AV Geeks Lunch 2-19

hello welcome everybody i'm skip alzheimer welcome to our lunchtime streaming show where we show films from the av geeks collection and films that we've digitized for other collectors uh that last film moonland uh is from the oregon archive we uh are good friends with uh the person who owns that greg pierce he's in pittsburgh and um one october i drove a film scanner up to his house and we set it up in his living room and we scanned films for a week and that was one of the films we scanned um silent film i think it was made 1927 based on an ad i just found in the film mercury which was a film periodical in hollywood and it's an ad for the production uh it's basically about the new neil mcguire new method settings that reduce production cost and he says recently completed the screen's greatest fantastic spectacle moonland the picture without a built interior and all process exteriors allow me to explain how any set desired by you can be reproduced for a very nominal sum um contact al rosen uh so that a lot of people uh notice that it's double exposed lots of layers um [Music] very uh amelia's related but technically better um and also a little similar to little nemo which um is a great comic which i don't know if it was still going on in the 20s but uh pretty amazing look up little nemo and slumberland it's really phenomenal uh comics um really beautiful stuff uh anyways um yeah i've wanted to show that for a while and it was on a hard drive that i've been slowly um converting uh so that we can watch stuff from it because all the files are 4k and this player does not play that 4k uh it's time to learn about the nature of sound i think here we go [Music] sound is all around us everywhere it beats at our eardrums until much of the time we're hardly conscious of it but on this particular saturday morning jimmy foster suddenly became very conscious of it because a sound made him jump or was it really the sound that made him jump it seemed as though the post was vibrating well he'd soon find out whether there was a vibration along with the sound the scrap of wood showed him that when the bell sounds it does vibrate jimmy's ears were now wide open to the sounds around him his eyes were open too suddenly he saw the steam from a whistle way over there but didn't hear it until several seconds later jimmy became curious about sound and decided to look up his cousin phil hansen phil is a radio ham runs an amateur transmitter he should know if sound is vibration phil how does it get from one place to another mostly through the air jimmy you see the vibration of my voice box makes the air vibrate between us then when the air vibrates your ear you hear what i'm saying vibration of vibration of voice box you can prove that air carries sound by but maybe you've seen a demonstration of a bell under a glass jar with normal air inside the jar you could hear the bell clearly but when the vacuum pump drew the air out of the jar there was nothing inside to carry the vibrations of the bell nothing until the air was let back into the jar [Music] so you need air for sound to travel through you need something but it doesn't have to be air here i'll show you we'll use a microphone which is a sort of mechanical error now it picks up sound vibrations and changes them into electrical impulses these go through the amplifier to the speaker which changes them back into sound vibrations now the sound of my voice travels to the microphone through air doesn't it i guess so sure well sound actually travels better and faster through solid things iron or aluminum or glass here hold the microphone over here now what do you hear nothing and neither does a microphone would hear it from the speaker now how hold my watch up against the aquarium you hold the microphone against your end now i hear it that's because sound travels better through the glass than it does through air now since the watch is waterproof i guess that proves his sound also travels better through water that's right and speaking of water it can also show us how sound travels toss a rock in a pool and watch how the ripples start from the splash and travel out and if there's something floating on the surface you'll see that it's the disturbance that moves and not the water as a whole sound travels the same way start this bell vibrating then slow it down and we see that it pushes out and compresses the air then springs back causing a lower pressure then pushes out again as this goes on places of slightly higher air pressure or compressions travel outward separated by places of slightly lowered pressure or expansions the distance between one compression in the next is called the wavelength of a sound as is the distance from one expansion to the next of course the frequency is the number of waves per second when these vibrations reach your eardrum you hear the sound but remember it's the vibrations that travel not the air see those vibrations travel pretty fast don't they phil compared to some things yes but not compared to the speed of light light travels at the rate of about 186 000 miles per second sound travels through the air at about 1100 feet per second that's why i saw that whistle before i heard it and with your watch you could measure the distance between you and the whistle because light travels so fast you see the steam from the whistle almost instantly but the sound traveling at eleven hundred feet a second now if it takes five seconds to reach you you know that the sound is five times eleven hundred feet or more than a mile away say i can have a lot of fun measuring distance by sound and there's another trick you can do with a watch you