LIFE-LIKE FILM SCENES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 13 June 1925, Page 12

LIFE-LIKE FILM SCENES

BRITISH CHEMIST’S GREAT DISCOVERY A young Leicester chemist, who refuses "to allow his name to be published, has invented, after three years of experiment-, a stereoscopic film device which mav turn out to be tlie process for which" the whole cinema world is waiting. His resources are modest, a.nd the first 50 feet of film, taken with homemade apparatus, is photographically crude, but it clearly demonstrates an advance on all previous efforts in direct stereoscopy. The scene is an ordinary back garden, and the two women who stroll down the path have a distinct appearance of solidity and roundness, technical terms that contain no unflattering allusion ! All the objects stand clear away from their surroundings, especially a large vase on a 'taUfle, and the whole scene has depth. Those who attended a private demonstration of the film in London in February were impressed by the. possibilities of the invention the secret of which is rigidly guarded, though it is understood, that a process of double exposure, calling for considerable skill, is involved. The device does not call for any alteration in existing .film stock and projectors, only for mechanical alteration in the photographic camera. A full test of the invention is to be made, with a better camera, under proper conditions.

The stereoscopic film will revolutionise cinematography, because it will create the absolute illusion of actual life. Mr G. K. Spoor, the cinema pioneer, also has a practical stereoscopic invention which is about, to be demonstrated in America. Mr Spoor’s process calls for a complete revision of cinematography, as the film that is used is twice the size of ordinary film, being intended, when projected, to fill the entire proscenium opening, which averages 40 feet in width. Meantime, credit for being first in the field must be given to the young Leices ter chemist.