Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

45 TWO AIDS FOR EDITING For an unfailing film marker, try using a scene slate, says DANIEL HARRIS, ACL SOONER or later in every editing system one faces the problem of identifying individual scenes. Last month, for example, a member described his rack-and-tab method of editing. Then there are the so-called eggbox systems, the barrel and numbered clips and so on. But I do not recall reading recently of the scene slate. A version I like is illustrated on this page. For simpler shooting — around the house or on a holiday — you may wish to simplify it. But don't drop the entries for roll, scene and sequence numbers. For these are the key ones in the scene slate's aid to editing. Before shooting each scene, you enter on the slate the roll number, the scene number and the sequence number. After shooting each scene, you hold the slate in front of the camera and shoot a few frames of it. By this simple maneuver you have "written" a scene identification tag indelibly into each scene you shoot. SAMPLE scene slate recommended by the author is charted at right. A simpler version might be used in home movie shooting. Comes the editing stage, you sit down at your viewer, thread up roll 1, mark "Roll 1" at the top of a sheet of paper and then proceed to jot down in order a brief description of each scene: 1-1: LS swiming pool; 2-1: MS group of bathers; 3-1: two-shot of Mary-Patricia and Don talking, etc., etc. After each roll has been listed, you are then free to cut it up and temporarily file the scenes in whatever manner you normally follow. The important point is that each clip carries with it its identifying frames of roll, scene and sequence numbers. Only when you reassemble the footage are these finally removed. Creating a scene slate is simplicity itself. To begin with, you actually use a slate so that the chalked-on entries may be easily erased and changed. I'd suggest trying your neighborhood toy, stationery or dime store, where you ought to pick one up at from 25 to 50 ROLL NO. SCENE NO SEQUENCE NO. P R 0 DUC T ION PLACE DATE EXPOSURE cents. The size should be as large as possible and still fit in your gadget bag, and ideally it should maintain the 3 by 4 proportions of the film frame. A slate 6 by 8, for example, gives plenty of entry room and is fully covered by the standard camera lens at just less than 2 feet away from the camera. In ruling in the cross sections it is best to use something (white paint, for example) which will not come off if a damp cloth is employed as an eraser. For chalking in the entries on the slate I find white chalk is best for black and white emulsions, a bright red for color shooting. And here's a further aid of the slate in your filming. Letter permanently on the back of it your name and address and shoot maybe a dozen frames of this at the start of each roll. This way, you'll never lose a film through a faulty or illegible return address on the carton. WITHOUT meaning to rule out any additions, I'd say that high among the basic functions of film editing are the following: (1) the removal of all faulty footage ; (2) the rearrangement of usable footage in suitable order, and (3) by a final trimming and timing, the creation of that important thing called pace. All right, No. 1 is an easy and immediate process — out with the perforated emulsion numbers, light frames, over and underexposed scenes, etc. No. 2 is a methodical but often exciting operation, which can be carried out in any one of several ways. And both Nos. 1 and 2 are immeasurably aided and abetted by use of an action editor. But No. 3 — No! For, in my experience, the hand cranked movement of a scene or sequence through an editor cannot create an accurate impression of its pace. The scene moves, yes; but it does not move at the same rate or with the same visual-sensory effect as in a projected screen image. Thus, you find yourself involved in a coil of threading up the editor, running the r HOLLE.Q. <J, V AOM. \ (5WINOS OUT OF WAY WHEN UMNO D.LWINDS INNOOMM. FASHION) F/LM Add timing to your action editor, says HOWARD A. MOORE, ACL film through, making notes and then splices, threading the film in the projector, making notes, back to the editor, more splices and back to the projector — all of which adds up to an undesirable amount of film handling. Something, as the saying goes, had to be done about it. I reasoned it out this way: if handcranked movement was wrong and pro[Continued on page 601 PR-OJECTOB. Q.fc£L . •ROLLEtLctAOM WITH YOUR PROJECTOR pulling the film through your action editor, an accurate estimate of true screen pace may then be made.