SCREEN-L Archives

January 1999, Week 4

SCREEN-L@LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Date:
Wed, 27 Jan 1999 15:04:23 +0000
Content-Type:
TEXT/PLAIN
Parts/Attachments:
TEXT/PLAIN (39 lines)
Three afterthoughts on the Pathescope, 9.5mm DAS BLAUE LICHT.  Sorry they
didn't occur to me when writing the previous post.  Moderator(s): if you catch
this post before putting out the last one, you may wish to combine the text of
the two.  Sorry to faff you around.

1.  40 minutes corresponds roughly to 1,600 feet - the maximum spool size
available on most 9.5mm projectors

2.  As for the intertitles not fitting the video screen - I have never seen DAS
BLAUE LICHT on 35mm but think it quite likely that it was early sound ratio
(1:1.15) - Hollywood formally adopted 1:1.33 (Academy Ratio) in April 1932, but
it is possible that some European film-makers were still using the full height
35mm frame. Certainly DIE 3-GROSCHEN OPER, made a few months earlier, uses the
full height and looks terrible if shown in Academy.  I do not know what the
specified neurtal (i.e. uncropped) aspect ratio of 9.5mm is, but think it quite
likely that the misfitting intertitles may be due to the film print being in
1:1.15, with the video transfer having been accomplished by cropping the top
and bottom.

3.  9.5mm was Charles Pathe's attempt to market a rival system to 16mm
(launched by Eastman Kodak in 1923) in the domestic market, hence the reason
it did not gain much of a market foothold in the US.

L.
__________________________________
Leo Enticknap
Postgraduate Common Room
School of English
University of Exeter
Queen's Building, The Queen's Drive
Exeter
Devon EX4 4QH
United Kingdom
email: [log in to unmask]

----
Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2