Amateur Cine World (November 1936)

Ky /ms ? film is to portray what other media cannot, and, in my opinion, amateurs are leaving countless fields unexplored when they content themselves with settings representing drawing-rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. , They should allow the legitimate theatre to present such scenes and utilise the film to show the limitless settings provided by the world itself at home and abroad, and into such settings they should weave their narratives. In doing so the student will be approaching far nearer to the perfect film than his professional friends, for he will be giving an opportunity to the film to show what it really can do and he will be making an important contribution to the heavy task of breaking down the link which has bound the film 4 forceful picture but to the stage for so long. the background is Maybe such a film would deal dead and flat. A bank with the romance of aman who works & fone aT have half the night on newspaper presses, ae: or it might be a mystery story concerning a girl whose occupation is the controlling of a complicated robot that knits stockings. Possibly, a dramatic plot can be woven around paper-making machinery and if you have ever seen the colossal plant which turns out miles of rolls of paper, you will realise some of the possibilities offered by such a spectacular background. Agriculture, shipyards, railway stations, landscape gardening, motor racing, dog breeding, hand-weaving, house-building, manicure, crossing the channel, a ten-days’ foreign tour, each and every normal event can offer possibilities for filmic backgrounds, but that does not mean that the entire film must be set against any particular machine, ship or spinning wheel. Impersonal Film Stars What it does mean is that the ingenious director should try to plan his scenario so that the maximum number of interesting and significant realistic settings appear logically in his story and, moreover, not only appear in it, but play their parts in it. It should not be thought that a cast can be filled only by actors and actresses, for, properly handled, a railway train, an ocean liner, or a cotton mill can play a part in a film narrative that will be more impressive than the performance of the most highly paid film star in the world. In addition, such impersonal stars play double parts, for not only do they affect the destinies of the human characters in a story, according to the skill of the director in the creation of his scenario, but they also mould the fundamental character of characters—and it is this important point which the director has to reveal in his fictional-documentary production. It is well known that climate affects the characteristics of the peoples of the nations and also that their occupations are reflected in their lives to a similar degree. Consequently, it is the task of the director to portray such national or local mannerisms, lines of thought and tempo of living and to make these responsible for the drama or the comedy he is weaving around the cast. In this way he will be featuring his backgrounds equally with his human players and in doing so he will be making a major contribution to film production. Personally, I should be drawn into the cinema far more readily if the star of the feature film was the ‘‘ Queen Mary,’’ or the ‘Royal Scot” than if it happened to be Tilly Tonsils, the Blue-Rinsed Blonde. But if I saw that Tilly Tonsils was co-starring with the “ Queen Mary,” or the ‘ Royal Scot” in a fictional-documentary production that was set in the world of reality, I should positively leap to see it. In conclusion, therefore, I would remind the amateur director that the opportunity of developing this type of picture is more accessible to him than to the professional and I trust he may take advantage of it in his own individual way. Next month I propose to develop the student's possible lines of approach to production on even more original lines, so thes there will be no possibility at all of his copying either his colleagues or his professional rivals. PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 398 FOR TEST PAPERS SCOTTISH FILM FESTIVAL “WHE Hon. Anthony Asquith will adjudicate in the "| Fourth Scottish Amateur Film Festival, conducted by the Amateur Cinematography Panel of the Scottish Film Council. The last date for entries is December 31st, 1936, and the last date for sending in films, January 31st, 1937. The final adjudication and public show takes place on February 20th. Address entries to Mr. Ian S. Ross, 80, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, C.1. Entries are divided into three classes : Fiction (story films, photoplays) open to all amateurs and cine clubs in Great Britain (Prize : £10, presented by Amateur Cine World) ; Non-Fiction (documentary, instructional) open to all amateurs and cine clubs in Great Britain, and any type of film open to amateurs resident in Scotland, 375