience is caused by the under-damped condition
which exists at the left-hand or "'()" end of the
inei er scale.

Conclusion. The integrating sphere type of
densitometer described in this paper associated
with a stabilised high gain electrical amplifying
system, makes it possible to read densities up to
3.0 in accordance with the Hurter and Driffield
definition of density. The readings are made
quickly and easily on a direct reading rugged meter
and may he made either in broad daylight or in a
room illuminated with ordinary a.c. lamps. The
persona] factor is eliminated in the readings and
tin' calibration is based onlj on fundamental phy-
sical laws. While the readings are made to corre-
late with those of visual diffuse standards by inser-
tion of suitable optical filters in the scanning beam,
any spectral sensitivity that may be later adopted
may he si cured by inserting the appropriate colour
filters.

ORGANISERS NOTEBOOK

Technicolor Dance. The Technicolor dance run
in aid of the A.C.T. Benevolent Fund was a great
success. The President, Anthony Asquith, pre-
sented the A.C.T. Darts Shield and Medals to the
Technicolor team. Bill Williams and his colleagues
had with regret to turn away many couples with-
out tickets who were anxious to join in the fun —
the hall just wouldn't take any more.

I should like here to thank Bill Williams and
Hill Hilson on behalf of A.C.T.— Williams for the
trojan work he put ill organising the dance and
the grand success he made of it; and to Hilson
for the months of patient work which meant
arranging fixtures, collecting entrance fees, pur-
chasing the Shield and Medals, and in overcoming
difficulties due to the hi it/, when fixtures, etc. . had
to he pi istponed.

The dance showed a profit to the Benevolent

Fund of t21 17s. 0d.

Part of the Trade Union Service. Mrs. Rose
Barry, one of our older members, was injured at
work and offered I' ion in compensation. A.C.T.
took up the case on her behalf with the result that

she was paid £200, exactly double the original

offer.

Here we have the answer to any worker v.
wants to know why he should paj eontribut
to a Trade Union.

Internationalism. A trade unionist should i

only know what is happening in his own works!
town and country, hut also be keenh interested in
the general trend of world affairs. For mak<
mistake', the burning of wheat in America oi I
exploitation of the working class in India
you economically .

I remember before the war noticing cotton s
for sale in Burnt Oak at "2CI. per pair; they v
made in Japan. There were also tomatoes :
Spain at l|d. to 2d. per pound. It needs
imagination to guess at the economic conditions
of the workers who were mainly responsibli

producing these g Is, especially when w

in mind that shipping costs had also to he coverei
by the producer.

The picture becomes clearer when you
the long dole queues in this country becaus
price goods ol infinite variety were being dumpe
on the British market. The British manufacturers
couldn't compete against these low priced g
and so you or your friends were on the dole and thi
workers in Czechoslovakia (shoes), Germain (toys
and dozens of other countries were working !•
starvation wages.

Which only goes to show that the working class
have to fight not only for their own inimi I
interests but also for the working class as a wl
internationally.

These thoughts occurred to me in listening
address by Mr. S. A. Dange, President of the A
India Trade- Union Congress, to the Londpn
Trades Council.

Mr. Dange said: "India being not a highly
industrialised country, our working-class is si
in numbers compared with that of yours. We hai
only six million industrial workers.

These six millions are now a real industrial pro-
letariat ; they no longer think of going back to
village to become landed gentry or artisans; the
are now well formed and disciplined as a class
their collective work at the machine in large seal
factories. Thej are not divided by religious
caste difference or divisions, though individually
they owe their allegiance to their particuhi
religion. As workers they are now class-consi
in the social-political sphere. \l\ Trades U
Congress was Eounded in L020 with ten thous
members; now it has over four hundred thous
members. We have waged severe battles
winning a short working week and higher was

We have had to fight against the Government
of India which is a Government oi those vei
monopolists who are your exploiters here. W
have had to fight against employer- who are Eur -
peans and [ndians as well." Bert Craik

SOUND

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Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

VVelwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
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INDIA

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AUSTRALIA

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AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

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TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Arapjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
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1/-

JANUARY '
FEBRUARY L

JACQUES LAURENT BOST

BERT CRAIK

THOROLD DICKINSON

OLEO LEONIDOV

RONALD NEAME

CHARLIE WHEELER

P.B.I. (FILMS) '
TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS
FOUR YEARS OF FRENCH CINEMA !

LETTERS FROM HOLLYWOOD

VITAL WORK

With millions of feet required by our
Armed Forces for training and other
military purposes, the total production of
Kodak Motion picture films has pushed
into new high-ground.

The all-round quality of this huge out-
put has never been excelled, and during
1945 our efforts to maintain and surpass
previous achievements will not be relaxed.

Kodak Limited (Motio n Picture Department), Kingsway, London, W.C.2

'KODAK' NEGATIVE FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

.rial & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.l. Telephone: CERRARD 8506

■ irtisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

j :iate Editors : Sidney Cole. George H. Elvin. Kenneth Gordon, Walter Greenwood. Fred Hyson, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury.

>1 nber Fifty-two, Volume Eleven January — February, 1945

Price One Shilling

P.B.I. (FILMS)

Everyone has heard of the poor bloody infan-
tryman, the bloke who is at the perpetual beck
and cad of the rest of the Army. Allow me to
introduce the poor bloody individual in films, the
expert craftsman whose personal contribution to
a production is important enough to affect the
quality of the job.

Recordists, lighting experts, camera operators,
art directors, make-up men, editors, composers ol
music, players and above all, writers and direc-
tors. These are the poor bloody individuals 1
mean. All are craftsmen who have learnt a craft
or trade, and any of them may be an artist. An
artist, so the Concise Oxford Dictionary tells us. is
one who makes his craft a fine art. Art, we read,
is human skill as opposed to nature. Fine arts are
those in which mind and imagination are chiefly
concerned. Consciously or unconsciously, quite a
number of workers around the studios are artists.
A good proportion of the purely technical (i.e.
nun-creative), personnel of film production land
up on the creative side sooner or later, and learn
to share the anguish anil ecstasy which are the

, companions of that experience — the film bug

is them. They become infected with the

enthusiasm which belongs to creative work and

J their training in other branches of production work

jstands them in good stead. Such technicians,
endowed with imagination, find their way into the
industry when they are young and spend their
firsi years gaining a solid groundwork of experi-
ence. This trained creative element is the life-

Jblood of films.

One would imagine that the last thing that
the promoters of films, their distributors and
exhibitors, would do would be to frustrate in any
way the efforts of the geese thai laj for them the
golden eggs. Nor would one imagine thai tin y
woidd fail to encourage the goslings. Unfor-
tunately, the fatal glamour that entertainment

by Thorold Dickinson

possesses tends to goad these people into every
kind of interference. For one thing, the fact that
a single film can be immensely profitable tends to
influence its promoters towards a short term policy.
They wrongly regard each single film as an end
in itself — a single source of profit — with the
result that too often a long term policy is lacking.

These promoters live from hand to mouth — from
picture to picture. They would do better to build
up an organisation, continually renewing its life-
blood by careful promotion of juniors to senior
positions and by encouraging a chain of product,
each link designed to be an improvement on its
predecessor.

Some men believe because they are capable of
picking a good idea for a film and recognising a
good film when it is complete, that they also pos-
sess the faculties to assess all the stages of its
progress from idea to completed film. These facul-
ties can only lie achieved by learning the job from
the beginning.

It would be libellous to mention specific cases,
but anyone in films can call to mind instances of
a promoter stepping into the technical construc-
tion of a production without serving any appren-
ticeship whatever. What is worse is when the
same thing is attempted by a man whose sole
experience of films has been in distribui ion or exhi-
bition. The route tends to be the same; first be
promotes production by guaranteeing the neces-
sary funds, next — and how- quickly — he regards
himself as producer. From then on he will tend
to frustrate in every possible way the creative
minds — which he has in fact hired because of their
previous success in doing the job without him.

Even more eases exist in which the producer
gives his unit a five enough hand on the floor and
then either alters the director's intention in the
final editing or. on grounds of haste, refuses to
allow the director to see his intentions carried out

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A X January— February, 1941

even in a first rough assembly of the film. This
policy can only result in a lack of unitj in the

finished film which often amounts to an ill-diges-
ted muddle. Particularly is this true in genuine
sound films as opposed to films adapted from
works written in another medium, such as plays
or novels. What would have happened to In
Which We Serve or The Way Ahead if the direc-
tors had not been allowed a free hand throughout
the production? A producer's interference in the
work of a director shows a singular lack of confi-
dence in his own powers of selection. When you
frustrate an artist, you create a series of mental
explosions that are liable to imbalance him tem-
porarily or permanently. Frustration of the direc-
tor in preventing him from completing his work
is a short-sighted polic\ , for it is liable to af'feci
his future work. An artist's self-confidence is
based on a continuity of completed effort.

Before the war nearly all the higher creative
jobs in our industry were in the hands of for-
eigners. These were largely people who bad
experience but were no longer greatly in demand
in their own countries. Promoters of production
in this country (again often foreigners) preferred
to employ an established or even passe foreign
technician, with or without genuine credentials,
rather than give an opportunity to a promising
British technician. The war chased these for-
eigners and a few of our own countrymen into
hiding places abroad, and forced the promotion of
British personnel to fill the gaps in a restricted
industry. A marked improvement in the quality
of British films was the logical result.

Many British technicians joined the forces —
and few unwillingly. Some were offered the oppor-
tunity to carry on their civilian profession in uni-
form or to do essentia] national service in govern-
ment film production. These technicians found
that the fatal glamour of the screen bewitched lay-
men in the civil services and the forces, whose
work brought them into fortuitous contact with
film production as technical advisers or in liaison
work with official departments. Indeed, military
rank and civil service status gave power to these
laymen which enabled them to interfere in produc-
tion matters, in which they were entirely ignorant,
to as great an extent as their opposite numbers in
commercial films. Any job in films which did not
involve mechanical processes could and often did
become the plaything of these amateurs.

In the near future as war slides into peace, the
poor bloody individuals of our industry must
remain alert and vigilant .

Already there are signs of renewed infiltration
from outside. Promoters who have never learnt
the job of production, and producers who have no!
worked their way up through the industry, will
again begin working on short term policies — and
not only business men this time. There will also

be the men who before demobilisation ]\...
bled in production (within the structuri
government) and the armed forces, without -
mitting to any proper training.

Foreigners will come t reeping back, some rusty
in technique, some p --A - mi,- blandly read
tackle jobs to which they are new. Why lei I
foreigner learn at our expense'.' Chauvinism is
fatal policy, but technicians from abroad should!
be few and first rate and chosen for specific jobsj
for which their capacities are appropriate. <
tinuous enterprise and the sharpening of •
between individuals of different nationalities -
vital in a living industry. But without strangling
these necessities the past history of the small 1;
tish film industry has shown that certain funda-
mentals must be safeguarded. First things t
A national industry must have its roots in p.
of that nationality. The chief criticism ot
mentality of British films before this war was I
they reflected many things but very rarely B •
tain. The artistes now in the forces who should
develop this national expression, begun during
this war, deserve to get an opportunity to jm
themselves before the labour market, which is not
a large one, is choked to saturation.

It is criminal to flaunt the argument that fcecl
nicians who have given their services — and n
than their services — in defence i a t heir countn
return out of touch with the current techn
and practice of a rapidly progressing indusl
These men are still young. They will return with
their human experience enriched. With oui
operation they will rapidly brush up their t
nique. Their enlarged experience of human prob-
lems and reactions will bring incalculable bei
to the medium of film. The fusion of this enric
element with our existing industry is the materia]
from which should be drawn the teams of indiv
duals to head our future production units.

CORRESPONDENCE

Lecture Volunteers Wanted

I wonder if you can help us. In young people 'i
clubs and discussion groups of all kinds tic
rapidly growing interest in the cinema. We are
now being almost literally bombarded with re-
quests for talks on every asped of the cinema and
on film appreciation, and we are finding it q
impossible to meet the demand with the vcrvj
slender lecturing panel which we have at
moment. .Many of our enquirers would like I
have talks 1>\ film technicians. A technician fcal
inu on details of his own job, which mm si
to him rather humdrum, will fascinate these y<
people who are anxious to learn everything thejl
can about something which plays such an import]
ant part in their everyday lives. Indeed a talk o:

i ( 'ontinued on page 7 J

January-

February, 1945 THE CINE-TECHXICIAX

FOUR YEARS OF FRENCH CINEMA
UNDER THE OCCUPATION

By JACQUES LAURENT BOST

Reprinted by kind permission of France Libre.
Translated by Mary Francis

IN June, 1940, the French cinema was dead,
and during the year which followed tin1
collapse of France, everything seemed against
its resurrection. Four of the best French directors
— Rene Clair, Duvivier, Renoir and Feyder — were
abroad, a great number of actors and technicians
were suspended. But that was nothing com-
pared with a grave danger of another kind — the
determination of the Germans to capture the
French film market.

As early as June, 1940. the German com-
panies, A.C.E. and Tobis, sent their business men
in with the job of taking over all the cinema
circuits in the capital, and in the provinces. This
first operation was so successful that after a year
there were only three circuits left for films of
French production. The Cinema Corporation tried
to defend themselves and succeeded in savins;
vane of the cinemas. The Government of Vichj .
powerless or indifferent, did not act against this
'"colonisation" until the middle of 1941.

As soon as they owned the cinemas, the Ger-
mans flooded the market with their productions,
which, happily for the French cinema, were
extremely bad on the whole. Even though the
-cinema was their only distraction people kept
away from these films. They were either propa-
ganda or syrupy romantic love stories, or else
apallingly heavy "gay" comedies. Amongst the
hundreds of films that were imposed upon us by
the Germans one might say, without being preju-
diced, that there were only half-a-dozen that
would he called simply "creditable."

Therefore, the first attempt to conquer the
French market misfired. The public did not like
the German films, and did not want to like them.

To counter this setback, the German firms in-
stalled their own production company — the "Con-
tinental"— in Paris, to conquer the French
market, this time from the inside. That is to say,
to make in France French films — with French
technicians and actors. This second manoeuvn .
more subtle, succeeded much better than the
first. Many — too many — technicians and actors
(and not the bad ones alone) accepted contracts

from "Continental" — which made a very good
start — two excellent crime films L'Assassinai de
Pere Noel by Christian-Jacques, Le Dernier des Six
by Lecomte, and a romantic life of Berlioz,
La Symphonie Fantastique, which all had an enor-
mous success with the public.

The situation was critical for the French
cinema. The Germans held the best halls; the
"Continental" had touted for talented actors and
technicians and had a six-months' start on the
French industry which was not allowed to work
until the end of June, 1941. When at last per-
mission was granted to the French companies to
start their cameras turning, they found them-
selves, in comparison with "Continental," in a
glaring state of inferiority. The "Continental,"
through the medium of "Propaganda Staffel,"
controlled the market of raw film stock, which
was severely rationed. Twenty thousand, then
18.0(H). then finally 16,000 metres of film stock
were allotted to the French companies. This
ration was absolutely inadequate. Generally, for
a film made conscientiously, 25 to 30,000 metres
is needed. To complete a film it was necessary
to buy on the Black .Market, where a reel of 300
metres cost about 10,000 francs. And that was
the situation for all the materials necessary to
make a film — the nails, the wood, the paint for
the sets. The materials for the costumes and the
make-up the official quantities distributed were
always a mockery, ami the cinema, more than
any other industry, was pushed towards the Black
Market, which made a terrible hole in budgets.

Later, electricity was radically cut down — then
the hours of work' were reduced. At last, in 1943,
only night work was allowed, which in itself was
bad enough, but was made disastrous by the con-
stant interruptions of sirens. One might also
mention here competition from Italy, but this was
not so pressing, not so well equipped, and above
all not so dangerous on account of the utter
poorness of the Italian productions.

To these commercial and material difficulties
were added others, of :i different character, but
no less cramping. There was a double censoi

t

THE CINE-TECH XICI A X

January — February, 1945

shijD on all interesting projects. The censorship
ill Vichy, prudish and mealy-mouthed, systemati-
cally avoided authorising any subject other than
"Work — Family — Country." and reserved its
approval for the most insipid stories with a
"return to the soil" theme. To give two actual
examples— the Vichy censor banned Rouge et
Noir, because the dialogue contained the words
"lover" and "mistress." On the other hand, the
German censor banned films relating to present
events which did not serve its propaganda,
directly or indirectly.

Let us add that the "Continental" had
monopolised distribution and that the French pro-
ducers could only exhibit their films in the
narrow French market. As the number of shows
were very limited in the French cinemas, it took
months for a him of six or seven million francs
to pay for itself; before, it would have cleared its
costs in a few weeks, ft is eas\ to understand
then that "big" films, whose cost price had in-
creased from In to 30 millions, were not very
good business. To sum up, "quality" became a
luxury for producers. The public, deprived of
amusements, queued indiscriminately for a fine
film like Goupi-Mains-Rouges, or for some piece of
baloney, botched together in a few weeks.

This situation wasn't very encouraging for
producers. Therefore it is not surprising thai the
first French films coming after .June. 1041 were
not very promising: 1941 marked the high peak
of the all-powerful "Continental." But it is sur-
prising, on the other hand, that reckoning from
104"2. tile production from "Continental" got
steadih worse in quality, until it became (with a
few exceptions) completely mediocre, while the
French cinema not only regained the advantage
in the competitive field, but showed a sharp
improvement over what it had been before the
war.

From August, 1040, to 1044. about 300 films
were turned out. Let us say at once that out
of these 800 there was one which could be
called a piece of German propaganda. This was
a film about freemasonry — Forces Occultes —
thrown togther to order by some technicians and
actors without talent, and less fastidious than
the public, who boycotted their effort.

As lor Vichy propaganda — this was only served
li\ a lew films having for theme the famous
"return to the soil" — such films as Port
d'Attache, Andorra Patrice, absolutely ineffectual
and inoffensive films — if so much trite silliness
can be called inoffensive.

There were 300 films, then, amongst which,
of course. there were many duds bedroom
farces, carelessly-made thrillers, boring love

stories. Bui at all times, and in every country,
film production has carried this wantage.

Twenty of the French films turned out during
the war deserved to be remembered, and that
number is not so unimpressive. They are tb
work, either of directors alreadj known before the
war. like Marcel Came or Jean Gremillon, or oi
directors less known who have "made the grade'
— like Christian-Jacques, Jean Delannoy and
Claude Autan-Lara. Then there were the "nev
ones" who did their first work under the occupa-
tion, like Jacques Becker and Louis Daquin.

Marcel Came, who made Quai des Brumes, gave
us in 1042 Visiteurs du Soir, The devil sends tw<
of his demons to a mediaeval castle, to make mis-
chief. He. in the disguise ot a sarcastic gentle-
man, visits the earth to supervise his servants.
'I he theme ot the film is — love is stronger thai.
the devil. This film, most sumptuously pro-
duced, perfectly composed and acted, more thai
a little dull, was enormously successful. It wi -
the first of a series of fantastic films, in which the
devil played an important part. In La Main dv
Didble, by Maurice Tourneur ("Continental" pro-
duction) there was an excellent idea in tla
scenario, borrowed from Gerard de Nerval, but
they didn't make much ot it. The film was vulgar
and seemed hastily made. Later on. in L'homrm
qui vendait son ante au didble, we had imitation
pure and simple. We mention the last two film-
to show how preoccupied the French cinema was
with fantasy, an interest further shown in twi
other films. Le Baron Fantome and La
Fantastique. Le Baron Fantome, by Jean Cod
and Serge de Poligney, was not very good, and
we doubt whether it will be shown again after the
war. La Nuit Fantastique, in which real people
and real events mingled and merged with drean
happenings and dream people, tingled with excel-
lent cinematic ideas, hut was badly put toge
and contained vulgar and unnecessary episodes
clumsily tagged on to the script.

We saw in 1941 Jean Gremillon 's film
Remorques, made before the war. This i- a lov(
drama played against a vers well established
maritime background. If the characters remind
one a little of Quai des Brumes \\ isn't surprising,
because thej have the same interpreters — real
Gabin and Michele Morgan, and the same be-
getter the script writer Jacques Prevert. Gre-
millon then made Lumiere d'ete. in which tin
characters, eaten up with passion or vice. '
each other to pieces in an underworld atmosphere
Gremillon knows as well as Carne how to creat<
atmosphere (this, generalh speaking, is the
greatest quality of the good French technicians
but he has the advantage over him. and over all
his other colleagues, of making his actors give

T IT E C ■ I X E - T E C H X I C T A X

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THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A X January— February, L9 S

the\ know. Lumiere d'cte has perhaps one fault,
and that is that the scene of the drama (a dam in
construction on a' bare and savage mountain) does
not really belong to the story, as the sea dors in
Remorques. This is perhaps a fault in the scenario
which has a feeling of being, at moments, a little
self-consciously and conventionally " tough." But
the direction of Gremillon is so convincing that
one believes in the story and the characters from
the beginning to the end. Lumiere d'ctc is by far
his best film.

Jean Delannoy, almost unknown before the war
and up to 1941, has had two triumphant popular
successes with I'ontcarral, Colonel d'Empire and
L'ctcrnal Retour. Pontcarrel is an historical
romance', which seems to us, with all respect,
totally Lacking in interest. L'ctcrnal Retour is a
much more daring entering enterprise. The subject
is the legend of Tristan and Iseult, modernised and
adapted for the screen by Jean Cocteau. Jean
Delannoy is the rising director, hut for all that he
doesn't seem to us to lie in the class of Carne,
( rremillon, Henoir or Becker. For us he is a " good
workman of the cinema," a very able technician,
but nothing more than a technician.

The aim of a film like L'ctcrnal Retour was, or
should have been, we think, to give to all its pull-
over-clad and lounge-suited characters a universal
character, to create around them the "aura"
which surrounds the heroes of legends. It is neces-
sary to say here that it has not succeeded. The
story of Tristan and Iseult is nothing more than
a banal love story. The film is dull and it is slow
— with the famous slowness of the French cinema.
This is surprising, because Delannoy is one of the
rare French directors (with Jacques Becker) who
has given to a film (L'Enfer du Jeu) that "Ameri-
can " tempo for which French makers of adven-
ture and light comedy films search in vain.

From Claude Autan-Lara, we have seen three
films — Lc Manage de Chiffon, a very brilliant
comedy — Lettres d' Amour, a half-success — and
Douce. Douce tells the double tragedy of a double
love story, and is at the same time a cruel
exposure of the manners of the French upper mid-
dle-class tin de siecle. These three films are all
set between the years 1880 and l'.)()."i, and Lara
has caught the atmosphere in a most convincing
manner. To his other merits, Autan-Lara adds
that (perhaps it's luck'?) of always working with
a good cameraman. The quality of the photography
in his films is "married" admirably with the
subject ; this is not so common in France.

Becker has made up to now three films —
Dernier Atout, a crime film as rapid and exciting
as an American film (although treated differently) ;
Goupi-Mains-Rouges is another crime intrigue in a
peasant family, hut it is full of an icy, macabre

humour, which has escaped all the critics and a

Large part of the public who wanted to See in tl
film — and it certainly isn't there — a realistic stuuv
of peasant habits. The great quality of Becker isj
that of having a style completely his own. \Y
await with impatience the third film of J. Beck r
— Falbalas, which is finished but has not yet been
shown to the public. The first film of Lou
Daquin, Sous les Gosses, vvas an uninteresting
little story, but well told. His second, and fo]
the moment his best. Lc Voyageur de la Toussaii
(from the book of Georges Simenon) was in an*
class altogether. From start to finish the char.-,
ters (and the audience) bathed in the famous
Simenon atmosphere, which so attracts film fans.
The first reel in particular, the debarking of s
stowaway in the port of La liochelle, and his walk
in the foggy streets of the town, is cinema at its
best. Premier de Cordee, a mountain film, wasn't
nearly so good, and suffered principally from v,
ness of script, of dialogue and of acting — faults
common to this type of film. It should be decide 1
once and for all, that these subjects should hi
made as simple documentaries.

We now come to the case of Henry-Georges
Clouzot, who must be judged as much from thi
national point of view as from the cinema. Clouzoi
has worked for four years for " Continental," like
a number of other technicians. He worked as
scriptwriter on two crime films — Lc Dernier des 5
and Les Inconnus dans la maison. The first was
excellent, the second not so good. He then m
two films as director, L'assassi>i habite au 21, a v,
entertaining thriller, and Lc Corbcau. It is this
last film which is discussed so heatedly. Nobod
could deny its technical and artistic worth, anc
for us this film is a real masterpiece. On a littk
town there falls one day a shower of anonymous
letters signed " Le Corbeau." Then follows the
consequences -- at first comic, then disturbing
then tragic. The postmistress has lovers, the ban!
directo. has been deceived by his wife, the medic 1
officer at the hospital is a morphia addict . . . etc
The picture that this film shows of the Frenct
pett\ bourgeoisie is an abject one. But the Frend
cinema has never been tender tow ards the French
The characters of Lumiere d'eU, those of Voyagi
de la TousSaint, are odious. The outlaws of Ouai de:
Brumes led miserable lives. The peasants
Goupi-Mains-Rouges are hard and miserly. Tin
picture of France which will be presented to tlt<
foreigner by the best hundred films of the last fe
years will perhaps be alarming. So what"? Gooti
literature does not rel\ upon moral themes, -1
less do good films. It is justifiable to reproacl
Clouzot for having made bis film under the occu
pation, and above all for having made it for *' Cb I
tiueiital." but it seems excessive to us to see
Le Corbeau a piece of work' which serves cod
sciously enemy propaganda. Monsieur (don/ 1

January — February, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

i

I

sould certainly have chosen a different subject, and
different producers, but perhaps one would have
been less severe on him it he had had less talent.

We will mention further La Duchesse de Langeais
and Les Anges du Pcche, two films written by Jean
(iiraudoux and directed, the first by Jacques de
Baroneelli, the second by a promising beginner,
Robert Bresson. La Duchesse de Langeais, in spite
nf the dialogue of (iiraudoux. is a very ordinary
film. Les Anges du Peche is a success all the more
surprising since its subject seems at first glance
far from the realms of the cinema. It is the life
of a convent, a subject as immobile and as little
romantic as it could be. (Iiraudoux and Bresson
have made it as living and exciting as an adven-
ture film, as moving as a beautiful love story. Once
again, the French cinema has succeeded in making
a film of atmosphere, without much action, but
where the characters have, a solidity and a depth
which one would have thought difficult to convey
except through the novel.

There lies the principal quality of the best
l'V. inch cinema. Its characters are solid. They
have authenticity and weight. We think of the
Patrice in Lumiere d'etd, of Douce, of Goupi-
Tonkin, in Goupi-Mains-Rouges, of the ugly little
love-sick girl in Corbeau. They do not have to rely
on their gestures, their words, their function in
the plot, as so often do the characters of films.
One feels them to be live with thoughts, with feel-
ings and complexes, as difficult to understand and
as unpredictable as any man of flesh and bone.
Perhaps it is that slowness of which we spoke
earlier which enables the French cinema to give
this solidity to its characters. And perhaps this
slowness is in itself a good quality, at least for the
films of atmosphere, and those we call "psycho-
logical," that the French cinema makes so well.

On the other hand, it is an incurable snag for
gay films. The less bad productions in this cate-
gory, like L'Honorable Catherine or L'Licvitablc
Monsieur Dubois, are nothing more than breathless
copies of the inimitable "'American Comedy."
Why not keep to what we ran do well?

From 1043. we knew that the French cinema
hail progressed, hut we waited apprehensively tor
the first American films. If we had progressed
one step, tiny should have leapt ahead. We saw
about a dozen American films and we admitted
with selfish joy that our fears had been ground-
less. It seemed to us that the American cinema
had stayed the same — still excellent, but the same
- -am I the distance that had separated us was con-
siderably reduced, and in some cases reduced to
nothing. Perhaps we are mistaken — but we don't
believe it, and we wait, without anxiety, even with
confidence of success, to show our films to the
world.

Correspondence -continued

this kind is often tar more effective than more
a 1 1- tract flights into the higher realm of aesthetics,
although there is always room, of course, for the
critical approach.

1 should he very grateful if you could let us
have the names of technicians who would lie pre-
pared to give an occasional talk ol this kind from
time to time. Expenses would always be paid
and sometimes there is a tee of £1 Is. Od. or
£2 '2s. Od.. but more often there would he no fee
at all. The work is entirely a labour of love, but
I think it is very worth while and important that
as far as possible this work of public information
should he carried on. Only in this way can we
create the intelligent leaven in film audienc -
which will give the film technician his proper
measure oi appreciation.

All offers of assistance can he sent to me at 1.
Great Russell Street, W.C.I.

ERNEST LINDGREN
Curator, National Film Library

G.B. EMPLOYEES

Forces Fund

We've mentioned before the good work of the
G.B. Forces Fund and their lively duplicated
monthly magazine Call-Sheet. The January issue
carries the annual report of the fund for 1944, and
gives the following record of the 1G9 members of
their staff in the Forces since 1939 : —

Serving in Great Britain 86

Serving overseas or at sea ... 59

Prisoners of War 3

Missing 2

Discharged from Services ... 12
Deceased 7

In addition, by means of donations, pay-day
collections, raffles, football pontoons, darts and
racing competitions, firewatch money, sales of
firewood and salvage and other deep schemes, the
Fund can boast of the following magnificent record
of gifts to the lad-, in the forces: —

L175 Che, pies (total value £1813 10s. Od.)

1156 Parcels of cigarettes (value £316 15s. lid.)

(>14 Parcels of hooks and magazines

45 Parcels of toilet goods

280 Aii' Letter Cards sent.

Incidentally, with all the rumours tl\ ing around,
it is good to read that 95% of e\ erj thin- sent was
n ceived and acknowledged.

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

January — February. 194a

Edited by Fred J. Hyson

LAB. TOPICS

The Other Man's Job

Our own job may lack interest, and possibly
romance, but to others whose knowledge of lab
routine is nil the routine job may be an absorbing
subject. Our brother, E. Potter, of Pathe Labs,
sends an account of the processing of Rota laven-
ders. If you have a hunch that your job of work
uin\ be of interest to nondab technicians, send the
story in to me.
News Rota Lavenders, by E. Potter

We technicians at Patlie Labs are accustomed
to hearing the words " News Lavender Prints, or
Rotas." To us it means that rush work has to
be done, hut lavender prints are very important
in many respects, not forgetting the very valuable
war material winch we are using, material which
will become history in the future, and, most
important, we know that dependent upon our
efforts our opposite technicians at other labs will
make good, bad or indifferent dupe negatives.

What procedure is adopted, or should be, when
the lab receives a negative from which lavender
prints are required? When receiving a negative
the grader, fully aware of the importance of his
technical judgment, determines the exposure each
scene requires; and often this means using nearly
every exposure point in the printing scale. Conse-
quently, upon his ability depends the evenness of
the finished print. The negative should then be
carefully checked and is ready for printing, but
before the negative is sent to the printing depart-
ment we must not forget the cleaning. This is
very important. One of the most objectionable
faults to find on a lavender print is dust spots or
dirty mai'ks.

The graded, checked and cleaned negative is
taken to the printing room. Let us assume that
six lavender prints are required, six being a popu-
lar number, printers will tell you. The printer,
having made sure that his printing L,rates arc trie
from dust, loads the negative on the machine, a
quick check on the voltage and light change system
and the machine is set in motion and the first Rota
prints are on their way. If the negative has to be
used again and it is only graded for forward print-
ing I advocate the habit of dusting it when it is
rewound.

The prints are sent to the developing room
where the chief developer, having received details
of the rota prints, has detailed one of the deve-
lopers to have a machine ready, the developing
nni,' being controlled sensitometrically or fixed by
co-operation between the chief developer and
chief grader. The prints are loaded on the
machines and pass through development, fixing

and hardening systems into the washing tank-,
and so into the drxing cabinets out to a tat
spool and are then taken off and put into the r
appropriate tins.

Dp hi examination of the finished prints we fin
them clean, slightly over-printed, even density!
free from static and streaks, and we know that
our opposite technicians at other labs will have
master prints capable of producing good quality
dupe negatives and prints that help to maintain
the high quality of the British Xewsreels.

Just a word about sound negatives: these must
receive the same care and suitable transmiss
or densities produced that are easily re-recorded
if necessary.

In conclusion, let me say that I have handled a
great number of lavenders for distribution an 1
have received numbers from other labs — and con-
sultations have followed both for and against the
resulting quality of the finished article. L< I
then concentrate to make the processing quality
of the British Xewsreels a really first-cla<s pp ■
duct.

He Died That We Might Live

Too late for insertion in our last issue we
received the news that
Bro. Douglas Davis of
G.F.D. Labs was killed
in action. Doug, who
was in the .\ irbome
Regiment, went into
action on D-Day but
the glider that carried
Doug and his friends
crashed, and they were
killed. We understand
that Doug and his
& mirades in arms were
buried in a 1 i t t I e
French village by the
Maquis. ( >ur sympathy
goes out to his rela-
tives, and to the rela-
tive- i >t hi- comrade-.

Personal Paras

Young Tom Day is making progress and i-
r< covering from the effects oi his wounds, and
managed to get leave from hospital at Christmas
w hich he spent at home.

Dr. Stork has been busy and we offer congratu-
lations to Phyllis Ross upon receiving the gitt .
a daughter — Carole Bernice. I bet she's like he
Dad!

(Continued an frige 17)

anuary

i

—February, 1945 THE C I N E - T ECHXI C I A N

THE SECRET

f

o\ ILFORD SUCCESS

U nswerving devotion to the interests of photography
in all its branches is the secret of Ilford success.

In the six Ilford factories research goes on unceasingly
to maintain the high standard of quality which has
distinguished Ilford materials for nearly 70 years.

Modern manufacturing methods and a practical
knowledge of the needs of the Cine Industry will
enable Ilford Limited, as soon as conditions allow,
to supply a range of negative and positive films which
will be pre-eminently suitable for all requirements,

The name Ilford is your safeguard and guarantee.

ILFORD LIMITED CINE sales department

NATIONAL HOUSE WARDOUR STREET LONDON, W.I

in

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

January — February, I'M 1

Ronald Neame's

LETTERS FROM HOLLYWOOD

The following letters were written to David Lean and Anthony Havelock- Allan.

They are impressions gathered during a recent five weeks' visif to the Film Studios of America.
They were originally written as private letters, and therefore state without fear or favour exactly what
the writer felt, though they do not always interpret the official feeling of A.C.T.

It is felt that as a result of having been written on the spot, the letters will probably give a truer
picture of conditions in Hollywood, than an article written several weeks later in England.

September 30th, 1944.

My dear Tony and David,

We arrived in New York the Sunday after I
left, after an interesting voyage which, f am sure.
the Censors will not permit me to mention. 1
spent five days in New York trying to burn the
candle at all its ends, Serin- people all day and
naturally doing as many shows as I could at night.
My first call was to Barney Balaban, of Para-
mount Pictures, who was very helpful indeed as,
in fact, were all thost I met at Paramount.

Already, after talking to them, 1 feel that the
suggested antagonism towards British pictures is
greatly exaggerated, and that provided we make
pictures that are good enough, I am sure that
ultimately they will get a break out here. But
without doubt, Tony, you are quite right about
there being a difficulty in understanding our dia-
lect. During my slow journey across the con-
tinent, I met all sorts of people from all walks of
life and without exception everyone I met, while
being quite enthusiastic about some of our recent
pictures, particularly In Which IIY Serve, all said
that it was very difficult to acclimatise themselves
to understanding what we are saying.

My next call in New York was to United Artists.
where, amongst others. I met Mary Pickford with
whom 1 saw This Happy Breed. The audience was
small, about fifty. They were, without excep-
tion, very impressed with the picture and I was
gratified to see the tears in Mary Pickford's eyes
when the lights went on at the end, but I listened
very carefully to all their reactions and there is
no doubt that quite a lot was missed purely be-
cause of diction. Most clear and most understand-
able was Johnny Mills, and Bob Xewton despite
his cockney, was quite clear to them also. Celia,
and Kay, a little bit difficult owing to the speed
with which they spoke in their more heated scenes.
However, it does seem as if the picture is going
to do very well and I don't think we should worry
about it. Hut it is no good us shutting our eyes
to this problem.
El gards.

RONNIE NEAME

October 10th, 1944.

My dear Colleagues.

By the time you receive this letter I shall be
on my way home. However, 1 am seeing hearing
so much that I think it's a good idea to write
some of it down on paper. I am now quite an old
hand on the Fox " lot," and even the policemen
on the gates are beginning at last to recognise me
I wanted in and out of the si ges without risking
being arrested by the efficient-looking doormen.
But so that you will have as accurate a descrip-
tion as possible of everything, let me begin at- the
beginning.

The first thing, of course, that strikes the visitoi
to Hollywood is the enormous size of their "lots
as compared to ours at home. The companies
out here believe that it is essential to have plenty
ot stage space, as they know that if a picture
be cramped for space, it will of necessity incn -
the time taken to shoot it. As an example
the amount of space occupied, it might be as well
to mention that at the moment the Fox Company
have only five pictures working on twenty stag -
therefore, giving a minimum ol four Stages to each
production. Plenty of stage space also mak< -
possible for big sets to be left standing, and t;
sets can verj often be adapted for other produc-
tions with its consequent sa^ ng of money. The
next thing that one observes which is very different
from our own stages at the moment, is the
extreme cleanliness and neatness oi everytl _
On first glance when one enters a stage itself,
one might very easily be back at Denham. Then
is no fundamental difference, and the atm< sp
is very similar, but everything throughout tin
whole " lot " is beautifully kept. This, it
found, encourages 100% efficiency and pride in
the maintenance of Studio equipment, and this
efficiency percolates all the waj down through the
staff. It is amazing what a difference it makes
io one's keenness and enthusiasm it surroundings
are congenial, and one cannot help feeling thai
part of our trouble in England is that In
the war, the "blitz" and the shortage ot stafl
our studios seem to look "down-trodden," and 1

January — February, 1945

THE CINE-TECH XI C I A X

11

am sure that this has a definite effect on the
enthusiasm and keenness of the staff working on
!the pictures. Incidentally, the more modern
Hollywood studios are fitted with air-condition-
ing humidity and temperature control. It is sur-
prising what a difference this alone makes to the
personnel working on the floor. At the end of
a long working day one still feels fresh and alert,
whereas the atmosphere of our stages at home,
ver\ soon makes a unit tired. Also the atmos-
phere being wonderfully clear, the best possible
photographic results can be obtained on large sets.

The first set that I visited was the exterior of
a fiOg Cabin and Woodland scene. The picture.
Where Do We Go From Here, directed by Gregory
Ratoff with Leon Shamroy lighting in techni-
color. The technicolor cameras arc similar in
design to the ones we are using, with the excep-
tion that the prism, as well as the lenses, are
coated, thus giving slightly additional speed.
Incidentally, Leon Shamroy is able to use about
30% less light than is advised by Technicolor in
England. This appears to be due to the fact thai
they have a new stock now which is faster
than the one we used in Blithe Spirit.

One of the first things 1 noticed was the large
camera c-rane. This crane, 1 found out later, is
the one that did all tic musical numbers on that
Carmen Miranda picture that we all thought was
so clever technically (The Girls lie Left Behind).
The crane is larger than either of ours, but far
more mcbile. It is electrically driven by one man
who sits aboard, and is steered by two others, one
sitting on cither side of the crane, one facing the
front, and one facing the rear, each lias a steering
column controlling the two wheels in front of him.
Thus, if the crane is moving forward, the man
facing front steers, and if the crane is moving
backwards, the man facing the rear steers. This,
as you can easily see, makes for much more
accurate control. Another feature I noticed was
that the camera itself can get very close to the
ground, there being no paraphernalia beneath the
camera to prevent this. Needless to say, the crane
carries with ease the technicolor blimp. As soon
as Syd Howell arrives, we will examine this crane
more closely, and will do our best to bring back
all infomation that will help us to build one,
if it is possible, in England.

Incidentally, it might be a good idea to mention
here a small crane that T have since seen at
M.G-.M. studios. This really is a wonderful asset
to picture-making. It is known as the R.O. Crane,
and is quite revolutionary in design. I am not
going to try and describe it to you until I get
home — but you can believe me when I tell you,
David, that if we can have one built, we will
certainly have a lot of fun.

There seems to be no trouble whatsoever out

here in making are lights burn evenly. The small
photometer (not the darned great thing thai
Technicolor supply us with in England) need only
be held up once or twice during the lighting up
and shooting of a shot, and in one play-back shot
that they were taking recently, the cameraman
was so unconcerned, and had such confidence in
the lights remaining the same, that he spent the
duration of the shooting with his hack to the sit
talking to me.

Before leaving this production and passing to
a black and white picture, it might be good to
mention that in addition to this large crane, there
was a smaller lighter one on the set which I was
able to look at. This again was far in advance
of everything that we have got, and one can
understand quite easily how we take half-a-day,
at least, to get a crane shot, whereas out here
it can be done in very little more than an ordinary
set-up. There is no magic about the waj thej
make pictures out here, and there is nothing they
do that we can't do ourselves quite easily as soon
as we get all our people back from the war.

I would say that the speed of shooting compares
with the speed that we were working on the earlj
part of In Which We Serve. T would also say that
the average unit out here, as far as efficiency is
concerned is on a par with that unit of ours. But
it is quite surprising what a difference it makes
to the smooth progress of a production when the
stages are clear of litter, old sets, and all the
various hindrances that seem to get in our wa\
at home.

There are about five pictures on the floor at
Fox Studios. Up to now I have spent time on
only three of them: The Gregory Ratoff produc-
tion, which f have just mentioned; the Betty
(liable production, Billy Rose's Diamond Horse-
shoe, and the picture that Lubitsch is producing,
The Czarina, which is being directed by Otto
Preminger, who directed Laura. The Betty Grable
picture is being photographed by Ernie Palmer,
one of the best camermen out here. He won the
Oscar, you will remember, for bis work on Blood
and Sand. He, like everyone else I have met, has
been more than helpful to me. I have spent a lot
of time with quite a tew cameramen up to now.
For the sake of the record, their names are Leon
Shamroy, who recently photographe I Wilson,
which 1 think was the best colour ever; Charles
Lang, of Paramount, who recently photographed
The Uninvited; Artie Miller, at present lighting the
Lubitsch picture. Lie is also an Oscar winner,
and two of bis recent pictures were How Green
Was My Valley and Song of Bernadette. I also
met Joe Ruttenburg, who does all the Greer
Garson pictures; Karl Freund, and, of course,
Charlie Etosher, who incidentally has put himself
out no end on my account. He recently photo-

12

THE CINE-TECHXICIAN

• In; i iarv — February, 10 I J

graphed the Ronald Colman-Marlene Dietrich

picture. Kismet.

Before leaving the subject of cameramen, it
might lie well to mention the tact that 1 have done
a lot of spade work towards breaking down the
prejudice between the American and British
cameramen's Unions, and think that before I leave
I shall have the chance of attending a full meeting
of cameramen out here with the view to getting
some sort of reciprocal agreement between the
two countries. This would also, of course, include
cut ters and other technicians.

Up to now f have not spent as much time on
the sets as 1 would have like to have done, because
1 have been visiting outside firms regarding equip-
ment, etc. However, 1 hope to spend the last
week of m\ stay here exclusively on sets. As far
as outside firms are concerned, my first call was to

Fox Camera

Camera is in viewing position; note sturdiness
of view finder construction, parralax corrections
being obtained by internal prison movement.

Mole-Richardson's, who have definitely improved
their lighting equipment since they stopped manu-
facturing in England. There are several new
types ol lamps. The broads used by us fur colour
are practically extinct. In fact. I have not seen
one of them up to now on the Fox " lot." These
are replaced by Fit-arcs, which are in every way
more efficient. In order not to alter the colour
of the flood light from these lamps, instead of
using silks in front of them they use variable
shutters to control the amount of light hitting
the subject matter. Tiny are in the middle of
designing a more efficient lamp than the lot) now
being used, which will give 50% more Light, and
they are stepping up tin efficiency of the 120-amp
in a point where it will give nearlj as much Light
as the present L50.

My next call was to the Mitchell Camera
Company, who again were most helpful and are

prepared to deliver (provided we obtain the neces-
sary priority) N.C. Mitchells, the ones at pre-
in use at Denham, in a reasonable time. B.N.(
Mitchells, the ones nut requiring a blimp, willl
t ;ike longer.

The i|ii •stinn of cameras is a great problem to
me for the following reasons: 20th Century-Fox
have built an ideal cameraman'- camera. It is
revolutionary in every way. and superb from ,
director's, lighting cameraman's and operator's
point of view. It is absolutely blimpless, am
very little larger than the usual Fell and How . 1
or Mitchell camera. It has many new and needed
improvements over the cameras used at present
Tlnse established improvements include a longe
dwell period for the film during exposure, a 6
shutter cut off. more accurate method of transfer
from viewing to shooting position, a flatter film
plane and more -table method of lens mounting.
A- it can lie imagined, these improvements ain
at giving better definition, a valuable asset, it.
view of the development of single film colour,
which tends to exaggerate any locus trouble.

Everyone at Fox swears by the Fox camera,
including all their cameramen, but. and this i-
a very big but, it is not as sturdy as the Mitchell,
and requires very careful maintenance to keep it
up to scratch. Unhappily, through royalty or
patent complications, the future of the Fox
camera is at the moment a little obscure, and
though it is hoped that some day we may b(
allowed to make this camera over here, we must,
for our present requirements, look to the regular
camera manufacturers. Except for the Fox, the
only other type of talkie camera used in Hollywood
is the Mitchell.

When visiting M.G.M. (where 1 found them ti
be using exclusively the type of Mitchell that
we are using, with the exception of the fact that
they have a more convenient blimp) I was told
by them that they preferred using Mitchell- I
any other make ol camera. 1 asked the M.G.M.
people about the new blimpless Mitchell, and they
said that although it was silent enough for average
studio use, as tar as M.G.M. were concerned,
because of be fact that they shoot very low -lev, I
sound they preferred the more silent N.C. So
you see, the decision I have to make is difficult,
because there is a large school of thought in favour
of each one of these cameras. Incidentally,
Warners and Paramount are using the B.K.C.
Mitchell, which they consider first rate.

This letter has been somewhat technical, but
does not mean that I have neglected m\ duties.
Tony, as an Associate Producer. I have wined,
dined and talked picture- with lots of people,
actors, actresses, producers, director-, etc. All
seem quite convinced that the British Film Indus-

January— February, 1945 THE CINE-TECHX1CIAX

1.".

try is coming into its own — although all of them
feel that we should try and become more inter-
nationally minded. In this, I heartily agree with
them. If we intend to try and capture a share of
the American market, we have got to cater for the
American market. This does not mean that our

Paramount's Process Projection Uni.

Three of these units are used on a triple-head
set up.

productions should be in any way Americanised.
but in the same way that in Hollywood they bear
very carefully in mind the British market, we
must do the same as far as they are concerned.

It might be interesting to mention here that
M.G.M. have an International Department of six-
teen people, whose sole function is to make sure
that M.G.M. 's scripts are palatable to foreign
markets.

The things that Americans most like about our
productions are their sincerity, simplicity, origin-
ality of story, and last but not least, their very
"Englishness," In Which We Serve and Colonel
Blimp being two successful examples.

If (and it is believed that certain British pro-
ducers feel unwilling to do this) we refuse to con-
sider the Americans, then we must not grumble
at the lack of enthusiasm our pictures receive from
them. We must be content with selling our pic-
tures in the home markets and should in no cir-
cumstances try to force them into America. One
unsuccessful picture from England will undo all
the good achieved by three successful ones. Of
course, if we cater only for the home market we
must adjust our budgets accordingly, and keep
figures down to the £100,000 mark. Equally,
however, too much cost restriction on products for
the world market would be foolish.

EONNIE

October 21st, 1944.
My dear, and probably by now fogbound, friends,

Since I last wrote, I have received Tony's cable
asking for particulars of the way Hollywood
Studios are run, and in answer to this J can only
tell you that they have learned out here one big
lesson, that we have not as yet learned at home,
and thai is, thai even dollar that they spend on
" off the floor " services saves at least five dollars
in time and cost on the floor, in order to supply
the best possible service to their productions. The
studios have developed to a far greater extent
than us the various "off the floor" departments.
1 he most important of these departments are,
Camera, Sound, Back Projection, Special Effects,
Art, Property, Wardrobe, Electrical, Film Library
and Chemical Effects department.

The heads of each of these departments are peo-
ple of high authority in the organisation, and are
quite capable without having to refer to the
management of the Studio of handling all the
problems and decisions relating to their own
department. Thus, if for example a unit working
on the floor require a special trick shot, the head
of the department concerned is brought in and
the full responsibility for the planning and pre-
paration of the shot in time for the scheduled
date is placed on his shoulders. The floor unit
are able to get on with routine shooting, and do
not have to waste time planning the trick shot in
question.

So efficient and well organised are all these "off
the floor" departments that unless we are pre-
pared to take Ave years building them over here,
we must, brine- from America certain key technical
people who by virtue of their experience will be
able to help us achieve our aims quickly. I know-
that the policy of the A. CAT. is opposed to the
importation of foreign technicians, but for the
sake of the future of British pictures it is hoped
that they will co-operate by allowing certain peo-
ple, whose equivalent we have not got in this
country, to come over for specified periods.

In addition to the various departments set up
to help production on the floor, the general service
of Hollywood studios considers and caters for to
a far larger extent than at home the problems of
the floor, and, as a result, there are an enormous
amount of innovations designed to simplify and
help the speed of production. I am bringing home
particulars of these, but to show you the sort of
thing I mean, let me give you an example here.
The "Grip" department on each production have
the necessary equipment for building light tubu-
lar rostrums, and should it be necessary to sud-
denly erect a 16ft. or 18ft. tower on which to put
a light or camera, two "grips" cam build that
tower from scratch in about ten minutes. This

14

THE CINB-TECHKICIAN January— February. 1945

represents a tremendous saving of time. Ii a
director on one oi our stages in tins country were
to ask for a tower of this size, it might very easily
hold up the production for an hour.

Another lesson learned by Hollywood is that as
long as bad feeling exists between management
and labour, there can be no really efficient running
of film production. Smooth running on the floor
depends to a much larger extent than is generally
realised on the enthusiasm of the workers. In
Hollywood ever} member of the unit, right down
to the most junior "grip" takes an enthusiastic
inti rest in the welfare of the production, and one
of the first things that we must do in England is
to destroy the present disgruntled attitude of pro-
duction personnel, particularly hourly staff which
is one of the prime causes of the fact that we
take much longer to shoot a picture than they
do in America.

The working day in Hollywood seems to he
Wetter planned, and the various Trade Unions
should 1-e asked to help us with that problem.
Most Hollywood Studios work from 8.30 to 6 p.m..
very seldom going on after that time. They have
only one break of an hour for lunch, which gener-
ally happens at 12 a.m.. thus giving the Unit five
continuous working hours from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Once a Unit gets into its stride shooting quickens
up a lot, and the continual tea breaks in England
do a lot to slow up production. Would it not be
possible to have discussions with the Unions sug-
gesting, if necessary, an increased payment to the
men in return for a full day's work without breaks'?
Heaven forbid that the Englishman should be
made to go without his tea, but could not this tea
drinking be unofficial with work' going on at the
same time?

While dealing with general studio matters, it
would be as well to mention another time-wasting
element wdiich is apparent in our studios, and
which has been successfully dealt with here. This
is caused by the lack of discipline and control that
we seem to have at home over our actors and
actresses. In Hollywood artists are much more
considerate to producing companies than they
are in England. They allow themselves to be dis-
ciplined and pay mote attention to the requests
of assistant directors, etc. Our artists of late
seem to be able to do exactly as they like, irre-
spective of the time and money they are wasting.
Clauses should be introduced into their contracts
insisting on complete obedience to any reasonable
requests made by the producers, such as arriving
on time when called, and being prepared to stay
<m the set. etc. As much as 45 minutes per da\
has been wasted on recent productions awaiting
the cast.

It is very difficult to prevent stars from drifting
away to the restaurant, etc. In order to avoid

this happening. Hollywood have found it advis-
able to build a number of small portable bungalow
dressing rooms. Each important member ot the
cast is given one and it follows the production
ii' in stage to stage. These bungalows are so well
fitted out and are so comfortable in every way.
containing as they do a couch, easy-chair, a fir- -
class dressing-table with make-up lights, etc.
electric radiator, and the means of making coffee,
thai the artists have no desire to leave the set.
and can be relied upon to be there on the job
when required. Jt might appear that for us to
adopt this plan would be pandering too much to
the comfort of our actors and actresses, but if. as
it undoubtedly would do. it prevents them from
leaving the floor, the outlay incurred in the
building of these bungalows would be more than
r ipaid in a very short time indeed.

Before closing this letter, now that I have been
out here for a week or two, and have become more
acclimatised, I would like to say just a little bit
more about this problem of the Americans under-
standing our dialect. There is no doubt that this
is a genuine problem, but I am sure it is not
insurmountable. It is not a question of altering
the way we speak so much as making sure that
we speak correctly. We must become more aware
of the importance of good diction.

All new actors out here receive instruction on
voice production, and learn how to speak properly.
Several of our world stars have and still do take
lessons and practice voice control and diction. 1
would like to point out Robert Donat as an exam-
ple. Almost everyone in Hollywood goes through
a course of this description at the expense of the
company," for in many cases their need is even
greater than ours.

Perfect screen voices from the clarity point oi
view are those of: Robert Donat. Ronald Colman,
Herbert Marshall, Greer Garson and Vivien Leigh.
None of which, it must be admitted, are in any
way American.

I am leaving for home almost any day now.
so this will be my last letter. There is so much
more to tell you. but it would take hours to write.
I could talk for ages about the efficiency of som<
of the departments out here. In Rack Projection
they are streets ahead of us. Paramount triple
head is truly wonderful, Syd and I are bringing
back full details of all technical improvements,
and I sincerely hope that this information will 1 i
of use to the industry at home.

There is one last thing that I would like to
mention here, and that is. in America at the
moment an enormous amount ol potential acting
talent and for that matter writing talent which
we in Englad should not hesitate to steal in the
same way as America lias been stealing from us
almost since the beginnim: of picture making. It

January — February. 1945

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and appreciated for its sterling quality
of reproduction.

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35 mm. Equipment

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If,

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A N January— February, 1945

would be an excellent idea to have someone in
Hollywood — a reliable talent scout — who should
be commissioned to make exhaustive tests of pro-
mising people with a view to our grabbing them
before, instead of after they are put under con-
tract by American companies. In some cases it
would be possible to arrange with American com-
panies for a joint contract with artists who would
sometimes make pictures here, and sometimes in
England.

Before closing this lengthy letter I must tell you
how wonderfully kind and helpful everybody has
been out here. Syd and I have received the most
generous and unstinted help from everyone we
have met in the American Picture Industry, from
the highesl executive, down to the most junior
technician, and we are very, very grateful.
Yours as ever,

EOXXIE

P.S. — I enclose brief details of two meetings
held recently by the I.A.T.S.E. which I attended.
Brief notes regarding possible agreement between
A.S.C. and A.C.T.

As a preliminary to trying to reach an agree-
ment with the I.A.T.S.E. for some reciprocal
method by which there can be an interchange of
technicians between England and America. I
first contacted Air. Herbert Alter and explained
our feelings on the matter to him. He suggested
an early meeting of the committee of the camera-
man's branch of the union, the A.S.C, in order
that they should hear our viewpoint and in order
that we could, if possible, break down some of the
misunderstanding which at the moment appears
to be in existence. He also suggested that if agree-
ment was reached at this meeting, it would be a
good idea to hold a further meeting inviting all
cameramen to attend. I pointed out that I was
not only representing cameramen in this matter.
but all the various studio departments incorporated
in the A.C.T. Air. Aller suggested that if an agree-
ment could be reached with the cameramen, it
was conceivable that other factions would follow
suit.