know what this is sure it's a light reflector it's also a sound reflector stand over there a minute jimmy you saved the sound reflector sure sound can be reflected almost like light now what do you hear why nothing i guess all right now listen when i hold it so the reflector directs the sound say that's wonderful it sounds as if it's right next to my ear yes sound reflects pretty much like light or a rubber ball or like a spring try this jimmy hook one end over the reflector now pull it out straight that's it now the spring is just like air in silence no disturbances no compressions strike one end of it jimmy why the compressions travel right along and bounce off the ends back and forth right and when sound bounces back that way it's an echo in motion picture studios and radio stations reflected sounds can cause trouble they often hang draperies to kill some of the reverberation a combination of hard and soft walls usually gives the best sound quality sound quality now what's that well quality it's one of the three characteristics of sound we've already mentioned the other two know what they are well let's see quality is one uh you said something about frequency is that one that's almost it but let's call it pitch which depends mainly on frequency what about how loud it is right loudness pitch and quality i can show you all three show me a sound sure by turning on this oscilloscope it draws a picture of a sound uh be careful jimmy it belongs to my radio club now watch this is a picture of my voice as i talk jimmy can i see my voice hey there it is now about these characteristics of sound we'll start with loudness make a sound on this ocarina jimmy now louder [Laughter] the latter i blow the taller the lines get that's right try it again height or amplitudes of the jumps changes according to the loudness or intensity of the sound and another thing watch how the sound falls off in intensity as i move away from the microphone so you see the loudness of any sound you hear varies with its intensity and its distance from you and this is shown by the amplitude of the jumps shallow waves for a soft note and high waves for a loud note now what do you suppose shows a pitch maybe maybe the number of waves huh almost right jimmy here try running a scale on this and watch [Music] the number of waves does change with the pitch we call the number of waves each second frequency and the length of the waves changes too short waves for a high note long waves for a low note now you can hear two sounds of the same loudness and pitch and still they sound different and that's where quality comes in right try singing the five vowels on the same note hey now compare my notes to yours me me the waves seem to have different shape yes the quality of the sound determines the shape of the wave we can have two sounds of the same loudness and pitch and still they're very different and that's that that's that but it's not all by any means there's a whole lot more to know about sound if you really want to go into the subject but remember those three characteristics and remember that all sound is vibration it won't travel through a vacuum but it does travel through air at the speed of about 1100 feet a second it travels even better through solids and through water it travels in waves of compressions and expansions with those points in mind jimmy you can go on to a thorough study of the nature of sound that's for me the nature of sound so great beautiful color too um sometimes cornette's got it man they have it all set up and that's uh that's an example of cornet um uh beautiful set lots of visual aids um you know concept uh and there's others there's nature of uh heat uh and i think there's other kind of physics related things um i have nature of heat somewhere i'll show it i don't think it's kodachrome though all right um great thing about having a sixty thousand dollar telecini um in my basement is that i can show you live films and so here is a film that i threaded up uh it is my dozen fathers and this is a polish animation bullish or czech i can't actually i feel like it's polish um every once in a while the soundtrack from these films bites me in the butt um so we'll keep an eye on this and hopefully we won't get knocked off if we do i'll come back how about that all right here's my dozen fathers [Music] so [Music] i know my hair is a real mess but if mom's always in such a rush [Music] be [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] um hmm [Music] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so mmm [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] me [Music] yay [Music] do [Music] gloria oh [Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Music] so who do my hair anyway [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow that's uh that's something else um so it is check and um yeah i tried to determine the year on it and according to world cat it's 1981 but i think that's the year that it was released by phoenix films in the united states um it's probably from the 70s i'm guessing um but pretty amazing uh beautiful animation lots of little styles thrown in there and uh poor kids trying to reconcile the fact that her recently separated mother is dating a lot so fascinating film uh somebody earlier mentioned uh timex uh this isn't about timex this is about uh something that occasionally my wife and i watch antiques road show maybe we're getting old that's probably what the deal is but i'm interested because of course historical stuff is is interesting but the one thing i have realized is if you want an investment that pays off insanely in the future rolex watches man i have seen people