Mr. Specter. At any time in the course of the examination of the Zapruder film, was the original of that movie obtained?
Mr. Shaneyfelt. Yes; it was. On February 25, Mr. Herbert Orth, who is the assistant chief of the Life magazine photographic laboratory, provided the original of the Zapruder film for review by the Commission representatives and representatives of the FBI and Secret Service here in the Commission building.
Mr. Specter. And what was the reason for his making that original available?
Mr. Shaneyfelt. Life magazine was reluctant to release the original because of the value. So he brought it down personally and projected it for us and allowed us to run through it several times, studying the original.
Mr. Specter. Was that because the copies were not distinct on certain important particulars?
Mr. Shaneyfelt. That is correct. The original had considerably more detail and more there to study than any of the copies, since in the photographic process each time you copy you lose some detail.
Mr. Specter. And subsequently, were slides made from the original of the Zapruder film?
Mr. Shaneyfelt. Yes. Since it was not practical to stop the projector when using the original of the Zapruder film, because of the possibility of damage to the film, Mr. Orth volunteered to prepare 35-mm. color slides directly from the original movie of all of the pertinent frames of the assassination which were determined to be frames 171 through 434.
Mr. Specter. Would you outline what you mean by frames, please?
Mr. Shaneyfelt. Yes. In motion picture films, the actual motion picture film consists of consecutive pictures that are made in rapid succession, each one being a separate exposure. And as the camera runs, it films these, and they are projected fast enough on the screen when you do not have the sensation of them being individual pictures, but you have the sensation of seeing the movement—even though they are individual little pictures on the film. So each one of those little pictures on the film is called a frame.