American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1963)

FROM YOUR 12 VOLT CAR BATTERY CLAMP-ON DELIVERS 250 WATTS of smooth, even 3400°K light — $49.50 PORTABLE MOVIE LIGHT Fits any camera. No tools needed, no holes to drill. Long life nickel-cadmium battery with built-in charg¬ er weighs only 7 lbs. Guaranteed one year. * 199. 50 COMPLETE WITH BATTERY Writ* for Full Information PHOTOMART I 228 So Franklin St. -Tampa 2, Florida ■■■■■■I Telephone 229-1168 DUAL POWER VIEWER for BOLEX REFLEX From an original 6X to on 8X full field and 16X critical focus LARGER IMAGES — BETTER SHARPNESS CONTROL WITH ANY LENS Easy to Operate — Guaranteed for Life — More Information Available — When Viewer only is sent $54.00 — When sent with Camera $60.00. PELLEGRINI-PIEK MOVIE CAMERA ACCESSORIES 7 COLEMAN PLACE, MENLO PARK, CALIF. Makers of Variable Shutter Units for all Bolex H Cameras. PATHE PRODUCTS, INC. ■ ' 9 Pleasant Street, Providence 6, Rhode Island Sole U.S.A. Agents for Pathe Societe Co’mmerciale et Industrielle. I ‘ .* ' • % . NEW IMPROVED PROCESS LAMINATED SOUND STRIPING 380 Ft. Minimum Order — Quality Guaranteed Send for Free Brochure 736 W SO. ATLANTIC BLVD., LOS ANGELES 22, CAL. THE rr. 8MM — 16MM t-U. 2V2* per ft. system has varied. Some have found it more difficult to become accustomed to than others. None have required more than an hour or two, however, to get used to sound coming into the ear and talking at the same time. It is a little frightening on the very first test, but within a few minutes things settle down, and soon the talent finds that he can do it. With professional talent, the system seems simple. Boh Earl, Master of Ceremonies of the CBS show, “The General Electric College Bowl,” can report for a shooting session on our stage at ten o’clock, be handed a script he has never seen, go through one walk through and make a recording. Then, after one take with the cameras roll¬ ing, he is finished. For Bob, we could paint on the slate a permanent “Take One.” Bob, of course, is an old hand at this type of cueing. On television he would do a complete newscast, never looking at the script, but turning the pages as he heard a tongue click from playback of a tape that he had re¬ corded earlier. In cases where we are dealing with non-professional actors, we have found that our most successful use of the system comes from introducing the talent to the system during the early stages of script preparation. At Cor¬ nell, many subject matter specialists are also the talent. By showing them early how the system works and how they should stay a half sentence be¬ hind the script, they can start prac¬ ticing at home or in the office, using a dictating machine or personal tape recorder. A little practice at home or in the quietness of the office does won¬ ders to further enhance the final film¬ ing. There are a few things we have learned in setting up the cue system. One important point is to have the earphone concealed on the back of the talent instead of in his ear. A thin plastic tube is then attached between the earphone and the earmould in the ear. The hollow tube and earmould are much smaller and easier to hide than any earphone inserted in the ear. All the earphones we have tested so far which attach directly to the ear have been visible to the cameras. The use of a hearing aid earmould with the sound piped to it from an earphone through a short length of plastic tub¬ ing solves the problem. In running several tests, we have found that the plastic tubing can be as long as three feet. We have made tests witli the tubing as long as ten feet hut we found we were pushing the volume and had some leakage into the mike. Earmoulds can be purchased in many sizes and we have an assortment ready for any talent. They also are made for both left and right ears. In¬ cidentally, we have found that a little make-up applied to the plastic tube helps to camouflage and make it invis¬ ible to the camera lens. ■ HITCH-HIKE SYNC Continued from Page 341 fed into track No. 2 of the ^-inch tape recorder, once again effectively hitch-hiking the sync and maintaining frame-for-cycle reference even though wild motors are used. The actor merely fits his lines to the lip movements on the screen and records them on track No. 1 of the tape. Narration is simple with the same system; here you keep the film intact, stripe the print, hitch-hike the sync to 14-inch track No. 2 while recording narration on track No. 1. Once an ac¬ ceptable narration or dialogue track has been cut, music can be added by using a set-up similar to that shown in Fig. 2 (not cutting loops, of course), and mixing the score from another source (live or recorded) with the narration from recorder No. 1 track No. 1 to recorder No. 2 track No. 1 while hitch-hiking the sync from re¬ corder No. 1 track No. 2 to recorder No. 2 track No. 2. hen transferred and printed the picture and sound will synchronize perfectly. If it is necessary or desirable to pre¬ record a musical selection with the talent on-camera pantomiming to a playback, the sync generator is used again. The procedure is to record the selection on recorder No. 1 track No. 1, then, while playing it back through a speaker, simultaneously shoot the pan¬ tomime picture with the synchronous drive camera and feed the output of the sync generator onto track No. 2. Just a word of caution: contact your lab regarding your plans before em¬ barking on any extensive recording and dubbing sessions as outlined here. The lab may wish certain test levels on the tape as a guide to adjusting their transfer equipment. ■ 368 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, JUNE, 1963