Attending the meeting which was held at the
A.S.C. Club, Thursday, 'October T2th. 1944. were
the following cameramen: Eee Garmes, Eeon
Shamroy, Harry Stradling, Charles Clark, Arthur
Miller, John Arnold (head of AI.G.AI. Camera De-
partment), Joe Walker. Sol Polito, Charles Kosher
and one or i wo others. Also present were Herbert
Aller, business executive, and somebody from the
Eegal Department. Herbert Aller introduced me
and explained the reason for the meeting. I started
1 saying that I intended to be perfectly frank
and to the point in my statement to them as I
ill that only by being frank could we ever reach
an understanding that could in any way be per-
manent. I pointed out that up to the beginning

of the present war, there were quite a number of
American technicians working in the British film
industry, that as a result of this British people.
although (piite competent, were in many c: -
prevented from obtaining jobs. At the beginning
of hostilities, when it looked as though the British
picture industry would close down for the dura-
tion, most of the American and foreign technicians
gradually returned to their respective countries.
However, the government, realising the import-
ance of film production to the war effort, kept
the industry going, and for the first time British
production personnel found themselves by the
ne :essary shortage (owing to the lack of foreign
technicians) occupying key positions in produc-
tion. From this moment on, British films did not.
as one might expect, deteriorate in quality, but in
Had . improved.

I went on to explain that now the hostilities look
like coming to an early end. the various picture
companies of America and England were planning
post-war production in which both the American
and the British companies would work in close co-
operation. I pointed out that Sir Alexander Korda,
in association with Aletro-Goldwyn-AIayer of
America, had already purchased big studios in
England preparatory to setting up an AI.G.AI. in
England : also that my company, the Rank group,
were negotiating with 20th Century-Fox. and that
other companies, such as Paramount and Warners,
were con! •mplating large scale production in Eng-
land. This would, of course, mean that from time
to time producers would be anxious to bring from
America to England directors, cameramen and
other production personnel to take an active part
in productions in which they had an interest. But
this. I said, is going to be quite impossible unless
some sort of agreement can be reached as a result
of this meeting to-night. We, in England, while
wanting very much to improve, in every way. film
production, do not intend to allow an invasion of
American technicians to once again put our own
British people out of work. The A.C.T. sugges-
tion, therefore, was that if an American camera-
man, or for that matter any other technician.
was requested by his firm to make a picture in
England, the firm in question should make
arrangements for one of our British cameramen
or technicians to make one picture in the com-
pany's American studios. Thus, nobody was
losing a job as the result of a foreigner working
in the studio, there could not possibly be any bad
f. eling because the experience gained by both
these technicians would be well worth while.

In the discussion that followed I learned quite
a lot about the feeling of the average cameraman
in America. Apparently, prior to fchem operating
a closed shop, cameramen from all over the world,
attracted bv the glamour of Hollywood, had come

January — February, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

17

J

i

seeking employment in Him production. The
American cameramen were determined that such
a situation should not arise again. Equally, how-
ever, they heartily agreed with me that some sort
of reciprocity was now becoming essential. They
pointed out to me that as far as the American
cameraman who had visited England were con-
cerned, they, on their part, had felt a little hurt.
They were under the impression that they had
come to England to teach our less-experienced
technicians how to make pictures and that having
done so were then dropped and asked to leave
the country. This, 1 explained, was completely
untrue, that to my knowledge practically all the
American cameramen had left of their own
accord, in some cases even before current pro-
ductions were finished.

It was quite obvious early in the evening that
there was 100% support of an agreement being
reached and in order not to waste time, it was
agreed to hold a full meeting at an early date
to try and draw up something on paper with
which I could return to England. This, I must
repeat, is purely a cameraman's agreement. But
I shall be meeting within the next few days repre-
sentatives of other departments, and will do my
best to start the ball rolling in this direction too.

There are going to be many complications
attached to this plan because America seems to
be divided into zones, as far as picture-making is
concerned, and a cameraman who resides in
Hollywood is not even allowed to go and take pic-
tures in New York, so that any agreement that
we reach with people out here will not mean com-
plete freedom on our part to go to other parts of
America. There are many other problems which
will have to be sorted out, but I feel that the
evening was without doubt successful and pro-
ductive. Every cameraman that I have met out
here, and I have met most of them, has been
enthusiastic in this desire to help and co-operate
with those of us in A.C.T.

A second meeting was held about ten days
later, and all chief cameramen were invited to
attend, in fact, about 100 to 120 were present.
The same ground was covered, but with consider-
ably more argument and discussion both for, and
against, and in the end it was agreed that some
sort of reciprocal agreement was necessary, and
the following members of the A.S.C. were
appointed to serve on a committee to go further
into the possibilities. The names of those appoin-
ted to this committee were as follows : Ernest
Haller (GWTW), Lee Garmes, Charlie Kosher,
Joe Walker, Lou O'Connell, Ralph Fernstrom,
Phil Tannura, Harry Stradling, Glen

McWilliams, Gordon Pollack, John Seitz, Leon
Shamroy, Arthur Miller.

A communication from the committee is now
awaited by A.C.T.

LAB TOPICS— continued

We hear that the Lab. Negotiating Committee
was taken lor a ride way back in '44 in the
Organiser's "car." As it was raining when they
left the negotiations they organised a rota, while
the Organiser steered the contraption, and took it
in turn to bail out the rain, which for no apparent
reason at all came through the roof. Forewarned
is farearmed, and if Bert asks you to " jump in,"
an 1 it's raining, well don't — unless, of course, we
provide him with a real car!

NOW WE KNOW!

"He is but a straw blown by winds whose
source he docs not suspect."

Aneurin Bevan, M.P., writing of Tom O'Brien
in the Tribune.

"BLITHE SPIRIT" PREMIERE

The entire proceeds of the world premiere of
" Blithe Spirit " at the Odeon, Leicester Square,
i hi Thursday . Vpril f>i h, are being given, i hrough
the generosity of Mr. J. Arthur Rank, to the
Benevolent Fund of all the Unions in the him
industry. The target is £15,000. To reach this
not only must the house be sold out but many
substantial donations are wanted. A.C.T. is one of
the benefiting Unions. Please watch for further
details and give your full support.

#-'-T-<l.l^.*?Ac»~ ''

THE

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18

'J' II E C I X E - '1' I'. CHKICIAM January— February, 194 i

ON BEING A DEPUTY

Burr Burr — Burr Burr, "Hullo?" Agit:
feminine voice answers "Oh! Js that you, Mr.
Wheeler? Miss Pearson here, could you do me a
\ci\ great favour?" " Of course, Miss Pearson,
what is it?" is my unguarded reply. " Oh ! Could
you be our Father Xrnas, you see . . ." " Wha1 I"
I gasp, " Whew, what's the gag?" 1 soon gather
that Km ( Ion Ion. Tl 1 E Father Xnias, lias at shorl
notice been drafted overseas at the behest of a
certain Pathe Gazette, that efforts to fill the red

FATHER CHRISTMAS !

By CHARLIE WHEELER

'I hanks awfully." J gulp. " Just be at Film U is
— G.B. Theatre — 1 p.m. tomorrow -•
G'bye." I realise I've had it. What a mutt!
Win didn't I decline — why didn't I suggest A
Godfrey-Lewis — why - - -. [di s % ore pres
themselves. 1 give up and decide " Try anything
once."

At the appointed time and place I find an effi-
cient and cool Miss Pi arson here, ad every-

*%£■■' :" ■— - -

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robe have so far failed, and if 1 refuse then the
Annual Children's Party given 1>\ A.C.T. to the
children of its members serving in the forces would
be without its chief attraction — Father Xmas.
This calls for quick thinking. 'Not me," [think,
and then "That's all right, Miss Pearson. I know
the very person — George Hill — he goes to these
parties everj year and Loves to help. I've never
attended one. I'll see him right away and ring
you back." That's that. And now for George.
" Oh! George, they want you to be Father Xmas
at one of those parties they give the kids." " Who
does?" "Why, the A.C.T." " But they have
me down as a helper — I'm a tea-boy." ' Now look
here. George " — and I go to work on the innocent.
But he's not playing. 'They'd be lost without
me as tea-hoy. I'm red hot as tea-hoy. Besides,
if that out tit w as made for Ken Gordon 1 'd be li >st
m it, although it would fit you with a cushion
here and there. Tell you what. I might be
aide to do it it 1 was half canned." 1 give up — to
gel the mighty atom half canned would surelj
take the whole of A.C.T. funds. I realise it's a
sticky position. I ring back "Oh Miss Pearson,
are you really in a fix about this'.' George Hill is
tea-boy, I'm told." 'Yes, 1 wondered how he
could manage two jobs. So you're going to do it '.'

where—" Mr. Logie of Rotha will take care of
you." Mr. Logie hands me a parcel and shows
me a room— "In there, if you need help, yell."
says he, and departs with a grin. I sink d - □
regard the revolting parcel, knowing full well thi
contents. "Oh well, let's open up." The usual
junk is revealed - - nothing fits me - I yell foi
I e, who ties the heard on with string, takes
t ks in the robe with pins and pronounci - " F.\
celhnt ! Ko-one will know you. This way." Meekb
following I arrive to take up my post at the
entrance. " Sonic earh arrivals are here alri
— you'd better go in, show yourself and cODQJ
hack," says .Miss Pearson, and I'm sir
through a door face to Eace with a dozen kid-
In off the deep end all right! 1 mutter "G
aft moon, children." A chorus of respectfu
"Good ah. 'noons" squeak back, together w'tl

one sotto voce " I-11't he old'.'" I hack out.

muttering something about garaging m\ reind
— inwardh cursing t he discrepancy in size betw eea
1 . orge Hill and Ken Gordon which has landed mt
into this job. I'm feeling hot- the heard 1
wire framework which cuts my face my moutl
is full of white hair. I u - ' Back at the entrance
I ask Eot a 1 ig irette and am advised not to let th<
< ontinued on page 21 1

January— February, 1045 T H E C INE-TECHKICI A N

19

AFTER LISTENING TO THE

BRAINS TRUST

WE HAVE BEEN WONDERING

IS THE WORLD ROUND

OR IS IT FLAT ?

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY WITH ITS MILLIONS OF
FEET OF FILM DEALS WITH ALL PARTS OF THE
WORLD WITH ITS MAGNIFICENT BUILDINGS BEFORE
1939, WHEN THE WORLD WAS NOT FLAT. NOW,

LOOK TO THE FUTURE BY BRINGING IN THE PAST

WE CIRCLE THE WORLD

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Telephones: 54_58 WARDOUR STREET,

GERRARD j «J« LONDON, W I

■2<\

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN January— February, l'.n:

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

Organisational. The Laboratory Section is put-
ting its house in order. Local committees have been
strengthened or set up where non-existent. At
each Laboratory Committee meeting a written
report is submitted from a chosen laboratory, cry-
stallising the position with regard to membership,
relationship with the management, the number of
members who have contracted in to the Labour
Party, and current problem. On the basis of this
knowledge advice can he given and action taken
where necessary. Information so far received in
this manner lias been pleasantly revealing. The
firsi report came from Pathe Laboratories, War-
dour Street, and it is reproduced below. It tells
a story of nearly ten years patient, drudging, toil-
ing persistence to achieve 100% trade union repre-
sentation. It is the tale of a handful of workers
who believed that trade unionism was an ideal
well worth working and fighting for.

Knowing the history of Pathe 's over the past
ten years I would say that the report confines
itself severely to statements of fact and is admir-
able for its restraint.
Here it is : —

PATHE LABORATORY
Organisational Report — November, 1944.
The origin of the branch dates from 1935 with a
membership of some 8 or 9 persons. At the pre-
sent time our membership has increased to 100%
with a total of 63.

A total of 30 members have contracted-in and
are paying the Political Levy.

The membership is made up as follows: —
Adult or Graded Employees ... 52
Male; Adult : 31 Juveniles ... 7
Female; Adult: 21 Juveniles ... 4
It will be noted here that the proportion of
juvenile labour employed in the laboratory is not
high compared with the present day standard
generally.

We have a Works Committee of 7 as represen-
tative of the various departments as possible, con-
si ituted as follows : —
Branch Chairman .. . Lab. Mechanics.

Collector Sensitometric Control;

Multi Printing.
Printing ( Lady member).
Neg. Joining (Lady member).
Deputy Steward ... Developing.
Shop Steward ... Developing.

The committee meets as occasion requires. This
practice lias been adopted as best suited to our

needs, and is working satisfactorily. We have
succeeded in establishing some measure of co-
operation with tiie hah. Management which [con-
sider has been Of mutual benefit to both, We have

permission to hold our meeting on the Compam '-
premises.

The Shop Steward is notified of all staff changes,
promotions, etc., and the dates of same are agreed
before taking place, thus largely eliminating am
chance of disputes on rates of pay.

A complete list of Reservations is given to the
Shop Steward from time to time, and in this \v;u
a check is kept on the position regarding the
matter.

We have received numerous concessions, one
of the most recent being "Air Raid Insurance"
for persons required to work during the danger
period of the recent Fly Bomb attacks, at the sam«
time it being understood that persons not so
covered were entirely free to take shelter.

'I hese are a few instances of our activities, and
I think it is safe to say that very few things take
place without A.C.T. being consulted.

I do not wish to convey the impression that
everything is just plain sailing; we quite natur-
ally have our difficulties. 100% membership does
not imply that everyone is really a staunch Trade
Unionist. We have our ticket holders only, but
happily they are only a minority.

In conclusion, I would say that the branch in
my opinion is in a fairly sound position, due largely
to our consistent attitude in reference to the
observing of the Laboratory Agreement in spite of
war-time conditions.

I would like to place on record my appreciation
of the support accorded to me by the Works Com-
mittee and the majority of members in my capa-
city as Shop Steward, during the last three years.

E. FULLER,
Pathe Laboratory Shop Steward.

Serving Members. You will be glad to know-
that Ernie Welch, one of the Elstree Lab. boys
who has served overseas with the Navy through-
out the war is now back in England though still
in the Navy. He had to break up his home and
send his family to Norfolk when the war started.
Alter the war is over he is faced with the problem
not only of getting his old job back but also of
rinding another home.

Lick Abutter, of Denlabs control department,
now in the Armed Forces, dropped me a line from
Burma. Says they have the Japs well in hand.
He also expressed keen interest in the New
Laboratory Agreement, and is certain our mem-
bers will establish a new charter for laboratory
workers. I am sure you will all join me in wish-
ing Dick and Ernie safe conduct to the end of the
war and a return to some of the happiness tli<\
have foregone.

Bert Craik

imiary — February, 1945

THE CINE-TE G H N1CIAN

21

DEPUTY FATHER X MAS— continued

children see me smoking — don't worry — the beard
nearly goes up in flames. After that a fire estin-
guisher is kept near me.

Now the children are arriving aplenty and I
ieteci a certain power 1 am suddenly possessed of.
Children gaze in awe at me, others touch the hem
of my garment, at a word they obey instantly. I
wield this power with the most atrocious whoppers
about my trip from the North Pole and the prowess
of ni> reindeer which can make better time than
the Southern Railway. I warn latecomers to hurry
— that my conjurer, brought l>\ sleigh from Green-
land, is about to perform. Stragglers slide into
their seats and amid roars of applause Don
Richards and his magic takes the stage. I slide
out. "Phew! What a relief!" Peeping through
curtains I observe the rapt delight of the kids, one
of whom is invited to stooge for the conjurer —
"Bryan Langley's boy valiantly volunteers — if Dad
could see him now !

Find I have a break and can take my bearings,
so wander to other curtains behind which I dis-
cover are concealed enormous stacks of goodies —
and real pre-war jam tarts! Not a paltry half-
dozen or so but literally slacks. I discover " Pop "
Abbott, ever alert and getting younger every day,

superintending the lacing of the 16mm projector.
Now Don Richards finishes his act and the children
scream for more. Lieut. Llewellyn, U.S. Army
Film Unit, follows and entertains with song and
patter, while the safety films are got ready. The
lights dim down, .Mickey Mouse flashes on the
screen — all so smooth and well-ordered. George
Elvin is standing beside me — "How does all this
happen, George?" I ask. "Well, em-- er-- I
don't know, er--" "But sureh it doesn't just
occur'.' Someone must start things going some
time. It's pretty marvellous you know" I say.
"Well, er - - Miss Pearson does it and we all
help — she starts about September and she tells
me what to do. Ask her, she'll tell you." The
whole thing is so impressive I feel I must know
more about it. and make a mental note to find out.
Now a Western takes the screen and mingled with
the 16m n sound of galloping hooves are the gur-
gles and screams oi excitement from the young-
sters. "Stand by, at the end of this is the tea
fight," Siiys George Elvin in my ear. 1 hurriedly
hitch up my beard (cursed thing) — up go the
lights, open go the curtains, and as the stacks of
lovely grub are revealed it's hard to tell whether
the youngsters are cheering the demise of the
Western or the revelation of the jam tarts.
(Continued on next page)

For Thinkers the World over I

:

!

Share it with your Friends

29

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X January— February. 194£

"Uncles" and "Auntii s" (the "tea-boys") quietly
move into action! lemonade, tea, cakes, all go
sliding by to the eager recipients — plenty for all
and then some over — what a feast ! Now for an-
other Mickey .Mouse, while the tea things are
cleared aw ,y\ — and then the stripping of the Xmas
Tree! But wait, Eric Gray has to photograph the
scene, and confesses to me he feels quite nervous
with all these youngsters — a thing he has never
experienced in a studio. Inform him that all these
kids respect me and offer to swap the Father Xmas
outfit for his camera — but nothing doing. George
Elvin leads me to the Tree, Miss Pearson takes a
toy, calls a name, Elvin brutally orders me to
yell out the name and — we're off! Nearly 200
times this. happens, and I'm in it up to the neck!
'Thank you, Father Xmas. Thank you, Sir."
" Oil Santa Clans you ate so kind." " It was nice
of you to come to our house and now have me to
your party." " Will you kiss me. Father Xmas '
Perspiration is pouring down under my heard —
lei me out. where's Ken'.' And yet. I feel a guilty
deceiver to all these lovely children — familiar
names they hear ton — names we all know around
the studios and laboratories. 1 think of their real
fathers, not an old fraud like me, wherever they
m;i\ la; — B.F.A., Italy, Africa. Burma, etc. I
think of the miserable Assistant Director and
Cameraman who declined a sixpenny ticket in the
Draw to help expenses — those two should he here
to see what that sixpence could provide apart from
the prizes they might have won. I wonder if Jacob
Marley's ghost will haunt them for the Scrooges
that they are. Yet even Scrooge reformed.

As the last kiild\ departs I sneak out unobserved
and strip off the rig — what a relief! The others
have cleared up and are ready to go; everything
seems strangely quiet alter the revels of ten
minutes ago. " Let's have a drink after that lot."
announces Elvin, and we troop out to The Ship.
"And now, Miss Pearson, how do you do it?" I
ask. "I start thinking about it in September and
buy toys whenever opportunity occurs," she re-
plies. And in answer to my look, continues "I
cleared out a small toy shop twice, once before
Nmas and once after. Then I keep reminding peo-
ple I'll need their help — George Elvin walked in
with five toys from a ba/aar one day — then I
arrange early with the London Co-op for the
"eats" Mr. Abbott lets me have the G.B.
Theatre and arranges for projection and films —
Mr. I )a'wson of I! K< ) provides films- Mr. Williams
of National Screen Services said be would let me
have artistes, and was as good as his word lot-
be sent along Mr. Don Richards, the conjuror.
<;.'iu-ge F<ister with his accordeon, and the Xmas
Tree. Lieut. Llewellyn, of the U.S. Arm\ Film
Unit, just happened to see what was going on
when visiting Film House and volunteered his aid.

Then Seymour Logie. Bob ETuke, Phil White and
I nil Craik all came early and helped me d'< co
the Tree and label the presents. 1 had volunti
to tea service in Mrs. and Miss Frost of Crowi
I le. i*t". Miss Marjorie Main. Miss Joan Steb-
bings, Miss Marjorie Dawson and Mrs. Matthews
of Colonial Film Unit, and George Hill, of Gains-
borough, and Sid Davies. You can always rely
on Eric Gray for the stills — then there are the
"Aunties" and "Uncles" who brought the
children, not forgetting the other staff of A.C.T..
Gladys Naman. Bert Craik and George Elvin all
hopping around and helping. You see it's not so
bad."

" Well, Miss Pearson. I think it's marvellous.
and the A.C.T. staff are to be congratulated on
the show they put up : the- members will be proud
to know such things are done I'm sure — Fv.
had an experience I wouldn't have missed for
worlds but will you please arrange for Ken Gordon
to take his part next time — I'll be tea-boy ! " Ami
as we go our various ways I wonder on the inn
sibility of assessing the amount of happiness dis-
pensed by the forethought of our "Freddie"
Pearson.

12th ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING

SATURDAY and SUNDAY
APRIL 2 1st and 22nd

BEAVER HA L L

Garlick Hill. Cannon Street. E.C.2

(nearest station Mansion House)

All members are entitled to and should
attend. Many important policy decisions
will be taken and officers elected for the
ensuing year.

A copv of the Annual Report and Agenda
for the Meeting will be sent to each
member a week before the Meeting.

January— February, 1945 THE CINE-TECH M CI A X

.:.

MOSCOW FILM WORKERS' CLUBS

By Oleg Leonidov

This description of a Club run by Soviet film workers is of special interest to us at the present
moment when the A.C.T. has appointed a Technical Committee. We hope that some such scheme as
that described here will form part of their proposals.

A roomy, two-storeyed house accommodates
the Central Club of Moscow Film Workers. It
is called the Moscow Cinema House. There is a
spacious hall tor previews, a concert hall, library,
billiard-room and restaurant. Movie stars, pro-
ducers and other workers of the industry come
here on business and pleasure. Showings of Soviet
and foreign films with ensuing discussions are
staged here and regular meetings are held to dis-
cuss the problems that arise in the work of actors,
directors and cameramen, as well as those con-
nected with the production of documentary and
popular scientific and technical films.

All this is aimed to improve the quality of future
pictures, in content and artistry; to help estab-
lished screen actors to better their work, and to
promote new talent. The Moscow Cinema House
maintains close touch with associated branches of
art — theatre, painting and literature. One of the
most immediate tasks is to establish contact with
foreign film industries in order to arrange a mutual
exchange of opinion and experience.

The question of preparing the film world for the
post-war period is already being raised : what sub-
jects are likely to interest picturegoers, what t\ pe
of film should be produced?

Soviet film workers are devoting much time to
children's films. A special studio for producing
films for children and adolescents already exists
in the U.S.S.R. The fine point as to what forms
the basic difference in films for children and for
adults lias to be determined and a selection must
include both recreational and educational films.
All these questions are discussed by the people
of the cinema world and new productions of Soyuz-
detfilm (the Ail-Union Children's Film Studio) are
frequently shown at the Cinema House.

The Cluli is under a management board consist-
ing of outstanding figures of the cinema industry.
Producer Ivan Pyryev was elected Chairman at
the General Meeting of Club members. These
members not only discuss, they take an active
part in the work of 12 sections recently formed:
the producers' section, headed by producer Mik-
hail Romm, technical by cameraman Boris Vol-
chek, theory and criticism by Oleg Leonidov,
colour hhns by Director Igor Savchenko, technique
and cinematography by Professor Peter Kozlov,
Director of the Cinema Scientific Research Insti-
tute, popular scientific films by producer Vladimir
Shneyderov, documentaries by Lev Yaks, music

W.VINTEN LTD. NORTH CIRCULAR ID. CRIUIEW0OD.N.W.2.

k. Gliditont 6373

by Composer Nikolai Kryukov, youth section by
pr iducer Ysevelod Pudovkin, children's section l>\
producer Alexander Razumny, history of Soviet
and foreign film industries section by producer
Sergei Yutkevich and the section for stage settings
by art director Vladimir Kapluyvsky.

It is planned to publish a monthly magazine.

Great though! is also given to the problem of
establishing firm contract between the cinema
world and its audiences. With this aim in view
preliminary showings and discussions of new films
will be arranged in all large -Moscow enterprises
to enable authors to hear the direct voice of the
public.

The winter session includes a showing of two
new documentaries. Liberated France, presented
by Sergei Yutkevich, and the Restoration of
Stalingrad, by Joseph Poselsky. Other pictures
on the list are a new film presented by Alexander
Zarkhy and Joseph Heifets, entitled the Malakhov
Kurgan (The Hill), dedicated to the defence of
Sevastopol (1041-42), Igor Savchenko's Ivan
Nikulain, A Russian Sailor -- a picture in three
colours, .Mikhail Roman's latest production No.
217, about Soviet citizens under Fiseist bondage,
and Forward, the Baltic ! producer Alexander Kien-
zimer — devoted to the sailors of the Baltic fleet
in their defence of Leningrad.

Two evenings will be devoted to analysing
American scenarios of 1943-44, and a report on
Hollywood in wartime. The Moscow film workers
take a lively interest in their club, a centre of
creative and scientific thought of the Soviet film
industrv.

-for Studio and

laboratory equipment,

CamerasJripodsftintirw,lfacessin<}

planL.ana fathe solution of any

\ technical problem concerning

them -the name that ' matters is

24

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

THE CINE-TECH KICI A X January— February. 1943

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

A High-Efficiency Projector for Colour Background
Shots.

(Farciot Edouart, S.M.P.E. Journal, August. 1944).

The Paramount Studios special effects depart-
ment have designed and constructed a st eieopticon
for projecting natural colour slides for background
transparency work in colour productions.

The three major problems which the designers
had to overcome were : —

(lj The duplication in quantity of correctly dis-
torted non-fading natural colour prints 3J x 4" in
size. Because the light source, condensers, opti-
cal system, slide glass and the translucent projec-
tion screen all act as a cumulative filter on the
projected image, the colour reproduction of the
slide must be distorted to give a correctly balanced
image to the camera. (See below: Duplication of
Kodachrome Transparencies) .

(2) The transferring of these duplicates to a heat
resisting glass, free from hubbies and striae and
cemented so as to resist intense heat without
peeling.

(3) The designing of a unit to project the 3J x 4"
image with sufficient light intensity to rephoto-
graph in colour. This called for a light source and
optical system of maximum efficiency and an
effective cooling system which would cause a
minimum loss of light and a minimum of colour
distortion.

The Light source is a Mole-Richardson lamp-
house with a specially designed condenser system.
A quartz-plano-convex condenser and a pyrex
double-convex condenser focus the light on to a
circulating water cell consisting of 2 plano-convex
condensers. These in turn are focussed on to a
field condenser system large enough to cover a
31 x 4" slide.

De-aerated distilled water is circulated through
the cooling cell by a pump, via a fan-cooled radia-
tor. There is also a cooling system for the lamp
house. A heat absorbing shutter, working in sync,
with the camera, is mounted between the cooling
cell and the field condenser system. A shutter
made of heat absorbing glass has been used ex-
perimentally, This absorbs 30% of the heat (metal
shutter absorbs 37%) and is transparent enough
to do away with flicker.

The slide bolder is mounted next to the field
condenser. It can be revolved through an angle
of 180' about the optical axis.

A squirrel cage type bli iwer fitted below the ci in-
denser and slide holder directs a stream of cool

air at a rate of 200 cu. ft. a minute on to botl
sides of the colour slide.

The lenses used are a 12 inch Astro f .3.1 and a
lOin. Bausch & Lomb £.4.5. Operating at 22J
amps, using 16mm. positive carbons the light out-
put is over (')( 1.000 lumens.

The whole unit weighs 1,800 lbs. and is moun-
ted on rubber tyred castors for portability. It i-
silent in operation and can be used for black and
white plates as well as colour.

Duplication of Kodachrome Transparencies for
Background Projection.

(Earle K. Morgan, S.M.P.E. Journal, August, 1944

Natural colour values and colour correction are
first in importance in making slides for projected
backgrounds. The lack of control of these import-
ant factors in other methods led to the develop-
ment of a duplicating process whereby colour
value, colour correction, density . enlargement ana
reduction are controllable.

The original colour transparency is placed <>\e'
one end of a light-proof tunnel On this case tin
front bellow sot a copy camera) with thecopj Lens
at the other end. Two large daylight blue nasi
bulbs in white reflectors are used. Th( si
placed on either side of the copy camera and di
ted at a curved diffusing white surface 2ft. in front
oi the transparency to be copied. The film used is
Daylight- Type Kodachrome land is exposed by
open Hash at ^tops as required by the size of dup-
licates and density of the original.

Colour distortions in the original transparencies.
or those introduced by the stereopticon projector,
are corrected by the use of tinted filters.

In cases when' lower contrast is desired, a neu-
tral grey mask (a 1<>w gamma, black and white
negative of the original transparency 1 is placed in
contact with the original and the exposure madi
through both.

Eere is an example oi d usity control: by de-
creasing the exposure at the time the duplii
is made it is possible to convert a daylight trans-
parency into a night scene.

The advantages of enlarging or reducing certain
sections of a transparency are obvious.

Tbe duplicate transparencies are on an acetate
base and are transferred to glass before use in tbe
projector. Tic original transparency is in no w a\
altered and can be bled as a stoek shot 1o be
used f' a' tut ure pictures.

3L

FILM PRODUCER

has been formed by the Companies andsUnits listed below in order to pool
their resources and make available the best possible film-production
service to Government Departments and to Industry.

The principles upon which the Guild has been formed are :—

1 That films can play a great part in
post-war world rehabilitation, but to play
their part effectively such films must be
of unquestioned integrity and of the
highest technical quality.

2 That such films are best made by
small units of experienced technicians,
specialising in the type of film for
which they are best fitted and believing
whole-heartedly in the value of their
work.

3 That these units, however enthusiastic,
cannot function properly without adequate
technical facilities and financial stability.

4 That since such technical facilities are
beyond the resources of small units, the
key to efficient film production is the
establishment of a co-ordinated group of
individual production units, each retaining
its freedom of expression, but sharing in
the financial stability and physical re-
sources of a large organisation.

The Guilds personnel of upwards of 130 principal technicians includes Producers,
Directors, Writers, Cameramen and Editors, each with his own individual viewpoint
and specialised experience: these are supported hy first-class business organisation
and have at their command the facilities and permanent technical staff of the Studios
operated by Merton Park Studios Ltd.

THE FILM PRODUCERS GUILD ltd

CHAIRMAN AND JOINT MANAGING DIRECTOR: E. P. L. PELLY • JOINT MANAGING
DIRECTOR : A. T. BURLINSON • DIRECTOR : F. A. HOARE • SECRETARY : JOHN M. WARD

ASSOCMA TES

VERITY FILMS LTD • PUBLICITY FILMS LTD ■ MERTON PARK STUDIOS LTD ■ SOUND-SERVICES LTD
GREE!SP.4RK PRODUCTIONS LTD • TECHNIQUE FILM PRODUCTIONS • GRYPHON FILMS

E. W. BECKETT
DAN BIRT
SYDNEY BOX

REG GROVES
F. A. UOARE
RALPH KEENE

#*««/> f it: it. v

MAX MUNDEN
CECIL MU-iK
E. P. L. PELLY

HAROLD PURCELL
RONALD U. RILEY
JAMES E. ROGERS

DONALD TAYLOR
COSSARTURFERY
W. H. WILLIAMS

GUILD HOUSE • UPPER ST MARTIN'S LANE • LONDON • WC2

Telephone: Temple Bar 5120 (13 lines) Telegrams: Filmicity, London

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WARDOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.I.

Telephone: GERrard 671 1
Cablet: KATJA

Printed by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 2, Soho Square, London, W.I,
and printed for them by the Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

1/-

MARCH
APRIL

DO '

OF '-•hT

ANTHONY ASQUITH

KEN CAMERON

ALFRED DAVIS

MARCEL VARNEL

RUSSELL WESTWOOD

CHARLIE WHEELER

Re seive

HOLLYWOOD SOUND
WHAT'S WRONG WITH B.P.?
REALLER THAN THE REAL THING

A CHAT WITH THE FRENCH TECHNICIANS

TWO
ALL-TIME HIGHS

WITH MILLIONS OF FEET required
by our Armed Forces for training and
other military purposes, the total pro-
duction of Kodak motion picture films
has pushed into new high ground.
And the all - round quality of this
huge output has never been excelled.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Film Department,
Kingsway, W.C.2.

'KODAK9 FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

itorial & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 . Telephone: GERRARD 8506

jvertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

sDchts Editors : Sidney Cola, Gaorgi H. Elvin, Kanmth Gordon. Wj/tsr G imwood, Fred Hyson, M. J. Land, Fraik Sainsbury.

umber Fifty-three, Volume Eleven March — April, 1945

Price One Shilling

REALLER THAN THE
REAL THING ....

ft

by

ANTHONY
ASQUITH

I remember as a child being taught a little
rli vine which went something like this : —
If all the good people were clever ;
And all that were clever were good,
The world Mould be better than ever
We thought that it possibly could.
But, alas, it is seldom, if ever
They quite hit it oft as they should ;
For the good are so harsh to the clever,
And the clever so rude to the good.
Now in the bad old days the moral of this poem
was applicable to the makers of documentary films
and those of films rather quaintly called " studio. "
The documentary boys looked down their noses —
often with the utmost justification — at us poor
commercials, who, in their opinion, were ready
to sacrifice all sincerity, all outward authenticity,
all inward truth to life, to what we believed to be
"'box-office." We, on the other hand, thought of
documentaries as dreary information, drearily
presented: "How pins are made," "Cocoa and
all about it" — or, "Nature Studies": "Ah.
there's little Mrs. Water-Wagtail — you can just
-re the tip of her beak peeking into the top left-
hand corner — and here is her Lord and Master on
sentry go at the nest — evidently she wears the
trousers! Ha, ha" — or films consisting almost
entirely of factory chimneys, clouds and the wheels
of railway engines. Now in our opinions of each
other there was just enough truth to make them
extremely dangerous, but more dangerous still was
the attitude engendered by these opinions — the
mutual outward contempt mixed with secret
jealousy of the intellectual and the noveau-riche.
hike all generalisations this is only partially true
and there were many exceptions on both sides —
especially among the " documentaries." but there
was no real getting together. I like to believe thai
the war has changed this situation almost entirely.
The chief reasons are, I think, that commercial

directors have joined service or government units
and have had, perforce, to deal with documentary
subjects, and those who have remained in the
studios, not only in the films they make for the
M.O.I, blit in many ordinary commercial films,
have, by pressure of the situation and reasons of
propaganda, had to deal with some of the same
subjects — and it was a bad day for the studio
director when he had to treat a service subject,
or a subject which dealt directly with lives of
people as they were being lived in war conditions,
it he decided that the old rule-of-thumb box office
treatment would do. Before the war, his heroine
might, without grave risk from the audience.
smuggle herself into her husband's aircraft and
pilot it safely home after he had been wounded
over the enemy lines, thereby winning him a
vicarious D.F.C. She might — I actually saw this
in a play — set off in a two-piece bathing suit to
sink an enemy submarine single-handed with the
words: "What a German woman can do, an
English lady can do also." But not now. We can
all remember a few gruesome examples — and
some of them were made here — of this sort of
thing earlier in the war. It was, often, not the
wretched director's fault except in his weakness in
yielding to those who held that only a twopence-
coloured distortion of life is acceptable at the box-
office. 1 well remember mam years ago I was
present at the rough cut of an African travel film.
It was in the days when documentaries were called
interesl ' films. It was being shown to a
Wardour Street official who shall be nameless -
indeed, 1 have forgotten his name. At the end he
said : " Not bad stuff — but, of course, it's only an
' interest.' Now if only you could put in a bit oi
sex — you know — a love story — you'd take all the
' interest ' out of it ! " Ee meant it . ol course, as
the friendliest possible advice, and he was also
speaking the literal truth. A love story would,

26

T HE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A N

Man! i— April, 104."

indeed, have taken all the interest out of it. 1
tell this story because, in increasingly less crude
forms, the same attitude persisted up till and
including the beginning of the war. Film makers
were always taking the " interest " out of a film
by putting a love story, a happy ending, or some
other falsification which they believed would
appeal to the public. This attitude is now largely
dead. Commercial producers and directors have
learned by bitter experience — especially when
dding films on service and kindred subject — that
it simply will not do. They realise that they
have an immense amount to learn from the docu-
mentary approach, not only in accuracy but in a
true picture of the lives and work of the men
they want to portray.

Xow if the commercial film makers have, in
such cases, had to learn from the documentaries,
they too 1 think, though to a lesser extent, have
had, slightly, to commercialise their attitude. By
this, 1 hasten to add, I do not mean cheapen.
There is nothing cheap, to mention only two
examples, about Pat Jackson's magnificent
Western Approaches, or Humphrey Jennings'
deeply moving Silent Village, but I do not believe
that if they were put into a film programme with-
out any advance publicity that the average film-
goer would take them to be documentaries at all.
I am afraid the ordinary public still hold the "How
pins are made — Little Mrs. Water-wagtail-clouds-
cum-railway wheels" view of documentaries. I
would just like to say, in case anyone thinks I
am sneering at pre-war documentaries, that I have
never held that view. Two of the films that linger
most strongly in my memory are, on the side of
what used, vilely, to be called "reportage":
Arthur Elton's Housing — the most effective piece
of propaganda I have ever seen — and, on the
lyrical side, Basil Wright's exquisite Song of
Ceylon.

But the melancholy fact remains that there are
still large sections of the public who shy like ner-
vous mustangs at the very suggestion that a film
is documentary, and paradoxical though it may
sound, I think that in certain places at any rate,
Western Approaches might be even more success-
ful than I am confident it will be, if the advance
publicity led the public to believe that the whole
thing had been done in the tank at Denham with
professional actors. They would then accept it
for what it is, a thrilling story beautifully told
and acted, and perhaps some of the knowing ones
would laugh scornfully at their more naive friends
who thought the waves were real, and explain to
them the mysteries of back-projection. And this
is really what I mean when I said that the docu-
mentaries had, perhaps, also learned a little from
"studio" films — not that they had altered their
approach to their material, or in any way deviated

from the strictest truth, but that they tended t<
organise that material more and more in the form
that a commercial film might take. I have not
seen the script of Western Approaches, and I gin b
that much of the dialogue and detail was. in tact
improvised on the spot, but I am sure that a shoot-
ing script made from the finished film would havi
been leaped at by any commercial producer or
director of imagination. But there does remain
one fundamental difference between a film such as
Western Approaches and a studio film on the same
subject and that is not mere realism of detail.
This can usually be satisfactorily supplied by the
technical adviser — and what commercial director
dares shoot a service subject without a technical
advisor chained to the camera? Xonetheless, on
this point, the documentary director has an enor-
mous advantage over the commercial. By using
real settings and people he has never got to won \
about the surface truth of his picture. That takes
care of itself and leaves him free to concentrate on
the telling of his story, whereas the poor commer-
cial is distracted by a continuus conscientious fear
of doing the wrong thing from the service point of
view. Even the chained expert sometimes nods —
and has been known to slip his shackles and disap-
pear at a critical moment . No, the main difference
is the question, " real " actors or real people. No
one will dispute that where people are shown
doing their jobs, real people cannot be equalled.
In the Anglo-American air force film which I am
just finishing, I continually used real people in
real settings, not only for general action shots but
for all sorts of bits and pieces. Xo body of actors
in the world can convincingly reproduce an R.A.P.
parade or a ground crew, let alone a group of
American airmen playing soft-ball. Here, inciden-
tally, the individual action and improvised dia-
logue was a sheer joy. Xo, the crux arrives when
it comes to the main characters. I have nothing
hut the highest praise for the acting in Western
Approaches. It was simple, natural — a most
difficult thing for an amateur to be — and, in one
or two cases, supremely pood. It was always
entirely adequate to the situation. But I still
think that even in a film like this there is some-
thing to he said for the " real " actor. Sometimes
without any sacrifice of outward realism his
imagination will he so fired by the subject that
he will give something more real than the real
thing. That is to say. be will expri SS more of the
man's inner personality, show us more tact- oi
his character, present us. in fact, with a rounder,
more living figur :. And T do not mean only scenes
which show him in his private life where the actor
has the obvious advantage, and which was wisely
avoided in Western Approaches, and were, indeed,
irrelevant to the story, f will instance, if 1 may
be forgiven for mentioning a film oi mj own, John

March— April, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

L'T

Mills' performance in the attack sequence in We
Dive at Dawn. He had a long solo which consisted
of nothing but a string of technical orders quite
unintelligible to the layman. Indeed, neither he
nor I ever acquired anything but tin- vaguest
notion of what they meant. The situation, of
course, was a dramatic one, but. on paper, the
speech which had not one personal touch in it,
looked a very grim prospect for the actor. On the
screen, however, it was not only — so I am assured
by experts — technically corred but verj exciting.
And I think what made it exciting was the imagi-
native way in which Mills drew the picture of a
man whose brain has, so to speak, to be in two
places at once. That is to say he has to issue orders
which apply to the moment while his mind is
already concentrated on the next move. The
weight of his thought is never behind the spoken
word which is really only the mechanical physical
expression of what he had been thinking a moment
before. In my opinion he conveyed this in a \v;i\
which no real submarine captain could hope to do
unless lie was also a superb actor.

Now that is the case of an actor giving, by the
intensity of his performance, an overtone of
poetry to a purely realistic scene. But I would
go further: I believe that, in certain very excep-
tional cases, a non-realistic scene can be reader
than the real thing. Nobody in life speaks in verse,
but no one, I think, denies the reality of Shake-
speare's characters, and now we have in Henry V
an example of a film which: with certain trivial
Haws, succeeds to my mind wonderfully, and for
the first time, in recreating on the screen this
kind of reality. On the surface nothing could be
more artificial. People speak as no one ever
speaks in life, and the lovely sets are highly sty-
lised. Incidentally, how the real exteriors are
made to blend imperceptibly without any jar, with
the sets, is a mystery I am totally unable to solve.
Here, then, is a film in verse with artificial set-
tings which, in theory, should turn out, at best,

either to be a well-acted but tedious, photographed
play reeking of tin ■ theatre, or possible an interest-
ing and rather precious experiment. Hut, in fact,
the final impression — on me. at least — was one of
intense reality. 1 felt 1 had been watching the
most natural and living people in the most natural
settings.

Every work must be judged by what it sets out
to do and 1 hope no one will think that I am so
stupid as to criticise splendid films like Western
Approaches because they are not Henry V. All
that I am trying to say is that there is more than
one plane of reality in films its there is in litera-
ture and the drama.

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-sixth
List

H. BLANCHAED (Editor)-— Navy.

MARTIN HEADPIECE (Diagram Artist Assist.,

Parkins & Co.) — Navy.
1). BROOKMAN (Developer, Film Laboratories)

— H.M. Forces.
•J. R. CHEESEMAN (3rd Operator Trainee,

( iamsborough) — H.M. Forces.
R. CHERRILL (Assist. Cutter, Denham)— H.M.

Forces.
F. COPE (35mm Tester, British Acoustic)— Royal

Navy.
J. Cllo:;P\ (Transfer. Technie,,l,,rl - H.M.

Forces.
D. V. DALE (3rd Projectionist, Merton Park)—

H.M. Forces.
D. DAVISON (Assist. Cutter, Crown Film Unit)

— Navy.
N. DORME (Art Trainee, Ealing Studios)— H.M.

Forces.

(Continued on page 38)

28

THE CLNE-TECHNICI A N

March— April, L943

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

Serving Members. Art Inn- Smith 1ms been
serving as a war reserve attached to the Shenley
Police Force almost sim-c war began. Many of
our older laboratory members know him. He used
to work at the Ideal Laboratory at Rock Studios
under Vic Alder's father. Later, Arthur moved
to Elstree Laboratories when the\ were built h\
British International Pictures. He is still foot-
slogging and could write a book of Ins experiences
in air raids during the earlier part of the war.
Football, cricket and gardening are still his
favourite pastimes.

The other day 1 heard from Reg. Marsh, who
is tied up as a despatch rider in the N.F.S. at
Potters Bar. He will never forget the days at
Elstree Laboratories when he was foreman printer.
That is where he met and married his wife,
Winifred Bradley.

Jim Bailey, of Humphries, brother of Chris
Bailey, is serving in the photographic section of
the R.A.F. I've had a couple of letters from him.
His health hasn't been too good lately. He sends
regards to all those who know him and especially
to his old workmates at Humphries.

Needless to say all these men are looking

forward to the time when they can get back into
harness again a! the laboratories.

Every Little Helps. The London Trades Council
appealed to all affiliated unions on behalf of the
French and Belgian trade union delegation to the
Work] Trade Union Congress. Soap, dried eggs,
and dried milk were needed. Soap is in very short
supply in those liberated countries; the French
and Belgian women delight in washing the clothes
of our boys over there but just can't get the soap.
Permission was given for such commodities to
be taken back by the delegation. Directly the call
went out A.C.T. members got to work; ration
books were to the fore and we finished up with
three to lour cwt. of goods. Realist, LATA and
G.B.I, were especially generous. It is concrete
efforts such as this which will help to weld inter-
nal ii mal trade union solidarity .

Cartoon, Diagrammatic, Trailer and Title Agree-
ments. Much water has flowed under the bridge
since two years ago A.C.T. decided to stabilise
and improve the rates and conditions in the car-
toon and diagrammatic sections of the industry.
At thai time certain good employers, notably
Publicity Pictures, were operating on decent
standards whilst elsewhere there was a different
stor\ to tell. Since then rapid strides have been
made arising out of which we now hold agreements
with llalas & Batchelor, Technicolor, Larkins &
Co. and British Industrial Films. In addition.
Publicity Pictures are prepared to abide 1>\ any
agreement reached with the Association of Short

el -J

10

(J

£12

10

1 1

eio

o

0

£8

it

0

£7

0

0

Film Producers, but in the meantime are operal
on a standard equal to and in many cases b< I
than that laid down in such agreements as web
(I.B.I, and G.B.S.S. Cartoon Units will als
honour an agreement between the A. S.F.I'.
A.C.T. In the main these two companies
observing the standard- operating elsewhere.
Further, an agreemenl between National Scri
Services (the trailer producing company) and
A.C.T. came into force as from 1st January. 1945
the principal wage rates of which are: —
Trick Cameraman
Supen isini; Editor

Editor

Background Artist
Negative Lettering Artist .
Plus, of course, the standard cost-of-living bonus
of approximately £1 3s: Od. tor adults, dependenl
on the rise and fall in the Government cosl
living index figure. The normal working week
is 44 hours with overtime payment at time-and-
one-half and double time for Sunday work. The
Agreement also makes provision for two week-
holiday on full pay. Sickness is provided for at
four weeks on full- and four weeks on half-p
in any one calendar year after 12 months' service
with the company.

On the debit side, in the Greater London area.
we have the Merton Park Studio diagrammatic
department where the highest wages paid in a
section of 11 employees, excluding the sm
visor, is t4 per week plus cost-of-living bonus.

Three of the employees are receiving less thai;
the normal trainee rate-.

Four employees will by the time this appear?
in Press, or soon afterwards, have qualified for tin
rate for the job, but judging by the opinion i
the Managing Director there is little chanci
them receiving it.

He claims that it is impossible to obtain skilled
employees; other companies have been able
and it is significant that some of bis own skill.
artists have left to take up employment elsewhere.
The management also claim that the work the\
turn out is of a simpler character than that don.
by other diagrammatic firms. Artists who have
left Merton Park think otherwise' and tbe\ should
know. What it amounts to is that Merton Pari
Studios diagrammatic section is running on tin
cheap to the detriment of other similar companies
in the industry .

The company is willing to abide h\ any act,,
ment reached with the A.S.F.P. In the mean-
time they are making hay while the sun shines
and our members there consider t one long rainj
day.

Bert Craik

March— April, 1945

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

■_"."•

THE SECRET

1

of ILFORD SUCCESS

U nswerving devotion to the interests of photography
in all its branches is the secret of Ilford success.

In the six Ilford factories research goes on unceasingly
to maintain the high standard of quality which has
distinguished Ilford materials for nearly 70 years.

Modern manufacturing methods and a practical
knowledge of the needs of the Cine Industry will
enable Ilford Limited, as soon as conditions allow,
to supply a range of negative and positive films which
will be pre-eminently suitable for all requirements,

The name Ilford is your safeguard and guarantee.

ILFORD LIMITED CINE sales department

NATIONAL HOUSE WARDOUR STREET LONDON, W.I

30

THE CIXE-TECHSICIAN

March— April, 104.")

Ken Cameron

HOLLYWOOD SOUND

J arrived back in London from my seven weeks'
trip to America just in time to hear the admirable
talk given to A.C.T. by Ronny Neame. It was
fascinating to me to see how closely my path
had followed Ronny's, and how the reactions he
obtained coincided with my own. But since he
went to Hollywood primarily on a tour of camera-
work research, and my enquiries were largely
devoted to sound, I thought it might be interesting
to jot down some of the discoveries I made in the
corners of the studios into which Ronny possibly
did not penetrate.

Naturally J also was staggered by the amount
of equipment considered essential for satisfactory
work. Every studio appears to have everything
in such quantities. From the twenty tracks nor-
mally used lor re-recording by M.Gr.M. to the
twenty to thirty theatres of Warners; from the
vast roomful of microphones at Paramount to the
row of film recorders stretching into the distance
in the main recorder room at Burbank. These
major studios spare no expense to provide their
staffs with everything that could possibly he
needed. There seems to be only one condition:
the final track which emerges from the studio
must be as nearly perfect as the modern sound
track can be.

I don't want to say anything about the extra-
ordinary care which is taken in developing the
voices of the artistes employed, and the choice
of words and phraseology. Ronny dealt with that
far more efficiently than T could hope to. It cannot
be coincidence that I also in my wanderings across
the Middle and Far West heard the same com-
ments upon British pictures as he did. They do
not object to British pictures as such. Far from
it. The trouble is they simply cannot understand
them.

They have learnt one lesson in Hollywood which
has been \er\ apparent to all sound engineers in
Britain. They post-synchronise extensively, and
the decision whether or not to post-synchronise
rests with the sound engineer. I record for
documentary pictures. I know the failings of the
tracks I turn out as well as anybody. And I
know better than quite a lot of people that first
class recording of dialogue from the type of artiste
we normally use. under normal location conditions,
is practically impossible. We have not the time
to waif for both sunshine and quiet ; we have not
the time to dampen the hard, shiny walls of the
schoolroom where we have to shoot, and still get

our sequence in the can during the odd hour or
so the artiste has to spare : we have not the time
to get another miner up from South Wales because
the one so carefully chosen by the director has
no roof to his mouth. Neither have the Holly-
wood studios. Their schedules have to be kept
— and are kept. The result is that Republic turn
out a " horse opera " in six days' shooting on the
lot. They don't worry about wind or aircraft or
any other extraneous noises. A guide track is
shot throughout — it is generally not even printed
— and the entire picture is post-synchronised,
quickly, efficiently, and amazingly accurately.
And an excellent track results. This sort of extreme
is perhaps confined to the exterior " quickie," bue
even the ordinary studio feature is probably about
25 per cent, post synchronised.

Music scoring has been developed to a high
degree of perfection in Hollywood. I know that
it is irot revolutionary to suggest that film music
should be composed and orchestrated with every
bit as much thought for what is happening on the
dialogue track as upon the picture. The advantagi
of having a music track which virtually dubs itself
is obvious to every mixer, hut how often do we
get it'.' I found that the general method of
recording music, if not novel to this country, i- at
least different to normal practice. The tendency
is to use a large number of directional microphones
— the R.C.A. velocity is by far the most popular
choice — each operated very close to the section
of the orchestra covered by it. The mixer is
provided with a lead sheet, or simple form oi score,
and he obtains balance more by electrical mixing
than by the physical process ot shifting the instru-
mentalists. Reverberation is obtained partly by
an echo mike, and partly by the use of a rever-
beration chamber in circuit with one of the mike
lines — generally that covering the fiddles, or even
in circuit with all the mikes. I noticed that
M.G.M. were experimenting with the use ot
several channels for music recording; the idea
roughly being to shoot the fiddles, the wood and
the brass upon separate tracks, and mix in the
final re-recording until the correct balance is
reached. This is presumably the natural develop-
ment of the basic principle of recording a solo
vocalisl upon a separate track from the orchestra.
In general the orchestras tended to he smaller
than the ones we use over here. They varied from
eighteen or so normally used by Disney for his
short subjects, to some thirty-five for the average

March— April, 1945

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

:;i

feature. For exceptionally big musicals or prestige
pictures this number is generally increased, more
weight being given to the strings. They seem to
make considerable use of instruments such as the
harp, celeste, piano, novachord, tubular hells, and
s.i on. Playback with picture and dialogue is, of
course, heard utter each take. I must not give
the impression that American film music appears
to me to be so astonishingly good. For richness
of ideas and imagination 1 don't think the
American composer can hold a candle to the
Britisher. But unquestionably the presentation
of their music and their skill in adapting it to the
needs of the picture are far ahead of ours.

Of course, one of the biggest factors responsible
for the excellence of American film recording —
particularly on variable area track — is the avail-
ability of fine grain stocks. They are able to
expose Eastman 1372 stock perfectly with the
ordinary incandescent filament recorder lamp
through one thickness of UV filter, using coated
lenses. This stock has a resolving power nearly
three times that of 1357, and no appreciable image
spread is apparent with prints of some IS from
a negative of about 2'4. Fine grain stock 1302
is also used for positive work. The absence of
ground noise is remarkable, though this is probably
greatly due to the very high standard of cleanliness
in the better laboratories there.

Practically all the major studios seem to have
their own peculiar methods of recording. M.Cr.M.
use exclusively for studio recording the '2<>o mil
Class A Push-Full track, which is also becoming
almost universal at Paramount. Among the
R.C.A. studios Republic studios are using Class
B Push-Pull and Warners Class A Push-Pull .
while RKO Radio are still using the standard track
throughout. The R.C.A. Victor studio was using
Class B direct positive recording for ultimate
transfer to the Victor Red Seal commercial discs.
Again with microphones most studios differ as to
their individual preferences. I saw the 630 at
Fox, the 618 at Paramount, and the M.G.M. con-
denser at Culver City. .Most of the K.C.A. studios
were using the unidirectional, which is most
popular. Mixer desks for floor work varied from
the standard R.C.A. " tea wagon " to a cute little
box with only one knob on it. Talk-back to
recorder operator, projectionists, and film machine
men was universal.

A great deal of research and interstudio discus-
sion has gone on over the subject of re-recording
mixer consoles. The final results are very won-
derful indeed. T don't suppose they do very much
more than the more elaborate models over here,
but all the controls are so very intelligently
arranged, and, of course, the wide use of talk
back makes for very speedy working. Compression
veiling controls are brought out to the console,

and 1 noticed a vers clever arrangement at RKO
for opening and (dosing the central door in the
re verb erat ion chamber l>\ means of a Selsyn motor
operated from the desk. The facility, not onlj
to introduce reverberation at any point on any
track at will, but also to vary the amount of
reverberation, is quite a thing.

There is, of course, no shortage of space. Tin re
is quite a lot of America, and a fairish bit of
California. The stucco stages and theatres are
quite proof against the wonderful climate, and
are very cheap and quick to erect. On the day 1
arrived in Hollywood 1 went out to Republic's lot
at Burbank. They were just building a new sound
department consisting of the finest scoring stage
in Hollywood, small theatre, offices, and so on.
They had laid the concrete floor, and wooden
posts had been erected all round. 1 returned
fifteen (lays later, and they were moving in. Con-
duit work and wiring were practically complete,
and. provided all the new equipment arrived on
time, the installation would be complete inside
another week or two. That type of working is a
little staggering to a Britisher.

