Scanned from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art Library Coordinated by the Media History Digital Library www.mediahistoryproject.org Funded by a donation from University of St Andrews Library & Centre for Film Studies Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/filmtvtech23asso LM AND TV TECHNICIAN Association of Cinematograph, Television and allied Technicians PRICE 6d. FILM & TV TECHNICIAN January 1957 • NO NEED TO LOOK TWICE . ... once is sufficient to see the noticeable improvement in all films when masked printed by Colour Film Services Limited—Britain's biggest 16 mm Kodachrome laboratory. 22-25 PORTMAN CLOSE • BAKER STREET LONDON • W.l. Telephone: Hunter 0408-9 GDQGQG5QQGGQQQQGGQGGQQGQGCGQG!jGGQGQGGQGQGOGGGQQQGQQQDGDDQGGGQDDGQG!jDOOGC 41BIARY. January 1957 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN In view of the film legislation now before Parliament we print in plB*©^ of our usual editorial an article which has special bearing on the steps needed to protect British Films WHY WE NEED A QUOTA ACT THIS month and next will see However, the Quota Quickie was That is why the film legislation both Houses of Parliament once largely eliminated ten years later now before Parliament is so vital again discussing the film industry, when Parliament passed an amen- to every one of us who wants to and in particular the renewal for ded Act which imposed a minimum see an expanding film industry. ten of what is called another years It looks as if the Government is the Quota Act. By trying to rush its legislation Why do we need a Quota Act to through Parliament without ade- protect British Films? quate opportunity for amendment, Ralph Bond and many amendments are Surely, you may say, we have urgently needed to ensure that the been making films long enough in better for British films Britain not to need Parliamentary Act works during the next ten years. permission to do so. labour cost on all films ranking for British Quota. Although cost Let us look back a few years—to can never be the arbiter of taste 1927 in fact, when the first Quota Why on British Films? and quality. Renters had to Act was introduced. At that time who expend reasonable of hardly any British films were being a amount For instance, the conditions money soon found that it was made at all. Hollywood had so governing the definition of what is better business in the long run to captured the British cinema mar- a British film need tightening up, ket during and following World make good films. to avoid a number of abuses which War One that British films had During World War Two, British we all know have occurred recently, practically disappeared from the films, after a shaky start, really when films made abroad with scene. came into their own, and roused scarcely any United Kingdom tech- the admiration of the whole world. nicians have nevertheless obtained A few brave souls kicked up lingering resentment on the their " British " Quota certificate. such a fuss by public meetings and Any part of cinema goers towards the petitions to M.P.s that eventually There is also the more funda- home product rapidly disappeared, Parliament was forced to take mental point which A.C.T.T. has and for the first time our films steps to ensure that some British raised. Why should the Quota be took more money in our own films were made and marketed. on British films. Surely it would cinemas than many Hollywood be more logical to have a quota on This was done by imposing an epics. foreign films, thus giving our own obligation on all importers of industry a chance to climb out of foreign films to make a certain its semi-colonial status. number of British films (Renters' Wave of Optimism Quota), and a similar obligation on So please, in your own interest, all cinemas to show a definite When the War ended, there was watch things very carefully and percentage of British films on their a wave of optimism for the future be prepared to see or write to your screens (Exhibitors' Quota). of British films, and in 1947 when own M.P. and get him to support the Quota Act once again came the changes that the film Trade before Parliament for renewal, Unions want. " Quota Quickies " Renters' Quota was dropped, and Your own job may be at stake. the Act was confined to the obliga- The Act succeeded in its main tion of the exhibitors to screen a purpose. Films were made. Slowly percentage of British films. the industry revived under the protection that had been given. It Many who then supported the was also, of course, the era of the dropping of Renters' Quota have ill-famed "Quota Quickie" —a term since questioned the wisdom of of opprobrium used to describe a doing so, and in a further article FILM & TV TECHNICIAN type of cheap film made solely to we shall examine the arguments satisfy legal requirements. Such