Business screen magazine (1946)

DON'T OVERLOOK SLIDEFILMS Properly prepared slidefilms can be every bit as dramatic and effective as a motion picture in specific situations. Many "new" techniques are old stuff, enjoying a renaissance, not a birth . . . and they are economical. Spencer Bostwick provides some helpful pointers on the production of a successful slidefilm. By SPENCER BOSTWICK Planfilm, Inc. W/^E ALL AGREE that tremendous " changes have taken place in motion picture techniques in recent years. The impact of these changes on the business motion picture was discussed in the February issue of Business Screen. I would like to point out what the effects have been on business slide films. Recent developments in cinematography have in no way threatened the existence of the slide film. The two good reasons for making a slide film instead of a movie — limited budget and limited projection facilities — are still with us. and always will be. But the slide film has not remained unchanged. Many of the ideas and techniques that characterize the contemporary motion picture can be used in the making of the slide film. Actually, of course, many of these "new" techniques are old stuff, enjoying a renaissance, not a birth. Here are some of the things we do in motion pictures that we can also do in slide films: The fluid camera. With today's lightweight, hand-held motion picture camera, the photographer can seek out interesting subject matter, rather than waiting, frozen to a tripod, for the action to come to him. The slide film photographer, with his 35mm SLR's can do the same thing. The frame shot uses out-of-focus foreground shapes and patterns to frame the ABOUT THE AUTHOR Spencer Bostwick, owner of Planfilm, Inc. and Spencer Bostwick's Photography is a professional audiovisual writer and planner, noting that he is not a producer. His background includes advertising agency writing and visual planning for the U.S. Navy and Oeveste Granducci. He believes that slide films could be "far better than they are," and adds, ". . . they just don't get the artistic attention motion pictures do. A condition that should be amended!" action — obviously as possible in the slide film as in the movie. This includes exotic shots, such as the action being shown in the rear view mirror of a car, reflected in the lens of dark glasses, and so forth. Imagination is as fruitful behind a Nikon as an Arri. The extreme close-up adds interest to both movie and slide film. A recent theatrical short, "Rodeo," built great suspense and gave a fresh look to an old subject by telling its story almost exclusively in CUs — CU of bloodshot eye of enraged steer hero is about to ride; CU of steer's snout, drooling and menacing; CU of hero painstakingly adjusting the rope that will hold him to the animal; CU of hand, trembling ever so lightly, as glove is pulled on, etc. The interesting camera angle is another result of the camera becoming free of the tripod. We can show the subject as it's seen by the eye of the worm, or the eye of the helicopter pilot. No reason to use tired camera angles. The compression effect from the use of long focal-length lenses adds impact to movie and slide film alike. Multiple images are in vogue, and are obtained in slide film photography as in motion pictures: by double exposure or masking in the camera, or later, optically. To me, lighting is the secret of exciting photography of any kind. The fast new emulsions — particularly color — make available light shooting so practical, lights are almost a thing of the past. There is no question in my mind that nature, in its own way, develops far more compelling lighting situations than the typically bland, asceptic effects usually associated with planned, artificial studio lighting. It means throwing away the book, because the book says to avoid the back lighting, edge lighting, and high-contrast hghting that abounds so dramatically in nature. I believe that night scenes are a muchneglected source of interesting photographic effects, available, of course, whether you're making a movie or a slide film. Why should everything be shot in daylight? A recent script-photography assignment for HUD called for a shot of people getting off a bus. Sounds easy, but every shot was strictly blah — until we took it at night. That gave it some whammy. Moral: don't be afraid of the dark! In addition to night scenes, the aware photographer has come to realize the drama in bad weather. We have bad weather, so why always wait for a sunny day to shoot? A recent film, written by a friend of mine, begins with a compelling scene of men racing on foot in a fog. I thought it was great. He explained that his script didn't call for fog — it was just there the morning of the shooting, and so they shot it. It makes a whizzaroo out of an otherwise so-so opening. The portable tape recorder has, of course, given sound the spontaneity to match the fluidity of contemporary photography. You can make sound pickups anywhere, and if there's realistic background noise, so much the better. The only reservation about the use of sound in slide films that we hold with is the caveat against trying to use "lip sync" dialogue against a still picture of the speaker. In such spots, we use a picture that doesn't feature the speaker's mouth, or cut away from him entirely. Most slide films don't come close to using spontaneous sound and sound effects to their full potential. But a picture may not need any sound at all — if it's a real story-telling slide. The rapid, short cuts used so much in contemporary movie work have a direct counterpart in slide films: five, six, or seven slides in quick succession without narration. In motion pictures, we're currently seeing considerable use of the freeze frame, and slowed-down action, as in the final scenes in Elvira Madigan, Butch Cassidy, Bonnie and Clyde. These techniques are effective and, although they deal with motion, they have their counterparts in the slide film. To see this, one must understand that pace in a film is a relative matter. Thus, a five-second cut in a movie (or a slide held for five seconds) is "fast" if the previous cuts or slides were seen for, say, twenty seconds. If they endured for three seconds, the fivesecond cut is. relatively, "slow." This means that the pacing in a slide film can be every bit as interesting as in a movie. The variety of pacing that's possible in a slide film is another factor, I think, that is badly neglected. A quick glance at your slide film script will tell you if it has interesting pacing. If the amount of narration per slide varies noticeably, and some slides have no narration at all, you've got rhythm. If each slide has a neat block of narration the same length as every other slide, watch out — you may be handling a bomb! • 32 BUSINESS SCREEN