Another side of their film making procedure
struck me at the time as being a little unort hodox,
but 1 have since Keen told that it has been prac-
tised in this country quite a bit, although with
doubtful sir cess. After the picture and the master
dialogue track have been edited, the whole picture
is handed over to the sound department for com-
pletion. They maintain the sound library, work
very closely with the music department, and are
responsible for all track laying. The principle of
having sound cutters actually in the sound depart-
ment appealed to me cnormoush . After all, track
laying is an art which should he practised by one
wlio has a full and intimate knowledge of the
whole re-recording process. Perhaps such a pro-
cedure can only work with real success when the
production schedule is sufficient to keep a stream
of material reaching that stage.

So much for what I saw in the studios. T could
go on in this vein for a Ion- time, becoming more
and more il a bore. The advantage of a trip such
as I have just had is not in the startling revela-
tions one lis: overs. Fortunately inter-studio co-
operation iver there is so great, and relationships
between departments of rival concerns so cordial,
that any important development is automatically
shared by all. And very soon any such develop-
ment reaches the pages of journals like that of
S.M.P.E. The advantage lies more in being able
to watch their technique for oneself; to see the
little gadgets which abound in Hollywood, which
are not considered worthy of a paper to S.M.P. E. ,
but which for some reason, we have never thought
of over here. And perhaps most of all to he able
to meet the technicians there on a friendh basis,

32

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1945

and to realise what charming blokes they are. I
lunch one day with Mr. Aller and Mr. Smith, the
representatives of the picture and sound sections
<if the Unions. Naturally I broached the subject
of the proposed reciprocal arrangement so often
discussed by A.C.T. The impression I go1 was
i hat individually everybody in the American film
industry thought that a mutual interchange of
technicians was a wonderful idea, but that for
some reason collectively they were against it. The
technicians wanted to see Britain and to hear
British views as much as we over here want to
s i p ■ • i < 1 some months in Hollywood. But I think
that it is going to be a pretty tough fight to
achieve such a happy state. I finished up by
asking Mr. Smith what grounds the I.A.T.S.E.
had for interpreting the first initial as "Inter-
national." That was just about the only question
which Hollvwood could not answer!

What's wrong with

B.P.?

by Alfred Davis

Chief Projectionist, G.B. — Gainsborough
Studios

The recent request for a meeting of specialist
B.P. projectionists is definitely a step in the right
direction for the ironing out of technical problems
by common discussion and co-operation, and one
on which Charlie Staffel is to be congratulated.

Arising out of the inaugural meeting (I hope
tln-re will be more) it does seem that B.P. is,
in some cases, a very sketchy affair, through no
fault of the B.P. projectionists concerned. Such
things as non-co-operation, the old pastime of
"passing the buck," the intense dislike of 15. P.
in certain quarters, etc., these points and lots
more reared their ugly heads to such ungainly
heights that perhaps certain elementary organisa-
tional and technical fundamentals require urgent
attention, particularly in the whole approach to
B.P. by the " higher ups." In this respect, it is
furl una te [or me that at ( iainsborough these points
have been long appreciated, together with the
importance of B.P. in the whole production set
up and costing schedule; the ultimate has not yet
In i ii reached of course, but to this end please
allow me to give a few constructive points which
have received hearty endorsement when intro-
duced on my job.

In the first instance, control of B.P. and Stereo-
scopic Backgrounds was placed in the hands of

projection with the help of the over-lapping depart-
ments concerned — the final arbiter being the
Production Chief, .Maurice Ostrer. As a result.
any decision reached (via script or however) that
H.]\ is required is immediately in the hands -of
projection — the wheels can now turn. Contact
is made, with time to spare, with the Pro-
duction, Camera. Sound. Editorial. Art. Special
Effects. Model and Construction Departments,
Print, Slide and Effect densities are checked, and
the types of shot required carefully gone over. The
co-operative received and given is conducive to the
production of first class B.P. and far from the
projectionist being looked upon as a nonentity.
or at best, a necessary evil, his deep knowledge of
screen brightness, optics, densities and projection
problems in general is fully appreciated and given
rein — so much so that B.P. (and I mean effective
B.P.) is used extensively at Gainsborough to the
advantage of the costing schedule. With war-time
restrictions on plant and material, improvements
are not easy but every opportunity is given for
research and experiment so that, whilst sweeping
improvements like triple-head are not yet con-
templated, many minor improvements have been
and are being made. It would therefore seem
that B.P. projectionists at some studios are not
getting a square deal if they are not being allowed
lo work as 1 am. As a result of this, the industry
itself is ultimately the sufferer for it is no pleasure
to a British technician to see bad B.P. in any
British production. So far from the move in cer-
tain quarters to laud the foreign element let the
B.F.P.A. be British enough to give British tech-
nicians a chance — don't employ them and ignore
them, that's bad business. The question of rate -
and conditions for B.P. is also a thorny one that
the B.F.P.A. might further consider when they
have someone who knows what he's talking about
on this side. Meanwhile here's to better and bigger
British B.P.

BENEVOLENT FUND DANCE

On the Saturday evening (April 21st) of
the Annual Meeting Week-end a Dance
has been organised from 7 p.m. to 1 1 p.m.
with Van Phillips and his Band. Royal
Hotel, Upper Woburn Place. W.C.I. Fully
licensed. Tickets 3 6d. each from A.C.T.
Shop Stewards or 1 lead Office, 2. Soho
Square, W.I.

March— April, 1945

THE CINE-TECHKICIAX

33

CROSSWORD

by Manny Yospa

1

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3

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ACROSS

1, It's supposed to be silver. 4, It's quite often upset.
10, You do this up before you shoot. 11, He comes from
Wales. 13, Change direction. 14, I'd start to be lazy.
16, The Arabian might ail. 18, Choose. 20, Does the
Still man take these on his holiday? 21, Sour, but also
sweet. 22, Not a gentleman. 24, A black sailor. 25, A
trial for everybody. 28, This should be funny. 30, Love
in the middle of the grass. 31, Devour. 33, Have you
ever done this to a dame? 34, Passport. 36, Pointed,
and I'm in it. 38, Cold bad habits without victory. 39,
Rates the flower. 40, Additional bits for the crowd.

DOWN

1, Film Bible. 2, The chap "Roll 'em" is addressed
to. 3, For example nothing for me. 5, This chap will
always liven things. 6, You can do this to itself. 7, Raw
stock with clothes on. 8, This cent is a fraction. 9,
Palindromic female. 12, Keep to this and you'll be
right. 15, Acting. 17, Powerful letters in the film indus-
try. 19, The arc gives us a sound system. 23, You strike
this to make it work. 24, Time for a cup. 25, The
volume is in my direction. 26, The dodger returns re
Dave. 27, Gets a round. 29, " Cut.'' 32, A blow you
can turn. 34, By way of. 35, The Art Directors are
fixed. 37, A thousand and nine to stir.

Solution on page 4/

12th ANNUAL

GENERAL MEETING

SATURDAY, APRIL 21st, 3 p.m.
SUNDAY, APRIL 22nd, 10.30 a.m.

BEAVER HALL

GARLICK HILL, CANNON STREET, E.C.2

(nearest station Mansion House)

All members are entitled to and should attend. Many important
policy decisions will be taken and officers elected for the ensuing

year.

A copy of the Annual Report and Agenda for the Meeting should
have been received by each member.

:;i

THE C I N E - T E C H X I C I A \

March— April, 1945

CINEMA

Wheeler

Kenneth Gordon has been responsible for this
popular f cat are for ten years. We feel — and we
know he would agree — that it would be a mistake
to suspend it during Ins absence on the Continent.
Charlie Wheeler is proving such an excellent deputy
for Ken in so many zcays that we have asked him
to carry on with the good work as guest contributor
to this feature. — Editors.

Scene 1. Take 1

First the Newsree] negotiations! Then Father
Christmas!! And now " Cinema Log"!!! Will I
deputise for Ken Gordon? Will I II . . .! Paging
Ken Gordon and warning him, this is the third
and last time; well, you know what I mean, it
might be " Can you lent me a river?" next. Maybe
he intends staying with the I'.. FA. until the war
is over, reduce his girth, cultivate an accenl and
turn up disguised as a foreign technician! So
smacking back at "My Master," Freddie Watts
(all masters grovel at the feet of foreign
technicians), and making enough in six months
to retire to his beloved humus at Streatham,
there to cull ivate his garden like Candide and thus
compete with Pascal in growing food for the nation.
Retrospect

If I hadn't know n Km all these years I wouldn't
put it past him ; just after the last war it was,
just as rotund then as now, resident cameraman
with Theodore Thumwood and -lack Parker (sen.),
at Master Films Teddington Studio (now Warners).
The journey Inane each night on the Waterloo
hound train was usually a riot and Ken, who
invariably sported a straw boater — as opposed
to the usual cameraman's headgear — a cap with
the peak at the back in those days- -was often
set upon by Hill Crisp (now Finewood), George
Wynn (now Co-op Films), Ena Williams (now-
National Screen), Cliff Sandal I (now I. B.C.) among
others ami decanted af Putney with the beautiful
straw bashed in. The mysterious part about it
was thai he always turned up next morning with
an immaculate boater. From Teddington he went

to Pathe and I'll hazard a guess there isn't a
cameraman in the game who has been so long
with one "Master" - musl he over twenty-five
years — would this be " one up " to Freddie Watts
Afterthought

Talking of hats, did you know that Bro. Secre-
tary is sporting a new one? It's not a straw boater
and he didn't buy it.
Prancing at the Polytechnic

What a surprise the P>.K.S. Regent Street Poly-
technic meeting turned out to be. I thought our
delegation of three was down to meet a small
delegation of the British Kinematograph Society.
When we arrived (Kay Mander. George Elviri and
myself) it was rather like a foyer at a premier* .
Everybody seemed to he there and I was secretly
pleased that I was wearing my white negotiating
collar. All standing around muttering, joking,
chatting, nods and winks of recognition flew hither
and thither. I was in a dither. Someone said
everybody in the trade was represented except
the K.H.S. Suddenly there is a hushed silence,
then the babble rises and falls again — like mixi rs
itch on the crowd loop (if your technical education
has been neglected \<ni don't have to go to Holly-
wood to get what I mean — any Sound man will
explain). Rubbernecks stand on their toes —
what's on? Is it pi-elate, prince or pontiff? I
thought they might he bringing Quentin Hogg's
statue in from Regent Street — no, it's human —
perhaps a foreign technician?

•• Ordeal by Handshake "

The crowd tails hack — Blimey! it's The
Master (all right. Ken Gordon, pipe down -
most of us have The Master and several
ordinary Masters — you have only a Master
— Freddie Watts). The apex of vertical integra-
tion slowly advances and is presented to each]
and every delegate — now hoys, don't jostle,
your turn will come, there's no order of prec< d<
here, no class distinction — remember you're at a
seal of learning and learning levels all men. or -
it death, I forget (Memo: check with Society of
Morticians). J. Arthur Rank's ordeal over, dele-
gates are politely requested to seat themselves at
the largest table 1 ha\e ever seen — not a prop
outside of the A.C.T. Committee Room.
The Idea

Chairman Captain West soon got cracking and
together with the agenda and statement it was
apparent that the scheme for apprentices and new
entrants was all wrapped up and sold to the gentle-
man in the bowler hat if he would hut sign on the
dotted line. Fortunately your General Council, w it b
its usual sagacity, had issued your delegation with
:■. strict instruction — " no mandate and a watching
brief." You bet the delegates watched like watch-
dogs. Flkhoimd Elvin was soon barking A.C.T.
policv. It was made verv clear that any scheme

.March— April, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

36

proposed could only be operated for the benefit of
all concerned — and we are concerned for the
prospects of our 800 members now serving in the
Forces. The resolution was withdrawn, it being
agreed that technical education is desirable and
a committee be set up representative of all the
bodies present plus Government departments to
go into the whole question. Meanwhile, the B.K.S.
will study A.C.T.'s own Apprenticeship Report and
Post-War Rehabilitation Report. Personally, I
think that much good could come from the work
of such a set-up providing it is kept clearly in mind
that any suggestion of flooding the industry with
new entrants without regard to requirements will
be fought by A.C.T. tooth and nail.

Tough Guy

In the correspondence columns there is an inter-
esting letter from Len Townsend. There's guts for
you ! The way that kid has been shot up and then
comes up smiling for another go. Thanks, Len,
it's to the boys like you that we owe a packet.
While you and the others are away we have our
eye on the whining, snivelling rats jockeying for
position, currying favour and toadying to whoever
happens to be in the ascendant with the sole
object of lining their own selfish pockets without
a hoot for the industry and those in it.

Maestro

What a lovely job Jack Cox has made of the
lighting on Madonna of the Seven Moons. I men-
tion this because 1 think so, although there's
another reason ; it was Arthur Crabtree's first
effort from the directorial chair, so some nitwit
had to suggest that the photography just had to
In' good with two lighting men. Arthur tells me
he resents the suggestion that he had anything to
do with the photography — he directed, and it
was a tough job. The assignment of Jack Cox
to the production was a load off his mind. It's
good to see tribute paid and credit given the way
Arthur does. That Jack is a Maestro is beyond
doubt, as many of his late pupils running round
freely admit, even though they are in the same
market .

Congratulations

To Ronnie Abbot on the news of his wedding at
Washington, ]>.('. Ronnie is A.C.T.'s gift to the
U.S.A., being attached to Naval Research, Wash-
ington, where he has been for 2| years. He
conies of an old family of British technicians and
received his training at British Acoustic and
Gaumont-British. He is expected home on leave
soon.

To Marcel Varnel on finding his aged mother
safe in Paris. She has been there throughout the
occupation. To Marcel also, for the excellence
of his liaison between A.C.T. and its French
counterpart.

Commiseration

For Harold Huth, who has just undergone a
serious i iperat ion in a London hospital. Let's hope
he is fnllv recovered and fit again ere this rolls
off the pres
Congregation

At " The Highlander,'' Dean Street, Mine Host
and Hostess (Bill and Ethel) will soon qualify for
A.C.T. membership. Surrounded by technicians
of every see! ion and dispensing hospitality to the
loquacious, they must know enough by now to
get past the Technical Standards Committee. The
President himself buttonholed me with a very
leading question plus a mild-and-bitter as I was
cogitating upon the number of productions one
could staff with those present — just as script-
writer Frank Launder entered to round off my
figure. Peter Cannon, Alt' Witcomh and " Freddie"
Pearson of Technical Standards were in a real

>r what tl

icy re cooking up '

huddle : wonclei
Negotiation

Still proceeding — the Laboratory Agreement.
It's no secret that progress is being made and
patience is required all round. But things must
be settled properly this time — too long has the
laboratory been the Cinderella of the industry —
the studio boys recognise this fact and demand a
square deal lor their lab brethren. They feel they
can't expect first-class processing on sweatshop
and scab conditions.

THE

GROWN THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE
AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

TWO DOUBLE HEADS

DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM
MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS

SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS

86, Wardour St., London, W.1

.if,

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 1945

A CHAT WITH THE
FRENCH TECHNICIANS

by Marcel Varnel

Cold, hungry and "stoney," I landed back in
England after two " Icelandic " weeks in Paris.
J allowed myself two days to thaw out, and
replenish my stomach and my pockets, and then
gol in touch with our General Secretary, to give
him an account of the results of the " unofficial
mission which 1 had just undertaken. This was
to contact the French A.C.T. or to give it its full
tith — " Le Syndicat des Techniciens de la Pro-
duction Cinematographique. "

Whenever J have met George I have always
felt that he would make a good poker player. You
all know his impassive face, and have all heard
his " twelve frames " laugh when he thinks some-
thing is funny, or docs he? But my account of
my meetings with the French A.C.T. and with
Jean Painleve, in whose hands the organisation
of the French Cinematograph Industry has been
placed, certainly interested him. Instead of
answering them, he began to ask questions, and
when I had left him, I realised with pleasure, and
horror, that 1 had pledged myself to acquaint you
all with the actual situation of the French cinema
industry and the French techicians.

Pleasure — because as a I >rh isher ex-Frenchman,
nothing would please me more than to witness the
(dosest liaison and union between our technicians
and the French technicians.

Horror— because, though I have never worked
In France and only in English-speaking countries
—I still have to he on guard when writing serious
thoughts in English. I am a comedj director,
ami if 1 can say " Ee by gum" without accent.
my pen is rather hesitant when writing such
words as " fulfilment." Still here goes.

In fulfilment of my "unofficial" mission. T went
first to see Jean Painleve. He is a young fellow.
between thirty and thirty-five, son of Paul Pain-
leve, who was Radical-Socialist Prime Minister
in France in the 80's. His government job is to
reorganise the French cinematograph industry. If
one stretches one's imagination his department
mighl be compared with the Film Division of the
M.O.I, in this country. Its finance is provided by
the French M.O.I. , and propaganda, newsreel or
education films come under its control. But their
post-war goal is much greater, and this is easy to
understand. For four years France was "sous la
botte des Nazis," and productions were Nazi-con-
trolled. So the Government decided to wipe the
slate (dean and reorganise the cinema industn

from scratch. Jt onlj took me ten minutes ol
conversation with Jean Painleve to find out that
he had already submitted to the French Govern-
ment several proposals and reforms which our own
Association (A.C.T.) is overwhelmingly in favour
of. Among them, for instance, "La Banque Co-
operative," which in English means a "Film
Finance Corporation established under Govern-
ment sponsorship to produce feature films." And.
may I add. it looks very much as if France will
have that . . . before we have it in this country.
Again I must say it is easier for them to do so
as they are starting from scratch.

Jean Painleve and I then discussed bi-lingual
films, exchange of technicians, problems of pro-
duction, distribution and exploitation. In paren-
thesis. I must say that regarding distribution and
inhibition, the French film industry in the past
few years has been at a very great disadvantage.
] was told by Jean Painleve that distributors asked
up to 35% of their grosses for distribution. I
was also told that exhibitors were " naughtj " and
have not yet gone back to the "straight and
narrow." That did not surprise me. During the
past four years it has been the policy of the
British and American broadcasts to incite the
French to sabotage the enemy's war effort by-
doing everything which was wrong, such as
deliberately working slowly, dealing in the Black
Market, etc., etc. Are we to expect the French
to become righteous again at the turn of a switch'.'
It will take more than a few months for them to
resume the right mode of living, and therefore
yon will not be unduly surprised to learn that out
of 4,000 French cinemas 400 were prosecuted last
year. This is a matter which concerns Monsieur
Painleve a great deal, and he was extremely
anxious to have details of our system of control.
I have sent him the details of our renter's control
system.

I think most of us will have sympathy with one
of the most outstanding grievances the French
have at present with the films exhibited in their
country, and that is the "dubbed" film. Here.
we have never experienced the same trouble, as
all our generally released films are in the English
language, or in its near equivalent — American.
But this is not the same thing in France, A sub-
stantial proportion of their programmes have been
made up by "dubbed" American ami. once in a
while. British films. Technicians, you all know

March— April, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

37

how unfavourably you re-act to an occasionally
"out of synch play-back." Imagine the feelings
of the French people towards films which are
done to "play-hack" with hardly any attempt
at " synching," since the language on the original
.sound track may he as far away as " oreille " to

car" and both words mean the same thing.
Naturally, they do not like them; up to now the\
have endured them, but to-day they want to hear
their own language spoken. It is my private
opinion that they would be very keen to sec good
British pictures, comedy or drama, done in a
French version, and I must say also that it is my
private opinion that the British public would be
very keen to .see good French pictures — comedy
or drama — done in an English version.

I took leave of Jean Painleve after assuring him
that it was the wish of our Association to work
closely with him, with the feeling that his ideals
were very close to our own.

Leaving him. I went to the bureau of the French
A.C.T. where I met Monsieur Daquin, its Presi-
dent. As the French A.C.T. had a "General
Council " that night ] was privileged to be invited
to attend it. An hour later the " General Council
was in progress. As usual, everyone present was
wearing an overcoat and two or three sweaters,
and when I took out of rhy pocket my chromium-
plated tin of titty cigarettes I found them ex-
tremely welcomed. By the way, what a contrast
to the General Council I attended on my return,
when the atmosphere was so warm that we were
glad to shed our coats, and as soon as I sat down
cigarettes were being offered me from all direc-
tions !

The French A.C.T. want to work in the closest
contact with us. They requested me to convey to
all of you their appreciation and sincere thanks
for the help and assistance we have offered them.
The French Syndicate differs from our Associa-
tion as it incorporates all studio workers. This
means that among its members are carpenters.
plasterers, electricians, property men, etc., in
addition to the grades covered by our A.C.T.
Strangely enough, laboratory workers do not
belong to the French A.C.T. They belong to the
■'Chemical Union." 1 was also surprised to find
out that the clapper-hoy is very often an old stage-
hand. I acquainted them with the workings of
our Association, and although it may take some
time before the "lab workers" belong to the
French A.C.T. I am pretty certain that in future
the clapper-boy in a French production will be an
apprentice cameraman. And, of course, this brings
me to the apprentice question.

The French ACT. have the same aspirations
and ideas as we have, and they are very keen on
arranging exchange of apprentices between our
country and theirs. Nothing, I feel, could be more

beneficial to the two countries than to see a few
of our apprentices being exchanged for an equal
number of theirs, both sides working under the
same conditions in each country. Apart from over-
coming the language barrier the different atmos-
phere and the creative brains of each respective
country should enlarge and enrich their outlook
en life.

All in all, my goal was to assure the French
technicians that we were behind them, and readj
to give them a " leg-up " in their uphill struggl .
From their enthusiastic response I can easih
visualise that in a few years the French and
English motion picture industries will ^ro forward
together — an ever strengthening and more power-
ful force which will certainly make its presence
felt and its voice heard to its competitors all over
the world.

REPORT ON FRANCE TO
LONDON TRADES COUNCIL

As an appendix to Marcel Varnel's article we
print a report by the Organiser of a statement
made to the London Trades Council by Monsieur
Henaff, Secretary General of the Paris Trades
Council : — ■

M. Henafi opened by expressing pleasure that
the World Trade Union Conference had been con-
vened, lie went on to add that be was grateful
for the war effort of the British peoples, and also
for the wonderful show put up by the Led Army,
the British Armed Forces and the American
Armed Forces. Speaking of the Trade Union
Movement in France be mentioned that it had
been largely responsible for sabotaging the German
war effort. Many of the people had joined the
Maquis and gone underground to avoid deporta-
tion and to help France.

During the German occupation of France about
100, ("MM) civilians lost their lives and COO, 000 were
forcibly deported to Germany. Frenchwomen had
served in the Resistance Movement and had
earned equal legal status with men. The Trade
Union Movement had been responsible for the
calling of all strikes. You, of course, know that
it was in fact the people of Paris who themselves
relieved the capital from German oppression. On
this occasion even the children helped ; they made
small hand grenades and threw them at the
German tanks.

M. Henaff was of the opinion that Fascism
would never be smashed until we got rid of the
trusts, banks and international capitalism.

Touching on economic reconstruction, he stated
that all the factories owned by collaborationists
had been confiscated. He mentioned the serious

.s

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 194£

shortage of trains and lorries and other means of
transport, pointing out that at least another 75%
was needed.

He drove home the fact that a country's pros-
perity and riches depends on its workers, and
one might to add that Trance needs practical help
because the country had been pillaged by the
Germans of nearly all its railway engines, etc.;
further that there are no raw materials to make
up the deficit. On the other hand textile fac-
tories were left almost intact, and he made a
suggestion that raw materials should be sent over
In France to be converted into manufactured
articles.

Touching, on the coal situation, he stated that
approximately 1,000,000 tons were lying idle with-
out transport to distribute it to the people. For
example, during the ver\ cold winter spell no coal
was available in Paris, and every day children
were dying of frost bite and hunger. Speaking of
hunger; to give some examples of the rations
issued individually: In November, 1944 — 51b's. of
potatoes was the ration per head; in December,
lOlhs. ; in January, again 51bs. Added to this is
the fact that ration tickets had to he handed over
for meals in restaurants.

He stated he was sure the workers in Britain
were not taken in by the stories appearing in
our daily newspapers regarding Paris fashions.
Obviously these stories had not given a true
picture of Paris: the facts are that the people are
hall-clot lied and wages are exceedingly low.

Since the' liberation of Paris, the Trade Union
Movement has been reconstructed and already
there are 800,000 members.

in conclusion, he appealed lor the reconstruc-
tion of the international Trade Union Movement
as a method whereby to ensure that in future our
children will live in peace.

After M. Henaff's statement it was made known
to the London Trades Council that he had spent
one year in prison, after which he had managed
to escape, and that those of his comrades who
were not so fortunate were subsequently shot.

AWARDS

Lt. Coram. "Sash" Fisher. R.N.V.R., has

been awarded the Order of the White Eagle In
the Yugoslav Government. This is equivalent to
our own Victoria Cross. Hearty congratulations.
" Sash."

NATIONAL SERVICE— continued from page 27.

W. J. DUNSFORD (Merfcon Park)— Army

P. F. HARMAN (Assist. Camera, Technicolor)-^

Army.
K. HARRIS (Sound Maint., MertonPark)— Navy.
R. HEALEY (3rd Projectionist, Ealing Stud

— H.M. forces.
J. L. MERCER (Transfer Operator, Technicolor)

— Merchant Navy.
(i. .MiXASSION (Lab. Operator)— R. A. F.
C. McCOMBIE (Neg. Dryer, Humphries)— H.M

Forces.
J. McCORMICK (Electric Assembly. British

Acoustic) — H.M. Forces.
1). McKEAND (Camera Trainee, Verity Films)—

Army.
T. PITFIELD (Drving, Film Laboratories)—

H.M. Forces.
Miss J. PLESTER (Art Trainee, Crown Film

Unit)— H.M. Forces.
P. POLLOCK (Camera Loader, Ealing Studios)—

H.M. Forces.
F. PULLEN (Lab. Trainee, Humphries)— H.M.

Forces.
T. PULLINGER (Camera Assist.. Crown Film

Unit) — Navy.
D. SIMPSON (2nd Asst. Camera, Crown Film

Unit)— H.M. Forces.
A. TOMPKINS (Camera Asst,, Ace Films)—

Army.
PAUL" WILSON (2nd Asst. Camera. Ealing Stu-
dios)— H.M. Eorces.
F. WOLFENDALE (Sound Maint. Trainee,

Gainsborough) — R . A . F.

Promotions and Transfers

ELWYN AMBROSE (Script Scenarist)— trans-
ferred to A.K.S. Film Unit, Wembley.

RONALD BICKER (formerly Data' Films)—
transferred to Royal Naval Film Unit.

A. C. CROXFORD— transferred to Royal Naval
Film Unit.

H. J. ORCHARD (formerly Camera Operator.
British Films) — promoted Flight Sergeant.
R.A.F. Film Unit. B.L.A.

Casualties

ARTHUR GRAHAM writes from his Prisoner of
War address as follows: Captain Earle Arthur
Graham, 1214 VIII F, Oflag 79. Germany. Let-
ters from his colleagues in the A.C.T. will he
welcomed.

WANTED.— 36-volt Men Motor for 100ft.
Fdair Camera. — -Write Perinal, Denhana Studios.

March— April. 1945

THE CINE-TECH KICI AN

39

The Services audiences of today will expect
a high quality of sound reproduction when
they return to civilian life — B.A. Sound
System has shown them what can be done.

There will be an ever increasing number o
B.A. equipped theatres for them to go to
when peace returns.

BRITISH ACOUSTIC FILMS LTD.

OFFICES: FILM HOUSE, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.1

40

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

CORRESPONDENCE

March— April, l'.i-T

LETTERS FROM HOLLYWOOD
ANSWERED

A copy of the January-February issue of The

Cine-Technician was before a recent meeting of
the Works Committee when attention was drawn
to the character of certain statements contained
in the article "Letters from Hollywood" by
Ronald Neame. I am directed to inform you that
this Committee takes particular exception to his
statement that " the present disgruntled attitude
of production personnel, particularly hourly staff.
is one of the prime causes of the fact that
we take much longer to shoot a picture than they
do in America." Neame should know, and if he
doesn't "hourly staff" must tell him, that the
disgruntled attitude of the hourly staff, even where
it does exist, is one of the very least of the reasons
for low output or slow production.

Let us consider Denham, one of the largest
studios in England and incidentally where Neame
has been working for the past two or three years
— during the whole of 1944 all its available stage
space was occupied by tenant 2>i'()ducers and yet
the output of him was only one-third of that for
1943. Idle main productions on the floor during
1944 were M.G.M.-Korda's Perfect Strangers, Noel
Coward's Blithe Spirit (with Ronald Neame), and,
of course, Gabriel Pascal's Ccesar and Cleopatra.
Each of these productions was the subject of
protests from the " hourly workers " through their
Joint Works Committee on the score of waste of
time, materials and manpower, to say nothing
about valuable stage space.

Since 1941 the hourly workers have repeatedly
attempted to get some sort of production com-
mittee formed for the purpose of collecting sug-
gestions from all sections that would assist in
removing hold-ups and waste of every kind. Apart
from the single heroic exception of the Boulting
Brothers, who faced virtual ostracism from the
studios for their pains, all these efforts have been
rejected, not only by the employers but by tech-
nicians like Neame also. Tjet us quote a typical
argument, quite seriously opposed to our request :

You are carpenters, electricians and so on — we
would not dream of telling you how to cut a piece
of wood or how to wire a chandelier. But then
neither must you presume to tell us how to do
our job " ! Incredible, isn't it. Or how about this
one, by a well-known Art Director in reply to a
quiet plea from a skilled modeller that a tremen-
dous lot of time could be saved (in this case, nine
major alterations) if only he (the An Director)
could make up his mind as to what it was he really
wanted. "Well, you see, I can't convey to you

what I want until I see something completed"

Or the Producer who, shooting a huge exterior,
left the principal artistes unrehearsed in the t
ground and busied himself with an extra, one u
crowd of 1,500, whose collar wasn't quite right.

These are only a few hundreds of similar stories.
We haven't yet begun to deal with all the rea-
for delays in shooting films in this country. But
should you want them, Neame, you can have
them.

Yes, we are disgruntled. Disgruntled and !• q
up. But not quite in the way you mean. We are
fed up with Producers who are charlatans, tech-
nicians who don't know their jobs, and Assistant
Directors who couldn't organise a whelk stall.
We have shown repeatedly that we are prepared
to do all that lies in our power to assist in the
production of good British films. Neame knows
this. In fact, he knows that much of his present
success has been due to the very large measure
of co-operation and assistance he has received from
the " hourly workers" who made up his crew.

Finally, his complaint about tea breaks — well.
well ! ! For a man who always distinguished him-
self by being the first man in the queue at the tea
break this is strange indeed. But even more fan-
tastic is his contention that the Unions should
start negotiations for increased payments in return
for a "full day's work without breaks." Why
stop at that, Neame? As a member of our Works
Committee put it— "Why waste all this time
sleeping and eating — let's work the full 47 hours
at one go, so much more efficient you know."

So Neame has been to Hollywood as our ambas-
sador. T^ord help us. We really must suggest
that Rank sends a few of the poor "hourly
workers" to Hollywood, if only to prove to the
Americans that British film workers really do
possess something more than the proverbial tin
of film and a worried look.

Y'ours fraternally,

BERT BATCHELOR.
Denham Studio Works Committee

RONALD NEAME comments:

Mr. Batchelor and the Works Committee appear
to have misunderstood nix statement. I am fully

aware that many of the faults of production lie
with the Producers — / thought my letters made
that clear — but obviously there has been a feeling
of dissatisfaction, as Mr. Batchelor's letter saxs, and
judging by the continual overtime bans the men
ARE disgruntled. My purpose zcas not to lax the
blame on any particular side but to stress the
earnest desire for a more friendly spin! and closer
co-operation among film-makers — management or
labour.

March— April, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

II

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE JOURNAL?

i

In the November-December issue of The Cine-
Technician Fred Hyson asks "Are there any inven-
tive brains in our industry? If so are they
encouraged?" He then points out that most of
the progressive innovations seem to come from
America where there appears to be a friendly
rivalry between technicians and where inventive-
ness is encouraged by the various companies and
societies. He finally asks what is being done in
this country to encourage new ideas and inven-
tions. He believes that the B.K.S. does some-
thing of this sort and " arranges excellent lec-
tures."

May I point out to Mr. Hyson that the B.K.S.
have in fact been holding excellent lectures and
demonstrations of processes and equipment for
something like the past 12 years or more.

Ronnie Neame and Syd Howell in their recent
interesting but all too short discussion told us
flow they found in Hollywood (as we already knew )
but the equipment and methods of working were
far superior to ours. But Bonnie Neame was of
the opinion that the British technician had noth-
ing to fear when it comes to ability. Is this not
contradictory? Equipment does not grow on trees,
any more than ideas, so that it is obvious that
behind Hollywood's constant development must
be the brains, the enthusiasm and the ability to
devise and develop such conditions.

What does the average British technician do
to instil into the minds of owners and producers
the feeling that he is really interested in the job
for what it is worth, and not for what he can get
out of it? What in fact does he do to learn more
about the art and science of his job and wdiat is
the A.C.T. doing to foster in the technician such
an attitude of mind, or to encourage the producer
to have complete confidence in the British tech-
nician.

It is I think regrettable that the A.C.T. is
gradually losing sight of one of its prime func-
tions, and that is to be a real association of tech-
nicians. Instead it is becoming more and more a
political organisation.

I know that the A.C.T. is also a trade union,
and consequently must include politics in its
make-up, but where are its technical activities?
How often do we have a purely technical lecture
or demonstration?

The A.C.T. publish The Cine-Technician, one
of the two technical journals of the British Film
Industry. But how far does it live up to its name .'

I have before me three recent editions of The
Cine-Technician, with a total of 120 columns of
reading matter (42-39-30). Here is a brief sum-
mary of the total contents: —

Reports on Annual reports — Annual meetings
— T.U.C. meetings — Pay as you Earn Income

Tax — Agreements— Reinstatement Acts — Lists
of members in II. M. forces- -Who's Where in
Production — Organiser's Notebooks — Humour?
—Personalities (10 columns in one edition of 39
columns about one person) and miscellaneous
non-technical matter ... ... 64 columns

Matters of near technical interest (such as
experiences of technicians, book reviews, etc.)

35 columns
Matters of absolute technical interest

17 columns
Odds and Ends ... ... ... 4 columns

This is not a very encouraging picture, and if
this is to be the continued policy of the Journal,
may I suggest that the name be changed to some-
thing more appropriate. If not, then leave
P.A.Y.E., Civil Employment Acts, etc., to the
daily Press where they are more fully covered
anywhere and let us have annual reports of
meetings sent out as Roneo'd copies.

If we must have personalities keep them down
to their proper perspective, drop publishing lists
of "Who's — where — doing what" —and for
heaven's sake make the journal worth reading and
keeping.

Unfortunately when it comes to neglecting the
technical side of the industry, The Cine-Technician
is not solely culpable. Our normal trade press can
only find room once a week- for about 2 columns
of near-technical information, and about once a
month for a supplement that is devoted almost
exclusively to the exhibition side of the industry.
The rest of their reading matter every day and
every week is devoted to telling us how wonderful
everybody — everything — and every picture is,
and what terrific production plans the American
studios have in hand, and lots of other padding
and back-slapping which provides some sort of
justification for the highly coloured double page
advertisements on beautiful art paper. On the
other hand, the B.K.S. Journal, the only real
technical journal by and for the British Film
Industry is reduced by paper restrictions and lack
of support to one-tenth of the size it deserves.

Come now A.C.T. and technicians, why don't
we show we are deserving of all the conditions,
hours, salaries, etc., etc., that we are so keen
on getting established? — in short, let us show
that we are keen and interested in our jobs for
reasons that go far beyond mercenary ones. Let
us have no more of this childish secrecy about
what and how we do things. Let us get together
at least occasionally to discuss matters technical,
as distinct from matters political. After all he was
a pretty shrewd fellow who said " .Man does not
live by bread alone." Let us in fact make the
British hum Industry proud of its technicians,
and its technicians proud of the Industry, and as
kri d ELySOn says: " May the time soon come when
the British Film Industrv endeavours to achieve

12

THE CIXE-TECHXICIAN

March— April. 194&

something outstanding, not merely be content to
playing second fiddle or borrowing a new innova-
tion. "

Yours faithfully,

HAREY WAX-MAN.

Note. — We agree with much of what Mr. Waxman
says but would point out that as a Trade Union
A.C.T.'s journal must have a scope wider than
that of a purely technical publication. Many of
the features criticised have been praised by other
readers. We agree, however, tJial there is a
shortage of technical matter. That is not our fault.
We are always asking for it, and have never yet
failed to publish any good technical contribution
submitted for publication. Perhaps Harry
Waxman and others who share his views can do
something about it. What do other readers think?

Editors.

Helping Liberate Europe

The A.'G.T. has members all over the place
just now, and I wondered if you'd be interested in
how one oii them in particular walks in strange
places. I'm a draughtsman and set dresser at
Gainsborough Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd's
Bush, and an ex-Merchant Navy man to boot.

I was crocked at sea in the early part of the
war and came to Gainsborough in 1U4'2, vowing
never to sniff salt air again. But the Navy put
out a very attractive proposition to persons with
sea experience about a year ago and I fell for it.
The proposition was for crews to be put on a regis-
ter to take over Navy Supply Vessels when re-
quired. They were to sign on short articles and
still be in effect civilians, though at the same time
they would be subject to Navy discipline. I signed
on, but didn't have much hopes about the whole
thing as I was pretty badly shot up.

To my amazement I received a telegram sum-
moning me to a certain Naval base last August.
Off 1 went, having made my peace with the studio,
and spent a busy month ferrying supplies across
to France just after " I) " Day. Then I was
signed off, having done a month as required in
t he articles.

Last week another telegram arrived and back
again I trotted. This time the job is stiffer. I'm
in an ammunition ship — a diesel engine trawler
of about 100 tons, " Motor Fishing Vessel lf)02
in the Navy records, and boy do we work . . . We
lake shells, depth charges, detonators and small
arms ammo out to ships at sea that want rearm-
ing — and the sea is very naughty just now. "We
do everything but sail on the funnel. I'm helms-
man— or quartermaster to 1)(. precise — and it's
a feat of strength to steer sometimes I can tell
you, what with hea\\ seas and heavier winds.
There is no smoking except aft so I have to grip
on an empty pipe when on watch — and fni an

inveterate smoker.

J don't know how long 1 shall have to stay
this time, but providing there are no more land-
ings anywhere J should sign oft by Christmas.

The open air though cold is a pleasant change
from the fug of a studio, so I should be very tit
when J come back and draw madly on all the super
sets the Art Dept. is going to turn out for our
new productions.

I'm sorrj if this is a trifle erratic but I'm
wedged in my hunk and there's the hell of a
running. Will you let Charles Wheeler know that
I've contacted you as he told me \ou'd be inter-
ested.

Yours sincerely,

LEONARD TOWNSEND.

After an absence in His Majesty's Force- Eaj
over four years, I recently returned to the Film
Industry — January 1044 — and was— well, amazed,
is the only word tor it. at the1 all round improve-
ments in conditions from those I used to know.
The A.C.T.has done a very good job indeed in our
absence, and I should like to express my gratitude
and appreciation, as I am sure will all the others
when they also return.

There is just one thing which lias struck me
personally and forcibly: that is the lower grades
of the technical staff, owing to war condition-.
are gr dually becoming boys jobs. I know thai
a whole unit was and still is affectionately termed
"boys," but there is something more to it than
that. I came back to a job I used to call — First
Assistant Cameraman — and in the A.C.T. book
of rules is still termed thus — a job in which pro-
tii lent as I was 1 still felt I had a long way to go.

On my rirst picture on returning. I beard some-
one talking about "the focus-boy." and on the
fifth time it was said I realised the\ were talking
about me. Not that it worried me unduly, although
I had never met the term before the war. Then in
the Unit List I saw myself termed as "Focus-
Fuller" — and lately, in a recent issue of The
Cine-Technician, I saw someone who had recently
been called up termer as a " Focus-Follow ei\ "
Now these expressions, to my mind, convey a
totally wrong impression of the job in question —
after all. things such as negative -cratches, flares,
dirty lenses, running out of film, minor camera
break-downs, and 1 could enumerate many more
items, are all pari of the responsibilities of the job.
Also a good reliable assistant — as 1 have found
when operating, and T am sure expo.; need opera-
tors will agree- is a blessing and a comfort.

That is m\ personal side ol the question, hut I
have also heard the Bo im Operator referred to as
" Boom-Boj " and this is undoubtedly a highly-
skilled job. Such under-statements cannol always.
(Continued on page 45)

Uarch— April, 1045 T HE C I N B - T E C H K I C I A N 1:1

AFTER LISTENING TO THE

BRAINS TRUST

WE HAVE BEEN WONDERING

IS THE WORLD ROUND

OR IS IT FLAT ?

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY WITH ITS MILLIONS OF
FEET OF FILM DEALS WITH ALL PARTS OF THE
WORLD WITH ITS MAGNIFICENT BUILDINGS BEFORE
1939, WHEN THE WORLD WAS NOT FLAT. NOW,

LOOK TO THE FUTURE BY BRINGING IN THE PAST

WE CIRCLE THE WORLD

NORMAN'S FILM SERVICE

Telephones: 54_58 WARDOUR STREET,

GERRARD j «J« LONDON, W.I

:i

Edited by Fred J. Hyson

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

LAB. TOPICS

March— April. 10*,:,

The Road to Fame

1 spent a very interesting evening when I
attended a meeting of the Technical Standards
Committee. This Committee, formed by the
Genera] Council "to consider the technical stan-
dard demanded of A.C.T. members, in particular
relation to the post-war situation and future plan-
ning " is attempting a task of immense concep-
tion, calling for the unstinted help of all sections
of the Association.

During- the Committee's discussions with the
Laboratory representatives it did my heart good
to hear studio members of the Committee welcome
the idea that lab. technicians should be given
opportunity to enter the studio as approved
trainees ; in fact-one member suggested that no-one
should enter into a technical job in the studios
unless they had received lab. training first. The
Lab. Committee had prepared a fairly sound
scheme which was presented to the Technical
Standards Committee by Pro. Hilson. Generally
speaking the main points were that the more
experienced technician should receive official recog-
nition and that the lower grade of technician be
encouraged to become mor( efficient and more
skilled and that courses of lectures and demonstra-
tions be arranged to that end. also that oppor-
tunities be given whereby lab. technicians receive
lectures, etc., to enable them to become conver-
sant w ith studio technical practices and so lie able
to acquire a job in the studios.

The Late Percy Skinner

It was with very deep regret that I heard of the
death of Percy Skinner, of Humphries. Both he
and his daughter were killed in a recent V-bomb
incident. Our Shop Steward at Humphries, Eric
Task, tells me that although Mrs. Skinner was
very gravely injured she is making steady progress,
I had known Percy for nine years for we worked
at Humphries together. He had suffered many
anxieties concerning the health of his wife, but
he bore every vicissitude with patience and serene
quietude that was admired l>\ many. He never
sought power or position, but went about his job
in a quiet and conscientious manner seeking to
hurl no one. Such a man will be missed by many.

"Dad" Maynard Passes On

It is with great regret, writes Wallv Durham,
that I have to record the passing on December
20th of William .Maynard, known to main old-
timers in the labs as '* Dad" Maynard.

A first-class photographer of the pre sticky -bacH
era, " Dad " served his apprenticeship with a well-
known Windsor firm of photographers and
many times photographed Queen Victoria and her
family. In 1011 lie migrated to films and i;
in that year I met him first, when we were
working in Wardour Street for the late Charles
Urban on Kinemacolor and Kineto productions.

Came the first Great War and a parting of the
ways. But later " Dad" and I were once again
together at Chromatic Film Printers.

Of late years he had severed his connections
with the industry, but I am sure the many who
knew and loved him will be grieved at his pass
for a more loveable fellow to work and play with
would be hard to find. It was always a joke, a
smile and a laugh with him.

May he rest in peace.

All In A Day's Work

During a discussion on Sensitometric Control a
little while back I heard a certain Control depart-
ment declare that it had no troubles in their own
particular lab. Well just on the spur of the mon
here are one or two queries that have confront* 1
me : —

Some time back I received a sound negative
of a speech of welcome from a Hollywood stni
to inaugurate the opening of a Services Club
in London. Whilst grading the negative 1 notice!
that from a join in the middle of the roll the tracl
had a peculiar look about it, something about :i
looked wrong, so I decided to hear the print tie
following morning . . . and with what star!
results! The first part of the roll was good so
but from the join to the end it was just a gabbk i
unintelligible string of noises. Have you gui -
the reason? The second half somehow had I
duped, and the wrong way round, and was b
projected backwards. That was soon rectified.

Another time we received from the States a
master print for duping of exceptional contras
The chief grader and I discussed the correct fig
for the dupe — what should it be'.' We knew the
approximate gamma oi normal master prints, b '
this was abnormal. Alter a close scrutiny 1 dis
covered that the print was printed on fine grain
stock, the usual stock used, but in this ins!
it was printed on tine grain release stock and
ultimate gamma was soon arrived at and the d

made.

.March— April, 1945

THE CINE- TECHNICIAN

45

Nut so very long ago an excited technician came
in and complained that the half-a-dozen rolls of
sound thai I had had planted for his section were
no good. One of his higher-ups had phoned him
a short time back in a terrible rage saying that
tlie sound was unintelligible and that they were
to re-record it that morning. 1 checked the nega-
tive— nothing wrong. I suggested they send a
mil of the print for me to cheek. Then J realised
the fault in a flash. The sound had been recorded
over a push-pull amplification system of variable
area. 1 fold the technician that there was nothing
wrong with the print, it was the re-recording
system at fault, and told him that he would have
to take tlie prints to Warners Studios as they
were the only people I knew who had a push-pull
system of recording.

I could go on indefinitely quoting examples of
irregularities and problems that arise, troubles
with chemicals, water, stock and machinery, all
j being overcome simply because of one's wide and
varied experience — experience that cannot be
bought but is often wheedled by less fortunate
technicians from one and used to their own end,
and also experience that is very seldom paid for
either.

Short Ends

1 know that I have one reader of Lab Topics.
I met him a few weeks ago and he told me so. It
was Mr. Isaacs, one of the Daily Mirror staft'
photographers. It sure was a treat to meet him
and hear his modernistic outlook — not very often
met with in still-men. Also his very keen interest
in all the paraphernalia used to keep lab. output
constant in quality. No, Cyril, he didn't have' .lane
with him !

Keceiving a 16mm. print for checking the sound
density I told the enquirer that it was 130 — it
was variable area, of course — to which the enquirer
asked " What is the transmission?" I could have
said 05%, but refrained.

Whilst doing some toe-recording tests recently
a bright individual asked me if the ordinary sound
recording was called heel-recording!

CORRESPONDENCE —continued

be due to forgetfulness — one is forced to the con-
clusion that they may be due to complete ignor-
ance and lack of understanding of the other man's
job which surely is a thing to be deplored in an
organisation such as the A.C.T.

J. B. Lovell

WORLD EVENTS BROUGHT TO LIFE

Sham it with your Friends

'A

M

K

16

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

March— April, 194:

u

SUCH MEN AS THESE"

Tlhe Saga of a SUM! Camera Mae

N.B. — Any reference to existing facts and

The law of fang and claw,
survival of the fittest, applies as
much to the Stillman in the
studio as it docs to the timid
denizen of a primaeval jungle.

I will ask yon to imagine a big
set, a huge crowd — the piece de
resistance of a super production,
a director who together with his

satellites alV ill tile last stages of

exhaustion and self-pity. \ll
morning they rehearsed the big

scene and all afternoon have tried

to shoot it. The director, with

visions of irate financial hackers

and producers muttering lurid

threats re overheads, behindhand

schedules, had sets, wrong dialogue, lousy action,

etc., is convinced that every man's hand is against

him, hut has finally designed himself into printing

the last take — a sop to the ( rods — hut not what lie

wanted. With this crew, alas, that could never be.

After the take — this is the Stillman's big
moment. All through the long nerve-wracking
day between trying to grab publicity stills, set
stills, reference stills, make-up stills, artistes with
cups of tea stills, portraits, and loaded to break-
ing point with a weird assortment of shutter-slap-
ping gadgets, he lias realised that at some time
during the day the vast and mighty reins of direc-
torial power would be placed for one brief moment
into his trembling hands. And now that our long
suffering hero may justify the confidence with
which he has so recently been vested, he grabs bis
10X8 and brushing aside all obstacles in the shape
of droves of assistant directors, he endeavours to
attract the eye of the now seething directorial
chair. He does, and invited by the director to
explain where in the nethermost regions he has
been all day, diplomatically tries to explain that
lie has been trying to further the interests of the
producers h\ pandering to the weird tastes of their
pet publicity-monger, and winds up by gently
urging the value of a few stills on the last scene.

The only person in the sttulio who is of the
opinion that Stills cannot be taken without lighi
is the Stillman. On beseeching the Electrical
Departments floor representative for some illum-
ination, that voluble mouther of strange phrases
has only one word— 'Trimming" — ejaculated

fov RUSSELL WESTWQOB

onditions in this article are vox coincidental.

with a knowing leer in the ;
assistant's direction. However,
time marches on, and at the i
ot what seems to be an intermin-
able period to the Stillman a sickly
glov diffuses that portion of the
set not burnt up by the intensi
power of spots directed at no par-
ticular portion of the set.

It would seem that all is now
ready. But wait. Where are thi
Artistes? Where is the crowd that
so recently filled the set to over-
flowing? Artistes are only human
and cannot partake of tea whilst
gambolling in front of the camera.
That ritual can only be enacted
after the magic word " cut " is invoked.

Desperately trying to make himself heard above
the clangour of myriads of carpenters and rigs
busily engaged in tearing down the set, and try-
ing to get at least one still in before they do
the Stillman screams insanely for the Artistes
and is immediately told by the assistant dir<
to keep his ruddj shirt on — that individual then
marching off with his head in the air.

Having imbibed their tea the Artistes amb]
back on to the set at aggravating intervals,
accompanied by a horde of make-up men. hair-
dressers, script girls, wardrobes, visitor-, friends,
relations and half-eaten buns. Having finally
sorted themselves out and said their adieus to tin
dotting throng aforementioned, the principa
Artistes then proceed to find by trial and err
that portion of the floor at which is concentr
the greatest amount of candlepower, and striking
stock expression 1, 2 or 3, stand rigidly with their
best angle to the director.

Some scenes, of course, do not adapt them-
selves to making a good still — so the Stillman.
with one eye on the publicity man (still hovering
ghoulishly in his rear) and the other warily on tin
director, endeavours to place the Artistes in a
more compromising position, evoking little grunts
of approval from the publicity man and a horrify
ing screech from the director if he happens t
see it.

Thoroughly docile now. the Stillman proceeds
to survey the hopeless set-up with jaded eye. and
making a last effort to regain a little of his dignitj

March— April. 1945

THE CINE-TECHKICIAX

41

in a feeble voice begs the chief electrician to
soften at least one of the innumerable hot spots.
At this, a stentorian voice from the murky depths
at the rear of camera roars out that under no
circumstances are the lamps to be moved, touched
or even discussed. With reeling brain the Still-
man clutches at his shutter release as though it
was the proverbial straw and controlling his writh-
ing lips croaks "hold it" —consoling himself
with the fact that at least the publicity man saw
what lie was up against, which personage with
diabolical expression conveys with signs just what
he thinks of the manner in which our hero has
handled the epic scene of the picture.

Wearily, the Stillman shoulders his tripod and
retires to some remote corner of the stage, there
to brood over what he might have been, and after
working himself into a frenzy of frustrated energy
will sooner or later tear off to his dark room to see
just what has happened to the film he exposed,
invariably to find that the boom operator has
thoughtfully planted his mike in the middle of the
picture.

In more serious vein for the benefit of those
Producers and Directors who may read this article,
may I humbly remind them to recognise the fact
that in the main a production is sold and pub-
licised by the photographs of the Still Camera-
man. Surely, then, he should rank of higher
importance in a unit than is at present the case.
Given co-operation and status instead of the coer-
cion and bull-dozing that is so often bis lot, be
will get stills that are invaluable to the distri-
butors and exhibitors.

I do not intend to go into the old question of
Hollywood versus British studios, but just com-
pare their stills with ours and then compare the
conditions and authority that a Hollywood Still-
man enjoyr — as against his opposite number over
here — and draw your own conclusions.

NEW VINTEN PORTABLE CAMERA

One of the main troubles with films dealing with
the Liberation of Europe is that whilst watching
them the emotions play traitor to the intellect and
convince the viewer of their excellence. Any film
that deals with the Allied Operations last June
July must, because of its subject and irrespective
of its technical qualities, satisfy the reviewer. And
Left Of The Line is an excellent example of films
of this type.

No matter what after-thoughts about annoying
camera tricks or uninspiring commentary one may
have it is the material screened that makes the
film. Whose heart is it that wouldn't be gladdened
by those glimpses of a liberating Army in action.
or people being liberated from bontage ?

The shot of a French woman watching from a
window our troops entering a village, meanwhile
unconsciously rolling up her sleeves, the little

children wdio ran out to clutch the battle-dressed
soldiers marching by ; the bagpiped parade of Scots
along a cobbled street strewn with roses. Or the
stretcher-hearer who flings his hands in agony at
a sudden pain, and the men scurrying in single
tile past a machine gun covered wall. All this is
the stuff of life and humanity revealed in moments
of intense living, and I for one will not allow any
had commentary or silly technical tricks to spoil it
for me. But the film as such was not my object
in seeing it.

The whole film was shot on the new Vinten
Portable camera, and from the material seen one
can have no quarrel with its results. There were
two Services models on view at the theatre, but
unfortunately not a model of the type to be put
on the market for civilian use, so I cannot give
a detailed report on it.

1 was shown a photograph of it. and informed
b\ a Vinten representative that it will he spring,
battery or synch motor driven. It will have a
turret head, a view finder with the various lens
frames scaled upon it, and with the necessary
parrelax adjustments. There will be adjustable
shutter openings, and camera speeds from 4 to 48
frames. It should be quite a useful addition to
the documentary cameraman's equipment.

Bernard Lewis

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD
Across — i Screen, 4 Set Up, 10 Line, n Lloyd, 13 Ve< r,
14 Idle, 16 Ali, 18 Prefer, 20 Snaps, 21 Tart, 22 Cad, 24
Tar, 25 Test, 28 Farce, 30 Clover, 31 Eat, ^^ Made, 34
Visa, 36 Aimed, 38 Ices, 39 Aster, 40 Extras.

Down — 1 Script, 2 Roller, 3 Ego, 5 Elvin, 6 Tie, 7
Unexposed, 8 Per, 9 Ada, 12 Left, 15 Dramatics, 17
L.s.d., 19 R.C.A., 23 Arc, 24 Tea, 25 Tome, 26 Evader,
27 Treats, 29 Cease, 32 Tap, 34 Via, 35 Set, 37 Mix.

48
Edited by A. E. Jeakins

THE C 1 X E - IE CHMCl A \

March— April, 1943

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

Projection Television.
(I). W. Epstein and I. G. Maloff, S.M.P.E.

Abstract . International Photographer,
November, 1944)
Projection television which is simply the pro-
jection on to a viewing screen of the picture
originating on a cathode-ray tube seems, at
present, to be the most practical method of pro-
ducing large television pictures.

