Amateur Cine World (December 1934)

EDITORto hisREADERS Christmas at home, will be giving at least one film show to the family and friends before the holly and mistletoe are taken down. And if he is spending Christmas away from home he will probably find the portability of the modern projector a great temptation. We do not need much inducement to set about planning a really super show for the festive season. It is the opportunity we have been waiting for. But as well as showing films, are many of us going to take them this Christmas? We read a good deal about amateur cinematography being an all-the-year-round hobby and how fast lenses and film make cinematography possible in the dull, dark days. Nevertheless the individual, as apart from the club member, is inclined to limit his winter activities to editing, ‘titling, furbishing up the films he has taken in the summer, and projection. He is reluctant to embark on indoor work either because he has not. sufficient equipment, because he hesitates to tread on unfamiliar ground or simply because, not caring to make a story film proper, he does not know what to film. . Simple little personal scenarios, embracing the family and particularly the king of the family, Baby, may, occur to him from time to time, but he can argue, and quite rightly, that these family films can be taken as well out of doors as in—probably better with his present limited experience and knowledge—and certainly with less bother. Again, unless he is of a technical turn of mind and cares to experiment with artificial lighting, he needs a definite reason why he should take a film indoors and not out. And the only satisfactory reason can be that the film will be such that it only could be taken indoors. Problem : find the subject that lends itself . to interior film work. In a few weeks that subject will be enveloping us in its kindly charm—C hristmas! It provides us with a practical and ready made scenario, it gives us an opportunity of filming the family at their happiest, it presents us with material for a film in which the characters all have something to DO. Too often personal films taken out of doors in ideal conditions Pictiisenas a fo every amateur, if he is spending carried out within four walls. fail to get over because the people in them are so patently undirected, usually because the cameraman has no clear idea of what he wants them to do. The trouble with taking a film of the daily commonplace is that the picture is inclined to take on some of the qualities of the commonplace, too. We are not all of us gifted with that penetrating vision and imagination that transmutes the ordinary into something out of the usual. Not all of us have a flair for the right angle and dramatic effect.. And so it is that, having failed, maybe, to make an out-of-door personal film record with which they can be honestly satisfied, many amateurs hesitate to film indoors under conditions with which they are even less familiar. They can’t think of a plot that would justify their doing so. Workable plots are, in all conscience, hard enough to evolve without restricting them to being It needs very little skill in scenario-writing, however, to prepare a simple film story with the Christmas festivities as the subject. In this issue the reader will find suggestions for suitable scenarios, some of which he should certainly be able to carry out; all of them should be productive of ideas. The simple lighting equipment necessary is easy to use and inexpensive to buy. There is every reason, therefore, why your indoor film should be a real success. If you have not yet done any interior work (and you are not by way of being the compleat amateur cinematographer until you have) Christmas is the finest time of the year to begin. And if you are out of the beginner’s stage you will find making a Christmas film a fascinating exercise for, released from much of the bother of finding a suitable story, you can concentrate better on the mechanics of the production. But a word of warning. The script must be prepared well in advance and the film taken, preferably, before the festivities proper begin. There is so much to do, see and enjoy, sO many pleasant distrac tions, that unless you have your plans well cut and dried they are almost certain to go awry. A happy Christmas to you all and good shooting! Nature puts on her snowy mantle and gives the movie maker an opportunity of filming her in a rich new guise. 389