Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1933)

July 26th, 1933 The AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER p 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER o NEWS, NOTES AND MATTERS OF IN¬ TEREST FOR ALL CINEMATOGRAPHERS USING AMATEUR CIN£ APPARATUS. Cinematography Camera Angles Make Films Interesting By NORMAN HUNTER. TAKING scenes from varied and unusual viewpoints is one cer¬ tain way to increase the interest value of a film. Next time you go to a cinema notice how the profes¬ sional producers make use of camera angles. How they use them to give variety to long scenes that might otherwise become monotonous. How they introduce them for dramatic effect and to create atmosphere. Then consider, when you make your next film, how you can shoot scenes from above, from below, from under a tree, with a framing of foliage. Here are some of the ways in which the angle of the camera can put light and shade into a picture. Suppose you are filming someone gardening. Take a straightforward shot, then film the dog looking up. Follow that by an upward shot of your subject as the dog sees him. You might get another unusual angle from low down, near the spade, and film earth being thrown over the top of the camera. Another close-up, look¬ ing straight down and taking in a foot, your own or the actual gardener’s, with perhaps a weed or a worm, would make an effective little shot. In a holiday or travel film, if you want to indicate the fact that you are going from place to place, without just stating the fact baldly in a title, you can do it very effectively by putting in between your scenes a semi-close-up, taken from the ground level, of feet walking past the camera, or of the wheels of a car either passing the camera or else revolving in front of it ; the latter effect could best be obtained by jacking up a wheel and running the engine slowly while the wheel was filmed. If your camera can be cranked back for the purpose of dissolving one scene into the next, this revolving wheel device would make a very good means of effecting transition from scene to scene, thus giving the impression of a motor tour round the sights of whatever spot is being filmed. You can still make a " mix ” or “ lap dissolve ” even if your camera cannot be worked backwards, by simply retiring to a convenient cupboard or other makeshift dark-room, opening the camera, after having filmed your first scene, feeding the film back a few inches and then filming the next scene. In this case it will be necessary to fade out one scene and fade in the next by closing and opening the lens diaphragm as the scene is being taken. Shots of scenery or seascapes which do not of themselves contain sufficient interest to warrant being shown, and yet which you may wish to include in your holiday film for the sake of completeness, will be much more effec¬ tive if they are taken over somebody’s shoulder, the side of the person’s head as he or she looks at the scene forming a partial frame to the picture. If you want to get an unexpected slant on a series of pictures of places you are visiting try this way : The film starts with a close-up of the open pages of a guide-book, the name of the place being readable and doing duty as a title. Gradually move the camera back and reveal the hands of the person reading the book, the shot being taken over his or her shoulder in a downward direction. Finally, let the reader slowly lower the book out of sight and at the same time slowly bring the camera up, thus bringing in the first scene of the place mentioned in the guide-book. The reader has of course been seated on the spot to be photographed. When you want to switch over to a series of scenes of some other place, go through much the same procedure, but alter the details. Replace the guide-book with a postcard of the place or by a bus time-table, then pan up with the camera to a shot of a bus drawing up. Then you can bring in a few scenes taken from the moving bus. Here, too, it will often add to the interest of such scenes if you allow a small portion of the bus to appear in a corner of the picture. Large buildings look most imposing when photographed close to, with the camera directed up their walls. The receding lines of the building and " Surf-riding .” This popular pastime at many seaside resorts affords the amateur cine¬ matographer a good action subject with a thrill. The ideal position for the camera-man is in another boat travelling at the same pace as the “ surf -rider." 93 25