The two basic problems of projection television
are : —

1. The problem of providing a cathode-ray tube
capable of producing veiy bright pictures with
the necessary resolution, and

2. The problem of providing the most efficient
optical s\stem so as to utilise the largest
possible percentage of the light generated.

These problems were very vigorously attacked
over a period of years and the progress made
toward their solution has been very satisfactory.

Problem 1 has been solved largely by the deve-
lopment of cathode-ray tubes capable of operating
at high voltages.

Problem 2 has been solved by the development
of a reflective optical system about 0 to 7 times
more efficient than a good F.2 refractive lens.
The reflective optical system consists of a spherical
front face minor and an aspherical corrective lens.

A handicap of this optical system for use in a
home projection receiver was the high cost of the
aspherical lens. This has been overcome by the
development of machines for making aspherical
moulds and by the development of a process for
moulding aspherical lenses from plastics. B.C. A.
reflective optical systems are designed for pro-
jection at a fixed throw and require cathode-ray
tubes with face curvatures fixed in relation to the
curvatures of the mirrors in the system. A number
of such systems, suitable for projecting television
pictures with diagonals ranging from 2~> inches
to 2") feet, have been developed.
Auricon Automatic-Parallax Camera Finder.

(\V. (i. C. Bosco, American Cinematographer,
November, 1944)

The E. M. Berndt Corp. of Hollywood, have
borrowed ideas from the design of automatic aerial
machine gun sights which they have incorporated
in their "Auricon" view finder.

It is claimed for this instrument that it is
completely accurate and simple to operate. It
provides a (dear, sharp image on a ground glass
screen, right way up and right wax round, at the
front of a dee]) shadow box, and free from ghosts
or reflections. It combines automatic parallax

compensation with a range-tinder which enables

the cameraman to measure the distance from sub-
ject lo camera and set his lens accordingly.

The difference in viewpoint between camera and
finder lens is automatically compensated foi -

that whatever is sharply focussed in the find,
also corrected for parallax. The parallax adjust-
ment is done optically inside the finder, alio-.'
the external finder casing to be solidh at: ached
to the camera body. So that camera and finder
cannot be thrown out of adjustment by an acci-
dental knock.

The automatic parallax adjustment is controlled
by a cam-plate located inside the finder casing.
This cam-plate determines the displacement dis-
tance between the camera lens and the finder lens
for which the finder automatically compensati s

For example fitted to an Eyemo Camera the
displacement distance is 2| inches. It the finder
were later to be installed on a different camera
where the displacement distance was found to be
1 inches the cam-plate can be easily changed for
one intended for a 4-inch displacement distance.
This is the only adjustment that is oecessarj .

Foi' :-}."> mm. cameras the finder covei - lens fields
from a 35 mm. wide-angle up to a 10-inch tele-
photo by means of inserted mattes. Used with
a 1(> mm. camera i1 wall cover lens fields ranging
from IT'.") mm. to li inches.

A magazine to carry up to 0 mattes is located
at the back of the finder. A device incorporated
in the matte holder makes it impossible to in- it
a matte Upside down. A master matte made of
transparent Lucite and carrying reticles tor any
combination ol lenses is available. This can be
use I for deciding what i- the correct lens for any
scene or (of last operation where there is no time
to change mattes.

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-

Thames and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

Wehvyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Director of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex.
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, YV.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinewood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, W.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Associated Productions Ltd., Calcutta

Bharat Movietone, Madras

Bombay Pictures, Bombay

Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay

Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore

Chitramandir Studio, Bombay

CIRCO Productions, Bombay

Gemini Studi ;>s, Madras

India Artist', Ltd., Bombay

Minerva Movietone, Bombay

Modern Theatres Ltd., Salem

National Studios Ltd., Bombay

New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta

Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore

Prabhat Film Co., Poona

Pragati Pictures Ltd., Madias

Prakash Pictures, Bombay

Ranjit Movietone, Bombay

Seth Manecklal Chunilal

Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta

Siedles Cineradio Ltd., Colombo, Ceylon

Vel Pictures Ltd., Madras

AUSTRALIA

Efftee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros., New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

RCA PHOTOPHONE LTD., 43, Belgrave Square, London, W.1

Telephone: Grosvenor 8861-8

FILMS &

LTD.

MOTION

PICTURE

ENGINEERS

138 WARDOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.I.

Telephone: GERrard 6711
Cablet: KATJA

Printed
ar

by the Proprietors, The Association ol Cine-Technicians, 2, Soho Square, London, W.I,
d printed for them by the Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

MAY
JUNE

DENNY DENSHAM

W. P. HOPKINSON

A. E. JEAKINS

ALAN LAWSON

SCREENCOMBER

IRENE WILSON

HIS NAME WAS SMITH
BALKAN BACKGROUND
NEWS & VIEWS FROM SEAC

I

12th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

A MATTER
OF COURSE

CAMERAMEN and other cine-technicians
have come to accept the unfailing
excellence of 'Kodak9 Films as a normal
matter of course. No finer tribute could
be paid to the skill and care with which
these Films are produced through every
stage in their manufacture.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Department,
Kingsway, London, W.C.2

•KODAK' FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

itorial & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.I. Telephone: CERRARD 8506

Jvertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editors : Sidney Cols, Giorgi H. Elvin. Kanmth Gordon, Fred Hyson, A. E. Jeakins, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury.

umber Fifty-four, Volume Eleven May — June, 1945

Price One Shilling

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

f-T-i HE Twelfth Annual General Meeting at
_|_ the Beaver Hall was outstanding in several
respects. Fur the first time in A.C.T.
history, the meeting was spread over two days,
starting on the afternoon of the Saturday, April
21st, and continuing all day Sunday.

The attendances, 283 on Saturday, and 349 on
Sunday, were the best ever in both numbers and
in terms of wide representation from all parts of
the industry. The agenda was an excellent one,
with resolutions touching on most aspects of
A.C.T. activity, and there seemed to be general
agreement anions the members present that the
discussion was even better than at previous
meetings.

The President, in Ins opening address on Sat-
urday afternoon, set the tone of the meeting
when he said that it wotdd be a memorable and
perhaps unique one. The end of the war was in
sight and in A.C.T., as elsewhere, the principle
issue was the post-war period. The President
mentioned briefly the lines along which A.C.T.
had been working during the past year and would
continue to work for a useful and prosperous
industry. A.C.T., with its attitude on the mon-
opoly question, its proposals for the re-absorption
of serving members and its plans for a proper
apprenticeship scheme in the film industry, had
already put forward some blue-prints for the
after-war period. The President urged co-oper-
ation and an early clarification of policy by the
Government and the producers as a first essential
move towards the successful development of the
British Film Industry.

The Accounts and the Treasurer's Report,
which followed, made it clear to members that
during the past few years A.C.T. had built up
its financial position to a point where we were
able to discuss plans for the future with the
knowledge thai our financial structure was sound
enough to give us the scope we needed. The
Benevolent Fund was also in better shape, and
stood to benefit from the "Blithe Spirit" prem-

Group of laboratory members with A.C.T.
Negotiating Committee

iere, to the extent of approximately £2,400,
A.C.T. 's 30% share of the total amount raised.
which was approaching £8,000.

Following this the Meeting proceeded to the
Annual Report, taking resolutions in conjunction
with the appropriate sections.

Again this year membership had risen, to
4,81)2, as against ri,744 last year, and members
were pleased to hear that a check-up of records
had been (/allied out during the year, which
resulted in 518 names being erased, mainly War
Emergency members who had left the industry
after a short term of employment. Action had
also been taken in the case of several members
removed lor non-payment of subs., and three
members expelled under Pule 20.

Again, with deep regret, ten casualties were

reported since the outbreak of war. :>1 A.C.T.
members have been killed. In are reported miss-
ing and 9 prisoners of war. B\ the time of pub-
lication of this report we hope that we shall have
more news of those who were prisoners, and that

50

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

May— June, KM;

many of them may even have returned to
England.

In conjunction with the report on member-
ship, a resolution from the Realist Film Unit
was moved, endorsing the attitude of A.C.T. on
the particular issue of a Fascist seeking to work
in the industry, and calling for action to see that
no Fascist should be employed in an industry
whose power of constructive propaganda can so
easily be misused by unscrupulous persons.
The resolution was carried.

()n the paragraph in the Report dealing with
Studio and Feature Production, the appointment
of a Director of Personnel by the B.F.P.A. was
raised. Since this appointment was made the
B.F.P.A. had tried to evade the usual methods
of settling disputes by a meeting between its
Labour Sub-Committee ami the A.C.T. ; instead
they offered a meeting with this Director of
Personnel who had no previous knowledge of the
film industry. A.C.T. had protested strongly
against this method, which had failed completely
to settle any of the disputes which had arisen.
One dispute, concerning the members of the
Denham Sound Department, had already been
taken to arbitration, with results entirely satis-
factory to our members. On furthering outstand-
ing matters an effort was being made to obtain a
meeting with the Labour Sub-Committee of the
B.F.P.A.

On a resolution from Denham Studios, calling
for a recognised half-day holiday, preferably on
Saturday, a lively discussion developed, and the
resolution was carried after George Elvin had
emphasised that our present Studio Agreement
did. in fact, provide for a half-day holiday. The
position was that the negotiated half-day per
week was not observed. A.C.T. was going for-
ward on the lead suggested by the T.U.C. and
would press for a 40-hour week in the new Studio
Agreement, which would lie better than a ">i day

Week.

The Section of the Report dealing with organ-
isation was enlarged on by Bert Craik, and mem-
bers generally were in full agreement with the
President when he thanked Bert for the excellent
work he had been doing for A.C.T.

In conjunction with organisational matters, a
Film Producers' Guild resolution calling for a
National Agreement to cover all grades in the
industry was discussed. Speaking on behalf of
the General Council, Bert Craik expressed the
view that this could only be regarded as a long-
term policy, to lie carried through as soon as
circumstances permitted. One of the obstacles
was the fact that the employers were split into
five separate organisations, and an employer's
organisation to cover the whole industry would
he necessary before A.C.T. could achieve a
National Agreement.

It is interesting to notice how frequently
this question of more unity inside the industry
arises. Most of the major issues of the post-
war film industry are dependent on working
relationships, not only between employers and
A.C.T., but between the different employers'
croups, and between thi as organising the

film industry. A.C.T. 's apprenticeship scheme,
the proposals for the re-absorption of serving
members anil the implementation of the
Monopoly Report are all dependent tor their
success on co-operation between all sections
in the industtry. employers and employees
alike. And on their success, it is true to
say. depends the future oj the industry. A.C.T.
policy lor the past three or tour years ha- made
it clear where we stand — and this year's Annual
General .Meeting seemed to make it clear that
we at least intend to do all we can to achieve our
purpose.

With this feeling underlying the meeting, the
addresses of the fraternal visitors, on Sunday
morning, had a tremendous reception from mem-
bers. First to speak was Mr. Demidecki, who
expressed his appreciation of the way in which
A.C.T. was assisting to re-establish a Polish film
industry, by offering facilities lor members of the
Polish Film I "nit in this country to learn pro-
duction in our studios. Mr. Demidecki then made
a proposal for post-war: to set mi in every country
an International Distributing Centre to ensure
that the best pictures of each country are shewn
as widely as possible in all other countries.

The two French delegates were then introduced
to the Meeting. They were Louis Daquin. Sec-
retary of the Syndicat des Techniciens de la
Production Cinematographique, and Charles
Chezeau, General Secretary of the Syndicat
des Travailleurs du Film. Members had a warm
welcome for them, both in sympathetic appre-
< iatioii of the struggles and sufferings of the
French people, and in encouragement for their
future. Both delegates introduced themselves
briefly in their own tongue, but left their ad-
dresses to he delivered in translation by Marcel
Varnel. This was an excellent arrangement as
it enabled the personality of the delegate to lie
appreciated by the meeting, without submitting
it to the repetition of an address, first in French
then in translation. Loth addresses had a great
reception, and combined to give a complete and
inspiring picture of the French film industry
under the occupation. The Meeting welcomed
this opportunity of hearing such an informed re-
port and was heartened by the fighting spirit
evidenced 1>\ our French colleagui -

Following the addresses ol Vlessieurs Daquin
and Chezeau, a resolution proposed by them
was put before the Meeting Thej suggested
the formation of an international committee ol all

T H E CIXE-TECHNICIA N

51

L. Daquin (second from left) and C. Chezeau
(second from right) photographed on a visit to
Denham with George Elvin, A.C.T. Committee
members and Bert Batchelor (Chairman, Works
Committee)

film technicians' and film workers' Trade Unions,
formed by the representatives of all organisations
of democratic nations, particularly Great Britain,
the U.S.A., Soviet Russia and France, and affili-
ated to the Internationa] Federation of Trade
Unions. In order to act upon this proposal as
quickly as possible, it was further suggested that
A.C.T. send a delegation to Paris to assist in
establishing the proposed International Com-
mittee of Film Trade Unions. This resolution
was received with enthusiasm by all members
and was passed unanimously before the meeting
separated for lunch. The selection of delegates
to go to Paris was left to an early meeting of the
incoming General Council.

Unlike previous occasions, it had not been
possible to make luncheon arrangements for
members; however, despite any difficulties they
might have experienced in refreshing themselves,
there was no lack of enthusiasm among members
at the afternoon session. The ball was set roll-
ing by a resolution stressing the need to get the
Monopoly Report implemented; this was moved
by Jack Chambers lor D.A.T.A. Film Unit, and
seconded by Frank Sainsbury for Realist. Ralph
Bond spoke tor the General Council on this issue
and said that they whole-heartedly endorsed the
resolution. The re] i rt of (he Cinematograph
Council was not only tic- most thorough analysis
of the economic structure of the industry that
existed, but also completely justified the attitude
that A.C.T. had taken up on the question of
monopoly. The C.E.A. on the whole supported
the report, but the Producers did not. It was

not satisfactory from a national point of view
that British films, whether by legislation or other-
wise, should always he in a minority on British
S( reens. The first essential for our industry must
he British films for British markets. Ralph Bond
emphasised that one aspect to he carefully con-
sidered was tin.' position of the Quota regulations.
A.C.T. had quite rightly supported the Quota Act
in the past as being necessary to re-establish the
industry on a solid foundation — even during the
present war A.C.T. had tried to get the quota
raised. h\ 1948 the present Quota Act would
expire and A.C.T. must decide whether that
Act should be maintained even with a higher
quota for British Films.

The Monopoly Report provided the alternative
necessary to develop a healthy expanding
industry, and, in the words of the Resolution
which was carried after further discussion.
"A.C.T. should do everything possible to make
it widely known and accepted to replace the
present unsatisfactory Quota Act."

In subsequent discussion, points of vital in-
terest were dealt with. A resolution from the
Shell Film Unit urged the continued Govern-
ment sponsorship of films for social education
and particularly for use in re-educating the fascist
countries to democracy. From Gaumont-British
and Gainsborough jointly came a resolution
deploring the tendency to produce high-cost
pictures to the exclusion of medium-cost produc-
tions— another point made in the Monopoly
Report. This was carried, as was also a resolu-
tion from Film Producers' Guild, advocating the
continuation of the recognised means of collab-
oration between managements and the Trade
Unions.

An emergency resolution was then put to the
meeting by Sid Bremson on behalf of the General
Council, on the subject of the new Laboratory
Agreement. Negotiations with the laboratory
employers had completely broken down and it
would be necessary for every possible action to
be taken to achieve the demands put forward on
behalf of the laboratory members.

The meeting was roused to indignation by Sid
Bremson's detailed account of the events leading
up to the present position. There was a strong
feeling in favour of the most drastic action
possible, but eventually the terms of the resolu-
tion were accepted, pledging the new General
Council to whatever action they found necessary
to achieve the laboratory members' demand,
including a deputation to the laboratory em-
ployers, an offer to refer to arbitration the two
outstanding points. Clause '.) of the new agree-
ment and certain of the wage rates, and, as a
last measure, to impose an official overtime ban
b\ the whole of A.C.T., covering every section of
the industry.

52

THE CI-NE-TECHNICI A \

May — June, 1945

Members will know how necessary it was to
take that decision, and will realise how much
the imposing of the Overtime Ban, despite its
undoubted hardships, has done to strengthen the
unity between the producing and processing sides
of the industry inside the A.C.T. We have had a
fight that has been brewing for years, and we
have all been together in it.

After the tea interval there was a gradual
thinning of the attendance, but there was no
equivalent lessening in the discussion. On the
well worn subject of foreign technicians there
was probably the longest discussion of the day,
with good points on both sides — the main issue
was whether A.C.T. 's present policy of not
allowing foreign technicians to work in the in-
dustry would deprive members of the benefit of
up-to-date technical knowledge — many members
felt that experts in certain fields, such as back
projection and cartoon, might be useful — others
felt that some method other than that of import-
ing foreign technicians should be found, if it was
necessary for us to gain experience of Hollywood
methods and equipment.. The fullest possible
discussion ended with the Denham amendment
proposing that foreign technicians be allowed into
the industry under certain specified conditions
being lost by 72 votes to 148, and the substantive
resolution to oppose their entry being carried,
thus re-affirming A.C.T. 's policy of past years.

Time was now getting short and discussion
on several important questions such as the report
on the re-absorption of serving members, the
apprenticeship report and the work of the Tech-
nical Standards Committee was accordingly
curtailed. A long list of resolutions and readiness
to speak is something everyone is pleased to
see in A.C.T. but it presented problems to the
Standing Orders Committee which grew more
and more insoluble the later it got, despite the
dragooning, of members by the Chairman of the
Standing Orders Committee.

Anthony Asquith was re-elected President.
Vice-Presidents are Sid Bremson (Studio).
Charlie Wheeler (Studio), Ralph Bond (Docu-
mentary and Shorts), Alf. Cooper (Labs.) and
Ken. Gordon (Newsreel). The Treasurer, li. K.
Keilson Baxter, and the Trustees, Geoffrey Bell
and Basil Wright, were re-elected unopposed,
and the General Council conrprises the follow-
ing: Max Anderson, Sid. Cole, Percy Dayton.
Desmond Dickinson, bay Elton, Alan Jaggs,
Alan Lawson, Kay Mander, Ivor Montagu, and
laboratory members: E. Baker. George Edwards,
Frank Fuller, George Irons, Florence Munden
and Les. Pryor. This year's officers and General
Council members have ahead of them one of the
biggest jobs since A.C.T. was formed, and they
start their year of office with the memory left by
this Annual General Meeting, thai of an enthu-
siastic and united membership. K.M.

CORRESPONDENCE

Harry Waxrnan's lament, that progress in
equipment and technical methods has become
almost entirely American, is justified. After the
war it should be possible to remedy our back-
wardness, but there are big difficulties in the way.

Concerning apparatus: — Manufacturers have
in the past found that, when numbers of techni-
cians are consulted individually, the result is a
muddle of conflicting suggestions, many of them
impractical (involving infringement of patents)
and many potentially unprofitable because very
specialized apparatus is difficult to sell and soon
becomes out-of-date.

Technicians feel their ideas are often ignored
and British apparatus tends to be clumsy, though
in a sense very well made.

Concerning methods and processes : — Research
requires a long term policy and a sponsor who
doesn't clamour for practical results every other
day.

We have in the past brought over men who
have done their research in Hollywood. They
have naturally ordered American equipment with
which they are familiar. If there has been any
inclination to encourage and await British devel-
opments, there usualh hasn't been the time. The
longer this state of affairs goes on, the nearer we
get to an American monopoly of vital patents.

I suggest that a Committee appointed by
A.C.T. might, in collaboration with a B.K.S.
Committee, investigate the need for an independ-
ent research organisation, estimating its initial
and subsequently annual cost, the scope of it-
possible activities, and the means by which new-
processes and inventions would be made generally
available.

Faced with definite proposals, producers might
agree each to contribute a fair share of the cost.

The organisation would have a nucleus of per-
manent staff and could temporarily co-opt tech-
nicians from the studios, labs, and newsreels for
specific research or construction.

Opponents of such an idea have said that free
enterprise will produce better results, hut in the
face of all the American patents it is impossible to
believe this, unless one accepts the absurd notion
that we are not inventive and not ingenious.

BRIAN SMITH.

May— June, 104.'

T H E C I X E - T ECHNI C I A K

53

The Main Switchboard Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton

THE POWER BEHIND THE FILM

WE MAKE ALL TYPES OF SWITCHGEAR to control the Electrical Power

IN WORKSHOPS IN STUDIOS IN CINEMAS

LET OUR ENGINEERS SOLVE YOUR SWITCHGEAR PROBLEMS.

COMPANY

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KINGSBURY WORKS, THE HYDE,
HENDON - - LONDON, N.W9

\

54

THE C I K E - T E C H X I C I A N

M June, 1945

Justifiable Journey

That this feature must be maintained in the

absence overseas of its originator is now estab-
lished beyond doubt. I, I'm- one, cannot permit
Ken Gordon (Pathe) the slightest anxiety regard-
ing his cherished column while he and his hench-
men continue to turn in the smash hit stuff that
has enlivened our newsreels since D-Day. No
doubt the newsreelers will have many amazing
adventures to recount when the time comes ; these
will do for now : — Under fire, a motor-cyclist col-
lided with Ken Gordon — Ken's O.K. — the motor-
bike is no more !

Spartan Seat

Hot on the heels of the B.L.A., Sid Bonnet
((!. P>. News) came across Ken seated on a shoot-
ing stick. What a man! What a stick! Odd
enough, hut as Sid approaches the pre-occupied
Ken, be realises that lie is on the edge of a mine-
field, and Ken's in the middle of it, and the stick
■supporting the rotund Ken is on a MINE. I
understand that the sight of Ken's hulk floating
like a ballerina on the daintiest of slow motion
steps out of the danger zone is one Sid won't for-
get. Incidentally, soon after this episode Sid
captured three Germans single-handed with the
aid of a Newman Sinclair; at this rate he'll be
dubbed " Erin;.' 'em back alive Bonnet " at the
next dubbing session.

Critics' Corner

Since we are on Italian topics let's hop a step
further east — to India — via that great country's
versatile film periodical "Filmindia," just
arrived. A contributor deplores the hours that
technicians are called upon to work in the Indian
studios and calculates that one unit did 960 hours
excess work without payment, several night shifts
in continuation of the da\ shift, and had to find

their own meals without remuneration! After
taking the Indian A — ciati a oi '!'• - to

task the question is asked, "'Didn't we hear ot
Mr. B. M. Tata. Mr. Kr shna Gopal and ot i
who talked aboui looking after tie- interests of
technicians? Where are these fellows now'.'"
Search me. Ask Tata for one; perhaps Elvin
knows'.' Send a copy of the agreement, George,
and tell 'em that it'- the members who make an
association \\ hat it is. "Filmindia's" comments
in other directions are nothing if not forceful,
take-
Leading Ladies

What would ours say to some of these?: —
"Manorama has always been on thi b _■_■ -i side,
but now-a-days shi is making herself a big pro-
blem for two eyes." "Jayeshree has always been
heavy in parts where beautiful women are expect-
ed to be light. Her frequent motherhood is
bound to affect what little she had in the way
of a figure. Watch her eyes in her next picture.
You will miss in them glamorous romance which
just evaporates after the very first motherhood."

Suvarnalata looks bloated and ugly." ' \ is
with a tired face which picks up wrinkles with
the slightest movement moves through the
picture without making the least impression.
Her Hindustani diction is utterly unimpressivi
and the woman seems to have forgotten what
little acting she seemed to know before." And
this, of

Juvenile Gents.

"Dileep Kumar, the new hero of the Bombay
Talkies, is an anaemic addition to our him artist-.
He needs a lot of vitamins and a prolonged treat-
ment of proteins before another picture can
risked with him." "Jagdeesh fumbles and mum-
bles with his words as usual and the ear needs
a yard's stretch to pick up the dialogue." Seems
they have their diction troubles too. hut know
enough not to blame tin Sound Department all
the time. Are you lissnin. Park Lane? Up the
Mid. lie Wesl ! Good old R.A.D.A. ! Forward the
Conti Kid! Gorblimey ! Eckchewelly!

Wonder if Ronnie Neame ever heard of the
New Yorker who thought a stoic was what
brought the babies? Or it Dave Lean knows
that tin- same I, id knew a cynic a- something that
stands in the kitchen? lint to digress is to dilate.
It just remain- to he noted that "Filmindia" S
a very interesting publication and that its
Printer. Publisher and Editor is Baburao Patel,
Producer and Director lor New Huns Pictures
hid., Bombay, Gawdelpus.

THE CINE-TEC.H N I C I A N

■oo

Artistic Appreciation

This portrait of Paul Wyand (Movietone News)
was painted in Rome during July, 1944, by Henry
Carr, the official war artist and famous portrait
painter. The picture is to be exhibited shortly
in the War Artists' Exhibition at the National
Gallery, London. Paul spent a lot of time on
the Italian front turning in his usual quality of
sin its tn grace the British Movietone News. I
guess Spyros and Sir Gordon alike are as appre-
ciative of Paul's efforts for the reel as is Henry
Carr in selecting him in distant Rome for hon-
ourable mention in this novel manner.

Finale

As this goes to press sad news comes of the
sudden death of "Nobby" ('lark'. Mixer at River-
side. Friends at G.B., Gainsborough, Rock's,
Vinten's, Pathe, Riverside, etc., and indeed all
members, will regret the passing of "Nobb^ " w ho
was held in much affection and esteem. The next
issue will carry a full appreciation from Arthur
Kelly who shared many productions with him at
Riverside.

DOCUMENTARY FILMS
A Federation of Production Units

The Independent companies specialising in
the production of documentary and educational
films have for some time felt the need for an
association to express their united interests.
The following units, the major work of whose
technicians during the war has been for the
Films Division of the Ministry of Information
ami the Si r vices, have t herefore set up the feder-
ation of Documentary Film Units: —

Basic Films, Ltd.. Documentary Technicians
Alliance Ltd., Films of Fact, Ltd.. Greenpark
Productii us Ltd., Merlin Film Co., Ltd.. Realist
Film I 'nit Ltd., Seven-League Productions I. til.,
Taurus Film Productions Ltd.. World Wide
Pictures, Ltd.

The main aims of the new Federation are set
out in its constitution as : —

(1) To represent members of the Federation in
an official capacity in matters affecting their
interests and to further their interests at home
and abroad.

(2) To make available to ever^ member the
combined knowledge and experience of all its
members as to the host methods of producing,
distributing and marketing documentary films
of all kinds, and to act as a clearing house for
information based on that combined knowledge
and experience on any matter relating to such
films and to industries ancillary to them.

(3) B\ tin- efforts of its members to use its
influence toward- enhancing the quality of such
films and bringing their production to the highest
point of efficiency.

(4) To act, when required by common consent
of members, as a medium mi behalf of members
for making contact ami concluding collective
agreements with Government Departments,
municipal and local authorities, trade unions
and other official bodies,

(.">) To carry on res, arch ami experimental
worlc in connection with documentary films of
all kinds and industries ancillary to them.

(6) To arrange and provide for or join in arrang-
ing and providing for the holding of national or
international conferences, film and other exhib-
itions and meetings, whether public or otherw ise,
and lectures and classes calculated, directly or
indirectly to further all or any of the objects of
the Federation, and to keep close contact with
other national and international documentary
bodies with a view to exchanging information,
interchanging technicians and the international
-la >oi ing of material.

The Management Committee is: Paul Rotha
(Chairman), P. K. Ne'ilson Baxter (Secretary)
ami 1 )onald Alexander.

Address: L8 Soho Square, W.l. GERrard 7015

50

T II E C T X E - T E CHXICIA \

May— Juno, 194£

IRENE WILSON

His Name

was

Smith

A delightful little man died recently. His name
was Percy Smith. He was a genius of the type
that Britain is herself a genius at producing; the
kind that live in obscurity all their lives, working
quietly in odd corners, and creating things the
world has never seen before. Smith's special con-
tribution was nature photography, which swal-
lowed ii]i a whole lifetime, and finally left him
the only expert in an exclusive field.

You would have passed him by in the street. In
appearance he was rather gremlin-like, and would
probably have heightened this illusion 1>\ getting
< 'lit of your way, as he was extremely shy. Hut
if you had spoken to him you would have con-
tacted a brilliant brain, full of excellent detail,
capable of putting the most abstruse problems into
the simplest form, and relaying them in a way
that would immediately capture your interest. If
you had got to know him better, you would have
got the effect of a particularly witty, pungent
brand of humour, full of pointed reminiscences
about the phoney things of life, especially the
people. An almost child-like simplicity ran hand-
in-hand with this highly developed critical brain,
a childishness which expressed itself in his great
pleasure in fiddling with things, just for the fun
of making them work. But it was his patience that
set him apart, a patience men seldom develop,
which sent him chasing alter the problems which
were hardest to solve.

lie started early in his quesf for the secrets of
nature. As a hoy in Islington he used to spend
his off moments searching for specimens of inse d
and plain life in the refuse that ran down the
streets ill those days. Specimens were identified
and catalogued, and as his knowledge grew and
it was necessary to go further afield for subjects,
he had the enterprise to go after them.

To please his family, he took a job as a clerk

with the Board of Education at the age of sixteen.
They wanted him to he sale and have a profes-
sion, hut we all know the kind of job it must
have been, and. of course, Percy hated it. About
its only advantage was that it left him time to
pursue his hobby which was growing and growing,
and absorbing most of his attention.

1 1" managed to while awa\ the bored f life

as a civil service clerk by turning himself in;

practical joker, an ingenious I o. One of his

tricks was to scare his fellow-workers with a tame
viper, which he kept up his sleeve and allow It
I op out while he was busy writing. A more diffi-
c lit one was accomplished on the busy sti
corner outside the office. He took a measuring
tape, and when the crowds were thick lie I

suitably obliging bloke to hold one end while he
stretched the other a Toss the road. 11
another cats-paw on the other side, and then
slipped through the crowd, back into the office,
and wati lied the ensuing chaos from the window.

Another game was to collect old envelopes with
people's addresses still clear, clean up the stamp
mark, drop them on the pavement, and watch
them being packed up and reposted. Someti
he ran into trouble. One time he picked a letter
o u o| the Thames mud. spent hours cleaning it
with chemicals, went to extraordinary lengths to
trace the owner, and sent it to him witli a note
explaining the circumstances. The owner called
the police, and Percj had a job explaining what
was the big idea.

Bu1 these things were <»nl\ a side line. He novi
started photographing his collection of nature sub-
ji i Is, and also spent off moments with his camera
ai the zoo. He also photographed Queen Vii
jubilee and the notable events around that time.
He 1km ante secrel r\ oi the Scientific Society, and
was so busy with one thing and another that he
couldn't find time to work lor the Hoard of Kdu: a-
tion. So he arranged for one of the other clerks
to do his work tor a small sum while he slipped
i iff w iih his camera alter biggei game.

At this time. Charles Urban, an American, was
the big show promoter in London. II saw s
of Peiex 's w oik. ami in a characteristic w :i\ im
Smith to ci me and see one of bis sin >w - " \l
World Before Yen." Per. \ turned up very ner-
vous, and after the show was whisked off by

[( 'ontinued on page 62

May— June, 1945

T H E C J X E - T ECHNIC] A X

:.7

THE SECRET

o

LJ nswerving devotion to the interests of photography
in all its branches is the secret of Ilford success.

In the six Ilford factories research goes on unceasingly
to maintain the high standard of quality which has
distinguished Ilford materials for nearly 70 years.

Modern manufacturing methods and a practical
knowledge of the needs of the Cine Industry will
enable Ilford Limited, as soon as conditions allow,
to supply a range of negative and posi ivc films which
will be pre-eminently su table for all requirements,

The name Ilford is your safeguard and guarantee.

ILFORD LIMITED

NATIONAL HOUSE

CINE SALES DEPARTMENT

WARDOUR STREET LONDON, W.I

;,s

THE C I X E - T E C H N I C I A N

May — June, 1945

BALKAN

BACKGROUND

Lt. P. Hopkinson, No. 2 Army Film and Photo
Section (P.R.) H.O. Public Relations, C.M.F.

8th March, 1945.

Dear Mr. Elvin,

J must apologise for not having written for so
long a period, but if you read further you will see
thai life lias been a trifle hectic with not a great
deal of spare time. The Cine-Technician con-
tinues to reach me regularly and is enjoyed as
much as ever. 1 am very glad to see it hack on
fine paper, a sign of the times J trust. The immense
amounl of grandiose schemes for the future of
the industry we all read about, truly a vision of
prosperity, but you know how sceptical, rightly or
wrongly, the serving member is of another ill-
founded boom. You may be interested in a short
account of my more recent adventures, a story
which could be called " Balkan Assignment."

Last duly .1 was with 8th Army, and the King's
visit was keeping us all running around. While
covering one of the many parades, I received a
movement order instructing me to join, within
'_ I hours, a formation freshly activated, designed
to carry out combined ops in the Balkans. After
a four hundred mile drive 1 reached its head-
quarters late in the evening. The next morning
saw me on an L.C.L, and midnight the same day
found me on a beach in Albania. This was our
first commando raid into Albania and its objective
was to destroy a German coastal garrison, thus
opening the way for the influx of supplies to the
Albanian partisans. As we had received such short
notice I carried a still camera as well as my Eyemo,
hoping to he aide to grab the odd still. The force
went ashore at midnight, in a small hay. si, me
three miles 1 1" it ti the nearest enemy outpost. The
Commandos thin silently moved up to their various
positions ready for the jump off at 6 a.m., while
1 went to sleep for a few hours. The crowing of
cockerels, the bleating of sheep and one burst of
spandau tire were the accompaniment to rm grop-
ing my way to a good position from which to cover
the naval bombardment which was to kick the
show off. A few Albanian shepherds watched
the preparations with studied indifference, head
on (J a.m. the destroyers opened up and the show-
was on. Simultaneously Hurricanes came in and
shot up the now far from sleepy garrison. Having
covered this overture T moved down to join one
of the companies as the Commandos went in. The
firs! objectives were soon taken, prisoners were
brought in. and I soon had three hundred fe< t and
some stills in the bag. As ] had started shooting

at dawn and carried on to the end of this first

stage, at about nine, my exposure was continually

changing, and while resting from the rigours of

rig up and down Albanian hills with two

cameras, a thousand feet ot film and sundry of la t
oddments of equipment, I thought that
gradual light change would not be ineffective as
being, in a way, a prolonged fade in to the story.

While waiting for the attack to go into the final
objective I shot material on the Commandos with
the local peasants, whose indifference to what was
going on was quite upsetting. Mortaring could
blast the tiles off a peasant's cottage, this left him
quite unmoved, but when the shortage of stretchers
prompted the tearing off of his trout door to carry
a casualty, he took a very poor view. One little
girl, in tlie miiist of all the nonsense, kept up a
supply of water to tin r\ r thirstj Commandos,
which was greathj appreciated, and of course made
good pictures. Stopped later by the censor, how-
ever, in case ot German reprisals. Throughout 'his
operation the German resisted tenaciously as it
appeared he was under the impression that he was
being attacked by Partisans, wdio are not too
keen on taking prisoners. Most of our trouble
came from sniping, as the very close nature of
the count r\ was ideal for this pest. Finalh we
went in for the last objective, a little village
which, alter a stiff fight, was cleared. The task
aei i implished, the ( lommander gave orders for the
return to the beach. Back we trudged, and the
Arin\ Film Unit decided to take it easy. Know-
ing that it was only noon and the deadline for
re-embarkation 1 o'clock, I took it easy under
some trees with a group of Commandos. Time
went on. hut 1 1 u ■ \ made no move. Finally time
running short, I asked who was coming back to
the beach with me. " Oh. we're staying behind,"
was the reply. Rapid disappearance of a camera-
man. Down on the beach some Partisans had
collected, and with the Commandos waving " au
revoir " as we sailed. I rounded off my coven
Pictorially it had been good stuff, as the Com-
mandos at work in the lovely countryside made
good material, albeit a background rather too Fit/.-
patrick for its sordid subject. The raid was a hun-
dred per cent, successful, the coastline was opened
up, and soon supplies were going into the Parti-
sans for their struggle of liberation.

\» a forward base for operations in support of
the Jugoslav Army of National Liberation, we
had at that time a raiding force based on on<
the Dalmatian islands. The island w as garrisoned
both by Jugoslav Partisans and British troops
Having been joined 1>\ David Johnson, former
fleet Street operator, as a still man. my next
effort was a trip to this island. As virtually no
material of the Jugoslav Partisan struggh had so

May— June, 1945

THE CINE- T E C H N I C I A N

"•«.)

Standing on flower-bedecked jeep in Patras — Dave
Johnson, Peter Hopkinson and Harry Wicken

(driver)

far been obtained, despite previous tragic attempts,
the chance to go to town on tin's little Partisan
outpost, where one had the movement in minia-
ture, was too good to be missed. So although tech-
nically we were there to cover British operations,
we lost no time in contacting the Partisans. The
defence of the island was both British and Parti-
san, and the niosi cordial relal ions existed between
the two ; we received nothing but the most willing
co-operation. To work with these people was an
inspiration and as a result I turned thousands of
feet and Dave shot hundreds of stills. We were
able to cover' every aspect of the Partisan move-
ment, it was all there. Their training, both amongst
them- ilves and b\ British, on artillery work, wire-
less, sabotage; no teacher ever had a more willing
(dass of pupils. They would be evacuated from the
mainland when wounded, very often by air. and
one of the most dramatic sequences we shot was
an operation by a British surgical team, assisted
by a little Jugoslav nurse, on a Partisan wounded
three weeks before on the mainland, and only just
got to proper medical attention. Girls of nineteen.
lumps of shrapnel in their legs, proud of the fortj
odd Germans they had accounted for, and furious
at being out of the struggle, even lor a few weeks.
No-one had money, it is not used because no-one
is paid a cent; they would feel insulted if it was
suggested that they should be paid for their part
in the liberation of their country. No stricter dis-
cipline exists in am; other army, and it is not
imposed, but springs from the deep spiritual know-
ledge that they are the fighters for the new demo-
cratic federal Jugoslavia. A.s in an\ people's army,
education is considered vital. Every formation has
its commissar and daily he, or more likely she,

gives the world news round-up. No keener stu-
dents of world affairs exist. This movement is un-
doubtedly one of the great stories of the war, and
its leader one of its greatest figures. One's first
impression of Tito is of a man of stocky good
humour, hut u is soon apparent that this is one
as] eri of a character of inspired determination
and of unparalleled organisational ability. The
happy relations between ourselves and the Jugo-
slavs on this little island should be a happy augury
for the Euture. The most moving thing we shot
over there was the departure, at dusk, of a bat-
talion, rested and trained, for their homeland,
where they were to continue the struggle. As
they piled into the little schooner, they were sing-
in- their own versions of " Tipperary " and " John
Brown's Body" ! Allied unity in song.

While on the island we went on one raid on to
the mainland of Jugoslavia, it amounted to the
landing of British guns, the shelling of an enemy
garrison on an adjacent island, and the with-
drawal of the force when the mission was accom-
plished. We went ashore at 2 a.m. in a little fish-
ing village, which had but recently been razed to
the ground by the Germans as a reprisal against
Partisan activity. The deserted nature of this
ruin, which must have been once a pleasant sea-
side village, made an eerie background to the un-
loading of the guns. They were manhandled into
position and at (i a.m. opened up. German reply
was prompt and accurate, apparently our presence
was not unknown. However, despite accurate
return tire his positions were well plastered and
at noon we re-embarked and pushed off. It made
quite an interesting little story, the 25-pounders
being manhandled up the beach and into position,
a fresh angle on the oldest of Army Film Unit sub-
jects, the ■Jo-pounder in action. Such raids as this
helped to reduce the German hold on the Dalma-
tian islands, and soon after, with some British
(dements in support, the Partisans cleaned them
all up.

In late September a Commando patrol in
Albania overlooking one of the roads to Sarande,
the port for Corfu, discovered that Greek partisans
on the other side of the frontier bad cut the only
other supply route to Corfu. It was decided to
build up the force, capture Sarande and thus take
Corfu.

So I set sail for Albania once again, this time
with Pave Johnson and Denis Fox, an old friend
from Ealing. As usual we arrived about midnight,
and caughl up on our sleep on the beach until
dawn, breakfast and pictures arrived, in just that
sequence. While Dave covered activities on the
beach, I 'ems and J went inland to shoot the &
getting into position for the drive on Sarande. By
early afternoon everything was in the can and
we went tor a swim. 1 >ave and I were to leave that

:o

T HE C] N E -TECHNICIAN

May — June, L945

night to go nil the first Greek landings, about to
take place, while Denis was staying to cover the
attack and capture ol Corfu. rl lie L.C.I, taking

us hack was not due until midnight, so at eight
I >enis retired to an abandoned pill-box, while I >ave
and I lay on the beach, all three of us pretty tired.
An hour later a tew drops of rain fell, to turn in a
matter of minutes into a tremendous thunder-
storm. We nn the beach rushed to the only pii
of shelter, the signals office, a cave with a tar-
paulin for a roof. Hire ill a heavy chest We had
parked our cameras and unexposed film. The rain
came down in torrents and, suddenly under its
weight, the roof came in. T was stunned for a
moment by a falling rock, and then, guided only
by lightning flashes, soaked to the skin, we made
for the pill. box. Inside, the water steadily rose,
so we all three climbed nn to the tops oi baskets
containing carrier pigeons. When the water had
risen two feet and the pill box showed imminent
signs of colli pse, we judged it time to heat another
retreat. So we plunged outside into the storm
again. There was imw literally nowhere left to
shelter, so all we could do was to stand impotently
around while what seemed to us to lie the biggi si
deluge since the flood poured on to us for the next
five hours. At long last the rains ceased and dawn
came up nn to a very washed out scene. After
pouring gallons of petrol on to sodden wood w e had
a fire going and some tea inside us. Thus fortified
we reviewed the position. The signals office was
two feet deep iii water, from it I fished out our un-
exposed film. Opening my Eyemo I poured out a
good half pint of water. Denis found his camera
in a similar state. The exposed film, however, was
in my pack and had been on the beach throughout
the downpour covered only by my groundsheet.
.Miraculously it was perfectly dry, so the pictures
of the Albanian landings had survived. An Italian
M.T.B. came in and the three of us climbed
aboard and returned to Italy. We arrived there
looking like survivors from a shipwreck, but lost
no time in sending off the film and damagi d
cameras. With fresh kit and camera. Denis re-
turned tn Albania to cover the operations and the
surrender of Corfu, while Dave and T shoved off
for Greece, with the first force tn land there, in
the Western Peleponnese. Unfortunately despite
the herculean labours of Dougie Hill, our mechanic,
my Eyemo did not reach me in time, so I landed
in ( Ireeee with m\ spare I >evrv .

The Germans wire pulling out of Greece so a
force was landed with its immediate objectives on
an airfield in the Western Pelopponese, and Patras,
the third largest tnwn in Greece. As we drove up
from our landing; beach we passed through villaees
frightening in their poverty, through people who

seemed so dazed that all interest in life Seemed

in have left them. Our first impressions were of a

d ad country indeed, but we were to find that I

• not sn in a big way. After a spirited action
the Germans left Patras ami evacuati ■ I

Gulf of Corinth. We entered a town gone mad. The
whole population seemed bers< rk. We were kissed,
showered with scent, fruit, flowers, rose petals,
and almost beaten insensible by repeated slaps
th^ hack. Through all this hot everything and

everybody, one just could not mi--. Down from

the hill-. d h- Pari -.in-, came t hi- M

and amidst scenes of tremendous enthusiasm he
hoisted the Creek fiag over the town hall. Having
got our film away by air we took a room in one
mi the hotels but recently vacated by the Ger-
mans. Looking forward to the first night's sleep
in a bed for a longtime, I was rudely disillusioned
by the livestock left behind by I he previous tenant .

The Force Commander then decided to push a
patrol nn tn Corinth, some hundred and fifty miles
away, - rumour had it that the Germans v
going quickly. Lashing crates of compo rat i mi- and
< ans of petrol on to the jeep we joined tic patrol
and embarked < n a fantastic journey. We passed
through dozens of villages, each one completely
hysterica] with joy. Everywhere "retsina," the
pnii nt Greek wine, was forced on us, the ati
[ih :re was more that of a carnival than a military
operation. People would lie in the road, forcing
us to stop to accept their gratitude at being I
again. At one point two railway locomotives were
drawn up either side of the road, steam in all
directions, whistles screaming. Leaping nut <it
the jeep to shoot the patrol coming through this 1
was immediately seized and carried shoulder high.
The difficulties of a combat cameraman! 1.'
ing a camera was a very hazardous operation
mill' opened it filled with mse-petals scattered b\
the people. Just outside Corinth we took over fifty
wreaths of flowers off the jeep, thrown on a- we
passed. One Commando, looking at his ammuni-
tion trailer, was heard to remark. " Looks D
! ke a blooming hearse!" An old man insisted on
kissing the jeep in as many places as possible.

The enemy had left Corinth and the next day a
i eremonial entry took place with the patrol driving
in as pari of a long column oi Partisans. More mad
scenes of welcome. We quickly wrote our ip1
in the local photographer's shop and faced the
problem oi getting the Him hack to the neai -
airfield, two hundred miles back. Harry Wicken,
our driver, turned the jeep round and shot back
with the stuff, the first man back from Corinth.

The remainder of the for came up. and we
crossed the heavily mined Corinth canal, and
reached a small village some fortj miles from
Athens. Hero we met the Germans again, cover-
ing the evacuation of some thousands still left
in the Athens an i. I'>\ night the skj was red with
the demolition- going on in tii. I' i - The enemy

May— June, 1945

T H E C ] \ E - T E C H X J C I A X

&]

staged at this point a counter attack and things
were none too bright, when suddenly the sky filled
with heavy British bombers and American trans-
ports. It was the airborne part oi the large Greek
landings about to be made. One by one the planes
roared overhead at about five hundred feet, drop-
ping sticks of parachutists and supplies. The whole
thing appeared so dramatic that we almost forgol
to shoot pictures. Our jeep was pressed into ser-
vice to bring in the supply cannisters, ;s we leal
little transport there, and all < 1 us lent a hand to
pull the parachutists into the wind, as it was blow-
ing about 35 miles an hour on the ground, and
they wen' being badly dragged. Through all this
the enemy kept up a desultory shelling. The next
day reinforcements came in by glider, and we got
our film of this airborne operation away in an
obliging Lysander. These reinforcements having
conic in, the Commando patrol decided to net into
Athens by boat, as the coast road was blown. So
with packs full oi film, Dave aial I boarded a small
Greek schooner, and with the original patrol sailed
into the baj of Salamis, the sun setting behind us.

We landed at a small village some eight miles
from Athens, where two decrepit buses were pro-
vided by the Partisans. All around us the latter
were firing off every piece of small arms they had,
to celebrate the departure ol the Germans. Off we
drove and soon, rounding the bend, a dark m iss
spread before us — Athens. A moment one can
never forget. Into the city, through dark and
deserted streets, the Germans having just left. Up
fco the Hotel Grande Bretagne, into which .ho
thirty mid Commandos moved", and being tired
out, were soon asleep. Wishing to celebrate our
first night in Athens the hotel manager and I got
to work on a bottle of wonderful pre-war brandy.
A policeman came in. Apparently a part}' of people
had walked all the wa\ from the Piraeus, as they
had heard a rumour that the English had araved.
The\ were outside — would one go out to them'.'
Being the only one up, I sallied forth. The elec-
tricity was off and so these people struck matches,
holding them up to my face, feeling me to sec if 1
was real. A heartbreakingly pathetic moment.

The next day Athens was completely mad.
There was still only the thirty of us there, without
transport, so we continued to work from our buses,
Dave and I shot everything as best we could in
the chaos of happiness that was Athens. Then
came the inevitable problem of getting the film
away. The loan of a motor cycle and side r go1
us to within two hundred yards of the hotel. wh< r
the density of the crowd held us completely. He-
fore we knew what had happened we had been
lifted out of the side ear and were being passed
over the heads of the crowd, to reach the door
of the hotel in a slightly battered state. Borrowing
a car, with an airy promise of a gold sovereign as

payment, we got back to our schooner, and thence
to the airfield where, with great relief, we put the
Mini on ,i 'plane. Then back to Athens by road, it
novi being (dear, and tin' besl night's sleep for
weeks. Soon the main bodj of troops arrived with
the Press party, main other cameramen taking
a dim view of being a trifle late. The Papandreou
government arrived, more hectic coverage.

Thus w e w ere privileged to photograph the most
genuine and spontaneous w'elcome British troops
have received in this war. We left Greece before
the recent tragedy occurred, so my account of
liberated Greece stops short at tins point. Our
Balkan coverage, however, goes on. Dave, with
Ken Rodwell, recently covered the visit of Field
.Marshal Alexander to Marshal Tito, going on into
Hungary for the former's meeting with Marshal
Tolbukhin. 1 am just starting to work on the story
oi Allied relief flowing into Jugoslavia. The
Balkans have been always fascinating, but par-
ticularly so now. when all the resistance move-
ments are struggling tor a Balkan Federation,
which would lie a keystone in a peaceful Europe.
Let us hope that their struggle is not in vain.

All the best to A.C.T.

Sincerely yours,

PETEE HOPKINSON.

STANDING FOR PARLIAMENT.

GEORGE ELVSN, A.C.T.'s General Secretary,
has been adopted 1/ hour Candidate for Kingston
in the forthcoming Parliamentary Election. We

need not scress how important it is that there be
someb ly in the next Douse of Commons who
can speak authoritatively on behalf ol the film
industry, and particularly mi behalf of film
technicians. The President and Treasurer have
issued a special appeal to members to help in
every way possible, including sneaking, can-
vassing, clerical assistance, lending cars (par-
ticularly on Polling Day. Thursday, July 5th)
and by making a donation to the Election Fund.
Mr. Elvin's Central Committee Rooms are at
78, Eden Street, Kingston-on-Thames. The
telephone number is Kingston .1203.

REG. GROVES, A.C.T. Committee Chairman
at Film Guild, is also a Parliamentary Candidate.
He is the Labour nominee for Aylesbury and
will also wek dine help from members. His
Committee Rooms are at Unity Hall. Castle
Street, Aylesbury. Telephone, Aylesbury 143.

Both Elvin and droves have tough fights in
i astituencies never before won for Labour.
That doesn't daunt them, and they are confident
thai they can win with maximum support from
all quarters, particularly their fellow Trade
Unionists. We know this will be forthcoming.

62

His Name Was Smith

THE CINE-TECH-NICI A N

.May— June, 194

Urban, given a big cigar, and " whisky when you
like " welcome. Urban wanted to know if Percy
had photographed a blue bottle's tongue. Perc;
said he had, but had a bit of bother to keep i1
still. Urban wanted to know if he could photograph
ii moving, and when Percy said he would try it,
if he bad that kind of camera, Urban clinched the
deal and said he'd get linn one. Tins was the
beginning of bis moving-picture rarer)'.

lb' was now married to a girl he bad known
since they were sixteen, and with some Port
Arthur gear, an f6 lens, and a fixed tripod, they
set off on their honeymoon in 1907, to photograph
lor Urban " anything that kicks, moves or bites."
Incidentally tin's was the only liolidax of more
than a day they bad in their whole life' The sun
shone brilliantly, and they were able to photograph
for the hist time the emergence of the prince and
princess from an ant hill. They got some other
stuff, and were very excited about it.

Back in London, Urban sent lor Smith. There
was nothing on the him. Percj said thej ought
to tr\ running if through a projector, and when
they bad a go at that, it was just possible to dis-
cern an ant milking a greenfly. Urban was incre-
dulous, ami asked Smith bow much more be could
get. IVrc\ said the sk\ wasn't the limit if be
could have a better lens, so he got a 3.5, a new-
tripod, ami set to work. Urban wanted him to
give up bis job at this point, but, Smith didn't
see anything wrong with the arrangement of the
clerk doing bis work- at the Board of Education,
and Percy doing photography. His photography
was still looked on as a hobby, and Urban was
such a grotesque creature in Percy's world, that
there seemed no connection between him and
making a living. Urban was presenting bis work
as comedy material in the film programme of his
musical show at the Palladium.

The juggling fly bounced on to the market, and
started a fine hullabaloo. It was new. The public
not only found nature fascinating, but entertaining
too. Press notices swarmed in. and the critics
proclaimed a miracle. The public clamoured for
more.

Tbe Board of Education found out that another
clerk was doing Percy's work, so be was politely
asked to leave, which be was delighted to do.

The fun now began for Percy. He worked night
an<l day, inventing equipment out of nothing,
photographing all conceivable forms of plant and
insect life, to satisfy (lie public craze, lie moved
to Southgate and installed bis apparatus, which
later grew to such an extent that be got crowded
out, and bad to move bis home to a house at the
Other end of tbe garden. He was kept going night
and day, as nature works on a fcwenty-four bout-

schedule. For growing things, he took photographs
at intervals, and here his long and intimate know-
ledge of growth stood him in good stead for plotting
his method of photography.

Then the Great War came along. Percj
drafted into the Navy, and after passing a photo-
graphic test, be was designated Sergeant of ].

matography and sent up to Scotland to p]
graph tbe aerial acrobatics of tbe freak plan- -
that time. With a camera strapped to bis stomach,
be photographed all the crazy stunts tbe kites
were worthy of. On one trip 'be kept the handle
"1 the camera turning until the inevitable crash.
Pleased with bimselt when be recovered, he i

out the material, proci 1 it. and showed I

the big knobs. An awkward silence followed the
show, and when Percy asked what was the mi I
they were only disappoint, d be hadn't got the
actual crash. He did some balloon trips too. One
day as he was loading his \cr\ heavy and awk-
ward gear on to the balloon, a " ten-ringer " rolled
up. and Percy was turfed off. He watched the
balloon sail out majestically over the North Sea.
ami it hasn't been heard of since.

Then he was sent up to Scapa Flow to shoot
the surrender of the German Fleet. It was rather
a drab day, and Percy was confined to a certain
spot on tbe deck, but he got some good stuff, and
rushed back to Leith with it. Word got around.
and the whole camp and neighbourhood assembled
while Percy was processing the stuff. He raj
a print, and pinned it on a circular frame to dry.
Unfortunately just as it was about ready and
Percy could hear the clamour of the crowds out-
side, the pin shot out, the film hit the oil lamp in
the comer, ami Percj lost the print and his
brows. Fortunately he was able to save the nega-
tive, so he ran off another print, and showed the
film before midnight. The audience, who had been
waiting all tin's time, got quite a kick out of it.
as it was the first red-hot war news they bad ever
seen.

Someone in tbe Navy found out he was also a
skilled model-maker, and so be was put to work
making a model of an ideal military and naval
headquarters. With characteristic fchoroughn ss
and patience, be did a brilliant job. which he said
ran as a side-show to the war. A soldier measured
a sixteenth of an inch, which took the breath out
of mam a six-footer with a row of medals and an
armful of rings. 1Viv\ enjoyed watching them
roll up from the battlefields and gape.

He came back to work for Urban. Urban novi
went a step further, ami introduced Kinema-
colour — composed of red and green. This excited
the public even more, and Percy's stufl was box-
office. Be kept urging Urban to let him use a blue
which he hail invented, but Urban was making
money, saw no sense in the upheaval another

May— June, 1945

colour would necessitate, and told Percy to keep
going, that everything was fine. Percy kept going.
The result was tlfat a rival firm bust Urban on
the ground that, while his patent read " able to
produce all the colours known in nature," he
couldn't produce blue. This left Percy out on a
limb, with thousands of feet of material, and a
loss of over a thousands pounds. This lasted for
just over two years, and was the bleakest time in
his life.

