Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

178 A SCISSORS CINEMA Paper cutouts — thousands of 'em — act out the animated comedies produced by an ingenious 8mm. amateur GEORGE W. CUSHMAN EARLY last year Frank Kallenberg walked into a meeting of the Long Beach (Calif.) Cinema Club, handed a fifty foot roll of 8mm. to the program chairman and said meekly: "Here, if you don't have too full a program tonight, maybe this will help you out." And with that he left the little black spool on the projection table and walked to his seat. When the lights dimmed and the screen lit up, we read first the lead title Frank Kallenberg Presents — Yowie. Then came a series of rapid-fire gags which soon had the audience in stitches. A man on horseback trots down the road, sees a rabbit eating carrots, fills his shotgun with pepper and shoots — causing the horse to sneeze and lose his false teeth. At this point the horse blushed a beautiful crimson, and the audience laughed louder than at any time in the club's history. And, as the lights went up, Kallenberg got a well-deserved round of applause. The timing, staging and presentation of Yowie were excellent. But what was so remarkable about the entire production was that it was made by single-frame animation, and all of the sets and characters were paper cutouts! With the success of Yowie to his credit, Kallenberg couldn't rest. Thus, after a year of work, he unveiled only a few months ago a 200 foot 8mm. epic entitled Mule Segarettes, a masterpiece which leaves the viewer amazed at the infinite patience Kallenberg's production displays. The story tells how Mule Segarettes are made. But the story to movie enthusiasts is unimportant, relatively speaking. Rather they are anxious to know what prompted Kallenberg to try 8mm. animation in paper cutouts. He isn't quite sure, himself, why he made Yowie. Says he was cutting out colored paper one day and a man resulted and he decided to make a movie of him. One thing led to another and he ended up with a 50 foot film. But that, he says, was almost two years ago. Finding single-frame animation to his liking, he has rigged up an intricate apparatus which facilitates his activity and assures him of well-centered results. His animation stand, which he built himself, consists of f our, uprights of 1 inch angle aluminum with the necessary corner bracing to make it firm and rigid (see Fig.'l). The stand is approximately 5 feet in height, while the animation area (which extends outward on both sides to permit the use of traveling backgrounds) is at a convenient 2 foot or chair-height level. The camera, a Bolex H-8, is mounted at the top of the framework in a unit which guarantees immediate and accurate centering at all times (see Fig. 2). Two controls (see Figs. 1 and 3) are situated at Kallenberg's fingertips. The large toggle switch turns the two photofloods on and off, while the smaller, black button switch next to it trips a solenoid [Continued on page 193] FIG. 1: At left is an overall view of the animation stand designed by Frank Kallenberg, of Long Beach, Calif., to accommodate his production of cartoon films made with paper cutouts. FIG. 2: In closeup at right the producer's 8mm. camera is seen mounted on a special carriage, with the solenoid control (lower left) in position against camera's frame release. FIG. 3: At right the producer is seen as he animates one of his paper puppets with the finely pointed tools he shaped for the purpose. Note also line of guide wires in the background. FIG. 4: Snip go the Kallenberg scissors as, with infinite patience, he forms still another of his fabulous figures. Right, left sides of man are on table.