buy a rolex watch they hold on to all the paperwork they hold onto the box hold on the receipt buy for 250 bucks at the px when they're a poor um soldier in the army and then years later they're able to sell it for 150 000 um anyways so here is a film about rolex watches and about time so here's story of time [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Music] hey [Music] so [Music] [Music] so um yeah two anna two great films in a row that are visually just fascinating um that last one story of time was from my film collector friend at the oregon archives um where we took a scanner up to his house and we scanned hundreds of films uh from his collection and only recently have i been able to uh process the files in a way that i can show them to you so there'll be more things like that although that one is a pretty high high water mark as far as visually fascinating uh stuff okay um i've been going through all the vandalism films that i have because i got a bunch because that's what kids do is break things and write on things and vandalize things it's kind of in their dna so this film is called violence and vandalism how many more does he have to kill next candy and a gun [Music] whoever the killer is he's been walking around for three days with an untreated bullet please i'd never chew from our newsroom in new york the 11 o'clock report the news is next [Music] so [Music] it may be true that neither television nor the mass media can be blamed for violence but i i think they do bring violence into the home and make it commonplace almost acceptable it's been found that young people and adults exposed to violence at an early age will often turn to violence when confronted with minor frustrations school will often be the first experience a child has away from his family for him it's his first contact with society often it's the first time he's forced to deal with others and suddenly he must play by the rules [Music] as he grows over he'll find that rules will seem to dominate his life [Music] while all of us are forced to live by rules or laws in one form or another if an orderly society is to survive and flourish but from time to time all of us are faced with emotions that to strike back we feel small frustrated or just plain bored with our lives [Music] um [Music] [Music] hey come on hey today vandalism sometimes just for the heck of it and other times well directed is almost out of control why well i don't know i don't think anybody else does either there just doesn't seem to be any easy answer or magic formula the youthful years are a time of great idealism and energy and channeling that idealism can be very difficult to make matters worse sometimes we well we all allow others to make important decisions for us i don't know what's the matter with you man you never chickened out before we've never stolen anything before either hey are we friends or not well it's just not my thing i don't get any big kick out of busting into school big deal mike it'll be easy and besides i know we're gonna sell that stuff let's stick together huh look man it's getting late why don't you make up your mind you don't want to go forget it sam and i gotta get it on okay all right at one time or another all of us have been pressured into doing things we don't want to do a noted sociologist gives us some insight into other causes of vandalism every person must answer these questions who am i and what can i do there are lots of people who are interested in how we answer those questions because who we are and what we do has an impact on them it affects them to be young is to spend much time listening to the messages of people who tell us who we must be and what we should do in return for listening well we're rewarded by opportunities to do more satisfying things in a way society is like a great casting studio with a limited variety of roles villains fools heroes and failures in a competitive culture the number of starring roles are few and the auditions are not many if we file the early ones up we may be rejected from having any desirable part at all some of us find this unbearable so we say to ourselves if we couldn't make it into the script as good guys we'll force our way in as bad guys the one thing we won't accept is having no part at all so when we find the studio locked we say we couldn't make our mark in it so we leave our mark on it we'll deface the door with vandalism or smash it with violence one way or another will be in the play the question is is it the part we wanted for other potential vandals the reasons may be much clearer they feel they've been wronged and they may turn toward violence to get even let's go jane's gonna be over there now you go ahead i just wanna get some air didn't you hear me i said jane's gonna be over there yeah i heard what you said what's bugging you i talked with coach springer today are you gonna anchor the relay team friday not quite not even running what do you mean rules man i don't want to play their games i went out for track because it's the individual i don't want to be a part of no team i'm me and they got to accept that they set up rules that i have no say in them when i don't play by them come on liv no kidding i'm supposed to be a troublemaker well maybe i'm gonna make a little trouble oftentimes all of us feel that society is becoming too mechanical that we as people are being ignored losing our individuality but we also know that freedom requires responsibility irresponsible acts are grandstand plays they do very little to improve society they can only destroy it when i came to school this morning i found out that there was this explosion in the chemistry