By a lucky coincidence, someone turned up
who was interested in his work. H. Bruce Woolfe
had become interested in the subject of nature
photography, and soon took the material off his
hands" and" commissioned him to make a film on
" The Gnat." This led to others, and gradually
fchey built up the " Secrets of Nature " series
which were shown all over the world.

Percy specialised in micro-photography, shoot-
ing microscopic life which the majority of people
never have a chance to see. Making nature
interesting, and even the ugly things beautiful.
Mrs. Smith, who always kept an eye on Percy and
his work, now became his assistant, and devoted
her life entirely to him and his work. As a piece
of advice from a family friend at the time of their
marriage, she was advised always to let Percy
have his own way, and never to cross him. She
never did.

He was very secretive about his work, and only
if the spirit moved him would he divulge what
trick he had used to gain a natural result. For
nature herself is very tricky, and often it was
necessary to approach her in a roundabout way
to get a certain result. For instance, all too often
his subjects, when subjected to the spotlight,
would fall asleep, behave uncharacteristically, or
simply curl up and die. This constant challenge
was one of the prime motives for Percy working
on and on as no other man had done, and staying
at an absorbing, task long after even the Germans
of UFA had given up.

He made hundreds of films. His pet subjects
were spiders and mosses, on which he was an
authority. Kecently, while making a film on moss
which had taken a lifetime to do, he said a pre-
vious one had already been tried. When asked who
had made it, he said " Oh, some fool called
Smith."

Well, there he is. A man gifted by nature, for
he was a brilliant musician, an accomplished ait isi
and a modest man to the point of simplicity. Many
people may find it hard to see anything wonderful
in a bloke spending a lifetime photographing the
things we casually step on when we go for a walk.

Percy Smith has gone, and nature is still with
us, keeping her secrets. We wonder if she will
again be able to turn out such a brilliant admirer.

" Penna

63

9 9

When the Romans us&d this
word they meant " light as
a feather." Well we admit
that our new tripod is some-
what heavier than that, but
it does weigh only 8 lbs.
which, you must agree, is
very light.

W. Vinten, Ltd., North Circular Road, Cricklewood, N.W.2 ]

Telephone Gladstone 6373

64

T 111-; C I N E -TECHNICIAN

STRAWS IN THE HAIR

by

SCREENCOMBER

of the Kinematograph Weekly
Illustrated by Land

Apologies

Dear Mr. Elvin,

The perseverance, optimism and continued be-
lit! in human nature that allows you, month after
month, to. advise me of your press da\ deserves
to be rewarded but I have long been allergic to
press days and invariably find myself coming out
in a rash of double Scotches as the deadline
approaches.

'I his gives me a spiritual aloofness which allows
me to ignore such mundane things as irate printi rs
or agitated editors. Surely you have not over-
looked the sad fate of my late editor, Mr. Ray-
ment, who was a fine upstanding lad when 1 first
started writing for the Kine and who now. after
only ten years or so, has had to retire from pre-
mature old age brought on from waiting for my
i ' | \ or trying to get the point of one of my para-
graphs.

J should hate to sec a similar fate overtake
you before you have completed your task of seeing
the R nks, Yules and Courtaulds squeezed to their
last drop of caviar! However, if you persist, I
promise I'll ny to let you have something for the
next issue and hope your nerves will stand up
to the strain the suspense brings and that your
brain will remain calm through all these self im-
posed dreary hours of longing and waiting and

May — June, L945

322*w

hoping-

n id

liopmg

Y< iurs sympathetically,

"SCKKKACOMBKl;"

The Screencomber Strike

A series of unfortunate misunderstandings led
to the prolongation of the Great Screencomber
Strike, which has resulted in our being missing
from this page since way back when. Screen-
comber claimed it was a strike, while the
Editor was equally insistent that it was a lock-
out. Called in to arbitrate, Mr. George Elvin
showed a deiaded partiality for the Editor's view-
point, so much so that Screencomber refused to
accept i he Klvin fellow's ruling, resulting in a
further dispute involving Screencomber and
Elvin in which the Editor was then brought in
as arbitrator.

Again Screencomber complained of favour-
itism, (his time against the Editor for his un-
questionable prejudice in Elvin's favour. It was

over a couple of glasses of gherkins and a spam
sandwich at the "Dog and Duck" that Arthur
Rank* suggested to Screencomber the interesting
theory that as George Klvin and the Editor were
one and the same person, or both and perhaps
vice-versa, probably neither was completely im-
partial or disinterested in the other one. each be-
ing, si i to speak, the same as the other and both
being the same one as each. The theory was an
ingenious ami plausible one which no doubt even
Si reeneomber might have been quick to see if
only someone had stated it so plainly earlier.

Cali for Action

Deciding that the moment had now come for
drastic action, Screencomber decided to parade
outside the Editor's office in full view of Klvin.
with sandwich-boards reading "Unfair to Screen-
ed milier. " Tin se _::i\ e r si I
a, further unfortunate inci-
dent, ib" immediate result
which was the speedy
erection ol a large circus tent
in the middle ol S iho Square
in which w as hoe- d M irry-
gi i-rounds, Swiugs, I ' d ,e-
' Ems and Hoopla. Seeingan
opportunity of easy money
in these. Screencomber now
approached the Editor w ith
a proposition in the form of an infallible system
1>\ w Inch Elvin could make up on the roundabouts
what the Editor l"st on the swings. From dis-
cusssions that followed it became apparent that
Elvin, seeing Screencomber 's board from the
Editor's window, instead of reading it "Unfair
fco Screencomber " had undi rstood it to s ■
"Fun-Fair Eor Screencomber" and, deciding on
that policy ol appeasement for which he is so
loved by all film producers, had immediately

May— June, 1945

T UK C ] N E -TECHNICIAN

M

hastened to meet the new Screencomber de-
mands by having a fairground rushed to the spot.
The matter bas now been finally settled by
Elvin agreeing a rise oi five shiliings, ten of which
he immediately borrowed so that he could toss
es double or quits and thus win himseli a pound.
In a further burst of generosity he suggested that
S reencomber might show his gratii ude by buying
a drink, insisting on a double of course, one for
himseli and one for the Editor !

Eivin 'Elp the Working Man

Si i George Elvin plans to st md for Parliament.
In our time we have stood for the National
Anthem, the three card trick and we have often
stood around waiting for someone to stand a
round, but we have never yet stood for Parlia-
ment, believing that Parliament just wouldn't
stand for us. Mr. Elvin is different, for no doubt
he is counting on the Producers' vote to win the
da\ for him. Romeo's love for Juliet. Dante's
for Beatrice or Salmon's for Gluckstein is as
nought compared with a Producer's love for
Elvin. We were privileged once to see a touch-
ing illustration of this at a Producers' meeting
where the Chairman, all smiles, announced ex-
ultantly, "Gentlemen, it is m\ pleasure and
privilege to announce that George Elvin has
broken his leg." On being asked, " Nothing
trivial, we trust:'" the assembled Producers broke

into a storm oi cheering and handshaking. To
our protest that this was hardly a charitable way
to receive the news of an accident to a man who
had spent many sleepless nights devising new
methods by winch the Producers might rid them-
selves of the embarrassment of their surplus
profits, it was explained to us that the cheers
were merely the Producers' way of showing their
relief that Mr. Elvin had only broken a leg, when,
as the Chairman explained with a far away
beatific look of longing in his great blue eyes, d
might so easily have been his neck. For one who
has always had the reputation for being so oblig-
ing and co-operal i\ e, we ha ire alwaj s been puzzled
by the fact that the Produce's invariably in re-
ferring to a particular obstinate obstacle speak
id' having to move Elvin and Earth.

(*All characters in this page are purely fictitional
and arc not intended to refer to any living person:
any resemblance is purely coincidental.)

For Thinkers
the World over

66

T 1 1 E C IXE-TE C H N 1 C I A N

May— June, 194$

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM SEAC

From Denny Densham, of the Crown Film Unit

While sitting here waiting for the monsoon to
let ii]i it occurred to me that you might be inter-
ested to know something about the things that
have happened to us during the shooting of a
documentary film made entirely in the jungle. 1>\
a unit consisting of Director and Cameraman only.
I feel that I can safely state that this has been
the toughest assignment I have ever had, even
putting my share of Western Approaches in the
shade — and there were occasions during the shoot-
ing of that epic which could be described as
definitely more than somewhat. Again, on the
Royal Marine Commando film. By Sea and Land,
I imagined I had come up against nature in the
raw when I had to live for ten days in a dugout
being dive-bombed incessantly by mosquitoes
(insect version). But compared to this location all
others have been absolute heaven.

A few days before we were due to start shooting
Jungle Manner we drove miles into the interior
and lighted upon a perfect piece of jungle lor the
job. Imagine our chagrin and amazement on
arrival at the site with the unit and finding no
trees in sight. Some enterprising beggar had felled
them all and was starting a saw-mill.

After an hour's prospecting we staked our claim
on a nice piece of virgin jungle pierced by a moun-
tain river — a fine water supply with bathing pool
combined. A shelter consisting of canvas sheets
stretched over saplings was quickly erected and
we both settled in to live the Hard Way, exactly
as the chaps do in the script. Sleeping under the
shelter on the hard jungle floor without even a
mosquito net was most uncomfortable for me, to
say the least. We rubbed insect repellant over the
exposed portions of our bodies before sleeping and
I found it most effective. I eventually got to sleep
convinced that a snake would be turned in with
me by the time I woke, or at least one member of
the unit would be carried away by the prowling
night animals. However, next morn the sun shone
merrily and most of the "greenhorn" feeling of
the night before had vanished.

The monsoon has started and it has been raining
to}' the last three days. The bother with this rain
is that it penetrates everywhere; the shelter gave
up being waterproof two days ago and the result
on camera equipment may well be imagined. All
our dry clothes are now soaking and the leather
camera case is growing a pretty green shade of
mildew. I suggest for future jungle units fibre
cases should be made up for the gear, as thev

seem quite waterproof and do not act as flower
beds.

With this rain comes the worst pest of all — the
disgusting slimy leech. In dry weather they can-
not be found, but at the first drop of rain they
are out in their millions, varying in size from a
gramophone needle up to your little finger. They
all have the same ambition and object in life, to
blow themselves up on human blood, and they
do too. In through the eyelets" of boots, through
the weave of socks, up trousers and down backs
— no part of one is sacred frorg them. The com-
plete " Jungle Hiker " removes them by applying
a cigarette to the brutes, and then, the heat
having caused them to withdraw their heads,
flicks them off one by one. If you attempt to flick
them off without prior application of "the Hot
Seat," or a pinch of salt, the head will stay
behind in the wound and the. result is a nasty
fester.

Shooting a two-hundred foot shot one day, eye
glued to the view-finder, I could feel the leeches
advancing up my legs — no aid to good operating ! !

Around mid-day the heat is. terrific and causes
one to sweat in pints. The camera in use is a
turret Sinclair on a Baby Vinten Gyro head, and
after humping that outfit a short distance one
looks as if one has fallen into a river fully clothed.
There have been times when a shot has had to be
cut simply because the perspiration forming round
my eyes had caused the rubber eye-piece nearly
to pull the operating eye out of its socket.

I have only three mags and the ordeal of loading
them in the changing bag can well be imagined —
no sooner are the hands in the bap than the sweat
rolls off — I guess that the rushes will " stink " for
more than one reason after this.

The light is terrifying — against all my expecta-
tions the sun never shines for a whole day, and
when it does the contrast is so great it is almost
impossible to shoot at all. To overcome this I have
been using a 3n5 filter for most of my stuff. A
" G " is about the heaviest filter one dares to use
here and even that produces similar results to a
23a back home in full sun. In places in the jungle
whole sequences have been shot at F3 in an
attempt to pet shadow detail, and wit bout reflect irs
the whole job would have been impossible. As a
side-note, here silver paper is quite unobtainable.
They have had no supplies of it tor four years ; I
being bom lucky managed to make friends with a
tea planter who verj generousjj gave me his last

few sheets.

Ma v— Juno, 1045

THE C INE-TECHXICIAN

Deep in the jungle it is surprising how difficult
[|t is to gel good long shots, for tin- sunlight
streams down through the broken skyline of trees
making ;i jig-saw pattern of bright high-lights over
the -round. Your artists disappear entirely (espe-
cially when dressed in "jungle green") and on
to], of this the result makes the bush appear quite
thin, rather like an English wood. Back lighting
is dangerous in full sun too, for all the shadows
turn jet black with vivid high-lights from the leaves
resulting in a glorious " soot and whitewash." I
thank heaven for the genius who sent me off with
a spare duplicate set of biters, for soon after
exposure to the heat believe it or not the balsam
melts and you can easily slide the two glasses
apart. Without a one-inch lens I feel we would
have had to cut down enormous portions of
greenery to get any effect of depth and width in
fehis kind of country. That little "bottle" saved
mam headaches!! Even so it was necessary to
re-dress the jungle for the purposes of set-up for
the most perfect location would scream disaster to
the shots without a careful trimming with " din-
gleberries," and often the sky had to be shaded
with thick bush or foliage to stop light getting
where it was not wanted. The camera, even when
shaded, gets so hot that the oil runs out of it and
mi one occasion 1 had to strip it down to free a dry
Bearing. An unpleasant task without a workbench
or the proper tools, and only a torch for light.

Among a host of unnecessary accessories that
I found I had brought with me was a Weston
.Meter, and so for fun I tried it out. The result
was alarming, the needle swung hard over and
would have wrapped itself round the stop-pin had
I not hurriedly put it away. Needless to say I now
regard this tool of the trade as being unnecessary
for this kind of work. If one were to believe what
it says a lens would have to be designed that
stopped d iwn to about F200.

While directing a sequence a few days back,
our director (Ralph Elton) had a snake glide over
his left boot. We succeeded in getting a fine insert
of it. though needless to say it did not live long
alter its screen debut. This particular snake was
a "Tic Polanga," and it is liable to jump its own
length to strike. The local natives informed us
later, when shown the deceased, that it can be
very vicious, though ours must have been suffering
from stage fright.

A delightful beast known as a Kabragoya lives
around the camp and seems quite unafraid of
either humans or of the camera. He is a large
amphibious reptile of the lizard class measuring
some four feet overall. He spends his days
scav nging around the hushes for tit-bits and
appears to have a passion for tinned cheese. Up
aloft we are watched by a colony of monkeys who
take a deep interest in all our doings. They are

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66

T H E C I N E - T E C H X T C I A \

May— June, 1945

much shyer than friend Kabragoya, and never risk
corning to ground in our vicinity.

Another find while shooting was George, a
tarantula, discovered sunning himself on a palm
leaf. We expended several feet of film on him
before he too expire:!. I regret to say aided by
yours truly. He too was poisonous, but the effect
ol his bite nil a healthy being is no worse than a
cholera inoculation.

From Alan Lawson, of S.E.A.C. British Film Unit :
The problems of photographing the war in
Burma are largo. The technical problems are
child's play in comparison to the physical ones.
The main technical problems are — the impossi-
bility of keeping film stock from getting baked in
the sun (there is no real shade in the present fight-
ing zone with its 102 degrees "in the shade");
the length of time between actual exposure and
development taking into account the baking pro-
cess that goes on. In the monsoon the dampness
which goes right through the present type of film
packing; it also rusts up a camera in two or three
weeks, necessitating a complete overhaul; and
finally lens fungus that etches right into the glass
surfaces, so that a complete repolish is required
before it can be used.

The physical problems, however, are even
greater. First of all, the Burma front spreads over
some thousands of miles, but instead of a constant
continuous front, as in the West, you have a series
of strong sharp daggers thrusting deep into the
Jap gut. Transport is scarce for the likes of
cameramen, as all available transport is main-
taining a long LINE OF COMMUNICATION.
The 14th Army is some 600 miles from the nearest
railhead, so that the bulk of the supplies have to
come from that railhead to the front by the one
road that has been blasted and bulldozed over
mountain, through jungle and across rivers. What
has this to do with photographing the War'.' You
may well ask. A heck of a lot, as problems like this
supply and communication exist right the way
through the whole of this Burma Campaign.

I said that there was no continuous front, nor
is there a continuous chance of getting pictures.
The cameraman has to be mobile, that is to say,
he has a jeep which he shares with two others.
Generally cameramen work in teams of three —
two cine and one still. This jeep has to take
their equipment, personal gear, bedding (perhaps
tentage), loud and stuck, which is no small load.
I know, I've tried it. The roads, which may or
may not lead to the front, are mainly very broken
down second-class roads judged by English stan-
dards, and the others are bulldozed tracks across
paddy-fields, scrub and elephant f^i'ass. Your
travelling speed on the "roads" is, if you're lucky,
25 m.p.h. I have done as much as Hi I m.p.h. in
places. Then on the bulldozed track anything from

2 to 15 m.p.h. You can reckon on your equipment
being airborne for at leasl 50% of the time. You
arrive at the Front covered in quite the finest dust
1 have ever seen. Your camera is covered in it. in
spite oi all the lavish care, tor in places there is
18 inches of dust, whilst in others there is just
dust. When you walk along you leave a trail —
even a bird kicks up dust.

You are at the Front! What do you expect t<>
find? Well, according to what's in front of you.
so conditions vary. .Men tucked into cover well
down — snipers are busy — or the Jap is mortaring.
The groups are scattered and small. That is not
an action picture. Perhaps an L.M.G. crew are
firing at some hidden object, or some 25-poundi 3
are firing, or tanks waiting to break cover. Jusl
to give you an idea of what one finds at the front
I'll tell you how I once blundered right into the
front line without even knowing it. I happi
to be in the then new 2 Div. Beach Head — I had
been shooting build-up material in Nagazun and
had decided to go further afield and pushed off
down the road to Kyauktalou which had not as yei
been taken. Anyway. I passed a control point—
no-one said anything (why should they?) — later
on, some mile or so, I spotted a three-tonner
bumping across a paddy-field, gfest the ever present
and photogenic pagoda. Pictures! thought I, so I
pulled off the road and over we went to the paddy-
field, where I found a bunch ot infantrymen who
I had reason to assume were in rest in reserve
positions. Whilst in conversation with their Com-
pany Commander lie said: "Do you anticipate
going any further forward to-day?" I replied that
1 hadn't thought about it. The answer was " Well.
1 wouldn't, as you are right in the front line now."
Some oil!) yards ahead was some high ground in
which Jap patrols had been or were still active.
Anyway, front line or no this is what I saw — men
sitting under the few scattered palm trees peeling
potatoes, reading and some sleeping. Of course
there were working parties as well, digging mortar
positions, slit trenches and rjtaehine-gun points.
That isn't an isolated ease, nor is it the general
rule, but the Burma front is so different from any
other front that you can't calculate ahead. If you
saw what 1 saw on the s teen and the commen-
tator mentioned the word " trout " you'd call him
a liar. Because ot these strange conditions some
of the newsreel lads occasionally lay on their own
private wars to whet the appetite of the dear old
B.P. Laid on very successfully it was, tanks going
through a ruined village lit had been relit so it
would smoke) that had been liberated some four
or five weeks previously. Another one worked at
> Jungle Battle School in India, sending back
I ii tures ot our 14th Army fighting in the Burmi se
Jungle.

The only really photogenic subjects that I have
seen to date have been the Sappers doing their

kay— June, 1945 T HE (J X E -TECHNICIAN 69

* CAREFUL RESEARCH

BY THE
WORLDS GREATEST SCIENTISTS HAVE PRODUCED
MIRACLES IN EVERY FIELD WHERE NECESSITY
PRESENTED ITSELF ... ".

WE DO NOT SAY THAT WE CAN PRO-
DUCE MIRACLES BUT WE DO GUARANTEE

^T CAREFUL RESEARCH IN "all STOCK
SHOT enquiries THAT IS A NECESSITY !

WE ARE PROUD OF OUR LIBRARY RECORD
BECAUSE, IN THIS WAR, IT HAS GREATLY CON-
TRIBUTED TO THE PRODUCTION OF IMPORTANT
DOCUMENTARY & PROPAGANDA FILMS
IN POST WAR EDUCATIONALS, DEMANDS
FOR OUR MATERIAL WILL BE EVEN GREATER, FOR
ONLY NORMAN'S CAN PRESENT YESTERDAY
TO THE PEOPLE OF TO-DAY

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY

TELEPHONES: 54 58

qerrard WARDOUR STREET

6413- -7481 LONDON, W.I.

70

HE C r N E - 'J' E C II N I C I A N

May June, L945

constanl road and bridge making in the very v
of i lie advance; tin- Sappers again who have mad< .
prepared and opened air-strips three days after the
Jap has been cleared ou1 ; the Sappers again with
their pontoon rafts [errying nan and materials
across tin- Chindwin, Mu ami [rrawaddy rivers.
Then trere is the R.A.S.C. an, I R.A.I.S.C. who
maintain that long L. of ('. Finally, we have the
combined \ r Forces of G.B., Canada and U.S.A.
with their constanl shuttle ferry service bringing
up the priorities of war. either dropping them by
parachute or off-loading at a strip perhaps only
three miles from tin- front line. Such pictures as
these do not give you a complete and true picture'
ol the Burma front. They maj help you to under-
stand tic immense difficulties that have to lie
overcome hut they leave out the P.B.I, who have
foughl aial marched over more than 600 miles,
with main importanl bul unphotographic night
battles. Some Army cameramen have been lucky
in getting action pictures, hut I hex were just lucky.

In conclusion, a word aboul the lads in the I'nit
who are doing the job. They are keen, competent
and, given the chance, good technicians, turning
m a job ol work equal to anyone. A happier and
friendlier bunch I couldn't wish to meet ; they are
,-i grand team, and work as a team doing a difficult
job.

Alan Lawson also sends us < uttings from S.E.A.C.
(the Fori es' paper) -which shows that a certain
amount of feeling and rivalry has arisen between
the huh of the S.E.A.C. Film Unit and the news-
reehnen. We reprint these to give both sides of the
case, and refrain from any comment other than to
hope that now <il last the lads i)i Burma and other
parts Fast will get the show they deserve on British
screens. Eds.

Jimmy Wright, of Paramount, in an interview

February ist, njj.5 :

"The Burma Fronl will be the first to be
covered scientifically by newsreelmen. We have
been trying to do something like this on other
fronts since the war began, but for various reasons
it has not been possible. Now we are getting down
to it. Every battle will he film planned in advance.

We shall use maps, drawings, charts and even car-
toons to support the actual shots and make a sort
of newsreel d< h-ii i i lent arv . When ;i place is taken

we shall screen explanatory diagrams showing

what the strati".-;, was and how the situation has

altered. Nowadays people want an intelligent,

planned pictorial illustration of what war means.

We are going to give it to them. "

To this Sgts. IF II'. Govan, /. R. Hewitt and R.

Watson replied as follows :
• The interview cannot fad to give a mist aken
impression of newsreel coverage on the Burma

Front. I me no doubt to. the reluctance of the Army
Film I'nit to publicise its own activities, it does
not seem generally realised that since the days of
I.I \lamein the hulk of newsreel coverage has
come from the cameramen of the Army, Navy and
R.A.F. Film Units. While it has been admitted
the release of Burma material on home news reels

has. until recently, been pitifully low in footage,

the inference that this has been due to lack ol
coverage and that six newsreel ' aces ' are going to
remedy the matter, is something of a slur on the
work of the Army cameramen on the Burma
Front, whose output over the last tew months has

been lully adequate both in quantity and quality.
Apparent reluctance of the B.N. A. to use Burma
material as such in the past, cannot be covered up

hv a statement of good intentions in the future."

Finally, Jimmy Wright replied:

" There is nothing so dead as yesterday 's new -.
The primary reason of the B.N. A. action in send-
ing out six professional cameramen to thi- theatre

of war is to speed up the delivery to the I'.K .it
Burma Fronl news. These men are working for
the five British new-reel companies and their
world-wide connections. Whereas main prior calls

are made on material filmed hv Service Film I'nits
before the needs of the lievwv, Is are satisfied. 1

can ipiote many instances ol film being received
in U.K. three months after it was shot. I hope
all service cameramen will work amicably with the
newsreel men to give the world through the cinema
an imperishable record of the men fighting in
South East Asia."

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS contd.

windings in each motor. Both motors are de-
signed to operate satisfactorily over a voltage
range of from IS to 25v.

The galvanometer used is the E. M. Berndt
Auricon type. Focussing and lateral adjust-
ment of the light beam can he carried out in the
field without special and complicated optical test
equipment .

The amplifier assembly contains a mixer
position for one microphone, auxiliary gain
controls and a meter which is used interchange-
ably for checking tie various circuit conditions
and as a volume indicator or a- a limiter indi-
cator. The normal maximum gain for tin- ampli-
fier is llu db. with an additional 15 db. of gain
which may be used ii necessary but with a corres-
ponding increase in noise level.

lu spite .>l the reduction in weight and size the

sound quality obtainable with the equipment
closely approaches the general average of com-
mercial sound recording.

May— June, 1045

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-
seventh
List

1'. A.LLWOKK (Camera, Denham)— H.M. For,,.
('. A. BISHOP (Junior Draughtsman, G.B.)—
H.M. Fores.

C. CHATTERTOX (3rd. Projectionist, Gains-
borough) H.M. Forces.

M. CODY (16mm. Assist. Printer, Bumphries
Labs.) — Army.

E. W. -I COUZINS (Assist. Grader, Eumphries
Labs.)— H.M. Forces.

W. GENTLEMAN (Camera Assistant. Techni-
color)— Army.

E. R. HAZELL (Developing, Denham Labs.)—
H.M. Forces.

P. JACOBS (Maintenance' Assist., Gainsborough)
—H.M. Forces.

]). LASHMAK (Camera Loader, British Nation-
al)— Army.

ANTHONY LEWIS (Camera, Technicolor)
Army.

GERALD MILES (Tost Assist.. Gainsborough)
-H.M. Forces.

A. J. RICHARDSON (Mech. Assist.. Pathe
Labs.)— H.M. Forces.

K. SMITH (Camera Trainee, Riverside Studios)
— Army.

1). SPREADBURY (Make-Up Operator. Techni-
color)— Navy.

NORMAN SWANN (16mm. Hex., Denham
Labs.) — Army.

L. TOWNSEND (An Assistant. Gainsborough)
—H.M. Forces.

F. VINCENT (Projection Trainee. Riverside
Studios) -Army.

J. WILKINSON ((Kay's, Finsbury Park) Army.

T BE C1N K -TECHNICIAN

;i

Casualties

Sgt. JOHN McKEE (Armj Film Unit, India
Command) — Killed in air crash.

F 0. A. J. Ni:\\ ELL (formerly Assistant Direct-
or. Gainsborough) reported missing.

2nd. Lieut. .). \\ . ROBBINS, 11 A. Killed in
air crash in Burma.

1! 0. SID \\ 001 >C0CK (Formerly A.C.T. Shop
Steward, Film Labs.) Killed in action in
Burma.

THE LATE HUBERT BATH

The news oi the death of Hubert Hath will sad-
den the hearts of all who knew him. Technicians
ol all departments accepted him as a charming
and helplnl co-worker, unassuming, yet a learned
and masterly musician. He served for many years
under Louis Levy at Gaumont-British and his
deep grasp <il things musical an] their application
to recording technique is indicated 1>\ In- \.
experience.

WONDERFUL NEWS FOR THOSE IN PAIN

^a^"^1

5 Tablets 3^d.
10 Tablets 7d.

Charts, temps, washings, meats :
No. 18 seems brighter ; No. 30 is
coughing ; a dressing for No. 5 ,
No. 20*s stitches. No wonder
Nurse has a splitting head ! Bur
she keeps smiling — she doesn't
worry — in two minutes she'll soothe
away her headache *mh a cup of
tea and a little pink tablet.

KORM

PA/N AWAY

!•'( )1! SaI.L. DeBrie Step Contact Printer, pilot
pin registration, "2*2* > 240v. A.C. operation, seen
London.— Box C.T. L05, 5 and 6, Red Lion Sip,
London, W.C.I.

72

THE CI N E - T E C H X I C I A N

May— June, 194c

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

Calcium Scums and Sludges in Photography.

(B. W. Eenn and J. I. Crabtree, S.M.P.E.

Journal, December, 1944.)

Calt imn salts may be introduced into photo-
graphic processing solutions from: (a) the water
supply, (I)) the emulsion, or both, and these salts
combine with some of the developer constituents
to form insoluble compounds which may appear
as (1) a sludge suspended in the developer or
accumulated on the filters, Cl) a scum on the film,
or (3) a scale on rollers, sprockets, racks and the
walls of tanks. The control of the water supply
will reduce the quantity of these precipitates and
the scum may be removed by. suitable acid rinse
or acid fixing baths, but calcium- sequestering
agents are often used for more complete control.
When selecting these agents, their calcium-
sequestering power, stability, photographic effect,
and their effect when carried over into the fixing
bath, must be considered, and on the basis of
these requirements, sodium tetraphosphate Mas
found the most suitable.

Appropriate quantities of sodium tetraphos-
phate added to the developer were found to (1)
prevent sludge formation in mixing, storing or
use of the developer, (2) prevent the formation
of scum on the film when in the developer, and
(3) greatly diminish the rate at which incrust-
ations accumulate on the tank walls, sprockets
and mechanical parts.

If developers are stored at high temperatures,
the polyphosphates present tend to hydrolize to
the simple phosphates which, when carried over
into the fixing bath, may precipitate as alumin-
ium phosphate. The hydrolysis does not occur
in storage of the dry solids and only very slowly
In-low 85°F. when in solution. Solutions stored
at high temperatures or for prolonged periods
may be protected by the addition of sodium-
citrate which extends the life of the tetraphos-
phate solution and prevents precipitation in the
fixing bath if hydrolysis has occurred.

PH-216A RECORDING EQUIPMENT.

(Wesley C. Miller. S.M.P.E. Journal.
Feb., 104.K)

This paper describes a super-portable double
film recording equipment designed at the request
of the Army Pictorial Services to fill the im-
mediate need for a recorder capable of produc-
ing relatively high quality work in the held or
studio while still being completely portable.

The complete equipment consists of the follow-
ing units : —

Mi Recorder Unit consisting of all the oper-
ating parts for the recording channel: film
drive, amplifier system, controls etc.,
Weight, 93 lbs.

(2) Accessory Unit, which carries the micro-
phone, headphones, cables, spare parts,
etc., Weight, 60 lbs.

(8) Film I nit. which can its the film supply
and all accessories relating to the use and
handling of film. It carries a maximum
of 6,000 ft. of 35mm. film. Weight, 40 lbs.
without film.

(4) Two storage battery units which are the
power supply for the complete equipment
including camera motor. Each is a "24v.
4u amp. hour battery. Weight 87 lbs.

(.")) Camera Motor Unit. Consists ol a carrying
case and camera motor for Mitchell N.C.
Camera. Weight "24f lbs.

The total weight, without film, is 392 His.

The c ase containing the Recorder Unit is divided
into two compartments. The front compartment
houses the film movement and the galvanometer
and also serves as a film magazine. The rear
compartment houses the driving motor, ampli-
fier, etc. The control panel is on top of the box.
The film drive employs a single sprocket and
iii ording drum which is controlled by a flywheel
system of the rotary stabilizer type.

In place of the conventional external film mag-
azine-- a form of daylight loading technique has
been adopted. The film is loaded in the dark-
room on a reel which is composed of two
flanges screwed on either end of a hub. A cover
is then placed over the loaded reel with 3 or 1
feet of threading leader brought out through a
slot in ihe cover. All threading operations are
carried out with the cover in position. When
the threading is complete the reel cover is remov-
ed and the him compartment door is closed. A
loading-hag covers the entire recorder during
red coi r removal to prevent light striking the
film.

Both recorder and camera motors are a special

design of the conventional d.c. interlock type

operating from 24v. d.c., with a 3-phase, -24 cycle

Ho volt interlock supply derived from auxiliary

{Please turn to page ~o)

THE VOICE OF BRITAIN AT WAR

When the Technician now "doing his bit"
returns to "civvie street" he is going to take
the first opportunity to ask his Management
to have B.A. Sound installed in his Theatre.
B.A. in the Services has shown him what can
be done in the way of faultless sound repro-
duction and he will not be content with less.

BRITISH ACOUSTIC FILMS LTD.

OFFICES: FILM HOUSE, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.I

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD.

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138WARDOURST.,

LONDON, W.t.

Telephone : GERrard 671)
Cables: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 2, Soho Square, London, W.i,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

1/-

No. 55-56 1945 JULY

OCTOBI

F./O. C. CHALLIS

GEO. H. ELVIN

KURT GOLDBERGER

FRED. J. HYSON

CHARLIE WHEELER

P./O. JIMMY WRIGHT

I

R.A.F. CAMERAMAN '
THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT1
CZECHOSLOVAKIA LOOKS AHEAD ■

MAGNIFICENT LABORATORY VICTORY-

TAKING
NO CHANCES

Rigorous scientific control in every detail
of manufacture is one outstanding reason
for the excellence of 'Kodak' Motion
Picture Films. Nothing is left to chance.
Nothing is left undone that thoroughness
can do. The result is a series of Films of un-
exampled quality — uniform in behaviour,
brilliant in their performance.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Department,
Kingsway, London, W.C.2

'KODAK' FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

9 tonal & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1 . Telephone: GERRARD 8506

Kertisement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

/Associate Editors : Sidiey Cob. Gsorg? H Eivit. Kennsth Gordon. Frad Hyson, A. E. Jeakins, M. J. Land, Frank Sainsbury.

hmber Fifty-five/Fifty-six, VoEurme Eleven July — October, 1945

Price One Shilling

The Labour Government

WE welcome Labour's resounding victory ai
the polls. Jt demonstrates thai British
i li i tors are determined to make a change.
Tli.\ have ceased to have faith in the Tories who
mismanaged the nation's affairs at home for L8 oi
the 21 years between the two wars, just as much
as they have learned to detest the same party
which bred the men of Munich who so gravely mis-
handled our affairs abroad. I'hey were no more
misled In the Churchill myth than taken in by
the Laski bogy. They withstood the bitterest
election press campaign of all time; turned out in
their tens of thousands to acclaim Churchill, the
war leader ; then promptly wenl and voted Labour,
againsl Churchill the tool of the Conservative
Party . Nearly six years oj war had educated the
British public. They were discerning, unaffected
by abusive propaganda, and calmly decided to go
forward with Labour rather than back with the
( 'onservath es.

At its first meeting after Labour's victory the
A.C.T. General Council unanimously passed a
vote oi congratulation and good wishes to the new
Government, it did this, not merely as a Trade
Union affiliated to the Labour Party — though that
would be good cause enough — but also on the more
narrow and domestic grounds that you can only
have a flourishing film industry in a prosperous
Britain. We still remember the days eighl years
ago when 80% ot our studio members were unem-
ployed. We have in mind. ton. our more recent
experiences and the fighl A.C.T. has waged
gainst private monopoly. We know a Socialist
y is the only one which can provide lull
employment. We know the Labour Part's is the
- > 1 1 1 \ major political party which will fight m
poly .

lii 'jrst. before films, the Labour Government

must tackle more immediate and vital jobs, it must

le the transfer of our indt tries from making

,i us of destruci ion to the constructive needs of

1 i co; ; musl equally guide labour back from its

>bs to its civil occupations; it must stan to

build the millions of homes which so many of our
people so urgently need ; it must rebuild our export
trade, and it must start out on the road of real
sociai security and adequate social services lor all.
Abroad, ii must play its part in repairing the
ravages of war and creating an international
organisation which through co-operation bv all
nations will ensure that fascism stays crushed and
that never again shall the peoples of the world he
plunged into war.

The Trade Union Movement played a big part
in returning Labour to power. Jt now has big
responsibilities to facilitate Labour fulfilling its
mandate. It will lie hampered in doing this it
every sec ion of workers — w hether in films or else-
where- -tiy to take advantage of friends at court
to pr< ^s sectional interests. Labour will he judgi d
in five years time on the broad pattern of its
achievements. We should leave Mi-. Attlee and
his colleagues free to get on with the job of imple-
menting " kef us Face The Future," the policy
document on which they were elected to pow :l\

We must also remember that we are in one
sense the ambassadors of the Labour Covernm nt
in our own industries. Stoppages of work, for
example, may well he used by the press to try and
alienate public sympathy. It may not be beyond
certain employers to try and provoke industrial
unrest as one means of seeking to blacken the
Labour Government. If that is attempted we must
resist it.

A successful first five years will ensure Labour's
re-election [or another term. If thai can he
achieved — and we see no reason why it should not
—we shall probably have seen the last ol Tory
rule in this country lor all time. That would in-
deed be progress.

As far as films are concerned, we could not
have two better friends at the Board of Trade
than Sir Stafford < ripps and Mr. Ellis Smith. I
have knowledge ot the film industry . Sir Stafford
was a staunch advocate ol the use of films during
his war-time tenancy at the Ministry of Ail i

7!

THE CI N E - T E C H N I C I A N

July— October, 1945

Production and a famous courl case just before
the war showed be is not without knowledge of the
intricacies of film finance. Kllis Smith lias on
mure than one occasion expressed A.C.T. views
in the House of Commons and on the public plat-
form. Therefore, it is with gratification thai we
welcome the appointments to the Ministry respon-

sible for the well-being oi thi British film indus-
try. When the Cinematograph Films Acl comes
up for renewal in 1948 and when the Pala
Report on Tendencies to Monopoly in the British
Film Industry is dusted and taken out of its- cubby-
hole A.C.T. has no qualms as to the Sympathy
with which its views will he received.

WELCOME

When we arrived at Luneberg, we found that
the Army were covering the signing of the capitu-
lation at Field-Marshal Montgomery's ELQ. Our
disappointment almost overshadowed the happi-
ness and relief of the moment.

" Well, anyway." said my CO., " let's get some
aerial shots of our troops entering The Hague."

The war was over; we would have to hurry to
catch the leading tanks arriving in this lovely
Dutch city. It seemed strange as we set off from
our last re-fuelling point at Nijmegeu that our
troops were not moving up the mads. Perhaps we
were late ; they must have pushed up to The Hague
forward of the event. As we flew low up the Waal
river, people in the beflagged streets would look
up anxiously at our approach, and then seeing the
roundels, would cheer and wave and dance. But
why were German troops apparently fully armed
still guarding the bridges? It was strange, but
then the last few days had been so strange as to
make one wonder at nothing. In one town a bodj
of S.S. men were marching past a swastika flag,
ignored by the excited civilians. Rotterdam was
like a city of the dead, no flags, no people in the
streets apart from a handful of German soldiers
wandering aimlessly and yet furtively in the roads,
as if the very walls made them conscious of their
shame.

We had planned to refuel at The Hague, but cir-
cling the city we could not see any of our troops,
only cheering crowds and sullen unbelieving tier-
mans. U\ now we onh had enough petrol bo get
hack comfortably; we had to land. But where.'
The airfield was planted with stakes, the country-
side flooded. At last lhi-k Welsh, my Canadian
pilot, saw a Held in the suburbs. True, there were
some cattle on it. but lluck reckoned an Auster
is as good as a horse when it comes to rounding up
catth — and so it seemed. A run Over the field
and the terrified cows stampeded to one corner.
We circled, and as we landed I could see people

[i aping the ditch and running towards us.

I undipped im safety belt, camera on m\ knee.

ready to get some shots as they came up. anil then
I suddenh found myself out of the plane, minus

F./O. C. Challis
R.A.F. Film Unit

camera and revolver, being chaired on tic I pi
someone's si oulder over a sea oi cheering, waving,
laughing people ; in my arms an ever growing bou-
quet of tulips, in my ears, a deafening shout
"Welcome!" Turning round 1 could jus! see
Huck pleading with his "captors" to let bin g
back and retrieve the door oi thi ^.usl :r which had
come off while he was being pulled i Bu all

to no avail, we were borne towards the villas,
almost as delirious ■ - the crowd itself.

Outside these attractive brick houses we ci
t a halt, ami rode to and fro as an argumenl
broke out as to which house we should go. The
man who pulled me out of m\ scat won. 1! -
wife wrs English- wasn't it right that the first
Englishman into The Hague should go to lbs
house? A roar of approval greeted his words, and
vainly looking round for lluck 1 was carried into

a small ro so packed with people that ■only their

leads and arms could he seen. 1 signed my name
on flails and hooks, in diaries, on pieces oi v
and i la n II uck ar ived, minus his hat . v i; '
wings — the\ had gone long ago ;> n, preciously
kept for this occasion, was broughi out, and we
drank a toast to the Liberation.

Suddenly, a woman's voice outside began I i
sing " God Save The King," and the whole crowds
tool; it up as we were pushed on to the balcony.

There were tears in Suck's eves as l looked at

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

7.-,

him. How could one not feel the greatness of that
moment, not see the emotion on those people's
faces, their starved, drawn faces as they sang an
anthem forbidden for so many years, in honour
of the country that had kept its promise. And
then the cheering broke out again, together with
a great shout — " When are the troops coming?"
Mr. Veen, our host, called for silence and turned
to us. "When are the troops coming, we want
to welcome and thank them ? We wished we knew.
" But they will come soon? The S.S. are still
killing men in the city." Yes, very soon. But it
was not for three days.

Back into the house, more toasts, more hand-
shakes. Significantly there was no food. There
had not been any at all for a week. If the Lancas-
ters and Fortresses had not come over and dropped
so much, thousands would have died. And yet,
hungry at that moment, food was forgotten : they
had regained their freedom.

Someone asked us what our jobs were — and that
set us off. The Resistance made a passage through
the crowd to our Auster, and as we went down
this lane we could see the Auster. guarded by the
Resistance, quite undamaged, covered in signa-
tures, on the wings, on the fuselage, everywhere;
and inside a mass of gaily coloured streamers and
bunches of tulips.

I started to turn on the still cheering and waving
people, when a Resistance officer came up and said
that some German soldiers who had been in the
crowd had gone back and reported our presence,
and that a detachment was coming up presumably
to get us. He advised us to leave, as a battle with
the Germans in such a crowd would endanger too
many innocent people's lives. So they cleared the
field for us. and. promising to return the next day.
we took off, still so excited that we didn't notice
till we arrived at Nijmegen that all we had Left was
hall a gallon of petrol.

We did not return however till Max 8th, the
da\ our troops marched in, and landed in our
field, kept clear for us ly the Resistance. People

came out again, greeting us like old friends, and
Mr. Veen, over a glass of gin, told us of the
events subsequent to our departure.

A body of S.S. men arrived 20 minutes after
we had gone, held him up at the point of a gun.
and for a very bad half-hour he was cross-ques-
tioned and his house searched, but he managed
to persuade them that only sheer chance had made
us enter his house. They left him with orders to
report to the S.S. Headquarters in The Hague at
ten o'clock the next morning.

Fortunately the Resistance, knowing the usual
result of these visits, hid him and his wife under-
ground until our troops arrived, and we drank to
their escape from what might so easily have been
a tragic oid to our adventure.

ADDRESSES WANTED

of

C. SOUTHERTON

D. BARRY
A. R. GIBB

all of" whom were formerly employed in
the Denham Studios Sound Department.
They have money due to them as a result
of the recent award in the dispute between
A.C.T. and D. & P. Studios. Cheques sent
to their last known addresses have been
returned through the Dead Letter Office. It
is assumed they have now left the film
industry. Will anybody who knows their
addresses, or the individuals concerned if
they see this notice, please communicate
with the A.C.T. . 2. Soho Square, London,
W.l. Phone: Gerrard 8506.

TWO ISSUES IN ONE

Pressure of work due to the Laboratory dispute,
General Election and other matters, has caused
us to merge in this issue the July August and
September, October numbers.

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

The Interim Report of A.C.T. 's Technical Stan-
dards Committee has now been sent to all mem-
bers. This is a most important document which
we hope every member will read ami study. It
anybody has not received a copy one can he
obtained from Shop Stewards or from Head Office.

7G

T H E C 1 N E - T E C HKICIAN

July— October, 194S i

FIRST BRITISH TRADE UNION FILM

For a long while A.C.T. has been urging the
Labour and Trade Union Movement to make a
greater use of films. Jt has developed a useful
distribution and exhibition organisation under the
Workers' Film Association but (ill now has [ought
shj of film production. There have been one or
two half-hearted efforts about which the least said
the better. Now a real start lias been made with
the Amalgamated Engineering Union as the tivsi
British Trade Union to sponsor a professional film.

Unity js Strength " has been produced In World
Wide as part of the A.E.U. Silver Jubilee Pro-
gramme. It is an excellent beginning and should
do much to encourage other Trade Unions to

follow suit.

Although the A.E.U. is only 25 years old, the
unions of which it is an amalgamation go back over
a hundred years. In fact the first national union
of engineering workers was formed in 1826. The
film takes us back to those carh days, shows us
some of the early pioneers and the early struggles
of tic organised engineers including the fight lor
the 9-hour day in 1871 and the struggle for the
H-hour day twenty-six years later. 'Idle contri-
bution ol the engineers to the recent war is graphi-

The branch initiation ceremony

callv recorded. Particularly interesting is the pic-
ture of the day-to-day working of the union, how
policy is determined, how the various committees
work from the shop right up to the National Com-
mittee, and how fhe whole machinery ol the union
is devised to protect the interests and rights of tic
members. Finalh , we see an actual branch meet-
ing complete with tic initiation ceremony. The
ceremonial attached to the admission ol new mem-
bers to tic A.E.U. is one of the most impressive
functions in the British Trade Union Movement.
The film reproduces it with line dramatic effect .

The unit on " Unity Is Strength "

This is a broad canvas for a half-hour film hut
Ralph Bond, the director, ha- su< ceeded in getting
the story over vividlx and without pat
There are few better stories i > tell than the history
of the British Trade Unions. At lasi a start ]
been made. It is a good start. Great credit s
to the A.E.U. for being the pioneers. We m -
also he grateful to World Wide and it- technicians
for show ing so admirably how such subjects can be
tackled. A few small blemishes — forced humour,
for example — but on the whole a grand job.

□

W.F.A. FILM SCHOOL

The Sixth Annual Film School oi the Workers
Film Association is being held from September
22nd to 28th at Eigheliffe Eall Hotel, Cliftonville,

Kent. As usual. A.C.T. members figure promin-
ently in the list ol lecturers, and il is hoped that
as in the past other A.C.T. members will try and
attend, either for the week-end or the full week.

The school is being opened 1>\ Prof. Harold
Laski, and the lecturers include : Sidney 1.. Bern-
stein. Basil Dearden, Dr. Ernesl Meyer, Man

Field, ( ieolTny Bell and I ri I I '.Bill.

\ copj of the programme and further details
nun be obtained from Th ■ Workers Film Associa-
tion Ltd., Tran-] <t i ETonse, Smith Square, S.W.I.

lily— October, 1945

THE CIXE-TECHKICI A X

acgl^QCP^SFQff

THE VOICE OF BRITAIN AT WAR

f^f%

When the Technician now "doing his bit"
returns to "civ/Ie street" he is going to take
the first opportunity to ask his Management
to have B.A. Sound installed in his Theatre.
P. A. in the Se vices has shown him what can
be done in the way of faultless sound repro-
duction and he will not be content with less.

BRITISH ACOUSTIC FILMS LTD.

OFFICES: FILM HOUSE, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.I

7s

THE C ■ I X E - T E C H X I C I A N

Julv— October, 104")

Berlin or Bust

It must be remembered that this feature is the
property of Mr. Ken Gordon (Pathe). In a weak
moment I undertook to look after the baby while
he went <>n a D-Day jaunt — my plaint is that he
has not been seen since !

In response to chronological enquiries regarding
not so much his health as his whereabouts, one
was told " Oh, he wants to get to Caen"— then
" He's anxious to reach Paris " — and " He wants
to be in at the Siegfried Line break-through." Of
course, it's gone on like that until the news arrived
that he had reached Berlin !

Whilst reflecting on this matter of holding the
baby one remembers that during the dark days of
the Battle of Britain he was given to muttering
" Don't worry, hoys. It's Berlin or bust this
time." This, of course, in addition to other dark
mutterings about "My Master," etc., to none of
which much attention was paid. It just goes to
show how determined a fellow this Ken Gordon
is, and if he thinks I'm holding the baby for good
he's mistaken. He now writes in the manner of
an A.C.T. Ambassador At Large : " Did I tell you
that I met the Russian Army Film Unit during
the meeting of Field Marshal Montgomery and
Marshal Zhukov? I tendered to them the greet-
ings of A.C.T. They seemed very pleased. Had
a very good party afterwards, half-way through
the order was given to the Russians not to take
am more Scotch — so we went on to white wine."
This will cause some heartburns among the inside
men who can only get wallop at The Intrepid Fox.
Bui perhaps it was deserved, as he goes on: " Just
before the Hun packed up we were shot up by the
15th Panzers and 1 lost all my camera equip-
ment, then ran into Paul W'yand, who did me a
good turn in true A.C.T. style by loaning me a
silent Newman, so enabling me to get the signing
of the Surrender at Monty's H.Q., the arrest of
the Plensburg Government , the death of Himmler
and Lord Haw Haw going to hospital." Nice

work, Paul — nicer work for the N.R.A. than Mr.
Cash's.

Ken sends his best wishes to all members and
says he's 100% behind the laboratory boys. That's
O.K. by me, but now that Berlin has been
reached and busted, what about this column?
None of that fraternisation, now!
Denham Distinction

Fetching up at Stage 7 on a lured studio clausi .
qualifying for additional expenses properly incurred
by agreement — sorrj "Beware of Pin " the
picture, Maurice Elvey the Director, dear boy—
the unit was welcomed (and checked) in Rule Book
A.C.T. style by the new Committee Chairman,
Percy Dayton and Simp Steward Sid Bremson. A
nice gesture calculated to make any unit feel at
home in new surroundings, followed by an offer of
help if any difficulties arose and an invitation to
myself to sit on the new committee during the
visit.

Let me record here and now that the Denham
member-ship can congratulate themselves on a
virile and well-informed committee which appeared
to me to be looking well after the interests of all
concerned in a thorough and capable manner: the
efficient and businesslike manner in which the
Association's policy was operated tinder the Chair-
manship of 1 >aj ton, and the Stewardship of Brem-
son, was amply demonstrated, while the contri-
butions from the members of the committee, all of
whom are experienced technicians, were in com-
plete conformity with the duty that such office
entails. Common-sense approach was marked, and
doubtless Mr. Tucker, Personnel Manager, appre-
ciates the set-up as conducive to co-operative
working to the ultimate profit of not only Denham
technicians but, just as important, Denham pro-
duction.

Of interest, too, was my attendance at a 1 Vn-
bam Branch Meeting, the highlight being the
solidarity behind the lab boys shown in a tangible
way by a spontaneous collection for added help
to any victimised members. This meeting ende I
rather abruptly, as the Chairman was temporarily
struck speechless — in a charming manner — by an
impromptu little speech of thanks from Gordon
McCallum on behali of the Sound and Projection
Departments for the work of Percy Dayton in
respect of the Umpire's Award of 62,500 to them.
With the thanks went a splendid monogramed
leather brief case in the fold-, oi which was hidden
a cheque! This was a very nice act of appreciation,
for few have worked so hard fur A.C.T. and
Denham as Percy Dayton.

Technical Tutelage

The Technical Standards Committee is a body

set up b\ the General Council to go into the whole

question of qualifications as related to member-
ship. The members are Ernesi Royls, Chairman,
Peter Cannon. Alfred Witcomb, Charles Parkhouse

Jp.lv— October, 1945

THE CINE- T ECHNICIA N

T'.t

and Frank Sainsbury with Winifred Pearson,

Secretary.

These members do not spare themselves in their
efforts to reach a workable report back and have
met seventeen times to date, interviewed hun-
dreds of technicians from all departments and
sections, collated, sifted and prepared evidence.
The importance of their work is realised when one
considers the effect of the question on our product,
post-war rehabilitation, expansion, apprenticeship
and a host of other points. It seems that the
employers' organisations are not greatly interested
in some of the points at issue and that soon the
.Ministries concerned may step in. In that case
the Committee's work will be available. The
B.K.S: and the Regent Street Polytechnic are
anxious to operate plans in conjunction with
A.C.T. on some of the questions, but little pro-
gress can be made, more's the pity, while respec-
tive employers' organisations find it inconvenient
to meet A.C.T. and discuss certain safeguards.
Meanwhile, here's luck to our hard-working
Technical Standards Committee and all those
interested in the advancement of the industry.

Riverside Reverberations

Down at Riverside Studios a bird whispers that
some good humoured banter is flying around in
regard to "backs to the wall" working. Which
department is to blame is hard to say ; it may be
ambition from art. lighting, even direction — it can
hardly be sound, for the position in which Boom
Operator Gordon Hay often finds himself has
moved him to doggerel commencing : —

Gimme room, gimme room,

Just In swing the !! Boom.

Don't fence me in, I aint no tyke.

Let me see my ! ! Mike.
Enough? I'll say — and spare you more. Gordon
will get no sympathy with stuff like that, but if
he approaches George Burgess, Arthur Kelly,
Terry Turtle and other stalwarts they will surely
devise some system of mirrors and remote control,
operating through a hole in the roof and led to a
fishing punt on the river, from which, with finger -
light operation, the job can be covered. If, in the
meantime, any department forgets that every set
has to be "lighted and miked" let Gordon take
as his motto " No job too big — no job too small "
(Carter Paterson, I think), but please spare us
that doggerel.

VE Versatility

The protraction attending the official announce-
ment of VE.l had its effect on most people, while
technicians and producers alike got problems they
least expected, and coupled with the laboratory
troubles then just breaking it seemed easier to pick
a Derby winner than make arrangements for all
contingencies. One efficient premise was A.C.T. 's
contribution to historical records and posterity by

the resiliency with which speeds coverage oi VE
Day happenings was arranged within the limits oi
no overtime. Graham Thompson, who has been
quietly responsible for filming the Royal Family
during the war, was his usual imperturbable self,
and a crew which merits our admiration quietly
walked off the stages at the Bush in the middle of
a feature production and in an hour or so trans-
formed a room at Buckingham Palace into a com-
plete sound stage for the filming of the King's VE
Broadcast. Of this crew. Brian Sewell and Syd
Wiles (sound), Phil Grindrod and George Mill
(camera) and Charles Hillyer (electrical), who were
responsible, have each received a copy of a letter
of thanks to E. Long Mad'dox, Secretary of the
Xewsi'eel Association, from Captain Lewis Ritchie,
C.V.O., O.B.E., R.x., in which it is remarked that
His Majesty commented on the smoothness with
which the technicians present carried out their
task and that the arrangements made for the film-
ing were excellent.

Hollywood Hypothesis

Don't think I let America sell herself entirely

to me, but the excellent equipment of Hollyw 1

studios made me realise how much praise is due
to our film technicians for the pictures they have
turned out during the war with worn-out appara-
tus," says J. Arthur Rank on his return. A nice
compliment, but a trip to Holhwood is hardly
necessary to realise this, for A.C.T. has been
drawing attention to equipment matters for many
a long day. However. J. A. R. has not fallen the
way one of our members did upon his return from
Hollywood, enthusing mightily on equipment.
" Did you discover any addition to the multiplicity
of uses to which camera tape and string can be
put'1" asked a bored and war-worn camera opera-
tor, with a string of ace productions to his credit.

