JULY ‘ 1922 TWENTY FIVE CENTS A COPY jw»w»*ig S 2 * j; ii S K^iSa |4Kresi® '=SsE Leyal^tBro^rtsiArt *SdM* Vii>^ — —— RELEASES , MAY 14th to JUNE 11th, 1922 Producer Title Photographed by Sherlock Holmes J. ROY HUNT Paramount Beyond The Rocks ALFRED GILKS, Member of A. S. C. Fox The Yellow Stain DON SHORT Member of A. S. C. Cosmopolitan The Beauty Shop HAROLD WENSTROM Fox Shackles of Gold TOM MOLLOY Pyramid His Wife’s Husband H. STRADDING R-C Pictures Queen O’ The Turf NOT CREDITED Wistaria Prod. Lady Godiva NOT CREDITED Chas. Ray Prod The Deuce of Spades GEORGE RIZARD Member of A. S. C. Universal Step On It CHARLES KAUFMAN Fox Film Corp. Silver Wings ROBERT KURRLE Member of A. S. C. and JOSEPH RUTTENBERG Metro Missing Husbands NOT CREDITED Paramount North of The Rio Grande FAXON M. DEAN Asso. First Nat’l Pictures Tlie Primitive Lover Member of A. S. C. DAVID ABEL Universal Kissed Member of A. S. C. BENNIE BAR Goldwyn Watch Your Step JOHN MESCALL Aywon-State Rights They’re Off NOT CREDITED Di Lorenzo, Inc. The Trail of Hate CHARLES STUMAR Fox The Men of Zanzibar Member of A. S. C. l DAVID ABEL Goldwyn His Back Against Member of A. S. C. The Wall MAX FABIAN R-C Pictures Gay and Devilish PLINY GOODFRIEND Fox Film Corp. Nero HARRY PLIMPTON Asso. First Nat'l Pictures The Crossroads of BOB WALTERS and New York HOMER SCOTT. A.S.C.’s Metro The Face Between ARTHUR MARTINELLI Sol Lesser Trouble GLEN Mac WILLIAMS Vitagraph The Angel of STEVE SMITH. JR. Crooked Street Member of A. S. C. Asso. First Nat’l Pictures The Girl In The Taxi ROSS FISHER Member of A. S. C. Fox Very Truly Yours JOHN ARNOLD Member of A. S. C. American Releasing Corp. The Cradle Buster FRED WALLER, JR. Leah Baird Prod.- Don’t Doubt Your Wife CHARLES STUMAR Assoc. Exhibitors Member of A. S. C. Cosmopolitan Prod. Find The Woman IRA H. MORGAN Paramount. Member of A. S. C. Metro They Uke ’Em Rough JOHN ARNOLD Member of A. S. C. Goldwyn Yellow Men and Gold CLYDE De VINNA Paramount The Woman Who Walked Alone BERT GLENNON Universal Out of The Silent North ARCH REEVES Benj. B. Hampton Prod. Golden Dreams WILLIAM EDMOND —Goldwyn. ROSS FISHER Renco Prod.—Hodkinson The Veiled Woman Member of A. S. C. Penrhyn Stanlaws Prod. Over The Border PAUL PERRY • Paramount. Member of A. S. C. Playgoers-Assoc. Tracks NOT CREDITED Exhibitors American Releasing Corp. False Fronts NOT CREDITED Assoc. First Nat’l Pictures Domestic Relations JOSEPH BROTHERTON Selznick-Select A Woman of No NOT CREDITED Importance Vol. 3 JULY 1, 1922 No. 4 The American Cinematographer The Voice of the Motion Picture Cameramen of America; the men who make the pictures. Board of Editors—J. A. DUBRAY, H. LYMAN BROENING, KARL BROWN, PHILIP H. WHITMAN ALFRED B. HITCHINS, Ph. D., F.R.P.S., F. R. M. S., F. C. S., Associate Editor Contents for July RELEASES OF THE MONTH. MODERN LENSES.—SECTION THREE. By Karl Brown, A.S.C. SHOOTS “SNOW STUFF” IN SUMMER. — INTERESTING LETTERS FROM A.SJC. MEMBER WORKING MOUNTAINS OF WASHINGTON. EDITORIAL. FILM INDUSTRY IN RUSSIA PRIMITIVE. By John Dored. TESTING AND MAINTAINING PHOTOGRAPHIC QUALITY OF CINEMATOGRAPHIC EMULSIONS. By Alfred B. Hitchins, Member of Society of Motion Picture Engineers. MOTION PICTURES OF THE FUTURE AND THE EQUIPMENT PROBABLY REQUIRED. By S. L. Rothafel. GIVES WILL HAYS SNAPSHOT. WORKING WITH ART DIRECTOR. ENDORSES CREATIVE WORK. IN CAMERAFORNIA. An educational and instructive publication espousing' progress and art in motion picture pho- tography while fostering the industry. We cordially invite news articles along instructive and constructive lines of motion picture photography from our members and others active in the motion picture industry. All articles must be signed by name of writer. Meetings of the American Society of Cinematographers are held every Monday evening in their rooms, suite 325 Markham Building. On the first and third Monday of each month the open meeting is held; and on the second and fourth the meeting of the Board of Governors. Published monthly by The American Society of Cinematographers, Inc., Suite 325 Markham Bldg., Hollywood, Calif. Terms: United States, $3.00 a year in advance; single copies 25 cents Canada. $3.50 a year; foreign $4.00 a year. , Phone Holly 4404 (Copyright by the American Society of Cinematographers) ^ * 4 THE AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER July 1, 1922 tlfcobern Senses SECTION THREE m By Karl Brown, A. S. C. NOTE — The American Cinematographer gratefully acknowledges the valuable assistance of Mr. M. C. Williamson, of the Woltensak Optical Company, for data and diagrams; and the data supplied by Mr. Henry T. Branstotter of the Hanovia Chemical and Mfg. Co. The