lab last night wow that's really great without chemistry how am i supposed to graduate this year they burn down the building that used to be our gym next year i was going to go to college on a basketball scholarship now i don't know what's going to happen i've lived in this ghetto all my life my only chance to getting out of here is the school today i come to school and i find this they bomb the whole place i gotta learn i gotta make something of myself i don't wanna end up with no education no hope no nothing another reason often given for vandalism is just plain boredom bored with her school family friends and life in general young people may turn towards vandalism merely for the thrill the excitement of destroying this brings us to a very interesting question are we violent by nature or do we become violent when we're aroused by some outside stimulation well this is a question that's been puzzling mankind for generations and there's still no agreement on it since violence is most common and crowded inner city schools many feel that environment is a factor now these dates are important to remember they indicate a sequence of events which are necessary to our understanding of american history it becomes readily apparent that at the beginning of the 19th century going crazy this place is going to drive me nuts nobody cares kids teachers nobody they don't educate you it's like a refrigerator they put you in here to keep you cool hopelessness are causes for vandalism but i don't think i don't think that anybody can agree that the way to resolve the problems of overcrowded schools poor teaching and relevant courses is to burn down the schools it's true that in the past school curriculum was geared toward the white middle middle-class majority recently however changes have taken place there are more black study programs and more schools job training is being provided for those not interested in college and a head start program prepares disadvantaged children for the first years in school just a token uh in some cases maybe but progress yeah definitely progress you know the only way to bring about change is to become active in your school make your feelings known and work within the structure to bring about desired changes i think you'll meet with success if you do it that way because if you go outside well as far as i'm concerned somebody's got to get tough with these kids today they're just not going to get any more my tax dollars they say they want the right to determine what they study but so far they haven't shown any responsibility if they can't handle what they have now how can they demand any more hey i can hardly afford to pay my bills now vote for another bond to build another school not on your life the kids will just burn it down they don't care i wouldn't give those kids another dime it's time they learn the value of property i mean you know if the school's closed down it's their fault just a lot of phony words well unfortunately no the quality of education can't improve without the cooperation of the voters the establishment monies needed for new programs and facilities additional teachers will be needed to reduce the sun but as long as the public's image of young people is that of irresponsible delinquents burning and destroying everything in sight well they're going to be less than enthusiastic about supporting or improving the quality of education the time has come for you to decide what kind of a society you want to live in in the past violence was a defense against danger it worked well for survival now for the first time in man's history his survival depends on his humanity his ability to solve i don't you think it's about time we learn to work together in order to be able to live together think about it [Music] so [Music] so uh american educational films and directions unlimited did other films that we've shown mostly drug films about lsd um i think uppers downers where they have some sort of celebrity or semi-celebrity who is the narrator and then you have all these sound bites from kids and you have sound bites from professionals like doctors and things like that so this is a very much a set format um but uh yeah it's kind of interesting and the thing is like this came out in 72 it never changes because you always have a new batch of kids all the time so it's constant so it's not a problem that's easily solved um and you also have this kind of wavering support for putting money into schools and programs like this where it's like oh we put money into this program it's like it's working so we need to cut the money from that program um yeah so uh thanks everybody for tuning in today it's friday which means that i'll take the weekend off and hopefully you will too um if you like what you saw today um or like what av geeks does in general you can buy me some coffee by going to that link right there coffee is a great way to support heavy geeks and um you know it's not that expensive uh you can also hit like and subscribe and share and notifications and blah blah blah um also you can visit avgeeks.com and see other stuff that we put online and um yeah today was a great show thank you so much for letting me borrow your eyeballs and um as always um please rewind and love each other and take a break if you can i hope everybody has electricity and water um if not um feel free to been there um but uh we will see you again on monday take care six five four three eight seven six five four three eight seven six five four three eight seven six five four three eight seven six five four three eight seven six five four three eight seven six five four three eight seven six five four three hey