Amateur Cine World (October 1936)

OUR CRITICS REVIEW. READERS FILMS Learn by other amateurs’ experience! You will find our reviewers’ comments and su estions Bs, 8 STEPS: By ROSELEA C.C. 220ft. 9.5mm. This film is designed as a record of various dances by members of a certain dancing academy but as such is scarcely very successful. Dancing offers excellent opportunities for attractive composition and rhythmic cutting, but if the purpose of the film is the study of dancing then it is preferable that the production should be straightforward. That is not to say that, cinematically, it cannot be ‘thoroughly satisfying ; merely that the cameraman should concentrate on showing the steps clearly and letting the composition take care of itself. For this reason cut-in shots of waving arms, billowing dresses and dancing legs should be cut to a minimum. They might be in place in an impression of a dance, but not in a film designed for the conscientious study of the dance. For this reason, too, the full figure should be included. The head and shoulders of a ballerina floating across the screen can be very pleasing, but such a shot does not teach one anything about the steps. All this, however, certainly does not mean that the dances should be filmed from one position only. It should be varied to show the various sections to the best advantage. The ‘winter’ and ‘butterfly’ sequences fail in, this respect. The background, too, is distracting ; there is too much definition in it. A beach or a rolling very helpful to you in the making of your own films. or length and of any subject. They should be packed in film containers and addressed to the Editor, AMATEUR CINE WORLD, 4-7, Greville Street, London, E.C.1. Noms-de-plume may be used if desired, but please do not forget to enclose your name and address and the Emphasis is thrown on that they appear in silhouette. Films sent for review may be of any size cost of return postage. hill topped with banks of clouds make very good backgrounds. Next time the academy wants a film made of its pupils we suggest the club takes them out to seashore or countryside. Further the academy should give facilities for plenty of camera rehearsals. One gets the impression from this film that the cameraman just had to take his chance, snooping round here and there to get what shots he could without any co-operation at all from the dancers. A public performance before friends and relatives is certainly the wrong time for making such a film. It does not give the cameraman a chance. We suggest, too, that some of the shots are taken at 32 or 64 frames a second. Not only will the slow motion facilitate the study of the steps but will give an ‘ethereal’ touch to the dances. The ‘Unknown Fairy’ sequence might come earlier on in the reel. It is brighter than the other material (chiefly because the shots are closer) and will help to leaven the film a little. The ‘Irish steps’ sequence should come at the end because, presumably, the dancers are not members of the academy, the work of whom this film is designed to show. AROUND the CONTINENT of AFRICA By R. WATKINS PITCHFORD. 16mm. 3,200ft. ‘““T have not forgotten that ‘qui s’excuse s’accuse,’ ”’ writes the author in a delightful letter accompanying one reel from this film, ‘“‘but perhaps you will allow me a few words of explanation. I think you may find the film lacking in cohesion—if so, it is because I was quite unable to plan even the sketchiest of scenarios. I had literally to shoot where and when I could—sometimes from a moving horse, sometimes perched on a dizzy crag with my heart in my mouth! Hence camera movement and lack of prearrangement ... I had no previous experience, either of my camera or of the country where the lighting conditions are, of course, extraordinary and vary enormously with the position of the sun.” Now if we had read that letter before we. screened the film (but it is not our practice ; we see the film first and read the descriptive notes after) we should have felt rather like Mr. Watkins Pitchford on his dizzy crag, except that our hearts would have been in our boots. Difficult, unfamiliar conditions and no experience with the camera do not bode well for the film. But the fact that we didn’t feel that way after seeing the film is largely explained by a later sentence in his letter: ‘‘ I cut in accordance with your oft-repeated advice almost a third of this reel I send you, though it broke my heart to do it.” the figures by exposing so 328