Framing the Projected Picture with Colored Borders

From time to time during the past twenty years, the idea of using colored borders to frame the projected motion picture has been brought forth. This has been advocated by several different people and has had as many different reasons presented for its use. One of the first was that daylight projection could be obtained in this manner. The promotors of this idea claimed that when projecting a border they were at the same time projecting a shadow on the screen which the theater lights could not penetrate, because the theater lights were less brilliant than the beam of projected border light. In reality the only reason this system lasted as long as it did was that the men who installed it were just a little better educated in the problems of projection than the average. For this reason they were able in most cases to raise the illumination of the projected picture far enough above the average that had been used in that particular theater, so that more house lights could be used without blotting out the picture. This system was quite popular in many of our combination vaudeville and picture theaters about 1909–1910. The fallacy of this idea was quickly proved, as knowledge of projection became more widely distributed and as equipment was improved, so as to permit of better illuminated pictures. The above system was usually accomplished by using a metal cut-out slide because considerable trouble was encountered by the slides cracking if made of glass. From time to time since then, many people have practised projecting colored or elaborately designed borders around the pictures. Some claimed that it relieved eye strain, while others, who I believe were a trifle more conscientious, claimed that it was merely for decoration and to give a pleasing result to the audiences.

Print ISSN

0096-6460

Published

1927-09

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J13148