Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

230 SEPTEMBER 1953 This department has been added to Movie Makers because you, the reader, want it. We welcome it to our columns. This is your place to sound off. Send us your comments, complaints or compliments. Address: The Reader Writes, Movie Makers, 420 Lexington Ave., New York 17, N. Y. PERMITS IN PARIS Dear Movie Makers: In reading the copies of MM which I missed while traveling abroad this spring, I have just finished Paris in a Pair of Days, an excellent and definitive article indeed. However, I believe that author Bulkley should have told our readers that in filming Paris — for Americans, at least — all is not sweetness and light. For, just as your tripod has been set up, there is the inevitable tap on the shoulder. This means one of two things : either a request for anywhere from 50 to 400 francs for a "permit" to use the camera, or a curt statement that "it is forbidden to take pictures here." I was forbidden to take pictures of the exteriors of the Sorbonne and the Bibliotheque Nationale, and (so help me!) I was even forbidden to take pictures in the Luxembourg Gardens of children sailing their boats. It is difficult to know what to do, for even the permit prices fluctuate so violently that you feel more than a faint suspicion the fee is based upon whatever the traffic will bear. Perhaps our movie making cousins in France will see what they can do to make filming in their beautiful capital more of a joy to the visiting amateur. Helen C. Welsh, AACL Albany, N. Y. HEADLINES TO ORDER Dear Friends: I would like to congratulate James L. Watson, ACL, for his excellent August story, History of a Mystery. However, I was surprised by his difficulty in securing the two newspaper headlines called for by his script. Perhaps he and others of our readers are not aware that many amusement arcades in the Times Square district of New York (and, no doubt, other cities) are equipped to set up comic headlines on dummy newspaper sheets while you wait. Using The Daily Tribune as a masthead, the front page below the headline is made up of legible dummy copy and cuts — and looks quite realistic. It should be simple enough to paste this dummy page on the front of any regular newspaper and, in fact, to overlay the masthead of one's hometown sheet if necessary. Specifically, this sort of work is done by Eugene Seebold, Headlines, 228 West 42nd Street, New York City. I have contacted Mr. Seebold on behalf of ACL members, and he has agreed to accept mail orders if 3 cents of postage are added to the costs. These are: three single sheets for $1, or one sheet for 75 cents. Capt. Maurice Dallimore, ACL National Broadcasting Co. New York, N. Y. Our sincere thanks to Captain Dallimore for this unique and interesting data. It should be of aid to amateurs everywhere. TTB PARTY Dear Friends : Enclosed is a bank draft covering the fee for my personal screening on July 24 of the Top of the Ten Best program before friends and neighbors at my annual outdoor movie party. There is no doubt that the Maxim Award winner, Duck Soup, deserved all of the plaudits which I know it has received from the thousands of people who must have seen it by now. It completely captivated my audience of some fifty persons, adults and children alike. The pace and editing of this charming family film gave it a punch not usually present in 99 other amateur efforts. Jack Bray, ACL Paducah, Ky. NATIONAL PARK PROGRAM Dear ACL: Greetings from damp, wet, foggy New Brunswick! Back in the States a few nights ago we put on a special campfire program for the National Park Service in Acadia National Park, Maine, consisting of our films Along Maine Shores and Northwoods Adventures. The crowd of over 200 from the park and surrounding countryside seemed to like it. Frank E. Gunnell, FACL Fundy National Park New Brunswick, Canada NO MIRACLES, HUH? Dear Sirs: I have some ideas of photography which I would like to have you publish in your magazine Movie Makers. First you must have a steady camera, not one that will jerk all over when you are taking pictures. Second, be sure to have a photo-guide handy and with you wherever you go — in summer, spring, winter or fall. And third, you must not put in black and white film and expect it to come out colored. William Browne Milwaukee, Wise. SUPPORT ACL Dear Sirs: I am happy to be included as a member of the Amateur Cinema League, anticipating that I may derive much benefit from my membership. I will count it a pleasure to support the activities of our fine organization in every way possible. Richard Bailey, ACL Clarksville, Tenn. REPORT ON JAMBOREE Dear Mr. Moore: Thanks very much for the note about me in July Movie Makers, just now noted on my return from the Boy Scout Jamboree. Here are a few brief facts in which you might be interested. Distance traveled: just in excess of 8000 miles. Elapsed time: 22 days (which seem like 22 years!). Film exposed: 3000 feet of 16mm. Kodachrome. Results: 90 percent usable, 75 percent sparkling. Editing plans: one 1600 foot, tightly-edited feature entitled Johnny Goes to the Jamboree ; plus one 800 foot reel devoted exclusively to the Schenectady crowd. In conclusion, I'd like to put in a word for the E.K. processing labs at Los Angeles, where I was able to see some of my finished film before leaving. Mr. Krieger, the color print and processing service manager there, was especially helpful. Lewis B. Sebring, ACL Schenectady, N. Y. 24 TOOTH 8MM. SPROCKET? Dear Readers: Does any reader know where I could obtain 8mm. film sprockets with 24 teeth? Or maybe somebody knows of a certain projector or movie gadget that uses a 24-tooth 8mm. sprocket. I will appreciate any information available. Herbert H. Reech 1616 East 86th Street Cleveland 6, Ohio EFFECTS OF TV? Dear ACL: On page 102 of the March, 1951, issue of Movie Makers you had an interesting and completely accurate editorial, with statistics, on the effects of television on amateur movie making. I'm interested in what you think of the same situation today. M. P. De Regt Denver, Colo. As far as our figures show, the effect of TV on the activities of amateur filmers has slackened off to a more normal balance between the one and the other. For example, in the year 1951 ACL members sent in for review 50,352 feet of film. In 1952, however, this figure had soared to 166,415 feet, more than three and one half times the previous year's total. The most likely reason for this would seem to be that the novelty appeal of television has decreased, so that participation in one's other customary activities is not so deeply cut into by slavish devotion to the little screen.