THIRD DIMENSION PICTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 11 (Supplement)

THIRD DIMENSION PICTURES.

RESULT OF MANY EXPERIMENTS.

Third dimension motion pictures on a giant Magnafilra screen, as large as a theatre proscenium, were triumphantly hailed bv ft special audience in the New York Theatre last week, according to information just received by Mr. John W. Hicks, Jnr., managing-director of Paramount Pictures in Australia and New Zealand. The invention is comparable to the advent of dialogue pictures. Cabled information to Mr. Hicks stated that the demonstration made by Paramount, included stereoscopic scenes of the seashore and country road, as well &s a four-reel talking and singing picture. The pictures, photographed on 56-millimetre film, wcro projected on a screen 40ft, wide; and 20ft. high. Standard film is 35-milliinetrc3 and the normal size of a screen is approximately 18ft. wide and 14ft. high. Air. Hicks states that tho new stereoscopic Magnafilm may be expected in Australia shortly. The New York demonstration of Paramount Magnafilra brought to a climax experiments which were' begun fifteen years by Mr. Adolph Zukor, President of Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. In 1914, Mr. Zukor and Edwin S. Porter, now consulting engineer for tho International Projection Company, began experiments toward stereoscopic effects on the screen with tho view to developing a wide film which would give greater depth of focus than the regular film in use. The result." of tho experiment were burned in a (ire that destroyed tho first Paramount studio in 1915 Later the experiments were continued

The picture ot the stereoscopic effects on the Paramount Magnafilm was " We're in the Army Now," featuring Johnny Burke, and is scheduled for release throughout tho world shortly Tho invention of the Magnascope screen and the new Magnafilm with stereoscopic effect was the work of Lorenzo Del Riccio at the Paramount studios in Hollywood and New York. The sound track on tho new Magnafilm remains the same size as on standard film. The equipment is manufactured for simple attachment to the standard projection machines now in general use.