A. Film L.A. test

I'd like to follow, and conclude my Multiplane week with a little celebration of the inventor, Bill Garity. We met Garity several times before, as inventor of the click track and the method for making 3-D (stereoscopic) animation, and now as the patent holder of the Multiplane Camera. He is also one of the inventors of Disney's pseudo-stereophonic sound system Fantasound, of the film mixing console that used the Iron Pencil to follow the score, and of a sound fader that suppresses one channel while boosting another. He even invented a rig for shooting miniature airplanes for the war-time films. And lets not forget that before Disney, he had several vacuum tube patents to his name. As important as he was to the technical development at the studio, and with him being the first person officially named manager of the studio, it seems surprising that not much has been written about him. He was justly made a Disney Legend posthumously in 1999, and it is on the Legends site we can re...

Can't get enough of the Multiplane camera either? Here is my final posting to top off Multiplane week. I thought of spreading this out, like Disney's 18 month "year," but enough is as good as a feast, especially since most of the readers are out locating metal columns or attending welding class. First the simplified drawing printed in Bob Thomas' Art of Animation (1958). It shows how the levels can move in relation to each other. Where the patent art was a complex schematic, this one is down to the basics... The camera at work - first in plain clothes (a clearer version of the one in the first posting of this series), then in lab coats, the two right images seemingly press pictures - the gent on the right seems to be the department head. (Suggestions anyone?) The next picture on the left has a caption written up: « The multiplane camera room. This new type of camera, developed within the studio at a cost exceeding $75,000, is seen at the left. It consists of seven...

The camera on the "Archives Multiplane" is a Bell & Howell 35mm camera. It uses Zeiss lenses of several focal lengths. Here are first two images I shot of the camera. For display purposes a mirror has been attached so one can see the top of the camera. The little exposure table is attached to the camera and shows exposure times from half a second to eight seconds. Then a box on display of the Zeiss lenses, 50mm, 72mm and 117mm focal lengths. Finally, here is what you would see if YOU were a cell, looking up at the lens. You may think it's strange, but I get a kick out of that...

As I mentioned in a comment, I was told that there are three cameras in existence: there is one in Paris, and as far as I know it used to be on display in Florida. Then there is the one at the Archives and finally there is one supposed to be "usable as spare parts only." David mentioned there would be one at the Walt Disney Museum at the San Francisco Presidio, which I would guess (!) to be the one from the Archives. It is the one from the Archives that I took a few pictures of. Here is first the console, then a few detailed images of one of the levels. The second image shows the locking mechanism that keeps the level in its place. It is obvious from this that the maximum depth of a level is the distance between the teeth on the front and back columns (minus a little bit). When I took the photos, the rig sadly was very dusty: while in use in the Camera Department, there would not be a speck of dust on it. They had air blowers to remove dust and lint from clothing as you went...

The question arises - what is new in this patent? It is a different application from the one we saw two postings ago! Again, it was applied for by Bill Garity on behalf of Walt Disney Productions, filed May 8th, 1939, granted April 28th, 1942. It thus was filed between the patents of the last two postings. This patent introduces the "photometric device" and its workings, and shows that the background could be mounted at an angle using a mirror. Otherwise, it is just a simplified version of the patent applied for half a year earlier! Or am I missing something?

Of course a new camera needs a new - light meter, or photometer! So Bill Garity and Halley Wolfe applied for on July 31st, 1940 and were granted, on January 13th, 1942, a patent that pertains a device that can measure the light intensities on the artwork at a distance far enough away to be valuable, but close enough to allow for the layer above it without measuring its own shadow. The patent mentions that the meter is easily movable to different parts of the drawing or title to be photographed. The fact that measurements are taken on a display away from the measuring device, connected by a wire, must have been a boon, too. Note that there are twelve claims to this patent, all confusingly alike for a non-engineer like myself! Well, it does mention that it also gives means for precise calibration and prevention of overloads, so that sounds practical enough. Figure 2 shows clearly that this was designed for use on the Multiplane camera, also illustrated in the text where the example is gi...

We continue Multiplane week with the original patent. The first drawing of this patent is in my mind the most beautiful patent drawing ever, one I some day may want a big poster of up on my wall. The patent was applied for by Disney engineer Bill Garity on behalf of Walt Disney Productions, two days before Mickey's 10th birthday, on November 16, 1938. It was granted April 23, 1940. Note: The Old Mill , officially the first film to use the Multiplane camera, was released a full year earlier, November 5th, 1937! In the first sheet we see the apparatus surrounded by the air vents. The columns 3 & 4 (and a similar set behind them) that support the camera and levels A to E are hollow and have the weights of the camera level can slide up and down inside them. Levels A and B are animation levels, C and D underlays and E holds the background. Sheet 2 shows the top frame and the camera level, sans camera. The top drawing shows both - we see the frame, and within it the camera level with...