Amateur Cine World (March 1936)

the STORY FILM portraits of the family appearing in the centre of a revolving catherine wheel. The editing was slick, the interest was held well, but unfortunately he did not know when to stop. For just when the film should have drawn naturally to its close we are shown a scene in the drawing room, the projector is set up and we are treated to a collection of shots taken on holiday, this section being nearly a third as long as the rest of the film—a sad anticlimax. Another story film received dealt with unemployment, the man’s quest for work and the eventual landing of the job. But the treatment was hackneyed. It does not much matter that we have seen shots of feet shuffling along dejectedly, and similar shots, many times ; the treatment was wrong having regard to the stipulation as to length. It should have been symbolic rather than factual, for the limited footage does not give the producer much opportunity to enable us to get sufficiently well acquainted with the protagonists of the little drama to take an interest in their vicissitudes. The producer worked on too big a canvas. The maker of the Dufaycolor film is to be congratulated on having used colour to admirable effect. In monochrome it would have been interesting but ordinary; here the colours are an integral part of the film. Mr. Myers is fortunate in his location, a beautiful old country house and grounds. The film is mellow and leisurely, the brief record of a summer afternoon. There is tea in the garden, horse-riding, bathing. One beautiful shot stands out— mother, at a window of the house, waving to husband and small son, framed in a profusion film competition may be, it nevertheless restricts the amateur’s freedom of expression. He must conform to certain rules and either produce a film expressly for the competition or doctor an earlier production so that it may come within its scope. If the subject is not one that the entrant would choose for himself, if it is a subject with which he is not completely in sympathy, the resultant film cannot possibly be entirely successful. Hite one wide in scope the subject for a Nevertheless, competitions are extremely useful in that they provide amateurs with the means of assessing the comparative value of their films. The question therefore arises : How can we best preserve that usefulness while at the same time removing the limitations that a set subject entails ? We cannot supply a complete answer but offer a compromise that, we hope, will appeal to all amateur moviemakers. We have decided to award ten handsome plaques, to be won outright, to the makers of the ten best films Detail from prizewinning 16mm. film. of flowers. The editing is competent but we do not agree with the author’s use of mixes. They seemed unnecessary. The 8 mm. runner-up showed a slice in the life of the family from rising in the morning to father’s departure for the office. It is a pleasant little production, much of its effectiveness being due to the fact that the author had concentrated on a series of small incidents instead of attempting to show a day in the family life. It was therefore easier to make the film move naturally. The people do homely little things in a homely way. Will Your Film be One of the AMATEUR: CINE WORLD 10 BEST FILMS OF 1936: submitted to us during 1936. The films may be of any size, any length, any subject. They will be judged entirely on their merits. Send us your film in the usual way for review any time between now and December 31st, 1936. It will be returned to you in the usual way, but there will be no indication, other than the published review, of what your chances are of gaining one of the awards. Obviously, we cannot select the ten best films | from those submitted to us, until we have seen | all of them for the current year. Our critics will, of course, have taken notes of each film sent to them and during January, 1937, will make a list of the outstanding films they have seen throughout | the year. We shall then request the makers of the twenty-five best to re-submit them for examination. If a film is not awarded a Leader it will be obvious that, as it stands, it will not be one of those from which the final selection is made. But in this case we hope that our criticisms will enable the maker to improve the film so that it does come up to the requisite standard. 559