Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1953)

MOVIE MAKERS 275 each other. Cinerama's inventor, Fred Waller, for example, uses his chapter to describe the Waller Flexible Gunnery Trainer, the forefather of Cinerama and unquestionably quite a gadget during World War II. But, personally, I would have preferred a few revealing backstage glimpses of Cinerama itself. By far the most informative article, from the standpoint of the movie amateur, is John Norling's chapter on 3-D photography and projection. Norling begins by ticking off his empirical tolerances on stereoscopic presentations — samples: images from the two projectors must not differ in size by more than 14 °f 1 percent; vertical misalignment must not be greater than 3 inches on an 18 foot screen; camera convergence angle should be kept under 2 degrees except under very unusual conditions; interaxial lens spacings much greater than the human interocular distance (about 2% inches) cause the "miniaturization," false depth and distortion which are characteristic of recent 3-D movies. Norling goes on to describe five basic stereo cameras, including his own, and concludes with a very interesting proposal designed to eliminate the often-troublesome "stereo window" by means of vignetted screen margins, possibly in combination with a wide screen. The compatability of wider screens and 3-D is mentioned by several of the authors. Even Natural Vision's Milton Gunzburg, who, understandably, writes with a sizable chip on his shoulder, offers the peace pipe to the new aspect ratios. But there is far more dissension than camaraderie among the writers; and one finishes the book with a feeling of having attended a verbal wrestling match rather than a technical symposium.— Jack E. Gieck, ACL. Let's build a carpod! [Continued from page 265] bottom cross-piece (mortising it in as I did is a refinement, but it is not necessary), determine by trial and error the platform height which will best serve you when your pan head and the camera are mounted in final place. (I like to have the lens high enough to include in the bottom of the picture some suggestion of the car's hood and the hood ornament; makes for better perspective with the middle and background elements.) Mark this height on one of the uprights; and then, using a spirit level, carry this same height across to the other unit, cut both off as indicated and mount the platform. All of the joins, incidentally, in my construction of this carpod were made with wood screws, which I recommend over nails. You are now ready to determine, again by test, the requisite length of the metal straps (see Figs. 1, 2 and 3). The straps I used were % of an inch wide and 3/16 of an inch thick, and I began by installing their slotted ends on the lengthened screws under the glove compartment. Letting the straps slant upward naturally from these fastenings. I moved the carpod (complete with its attached camera) forward and backward until I had found the most suitable distance to position the camera lens behind the windshield. A distance of about 1 inch in my case still left plenty of room behind the carpod for slipping in and out of the front seat. Measurements were then made for the shape and size of the wooden angle braces, these were fashioned and then attached both to the top platform (see Fig. 1) and at the sides to the uprights (see Fig. 3). The outer ends of the metal straps were then cut to size, drilled and screwed to the undersurfaces of the braces. Each make of car will probably offer a differing height relation between the floor, the underside of the dashboard (where you will anchor the metal straps) and clearance above the bottom edge of the windshield. In cases where the camera platform has to be higher than the one pictured here, the angle brackets may become too large vertically to look neat. In this event I would suggest putting a right-angled twist in the metal straps so that you can fasten them to the sides of the upright members. You can then limit the size of the angle braces to one which will steady the platform. The relatively low level of my own camera platform (as you will see in Figs. 2 and 3) was made possible further by the fact that I was using underneath the tripod head itself a universal ball-swivel base (see Fig 3), which is mounted in turn on the three metal brackets seen on the platform in Fig. 2. Where only a detachable pan-and-tilt head is employed, the height upward will be lessened and the mounting, of course, will be effected through a standard 1/4/20 tripod screw. And now, in closing, a few brief words on using your carpod to its best advantage. In the first place, steady though it is as a camera support, you will get still better results if you shoot at the next higher camera speed than the one you intend to project at; in other words, shoot at 24 frames per second for 16 fps projection, or at 32 fps for a 24 fps screening. Tends to smooth out the bumps. Second, you will get added smoothness, as well as increased field of view and a better sense of movement, if you use a wide angle lens in all of your moving camera shots. And finally, don't train your camera at an angle of more than 20 degrees right or left of the line of the car's movement; beyond that the images will be blurred and jittery. COAAPCO CUP No more groping for hidden slots! No more slipping of film on the take-up! The Compco Reel, with its exclusive, patented "Compco Clip" makes threading fast and foolproof, even in the dark! The leader slips smoothly into the "Compco Clip" . . . stays put for winding . . . yet slides out after unreeling! In all 8 mm and 16 mm sizes. Just ask your dealer for "the reel with the Compco Clip!" t^ompCo CORPORATION 2251 W. St. Poul Ave. § Chicago 47 Manufacturers of line photographic equipment since 193? DISTINCTIVE EXPERT TITLES and EDITING For the Amateur and Professional 16 mm. — 8 mm. 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