Optical and Special Effects - Text 6
In Europe, Debrie followed this trend by adding features to each new iteration of the Parvo cameras it manufactured. The Model K introduced in 1925 offered a variable shutter which, like the Bell & Howell 2709 and the Mitchell Standard, made possible the automated creation of fades and dissolves. It also included devices enabling the production of “hard or artistic masks” in the gate, or “soft masks” in front of the lens, along with having three counters (footage, crank revolutions and frames). These features, combined with fact that the Parvo could be very easily rewound (there were no magazine straps to move), made it very easy to create a wide range of optical and special effects. Many European filmmakers of the late silent era would make full use of this remarkable tool.[5]