TIP March 1929 cover Volume 1, issue 2
Toronto. Just picture the late 1920s. Movies were well established as silent entertainment media complete with musical accompaniment from piano to orchestra and all in-between. In 1928, the silents used body language and text slides to convey meaning. Actors could work in the USA or Europe, regardless of language skills.
Then suddenly the “Talkies” came along and a whole new kind of language and dialogue had to be learned. Actors were limited to the USA or England unless language skills allowed for work in Europe. As shown earlier, various colour techniques were invented before the talkies and used to bring more realism to the screen, These were expensive alternatives to orthochromatic B&W film. Even panchromatic when available was rather costly.
In the year 1929, a new magazine emerged, “The International Photographer“. The magazine is the house organ of the IATSE, local 659. This readable copy is courtesy of archive.org, the internet archive. Linked on this site (lower right) as the WayBackMachine).
A nod and thanks to my good friend and retired cinematographer, George Dunbar, who discovered this gem. Have a read if you want to learn about movie technology and the transition from silent to talkies. After all, these were the behind the scenes folk that made the movies both silent and not.