Anastigmat ble to make a good picture without this cherished pre- cision. The few workers of the advance guard found The modern anastigmatic lens themselves held in a little less scorn than before, and is a most striking example of the once the idea of soft-image got really under way, the triumph of sheer intellect over whole pictorial world began turning out a few soft seemingly physical impossibilities. image pictures, and a very great many soft focus ones. Nothing in the history of science, There’s a vast difference! Now it is difficult to find a not even the airplane, or the sharp portrait anywhere. Even mechanical devices are radio, is a greater monument to advertised with soft focus photographs. This last change human invention than the ana- of ideal brought about the development of more lenses stigmat. It is really and truly a than any of the others. It is difficult to produce a high scientific miracle. speed lens, and still more difficult to produce a high The achievement of the modern anastigmat is the speed, fully corrected lens, but any old lens which will result of over two-thirds of a century of hard work and not give a perfect image may be properly and safely concentration. During this time, the ideal of what a classed as a soft focus lens. Probably the most satis- lens should be, changed with the necessities of con- factory of our present soft focus lenses is the simple temporary conditions. spectacle lens, wholly uncorrected. The first ideal was that of great speed, with which This last ideal of what a perfect soft image lens to overcome the difficulties of photography with the should be has not yet crystallized to the point where very slow emulsions of that day. Petzval, one of the makers can concentrate on a given objective. Too most brilliant of all opticians, in his attempts to reach much variance of opinion makes this impossible. Soft this ideal, produced and marketed the famous Petzval image photography is still in the formative stage. Portrait Lens, of the then tremendous aperture of F.3.2. This change of ideal was most fortunate for the in the year 1840. The Petzval lens was a collossal cinematographer. He needed, particularly at the be- achievement, and one which gave photography a great ginning of the art, speed, and definition, and now, in forward step. The development of the Petzval formula the later and more artistic stage, the beauty of the soft by Dallmeyer and Zinke-Sommer gave photographers an image. The first two were waiting for him; the last improved lens with a greater aperture, F.2.3., and the he must help develop. day of extremely prolonged exposures was over. The The modern motion picture anastigmat is, with the Petzval Portrait Lens, in a modified form, is still a possible exception of the Process Apochromat, the most favorite. The Wollensak Vitax, F.3.8. is such a lens. perfect photographic objective in the world. The short- The faster emulsions were made. The wet plate, ness of its focal length in relation to the comparatively then the dry plate, contributed more and more to the great distance of the object being photographed brings practicability of photography, and as the emulsions im- about a highly desirable optical condition. To photo- proved, less attention was paid to speediness in lenses, graph an object at a distance of ten feet with a two- and the long and discouraging struggle for perfect cor- inch lens is equivalent to photographing an object fifty rection began, an effort which owes its success to the feet away with a ten-inch lens, as far as the optics are development of that modern marvel, optical glass. concerned. Hence the great “depth,” properly “depth The advent of optical glass gave an immense im- of field,”’ of the usual motion picture lens. This condi- petus to lens making. The lack of that very material tion of work is responsible for the very fine performance of motion picture lenses, to larger lenses had been the stumbling block. It is one thing to calcu- as compared late a lens, and another thing to make one. With the of the same make. limited glasses at their command many things were The subject of depth of field is one very commonly practically impossible, although theoretically feasible misunderstood by a large number of photographers. enough if they could but get the proper glass. The The writer has heard innumerable assertions concerning new glass was produced and developed to the point the superiority of a certain make of lens in its great where it was possible to obtain almost any desired “depth” as compared with other lenses. Such argu- qualities, thus opening the way for a new era of lenses. ments have no foundation in fact.