August 3, 2011

Puppet Movies (Apr, 1941)

Filed under: Movies — @ 12:11 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1941
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Looks a lot like Toy Story.

Puppet Movies

ACHIEVING a third-dimensional effect by combining puppets with actual sets. George Pal, 32-year-old Hungarian, has brought to America a new form of movie presentation. First of his color cartoons reached the screen recently as a nine-minute show.

Instead of drawings, Pal uses wooden characters which perform on tiny sets, with synchronized music, songs, and special effects. Although the actors are puppets, there are no strings; for no Pal puppet ever moves. Instead, the artist places on the set a complete stationary figure for each phase of a movement. Read the rest of this entry »

August 1, 2011

POPULAR SCIENCE-ON-THE-SCREEN (Mar, 1940)

Judging by the picture, this looks like some pretty heavy colonialist propaganda.

IN CINECOLOR —SEE and HEAR the latest release of POPULAR SCIENCE-ON-THE-SCREEN

the glamorous story of Hawaii’s Pineapple Industry

Produced in Cinecolor by FAIRBANKS AND CARLISLE
Distributed by PARAMOUNT PICTURES.

July 27, 2011

Double Movie Gives Odd Effects (Jun, 1939)

Filed under: Movies — @ 1:18 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1939
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Double Movie Gives Odd Effects

SPECTACULAR movie effects are made possible in a dual projection system devised by a California inventor. For example, a trapeze performer may be shown apparently leaping from the top of a theater into the arms of a fellow acrobat at stage level. Read the rest of this entry »

July 13, 2011

Life Size Radio Movies Are Coming (May, 1930)

The device on the second page is interesting. It’s sort of like a mechanical version of an LCD screen.

Life Size Radio Movies Are Coming

C. Francis Jenkins is inventor of the original movie camera and holder of more than 400 patents, many of them in the field of radiovision. He predicts for the near future life size radio movies and radiovision of news events which may be projected on theater screens at the actual instant they happen. Jenkins describes the present status of television and the lines along which he is working.

by C. FRANCIS JENKINS Famous Inventor

WITHIN a short time, possibly within a year, I expect to see movie screens showing life size pictures of news events as they are happening. We are working now on that problem. We may not be first to solve it, but it is only a question of time until some one does, and it is quite possible that we may be first.
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July 12, 2011

Movie Stunt Men Risk Their Lives to Thrill Millions (Nov, 1935)

Filed under: Movies — @ 8:20 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1935
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Movie Stunt Men Risk Their Lives to Thrill Millions

By John E. Lodge

NINE times, a movie stunt man plunged into the swirling rapids of a Washington river, swimming forty-five minutes in water twenty degrees below the freezing point. In Southern California, another demolished nine new automobiles in spectacular crashes within a week. A third member of this strange fraternity jumped an untrained farm horse sixty feet into a pool of water; three others walked leisurely in asbestos suits through seven gallons of flaming oil, scattered over a steep stairway. Still another pulled the pin to unloose the tongue of an old-fashioned western stagecoach and plunged down a mountain canyon in the runaway vehicle. Read the rest of this entry »

July 5, 2011

Outboard Motors Propel Floating Theatre in Holland (Feb, 1930)

Outboard Motors Propel Floating Theatre in Holland
ALMOST every canal bank in Holland, the land of canals and dykes, is a prospective theatre auditorium for the operators of a floating motion picture theatre. An enterprising theatre man conceived the idea of building a boat which would carry the projection apparatus and a ground glass screen, the entire equipment being propelled by outboard motors. The projector and operator are housed in a large steel structure at one end of the barge or boat and the screen is located at the opposite end. Two seahorse motors propel the theatre at a rate of four or five miles an hour.

June 27, 2011

Canine College Has Some Star Pupils in Hollywood (Feb, 1930)

Canine College Has Some Star Pupils in Hollywood

A SCHOOL—the only one of its kind in the world—where dogs are instructed in the best methods of living amicably with their owners, with other human beings and with their fellow-dogs, has been established in Hollywood, California, and rewarded, in the few months of its existence, with an attendance of more than 200 four-footed pupils. No “tricks” are taught, and the animals are not prepared for motion picture work. They are started on how to stand, how to walk, how to sit, how to lie down, how to go up and down stairs, how to open and close doors, how to go through open windows and over fences and walls.

May 19, 2011

Star Wars Special Production and Mechanical Effects (Apr, 1978)

Star Wars Special Production and Mechanical Effects

By John Stears
Special Production and Mechanical Effects Supervisor “Star Wars”

Although the robots that appeared in “Star Wars” were not true robots, they did stir a great deal of interest. Consequently, we asked the genius behind them, John Stears, to give us an idea of what went into their design.

We would like to thank the Star Wars Corporation, and Twentieth Century-Fox Corporation, for giving us permission to use this story. —Editor

DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN OF ALL ARTOO-DETOO ROBOTS

(In conjunction with the production designer, who was responsible for their general appearance.) The problems were many, inasmuch that the director wanted to use a human as much as he could so as not to loose the character to a pure mechanical machine. Read the rest of this entry »

April 21, 2011

Glamour Comes To The Slot Machine (Jun, 1941)

Glamour Comes To The Slot Machine

Hollywood’s “juke box” movies open a brand new field for the amateur movie cameraman 1 THE lowly “juke box” is a thing to be despised no longer. In the best American tradition, it has gone from rags to riches all in one leap. Read the rest of this entry »

April 18, 2011

Strato-Cinema for Jet Passengers (Nov, 1961)

Strato-Cinema for Jet Passengers

By JAMES JOSEPH

AIRLINE ticket offices bid to become box offices—as Trans World Airlines inaugurates the first in-flight “strato-cinema”: first-run motion pictures screened in-flight.

Making this possible is a unique combination of long-play film reels, a glare-proof projection screen (its picture, whether black-white or color, super-sharp even in a fully lighted jet cabin), and individual sound controls that let passengers adjust “stereo” earphones for best reception.
Read the rest of this entry »

April 8, 2011

Talkies to Entertain TRAIN Passengers (Apr, 1931)

Talkies to Entertain TRAIN Passengers
TALKIES are soon to be one of the amusements provided for passengers on de luxe trains of leading railroad lines. These “Talkie cars,” designed by William D. Knox, of Birmingham, Mich., are being built for several railroads at a cost of $60,000. They will be decorated like a modern theater, and show latest pictures. Special roller bearings and sound-proof walls will eliminate noise.

March 26, 2011

A Vest Pocket Movie Of Yourself (Oct, 1930)

A Vest Pocket Movie Of Yourself

New drop-a-coin camera turns out portraits which wink and smile.

HAVE you ever wondered what you would look like in the movies? Well, you will soon have the opportunity of finding out—and you won’t have to go to Hollywood or spend money on a screen test, either!

A New York inventor, Stanley Pask, has recently perfected an invention which is a vest-pocket edition of a motion picture studio. Read the rest of this entry »

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