Bauer in 1984

At the end of the 1960's, Fritz Gabriel Bauer set up his own film production company in Vienna together with director of photography Walter Kindler. They called their company the Moviegroup, and produced a succession of commercials. Bauer was dissatisfied with the performance of the cameras then available. Only the Mitchell could approach the registration steadiness he sought. He decided to buy a Mitchell and see what he could do with it. Together with Anton Zögl, the special-effects expert at Moviegroup, they took the Mitchell to pieces. As Walter Kindler recalls, "Fritz began to draw like mad, you could not talk to him. Day and night he sat at the board. First he built a mirror and a reflex viewer system into a new housing. On it he built a video tap. The drive, movement and magazines of the old Mitchell remained in use with some alterations. Then he exchanged the BNC lens mount for an ARRI mount, in order to be able to use the lenses which were most widely used in Austria at that time. Finally a new camera was born. He called it the Moviecam." The Moviecam 1 was equipped with ultramodern features, but it still had the relatively old-fashioned shape of the Mitchell: an angular box with round double magazines. In 1975 Bauer bought a Mitchell Mk2 movement and built the Moviecam 2 around it. Because Fritz Gabriel Bauer did not want to subdue the noise of the camera through sound attenuation (as competitors did) but wanted to reduce it at source, he thought about constructing a new, noiseless movement. He designed the BN Compensating Link Movement with double pull-down claws and two register pins. Its gentle movement caused relatively little noise, and proved both simple and extremely reliable. With it, and in combination with further silencing measures, a noise level of under 20dB was achieved. Since 1978, this Moviecam movement has been built into all the company's cameras. Further development led to the Moviecam Super, which Bauer developed with the American market in mind. It was eventually named the Moviecam Superamerica. At the beginning of the 1990's, he brought out the Moviecam Compact, a versatile modular system which enabled the cinematographer to configure the device accurately to suit the needs of the actual shooting situation. In 1997, ARRI offered Fritz Gabriel Bauer an opportunity... he should design the new ARRI camera generation. Bauer saw in this offer the chance to combine ARRI's tremendous range of experience, e.g. in the field of electronic controls, with his visionary world. Together with the ARRI Group staff of engineers, he mixed the best of two worlds and created the Arricam camera system.  Scientific and Engineering Award (Plaque) 1987: For the invention and development of the improved features of the Moviecam Camera System.  Scientific and Engineering Award (Plaque) 1993: For the design, development and manufacture of the Moviecam Compact Modular 35mm motion picture camera system, which features quiet operation, light weight and ease in reconfiguring from one mode to another.  Scientific and Engineering Award (Plaque) 1999: For the concept, design and engineering of the Moviecam Superlight 35mm Motion Picture Camera. 3 Scientific/Technical Awards