Bat Blind

Leeds University has recently obtained an elec-
tron microscope at £22,000. More equipment, and
Sir James Marchant. late of the Ministry of Sup-
ply, tells us of its great value in eye research. A
factory inspector told Sir James that "unsus-
pected eye trouble is one of the greatest single
factors behind industrial absenteeism." Among
miners eye troubles cost £450,000 a year in com-
pensation, and eyestrain is an evil to which thou-
sands of workers are exposed. "Support of eye
research is not just pure philanthropy, it is a busi-
ness proposition," argued Sir James. That, no
doubt, is why £22,000 is cheap for equipment such
as electron microscopes, yet Sir James, like our-
selves, experiences difficulty in getting busin< ss-
men interested. All this may not interest the
Laboratory owners, or Mr. Cash, nor yet that visi-
tor from Alice in Wonderland, 'Sir. Aiken Watson.
K.C., for all laboratory workers are not blind, yet!

so

THE ('IX E - T E C H N IC I A \

Juty— October, L945

R.A.F. CAMERAMAN by Jimmy Wright

Pilot Officer J. A. F. Wright. D.F.C., was a very promising camera technician with Technicolor.
He lost his sight and was very badly injured on active service two years ago. He is still in hospital
but has learnt Braille, is very cheerful and making good progress. We gladly publish this article which
he has typed himself and sent along to ns.

IN the summer of 1948 I was posted to an over-
seas unit which was originally based in the
Middle East, and from squadrons in support of
tlie Eighth Army filmed the advance through
North Africa, Sicily and finally to Italy.

On arrival at Algiers I was hastily sent off to
Tunis, and two days later to Malta. The invasion
of Sicily was in full swing, and sonic film coverage
was wanted of the close support bombing opera-
tions which the First Tactical Air Force was giving
to British and Canadian troops. Because of our
proximity to Sicily we had the ideal base from w hicli
we could go into production in a big way, and tor a
month or so we were kept very much on the hop,
doing sometimes three or four raids a day. At
night, too, the Luftwaffe did its best to keep us
on the move with sporadic raids, which usually
meant a quick advance to the caves. Here we
often spent many a pleasant evening with the
Valetta civilians, who were by now quite used to
these nocturnal escapades. These raids, apart
from being a nuisance, in no way interrupted the
air and naval preparations for the conquest of
Sicily.

We were using Glenn-Martin "Baltimore"
bombers which were twin-engined aircraft carrying
a. crew of four. There wasn't very much room
inside a "Baltimore," in fact I had to crouch
down on my knees on the Hour most of the time.

The airfield consisted of a sun-baked creamy
coloured dust, which, when two or three squad-
rons revved their engines prior to take off, blew
u]) in thick clouds like a sand storm, and, believe
me, the dust penetrated into everything. I used
to keep my Newman Sinclair wrapped up in an
old changing hag, inside the camera-box, in order
to minimise the danger of scratching so far as
possible. T usually loaded my magazines with
Background "X," and alternated between the
use of the Aero 1, Aero 2 and G filters according
to the thickness of the haze to he penetrated and
the brightness of the target. The squadrons flew
in tight formations, using the pattern bombing
technique. As soon as the leader began bombing,
all the other observers would release their bombs,
with result that an area could he completely

covered. I discovered that the 2" lens would cover
the average targel area pretty well completely,

hut that the image appeared rather small on the
screen; however, it the 3" were used the whole
target area might not lie adequately covered.

On most operations I used about Tli feel to shool
tlie bombs going down and hitting the target. At
our operational height of about 10,000 feet through-
out the summer and even the winter of 1 *. 1 4 H - -1 4 .
when the weather was vei \ cold in Italy. 1 never
had any trouble with m\ camera failing to turn
over. I also found this camera reasonably light
to handle and an excellent shape to grip, and to
grip indeed one had. if the camera was not to he
thrown out of one's hands, by the bucketting • I
the aircraft, Aur to air-pockets, flak, or evas
action either to avoid flak or eiiemx fighters.

The " Baltimore " is not the ideal camera-plane

for it only has the escape hatch in the floor. Th i
" Mitchell " is better having large removable side-
windows, but the "Boston" is ideal, for it has
an open mid-upper gunner's hatch which can lie
removed to allow a vast horizontal area for shoot-
ing. All my operational material was hand-held,
as I found it was often necessary to move about
the aircraft in a hurry, and if the camera had to
be removed from a tripod each time a good shot
might easily lie missed. On one occasion whilst
flying in "Mitchells" I had been at one of the
side-windows shooting the bombs leaving the air-
craft formating on our starboard side, and as soon
as the last bombs had left the bomb-bays I hast il \
knelt down on the floor and removed the camera
hatcb cover, and was in time to catch the bombs
a^ they hit the target.

Shooting the bombing run could he tricky, par-
ticularly if failing to adpist immediately the
camera's aim and maintain it on the target during
the often violent manoeuvres ol the aircraft taking
evasive action from " tiak " or fighters after the
bombs had gone. To do this it was vitally import-
ant to he able to identity the target easily, so that
no matter at what crazy angle you might suddenly
he flying, there would never he any confusion in
yourmind, jus< exactly at what the camera should
be aiming. Usually, therefore, u wa- possible to

Julv— October. 1945

T II H ('IN K T K < II \ I (' I \ \

HI

Photograph by A. V. Bibbings, Esq.

ILFORD LIMITED

Cine Sales Department

NATIONAL HOUSE • WARDOUR STREET

LONDON, W.I Telephone : GERrard 2763

82

T H I •: i'INE-TECHXI C 1 A N

July— October, 1945

sec photographs of the target before take-off,
making it easier to identify the target at the ear-
liest possible moment. This gave ample time to
prepare, concentrate on ii and, above all, be readj
for thai vital pan to right or left or whatever move-
ment was necessary, so thai there was Mime
chance of getting the target area centre screen,
even though filming during the hum]) and bounce
of evasive action.

Shooting the bombs leaving was generally
straight-forward. However, there was one snag.
At the start of the bombs' flight, the target maj
not be in the area covered by the lens and there
comes an awkward moment when, two or three
seconds before they are due to strike, they dis-
appear from view. The only thing to do is say
good-bye to them, look out over the side of the
camera, find the target, re-set the camera accord-
ingly and hope to heaven you're in time for the
hursts and that the bomb-aimer's done his stuff.

One day I decided to get permission to fly with
an American squadron of Douglas Bostons, so as
to cover the important part the Americans were
playing in collaboration with the R.A.F. over Sici-
lian battle front. This, my first flight in a Boston,
was very thrilling — especially the take-off, which
was done in formations of three at a time, and was
much faster than that of the Baltimores to which
1 had been accustomed.

The targets were enemy anti-aircraft flatteries
situated on the western slo] es of .Mount Etna in
Sicily. This particular spot was nick-named by
fhe R.A.F. hoys " Withering Heights " for obvious
reasons. On the way out to the target I spent a
lot of time alongside the mid-upper gunner, film-
ing various other aircraft in our formation, which
consisted of four squadrons. T amused myself by
filming sonic of the mascots which the Yanks had
painted on the sides of their aircraft. One on our
starboard side had a five fool painting of the head
and shoulders of Lana Turner, and on another
there was a Ritzy blonde, very scantily dressed,
sitting astride a bomb. However, now I could see
the thick volcanic smoke belching from Etna's
'•rater, and I knew that we were only about five
minutes flying time from the target . The observer
called me up over the inter-coimn . . so I crouched
down the edge of the escape hatch and got m\
camera ready for action. As we made our run-in,
T was filming the bombs leaving the bomb-bays of
the ail-craft immediately astern of us, when sud-
denly there was a number of very heavy thuds
and crumps. It felt as though our aircraft was
being kicked by a giant hoot, and punted upwards
with a violent jerk. I was nearly thrown through
the escape hatch, hut managed to prevent myself
from taking a header by spreading m\ dhows out
over the framework of the hatch. I recovered just
in time to get shots of the target being plastered,

not only by our own bombs, hut also those of the
three other squadrons who came in hot on our
heels. Two aircraft were lost from the formation:
but those guns never fired again.

'towards the end of July we moved from Malta
to the coast of Sicily and were based much nearer
to the enemy, so that we could make much n
frequent attacks on his troops and supply columns.
When the Germans were driven out of Sicibj
altogether, we moved one.' again, this time about
fiit\ miles further north to a better airfield on
fhe Catania Plain. Now we were striking at the
enemy on the Italian mainland, prior to the inva-
sion of Italy. At the end of September we moved
again — this time to the Italian mainland its. It.
Within a few hours of our arrival we were over the
beach-head at Salerno.

It was from this base at Brindisi, in the boot of
Italy, that our Baltimores were one day making
a raid over the much contested regions round the
town of [sernia. I More releasing our bombs we
were badly shot up by enemy flak. Through the
..pen escape hatch J was filming groups of loath-
some black puffs of heavy ack-ack appearing
round our formation, and they were getting much
too near to be healthy. The Jerries had soon got
our height even more taped, and the shells began
to burst so close that 1 could see their orange-
red centres as they exploded into fragments. The
crump of their explosions became louder, until the
smell of burnt cordite filled the aircraft. Suddenly
] heard the navigator call over the inter-eom. :
" Bloody Hell — I've been hit!" — then promptly
r< leased his bombs ill retaliation. I followed them
through my view-finder as they dropped down to-
wards the target. Then, just as we were turning
off the target, the Jerry gunners got a head on us
again and once more we were hit — this time in the
fuselage petrol tanks. The odious green fluid sv
along the under-side of the aircraft and came
in through the escape hatch. Soon the interior
of t he aircraft was dripping with fuel, and w e w i r<
all choking with the fumes. It was impossibL
see the target through the tt.iw of petrol, so 1 put
my camera out of the way and turned to find the
wireless operator crawling towards me from bis
compartment with his parachute. Then both
engines packed up and we began to spin earth-
wards with an awful whining noise: we were
thrown from one side ot the aircraft to another,
and hard as I tried 1 could not reach my parachute
.... With sheer skill the pilot got one of the
mot. us going again, brought us out of the spin,
levelled out a little and shouted over the inter-

comm. : " Bale out ! . . . Bale out! [passed on

this order to the wireless operator by pointing my
finger to the open hatch. He understood imme-
diately, and 1 saw his disappear through it. The
n i id -upper gunner had a hva.1 \ lew .red hi- seat and

July— October, 1945

THE CIXE-TECHXI C I A X

*:;

slithered down to bhe floor. He signed bo me to
jump first. I indicated that 1 had not clipped on
my parachute, so he went next. 1 grabbed my
own parachute and quickly clipped it in place on
my harness : then 1 crouched dow n over the escape
hatch — nut a very large one — and huddled up, I
got ready to jump. 1 felt for the rip-cord with in\
right hand only to find that it wasn't there. My
heart missed several beats. I had fitted my
"chute" the wrong way round and the rip-cord
was now on the left side. There was no time to
change it, as I did not know if the pilot himself
was abouf to abandon the aircraft. There was
nothing lor it — 1 had to chance it. 1 thrust myself
through the opening, hoping nor to get entangled
with parts of the aircraft. Distinctively I fumbled
with my tight hand — remembered, and searched
with my left — then found the rip-cord and tugged
it like mad .... 1 felt the parachute pack flaps
fly open and the "chute" flash past my face.
There was a crack like the sound of a sheet being
pulled taut, and 1 glanced upwards and saw, with
a sigh of relief, the parachute open above inc. The
contrast between the noise of the aircraft and this
now peaceful atmosphere was uncanny. I could
hear the birds singing as plainly as though I were
sitting in the garden at home. When I looked
down to see how- far away the ground was, I dis-
covered to my horror that 1 couldn't see it at all :
my spectacles, kept in position by my flying hel-
met . strapped around my chin, had become smoth-
ered with the escaping petrol, and it was impossible
to see through them. The only means J had of clean-
ing them was by curling the little finger of each
hand behind the frames and rubbing the glass until
it was reasonably clear. I scanned the country-
side which appeared to be completely stationary;
it seemed that it would lie ages before I touched
down. There did not appear to be any sign- of
movement below, and all I could see in the dis-
tance were numerous puffs of smoke on the ground,
presumably artillery hie. Suddenly the thought
crossed my mind was I still over enemy territory?
The next thing that I realised was that the ground
was moving up to meet me with ever increasing
speed. All that I eordd remember of what my
instructor had told me about parachute landings
flashed through my mind. I pressed my legs and
ankles together and completely relaxed, letting
myself crumple as 1 hit the ground. It worked all
right and I was unhurt.

I had no idea where I was. The others must
have landed some distance away, as 1 could not
see them anywhere. 1 began to gather up my
parachute and roll it into a heap, when 1 saw an
Italian farmer making his way tow ards me. Some
distance awaj he stopped, and cautiously enquired
in very broken English, whether I were English or
German. When I told him I was English, he
threw his arms around me, patting me on the back

and crying " Bravo ! Bravo ! " Soon quite a rn >w d
of peasants, their wives and children, had gathered
around me, offering me eggs and asking me to eat
with them. Not certain whether at any minute
I would see a German uniform, I was overjoyed
to see a figure in the familiar khaki battle-dress
running towards me with a tommy-gun in his
hand. We soon made friends when he saw that
I was not German, and together we started to
make for his camp, followed by an excited crowd
who seemed to find great enjoyment in carrying
my parachute for me. My companion was a Cana-
dian, fighting with the First Canadian Division in
the central sector of the front. When I asked him
how far away the Germans were, he replied : " Oh,
they're on that hill." He pointed to a hill only
about two miles away, and 1 must say I was rat her
shaken at the narrowness of m\ escape from a
German prisoner-of-war camp.

The It.A.F. Film Production Unit had separate
units operating with the R.A.F. in all theatres of
the war. Although the vast majority of our film
(overage never reached the eyes of the public, it
will he kepf as a record to show future generations
tlie acleevi incuts of the R.A.F. in this war.

THE

GROWN THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE
AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

TWO DOUBLE HEADS

DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM
MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS

SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS

86, Wardour St., London, W.1

8-1

THE CIN B - T E C H N I C I A K

July— October, 1045

X-WORDS

There is a hidden clerihew in the following clues
across) : —

d) -- (3) (7) .-..

(15)

(22) -- (24) (25) (28) --- (30) - (31) -

(38) (,,) -- (47) --- (48)

(all

CLUES

(Figures in brackets refer to number of letters)
Across. — 1, Poem by Kipling (2). 3, Round table king
(6). 7. "Over-luxuriant, coarse, gross, foul-smelling"
(4). 10, Railway combination (3). 12, Refused to meet

Russians (51. 14, " Le s amuse" (3). 15, Took a

glass (5). 16. Drop or doff (4). 17, Sluggards should go
to it (3). 18, Home of Lumiere, contains "Rut- lu
premier film " (5). 20, Ceremonial poem (3). 21, Direc-
tional sound engineer? (2). 22, Fellow-members and self
(2). 24, Reformed cloud might be able (5). 25, Present
(5). 28, The man in question (3). 30, Article (1). 31,
Intact, with the seal unbroken (5). 34, Supported the
League (3). 35, Reverse of a temporary- house (3). 36,
Some prefer friction (4). 37, Musical break (4). 38, Two
quarts (6). 41, Preposition (2). 42, Sulky darling (3).
45, Directed "Zero de Conduite " (4). 44, Canvas (4).
45, Challenge Zena (4). 47, In this case, not sweet (3).
48, Heidsieck, perhaps? (8).

Down.— 1, Rosalind's eastern end (3). 2, Fritz Lang

directed, Tracy starred in, it (4). 4, Also (3). 5,

No home for 7'across (5) . 6, Famous studio (3) . 7, Played
bj an actor (4). 8, Lear or Leacock? (S). 9, Aircraft?
(4) 11 Army Corps (4). 13, Lansbury's was in Hyde
Park (4). 14, Christmas draw (7). 19, According to Gene-
sis, 15 across heartily (4). 20, Some prefer mum (7). 22,
We prefer not to depend on the monopolist's this (4).
23 Reverse knot (3). 26. Put on brakes (6). 27, Heatedly
(>') wheel-marked (6). 29. Close (5). 32, God who makes
honest women (5). 33, Attic (4). 36, Singular courage
(3) 39, Ventilate (3). 40, Backward Scot (3). 42,
Friendly puppetmaker (3). 43, Clean living is the only
safeguard (2). 46, Engineer (2).

(Solution on page 99)

THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE CATALOGUE OF HIGH-CLASS

Recorded Orchestral Music on Film

Built up on practical valuable experience gained in over 30 YEARS
of direct association with the Motion Picture Industry

Contractors to
H. M. Government

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1909

DE WOLFE

Music Publishers and Recorders

FOR SERVICE AND CO-OPERATION

80-82, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.1

Phone : GER 2992-3

Wires: MUSICAL, RATH, LONDON

July— October, 1945

T HE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

85

MAGNIFICENT LABORATORY

VICTORY

by George H. Elvin

After three years' struggle A.C.T. has gained its
most important success. During that time we
have been lighting for a new Agreement for labora-
tory workers. Now, Award No. 758 of the National
Arbitration Tribunal gives the substantia] wage
increases and improved working conditions which
have been the subject of fruitless negotiations w ith
the employers. Within six hours of that award
being made known A.C.T. had also won its dispute
with Humphries Laboratories which for the pre-
vious 13 weeks had been a Lesser difference — but
one of great principle — within the main contro-
versy.

The real struggle goes hack much more than
three years to the tunc when A.C.T. first started
organising laboratory workers about ten years ago.
There were about 15 firms, all paying just what
they liked to their staff's, with working conditions
fluctuating widely from firm to firm and no
employers' organisation through whom a common
policy could be discussed. The same position
held good in other sections of the film production
industry. All the companies, with the commend-
able exception of Gaumont British Studios,
refused to negotiate with the A.C.T. and we found
ourselves with a growing membership — though
still on the small side — becoming increasingly con-
scious of the injustices under which they suffered
and yet unable to do anything adequate about it.

Eventually, the Film Group of the federation
of British Industries, though precluded by their con-
stitution from negotiating labour matters, agreed
to meet A.C.T. We stressed the need for indus-
trial agreements to cover technicians in the indus-
try ami put as a top priority the case lor a labora-
tory agreement. We must have made some impres-
sion forin due course there emerged the Film Pro-
duction Employers Federation with feature studio
and laboratory sections. We started meeting the
laboratory group to try and get through an agree-
ment alter our members had as a result of innum-
erable meetings prepared their demands. It was
soon obvious the employers had no intention of
making real progress. Thej were quite prepared
to talk to us as long as it didn't commit them
to anything. The Coronation fortunately came
along at about that time. We decided to shake
despite the fact we had no funds and insufficient
members to stop the industry. But we would

have struck just the same and fortunately the
newsreel laboratories were the best organised.
That, of course, was where the Coronation came
in.

The employers gave in and decided to negotiate
an agreement if the threatened strike was called
off. We agreed and stalled off along the difficult
job of negotiating the 1939 Agreement. Yes. it
took all that time. Eventually, we reached agree-
ment. The employers then refused to sign it until
the studio agreement, discussion upon which bad
not then been commenced, had been completed.
We raised hell and eventually fountain pens were
produced and the work concluded. That Agree-
ment was the first step towards decent wages and
working conditions for laboratory workers. But
it was only a first step as we said at the time. Our
members received substantial increases, conditions
were standardised throughout the industry and
points like holidays with pay and payment of wages
whilst sick were fully recognised for the first time.
The Agreement was for two years. After then we
intended to push ahead for further improvements.

In due course we sought to terminate this Agree-
ment and negotiate an improved one. But mean-
while the Employers' Association had disbanded,
and although the Agreement was still binding —
thanks to the Fair Wages Clause which Labour
Members of Parliament and Peers had succeeded
in having incorporated into the Cinematograph
Films Act — we could find no authoritative body
with whom to negotiate. By then, we were also
wanting a Cost-of-Living Bonus due to the war.
We had already got one with the studios and took
the employers to the National Arbitration Tribunal
to seek a similar bonus for laboratory workers.
This brought the employers together in self-
defence. We got our bonus all right but what
was perhaps equally important we got a new
employers federation. The solicitor responsible
tor the employers' case blossomed out as an
employers' leader and under his aegis the Asso-
ciation of Film Laboratory Employers was formed.
The importance was not so much that we found
an organisation with whom to negotiate. We
have long since found out how difficult if is to
negotiate with Mr. Cash, for that was the
solicitor's name. But at least there existed again
a more or less responsible employers' Association.

We started off meeting Mr. Cash and his col-

8G

T H E C I X E - T E C H X I C I A N

July— October, 1945

WHAT THE LABORATORY AWARD MEANS

Chief New Conditions

Old Agreement

Working Week

(i) 44 hour week for all.

(1) 47-hour week for newsreel workers; 44-hour

week for others.

(2) All hours before S a.m. and after 7 p.m.,

(2) The "existing conditions" clause was the

paid at overtime rates.

only safeguard to ensure this.

Overtime

Time and a half; double time Sundays and Bank

The same.

Holidays.

Night Work

Time and a half.

3 6d. extra per night.

Holidays

One day for each month's service.

One week for six months' service; two weeks for

one year's service.

Sickness

Up to four weeks at full pay and four weeks at

The same.

half pav according to length of service.

Women Workers

The rate for the job.

Apart from war-time provisions women received

lower rate than men for doing the same job.

Trainees and Newcomers

Three-year training period but deemed to have

The same.

completed i\ years' training if more than 26

weeks in one operational job.

MINIMUM WA

GE RATES

NOTE. — Under both new Conditions and old agreemen

t a cost-of-living bonus is paid in addition to the

wage rate. The rate is 23/- a week for a cost-

-rf-living index figure of 201. It rises or falls 6d.

for each point change in the index figure. Employees under 21 years of age receive two-thirds

of the rate.

JOB

NEW RATE

OLD RATE

£ s- d-

£ s. d.

Progress Supervisor

10 0 0

New Grade

Chief Engineer

10 0 0

New Grade

Optical Printing Department

Optical Printer

900

7 10 0

Assistant — Operative ...

600

400

Optical Printer Assembler (Grade 1)

690

New Grade

(Grade 2)

470

New Grade

Negative Developing Department

Developer

7 M 0

U 0 0 to ^5 10 0

Positive Developing Department

Charge Hand

7 14 0

500

Developer

630

£3 10 0 to /) 0 0

Drying Department

Negative Dryer

500

326

Positive Dryer ...

4 12 0

2176

Grading Department

i 4 10 0 to
1 6 10 0

Sight Grader

7 14 0

Cinex Grader

740

Cinex Tester

5 0 0

New Grade

Sensitometric Control Department

Charge Hand

6 Tj 0

600

1 >perative

5 ° °

217 6

Engineering Department

( harge Hand

716 0

New Grade

Engineer Grade A (capable of building, making spare

parts for and

maintaining apparatus)

6 5°

5 ' 0 0

Engineer Grade B (all other maintenance engineers)

5 1- ''

.( '5 0

Printing Department

Charge Hand

6 10 0

500

Multi-Printer

600

5 0 0

1 '1 inter ...

5 0 <>

l 0 0

Cutting Printer Control and S.I.T. Hands ...

5 0 0

New Grade

Stockjoiner (Darkroom)

4 0 0

2 17 6

Julv— October, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

s7

JOB NEW

RATE

OLD RATE

i

s.

d.

£ s. d.

Chemical Mixers

Chemical Mixer (Grade 1) ... ... •■• ■•• ■■• ••• ••• 5

13

0

4 5o

(Grade 2) ... ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 4

7

0

2 17 6

Silver Recovery Operative ... ... ... ... •■■ ■■■ ••• 5

5

0

New Grade

Viewers and/or Projectionists

Chief Projectionist (under theatre conditions) ... ... ... 6

10

0

410 0

Projectionists ... ... ... ... ■■• ■•• •■• 4

10

0

3 10 0

Viewers ... ... ... ... • • ■ • • • ■ • • • • • • • • 4

7

0

\£i 00 (female)
U3 15 0 (male)

Projectionist Viewers (cold light) ... ... ... ... ... 4

7

0

Regenerative Film Treatment

Operator ... ... ... ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 5

5

0

New Grade

Storekeepers (Film*

Vaultkeeper 6

5

0

3 10 0

Assistant Vaultkeeper ... ... ... ... ... ... ••■ ••■ 5

0

0

New Grade

Film Stock Storekeeper ... ... ... ... ••• ••■ ••■ 4

17

6

3 jo 0

Negative Cleaners

Charge Hand ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6

2

0

400

Negative Cleaner ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

17

6

"v £2 0 0 (female)
)£i 0 0 (male)

Positive Examining Department

Charge Hand ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ••• 5

3

0

) £i ° ° (female)
j£i 10 0 (male)

Positive Synchroniser or Assembler (Rushes) ... ... ... ... 4

IJ

0

New Grade

Positive Examiner (able to do Bench Viewing and the marking up of

■ £2 5 0 (female)
\£i 0 0 (male)

reprints on the positive) ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

7

0

Positive Joiner ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

0

0

,£2 5 0 (female)
£i ° ° (male)

(Anyone in this Department handling

negative shall be paid negative rates)

Negative Cutting Department

Charge Hand ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

4

0

4100

Negative Cutters ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6

9

0

400

Negative Cutters' Assistants... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

7

0

300

Negative Joiners ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

7

0

300

Negative Assembly and Breaker down ... ... ... ... ... 5

0

0

New Grade

Camera Department

Rostrum Cameraman (mainly employed as such) ... ... ... ... 8

5

0

I NEW GRADES

Title Cameraman ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6

Operatives from other Departments, Photographing Censor, Newsreel

5

0

Straight Titles or Part Titles ... ... ... ... ... ... 5

0

0

Title Writing Department

Background Artist, Title and Aerograph Work ... ... ... ... 9

Lettering Artist ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7

0
0

0
0

I NEW GRADES

Despatch

Despatch Manager ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5

7

6

1

Despatch Clerk ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

'.

0

I NEW GRADES

Packer ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

u

0

1

TRAINEES

Male Female

Aged:

£ s. d. £ s. d.

Under 17 years ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1

15

0

150 150

17/18 years ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2

0

0

1 10 0 176

1 8 / 1 9 years . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2

5

0

1 17 6 176

19.20 years ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2

10

0

226 1 10 0

2021 years ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3

0

0

276 1 15 0

Over 21 years ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3

10

0

2 17 6 200

Newcomers (i.e. those entering the industry over 21 years of age)

£ s. d.

1st six months ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3

10

0

200

2nd six months ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

0

0

250

3rd six months ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... *4

10

0

212 6

4th six months ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... *g

0

0

217 6

Thereafter ... ... ... ... ... ... Rate for Grade

Rate for Grade

* < )r rate for grade if lower

The above operates retrospectively to February

1st,

1945

,SH

T H E C I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

July— October, 1945

MAGNIFICENT LAB. VICTORY— (contd. )

leagues. In return for certain wartime adjust-
ments to our Laboratory agreement we agreed to
withdraw our immediate claim for a new agree-
ment, but to commence negotiations in Septem-
ber, L*44. We spent the intervening time pre-
paring our demands and drawing up what we
thought was an equitable and fair draft agr< e-
ment. We included in that draft all employees
as we now cater for them all — and not just the
technical grades of the first agreement. Frequent
meetings were held but, history repeating itself,
little progress was made. Mr. Cash was anxious
to refer the whole matter to arbitration and con-
tinually 'suggested that course. We declined to
do this and continued to plod on. occasionally
making some headway when certain of the more
responsible employers chose to come along to the
negotiations. But it was all to no avail and we
could neither make much progress on the terms
of the Agreement, nor A.C.T.'s two other points
that it should cover all employees and, whenever
concluded, should operate from January 1st. 1(>4.">.
Certain of our members then imposed an unofficial
overtime ban and this led to meetings at the
Ministry of Labour. At these it was agreed that
the overtime ban should be called-off, negotiations
resumed, the new Agreement should operate from
February 1st, and whilst it should be confined to
technical employees a supplementary agreement
for other grades should be negotiated immediately
afterwards.

After a further six weeks of meetings the two
negotiating committees reached agreement. The
main body of the employers refused to endorse
the work of their committee in certain vital
respects, namely half-a-dozen or so wage rates
and the provisions for a guaranteed day with pay-
ment of overtime for all hours worked before 8
a.m. or after 7 p.m. They wanted a fluid week
so that, apart from night work, employees could
be made to work all sort of awkward hours with-
out a penny recompense. Incidentally, by this
device they would recouj) a major part of the wage
increases they would otherwise have to pay. We
couldn't endorse this study in retrogression and
took the opportunity to report the whole matter
to our Annual General Meeting on April 22nd.
They supported the laboratory members and in-
structed the General Council to inform the
employers by deputation of their views, offer to
refer the two outstanding points to arbitration,
and if the employers persisted in their obstinacy
to impose an official overtime ban on every sec-
tion of the industry. The employers would not
budge and the ban came into operation on Ma\
llh. The only exceptions were the Kaj group of
laboratories, who were outside the employers'
federation and readily agreed to sign the Agree-

ment as negotiated, and outside newsreel tech-
nicians who were covering the historic events then
taking place. Tie- n spons was insl intaneous and
the effect on the employers" most noticeable.

One company -- Humphries Laboratories -
attempted to break the ban by dismissing the
employees who refused to work overtime. Twenty-
five members were locked-out. Those remaining
at the firm were the only A.C.T. members who
ignored the overtime ban instructions. The M
try of Labour refused to prosecute the company
tor locking-out its members and thereby breach-
ing, as A.C.T. claimed, the Conditions of Employ-
ment and National Arbitration Order. Meanwhile.,
dispute benefit was paid to the victimised mem-
bers and the rest of A.C.T. irnpi - I a boy >tt of
the company. They refused to handle work due
to be sent to or coming from that laboratory as
a result of which it is estimated the company lost
between £10,000 and E20,000 worth of business.

There were innumerable meetings with the
Ministry of Labour. A.C.T. renewed its original
proposals to settle the dispute and even put for-
ward modified proposals together with, of course,
a demand for the reinstatement of its Humph) -'
members. Mr. Cash and his colleagues would
have none of it, and eventually they got their way,
and the dispute was referred to the National Arbi-
tration Tribunal. That body was asked to deter-
mine the terms and conditions of employment
upon which laboratory technicians shall continue
to be employed in the industry.

The employers put up completely new proposals
and. in fact, whilst offering a 1 .">'', wage tncri -
sought general conditions of employment which in
many cases are substantially worse than th -
under the existing Agreement. A.C.T. counter' 1
with the claim that the tribunal should base its
award on the document agreed by the two nego-
tiating committees but which the Laboratory
Employers as a whole refused to accept. The
employers to our amazement claimed nothing had
ever been agreed by the two negotiating commit-
tees. When to disprove this claim we produced
documents marked and in certain cases signed by
.Mr. Cash we were confident the tribunal had been
impressed with the justice, logic and honestj OJ
our case.

The subsequent award shows we were right.
It gives all we ever hoped for To crown every th i \
the award dates back to February 1st, 1945, the
date originally agreed with the employ rs

Mean while I he pl'i SSure on H utnphries had been
felt and no sooner had the award come to hand
than Mr. Terraneau agreed to reinstate the locked-
out members, pay them their wages and cost-of-
living bonus for the entire period of the dispute,
and pa\ them all the increases due under the
award.

October, 1945

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

W)

This dispute was the greatest trial of strength

A.CT. has had during its thirteen years. Its mem-
bers came out of it with flying colours. Thej risked
a lot— financially and in other ways— to gain the
success now obtained. By standing solidly together
thc\ have weathered all storms. For the first time
many laboratory workers will go home on Fridays
with a decent wage packet. I hope they will always
remember that extra money — together with the
improved working conditions they will in future
enjoy — was obtained solely through Trade Union
organisation. If they maintain that organisation,
as I am sure thej will, then the future can he
surely bright. Whilst the present victory is theirs
and not any one individual's they will I know like
to join with me in paying tribute to those who have
lead the A.CT. team to victory : Sid Bremson, H.
Fuller, L. Pryor and Charlie Wheeler who, to-
gether with Bert Craik and myself, comprised the
Negotiating Committee ; H. Samuels, our Counsel
at the Tribunal; and. of course, Erie Pask, shop-
| steward at George Humphries.

WONDERFUL NEWS FOR THOSE IN PAIN

Ml!-

%&it*ff9»*

5 Tablets 3^d.
10 Tablets 7d.

Charts, temps, washings, meals :
No. 18 seems brighter ; No. 30 is
coughing ; a dressing for No. 5 ,
No. 20's stitches. No wonder
Nurse has a splitting head ! But
she keeps smiling — she doesn't,
worry — in two minutes she'll soothe
away her headache with a cup of
tea and a little pink tablet.

KOR&Y

'£S PAIN AWAY

Penna

When the Romans used this
word they meant " light as
a feather." Well we admit
that our new tripod is some-
what heavier than that, but
it does weigh only 8 lbs.
which, you must agree, is
very light.

W. Vinten, Ltd., North Circular Road, Cricklewood, N.W.2

Telephone Gladstone 6373

90

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

Julv— October, 1945

Edited by Fred J. Hyson

LAB. TOPICS

G.F.D. Forces Fund

With gratitude in our hearts we have seen the
cessation of hostilities and many members of
G.F.I>. labs, who are serving in the Forces are
in!] of gratitude to the boys and girls in the
labs who have so long sent them comforts and
cash. Jack Deering sends the following account
which was received too late for insertion in the last
issue of the journal : —

" We started the fund in December, 1939, with
George Riley, our negative cleaner, acting as col-
lector; for a few months we were able to send to
the lads a monthly P.O. for five shillings, but as
more went into the Forces we found that the
amount collected was insufficient, so we increased
our subscriptions to £2 13?. Od. which plus tin.' sum
oi tl Ms. Od. I'roui the football pontoon (run by
George Riley) and the management's contribution
of £4 a week enabled us to not only send everyone
a monthly gift, but to increase the amount to £1.
The enormous amount of £800 has been collected
to date, and all but fc'4 of that total distributed to
among 28 lads and one lass.

We also send them a news sheet entitled 'Tit-
bits,' edited by George Riley, who collates news
items from all the lads who are serving; there
being two in Burma, two in India, three in Italy,
seven in Europe, one in Yugoslavia, four at sea.
one in the Women's Land Army and eight serving
at home. If there is any money left over we send
cigarettes and airgraph letters to those who are
I urt best away ; and we hope that soon the lads will
be home to enjoy the new lab agreement." — Jack
I >eering.

Well done G.F. I ). ! and well done < reorge Riley !
The lab. boys and girls have fought and won a new
agreement, may the boys and ^rirls that come back
get their portion of the fruits of our labours.
My Particular Job

Some time ago I asked for contributions from
fellow lab members concerning their own job. We
have had one from Pathe's about making blue
prints and dupes.

Here is another article from E. Potter. Who will
contribute the next?

Notes on 16 M/M Reduction Processing. By E.
Potter.

This held of the cinema industry has expanded
in recent years, resulting in extra work for the
laboratory, and additional responsibility for the
tei hnieian. What are the chief processing charac-
teristics for this type of Him in order to obtain
satisfactory results? Like its senior brother, 35
mm, the finished prini appears the same, but a
rather different technique is adopted.

To commence : the printing is a process of opti-
cal reduction. A 35 mm negative is mounted on
the printer from which the 16 mm prints are
made by means of lenses, mirrors and prisms,
focussed to an accuracy of 1000th of an inch. This
calls for skill and precision.

The eorreel grading of the mute negative is in
itself rather important, and because the exposure
scale due to optical printing varies considerably
to that required for 35 mm contact printing, an
entirely different proportion oi exposure is needed
for 16 mm as compared with 35 mm prints.

With a development of three minutes in a 1)16
posit i vi • formula bath at an avert _ gamma of 2 0,
1 have experienced results equal in quality to
standard 35 mm.

Printing the Sound Track on 16 mm is a job
of accuracy and precision, especially the initial
problem of setting focus and optical system, once
again in terms of 1000th parts of an inch. This
is the job of a skilled mechanic.

Working to an average positive track density of
10 to 110 on variable area. I find very good
results can be obtained. As faults in original
recording are exaggerated on optical reduction it
is impossible to make a good 16 mm trackprint
unless the 35 mm track negative is good, and \<\
that 1 mean a negative track with p srfe ■■ modula-
tion, not over-shot and of correct density.

The Laboratory welcomes a track negative of
this description for optical reduction.

Better quality sound can be obtained when the
recordist knows that 16 mm optical tracks are to
be made from his 35 mm negative: he then modu-
lates accordingly.

The system of re-recording sound on 16 mm
gives excellent results. It would be interesting to
know what are likely to be the trends in sound
reduction printing. Some technicians stand by
optical reduction, others prefer re-recording.

Demands in the future on 16 mm reduction
printing departments should still further men . -
Schools, Governmenl Departments, factories and
main other bodies will be usin^r sub-standard
films. Our aim should be to improve the teclmii al
quality by research and exchange of ideas. To help
in this re'sped 1 sugges! that technicians prepare
technical articles on 16 mm reduction pro -
tor publication in The Cine-Technician.

Personal Paras

Wedding bells were rung lor Miss E. Harvej
and Mr. Vernon Morris oi the Loyal Navy in June
at Hayes. Main people in both studios and labs
will join me in wishing them a happ\ and long

Jul

-October, 104.")

T H E ( ' I N E - T E C H N I C I A N

Ml

married life. Being a negative cutter Ethel should
find it easj to see that their life together is never
out of sync !

Young Tom Day is discharged from the Army.
and although left with a badly smashed ankle he
is able to work and is hack with his old firm,
Olympic.

Someone wanted to know why the Shop Steward
at Olympic is called ' Storky." How should I
know, but I guess that he has been called by a
few other names recently. Perhaps Les Pryor
might like to make a statement.

This qioi th's wit. "' What light shall 1 give the
CE\E\ Strip "? Take him away. Ramsbottom.

CORRESPONDENCE

BRITISH FILMS ABROAD

1 have just received in my mail, somewhat late
but nevertheless verj welcome, The Cine-
Technician for March-April and the agenda for

the 12th Annual Meeting. It was with a deal
amount of pleasure that 1 read of the progress
over the last year and the very sal isfactory increase
in membership. I don't think I would recognise
a meeting nowadays having only the pre-war
experience of G.B. Theatre to go on 1 ! I was also
pleased to note ''i your own prospective adventure
in the Kingston division, and 1 should be pleased
to hear ol your success in the future. As for myself,
1 shall be voting by proxy as I am at present in
Australian waters. Have practically been all over
the world in my five years in the R.N., and it is
always interesting to note how many ol our Eng-
lish films are showing in our various colonies. It
does seem to me that while there is always talk
of our films being made to suit American taste
little attention is paid to whether they should
appeal to our " far flung Empire." The influence
of the American way of life via then- films in all
our colonies is enormous even though everyone 1
talk to would rather see our English films — if th >
could ^et them. I was pleased to see in South
Africa last year that the number ol our films
being shown there was definitely on the increase
— a good film got a good press and could easih
cope with the best American product, it may
surprise you to hear that The Great Mr. Handel
was simply packing them in and Millions Like Us
doing very well against big American supers. In
Australia British films get a verj good showing.
Western Approaches, Tin' Man in Grey (this film
-' i ois to have been enormously liked wherever I
have been). Life and Death of Colonel Blimp have
all done us a world of good, and anything show-
ing the British wa\ and thought is always a good
bet if only it is done sincerely and not faked up

Hollywood imitation; <>t course, you get quite a
bit el adverse criticism though not as serious as 1
thought it would be. Funnih enough nearly every-
one makes the comment that British films never
seem as "bright" (appear darker mi the screen)
than the American product. This cannot be the
fault of the theatres as tiny are usually more
modern in everything than oars. There is no doubt
that a lot ol the glamour of American films is due
to their lighting up to Californian sun standards,
hut as far as popular appeal is concerned they
probably have something in their complaint. The
women always complain that our actresses are
always badly dressed and most of them don't go
much on their affected accents cither, and I can't
say I blame them! We seem to forget that if we
are to influence taste and culture in the Colonies
the good British film is one of the best ways we
can do it, which is even one more argument why
we should continue to have a flourishing, keen
industry, international in outlook but necessarily
up-to-date in equipment and sufficiently far seeing
in taste and fashion to counteract the American
idea, which in the film world is always one jump
ahead of us. Xo room to sav more.

ALLAN W. TYREB

TECHNICAL PROGRESS

We have read with interest the letter published
by Mr. Harry Waxman, and the further letter
by Mr. Brian Smith, in regard to technical pro-
gress in the British film industry. We think the
hitter's suggestion that a Committee should be
appointed b\ the A.C.T. in collaboration with the
B.K.S., to investigate the possibilities of an inde-
pendent research organisation, is a very good one.
and do not think there is any doubt as to its m i d,
but an estimate of its initial and annual cost, etc.,
and means by which its work and the investiga-
tion of new processes could be made available
would be very necessary.

We presume that as a research, and not a trad-
ing institution, it would be on a better tax basis
than a manufacturing company.

Ma\ we say, as apparatus manufacturers, that
we have found the film technicians both interested
and extremely helpful in the development of new
equipment, but. quite naturally, any number of
them will have conflicting ideas, and it is often
necessary to sort out tin we which are likely to
he too complicated for day to day commercial use

There is also the limiting factor of a small and
highly specialised market for Great Britain alone,
hut. undoubtedly, only by being ahead of other
countries in the design of our apparatus can we
hope to he alned in our finished film productions.
Yours faithfully,

W. VINTEN, LTD.
(Charles Vinteii, Managing Director).

92

THE (' J N E - T E C HNIC1 A N

July— Octobi r, V.il.'

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

Who Was Responsible? One matter surprised
and disgusted the A.C.T. representatives at the
Tribunal. In the pasi the employers have put
themselves forward as pillars of trust who "always
plaj llif game old boy " and don't stoop to scurvy
tricks such as the Union are alleged to get up to
at times.

The point is that at one stage in the discussions
prior to the dispute going to arbitration the nego-
tiating committees of A.C.T. and the J. ah Em-
ployers reached agreement on a final document.
This document was in fact an agreement which
both sides were prepared to recommend for accept-
ance to their parent bodies. At the end of that
meeting we all shook hands and expressed the
belief that we had completed negotiations.

Vim can imagine our amazement when counsel
for the Employers during the proceedings at arbi-
tration categorically denied that such a stage in
negotiations had ever been reached.

Fortunately, by cross-examination of Air. Cash,
after their counsel had got himself hopelessly
tangled, and b\ evidence which the union pro-
duced, we were able to convince the court.

A.C.T. will always remember this incident; it
has shaken our confidence in the Laboratory
Owners. We wonder who personally on the other
side was responsible for this flagrant piece of
sharp practice?

General Election and After. A.C.T. members
continue to congratulate < reorge Elvin, the ( reneral
Secretary, on the amazing fight he put up in the
Tory stronghold of Kingston-on-Thames during
the genera] election.

In the 1935 election the Tory majority was
'22,98'.). George Elvin reduced that majority to
8,516. We trust he will be placed well up on the
list of Labour members earmarked to contest
future by-elections. We consider this very neces-
sary because there is no one so well versed to
speak in the House of Commons on behalf of the
production side of the Film Industry from the
point of view of Labour. He lias lull knowledge
of the Quota Act, is a member of the Films Council
which drew up the Monopoly Report, and, of
course, is intimately acquainted with many ol the
members in the new Labour Government.

lw anticipation of eventually getting our repre-
sentative into the House of Commons our mem-
bers should make a special drive to build up the
Political Fund.

There is no belter way of doing so than by con-
tra: ting-in to the Labour Party through the union.
The neeessaiN form can be obtained from shop
stewards or Head Office and the subscription is

one peiin\ per week.

It should be noted that the employers are well
aware of the importance of political activity i -
means of protecting their interests. For example
81% of the C.E.A. support their political fund on
behalf of the Tories. Let us go all out in supp >rl
of the Labour movement to beat that percentage.

Accident Cases: Important Ruling. Fortunately

in the Film Industry, so far as A.C.T. members
are concerned, there are very few serious accidents,
but they can and do happen. The following is an
extract in favour of an A.F.F. member who sued
British Thompson Houstons, of Rugby, for dam-
ages for injuries sustained at work, given by 11 s
Honour .Judge Forbes at llugln on 12th April,
L945.

The firm blamed the A.E.U. member and said
the accident was caused by his failure to stop the
machine while he changed the job. As to this 11 -
Honour said : —

"' Under the circumstances of this case it se< ms
quite obvious the defendants have not only con-
nived at this method of operation, but allowed
it as part of the normal way of work. It is said
by Mr. Churchill, on behalf of the defendants,
that the reason why the operator does not stop the
spindle is that he does not want to lose half-an-
hour's pay. That lies in the mouth of these defen-
dants who are turning out these bushes and, I sup-
pose, selling them at a profit. It seems to me
cynical for them to go into Court and -;i\ : ' 11 is
not a method the operator need have adopted,
and. as he did adopt it to make more monej . I
responsible. '

" On the face of it. defendants appear to
have taken many precautions against this sori ol
accident. In front of me are booklets of safety
rules and works regulations, ami instructions to
grinding operators. In the first booklet, they say
employees must not work a grinding process with-
out goggles. As to that, it seems that except in
special processes, they do not wear them. Also.
it is said that guards musl be in position
properly adjusted. In this case, there were no
guards. There is an injunction that employees
must not remove a guard or part of it. There are
other counsels ol perfection in these books, bring-
ing to the notice of employees a danger. For
example : 'All guards must be maintained and kept
in position while the machines are in motion." In
t his Eactorj , apparently . these particular mack
have been running without guards, but the general
instruct ion-, are ' Guards should always be in posi-
tion when the wheel is running.' Apparently they
have had onl\ one guard amons nine machines and

July— Octc

104.-,

T BE E C I.N E - T E C H X I C I A N

93

thai was provided after an accident. There is
another instance oi the danger the plaintiff was
running: ' The bursting of the wheel max result in
serious injury. Jt is imperative thai guards should
be maintained.' Also. 'Never attempt to gauge
work while the machine is in motion. Always
keep hands clear of work in motion.' This hook-
let was given to every operator and all 1 can say
is that the defendants have put it in a booklet and
circulated to employees when they know perfectly
well it has keen a practice in their factories to
gauge work while the machine is in motion, a
harmless enough practice if tiny provide machines
with guards."

We have ([noted this judgment at some length
because it deals with an increasingly common
practice, especially of " model " employers. 1: is
common for such gentry to issue the most elaborate
safety booklets warning workers against every con-
ceit able risk ; having done this thej seem to think
they have done everything necessary for the
workers' safety. It an accident happens they
impudently turn round, as in Mr. Bird's case, and
say: " it's your own fault. We warned you. We
are not liable." Mr. Justice Forbes makes it quite
(dear that, booklets or no booklets, "mode]
employers or not, the duty of complying with the
Factories Act and of providing a safe system of
working rests on the employers and not on the
workers.

H. Craik

Focal Focussing Chart Focal Press, Ltd.. 2/6d.

This is the third in the local Press series of
pocket size charts — the previous two dealt with
exposure and filters. Arthur ('<>x of the Research
Department of Taylor, Taylor and Hobson, is re-
sponsible lor the compilation, and has succeeded
in compressing into a small space the answers
to most of the questions anyone is likelj to ask
ahoiit this subject.

1 don't suppose this excellent little chart will
supersede Jackson Rose in the studios, but the
far wider audience at which it is aimed should
welcome it. especially at its modest price of lialf-
a-crown.

Czechoslovakia Looks Ahead— ft -until, from p. 1)4).
cerned, there does not seem 0 verj greal shortage,
but people are wanted as the industry will he
expanded. 1 have not got in contact with tie
industry as yet, as my army job has kept me
extremely busy, hut 1 shall let you know in due
time. When the Film Workers' Union gets going
and I am in it (if the Army will release me) 1 shall
see that official contact is taken up with A.C.T.,
it tiny don't do it before then.

This is, in short, an outline of how things are
going over here, and I have written about it as it
might interest some of your members, especially,
as mighl easily be the case, under a Labour Gov-
ernment, you might be faced with a similar prob-
lem.

For Thinkers
the World over

•<\

T III'. CI N E - T E C H X I (' I A N

-October, 1945

CZECHOSLOVAKIA LOOKS AHEAD

A Message from A.C.T. Member Kurt Goldberger

Well, I have now finally arrived hack in Prague,
which luckily is but little harmed by the war as
far as the city is concerned. Of course, the Ger-
mans have been careful to steal everything from
us, so that there is nothing left to be bought in
the simps and the black market price of one
cigarette is 2") crowns, as compared with 3 francs
in France. Of food there is very little, but the
morale is much better than I found in Western
Europe, and politically the position is as good as
we could hope it to be. The Left is in control
and people seem to be pleased with it, and
although we are nnh three weeks after liberation
there is more activity as far as getting things
in order than there was, almost a year after
liberation, in Western Europe, where J have been
lor tbe last five months.

l!\ the way, our studios are unharmed, and
fully equipped. I have hail no chance to look
them over yet, but there are eleven stages in one
studio on Barrandow. a hill near Prague, two of
them bigger than any other in Europe, and the
whole is supposed to be the most modern and
largest on the European continent. They are cer-
tainly an asset, and the Germans had no chance
to take anything.

The new Government has already reorganised
the film industry as the following newspaper
article shows : —

The film generally in the new stale has been
incorporated into the Ministry of Information.
The Chief of this section is Viteslav Nezval (the
)nost famous Czech living poet and novelist). His
Advisory Body is the Czechoslovak Film Con?icil
which has as members representatives of all the
branches of the industry, as well as the Ministry
of Education, tiie Board of Trade, the Institute
lor the Furtherance of Cultural Relations with
the USSR, the film production group, and the
Film Workers Union.

The executive organs of the Czechoslovak Film

Council will he the following four committees: —

(1) Committee for Dramatic Art.

(2) Artistic Technical Committee.
{.]) Policy Committee.

(4) Press Committee.

All production of motion pictures has been
put into the hands of the FIRST CZECH
COMPANY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF
MOTION PICTURES, which runs all the
existing studios and production groups. For
Slovakia there is a parallel company. Distribution
is centralised and stale controlled. Directly state

owned and operated are the newsreel company,
documentary and instructional units, and the
state institute for Exhibition, of which one
department is the administration of State
Cinemas, also administration of mobile projec-
tion units, works cinemas, school cinemas end
substandard in general.

The Czechoslovak Film Institute trains artistic
and technical workers, administrates the film
archives and library, and the film press.

The Administration of State Cinemas will look
after all cinemas on Czechoslovak territory. There
will be no privately owned cinemas, the reason for
which -will be obvious to all citizens considering
the important role the film has to play in the
life of the nation.

You see, they are doing the job good and
proper. The plan has a very strong economic ba->i^.
The production facilities are large, the overheads
will be enormous and for a relatively limited mar-
ket prohibitive, if profits fell into private hands.
As it is. profit on distribution and showings will
go back towards production and studio upkei p.
and no money will get lost in financial machina-
tions of any kind.

All our large scale enterprises, especially the
ones which worked for the Germans, have been
taken over by works committees, which bad been
formed secretly during the occupation, and any
collaborators were removed at once. In doubtful
cases the bosses have been suspended pending the
examination of their cases. Important works will
be taken over by the State for good, while oth< rs
might he returned to their owners, who will
operate them under similar control to the Essential
Works Order in England. All production in the
studios was suspended, and a proper clean-up of
personnel carried through, while new scripts and
schedules are prepared and will go into production
as soon as possible. As tar as 1 can gather the
only bottleneck is stock, which has not been pro-
duced in this country, and was wholly imported
from Germany. The reserves of neg. seem to be
sufficient for some time, but there is very little
positive, which will have to be imported, until we
can construct our own Mini factories. The cinemas
are relatively small and not a- inaiix a- in Eng-
land, but the first one 1 saw in Pilzen. which was
the first large city 1 came to. had the latest Philips
gear installed, which looked a-- modern as any
I have seen in the We-t Mild and the reproduction
was first-rate.

As tar as the question of technicians i- con-

(Continued mi previous page)

Julv— October, 1945

THE CINE-TECHXICI A K

95

A Sonnet to a Librarian.

1945

The venerable Bede* was an honourable man
Who lived in a world of his own;
He chronicled life to an orthodox plan,
The people, the country, the throne.
Following Bede were yet nobler men;
To enumerate would be my folly,
The knowledge of such are hid from my 'ken',
But it's certain as Christmas with holly.
Now in later years the story is told
Of mankind's still greater desires,
Of this deed and that deed most wonderfully bold
Mid the storms, mid the seas, mid the fires.
Yet Bede has departed and left a strange flock,
To prove it, see Norman's new library stock.

Leonard Reeve.

(*A librarian. 2000 years B.C.)

NORMAN'S FILM LIBRARY

TELEPHONES :
G E R R A R D
6413 7481

54-

■58

WARDOUR
LONDON

Street
, w.i.

T 1 1 E C INE-TECHNICIA N

July— October, L945

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED

An Index to the Films of Charles Chaplin. 1>\
Theodore Huff. Special supplement to Sight
and Sound. Judex Series No. 3.
It's a good comment on the Chaplin legend thai
after reading this very full and fascinating Index,
which I'm sure is as complete as research can
make it, 1 still had the feeling that there were half-
a-dozen or s<> <>l my favourites unlisted. I refused
to accept the fact that here, complete and tabu-
lated, was everything thai had had a part in build-
ing up iine of the most powerful legends of the
twentieth century. As Air. Huff rightly says,
Chaplin made more people laugh than any other
man who ever lived. People who have only seen
the later wistful self-pitying Chaplin — the ten-
dency was always there, of course, but it
only began really to dominate the films from
The Gold Rush onward- can have no idea what
the impact of Chaplin really meant. Into a world
at war, foul with fake patriotism, government pro-
paganda and official lies. Easy Street and The Rink,
The Cure and Shoulder Anns came like a fresh
spring gale, bringing a touch of realism and ol
sanity into the macabre madhouse atmosphere. In
those days people really used to laugh at Chaplin ;
as I hey've never laughed since. "Out in the aisles"
was literally true then; and when a cinema was
i unning a ( Ihaplin film you could hear the audience
yelling two or three streets away. You can Hud
nostalgic memories of that kind of laughter in odd
places still : Preston Sturges, for instance, in
Sullivan's Travels claimed the same sort of func-
tion lor Disney and other film comics today — and,
by implication, himself, lint the " healing laugh-
ter " of those whimsey-merchants is a very dif-
ferent kettle of fish from Chaplin's: where they
just cover up the wound and pretend it isn't there,
Chaplan cauterised it with a good hot healthj iron.
What a difference a Chaplin in this war would have
made.

Mr. Huff has done his job of indexing with great
care, and, more important, he obviousbj has love
as well as knowledge of his subject. His remarks-
in-passing, though sometimes a little on the comic
side (e.g., of Easy Street, " not as hilariously funny
as some ") are always genuine and have none of
the annoyingly pontifical air of the companion
index on I). \Y. Griffith. The only quarrel I would
have with him is that, probably through being an

American, he doesn't sufficiently realise the

importance of Chaplin's Fred Karno-Musi-c Hall
background. Vv to 1918/1919 practically every
single one of Chaplin's films was an elaboration
of some well-known stock Fred Karno-Music Hall
act or situation. It is a little ironic that the final

flowering of titty years of the gri al English M
Hall should fak( place on the films, in the U.S. A.

Chaplin's film career divides easilj into del',' I
periods : Sennett-Keystone ( 1014) during which he
made a one-reeler per week, and was somewhat
overshadowed and outshone by Mabel Normand.
Essanaj (1915-1916) during which he made one
film a fortnight and first joined up with Edna Pur-
viance. By then the films were mainly two-reel rs.
.'Mutual (1917-1918) during which he made one two-
reeler a month. First National (1918-1922) during
which he made films of varying lengths at inl srvals
i i six months to a year. And finally United Artis -
during which the intervals between films gradually
lengthened from two to more than five years.

