Amateur Cine World (September 1934)

THE EDITOR to hisREADERS Competition has aroused widespread interest and appreciation at once for its novelty and for the incentive it gives to better work. There are still too many amateur movie-makers who shoot haphazardly on the pretext that for certain types of film it is impossible to prepare any scheme on paper first. But there is no subject for which some sort of scheme cannot be prepared beforehand. Certainly there is no film which is not the better for it. Since, however, there appears to be an impression that in certain cases a rough plan is impossible, or, if it is possible, is undesirable in that it fetters the free expression of the cameraman when he comes across scenes and incidents that he has not provided for, it may be as well to pursue the subject further. How, it may be asked—and, indeed, has—can one conceivably prepare a script for, say, a holiday film of a place where one has never previously been and when one has no clear idea of how the holiday is to be spent ? What possible value can such a script have? Surely the only course is to film things as they come (provided, of course, they are good cinematic material) and weld the shots into a cohesive whole ? . But now it is our turn to ask a question. How can you weld the shots into a cohesive whole if there is no central idea or theme running through them? Yes, we know you have cultivated a visual memory and are constantly bearing in mind as you shoot how scenes and episodes can be linked together. You remember the scenes you have shot and are always on the look-out for others that will match or contrast with them. You realise the value of apt titles and how they may be made at once an excuse and a means for finding a place for a shot that might otherwise have to be omitted. But all this is a straining to build up something that is not there—a meaning, theme, plot or atmosphere. You may succeed but how much easier your work would be, and how much more effective the result, if your film has been taken to plan, even though it be a very rudimentary and _ incomplete one ! But this does not answer our correspondent’s question of how you prepare this plan if, to hark back to the instance quoted above, you intend r “HE announcement of Amateur Cine World’s first making a holiday film of a place you have never before been to. Well, let us assume we are bound for Lesser Stick-in-the-Mud, a faded but still rather noisy seaside resort. We must decide on the theme of our film. Is it to feature persons or places or is itto combine both and, if so, in what relation ? Is it to feature the scenic beauties of Lesser Stick-in-the-Mud? But we do not know if Lesser Stick-in-the-Mud has any scenic beauties. We rather think it hasn’t. We buy a guide book to find out. But Lesser Stick-in-the-Mud gives such a glowing description of itself that we cannot believe all it says. The pictures in the guide book, however, look rather dull, so we decide that it is of not much use to make a scenic. ‘The emphasis, we decide, shall be laid on persons, not necessarily members of the family alone. We decide to feature people rather than places. How do people spend their time at this resort ? How do they enjoy themselves ? We make a note to comb the beach and promenade for types. Are there any carnivals or other glad goings-on? We write to the publicity secretary to find out. Can we get a little humour into the film by contrasting various types of holiday-makers ? We make a note of the idea, for when we get to Lesser Stick-in-the-Mud we know very well there will be the temptation to shoot haphazardly and in the excitement of filming we shall probably forget many little ideas and schemes that occur to us now if we do not jot them down. But so far we have ‘concentrated on persons exclusively. We must get scenic interest of some kind into the film. The watering-place is run on_ conservative, oldfashioned lines. Probably the Sundays are rather dull for the guide book tells us Sunday games are not allowed. How about contrasting a scene depicting the desolation of Sunday with the bustle of Saturday. And so we go on. We make no hard-and-fast shot by shot scenario, for this is obviously impossible, but we decide previously on the general theme so that we know what to work to and we jot down ideas that may be amplified, re-arranged or discarded, when we get to the actual scene of our An arresting foreground makes this shot eras : porkcularyin Visite Having an pressive. This outlineof thetheme ** foreground ’’ is considerably we are safeguarded more than a A trill Nghia from taking integra art of the picture. eXtraneous — shots.