January 18, 2008

CAMERA MAKES EIGHT MOVIES ON ONE FILM (Jun, 1936)

Filed under: Movies — @ 2:03 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1936
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CAMERA MAKES EIGHT MOVIES ON ONE FILM
By making eight successive rows of pictures upon a single strip of standard film, a pocket movie camera designed by a British actor approaches the ultimate in economy. As many as 144 of its midget views are packed in the space that five full-size frames would occupy. Mechanism within the camera automatically shifts the exposures from one row to the next without interrupting the picture-taking, and a similar mechanism is used in projection. The illustrations show the new camera and a sample of developed film.

January 13, 2008

ONE-MAN THEATER HELPS KILL TIME (Jun, 1936)

Filed under: Movies — @ 11:27 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1936
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This is the precursor to those little coin-op TVs they used to have in airports.

ONE-MAN THEATER HELPS KILL TIME

To help travelers while away the time when waiting for trains, a one-man movie theater, suitable for installation in railway terminals, has been designed by a New York inventor. Entering the booth of one of these devices, a patron would seat himself before a miniature screen and insert a coin in a slot. An automatic projector would then entertain him with a current film production until he was ready to leave. A number of booths of this type would offer a choice of films.

January 11, 2008

FILMING A MOVIE WAR (Dec, 1937)

Filed under: Movies — @ 12:18 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1937
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FILMING A MOVIE WAR

BURSTING bombs failed to stop scores of German soldiers charging across the scarred battlefield under cover of night. The ground was rent by machine-gun bullets. Soldiers dropped hopelessly in barbwire entanglements.

It was the World War all over again for many American Legion men and ex-German soldiers acting as extras during the filming of The Road Back. Every exploding shell and spattering of machine gun fire brought back memories of war’s deadliness. But this was a movie war—nobody was being killed! Hollywood’s explosive experts, through years of experience, have developed tricks that make acting in a movie war safer than crossing a busy highway.
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January 8, 2008

Movies of Television Show Provide Permanent Record (Mar, 1948)

Filed under: Movies, Television — @ 12:47 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1948
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Movies of Television Show Provide Permanent Record
With a 1200-foot magazine that permits continuous recording of a half-hour program, a specially designed movie camera photographs television programs directly from the monitor tube at the broadcasting station. The double-chamber magazine holds both unexposed and exposed film and can be removed in a lighted room. The camera will be used by stations to provide a permanent record of their programs.

December 4, 2007

TALKIE, PHONOGRAPH, RADIO, ALL IN ONE (Feb, 1932)

Filed under: Movies — @ 12:09 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1932
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TALKIE, PHONOGRAPH, RADIO, ALL IN ONE

A new “home talkie” device houses in one cabinet a projector for standard sixteen-millimeter film, a phonograph for the sound accompaniment or for ordinary records, and a radio receiver. Words or music accompanying the pictures are played by sixteen-inch disks, synchronized with the film. The hinged top of the cabinet contains the projecting screen.

November 11, 2007

Three Seconds from Death (Nov, 1938)

Filed under: Movies — @ 9:07 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1938
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Wow, it’s hard to imagine that in 1938 Hollywood only had 17 stunt men and and 6 stunt women. I wonder what the count is now?

Three Seconds from Death

THERE are seventeen men and six women in Hollywood who live entirely by seconds, seldom being more than a count of three from disaster while working. Among the highest paid individuals in the world per employed minute, they are seen daily by millions, yet are unknown except to friends and fellow workers.

This little group composes the “stunters” of the movies. Their job is to manufacture thrills—to cash in on hairbreadth escapes.
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November 1, 2007

Talkie Unit Helps Clinch Sale (Aug, 1936)

Filed under: Movies — @ 12:09 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1936
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Talkie Unit Helps Clinch Sale

JUST as visualized in the Charles Chaplin picture, Modern Times, the salesman can now break down sales resistance with a talking film device produced by a Ft. Wayne, Ind., manufacturer.

The carrying case, containing a projector, amplifier, screen and shadow box, records, needles, and films is very compact.

October 23, 2007

What Makes MICKEY MOUSE Move? (Apr, 1934)

Filed under: Movies — @ 12:13 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1934
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What Makes MICKEY MOUSE Move?

Illustrated by Walt Disney

Fifty highly trained artists and scores of sound engineers unite to bring fast-moving animated talking cartoons to screen. Here’s how amazing job is accomplished.

by EARL THEISEN – Honorary curator motion pictures, Los Angeles Museum

MAKING Mickey Mouse move is not a mysterious technical process that Walt Disney does behind studio walls. It is an interesting thing that everyone can understand. The methods of animating a cartoon are fascinating. The fact that a hand-drawn picture can show motion is little short of miraculous.

A cartoon studio, in many respects, may be compared with a real life studio. In both they have stars or characters, a story or scenario, a director, and sets. In the Disney studio, the stars are cartoon pictures painted on sheets of celluloid and the sets are not made of wood by a carpenter, but are water color paintings made by an artist. The cartoon director is known as the “layout” man. As the term implies, it is his duty to lay out the story. He does this in the form of rough pencil sketches which serve as a guide for the artists who draw the story action. These sketches illustrate the various things the cartoon character does in the story. Read the rest of this entry »

October 3, 2007

Sound Tricks of Mickey Mouse (Jan, 1937)

Filed under: How to, Movies — @ 12:12 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1937
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Sound Tricks of Mickey Mouse

Squeaks, squawks, oinks and music—it’s another animated cartoon hit set to music in a brand new way. Read how the hay baler joins a symphony.

by Earl Theisen
Illustrated by Walt Disney

MUSIC and noises in the animated cartoon interpret the action of the story. The narrative theme of the music and what is called the “sound effects” punctuates and emphasizes the story.

By playing on the aural nerves with symbolic sounds and noises the psychological reaction of the audience is controlled and varied according to the dramatic and emotional needs of the cartoon story.
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September 22, 2007

Camera Stunts That Make Thrilling Movies (Oct, 1936)

Filed under: Movies — @ 8:19 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1936
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Camera Stunts That Make Thrilling Movies

by EARL THEISEN

Curator of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles Museum

LIKE the human eye following motion, the camera lens is made to follow the action of the movie stars on the settings. When the movie camera is made to “dolly” through a door into a room, the audience gains the impression of walking into the room. By photographing from angles the cameraman impresses psychological reactions such as confusion, unrest, grotesqueness, danger, or suspense with something of the same reaction as the eye in real life.
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September 3, 2007

Genuine KEYSTONE MOVIEGRAPH (Jan, 1924)

Filed under: Advertisements, Movies — @ 1:33 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1924
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Genuine KEYSTONE MOVIEGRAPH

SHOWS BIG SIZE MOVING PICTURES

Safe for the Home $6.95

Non-inflammable Safety Films

Reel of Charlie Chaplin—”GOLF PRACTICE”
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August 28, 2007

Crowd Sees Speaker in New Address System (Nov, 1937)

Filed under: Ahead of its time, Movies — @ 12:21 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1937
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Crowd Sees Speaker in New Address System

THRONGS of spectators may clearly view an orator, as well as hear him, through a new German public-address system based upon television principles. The installation presents an image of the speaker, magnified many times life size, upon an elevated screen in plain sight of the entire audience, while his voice is being heard through loudspeakers of conventional design.
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