To my mind, taken all in all. .Mutual was the
host period of the lot. Of the 1^ films, not a single
one is a failure; whilst at least five, The Pawnshop,
The Rink, Easy Street, The Cure and The Immi-
grant are indisputable masterpieces. These Mu
films all represent the final perfection of the Kai
type comedy, which relies on the elaborate exploi-
tation ol a single milieu or situation. And one
month's production seemed jusl right tor giving
time to polish up the idea-, script and gags with-
out spoiling the spontaneity. After that, 1 think,
Chaplin must have felt that he had done all that
could lie done with the Karno-type comi
although he did do one or two more, such as Pay-
Day, in the Karno tradition. From then on it >'.;i<
a question of experiment, of developing - 'her

approach — social satire (The Kid, The Pilgrim and
Woman of Paris) or pathos (Sunnyside and The
Gold Rush). Pathos, of course, in the end pre-
dominated completely, and toda\ it is difficult to
remember the old Chaplin who used to triumph
over everyone and everything, and many the a rl
in the last lew feet, ii onlj Chaplin could have
balanced the pathos and the social satire, v
til ins we might have seen ' He's not like the M
Bros. ; the fundamental anarchy and destrucl
ness oi their social satire is quite unredeemed by
human sympathy, except when Harpo is with
children, ('haplin liked people too well to make
films like that, and it was finallj his undoing,
inn' in sentimentality and " social conscien
lint at one time the balance w as i line : I cai
believe that in any film at an\ time there was any-
thing at the same time as funny or as true as
scene in 77m Immigrant where you cut from the
Statue of Liberty to the immigrants being i
off like cattle. That was Chaplin's particular
quality, and I don't suppose we shall evi i 3<
again. F.S,

.Tul\ October, L945

THE C I X E - T E C H X I C I A X

The Elements of Film Criticism, British Film

Institute Price 2 6.

(This pamphlet was published at the end <>j last
year, but lack of space has prevailed a review
tippi aring earlier. I

The pamphlet is intended as a guide to
vouth club organisers in developing discussion
groups "ii " Film Appreciation." I have read
other B.F.L literature on this subject. I have
listened to B.F.L lectures about it ami 1 have
talked to B.F.I, officials and members who
are interested in promoting it, but 1 have to con-
fess that I still don't know what they are getting
at. 1 understand what film appreciation is when
it is spelt with small letters, but 1 don't under-
stand it when it is spelt with capitals.

Spelt with small letters it is comparable with
artistic appreciation or literary appreciation or
musical appreciation. As such, it is something
which depends on the genera] intellectual quali-
fi tions of the individual and upon his experi-
ence and his interest in the subject. It cannot
be, taught. If, for instance, a man listens to a
piece "i music he can decide whether he likes it
or not. If he has sufficient interest and experi-
ence he caii analyse why he likes it or dislikes
it. If lie is intellectually capable he can go further
and consider whether its component parts form
a whole which seems to him consistent and there-
fore pleasing. He would be a critical virtuoso,
however, if he could say at the end of a lengthy
symphony that the oboes played middle A flat
too loud in the forty-fourth bar of the andante
— and even that would he a matter of opinion
anyw ay.

Yet that, it seems, is the sort of analytical
criticism v, Inch the H.F.I, is trying to teach under
the guise of "Film Appreciation." It seems to
me to be highly debatable whether such critical
standards can be inculcated in schools and youth
clubs by teachers and group-leaders who are not
film experts, and whether it is desirable to aim
f< r such an analytical approach to picture-
going b\ tlie general public. The pamphlet under
review, lor instance, starts by recommending
thai i lie critical anah sis of a him should be broken
down into five aspects — Story, Direction and
Photography, Editing, Acting. Sound and .Music.
It deals with each of these sections in detail. I
will quote a line -v two from some of them.

"Whaf of the opening sequences? .... Did
they engage our attention immediately, sweep
us up into the mood of tlie him . . . .?"

". . . . It will be in cessary to judge the length
of each scene and its effect on the tempo of the
film."

"Were (the lighting effects) so appropriate . . .
that although the\ increased the appeal ami effecf
of the film. the\ appeared natural and mighl have

passed without notice 1>\ the average observer?"

" In ;in\ particularly moving scene, how much
ol tlie (fleet produced was due to the acting and
how much to the music ?"

And so on. What, then, is the purpose of all
tins:' If it be admitted that the function ol a
well-made film is to " engage our attention im-
mediately," for all its technique "to appear
natural and . . . pass without notice by the aver-
age observer," how is this same "average ob-
server" to watch the film so dispassionately thai
he can "judge the length of each scene" and
assi ss "how much of the effect was due to the
acting, etc., '.'"

I have only quoted four sentences. They can
he multiplied a hundred times; in fact the whole
subject bristles with so many inconsistencies
thai one would be tempted to dismiss it ;;s non-
sense, if it were not so dangerous. We as film
technicians can have no objection to good and
well-considered criticism. In the handling of any
creative medium criticism is one of the greatest
stimuli. But we must view with alarm any
activity which seeks to make the individual in the
audience conscious of the mechanical artificial-
ity ol what he is watching, for this destroys the
whole conception of film-making. Not only that,
hut an approach to a film which lays primarj
stress on its technical aspects will divert atten-
tion from its content — and there are some films
whose content is worth attending to.

It seems to me that if the D.F.I, is interested
in raising the standards of film appreciation they
would be better advised to leave technical analysis
to the experts, and in the schools and youth chilis
promote a mere objective interest in the content
of the films that appear in the cinemas. Every-
thing in this world is a product of social environ-
ment and its needs. The films in the cinemas
are no exception. In fact they are a projection
of the social system under which we live. Ana-
lysing I he content of some of those films may
help to develop that social sense which alone
can change the world into a better place to live
and work ill.

The Struggle for Democracy, No. 2 of Cadbury
Bros. " Changing Britain " series. Price 1 -.

A well-produced, illustrated booklet showing the
historical development of democratic representa-
tion.
Information Films of India: Annual for 1944. pub

lished by the Department of Information and

Broadcasting, Government of India.

A brief review of short films produced and re-
leased from L941 to 1943, containing thumb-nail
summaries and stills of eighty films and three
ncwsieels. with a foreword on the war-time
achievements of India's short film-makers.

R.K.N.B.

'.is

T H E CI NE-TECHXI C I A N

Jul v— October, 1941

ON

NATIONAL

SERVICE

Twenty-
eighth
List

R. ALBON (Sound Assistant, Warner Bros.)—
Army.

I). C. BABTLETT (Camera Assistant, Techni-
color)— Army.

PETER BENTLBY (Pos. Joiner, G.B. Instruc-
tional)— H.M. Forces.

DUDLEY BIRCH (Assist. Cutter, Exploitation
Films)— H.M. Forces.

JACK BYGRAVE (Assist. Projectionist, Warner
Bros.) — Army.

A. CHANDLER (Kay's Scottish Laboratories)—
H.M. Forces.

G. H. COLING (Lettering, National Screen Ser-
vices)— H.M. Forces.

F. COLLISON (Processor, Kodak)— H.M. Forces.

J. DABK (Gainsborough Pictures) — H.M. Forces.

K. J. DAVIS (Lab. Trainee, Kodak)— H.M.
Forces.

J. M. GIBSON (Neg. Dept., Denham Labora-
tories)— Army.

DENIS GILPIN (Assist. Diagram Artist, Parkins
& Co.)— Naval Film Unit.

J. GOODMAN (Cutting Trainee, G.B. Instruc-
tional)— H.M. Forces.

R. GREFX (16mm Recording Assist.. British
Acoustic) — H.M. Forces.

1AX HOUSTON (Boom Operator, Ealing Studios)
Captain, C.K.S. Film Production and Train-
ing Centre, India.

JOHN LODGE (Cutting Assist., G.B. News)—
H.M. Forces.

\. Ml RKELL (Matrix Dev., Technicolor)— Army.

L. J. NUTT (Animation Artist, Merton Park)—
H.M. Forces.

J. McCOMBIE (1st Assist. Cameraman, G.B.)—
Fleet Air Arm.

1). (L McKEAND (Camera Trainee, Verity)—

Army.
E. O'CALLAGHAN (Elec. Assembly, British

Acoustic) — H .M. Forces.
MJSS GRACE SAGE (Learner Projectionist.

Cinit) — Land Arm\ .
B. STOPLEB (Assist. Librarian, Crown Film

Unit)— H.M. Forces.
J. G. SUGG (Despatch Clerk. Film Labs.)— H.M.

Forces.
MISS R. TALLEMACH (Cinit Labs.)— Land

Army.
K. C. WEST (Assist. Producer. Kodak)— H.M.

Forces.
A. K. WFSTBFRY (Camera Maintenance. Paling

Studios) — H.M. Forces.
I). WHITE (Mech. Assembly, British Acoustic)—

H.M. Forces.
A. WINGATE (Camera Assistant, Pathe)— H.M.

Forces.

Promotions

'2nd Lieut. \Y. HOWELL, now Recordist and
Second in Charge of Sound Dept.. A.K.S. Film
Unit, Wemblev.

NEWS OF SERVING MEMBERS

We have had a letter from Sgt. H. E. Hodges,
of No. 3 R.A.F. Film Production Unit, India. He
sends besl wishes to A.C.T. from himself and the
other members of his unit : Sgt. Ronnie Shears
(camera). Sgt. Collick (sound), Sgt. J. Clot
(camera), F () P. Lang (camera). F Ft.
A. Allen (sound). LAC G. Mackey (labs)
and tlir CO., W Commander Connochie
(late G.B.i. "Everyone seems to be thinking
about their release and not much else. I have
been over here now in charge of editing since
.January. 1944, and believe me it's g hell of a j ib
dealing with positive, let alone negative, in a tem-
perature over 100 degrees most of the time. We
arc working in an ex-Indian Film Studio in co-
operation with the P.R. Army Film Unit, and the
job we have had getting equipment ! The working
methods of the Indians are not exactly fully up to
date, although I must say their ingenuity is
amazing."

James Willoughby has been promoted Wing
('tin miander on his appointment to the Films Con-
trol Branch of the Control Commission for Ger-
many. The Films Control Branch will he respon-
sible lor the reorganisation ol film production in
the German studios, and the manufacture of stock
and equipment, also for the censorship and control
of I ieinian cinemas and films shown, in particular
of films compulsorily shown for the re-education
of the German people.

July— October, L945

T i ! E CINE-TECHNICIAN

99

OBITUARY

'I here can be few members ol the trade who did
not know and respecl Leonard (Nobby) Clark. It
is with deep regret and a heavy heart I write this
obituary of one oi our early A.C.T. members — a
fine fellow. To his personal friends, it is as ye1
impossible to realise that his cheerful face and
hard working, never grumbling self, will not again
be aroi nd the Studio. His presence on the unit
w - a guarantee of good relations and co-operation
—he had a happy knack of overcoming troubles.
Vi j f w of Ins colleagues knew he was still suf-
fi i ig loin the effects of leg wounds received in
the 1914-18 war, and although, to my own know-
ledg .1" had some pretty tough times, Nobbj was
never down, a very amusing companion, and a
grand teller of stories. Some ol his remini

ws tee! trips with Ken Gordon and his unit
v e worthy of Punch.

Yes, \ol)li\ was a grand
sense of the word.

in ever\

\ol)h\ entered the trade many years

md

during his career had worked in most branches of
i ! e industry. Over five years with Pathe ; on the
fl i r and sound truck at Ealing Studios for a fur-
tive years; a short sped with Caumont ; from
I e went to Rock's— -he was proud oi the

he was able to put into the assembling of
Rock's sound truck, and speni another rive 3 iar
pi i .od with this Coni], any until the original Rock
Unit (eased production, from this period until
tin war Nobby worked at De Havillands on air-
< r it. and then to the B.B.C.'s television trans-
mitter at Alexandra Palace. During 1940 he
worked with Yin tens and from them became along
as sound maintenance engineer to Riversid< — last
s 'miiit he took over mixing on the floor, and in
this capacity was making excellent progress.

!lis passing was tragic. Working on the
final scenes of Home Sweet Home, he put up a
ti rrifi struggle to avoid a collapse on the set. 1
sj i nt several hours with him in hospital and he
made a remarkable recovery; in fact, arrange-
nn os were made for him to go on convalescen e,
but •■ suddi a relapse ton]; him from us. His pass-
ing has been fell rerj keenly at Riverside ; Nobby
was n lively A.C.T. member, always a deep
thinker, and. what's more, a man's "Mixer"
loved by all.

Arthur F. Kelly

.May 1 he permitted to add a personal and very
sin. ere appreciation of Nobby Clark. J hadn't
known him very long, less than a year, but his
passing is a verj real personal loss to me, and it
will be a very long time before I am likely to
forgei his cheery red lace, or the valued help and
real co-operation he gave, during the making oi
Seventh Veil.

Bob Bennett

On June 6th the death occurred oi Cyril j.
Price, at the age of 32.

( ' \ i il was one ol those rare personal it ies : a popu-
lar and efficient Assistant Director, though he had
experienced work in numerous capacities in this
all-embracing business ; he had. for instance, been
a cinema manager, organist and actor — and dur-
ing one period of the war he was engaged in col-
lecting War Savings, for which, 1 understand, he
collected over £1,000,000.

Cyril had worked at the Welwyn Studios in the
early days, and at Ufa in Germany, where his
rudeness to the Nazis got him the sack. He also
worked with G.B., Ealing, and finally G.E.I. A
sufferer from diabetes from the age of 14. he made
less i ii-s ■■!>< hit this disability, with its daily injec-
tions, than most of us do aboi f shaving.

Cyril possessed the happy knack of getting on
well with people, and was one of the most popular
fellows you could wish to meet; his organising
ability and his generosity were well known to all
who knew him.

That his illness should conic just when he had
been given his first directorial assignment makes
his loss the more sad.

D.C.

SOLUTION

I : FMAitfiT itfitfJR

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DiR;A;NiK

w!eLL:0;U L D|0 F!F :E.:R

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-T-— - r - - -r --- jr --^ - - + "—»---

V: liGOlrjEINiTjDiAlRit

DiRiY M:0 M0 iPIOILiE O

The clerihew is as follows: —
If Arthur Rank
drank,

we could offer him a whole
magnum of drv monopole.

100

T i I E (M N E - T E C H N I C I A N

July— October, 1945

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

A New 35mm Projector with a New Light Source.

Tiiii uli ire Schaffers, S.M.P.E. Journal,
March, 1945.

The development of the water-cooled high-pres-
sure mercury arc — a high intensity light source oJ
small size and low heat dev< Iopment — lias made
possible the designing of a projector with mam
novel features, one of which is a saving oi space
which makes it possible to build two projectors
one (in tiiii of the other.

The mercury vapour tube is of quartz and is
water-cooled. Two tungsten wires led through the
end of the tube serve as i lectrodes. The tube con-
tains a small amount of mercury and some argon
Qas. The mercury vapour pressure is over 100
atmospheres and the light flux is 00,000 lumens.
A rectifier supplies the direct current. Ignition
voltage is 800 and working voltage 500. Currenl is
2 amp. The quartz tube is mounted on a semi-
cydindrical housing backed by a specially designed
mirror whii h gives a four image reflection of the
mercury discharge. Together these produce a
lighted surface about 0.316 ins. in width.

Two mercury lamps (one is a spare) are mounted
in a cylindrical lamp-holder; a piano-eon vex lens
set in the side oi the lamp-holder receives light
from the mercury lamp at a divergence of 90°.
Refraction of this lens is relatively small as our
surface is bounded by water. So a second con-
denser lens must be used. The shutter rotates in
the space between the lenses. Light reaching the
screen is very similar to that from a 45 amp.
high-intensity carbon arc. Intensity is 2,500
lumens and is blue-white in colour. Circulating
water is used to cool the lamps ; about 90% of the
heat rays are absorbed and never reach the picture
gate.

Twin projector construction is made possible by
the use of the mercury lamp. The him magazines
are mounted in the space ordinarily occupied by
the carbon arc and the monitor speaker and con-
trol panel are mounted in the base. The control
panel carries two switches for controlling bass and
treble, two plug-in switches for regulating volume
from projection booth or auditorium, a switch that
connects the monitor speaker to either amplifier,
a volume control and three plug-in switches for
film, photograph and mieropnone reproduction.
There is also a lever switch connected by a flexibl
cable io two shutters for instantaneous sound and
i ire change-over.

On the opposite side to the projector mechanism
are the compartments containing the operating
parts. The two upper compartments carry the

ABSTRACTS

p - amplifiers,
driving

take-up r! itches
and the control-
ler drums which
th ■ con-
ned ons : ro-
jector i
mercury lamps
a n d s a i e t y
switches. The
c o in p a rtment
in the bas con-
tains the ampli-
fiers and power
supply systems.
E m projec-
mi qhanism
is mounted on a
cast iron d -
which permits a
20° tilt down-
ward or a 10°
tilt upw ard. The
sound head is
incorporated in
the projector and the rotary sound drum shaft is
coupled to a dynamically balanced fly-wheel.

The controller drum mentioned above has I
posil his which start the following actions: —

(i| M itor is switched on — it has an auxiliary
winding to ensure smooth starting. In this - -
tion main end auxiliary windings are connected in
parallel.

(2) Auxiliary windin;
runs at normal speed.

(8) Mercury lamp is ignited at 800 v.
(4) Mi rcury lamp i^ s.\ it die I to working volti
o 500.

The pro ji itor has sev< ral safety devices. If the
tv in landholder is turned while the project

cvat'ng i he : - nplete inscallal ion - itomati-
i dli i iii i It. [I a in a' ury lamp breaks down dur-
ing opei tioii, the oper itor I irns the controller
ih uu back to position 2 and revolves the twin
lamp-holder 180°. The spare lamp goes into opera-
tion after he turns the drum bfi k to positions 3 and
-1. The picture is intei rapted for a fev - - but

i e si iund is not affe :ted.

A magnetic oil filter system is another feal i

this pri ije I \ pa r i strong pei manent

nets ire mounl sd above the til ernritteni me
nism. Sieel particles in the oil passing I ese mag-
nets are attracted and trai ped. The magnets are
easily removed for cleaning.

is switched oh — i tor

SOUND

SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER LICENSEES

GREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-

Thames and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

VVelwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Director of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex.
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinewood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, W.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Associated Productions Ltd., Calcutta

Bharat Movietone, Madras

Bombay Pictures, Bombay

Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay

Central Studios Ltd., Coimbatore

Chitramandir Studio, Bombay

CIRCO Productions, Bombay

Gemini Stud) is, Madras

India Artists Ltd., Bombay

Minerva Movietone, Bombay

Modern Theatres Ltd., Salem

National Studios Ltd., Bombay

New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta

Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore

Prabhat Film Co., Poona

Pragati Pictures Ltd., Madras

Prakash Pictures, Bombay

Ran jit Movietone, Bombay

Seth Manecklal Chunilal

Shree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures, Calcutta

Siedles Cineradio Ltd., Colombo, Ceylon

Vel Pictures Ltd., Madras

AUSTRALIA

Efftee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros.. New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

RCA PHOTOPHONE LTD., 43, Berkeley Square, London, W.1

Telephone: Grosvenor 8861-8

II

FILMS &
EQUIPMENTS

LTD.

N

*

MOTION
PICTURE
ENGINEERS

138 WARDOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.I.

_

Telephone: GERrard 6711
Cables: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association oJ Cine-Technicians, 2. Soho Square. London, W.I,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

1945 NOVEMBER
DECEMBER

BERT CRAIK

GEO. H. ELVIN

JOCK GEMMELL

FRED J. HYSON

A. E. JEAKINS

ERIC J. PASK

NOW YOU MAY KNOW
OFF NATIONAL SERVICE!
6th ANNUAL FILM SCHOOL

A BRIDGE ACROSS THE CHANNEL

A MATTER
OF COURSE

CAMERAMEN and other cine-technicians
have come to accept the unfailing
excellence of 'Kodak' Films as a normal
matter of course. No finer tribute could
be paid to the skill and care with which
these Films are produced through every
stage in their manufacture.

Kodak Limited, Motion Picture Department,
Kingsway, London, W.C.2

•KODAK* FILMS

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians

^itorial & Publishing Office: 2, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.I. Telephone: CERRARD 8506

dverhsement Office: 5 & 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.I. Telephone: HOLBORN 4972

Associate Editors : Sidney Cole. George H. Elvin. Kenneth Gordon, Fred Hyson, A. E. Jeakins, M. J. Land.

lumber Fifty- seven, Volume Eleven

November — December, 1945

Price One Shilling

A BRIDGE ACROSS THE CHANNEL

At our Annual General Meeting lust April our fraternal visitors, M. Daquin and M. Chezeau,
suggested the formation of an International Federation of Film Technicians, and the President and
Secretary were invited to Paris at tin' end of August to discuss it. Advantage was taken of the occasion
to raise the possibility of an exchange of French and British technicians, and to have a look at the
French film industry. On their arrival in Paris the President, Anthony Asquith, zcas unfortunately
taken seriously ill, so that the work of the delegation fell on the Secretary, and their re fort could not
be so full, on the technical side, as they would have wished.

' □

Our Franch hosts had prepared a vrn ambitious
programme for us. and the sort of things we had
in mind, which ] had to do alone on behalf of
t lie two of us, were to meet the Committee of
the French Union to discuss the question of
reciprocity, to meet officers of the Federation of
Entertainments Union and the C.G.T. to discuss
the question of an Internationa] Federation, to
visit studios and laboratories, sec certain recent
French films and visit any specialised organisa-
tions such as Film Schools.

Purely l>\ coincidence we arrived on the first
anniversary of the liberation ot Paris and naturally
I was invited to celebrations which were taking
place on thai memorable day. French film tech-
nicians played an important pari in the resistance
movement, and 1 1 1 * ■ \ had then- own combat unit.
T!ie\ suffered severe casualties and I was present
at a ceremony on the Saturday afternoon when
they paid tribute to those technicians who paid
with their lives or were injured in the fight to
drive the Germans from France. Eight were killed
and fifteen injured. It was not .i cheerful cere-
mony hut I was very happy to be there on behalf
oi British him technicians. The lighter side came
in the early limns of the morning, when I was at
a party organised by the Committee of the
Resistance Group within the film industry, ami
flbout 1 a.m. they spent an hour telephoning col-
laborationists and denouncing them.

Organisation of French Trade Unions

First of all 1 thmk 1 should say a word aboul
the organisation oi the French Trade Union move-
ment as a whole because then we can appreeial •

any difficulties which might arise in the formation
ot an International Federation. The Trade Union
movement in France is organised somewhat dif-
ferently from t he movement in this country. Over
here each individual union is affiliated to the
T.U.C., and [•'••derations within particular indus-
tries generally are not affiliated. In France, affilia-
tion in the form of a union is probably the least
common form of organisation. The principal
method of affiliation is through the Federation of
each particular industry, and the C.G.T. (the
French T.U.C.) has 40 Federations, one for each
of the principal French industries. In the Film
Industry the Federation du Spectacle has six sub-
sections looking after different sections of the
entertainment industry : theatres, cinemas, radio
and television, musicians, authors and composers,
and actors. So far as films are concerned they
have in France 1-14 different trade unions — each
of these different unions represents the organised
workers in the film industry, whether in studios
or cinemas, in each particular locality. The French
organisation which came over here — Syndicat des
Techniciens
— was only

important one, because it represented all film tech-
nicians centred in Paris. Between them the 144
unions represent 40,000 members of all grades.
'1 he local body has autonomy but co-operates

through its District Federation and at a final stage
through its National Federation. In other words,
the film industry in France has :it the top a
National Federation which exerei e the same sort
of function as A..C.T. or NATKE in this country.

de la Production Cinematographique

one of those 144 unions, hut a \er\

102

THE CINE - TE CHNICI AM Kovember December. 1945

Visiting Paramoiutt Laboratories

Legally the Federations have whal we 1 1 1 i ?4 1 1 1 call
branches, l>ut they are, m fact, separate trade
unions looking after all local activities, and fully
mandated to negotiate agreements, although
generally the Federation is prepared to help in
trade negotiations and if required to do so will
negotiate National Agreements covering all the
country.

Proposed International Federation

We discussed the question of an Intel-national
Federation with the Secretary of the French
Federation du Spectacle (M. Jacques Marion), and
also with the Joint Secretary of the C.G.T. (M.
Benoit Franchon) and with M. Berthomieu, Presi-
dent of the Film Technicians' Union. Just before
we went to Paris. Sir Walter Citrine drew ni\
attention to the proposed new constitution of the
W. F.T.I'., which makes provision for the estab-
lishment of International Federations. Member-
ship of these International Federations would be
open to the appropriate unions in all countries
affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions.
It is proposed, under the new constitution, that

the W.T.I''. I'. as such shall he responsible for the

organisation of International Bodies. Therefore we
were asked h\ the T.U.C. to bear in mini I that this
procedure was now being endorsed and that it we
desired a Film Technicians' International it would
lit' preferable that it should come under ibis new
provision.

So far as the French are concerned. the\ pointed

out thai i lies w mild pro] i rga uisal ion < -

< cincd uul oids with films but with the whole
entertainment industry. I agreed, subject to the
General Council endorsing it. (lj that a World
Federation of Trade Unions in the entertainment
industry was desirable; (2) that the French
Federation press the French T.U.C. and we press
the British T.U.C. to see that as soon as the new
constitution of the W.F.T.U. is approved the
Federation is established under its auspice- (It
done that way. the expenses of the Federation
are borne by the World Trade Union movement
and not by the individual Trade Unions) ; (3) it was
agreed with the French Federation that it in the
intervening period before the establishment of the
International any matters arose which required
discussion, then a Joint Committee would be
formed by the French and British film industry.
This was partly outside the scope of A.C.T. and
anything which affected any other Union would
have to he conveyed to them for sympathetic con-
sideration.

That is the position at the moment concerning
the Intel-national Federation. The W.F.T.U.
has finally endorsed the constitution of the World
Federation, and the road is clear for us, in con-
junction with the French, to set up an Interna-
t ional Organisation.

Exchange of Technicians

The next point we discussed was the exchange
of technicians between France and this country.
The resolution which was passed at the meeting
in Paris reads as follows :-

'The undersigned, at the meeting on August
30th, 1945, of the Permanent Committee "I
Technicians and Specialist Film Workers of
France with Anthony A.squith (President) and
George H. Elvin (General Secretary) of the
Association of Cine-Technicians of Great Bri-
tain, affirm their agreement to the principle of
I he future exchange of technicians and specialist
workers between France and England. Such
exchange shall be made on the basis of an equal
number from each category to be employed at
not less than the minimum trade union rate in
t he respective count ries.

It is agreed to discuss the decision with the
Film Producers of the two countries so a- to
make effective as speedily as possible this
exchange of technicians and specialist film
workers which is mutually desirable in the
intcic-ts of the development of film technique
ainongst the members of both Trade Union-."
Signed in Paris. August 30th, 1945,
Association of Cine-Technicians tram England:
ANTHONY A.SQUITH, President.
GEORGE II. ELVIN, General Secretary.
Permanent Committee oj Technicians and
Specialist Film Workers of France:

November— December, 1945 T H E C INE-TECHXICI A N

L03

BEETHOMIEU,
HAYEE,

I.WIY.

S\ ndicai des Technicians.
HOUDET,
PIGNAULT,
BONNET,

Syndical des Travailleurs du Film.

Tli ii resolution was passed without any di:ffi:
cull v at all. Tlif only point to make is that A.C.T.
does aol organise some -rant- covered 1>\ the
French Trade Unions, and vice \c ;a. For exam-
ple, in the case of grades like Make-Up, which
are not covered by the A.C T., we said we would
speak to the appropriate British Trade Union in
order to make the exchange possible. The French
technicians said more than once during the dis-
cussions that they felt such a reciprocal arrange-
ment would he particularly useful so far as junior
grades •■• re concerned. They did not merely
want chief technicians to he exchanged between
the two countries; they were equally anxious for
3rd Assistant Directors, Camera Assistants, etc..
to he exchanged, a- the;; fell such exchange would
],l,i\ a ver\ valuable part during the training of
juniors.

The nex1 -tip. as mentioned in the resolution,
is that the French Union must approach French
Producers and A.C.T. must approach the British
Film Producers' Association. II we can gel the
approval of the two Producers' Associations to
the Agreement, and if the Ministry of Labour in
both countries approves the scheme, it can start
operating immediately. Once the principle is
agreed there will have to he discussion on certain
final details. For example, the period within which
the exchange musl he completed, the number
of technicians to he exchanged. Also provision,
if felt necessary by either party, that there should
be 30m ■ right of veto or suspension of the scheme
by reason of unemployment or some other cause.
The French Industry Today

\i,w a- in tli.' general position of the French
film industry. The French are very fearful of
domination from outside- -they fear it from the
Americans, and tin \ fear it equally from the Rank
organisation in this country. They are afraid
that when it develops the French film industry
will he open in anybody except the French. We
know something about tic tacticsof the Americans
— they sent film men in the advance guard of the
liberation army and tried to capture tic French
film market. They have not had it all their own
way, and because of this thej have furnished tic
French by not letting tin m see anj new films- you
could generally onlj see revivals like Gunga Din.
Sn tar a-, tic Hank interests are com-, ■rued, partly
as a result of a resolution passed by the A.C.T.
General Council they were stopped from acquiring
tic Gaumont circuit, hut a distribution agreement

has been negotiated, and In- organisation has a

certain interest in the SI. Maurice Studios in
Paris. According to mj information tic position
is that the sole ambassador of British films in
France will he the Hank organisation. I saw no
signs at all of any other offers being mad
,-im other machinery being established which
would enable the French people to s « thi
run of British films. Ail they will he able to
will be films put on their market 1>\ the Eagle-
Lion Corporation Demi Paradise, Blithe Spirit,
This Happx Breed, etc. This is oi some com
i- British technicians, particularly if the old tac
iic> are going to bi repeated of films which have
been made in this country being put out as
American. The Way to the Stars, for instance,
is being distributed by United Artists, and 1
gather when shown in France tic impression the
French people may get is that it is an American
film.

There are no big circuits in France; the Gau-
mont circuit has only about twenty-four cinemas.
Therefore it is more difficult for any hie interest to
get control of the French industry in the same way
,i- acquiring t wo or three big circuits in this coun-
try would obtain complete control. The French
are talking in terms of 60% quota for French films,
hut nothing definite lias happened yet, and cer-
tainly all the people 1 talked to have got the
impression that efforts are being made through
various sources to try and force British films from
the Rank organisation on the unwilling French
market.

On the floor at St. Maurice Studios

lul

T IIP ( ' I N E - T K ( II X I C I A X November-December, 1045

Production

The French industry kept going during the war
and therefore lias not sufli red in the same waj as
the film industry lias in some of the other occupied
countries. One or two French film organisations
which collaborated with the Germans have been
handed over bv the Government to the workers.
The Billancourt Studios arc being run by a Com-
mittee of French him technicians and workers,
because the previous managers of the studios were
collaborationists. The operation of the studios is
purely administrative. It is not concerned with
production policy.

There is a great shortage of everything in France
and that applies just as much to the him industry
as to any other industry. There is a great shortage
ot film stock — in order to get a him finished the
company generally has to buy stock on the black-
market. There is a shortage of timber and all other
supplies required for building sets. etc. And there
is no production of feature films in colour at all.
One of the things which French technicians
wanted to see most was a British him in Techni-
color, so us to see what a Technicolor film was
like alter so many years. Transport problems are
very bad in France, which makes exteriors and
local ions very difficult. And for all these reasons
production costs have soared enormously; thej
are more than double whal they were before the
war. A medium priced picture before the war cost
somewhere in the neighbourhood of £15,000 —
today it costs anything from £40,000 to £60,000.
Another problem which affects the him industry
is the large amount of absenteeism by the workers.
The reason for this is that in order to live flay
have to spend up to two days a week dealing in
the black market in order to get extra food to fill
the family larders. But despite all these difficul-
ties the industry is active, and I believe at the
present time about twenty-five films are in pro-
duction.

For reasons best known to themselves the
Government has decreed that all films with the
exception of a small number dealing with the
French resistance movement must be of an
escapist character, and therefore today almost
every film made is of that category. T visited
three studios — St. Maurice (Paramount) where
three films are in production : Gueux an Paradis, a
comedy with Eaimu and Fernandel, UEtrange
Destin and Cyrano de Bergerac. Whilst at these
studios T met the Works Committee and was
invited to attend one of their meetings. There v as
a very friendly reception and the usual speeches
were made, but what 1 was particularly interested
in was to learn that the workers in that studio
had read accounts in " Paris Soir " of the resolu-
tion passed by ACT. General Council at the tin
the Rank organisation was preparing to acquire

the Gaumont circuit in fiance. At the Billancourt

Studios Western Approaches was being dubbed,
and one film was in production at that studio called
Special Mission. This film was actually made just
before the Germans occupied France — the Ger-
man> destroyed it. and one of the first things the
French film industry is doing is to remake it. The
other studio I visited was Path.- Studios. I also
visited one Laboratory, attached to the St. Maurice
Studios, and so far as I could judge it was up to
the hest standards in this country. Certainly it
was a great improvement on some of the older
lain .lab iries i iver here.

Co-operative Developments.

One of the things which French film technicians
seem very keen about is co-operative production.
They do not seem to have had the same unfor-
tunate experiences as some British technicians.
There is quite a movement, started and approved
by tiie French unions, to encourage co-operative
production on the best lines. Technicians work
for a small minimum salary, raise the balance
of production costs through the usual channels,
and have a percentage -hare in the profits accord-
ing to their salary. Another particularly interesting
development was also a cooperative organisation.
but of a different character. This is called
" Maitrise Artisanale de l'Industrie Cinemato-
graphique." Apparently the French Government
has administered for many years certain fie ds
available to skilled craftsmen for the furtherance
of their art. After a long struggle the French tech-
nicians have got hold of some of this money and
formed a co-operative organisation to make films
where the artistic result is the prime consideration
and Fox Office success of secondary importance.
Again, as in other co-operative organisations, all
the workers and technicians are paid a minimum
salary for the job. but they have interesting rules
and regulations and one of them provides how- the
profit, if any. shall be distributed — 50% back to
the organisation, 25% to the technicians and 25/
to the other w i irkei -

There was not much opportunity to visit cinemas
or to see any films owing to the Presid< nt '- illness.
But there is no recent British film at all b<
shown in Paris at the presi nt time, and there are
hardly any new- American films. Most are French
films or American reissues. The French union feels
that the Entertainment Tax is liable to cripple the
industry — the public are [iess film conscious than
in England or America and the Union is afraid
that unless the tax is reduced it may have a
dangerous effect .

Wages and Conditions

So far as wages and working conditions are

concerned, I attended a meeting of the Onion's

Committee and it was just like an\ A.C.T. General

Council meeting. There were the same sort of

M;j

November— December, 1945 T HE CINE-TECHNICIA N

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November 1 >eccmber, !•' I-

problems being discussed, and the same sun of
people there. They discussed things which concern
us just as much, and which we have deall with
recently. The first item on the agenda, for in-
stance, concerned Sound technicians, and the fact
thai because thej are paid by the studio and nol
b\ the producers they gel less monej comparably
than other technicians. I was aide to tell them
what happened at Denham when we came up
against a similar problem. They also discussed
the question of paymenl for night work.

Tier,' are no Agreements for studio tech-
nicians' wages. There are Agreements for the
manual workers' — carpenters, electricians, etc.
Bui so far as 1 can see the all-round standard is
comparable to our Agreement with the II. V. I' \.
Thai is to say, the general rates of pay being
received are as listed in our Agreement, with the
one important exception that they are the sort
of rates actually paid and are not minimums. Thej
are demanding an Agreement with the Producers
and. if they cannot get a meeting, are thinking
of threatening strike action.

So far as the laboratories are concerned, thej
could nol get any Agreement at all, and rates were
laid down in an Arbitration Award by the Ministry
of Labour on August '2nd. L945. There are one or
two interesting differences between the French
laboratory rates and ours. Their Award lays down
two sets of minimum wages — a minimum wage
and an average wage. It is very difficult to com-
pare the wages in France with the wages in this
country because of the rale of exchange, which
is officially 200 francs to the £, but should lie at
least 300. The rates in their laboratories are
roughly from £3 8s. Od. minimum to £6 18s. 0d.
for the fop job. The lowest technical rate is £4.
Their highest rate, as in this country, is for
Optica] Printers, Title Cameramen, etc. Printers
get £5 6s. Od. (6s. more than the new rate here),
but apparently all the printers are women. Posi-
tive Developers get the same rate, Negative
Developers get 85 18s. Od. Juveniles over is are
treated as adidts and gel the adult rate, those
under is gel from 50% to sn ',. according to ag<
A Film University

T spent a very interesting afternoon at what is
known as the Institute of Advanced Film Studies.
Tt is an official organisation supported by the Gov-
ermneul mainly through the M.O.I, lis purpose
is to provide training facilities for newcomers to
the industry and refresher courses for those already
in it. At the same time it seeks to educate the
public. Ii certainly puts the Polytechnic, the
B.K.S. and the British Film [nstitute in the
shade, and also om- own Governmeni in so fai as
it has done nothing to provide facilities for training
technicians.

The Institute is housed in a magnificent build-
ing, which the Germans had and the French Gov-

George Elvm conveys fraternal greetings to the

Works Committee at St. Maurice Studios

eminent took over for this pui p 3 h is magnifi-
cently equipped, has a small studio, cutting:
35mm equipment, includ ■_ - rid, a library of
L2,000 hooks, club rooms, etc. It is availabli
training young technicians under an approved
apprenticeship scheme. The courses are for one.
two or t hree year-, aci i irding to the particular job
being taught, and no fees are payable whatsoever,
as it is a State School, part of the State educa-
tional system, in addition to hint technique,
camera operating, sound, etc.. tiny teach the
history of the cinema, stage design, social hist
music, the history of art. and ethnography. The\
take up to sixty students a year. They are at
presenl using ii in co-operation with the American
and Canadian armies to let Americans and Cana-
dians who want to. to utilise their spare time in
learning something aboul film-making. It isstaffed
with experts wdio are fiilU capable of training
students a year, [n addition, they try to edu
tic public in film appreciation b,\ means ot lec-
tures, publications, etc. It d> es the work of the
Polytechnic, the B.K.S. and the British Film
[nstitute combined, and does it most effectively.
It has onl\ been going a year but has started off
on the right lines with excellent organisation.
excellent facilities, I ■ il ha- gol rei its
initial growing-pains 1 am sure it will A>^ ven
well. It is run in injunction with the

November— December, 19 15 T HE CINE-T E C H X I C IAN

L07

niciana, and most of the leading technicians and

trade unionists are lecturers then.' and also make
use oi its facilities.

France Today
The last point J would like to touch on is the
position of France generally. I was shocked, and
so was tbe President, by the privation and hard-
ship win h the French people are going through
at this moment. France is one of the luckier coun-
tries— the Balkan countries have suffered even
mort — hut there is a terrible shortage of every-
thing. We never saw milk the whole time we Were
in Paris; it is reserved for children, expectant
mothers, etc. There is ersatz coffee, no meat. Eats
are very short, bread was on ration whilst we
were there hut 1 believe it has come off the ration
>ince. Wines are extremely scarce. There is a
complete shortage of fuel, there has been no hot:
water in Paris since the occupation, and there is
no soap. Cigarettes are very short ■- -men onl\
are allowed 40 per month, but one can buy them
in the black market at 10s. for 20 cigarettes.
Transport is restricted, no buses or trams, and
"uk a few black market taxis. Miners are wanted
urgently, to produce the much needed coal which
is holding up the revival of French industry more
than anything else, but they too have to take time
away from the mines in order to buy in the black
market. Prices in restaurants are fantastically
high and most of them close two days a week. An
ordinary meal such as the President and myself

had cost anything from 12 to £5. I tried to find
out how the workers managed as there arc no
restaurants like .air Pritish Restaurants; tiny
have a few canteens which arc subsidised. In the
film industry there are canteens at some of the
studios where the management pays half the price
and the worker pays the other half, but in an\
case the cost is never less than 5s. a time. In the
" W ardour Street " district of Paris a canteen was
opened b\ the Union especially for tilin workers.
.Medical supplies are terribly short, and when sent
.ait b\ the doctor with a prescription for Asquith
1 had to return without the necessary elastoplast,
cotton- wool, etc. T spoke to a typist, who told
me that her shoes had cost £20 and her dress 640.
Once, when she v. as \ erj ill, her father had walked
KM) miles to eel her some turnips. 1 hope that on.'
of the things A.C.T. can do is to try and bring
home to the people in this country that, despite
our own privations, we are much better off than
i h. people in Europe.

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108

THE CINE -TECHNICIAN November— December. 1045

WORKERS' FILM ASSOCIATION

6th ANNUAL FILM SCHOOL

by

ERIC J. PASK

The School this year at the Highcliffe Hall
Hotel, Cliftonville (owned by the Kent Co-cp)
was attended by representatives of Trades Coun-
cils, Trade Unions, Divisional Labour Parties,
Education ( !ommittees and Co-operative Societies.
I attended as a representative of the A.C.T.
Laboratory Committee, with Mr. Frank Sainsbury
to represent the General Council.

The School was officially opened by Mr. J.
Taylor, a former Chairman of the Association,
followed by George Elvin, who addressed the
School on "The Workers in the Film Industry,"

which was of great interest to those who were not
employed in the industry, and took away the false
impression of large salaries and glamour, which
the majority of people associate with films. He
pointed out that it is only now that laboratory
workers have been able to obtain a minimum
wage of t4 per week for fully-graded employees
in the lowest paid jobs.

Frank Sainsbun gave a talk on Sunday morn-
ing; his subject. " Films for Schools," gave rise
to quite a lot of discussion. Everyone agreed that
the Government should sponsor the production of
films for education ; this should not be left to the
Rank organisation.

Arthur Elton, on Sunday afternoon, was very
critical of many of the films so far produced for
the Workers' movement, which he described as
old-fashioned and reactionary. He suggested that
Trade Unions should make films about their own
industries and that the Co-ops should make films
about international problems. In discussion, mosl
people agreed that a great deal more needed to
be done in films by the movement.

Other speakers during the week included .Mon-
tagu Slater, who spoke on " Scriptwriting for
Films of Social Import." George Sewell, a.r.p.s..
gave instruction on the use of lt'nmn cameras,
writing of a script, camera angles, use of filters,
etc. An interesting lecture by Mr. Sidney L. Bern-
stein, late of M.O.I, and the Film Section.

S.H.A.E.F., on "The Film and International
Relations." told of the important part M.O.I.

films had taken in the war.

Mr. Hill, a repatriated prisoner of war, who was
an R.A.F. cameraman and was shot down over
Germany, told us something of the work of the
R.A.F. Film Unit. He explained that for recon-
naissance photography Technicolor was best, as
this showed up the camouflage where monochrome

would not. Also, that Kodaks had made a nega-
tive stock witb a speed greatly in excess of Super
Pali, which had enabled the R.A.F. to take those
remarkable shot-, of the night raids on Germany
which we had all seen on the newsreels.

We are all used to hearing music as background
to films, both feature and documentary, but few
of us realise the amount of work this entails. All
this was explained to us by Dr. Ernest Meyer, the
well-known composer of music lor the film^. in his
lecture " Music and the Film."

Mr. Alfred Luck, one of the members of the
Workers Film Association, gave instructions on
the use and care of 16mm projectors, also on thi
selecting pi a programme, the arranging of a hall,
and the publicity lor the show. The W.F.A. have
available projectors and projectionists, as well as a
large library of films.

Friday morning we had a Students' Conference
which reviewed tbe work of the W.F.A. and dis-
cussed proposals for the 1946 School. The sugg s-
tion that the W.F.A. should produce films was
popular. Everyone agreed that the Co-operative
Societies should own cinemas in which these films
could be shown in addition to the usual feature
films. Alderman J. Reeves. M.P., pointed out
that the main object of the W.F.A. was the distri-
bution of films for non-theatrical performance —
i.e.. 16mm which could be shown in any suitable
hall.

The Conference was followed by an addn ss from
Alderman J. Reeves on the film as an instrument
of education and public enlightenment. In his
opinion the Government should continue to pro-
duce and distribute films, as the M.O.I, has during
the war. He would substitute for tbe Ministry of
Information a Ministry of Culture and Public-
Instruction, which would also encourage the
appreciation of Ait. Music and the Theatre. The
Government would have to subsidise British
films, and he supported the A.C.T. recommen-
dation of the nationalisation of the British Film
Industry. He also said that something must he
done to cut down waste in the industry. There
should also be a National Organisation composed
of the Labour Party, Trade Unions and Co-opera-
tive Societies to undertake the production and
distribution of films.

To conclude, a word of appreciation to the pro-
jectionists o| the W.F.A.. who provided us with
a film show ever} evening.

November— December, 1945 THE CT'NE-TECHNICIAK

ln'.i

Photograph by A V. Bibbings. Esq.

ILFORD LIMITED

Cine Sales Department

NATIONAL HOUSE • WARDOUR STREET

LONDON, W.I Telephone: GERrard 2763

Ill)

T IT E CI NE-TECHNIC] A N November- ]).,-,.,, ,i„., . pi;

Departed Denizen

At one time a corpulent cameraman, denizen
lit Wardour, could invariably be located at least
once a week in the vicinitj or six times a year in
tht' Journal. Wardour is now a draughty spol
and there is more room as a result of the departure
of the hulk which ho longer graces the Street.
In the Journal there is no gap, the pen, being
mightier than the sword, is less than the hulk. If
discreet enquiry be made as to the last departure
it is suggested that local assignments from
Wardour Street involve the humping of odd equip-
ment not provided for in the Newsreel Agreement
— this the hulk rejects — the humping, not the
Agreement. It the departure he lor the Contim m
the suggestion unkindly continues, the humping
i- eliminated 1>\ the right to a jeep, batman and
corps of Pioneers, plus an MOI pass, a special
seat at NAAF1 canteens and a share in reparations
and prize niotie\ hence the departure. I don't
know about all this, but Ivor Montagu, who has
jus! returned from " furrin parts," ran into Ken
Gordon and said the bulk was being put to good
use by Ken lor battering down all opposition to
his additional righl to put News on the screen, and
that officials were falling like ninepins, his latest
exploit being to squeeze in at the Belsen Trial.
If an ear be pressed to the gral ings outside Pathe's
one may hear Developer Frank Fuller mutter
"Why doesn't Ken Gordon turn at sixteen Mid
get that darn trial over." If he did. he, like
Wimpy, would only go to Hamburg, Frank.

Cyril Crowhurst

How could Denham get along without its
old-established and respected Watty? There
could he hut one answer, and that was the
appointment of Cyril Crowhurst, a popular pro-
motion and in complete accordance with A.C.T.
policy of promotion through the ranks from
experienced and skilled personnel. Cyril, an old
P). ,^ D. man. has been Chief of Sound Mainten-

ance foi years under Watty, and now take- over
Erom his old Chief. With his reputation the
quality lor which Denham sound has been noted
will surely he maintained, together with the tra-
ditional dignitj ot tin' Denham Sound men. In
this latter respect Cyril will have, as Watty had.
the inimitable Percy Dayton- A.C.T. 's gift to
Denham — at his elbow, so all should be well.
Good luck, Cyril.

Ealing Evolution

Joe Yeates. the \er\ earnesl shop steward of
Ealing, has had a busy time .it late with special
rates tor a location in Germany — possibly the first
post-war European feature location — and a dis-
cussion on rates for trainees in which back pay
was forthcoming, -hi., like most stewards, is a
busy man these days, hut pauses to reflect on the
independent status of Ealing now that it has
Eagle Lion distribution, taking pride in the tech-
nical excellence and entertainment value, accord-
ing to the critics, of Johnny Frenchman and Dead
of Sight.

doe should also reflect that war-horse Mickj
Balcon wasn't horn yesterday, and with boys like
Charlie Frend, Sid Cole. Johnm Croydon — hoc

genus omne — it'- got to be l1 1. The great thing

is that all British pictures should he good, and
without turning ourselves into a mutual admira-
tion society we can all congratulate the Ealing
boys and share Joe's pride.

Incidentally, is the excellence of the Ealing
Canteen a prerogative ol Independent status? If
so, monopoly is doomed, for nowadays a good
meal is hard to find; in any case there is no fear
of nationalisation so long as the Crown Film
Unit runs the Pinewood Canteen.

Wakeful Welwyn

If things are quietening down here and there
the Welwyn Garden City plant is not here or
there. My other spies, finding the Great North
Road a trifle cold, and demanding climatic money.
1 retained them in Southern England. This b
so, and news ..) Welwyn hard to come by, it was
good to run into Bert Ross, their hand-
Mixer, and discover why he has to condud his
\.C.T. business by courier pigeon and ponj post
—unlike Sid Howell he doesn't own a gangster's
car. Boy, oh boj ! That terrible Vauxhall — Special
Effects Department, too! However, licit Ross
apologises on heleilt of liiin-elf and hi- merry
lad- at the Northern outpost. They're hard at it
churning out the footage or, Quiet Weekend.
There's nothing quiet about it — don't be deceived.
What with overlapping commitments, shortage
ol staff, holiday rotas, odd locations, the boys
would welcome a ipiiet week-end. Bert gets his
holiday in November. Surely our old friend,
Roberl Clark, will see that licit can take it at

SFovernber December, 1045 T HE CI N E - T E C H N I C I A N

!il

Nice, Mentone or points South?

Another headache at the momenl is the release

ill Welwyn's sister studios. Associated British,
Elstree. No doubt all will come righl in the end,
and it should lie worth it if only to hear Joe
Grossman's voice again around the old stages,
long noted for their output. Great news, really,
and if tin- boys' strength -an hold out until rein-
forcements arrive everything should he tine.
Associated British, Elstree, have a fine tradition
— let's hope the past can he revised and improvi d
upon. Remember Blackmail, Atlantic and plenty
others '.'

Sam Smith

The death of the respected Chief of British
Lion came as ;t shock to the inanj who knew
and admired him. Until Beaconsfield Studios were
taken over for the production of war munitions
he pursued a policy of sensible and continuous
production for years. " Steady production, steady
employment" was the motto which kept Beacons-
field humming with a happy hand of technicians
under A. C.T. conditions. Such was Sam's maimer
that when he strolled on the floor exuding his usual
quiet geniality there was always a joke and kindly
enquirj between crew and "guvnorr" I saw him
lasl at the Blithe Spirit Premiere for the film
Trade I'n ions Benevolent Funds -"A good picture
for a good cause" he remarked to me afterwards.

In spite of the loss of his Beaconsfield Studios
he still managed to turn out winners on a renter
and independent hasis. at all times maintaining
the friendliest relations with A. C.T. He had big
plans for the promotion of British production,
and though he will lie sorely missed, it is to be
hoped that British Lion will he enabled to build
on file foundations he so well and truly laid.

Sans Sainsbury

An e^g wit la ait salt is nothing to A. C.T. without
Frank Sainsbury. How it will work out remains
to he seen. Impossible, you may say. hut never-
theless true — he is retiring. Very sad in one so
young and agile, but at least he has kept going
until the cessation of hostilities. Frank has not
spared himself during the war years and has
directed dozens '>! important shorts, vital to the
war effort, in addition to handling a mountain of
work for A. C.T. Notable for his work on the
Editorial Foard of this periodical he contributed
many brilliant articles and was mainh responsible
for the series "Close-Up." The General Council
shows its appreciation in making Frank an
Honorary Life Member — a rare distinction indeed
and well deserved. What line he intends to follow .
if any, in his retirement, is a (dose secret — there
is no truth in a rumour now circulating that he
intends digging for a treacle well or inflammable
asbestos mine on his Kentish small holding.

Harvey Harrison

FILMS LTD.
HARLEY PLACE, W.I

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NEW TIMES

i r, i m, i/>

the Working Class ")

Published twice monthly in Russian,
English, Fiench and German

This journal published by the Soviet Trade
Unions is devoted to questions of the foreign
policies of the U.S.S.R. and other countries
and to current events in international life.
Among the contributors to this journal are
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112

T II F (' I X E - T E C If N 1 C I A N November Di cember, L945

NOW YOU MAY KNOW-!

WHERE THE NEWSREEL MEN HAVE BEEN AND WHAT
THEY HAVE DONE

Compiled by JOCK C. GEMMELL

Now that hostilities have ceased we may lilt
the veil of secrecy and mystery which, for security
reasons, covered the movements and actions of
tlic Newsreelers during the six years of war.

These men, many of whom served in the last
war and were over military age, took their assign-
ments in their stride just the same as they would
any peace time job.

Their companies and their families very rarely
knew where these men were going or how long
they would he away — neither did the poor blokes
themselves.

All did a splendid job of work risking life and
limb to portray the war, and the Newsreel Com-
panies and tlie public have just cause to he proud
of them. Some were decorated, some mentioned
in despatches and others were commended. Some
were torpedoed, marooned and interned in foreign
lands, and some were taken prisoner by the enemy.

Some were seriously wounded and unfortunately
some paid the highest penalty, dying behind their
cameras. Let us pay tribute to those gallant men
— and remember.

The following sum i nary of their work and travels
shows how every action in all theatres of war was
covered.

Terry Ashwood (Pathe Gazette)

Was East for 2\ years covering siege of Tobruk
and Bardia, securing material of " Monty," Alex-
ander. Cunningham, "The Auk." Duke of Glou-
cester, Field Marshal Smuts. Wendell Wilkie,
Lord Louis Mountbatten, King Peter, Anthony
Eden, Churchill and many other outstanding per-
sonalities. Had neai- miss whilst covering Lybia
campaign at Sidi Rezegh.

Was attached to Indian Division for battles at
Sidi Omar, El Gubi and El Adam.

Then to South African Division for fall of
Bardia. On to Teheran and hack again to desert
covering the actions at Hellrire, Solium and Ala-
mein. Entered Tripoli with Highland Division,
had narrow squeak at Tocliruna — truck blown up.
Continued on to Tunis and alter completing
Deserl Campaign covered Sicily.

A. E. Aubury (G.B. News)

Was accredited as War Corresponde.nl (Naval)
early in the war. First war assignment overseas
was with the Eastern Fleet, June L942. Filmed

the capture of Madagascar and proceeded with
the Field Force on land until campaign ended.
Returned to London via Dakar after its liberation.
Second war assignment overseas — re-accredited
to Eastern Fleet in June 11)44, and on July 25th,
l'MI. was killed in action while filming from the
Destroyer. H.M.S. Quality, during a heavy scale
bombardment off Sabang — the Japanese Naval
Base at the entrance to the Straits of Malacca.
Aubury was commended by the Navy by the way
in which he continued his work under heavy fire
in a very exposed position. He was buried al -
with full naval honours.

Eric Barrow (Universal News)

Covered stories on coastal shipping ..." Heli-
fire Corner" and " E Boat Alley." Then on to
B.17's, with 8th U.S.A.A.F. The Salerno land-
ings in Italy, alter the surrender of the Italian

Fleet. Into Naples water riots, food riots, and

then Naples post office bomb explosion, when other
occupants of the jeep, Neil Sullivan (Pathe I' S
and Ned Buddy (U.S. Newsreels) were injured by
the explosion. The crossing of river Volturno by
British and F.S. troops. To Anzio aboard "The
Royal Flsteriicm. "

The pie^s billet, Virtue Villa, was hit during
a raid, hut Harrow, together with Ernie Pyle
(since killed in the Pacific), Vaughan Thomas
of the B.B.C. and Basil dingi II. of the Telegraph,
miraculously escaped unhurt.