for and against this. Editor: films were often put on the The fact has to be faced, how- MARTIN CHISHOLM Renter's shelf immediately they ever, that after all these years Editorial Office: were completed; others were in- since 1927, Hollywood films still 2 Soho Square, W.l flicted on the public who rightly our cinemas to the extent dominate Telephone: GERrard 8506 resented such inferior entertain- of seventy per cent. Without the ment and gained the impression protection of the Quota Act, it is Advertisement Office: that if it was British it was no most likely that the number of 5 and 6 Red Lion Sq., W.C.I good. That suited the Hollywood British films produced each year Telephone: HOLborn 4972 book very well. would rapidly decline. — FILM & TV TECHNICIAN January 1957 A Technician's Notebook MIRROR SCREEN FROM POLAND \ POLISH engineer, Jan Anto- from a die which consists of diate pictorial playback. Videotape ^*- siewicz, has evolved what several thousand " negatives " of picture quality was not comparable appears to be a novel solution to reflectors, arranged at regular in- with ordinarily good original film the problem of projecting films in tervals. The aluminium plates, and not even remotely comparable a normally lit room. impressed with the convex reflec- with the newer large negative tors, are then glued on to a large processes. The conventional matt white screen scatters light in all direc- The Ampex system records both tions through an angle of 180°, By picture and sound on a single two- which, though it enables spectators inch wide tape. Picture quality is to view the picture on the screen .'aid to be considerably better than from even the most acute angles, A. E. JEAKINS that obtained with current kine- is wasteful of light diffusing it in scope techniques. all directions beyond the range of The recorder works on the same the audience. principles as are used in a stan- sheet to screen of the dard sound tape recorder. But to To make the picture visible on make a obtain the 4-megacycle response such a screen either the auditorium required size. needed for picture recording the must be darkened, or the screen tape speed would have to be 2,000 recessed. inches a second; at that speed a In his search for a solution reel of tape 14 inches in diameter Antosiewicz turned to the ordinary " From a practical standpoint would run for only 29 seconds. mirror which reflects light at the the electronic recording of motion " Ampex have developed a system angle at which it strikes the mirror pictures is an accomplished fact which works at a tape speed of and without diffusing it. The plane Frederick in an says Foster 15 inches per second, by using a mirror is obviously unsuitable for article in the American Cinema- magnetic head assembly of 4 heads using as a cinema screen so it was tographer. points that no He out mounted on a drum which rotates the convex mirror that Antosiewicz development relating to motion at a high speed recording trans- used as the basis of his screen production has aroused picture versely across the tape instead of millions of minute convex mirrors, greater interest than that which longitudinally. This gives an effec- each mirror measuring 0.54mm. by has to do with the electronic re- tive tape speed sufficient to record 0.18mm., their rectangular shape image. cording of the picture and reproduce the 4-megacycle ensuring the diffusion of light from Enterprises, Though Bing Crosby band width. them to the occupied space of the followed by R.C.A., announced auditorium, but excluding the ceil- developments of such systems The sound is recorded normally ing or the floor. It is claimed that several years ago, no practical along one edge of the magnetic the coefficient of brightness of the equipment has been put on the tape. picture on the mirror screen is market by either company. between twenty and thirty by com- In Ampex, a manufacturer parison with the white screen. May of magnetic recording equipment, Thrillarama is the latest devel- The article from which the demonstrated their Videotape re- of screen procedure. material above was taken, and corder, a complete record and opment wide to limited information which was kindly placed at our playback unit capable of recording According the salient disposal by the Polish Cultural and reproducing commercial mono- available at this time facts are : Institute, goes on to say that to chrome TV material. The machine prevent the reflection of any other was designed specifically for the The photographic system, using surrounding objects in the screen, purpose of television programme two cameras side by side with an Antosiewicz used a " counter- delay, and Ampex have said that interlocking device, registers scenes screen ", a black cloth spread be- it will be first employed for this on separate 35mm.