Amateur Cine World (December 1936)

LLOLIIT, AR TO Hit READERS THE EDiTOR 70 His BEAD eS Announcing THE MINIATURE CAMERA WORLD a new monthly magazine This beautifully produced magazine will be obtainable from all bookstalls and photographic dealers, price 6d. monthly. | Handsomely illustrated and printed throughout on art paper it will contain every month practical articles by experts in all branches of miniature camerawork. Minicam photography is the new photography. ‘‘ The Miniature Camera World ” will be a worthy guide to it, modern as the art itself, but essentially practical and informative. Full details will be published in next month’s “Amateur Cine World.” THE MINIATURE CAMERA WORLD A Link House Publication. THE AMATEUR CINEMATOGRAPHER’S DIARY is now ready The only diary for amateur movie-makers. 160 pages of vital information on all branches of amateur cinematography : Exposure, Film Speeds, Smethurst Highlight System, Characteristics of Neg./Pos. and Reversal Film, Colour Films, Artificial Lighting, Lens Characteristics, Depth of Focus, Filters, Home Processing, Projection, Screens, Editing, Associative Cutting, Cross Cutting, Fade, Lap-Dissolve, Splicing, Titling, Trick Effects, Customs’ Regulations, The Law and the Cine Societies, Make-Up, etc., etc.; General Information Section, 16-page sectional map of the British Isles, printed in colour. The diary is available in three bindings : P.V. art leather cloth, 2/6; morocco grain Persian leather, 3/-, special brown polished croc. calf, 3/6. All three editions can be ordered from bookstalls, booksellers and photographic dealers, or, if preferred, may be ordered direct from Amateur Cine World, Link House, 4-8, Greville Street, E.C.1. A Happy | Sinai to all Movte Makers— Good Shooting and Good Screening | § tiny Four FLlundred feet ¢ N another page we print, with permission, a letter from a cine C ) sees which has the courage, honesty and good sense to admit to a failure. The society is the Doncaster Amateur Cine Society and the failure is their film, ‘‘ Healing Through the Ages.” By stating this we in no way pillory them. On the contrary, publication of their candid admission cannot do else but reflect most creditably on them. = is a society which has made a mistake, owned up to it and profited yi it. No More Epics Such ready acceptance of criticism is rare in amateur cine circles. It is proof of sincerity of purpose and a capacity for searching selfanalysis. It is these qualities which distinguish the creative film artist from the mere film-maker. We are confident, therefore, that Doncaster’s next production will be a really worthwhile film ; whatever its shortcomings it will be significant. But it will not be another “epic.” It was intended that ‘‘ Healing Through the Ages’’ should merit this nebulous description. And here let us hasten to add that though the film is a failure, it is a magnificent failure. An immense amount of time, money and effort was poured into it ; it speaks eloquently of loyal teamwork. But no more epics for Doncaster. Commonsense dictates that this resolution should be passed by every society that aims at a creditable output. But before we can pass a resolution we must be sure that we understand its terms. Just what is an ‘“‘epic’’? The dictionary defines it as the narration of a heroic event in a lofty style. The usage of the professional cinema has debased its meaning to anything big and blatant. What was Homeric has become brass-lunged vulgarity. We have mother love epics, young love epics—any film, in fact, that has a dynamic theme, even though it may not have dynamic treatment, and any film in which there are a thousand extras or more, is meet to be described as “ epic.’” Were Homer alive he would give thanks for his blindness. Mentality of the Audience Accepting, while lamenting, the misuse of the word, we find that in the cinema to-day it refers to a picture on a large scale. Broad effects can only be obtained on a big canvas. A “ big”’ film must have a substantial footage. Despite the recent trend to longer pictures, the average screen time of the professional film, epic or no, is one and a quarter hours. This screen time may be a convention, a capitulation to the box office. It is an indication of the industry’s assessment of the mentality of cinema audiences ; the average film play, it infers, cannot hold their interest for longer than one and a quarter hours. But note too, that the inference is that it cannot hold them for less. Now to last that time the 9.5 mm. or 16 mm. film must run for six or seven reels. The average length of the amateur film play is one reel, though we sometimes get two reels and occasionally three. This footage has become as much a convention as the one-and-a-quarter hours professional film play, but with much less justification. |The professionals have found that it is not practicable for a feature film to (Continued on next page) 405