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Behind the Scenes with the MARCH of TIME

by JAMES DYSON

A FLOURISH of trumpets and the announcement “March of Time”, coming through the loudspeaker at your local movie theater, represents the introduction of a new kind of motion picture journalism—dramatized news pictorially presented to impress you with the importance of current events.

Like the fast moving drama of its daily radio news presentation and the vivid stories of its companion magazine, March of Time on the screen has won public favor because it combines the striking events of the present with the unusual background so often forgotten in the hustle of the average newspaper editorial rooms. A clever harmony of realism and illusion swiftly flashed on the screen indelibly stamps on the minds of the spectators the historic importance or the social or economic significance of the story being unfolded before them.
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Simple Things Complicated in Joe Cook Comedy

THE unemployment problem in this country would be quickly solved if all inventors would follow in the footsteps of Joe Cook, for that inimitable comedian of the stage and screen seems to have a perfect genius for complicating the simple things of life and employing nine men where but two were used before.
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Three Dimension Movies Leap from Screen

PATENTS have recently been granted to Jacob Burkhardt of Detroit, Michigan, on a type of motion picture film which produces pictures having so realistic a three dimension effect that the actors seem almost to walk from the screen among the audience.
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Radio Calls Movie Star to Work

HERBERT MUNDIN, movie star, recently had to work in four different pictures at the same time. Finding it rather difficult to keep track of his working day schedule, and to know just where he was wanted next, he had to use a portable radio set.

With radio communication the directors had but to step up to the microphone to call their “much-in-demand” actor.

The tiny radio set and batteries are supported by a slingstrap. Headphones are used for reception, with a tiny loop aerial attached to them. No ground wire is needed since transmitter is close.

Of course the hole in the wall she was posing for was called the “U-Tube”.

“Movie-of-U” Makes Film for Screen Test in Six Minutes

ALL those aspiring to fame as movie stars can save themselves the costly trip to Hollywood for a try-out by using the newly invented “Movie-of-U” device shown in the photo at the left. The chief feature of the machine is a self-operating and developing camera. The aspirant enters the booth, inserts a quarter in the slot, presses the button that sets the electrically powered camera in motion, and proceeds to act. In six minutes after she has finished, the film is developed and is projected on the screen above the head for inspection.

This looks like it’s the first “star” trailer.

Travelling Dressing Room—Movie Star Introduces Her “Dressmobile”

KEEPING temperamental moving picture stars happy and comfortable while on location has long been a serious problem with directors, but Metro-Goldwyn seems to be on the right track in the solution of this problem by providing luxurious traveling dressing rooms for the expensive talent.
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Napkin Comes with Popcorn
A napkin is provided with each box of buttered popcorn, by an invention of Aston L. Moore, of South Bend, Ind. The popcorn box has a slot through which the napkin may be extracted from its storage space between the inside of the box and the oiled paper containing the popcorn, where it is kept free from stain.

Movies Aid Firemen’s Efficiency

FIREMEN of Paris, France, have devised a novel method of improving their fire fighting efficiency. They take movies of the various stages of the battle with the flames, and later study the films to see where they could have done better.

The movies of the fire are made from a special camera mounted on a platform on the rear of a motorbike.

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MOVIES IN THREE DIMENSIONS

How to adapt any 8 or 16mm movie camera and projector to take and show stereo movies.

By William G. Esmond

IF you own an 8 or 16mm movie camera and projector, you can make your own amazingly lifelike three dimensional movies in full color or black and white at a cost of less than $6 for equipment.

The principle of stereoscopic vision is simple. Each eye sees a slightly different aspect of any view. The right eye sees slightly more of the right side of solid objects in the foreground, and the left eye sees slightly more of the left side. In addition, when the eyes are gazing at an object in the foreground, the objects seen by the right eye in the background are displaced to the right, and the objects seen by the left eye in the background are displaced to the left. Read the rest of this entry »

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Marvelous Movie Miniatures Portray Cities of the Future

THE scenarist’s dream of New York City in 1980 has been done in miniature at Hollywood for “Just Imagine,” a motion picture fantasy. This model took five months to complete and cost approximately $200,000. It was built in an old blimp hangar once used by the U. S. Army balloon corps and covers a ground area 75×225 feet, representing the most extravagant effort yet conceived by the American cinema industry.
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Origin of the storyboard?

MOVIES NOW MADE FROM “BLUEPRINTS”

Motion picture directors now work from drawings when getting out a new picture. Before they start “shooting,” a set of sketches showing each scene in detail is made. They show how actors will stand or be grouped against backgrounds and how lighting effects will be arranged. On the margin of each sketch are notes or diagrams showing the number and arrangements of cameras to be used.

Cameramen, directors, and actors study these drawings, known as “pictorial continuity,” before going to work on the picture. When work starts, each one thus knows beforehand the requirements for each scene. Four hundred and twenty-eight of these drawings were made recently for a picture now under production in Hollywood.

Movie Fans Collect Stars’ Voices
A LIBRARY of phonograph records constitutes the unusual “autograph album” of two Hollywood enthusiasts, whose hobby is collecting the voices of movie actors and actresses. Not satisfied with mere signatures scrawled in a book, they have developed a technique of their own to obtain a more interesting souvenir. Read the rest of this entry »