Bourne High School - Canal Currents Yearbook (Bourne, MA)

Page 17 text:

CANAL CURRENTS, BOURNE HIGH SCHOOL After seeing a production one is quite apt to be heard exclaim- ing, “Gee, what a swell picture that was,” or vice versa, never realizing he has watched 129,600 separate pictures if the show ran an hour and a half. If these few facts have aroused your interest, why not visit a theatre outside of show times and seek permission from the manager to enter the projection room and get really astonished at the sight of the equipment and a more detailed account of projection? Every manager is anxious to please his patrons and every projectionist is proud of his projection room and in their spare time will be pleased to show a few of the patrons “be- hind the scenes”. John Wilson, ’40. Where I Should Like To Travel To tell you just where I should like to travel, would be to write a story of the whole world — for there is really no place where I should not like to go; however, there are some places which seem to be more fascinating than others. Who could doubt the romantic lure of a Hawaiian cruise, night on a tropic sea, soft music from muted strings, and as much pineapple as one would like? Then there is Paris. The single word Paris conveys an irresist- ible meaning — glamorous, excit- ing. It means history and art, style and beauty, fun and laugh- ter, sparkling wines and exotic perfumes; in fact, Paris is a lit- tle of everything fascinating. Third on my visiting list would be the Orient. Shanghai, sinis- ter d anger, waterfront cafes with drunken sailors and vile looking Chinese men — to say nothing of chopsticks and the probability of being bombed at any moment! Such an experience would be something not easily forgotten. Finally, before returning from my wandering, a caravan in the trackless desert, mountain climbing in the Alps, and sail- fishing off Key West would at- tract my attention. Then back to Cape Cod’s golden sunsets and russet hills. Let me come back in Autumn to rain-swept fields, and pumpkins, and orange and scarlet hills — home! Constance Swift, ’40. Page Fifteen

Page 16 text:

CANAL CURRENTS, BOURNE HIGH SCHOOL Motion Picture Projection Few indeed are the patrons of the cinema who have any ink- ling of what is happening “be- hind the scenes” as they compla- cently watch the picture upon the screen. The average movie- goer has read somewhere that the actors and actresses that “thrill” him have to act and pose for hours in front of the motion picture cameras, but when the question arises of how those scenes are placed before the public for its entertainment, they simply have no idea of what goes on. In view of this fact the following may be of some interest to the readers of this article. After the various scenes have been “shot” and some 500,000 or 700,000 feet of film has been “cut” and condensed to ap- proximately 8,000 or 10,000 feet of interesting (the company hopes) material, many different “prints” or copies of the orig- inal are made and shipped to the exchanges, then to the theatres, traveling by one of the quickest and most positive sys- tems of transportation in use to- day by any industry. Upon reaching the projection room of the theatre (yes, they all have them) a “print” is inspected previous to showing it. The film is about 35 mm. wide, approximately IVs inches, wound on reels in one or two thousand foot lengths, with sixteen separ- ate pictures to every foot of film. Between the left edge of the pic- tures and the edge of the film itself is what is known as the “sound track”. This track is about Vs inch wide, running the entire length of the film, and is transversed ' by lines and bands of varying width and intensity of black shading. As the film is run through the projector the beam of a small bulb is focused to shine through the sound track into a photo-electric cell that transfers the fluctuations of the light admitted into sound impulses that Anally reach the ears of the public as words, music, and other sounds from loudspeakers, usually placed be- hind the screen, which have thousands of tiny perforations to let the sound through una- dulterated. The film goes into the projec- tor upside down and the scene of each separate picture is pro- jected through delicate lenses by the beam of a powerful light that shines through the cellu- loid film. This light source is usually a carbon arc and is so hot that if the film should stop for a few seconds in front of the aperture it would immediately burst into flame and, with a thousand or more feet of cellu- loid above it to burn, every pos- sible precaution is taken to pre- vent such accidents. In order that the margins of each picture may not be seen upon the screen the projector is run at a constant speed whereby the film goes through the ma- chine at the rate of 90 feet per minute, showing the audience 1,440 separate pictures per min- ute even though the scene upon the screen may not have been changed. Page Fourteen

Page 18 text:

CANAL CURRENTS, BOURNE HIGH SCHOOL The Lesson Slowly and critically, for the fifth consecutive time, Annette Wilson surveyed herself in the long glass of her walnut dress- ing-table. What she saw there was a reflection that any young girl her age might well be proud of, and, in the words used more than once to describe her, proved to be “not bad, not bad at all.” A slim, sophisticated girl of about 17, clad in evening-dress, gazed back at her from a pair of very big, china-blue eyes. They were fringed with thick, black lashes, contrasting sharply with her bright yellow hair which was “done” in the latest Parisian style — high on her head and gathered there in a cluster of bright, golden curls. Her face was heart-shaped and although her nose was pert and small, making her seem a little child- ish, yet she had a knowing, proud, woman-of-the-world air about her. The dress was one like those she had always dreamed of own- ing, plain, black, slinky, and a little bit daring — so different from those awful pink things that were all sash and ruffles, and which she hated so! For tonight she was grown-up! Oh how long she had waited for tonight to come and now it had come. It was New Year’s Eve and she was going with Mother and Dad to a real, honest-to- goodness night club. No “infants” would be there and she would never be embar- rassed as she was when Joe Hodges took her to the school dance in February and stepped on her dress with his big clumsy feet and persisted in calling her “toots” or “kid” whenever any- one older was within earshot. After that, “Ophelia”, his relic of a car in which they were sup- posed to ride home and which she had implored him to park down a side street, “froze up” on him and she was obliged to wait a whole hour, her feet numb with the cold, before he had thawed “’er” out and they were chugging slowly home. What if Joe was the captain of the foot- ball team and she was eyed with envy by all the other girls? But she was much too old for that now and she would think no more about it. “Annette, Annette dear!” Sharply her mother called from her bedroom and Annette, for- getting her high heels, inter- rupted her thoughts to rush across the hall turning her ankle sharply. “Annette,” her mother began, “I nearly forgot to men- tion that we are to meet an old friend of your father’s and mine tonight. He has traveled a great deal and written several books on Egyptian relics.” Her mother was tall, and middle-aged, with regular features and graying hair. Annette’s face lit up. “Of course, Mother,” she answered, remembering once — was it only four short months ago? — when she had, with the aid of two of her friends, let the air out of the tires of a car belonging to another of her father’s friends whom she termed a “fossil”. What had changed her views on life and caused her to grow up so quickly? Perhaps it is a stage that all girls are destined Page Sixteen