Amateur Movie Makers (Dec 1926-Dec 1927)

Concerning AMATEURS Ecclesiastic B EST of all do we like the story of the prosperous mid-western city that had reached that stage in its civilization where no further progress could be made without a magnificent church — a fitting edifice in which its citizenry might gather to pay thanks to God for His many benedictions. That this church might be truly expressive of its cultural advance, it was decided that a selection should be made — not from one of the great churches of Europe but from them all. Accordingly its pastor was dispatched straightway to foreign shores with a home movie camera that he might film the leading cathedrals of the Old World. He returned with them this fall and had them projected before the vestrymen of his church and the prominent architects of the city. The film was projected again and again and finally plans were drawn that combined, in the words of the late Frank A. Munsey, "the best features of each." Cine-portraits THE American descendants of a very distinguished English gentleman came recently to the conclusion that it would be a very handsome and significant gesture to their proud progenitor were his portrait to hang from a conspicuous place in their home. Many of the leading portrait painters were consulted but each agreed that portraits made from photographs were rarely satisfactory. They seemed to lack that indefinable something which gives a portrait an atmosphere of the living. Then came a bright young man with the suggestion that possibly from a motion picture a portrait might be painted which would counterfeit the painting made from life. An amateur camera was purchased, the English ancestor was filmed by one of the family who had gone to Great Britain for the summer, and the portrait, we are told, has been most pleasingly completed. Those Family Scenes P RESERVE those family *■ group films — the ones you made last summer showing you and the family splashing happily in cool brooks, the ones you are making these winter nights as you cluster before flaming hearths. They may save you thousands of dollars in alimony. Justice May ordered the Supreme Court of Brooklyn darkened recently that a young Brooklyn dentist might flash on a portable screen which he had brought as part of his defense films which he contended proved the absurdity of his wife's charges of cruelty. For half an hour Justice May sat in silence watching movies the dentist and his friends had made showing him and his wife basking contentedly in summer suns. And when it was all over, the learned justice could not help but express the opinion that motion pictures might be very valuable in legal entanglements, particularly as they helped to revive the past. More Royalty FROM Berlin comes the news that another royal family has joined the ranks of the amateur cinematographers. Princes Hermine, second wife of the former Kaiser, has formed a company with her five children — children of a former marriage — and is making movies for the entertainment of the exclusive little exile villa at Doom. She is apparently her own press agent. She reports that the one-time dictator of Germany occasionally takes a part, stellar or inconsequential, as the occasion may demand. Field Marshal Von Mackensen, the first outside critic to have seen the production, is reported to have been carried away with enthusiasm. More press-agentry, no doubt, but nevertheless those with an eve to business in these parts have been heard to whisper that five or six reels of these films, released for the public's gaze, might make some enterprising producer a pretty fortune. Ship Ahoy! /"AN the Resolute, which sails ^S from New York on its around-the-world cruise on January 6, will be the first marine motion picture club which has come to this department's attention. To its members Paul F. Johnson of Altadena, California will show his latest method of getting effective titles. He makes a double exposure, first of a view such as the mountains, very much under-exposed, and then one of the title board, at normal or somewhat less exposure. He has made one title that way. Quoting his son as authority, he says "it looks like a million dollars." In Orange THE Motion Picture Club of of the Oranges producers of "Love by Proxy," has begun filming it second production which will be shown in Orange some time this month. This year's production will be made on 35 m/m stock, but test films, screen tests and experimental titles are first tried on 16 m/m film. Work has been begun on a Club film library which will contain subjects on both standard and substandard film, including news Twe n t y -three