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"LET THERE BE LIGHT"

An article from Kev Franzi's Motion Picture Scrapbook

At last - after a very slow start, video
projection has made the grade. The latest
electronic projection equipment is just
breathtaking in its performance, producing
sharp, steady and brilliantly lit pictures on big
screens from 10 ft. to 30 ft. (3 m to 9 m) across
- depending of course on how deep your
pocket is, because in most cases the prices are
breathtaking too.
However, these marvels of electronic wizardry
have ushered in a new era of big screen
presentations and I guess the time has come Slow dissolve:- flashback to:
when even I too will have to embrace this new The earliest form of a projected image, dates
technology. back to the 17th century. An Artist would paint
But somehow a series of scenes or figures on to a narrow
it hasn't got strip of glass. Each image illustrated part of a
the character story, with 5 or 6 pictures making up a story
of reel film segment.
(excuse the
pun) projected This glass "slide" was then placed in an
by a rather apparatus consisting of a simple lamp housing
noisy 16 mm usually made of tinplate with a holding frame
th
or 35 mm Phantom view of an 18 century for the glass slide, and a sliding telescoping
machine on to Magic Lantern (table model) box or tube (used to mount and focus a single
the big screen. sporting a multi-wick oil lamp and element lens) attached to the front of the
optical condenser lens. housing.
The light source was a candle (one candle
But video projection, like every other form of power) or in the deluxe model an oil lamp
image projection had to face that eternal battle (four candle power?). Some 17th century
to get enough light on to the screen. illustrations suggest a condenser lens may
have been used to improve light output. Even
Below: Hand painted and coloured slides to in a totally darkened room the light reaching
illustrate a story, changed little over 200 years. the screen would be very weak; however, an

6 REEL DEALS September 2020