Covered the bombing of Monte Cassino with
Paul W'yand and Martin Grey (Movietone). Lack
to the Anzio beach head . . . and then ..." Vesu-
vius,"

Home to get the Liberation scenes, and His
Holiness the Pope speaking on the balcony of St.
Peter's. Then aboard an F.C.I, in assaull landing
with the 7th F.S. Army on the South Coasi oi
France . . . another lucky escape . . . hut his

camera was badtj damaged; Uso stories in Mar-
seilles and Cannes . . . Lyons . . . Dijon and finally

Mesa neon.

Frank Bassill (Pathe Gazette)

During 1940 had lour months' bombing of
Portsmouth. Accompanied Churchill to Washing-
ton to film address to Hie F.S. Senate. Then oil

to Ottawa to film P.M7's spe vh to the Canadian

House of Parliament.

November— December, L945 T HE CINE- T ECHNICIA K

113

F. W. Bayliss (Paramount News)

Accompanied the B.E.F. and Advanced
Striking Force in France in 1939 and until Dun'
days.

Filmed many London tires during the Lon
blitzes. Big London Dock fire during heavy hi
on 7th September. 1940.

Covered the North African campaign il.il
Egypt, etc.).

Just before our invasion of Sicily and Itah
met a tragic end in the Western desert when
plane crashed and he was burnt to death.

Air

(loll

HZ.

be
his

S. R. G. Bonnett (G.B. News)

Was assigned for duty with the Advanced Air
Striking Force in France in October 1939. Trans-
ferred from France to Norway and covered the
Narvik epic. He was mentioned in despatches for
his work in Norway. During the heavy blitz on
London in 1940 the car in which he was travelling
was heavily hit by bomb splinters. In February
1941 was transferred for the campaign in Eritrea
and filmed the fall of Keren and Asmara. At the
completion of this campaign returned to the
Western Desert and was then transferred to Hong
Kong. Later was accredited to the Royal Navy.
and was stationed in Singapore when the Japanese
attacked Malaya. Was posted for duty on rl.M.S.
"Prince of Wales," hut was transferred before
ship sailed on its fatal journey. Filmed the attack
on Malaya and Singapore and subsequently was
evacuated with the Fleet to Colombo when Singa-
pore fell. Later was present at the attack on
Madagascar. Returned to London from the Far
East in 1944, and on D-Day plus 20 joined the
British Army in Normandy covering the battles
of Caen and Falaise Cap. also the liberation of
Paris, Brussels. Calais. Dunkirk, and all cam-
paigns up to the Rhine. Here his jeep came under
artillery fire and was completelj wrecked and set
on fire, destroying all his camera equipment.

Burma

Seine Crossing

Escaping, however, he returned to London to re-
equip and after V-J Day filmed the capitulation
of the German Forces in Norway.

Oscar Bovill (Pathe Gazette)

In 1940 covered occupation of Iceland by Ameri-
cans, relieving British troops. Proceeded East in
1942 and alter hazardous journeys through Abys-
sinia, Italian Somaliland, Djibuti. India and
Burma, joined fleet at Ceylon. Made raids on Java
and Sumatra. Ashore again, travelled the " Still-
well " road via Assam and Burma into China and
had narrow escape from Jap snipers. Flew in six
raids with K.A.F. over Japanese-held Burma and
returned once with badly damaged wing. Landed
with No. 55 Commando on Arakan Front and
filmed battles for River Chindwin and Kohima.
Proceeded then to Akyab and Rangoon, and filmed
the actions which eventually led to the Japanese
capitulation.

E. A. Candy (G.B. News)

Was accredited War Correspondent to the Navy
and assigned to the largest and most severely
attacked convoy to Malta in August 1942. Sailed
from Scotland in the "Clan Ferguson" for the
Mediterranean. After several days of filming the
violent and continuous attacks on this convoy he
was torpedoed, and after clinging to wreckage tor
36 hours in the sea was washed ashore at Zembra,
Tunisia, having had no food at all during that
ordeal. He was reported missing, believed killed.
Subsequently it became known that he and other
members of the ship's crew had been interned.
He was released after the initial landings in
North Africa and after many days trek through
the mountains reached Algiers and our own

11 1

THE CINE-TECHNICIAK November--December, 1945

; fees. Surviving all this he was commended
tin- his work with A. A. Command on the :oas1
during the flying bomb attacks. He was la
accredited to the American Fleet and proceeded
with the American Naval Forces to the attack
and invasion of the Normandy coast.

P. E. Cannon (G.B. News)

Was engaged mainly on the Home Front ami
has been responsible for some of the mosl spec-
tacular films recorded of the Blitz on London
where he was always «'iit on the worst raids.
During the Battle of Britain spent many weeks
ording.and filming from trendies on the cliffs
at Dover and obtained manj spectacular him- a
the German air attacks on our Channel convoys,
often experiencing machine gunning from the air.
Went to the Quebec Conference, and accom-
panied Mr. Churchill to and from Canada for that
purpose. During the heaviest period ol attacks by
Flying Bombs filmed the destruction of the
greatest number of these bombs while on duty
at the coast with the A. A. Command.

Lovat Cave-Chinn (Paramount News)

Spent the first Christmas of the war with the
Fleet Air Arm on Contraband Control from the
Orkneys. In the Arctic Circle next, in an armed
merchant cruiser. April 1940 tools part in the bom-
bardment of Narvik. At the evacuation with the
King of Norway to United Kingdom.

Sept. 7th 8th, 1940, the great London Docks
fnv blitz.

1942. Attached to the U.S. 8th Air Force. Later
to North Africa where he was attached to Fighting
French. Then to the desert with Foreign Legion
and on in Corsica with the Bataillon de Choc, the
[amous French Commando Regiment.

June. 1!' 1 1. To Normandy, on to Paris.

Winter 1!)44. Belgium, in cargo ship for titst

Von ay

convoy into Antwerp. November 28. Antwerp-rains
V l's and V 2's !

Tuesday. May 8th, 1945. In the Cabinet room
ol No. L0, Downing Street tor Prime Ministi -
announcement of surrender ol Germany.

Landed at Oslo with King oi Norway exactlj five
years to the day, June 7th, since we- left.

Jack Cotter (Movietonews)

Went to France with original party of War
Correspondents in 1939. Made interview with 1.
Gort, then Commander-in-Chief, B.F.F. After
evacuation of France specialised in aerial phi
graphy in latest R.A.F. aircraft. Attached to
Royal Navy, and covered .Malta convoys from
H.M.S. Marne in 1942. Took part in naval action
againsl part of Italian Fleet. Attached to H.M.S.
Eagle for duties in Mediterranean. Posted to
Gibraltar for flying duties with R.A.F. On return
covered V.l attacks S.E. area. Attached to B.N.
2nd Escort Croup in H.M.S. Wren for U-boat
hunting in Atlantic. D-Day attached to 9th Air
Corps U.S.A.A.F. for Hying duties. D-Day plus
b landed on first strip of Normandy Beach head.
Attached S.H.A.E.F. Headquarters Paris until
February 104."). Then -ailed in H.M.S. Zealous
for relief of Copenhagen and finally coveted the
Pi itsdam conference.

A. R. Edmonds (G.B. News)

Was Blitz cameraman of London 1940. Made
sound film record of the Atlantic Charter mi etins;
oi President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill aboard
H.M.S. Prince of Wales, subsequently filming
Mr. Churchill's visit to Iceland. Was accredited to
Combined Operations, and filmed the Commando
raids on Lot-teu and Bruneval — where at the
former he was the las! man off the island at the
end of tlie raid. Filmed the firs! Flying Fortress
raiders to leave this country for attacks on the
Continent, and after the return from their mis-
sion against Bresl was almost killed bj the win':
o| a Fortress which touched his head and knocked
him unconscious. Filmed the heaviest blitz on
Bristol where he was engaged on an ordinary
routine story. The hotel in which he was staying
was destroyed while he was at work.

J. E. Ewins (G.B. News)

As Naval Correspondent filmed the first two
convoys to Russia and one convoj to Malta. Made
several trips to Iceland, and subsequently aci
dited to Western Mediterranean Fleet, where he
filmed the Navj side of the North African cam-
paign. Represented Newsreels at the historic
Casablanca conference between Mr. Churchill,
Presidenl Roosevelt and Generals de Gaulle and
(lira ud.

\i ivember — D

ecemi ier

1945 T E E C ] X 1-1 - T E C H N I C ] A N

113

A. W. Farmer (Paramount News)

Covered the London Blitz.

Series of pictures with the French Air Force and
the underground m, ivement.

Pictures of Switzerland's P.O.W. problems
smuggled oul of i he country.

One year on the Continent of Europe, including
work for Belgian and Dutch Governments.

Norman Fisher (Movictonews)

L939 Covered Blitzkrieg and was finally evacua-
ted from Boulogne with loss o] all equip-
ment— had to make a quick getaway.

l(.)-l(! Middle Eas1 to take up Mediterranean
Fleet assignment, including naval opera-
tions in support of Wavell push to Ben-

1941 ghazi in early 1941. Evacuation of Greece

and Crete. Syrian campaign in June, 1941. James F. Gemmell (Paramount News)

Left for Singapore. Covered .Malayan cam- Was earliest cameraman to cover " Battle ol the

paign. Evacuated Singapore for Java Feb- Channel" from emplacement (which was fre-

L942 ruar\ 1942, finally evacuating to Australia, quently attacked) on Dover Cliffs. Secured excel-

1943 Returned to Middle East covering final l<'"1 pictures oi our shipping being sunk, but of
stages of North African campaign. Invasion course Hi,A suffered the fate ..I many other action
of Pantellaria Sicih and Salerno. pictures— censored.

Train Busting

o

Attache, 1 to Home Fleet in 1941 to cover Arctic
convoys and the bombing of Finland.

1 ' ' J 1 Assignment with Navy on Lilian coast.
Covered Anzio "milk run" and invasion's
of Ilba and South of France. In Aegean on For D-Day, was aboard the Flag Ship II.M S.

operations against German evacuation of Scylla with Admiral Vian and remained on and ofl

Greece and Crete.

1944 Went into Greece in 0< tober with liberation
force. Covered December revolution.

Normandy coast t< >r twelve daj s.

Also filmed the liberation of the Channel Islands,
where he was mobbed \>\ islanders with Huns look-
ing on in amazement.

Jock C. Gemmeil (Pathe Gazette)

Met at sea destroyers returning from the
Scharnhorsl and Gneisenau escape through Chan-
nel. Covered the Dieppe raid disaster aboard
II. M.S. Garth, which was hit h\ shore batteries
and had eight near misses by dive bombers. Had
revenge on Scharnhorst story. Recorded Admiral
sir Bruce Fraser's description of action after he
had sunk her. Sailed from Clyde to North Afri a
aboard Dutch ship Aldegonde Van Marnix. Cov-
ered initial landings at Apple Beach, LO miles west
of Algiers, and then on east to Bougie where pic-
tures showed two of our ships being sunk- by
em my aircraft. This was in the famous ship that
survived 21 near misses — eventually sunk at
Salerno. Covered the east flank — mouth of the
River Orn< — on Day-Day in H.M.S. Locust
which had special mission. Aboard H.M.S. Faulk-
nei for bombardment of Alderney, Channel [s-
lands, by H.M.S. Nelson. Like most cameramen
when home covered Blitz, V l's and V 2's.

Kenneth Gordon (Pathe Gazette)

Believing in n\ who had " had it," filmed cap-
ture of Caen in July, 1944, and also the historic

story of Falaise Gap. Crossed River Orne and
advanced to Eindhoven (Holland) and then to the
equally historic actions a) Nijmegen Bridge and
Arnhem. Entered Germany with first British
troops. The battles of the Walcheren Islands.
I lertoeynboscli. the Ardennes Salient, and many
other actions were covered, until the Rhine was
cr< issed.

Covered the infamous Belsen horror-camp ami
P.O.W. Stalag NIL,. Personalities filmed wen
II.M. the King, Mr. Churchill, " Montj " and
"Ike."

At Sandhostel in 1945 was surrounded by enemy.
Escaping, he returned some hours later to find
jeep and cameras blown to smitherei us.

Is now covering war criminals trials and occu-
pation of Germany.

lie,

T H E (IN E - T E C H N I C I A N November— December, 1945

Martin Gray (Movietonews)

October, 1939.— France with B.E.F. Evacuated
from Boulogne in May, 1940, losing sound
truck and all equipment.

December, 1941. — Went with Mr. Churchill on his

first visit to America and Canada. Recorded
his speeches in tin- U.S. Senate and Cana-
dian 1 1' iuses i il Parliament.

October, 1043. — Italy. Followed the campaign,
including the bombing of Cassino Abbey and
the town. Vesuvius eruption, taking recording
car by L.S.T. to the Anzio beach-head. Moved
to South of France with 7th Army, then to
Northern Fiance. Belgium, Holland and on
into Germany, being present at the Rhine
crossing. Liberated his brother-in-law from
Stalag 357, being first man inside the cam]).
Next on to Belsen, recording interviews with
S.S. guards for evidence. Recorded the join-
up of the Russian and British Armies at Wis-
niar, and tiiialU the surrender of the German
Army to Field-Marshal Montgomery at Lune-
berg, returning to this countrv in June, 1945.

D. H. J. Hardy (Paramount Mews)

Was on convoys from Gibraltar to Malta during
the had days and filmed the famous oil-tanker
"Ohio" getting through to Malta.

Went through the Mediterranean campaign,
including landings in Sicily and Italy.

Was also in the North African campaign and
in Greece.

Is now with the British Pacific Fleet, and was
with first party on Japanese soil.

Hardy is modest in details but he was awarded
the M.B.E. for his work during the war.

Dick Harris (Movietonews)

Got first pictures of survivors of ELM. Aircraft
Carrier "Courageous," sunk in 1039.

During 1940 patrolled the seas in ELM.S. Vanoc,
M.T. B. 's and minesM eepi rs

1940

March. — At sea to secure picture oi bombed S.S.
Bomala. "

June. At sea for trials of ELM. Aircraft Carrier
"Illustrious." Evacuation of troops from
Dunkirk.

July. Sweeping for magnetic mines.

September. — London Blit z.

1941

March.— Plymouth Blitz At sea with ELM. the
King and Lord Louis Mountbatten.

April. — At sea in Submarine Chaser exploding
German mines.

1942

April.— Commando raid in H.M.S. "Calpe,"

Bayonne, St. Jean de Luz, etc. Dive bombed

all Sunday, April 5th.
May. — In submarine "Thunderbolt."

September. — Special mission in H.M.S. " Bleas-

dale."

1944

May. — With Midget Submarines and Human Tor-
pedoes.

E. H. Hawkins (Paramount News)

•Ian. 1'eb. 1945. Covered Yalta Conference.

W. H. A. Hooker (G.B. News)

\\ a- mainly responsible for sound recordings
of attacks on the Coast and Channel convoys and
the blitzes on London.

During fly bomb attacks recorded Coastal De-
lenee A. A. Batteries.

James Humphries (Movietonews)

Spent many months aboard H.M.S. Nelson.
H.M.S. King George V. H.M.S. Formidable and
H.M.S. Howe. Filmed the Allied march through
('ran. the bombardment of Beggio by H.M.S.
Nelson and the landings at Salerno. Was with
H Force for the invasion of Sicily. Whilst aboard
H.M.S. Howe was catapulted off to film surrender
of Italian Fleet from the air.

W. M. MacGregor (Paramount News)

Covered the signing of the Atlantic Charter on

board H.M.S. " Prince of Wales" in mid-ocean
in August 1941.

McLachlan, F. (late Gaumont)

As Scottish correspondent covered first air raids
on fchife country on Forth Bridge. Joined Coastal
Comm md and had sticky experience when engines
of his Hudson " conked out " at sea. Landed safely
but badly bruised.

Was in Glasgow during blitz. In 1942 was accre-
dited to Nav\ ami joined H.M.S. Howe. Later
transferred to H.M.S. Sheffield and Seylla.

It was aboard the latter that be picked up one
of the first and largest convoys to Russia. During
attack by aircraft obtained good material of enemy
machines being destroyed and the destruction of
I .in- ammo ships. H.M.S. Seylla had several
near misses. Joined A.F.F. in 1944 and went t<>
Normandy on D-day plus 4.

Sorcmber— December, 1945 THE CINB-TECHNICI A N

117

L. Murray (Universal News)

Was aboard H.M.S. Cairo whicb was severely
damaged by repeated enemy attacks in Norwegian
waters, near misses and direct hits being regis-
tered. Was also present at bombardment and cap-
ture of Narvik. Was mentioned in despatches for
these actions. Returning home, took part in a
bridge demolition story which cost the life ol
Stanley Cassel {limes photographer), and almost
the life of Murray who was alongside. Apart From
injuries to face and a broken hand, survived 13
operations over a period of -H years on a leg
which was fractured in 17 places. Is now back
in the Street

R. Noble (Universal News)

Was with B.E.F. in 1939 and covered retreat and
evacuation from Dunkirk. Covered many actions
in North African desert and was in Tobruk. When
Tobruk fell, escaped from Germans !>\ swimming
out of harbour. Reached Gambui 12 miles up
coast, and was promptly recaptured by Italians.

"Questioned" by Gestapo and sent to prison
camp in Italy. After 18 months' imprisonment,
joined in escape, and took pictures ol actual escap-
ing prisoners with still camera wangled out of
Italian Camp officer ! Reached mountains, feet and
boots gave out, so stayed to recuperate. Finally
escaped over border to Switzerland.

After D-Day escaped into France and was cap-
tured b\ Maquis and nearly shot as spy. Joined
with Maquis on their raids, acted as armed driver
and later was in command of group. Got pictures
of parachuting of supplies to agents with Maquis
and of freeing of Russian prisoners.

Eventually reached homeland, and was posted
in S.E.A.C. tor capture of Rangoon and surrender
of Singapore. Is now in French Indo-China.

G. B. Oswald (Universal News)

In 1940 aboard H.M.S. Repulse, chased Scharn-
horst into Norwegian waters. Accompanied Lord
Halifax to America in H.M.S. King George V.
Filmed epic homecoming of H.M.S. Kelly (Capt.
Lord Louis Monnthat ten), after being torpedoed
near Skagerack, the evacuation of Spitzbergen
and the transportation of Russians to Archangel
in H.M.S. Nigeria. Present with Admiral Vian
at Wattle of North Cape when German cruiser

Bremse " and other vessels were sunk. Aboard
H.M.S. Manchester for secret mission to Spitz-
bergen. Then to U.S. 8th Air Force covering raid
on Fokker Works in Amsterdam. Went East in
H.M.S. Indomitable to Sumatra, and to Nicobar
Islands in H.M.S. Renown. After covering Arakan
front in Burma, filmed Mandalav storv.

S'oR^H^

The Vinten " Normandy " is
named after its famous predecessor the Model " K "
which accompanied our troops to Normandy and
was used so extensively for filming the battle news
from " D " Day to " V " Day.

Tins new "Normandy" cine-camera is, of couis-,
a greatly improved version and cameramen every-
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the ideal all-purpose camera.

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Telephone : Gladstone 6373

Pitchfords

118

THE CINE-TECHNI C IAN November— December, L945

A. S. Prentice (G.B. News)

Recorded sound of the German bomber attacks
on our Channel convoys from Dover Cliffs, often
coming under machine gun fire from the air.
Recorded the meeting of Mr. Roosevelt and
Mr. Churchill for the Atlantic Charter, and
subsequently Mr. Churchill's visit to Iceland.
Im came a cameraman early 1943 being accredited
to the R.A.F. Flew with medium bombers for
several daylight raids on France: After D-Day
covered R.A.F. actions in France showing near
views of R.A.F. bombing. Filmed air views of
Normandy, Caen and the Faiaise Road attacks
by the R.A.F. Entered Paris on its liberation,
also Le Havre, and was in the first convoy enter-
ing Antwerp. Transferred to the British Pacific
Fleet in 1945, where since he has served in
11. M.S. Implacable, and from this carrier flew
with the Fleet Air Arm for their first strike over
Japan. Filmed the Surrender of Japan in H.M.S.
" King George V," and from Ibis ship filmed the
entry into Tokyo Hay, and joined the first Royal
Naval landing parties to land in Japan. Is still on
duty with the British Pacific Fleet.

David Prosser (Movietonews)

Joined lie Gaulle's abortive mission to seize
Dakar in> 1940, serving first with the French
Foreign Legion in a Dutch ship. Attached to the
Navy in H.M.S. Barham, going to Gibraltar, and
joining H.M.S. Ark Royal of Force H to cover
Malta' convoys, etc. In 1941 left for Middle East
attached to the Army. Transferred again to the
Navy. Continued to cover Malta convoys, with
runs to Tobruk and other parts of the desert front.
Also worked with the R.A.F. in the desert, then
went to Cyprus with the first of the reinforcements
after the Crete debacle.

Attached to Norwegian Navy in 1943 for special
duties with their light Eorces, operating across the
North Sea. Then attached to Netherlands Navy
for special duties with their submarines.

Later joined R.A.F". Operations Film Unit,
to film air operations over Europe in Mitchells.
Was grounded and invalided out Mav 1945.

F. W. Purnel! (Universal News)

Succeeded in obtaining good pictures of Dunkirk
epic aboard IF. M.S. Calcutta.

After convoy and patrol work in North Sea and
" Hell Fire " Corner, was seriouslj wounded in an
attack l)\ 30 dive bombers on H.M.S. Atherstone
off the Goodwin Sands. Was landed at Ramsgate

with other casualties, and the nine wounds lie
received incapacitated bim until 1944,

Jack Ramsden (Movietonews)

1939-1940. Covered minelaying operations in
North Sea 1939. Proceeded to Egypt csovi ring Aus-
tralian and New Zealand troops. Travelled with
General Freyberg to Suez and then on to Ismalia
and Cantarra.

On return filmed German attacks on shipping.
Was sent to Ireland to await expected invasion
after the Fall of France.

1910-1941. — Assigned to Royal Navy and was
attached to Admiral Somerville's famous " Force
EI " in Westein Mediterranean and North Atlantic
covering over 36,000 miles at sea including five
Malta convoys and the sinking of the Bismarck in
the Atlantic.

Attached to Combined Operations under then
secret command of Lord Louis Mountbatten and
took part in famous Vaagso Commando Raid.
Travelling in one of leading landing barges weni
ashore with Commandos and brought back ; si
pictures of operation of this kind.

1942-43. — As>ign,.,l to 8th U.S. Air Force and
underwent special air gunners course and training
lor high altitude dying. Brought back first pic-
tures of daylight bombing over enemj territory.

1943-1944. — Accompanied Prime Minister
Churchill to Cairo and Teheran tor historic meeting
of the Big Three — Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.
Travelled in H.M.S. K.G.5 and Renown Inn flew
most of the way.

1944-194."). — Again assigned to the Royal Navy
in H.M.S. Scorpion, took part in the invasion of
Europe on D-Day. Thereafter accompanied an
advance Naval reconnaissance party ashore taking
part in operations in Normandy and Brittany.

R. L. Read (Paramount News)

Aug., 1941. — Atlantic Charter, signing on board
' H.M.S. •' Prince of Wales "

Feb.. 1944.— Blitz barrage.

Aug.. 1944. — Liberation of Chartres, Rambouiliet
and Paris. Liberation Day Paris, shoot-ups.
etc.. torture chambers.

Sept.. 1944. — Orleans surrender oi General Elster
and 20,000 troops.

Nov., 1944. — Prime Minister in Paris.

Dec. 1944. — Eisenhower's message al Rheims.

May, 1945. — Unconditional surrender oi General
Friederburg. Fntty into Berlin with Air Mar-
shal Tedder for the Ratification ceremony.
Smashed Berlin.

November — December, 1 i i4 5

THE EYES OF BRITAIN AT WAR

_jM& ,

Throughout our fighting Services on
Sea, Land and Air the B.A. Sound
System is known by Cine Technicians
and appreciated for its sterling quality
of reproduction.

The N Type Portable
35 mm. Equipment

BRITISH ACOUSTIC FILMS LTD

Offices: FILM HOUSE, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.1

120

THE CINE-TE C H N I C 1 A N November- 1 >eeember, L945

June. 1945. — Essen (Krupps), Dusseldorf and
Duisberf. Eisenhower, Montgomery and
Zhukov at Frankfurt.

July, 1945. — Truman and Prime Minister at Ber-
lin Chancellory.

Ian Duncan Struthers (Paramount News)

Left England in November, 1942, to cover the
North African campaign. Was assigned to the
B.L.A. Followed through to the crossing of the
Rhine, etc.

Now in Germany with the B.A.O.R.

Graham Thompson (Movietoncws)

Was with Forces "H" and "J" during 1942.
serving in FT. M.S. Eagle, Hermarony, Malaya and
Argos, sailing the North and South Atlantic,
Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Covered delivery
of vital Spitfires to Malta. Once again aboard
H.M.S. Malaya, then to H.M.S.'s Illustrious,
Ramillies and Lightning for capture of Mada-
gascar.

Accompanied No. 3 Commando to Dieppe raid,
and after running into Hun flak his L.C.A. unit
was knocked out and was towed back by another
craft at two knots. Eventually landed at Dover by
R.A.F. rescue ship.

North African landings with American 1st
Armoured Division. Landed with Canadian assault
troops on Sicily.

Was accredited to Buckingham Palace in 19-44
and is still so placed.

Alec Tozer (Movietonews)

Left England for Middle East in May 1940.
Took part in Wavell's 30,000 push to Benghazi.
Subsequently spent some time with the Mediter-
ranean Fleet. Went through the Syria campaign,
the Iraqi rebellion, the Persian show, and met the
Russians coming in from the North. Covered
the evacuation from British Somaliland, and from
there went to Kenya and on to the campaign in
Abyssinia. In Burma for the 1942 campaign, com-
ing out with Alexander's Army. Then on to China,
. overing the Yellow River front, and back for the
re-entry into Burma in 1943. Went with an "Aid
to China " mule convoy from India over the Hima-
layas into Tibet (en route for China). Was arrested
three times as a spy — 1st by Australians in the
desert, 2nd by Russians in North Persia and 3rd
by Chinese on the Burma Road. Then switched
hack home for D-Day with the Merchant Navy.
January 1945. out again to Burma tor the fall of
Mandalay and Rangoon.

Total service overseas 4 years 3 months.

Tunwell, A. A.

Left Movietone to become captain in charge of
Canadian Army Film Unit.

P. J. Turner (G.B. News)

Joined the Dome Fleet as Naval Correspondent
in February 1940 in H.M.S. "' Valiant." and
recorded the first serious German attacks from
the air on the old "Ark Royal," and was compli-
mented by the Admiralty for his steadiness under
tire. After several months of convoy duties and
F-Boat hunting in the North Sea covered the
expedition to Dakar. Was then transferred to
H.M.A.S. "Australia." which luckily landed him
in Australia. From here was accredited to the
Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, and until January
I1- 11 was engaged in supporting actions at Tobruk,
convoys to Malta, and many other actions leading
up to the fall of Tunisia. It was during this period
he was responsible for the magnificent film of the
sinking of H.M.S. " Barham," which was given
lull marks by all technicians. Filmed the attack
on Pantellaria, the invasion of Sicily, the Naval
bombardment of Syria, Salerno, and his Majesty's
visit to Malta. Returning home he covered the
invasion of France, D-Day. June 6th. 1944.
Landed with the Royal Marines in November.
1944, on the Island of Walcheren at West Kappel-
ley, where during the assault Iris landing craft
was grounded and almost destroyed by enemy fire.
Then in March 1945 joined S.E.A.C.. and filmed
the fall of Rangoon and other actions which led
to the final Japanese surrender at Singapore. Still
with S.E.A.C.

W. Welsh (Pathe Gazette)

With Churchill aboard H.M.S. Duke of York
on first visit to U.S.A.

Recorded first sound pictures of a Foreign
Minister addressing U.S.A. Senate. Also recorded
Prime Minister's speech to the Canadian House of
Parliament.

Joined Royal Navy and is still in submarine
experimental division.

A. T. Willis (G.B. News)

As northern representative filmed air raids on
Liverpool and Midlands. Accredited to Royal Navy
early in the war and proceeded to Newfoundland,
filming the transfer and delivery to this countrx
of the Lease-Lend Destroyers. Joined Eastern
Fleet in 1942 and was eventually invalided home.

R. C. Wood (Universal News)

Blitzes on Cardiff, Bristol. Bath and Swansea
— suffered a few near misses. Went submarine

November-December, 1945 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 121

STUDIOS !

MITCHELL CAMERAS
and EQUIPMENT

are in full production and
prompt and early delivery
can now be guaranteed

All enquiries U.K. Representative :

RANDAL TERRANEAU
71/77 WHITFIELD STREET. W.I
Telephone MUSEUM 3636

122

hunting in Atlantic in L942, and then on to North
African landings, where handicapped with broken
arm and cracked rib, he still got' his story. Re-
turned home in ill- la ted " Warwick Castle " which

was torpedoed, and had tn make gel away ill

L.C.I, in heavj sea. Alter being patched up re-
turned tn the fray in il.AI.S. Largs for D-Day,

and then filmed the liberation of the Channel
Islands.

E. J. H. Wright (Paramount News)

Before invasion of Europe made well over -'.^
operational flights over Europe with U.S. Army
8th Air Force.

blew in bombing raids user Pantellaria and I i ; 1 1 \
during the invasion of Sicih and Italy.

Assigned to the 5th Armj in Italy.

His grand total of flights in bombing raids i ver
enemy territory is 4'J>.

For smile time in Burma acting as liaison officer
between the Services and newsreel cameramen.

Visited Singapore for the surrender.

Aw aided the M.B.E. for his air pictures.

Paul Wyand (Movietonews)

1939 Convoys in North Sea.

1940 London Blitz.

1041 Experimental bomb drops. FirsJ of the

Bigger and Better Bombs. "

1941 With Churchill to America on his first visit .
Covered his speeches in the Senate at

1042 Washington and Parliament in Ottawa,
blew with him to Bermuda. Made crossing
nil first voyage of H.M.S. Duke of York.

1943 Tn Italy with Sound near, attached 5th ;-U(\
8th Armies, covered bombing Monte Cassino.

1 '. 1 I Vesuvius erupt ion. Cassino, Anzio, the ! all
ot Rome. First sound pictures of H.H. the
Pope. Later with American 7th Army.
Went to the Belforl (lap in France, from
here to B.L.A.

1945 Covered Belgium, Holland and Germany,
Rhine crossing, Belsen horror camp. .Joined
up with Russians at Wismar and filmed
surrender to Monty h\ Germans on Lune-
berg Heath.
Covered Churchill in eight different countries
during war.

Same recording car was used throughout Italy,
France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

T H F (' I N E - T F CHNIC I A N Novembei I i mber, 19,45

"LINDY"

Lieut. T. S. LYNDON-HAYNES,
R.A.O.C.

Unit Production Manager A.K.S.
Film Unit

send regards

to

fellow technicians

and \ti\

IT WON'T BE LONG NOW ! !
"TUBBY" ^

Lieut. A. A. ENGLANDER,
R.A.O.C.

Lighting Cameraman A.K.S.
Film Unit.

CROWN "THEATRE

PROVIDES STUDIO PROJECTION SERVICE
AT ANY TIME TO SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE

TWO DOUBLE HEADS

DUOSONIC SOUND SYSTEM
MIXING PANELS FOR TRACKS

SEATING FOR 90 PERSONS

86, Wardour St., London, W.1

November— December, 1945 T II E GIN E - T ECHN I CI A K

L23

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

SUN to SHINE or STOCK SHOTS

NORMAN'S FILM SERVICE

GERRARD

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GERRARD

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54 — 58, WARDOUR STREET. LONDON. W. 1

MILLIONS OF FEET OF LIBRARY MATERIAL

THEATRE
SOUND EFFECTS
CUTTING ROOMS

rj i

T HE ('IN E -TECHN] C I A N November I tnber, 1945

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK

STUDIOS:

British National: There has been a tendency
at certain Studios during the operation of the
Studio Agreement to break the spirit of Clause
13 which deals with the selection of staff. This
Clause makes il quite clear that preferential
treatment shall be given to A.C.T. members when
vacancies arise. Many of our members arc fully
aware that vacancies have been filled in the ]>ast
h\ non-union members when the union had avail-
able skilled technicians to fill the jobs. This
problem came sharply to the front at British
National Studios recently, and it was not until
the whole of the membership at that Studio had
refused to work with a non-unionist that the
problem was solved. It is becoming increasingly
obvious that similar outbreaks maj occur at other
Studios unless the employers do make a sincere
effort to observe the terms and the spirit of the
Studio Agreement.

Ealing Studios: Under the Studio Agreement
trainees entering the film production industry
shall be 17 years or over. During the past two
years, owing to call-ups, employers have found
it difficult to fill vacancies and have been obliged
to employ younger people. A.C.T. . appreciating
the difficulties, raised no objection provided these
young persons were paid under the terms of
the Studio Agreement, and this has now been
generally accepted by the employers. Discussions
between .Messrs. Leslie Baker, Hal Mason,
Joe Veates. Shop Steward at Ealing, and the
Organiser, have resulted in this understanding
being put into operation at Ealing Studios.

Arising therefrom, several of our members have
been paid retrospectively in regard to the jobs
the\ were doing, or in which they were being
trained. We draw attention to this matter in
order that our shop stewards may keep a watchful
eye on the question in all Studios.

Sound City. Shepperton : Now that Sound City
is again in production A.C.T. has made its
organisational arrangements arising out of which
our members at Sound City elected Mr. Cecil
Cooney to serve as their simp steward. Discussions
with the Management followed almost immediati \\
and arrangements have been made on behalf of
our members so that overtime is limited to a
reasonable amount. Much time has been spent
in the past by officials, not only of A.C.T. hut
of E.T.U. and N.A.T.K.E. on this problem in
various Studios. As the matter has been deal!
with locally on each occasion, overtime hours van
from Studio to Studio. Generally, however,
arrangements seem fairh satisfactory, hut there
is a growing resentmenl among trade unionists at
the regularity with which thej are called upon to
work a lull da\ on Saturdays. The time seems

npe for a discussion on this problem between
the three unions and the British Film Produci rs
Association.

Merton Park Studios : A resolution plac< d
the General Council by our members at Merton
Park Studios expressed gra^ e <■< mcern at the delay
in negotiating a new Shorts Film Agreement and
pressed for a speeding up oi negotiations. The
resolution indeed expressed tin- feeling of all our
Shorts and Documentary members, and we h
the employers will take due note of it and make
a sincere effort to reach agreement with A.C.T.
in the very near future.
LABORATORIES:

Laboratory Shop Stewards Committee: This
committee has been meeting regularly and has
now completed its work of drawing up an
Agreement for clerical and general grades working
in film processing - laboratories. It is expecti I
that the proposed Agreement will be in the hands
of the Association of Film Laboratory Employers
by the time this paragraph is in print.

Technicolor: Our membership at Technic
have been very active during the past month or
two under the leadership of Alt'. Cooper and b -
committee. Several general meetings have I
held in order to draw up a new pri ipi >sed Agreement
for that laboratory which will incorporate the
adjustments contained in the Arbitration Award
and should, when the Agrei incut is finally signed,
result in improved conditions and better rates for
our Technicolor members.

Henderson's Laboratories: Several of the

employees at this laboratory have now join 1
A.C.T. and we are hoping in the near future that
the laboratory will be fully organised within 'he
union.

Brent Laboratories: The Managemenl ol tl -
laboratory arc operating the Arbitration Award,
and, in addition, have reduced the normal working
week to one of 40-hourS, which sets a precedent
lor the [ndustry, and one which we trust will
eventually apply to all sections.

Pathe. Elstree : A .Vda\ week of 44 hours is now-
being worked at Pathe, Elstree Laboratories. Our
members there find this a distinct improvement.
The idea is one which might be considered b\
other laboratories.

NEWSREELS: We regret that at Pathe
Pictures there is a tendency to take advantage of
the fact that the employees are split up into tin-:
separate sections. We have those working on
Pathe Gazette, those on Pathe Pictorial and the

balance on Educational and Shorts Films. Our
members on the Gazette are; of course, covered
by the Newsreel Agreement, but the rest ol
the membership seem to have no fixed condi-
[Concluded at fool of next pagi

Kovember-Becember, 1945 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN

!•_>:,

Edited by Fred J. Hyson

LAB. TOPICS

Carry On, Mr. Elvin

For the past tow weeks the chief subject under
discussion in the labs has been the magnificent
vietorj afforded ACT. over the employers.
George Elvin lias described it truly when he
declares that "A.C.T. gained its most important
success." We in the labs feel that to a large
extent the victory was made possible by our
Erii mis in the other sections of the Union who.
pledging their support at the Annual General
Meeting, showed not only us but the whole of the
industry the measure of their strength and the
sincerity of their word so effectively displayed.
The material gain of such help was invaluable,
but greater still the moral help! At a recent Lab.
Shop Stewards' meeting a resolution was unani-
mously adopted expressing the labs' debt of
gratitude to our brothers and sisters in the studio.
shorts and newsreel sections for their loyalty of
spirit and unselfish aid so readily given that
enabled the labs to carry on the fight until final
victory was accomplished.

The gratitude of the labs has been expressed
in a tangible way. for many have sent donations
to A.C.T. 's Benevolent Fund, some labs adopting
the procedure of each member giving a sum equal
to a week's increase in pay to the Fund, and done
so willinglj .

ORGANISER'S NOTEBOOK —(concluded)
tions or wage rates. Another sore point is that
some of those members do not even get the cost-
of-living bonus. We do commend to the Pafhe
Management that, at the very least, the terms
of the now defunct Shorts Agreement should
apply to the staff on the Pictorial and the Educa-
tional and Shorts side, until such time as a new-
Shorts Agreement iias been negotiated. Further.
that every employee should receive the A.C.T.
cost-of-living bonus. We don't need in quote
precedents for this, the Company can check with
any laboratory, feature or shorts company.

KODAKS:' A.C.T. continues to be active at
Kodaks. Meetings of our members are frequently
held on the Kodak premises. The Kodak Workers
Production Committee support 100% the union's
claim that the terms and conditions of the
Laboratory Arbitration Award should apply to all
employees in the Cine-Kodak section. No doubt,
by the time this goes into print we shall have
met the Management on this matter.

New ground has been broken in the Film
Coating Department, where a majority of the
employees have joined the A.C.T. Mr. Ronald
Collins has been elected shop steward of this
department. Bert Craik

In m\ reflections ovei the weeks of the struggle

1 felt that common-sens, ■ ami reason triumphed
over hot-headed and impulsive suggestions, and
our Shop Stewards are deserving of praise and
appreciation tor their cool-headed and decisive
planning. And what shall I saj about our Vi-
tiating Committee'.' And the boys of Humphries
who remained in the hour of trial sure and stead-
fast'.' To ipiote : " It was their finest hour." Wc
salute VOU.

We can celebrate the victory gained, but more
important we must see to it that the Award is
carried out to the last full stop, and furthermore
to use every opportunity to create 100% member-
ship in even lab. Is yOLIT lab Kl()% '.' If it isn't, ih ■

non-members are a danger to the whole structure
of the Union, apart from the fact that such people
are enjoying the fruits of the labours of your Com-
mittee, Shop Stewards and General Council — so
get them in! It was Schweitzer, the great Congo
medical missionary, who said "nothing is achieved
without enthusiasm and sacrifice" —and that is
the secret of the strength of our Union and the
standard of conditions obtained throughout our
industry today.

One more word concerning the Award. There
some who are not satisfied with their particular
wage-rate. I know, I've heard them say so. But
to those it must be apparent that the Award must
be adhered to and we must endeavour to adjust
their rates in the new Agreement.

Back to Civvy Street

Many of our members have returned from the
services and we welcome them wholeheartedly.
Things have changed enormously but not exis
machinery. Many changes must take place in this
direction, but it's good to know that the boys can
return to their old jobs with as much ease as one
returning from a holiday. One member did remark
" What a change in wages, though !

With Medical Care

Claud Soman, of Cinit Limited, Barnes, belies es

in ensuring as far as possible good health among
his employees. A doctor comes to visit the labs
once monthly and has had nearly every member
inoculated against colds, and a register is kept
recording the health of each member. It is o
to see that someone is conscious of the nee,-- I
of good health among employees
Greetings

To ensure punctuality, within reason, the Lab
Committee and myself extend ■- 1 wishes and

happy times to all our members and readers at

Christmas time, with every good wish for a
healthy and prosperous New Year.

L2<;

'' I' I- < I N K-T K« H N I <: I A N Novembei December, L945

OFF

NATIONAL

SERVICE!

For the past six years we have been publishing
regularly the names of technicians who have tem-
porarily left the industry to undertake some form
of National Service, mostly in the Armed Forces.
Now we are thankful thai zee can reverse the pro-
cess, and henceforth zee shall publish a list of
members who are returning to the industry. The
present list includes members whose Release Group
Number is up to and including 21. They are
therefore already released or likely to be released
before Christmas.

A. F. ALLEN. — Release ( Iroup 'in. Before ilu. war

Sound Recording Engineer, Philips Cine-Som >r.

Desires job us Mixer.
LEIGH AMAN.— Release (in .up 21. Before the

war 2nd Assistant Director, British National.

Returning to that companv.
PETEB BEZENCENET. - Discharged from

P.A.I'", with war wounds. Before the war

Editor, Ealing Studios. Vow working with

Taurus Films.
EEIC BINGHAM.— Eeleased from A.K.S. Film

Unit, October, 104.".. Before the war Eeader

at 20fch Century Fox. Desires to change to

Cutting.
\ F. .BIRCH. — Due for release November 8th,

1945. Before the war Sound .Mixer at G.B.

Returning to that company.
SYBIL BISHOP.— Eeleased from Royal Naval

Film Unit September, 104"). Before the war

Cine Testing and Sensitometric Control with

Kodak. Desires to work in studios. Editing on

Still Departments.
A.UBBEY BOWEE.— Due for immediate release

Before the war Sound Camera and Mixing al

B.I. P. and Twickenham. Desires to change to

Cutting.
X. BYAS.— Eeleased October 1945. Pre-war

experience as Production Manager and Script

Collaborator. Desires position as Production

Manager.
FEANCIS CAPYF.li, -Released from War Office

September, L945. Before the war Lighting

Cameraman at Pinewood. Now working with

< r. H.W. Productions, Denb
T. R. COTTER.— Releas G . L5 Before the

war Sound Mix ! 1 m.

EDWARD DEASON. El d from R.A.F.

November 1945. Before the war Prodm

Man; 0 r ! similar positi

MANUEL DELCAMPO.- I. - I L945. B

the war lsl AssistanI Editor with M.G.M.

( 'alifoiin'a. Now workii s
WALTEE D'EYNCOUET. Released from Army

Film Cnit L945. Before the war Director with

Anglo-American and Butchers. At pn

directing a film iu Germany.

A. If. EVANS.- l; I - '.roup 21. Before the
war Stills Dept., M.G.M.

HAL FULLER. — Due for immediate rele -
B : ire the war Chief Sound Engineer. Nettle-
fold Studios.

JEAN GOODWIN.— Eeleased from WENS L945.
Joined A.C.T. whilst with Naval Film Unit.
Continuity Girl.

JOHN' GOSSAGE. -Eeleased from R.A.F.
August, 104"). Before the war Associate
ducer with A. B. P. C. Desires to chan_
I direction.

VERA GROOM.— R I from R.A.F. Film

Unit August, 1945. Joined A.C.T. whilsl
the Film Cnit. Now working in Scrip! I1
Gainsborough Studios. Limt Grove.

B. 11. HIPKINS.— Eeleased November 1945. Dur-
ing the war was Acting () C S.E.A.C. Film
Cnit. Desires job as Editor or Produi
Manager.

Y. B. HULME.— Eelease Group 20. Before the
war Camera Operator. Ace Studios. Inter -
in Sound or Television.

J. N. JOHNSON.— Eeleased October 1945.
Before the war Stills and Sub-Standard Cine-
cameraman, J. T. Chapman. Ltd., Manchi s

BASIL KEYS.— Eelease Group 21. Bel the
war Isl Assistant Director, British \ onal.

HARPY KKATZ.— Released from R.A.F. Novem-
ber 194"). Desii - | Sound or Production
1 >epartments.

J. LAGDEN.— Release Grou] L9 B fore the war
1 ' imera Vss -' ant . [nspirai ton Films

DOEOTHY LEE.- Released Eroi \ I - I

the war Negative Cutter, Pathe Pictures. N,.w
returned to that company.

R. LEEMAN. -Eeleased under Group is. Bel
the war 1st Assistant Director, Denham.

T, S. LYN D0N-HA1 M'.s Releas Group 20
Before the war Boom 0] Des

change to Lsl Assistant Dir< ctoi oi Unit Dir<
tor. Has done this work Eoi two years with
\.K s. Film Unit.

ANGELA VI VRTELL1 Ri 3 G | 1 i
Before the war Continuity at Ealing Studi< s.

November — December. 1 !

T HE (IN E -TECHNICIAN

! Y-'iv- similar position

G. L. MASSE Y-OOLLIER, Release Croup Li).
Before the war 1st Assistant Camera, lUn-
hani. Requires job as Camera Cperator.

R. V. NELSON-KEYS.— Released 1'rom R.A.E.
Beiore the war Unit Manager and 1st Assistant
Verity Films. Now working at National St udios.

E. J). G. PILKINGTON. Released d\n- imme-
diately. Before the war Editor 15. & !>., High-
bury, Walton-on-Thames, and Sound City.
I >< sii-rs similar posit ion.

BRETT PORTER.— Release Group 21. Before
the war Editor. British Lion. Desires similar
position.

S. G. RIDER.— Released from R.A.E. Film Unit
August, 1945. Before the war Sound Recordist,
British National. Now working at Merton Park
Studios.

THOMAS RILEY.— Due Poi immediate release.
Before the war employed Power House, Den-
ham.

J. M. ROGERS.— Released from R.A.A.F. 1945.
I tefore the war Still Photographer in Australia.
Joined A.C.T. whilst cameraman in R.A.A.F.
Public Relations Section. Now working with
Patlie Pictures.
j ALEC SAVILLE.— Released from A.K.S. Film
Unit. Production Manager.

JEFF SEAHOLME.— Release Group 20. Before
the war Camera Operator, Ealing Studios.
Legal right to reinstatement at Ealing.

(). SKILBECK.— Release (iron.. 20. Before the

127

Now

V\ ar Pi i iduci r. M< L'tOIl Park St ml
working with Film Guild.
\\ . L. STANLEY.— Released from R.A.E. Novem-
ber 1945. Prior to call-up Production Assistant,
British Films. Desires similar position.
\V. SWEENEY.— Release Group 21. Before the

war Chief Sound Engineer, Rock Studios.
1). A. R. TATE.— Released from Merchant Navy
L945. Before the war Sound Camera, River-
side Studios. Now working at Merton Park.
H. A. R. THOMPSON.— Release Group 19.
Before the war Camera Operator at British
Lion and five years laboratory experience.
Requires job as Camera Operator.
DAPHNE TIMEWELL.— Released from Naval
Film Unit -June, 1945. Before the war Con-
tinuity Girl with Two Cities Films. Now
1 1 I unit d to t hat company.
I). N. TWIST.— Release Group 17. Before tin-
war Scenario Dept., Warner Bros. Would like
to direct or produce.
MARIE WHEATLEY. -Released from A.T.S.
July, 1945. Before the war Positive Assembh
and Printing, Denham Laboratories.
BRENDA WHITBY. — Released from A.K.2
September,' 1945. Before the war Continuity
Pascal Productions and G. & S. Productions.
Wants similar work or Assistant Cutting.
C. N. WILLIAMSON.— Release Group 20. Before
the war Producer and Editor, Circle Films.
Desires similar position, specialising in dub-
bing foreign films.

For Thinkers
the World over

L28

T H E C I N K - T K C II N I ( I \ N November December, l'.*4:»

Edited by A. E. Jeakins

TECHNICAL ABSTRACTS

A Method of Testing Unsteadiness in Motion

Picture Projectors.
(Eon, W. Jones, S.M.P.E. Journal, June, 1945).

This paper describes a simple device for measur-
ing with reasonable accuracy the degree of un-
steadiness in 35mm projector mechanisms, par-
ticularly where such mechanisms have to be tested
after overhaul in the workshop, where it is not
practicable bo repro-
duce theatre condii ions
in terms (it i ture
size, length of throw,
etc.

By the method de-
scribed here the maxi-
:i i iid splaci ment be-
: any two fran ie
5i red while
running a test film
ins a suitable tar-
get, riie film target
pattern for vertical
jump consists o J a
scries of horizontal
black lines of eveu
thickness covering the
frame area and separa-
ted by clear spaces of
equal thickness. This
pattern is projected on
to the face of a meter
w hieh carries n fiat

Fig. i
Face of meter showing
arrangement of dial and

be tun

beam 2" wide and IB" long ruled along its
length with black lines of equal thickness and
spacing to those of the film pattern at a
pre-termined throw (Fig. 1). The beam can
he moved about its centre through 360°. Am angle
between projected and ruled gradings produces
dark patches at intervals .done the beam (Fig. 2).
Vertical jump in the projected imagi results in a
horizontal shifting of these patches which is easily
measured .

'I'h : nled beam is anted in fronl ol a M "

■ dial dividei | tares. The a

ii from the c :ad off on a

S! ale on the outer edge of i he dial. 10 has bi n
-I to provide an ample range for all practi al
ises.

Beam angle

Ftg. 2

The test film is run al normal speed and pro-
jected on to the dial which is adjusted to bring
the horizontal division lines parallel with the film
pattern. The bi am is then rotated from zero r<
position at which the dark patches appearing on
it shift back and forth along it a distance equal
to one iii the squares on the dial — i.e.. one inch.
Then the displacement between frames can be
found as a decimal of an inch b\ the formula :—
Frame displacement — tan 0 inches where 0 s

the angle oi the beam from the horizontal.
; tteral wea\ e maj be mi asui I b-\ i him

tical lines, rotating the beam to a vertical
ud reading off alone another scale at the
the dial.

All Friction Drive for Developing Machines.

W . G. C. Bosco, American Cinematographer,

April, 1945)

I I e Fonda Co. of Hollywood have developed a

I'n t a ni drive for film processing machinery which

tlie\ claim eliminates all risk of film damage and

breakage.

The driving power is applied directly to the out el-
and upper edges of the film-carrying rollers, but
only applies when there is normal tension on the
rilm. The driving action is achieved b\ creating a
light constant drag or tension on the film all
t hrough t he machine. The film-earning rollei s are
unted on a shafting which is mounted ou -ad-
dles carried on springs: this permits the upper
film-carrying rollers to be drawn downward- and
awa\ from the driving rollers when the film ten-
sion exceeds the amount determined by the spring
adjustment. When sufficient -lack has been fed
in to relieve the tension the springs draw the film-
earn ing rollers into contact again with the dri\
rollers.

This action takes place almost constantly

throughout the machine. At the take-off n\d the
friction roller keeps the tension constant to the
rewind. When the film eaters the mad due a speed

- stablished which remains constant throughout

veloping and drying process unless changed
perator.

iving rollers are direct h over the upper
film earn ing rollers and all the driving mechanism

- o oi the tank- and solutions. The film-carry-
ing rollers in the wet end are mounted individually

and in turn arc mounted on tree turning tub-
ing and shafting. In addition, all film-carrying
rollers are free to slide laterally on their shaft- -
i hat i la With tin- -\ stem there

are no sprockets to pull or tear the film.

SOUND

'' SYSTEM

RCA RECORDER LICENSEES

CREAT BRITAIN

Admiralty (Royal Naval School of Photography)
Archibald Nettlefold Productions, Walton-on-

Thames and at 72, Carlton Hill, N.W.8
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Elstree
Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd.,

Welwyn Garden City Studios, Herts.
British Lion Film Corporation Limited,

Beaconsfield
Jack Buchanan, Riverside Studios Ltd., W.6
Director of Army Kinematgraphy, Wembley,

Middlesex.
Ealing Studios Ltd., Ealing, W.5
Ministry of Information (Crown Film Unit)

Pinevvood Studios, Iver
"March of Time," London, W.i
National Studios Ltd., Boreham Wood, Elstree
Sound City (Films) Ltd., Shepperton-on-Thames
Spectator Short Films Ltd., London, W.i
Warner Bros., First National Productions Ltd.,

Teddington-on-Thames

INDIA

Army Kinematograph Directorate, Bombay

Associated Productions, Calcutta

Bombay Pictures Corporation, Calcutta

Bombay Talkies Ltd., Bombay

Central Studios, Coimbatore

Cine Industries Recording Co., Bombay

R. K. Daga, Bombay

Department of Broadcasting and Information

(Government of India)', Bombay
Empire Talkie Distributors, Lahore
Famous Films, Bombay
Jayant Desai Production, Bombay
Minerva Movietone, Bombay
Modern Theatres Limited, Salem
K. M. Mody, Bombay
New Theatres Ltd., Calcutta
Newtone Studios, Madras
Pancholi Art Pictures, Lahore
Prabhat Film Co., Poona
Pragati Pictures (Madras) Ltd., Madras
Prakash Pictures (Andheri), Bombay
Seth Manecklal Chunilal, Bombay
Shree Bharat Laxmi Pictures, Calcutta
Shree Ranji Movietone, Bombay
Surendra C. Desai, Bombay
S. S. Vasan (Gemini), Madras

AUSTRALIA

Efftee Films Ltd., Melbourne

AMERICA

Alexander Film Corporation, Colorado Springs

Burton Holmes Films Inc., Chicago

Chicago Film Laboratories, Chicago

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Hollywood

Jam Handy Picture Service Inc., Detroit, Mich.

Ideal Sound Studios, New York City

March of Time, New York City

Motion Picture Adv. Service Inc., New Orleans

Motion Picture Productions Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Pathe News, New York City

RKO Radio Pictures Inc., Los Angeles

Ray-Bell Films Inc., St. Paul, Minn.

Reeves Sound Studios, New York City

Republic Productions Inc., Hollywood

20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Hollywood

and New York
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, California
Warner Bros., Burbank, California
Warner Bros., New York
West Coast Service Studios Inc., New York City

TURKEY

Halil Kamil, Istanbul

MEXICO

Cinematografica Latino Americana, S.A.

SPAIN

Estudios de Aranjuez, Aranjuez
Estudios de Chamartin, Madrid
Sevilla Films S.A., Barcelona

ARGENTINA

RCA

CHINA

RCA

CANADA

Central Films Ltd., Victoria, B.C.

RCA" ULTRA-VIOLET " Non-Slip Sound Track Processing
is available to recorder licensees at all good laboratories

RCA PHOTOPHONE LTD., 43, Berkeley Square, London, W.1

Telegran's : 1RCAPP, Wesdo, London. Telephone : Grosven&r 8861-8.

FILMS &

EQUIPMENTS

LTD.

ORDERS NOW ACCEPTED
FOR DELIVERY -MAY, 1946

NEWSREEL SOUND RECORDERS

STUDIO SOUND RECORDERS

STUDIO BOOMS

PORTABLE BOOMS

CUTTING ROOM EQUIPMENT

138 WARDOUR ST.,

LONDON, W.I

Telephone: GERrard 6711
Cablet: KATJA

Published by the Proprietors, The Association of Cine-Technicians, 2, Soho Square. London, W.I,
and printed for them by The Swindon Press Ltd., Newspaper House, Swindon, Wilts.

V>\#- -

l*Lt

The Museum of Modern Art

300106779