American Cinematographer - August 1994 - 76

for if he

Equipment Inventions
Tkat Have ClkangeJ tke
Way Films Are Made

becoming
fore, he

Although the main tools of cinematography have
one

form

or

another since the be¬

it's generally accepted that Thomas
Edison invented the film camera, and George
Eastman produced the flexible film stock used in
it, and camera lenses with f/stops are almost as old
as photography itself - the 100 years since the ad¬

ginning

vent

-

of the artform have

additions that

seen some

have radically changed the way films are photo¬
graphed. Eor this personal survey of inventions that
made it possible to create images and interpret a
script in a manner never before possible, we kept to
those that were original (not a development or im¬
provement of something that went before), avail¬
able to cinematographers worldwide (not a one-off),
and that made it possible to do something that was
impossible before.
The first of these, the Latham loop, was
invented and patented before the turn of the cen¬
tury and made it possible to run a camera for more
than fifteen seconds without tearing the film. Rather
than pulling film off the roll by brute force, as did
Edison's camera, the new way left a few frames of
slack film above and below the camera gate. Enoch
Rechter and the Latham family are credited with
this invention, which was developed when they
needed to film an entire round of a boxing match.
In 1912 came the Bell & Howell register
pin movement, used both in cameras and in optical
printers, which made it possible to double expose
both original photography and prints without the
separate images moving relative to one another.
Also introduced in 1912 was the Moy Aerial
camera, made in England specifically for filming

from balloons. This

camera was

handholdable, had

internal

battery-powered variable speed motor,
reflex viewfinding, internal displacement film maga¬
zines and incorporated a gyro stabilizer. Not until
the coming of the Panaflex and the Arri 35BL some
sixty years later was there another 35mm camera
an

with

an

internal electric

motor.

(A model still

vives in the Samuelson collection
museum

at

sur¬

the MOMI

in London.)
camera crane

for

the first time separated the camera from the ground
and gave fluidity of movement. Although no one is
sure who made the very first camera crane - in the
early days, studios manufactured and operated cam¬
era cranes

for their own use
of it was during

-

one

of the first

re¬

the making of DAY.
Intolerance. Regrettably, no pictures or

uses

Griffith's

continued on page

74

A SC's

and flat. There¬

discover a

tech¬

Seventy-fifth Anniversary

16

will help

eyes,

us to get

and brilliance into

depth

our sets.

The

nique of lighting which will give
him the effects he desires without

reaches into the

the

help

must

new

exaggerated softness which he
not

desire.

us

It is easy

enough to say
this, but it is quite another thing
to do it. Eor although we may
proudly proclaim that lighting is
an

and is

art,

thing

not

therefore

some¬

be done after a set fash¬
by rote, as it were - most
of us have a lamentable tendency
to classify the situations most fre¬
quently met with, and then to al¬
ways meet with them in the same
way. In a situation where one's
whole lighting technique can be
modified uniformly - as in the
ease of workers who habitually use
a higher key of light - this is not
entirely a disadvantage; but in our
particular instance, where the only
remedy is altering the technique
specifically to fit the individual
occasion, it is far from helpful.
Here is our problem: we
habitually work with a soft, lowkey lighting; we are given a new
ion

sensitive material which has

an

inherent

tendency to softness, and
which will, if we merely lower the
overall intensity of our illumina¬
tion, exaggerate that softness into
flatness. How then are we going
utilize the economic and artis¬

to

tic

advantages of this

and

the

at

same

new

film,

time retain the

soft but brilliant results which
desire?
is

to

'The first step, naturally,
take stock of what we have

already at hand. The
be

a

we

new

film

can

considerable aid, for to offset

its

tendency to softness, it has sev¬
advantageous characteristics.
First among these is its excellent
color-separation. 'Phis represents
a considerable improvement over
eral

surprising faculty of penetrating
shadows. Both of these
turned

to our

contrive
are

not

there is
trast

to see to

it that

monochromatic

be

our sets
-

that

pleasing visual color-con¬
the superior color-

in them

-

rendition of the
which

can

advantage. If we can

new

emulsion,

closely approximates that of

August 1994

shadows, will also
as it will allow

inasmuch

us,

to concentrate

more

the

on

highlights, knowing that if some
light strays into the shadows, there
will be just about the degree of
soft detail that

we want to

have in

them.
So far,

to

-

the earlier emulsion. Second is its

The introduction of the

corded

gray

our

surprising sensitivity of the new
film, as shown by the way is

does

by D. Samuelson
been around in

does, he will find his work

have

And

not
our

them stand

having

good; but

so

we

considered our people.
main object is to make

properly. Well,
taken care of, we

out

our set

the

can concentrate on

actors.

To

mind, the best method is to
light them in quite a higher key,
and rather more contrastily than
usual. This, combined with the
my

characteristics of the film
its
soft gradation, its unusual shadow
-

detail, and its superior color-ren¬
dition

-

with

should

give

us

what

we

soft, low-key picture, yet

want: a

plenty of brilliance

the action. Even if

we

to point
somewhat

the contrast of the
the players, the soft¬
ness of the film will
likely tone it
down to very nearly what we want.
Of course, each cinema¬
tographer uses his individual
lights differently, but personally I
have found that the "Lupe" is in¬
valuable in lighting people in
exaggerate

lighting

scenes

on

where there

are

but

two or

three

players, and making them
stand out more brilliantly in
scenes of an overall low key. A
particular advantage of this lamp
is the fact that it is mounted
stand which

must

be

a

on a

cousin

to

the microphone boom, for it per¬
mits you to place your Lupe well
in the center of your picture, and
fairly high up, at quite the most
advantageous angle to play a fairly
concentrated, yet softened, front
light on the faces and forms of
your players - and at the same

time leaves the camera a clear
field below. Such a light, so

placed, will, in conjunction with a
moderate amount of general front
and

modeling light (the former of
diffused),
giving the
exact effect of low-key brilliance
low wattage, and well
do a great deal toward
American Cinematographer - August 1994

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