Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1935)

iHf AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER ta 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER a October 2nd, 1935 H ozv to Make a CINEMA SCREEN for Home or Schoolroom use By “ ACTINOGRAPHIST.” 1. — Construct a rectangular framework, 4 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep, from 2 in. by 1 in. smooth battens. 2. — Tack on a single sheet of sanded three-ply wood. First-quality sheets with knotless surface only should be used. 3. — Sponge surface with methylated spirit. 4. — Immediately make an application of aluminium enamel. This should be evenly put on and the whole surface covered as quickly as possible. 5. — Leave in a dustproof room to dry. 6. — Obtain a roll of 2-in. black insulating tape and attach adhesive side to the face of the screen so that a marginal surround is formed. 7. — Finish the screen by fixing screw-eyes or extended picture-hooks into the upper long battens. Where exceptionally brilliant effects are required, it is advisable to give the plywood surface a preliminary treatment with white undercoating — made by admixing white lead, zinc oxide, patent driers and turpentine in decorator’s proportions ; the same, of course, applies where the projector illuminant is not as powerful as it might be. A soiled screen is not improved by washing, though it may be rubbed with Sorbo sponge and re-surfaced with aluminium “ dope.” Important. — Guests should be arranged as nearly as possible in the centre of the room before the screen, the high efficiency of its surface being less in evidence when the pictures are viewed from a wide angle. Subject for a Story Film By M. A. LOVELL-BURGESS. SO far as I know there has been no amateur cine story film concerning London’s river, and even the pro¬ fessional people seem to have overlooked a subject which is under their very nose. Yet here, at the door of countless London amateur cine clubs, and only a few miles from cine clubs of the Home Counties, is this fascinating other-world of warehouses and docks, barges and liners. Recently members of the Finchley Amateur Cine Society made an interest film of the Thames Docks, and the result is a film that really interests, supplemen¬ ted as it is by the Port of London Authority film of the docks. ft is, however, not the docks, but London’s river which I am putting forward as a worth-while theme for a film ; and not for an interest film but for a story film which could be historical or romantic, adventurous, or an epic of commerce. Entrance to the docks is normally limited to parties, by arrange¬ ment, but any individual worker can take a steamer trip down the river from advise a few amateur cine people to go down from the Upper Pool, preferably without their cameras, and to use their imagination as a jumping-off point for a story film. Who lives in those tall, grey ware¬ houses by the water side ? What sort of life goes on by Wapping Stairs ? What sort of people live on the tugs and the barges ? Cn your left, as you go down the river, you will see the headquarters of the river police, with fast motor launches lying idle outside. That group of rather clumsy looking Dutch eel boats takes you back to the sixteenth century when the Dutch were granted perpetual right to anchor there for the help they gave during the Great Hague. On your right is a German ship flying Hitler’s Swastika, which, in London’s Fool, seems to take on a faintly piratical air. A little farther on is a brightlypainted Russian ship, just in from the Baltic, and behind her a ship has her funnel painted with the flag of Spain. of craft ; barges with terra-cotta red sails, laden with timber ; drifters, dredgers, lighters and Dutch passengerboats on their way to Rotterdam. And so on down the river, as I went last week, past the reclaimed marshes of Dagenham, to where the Thames broad¬ ens to the sea. Would it be difficult to capture something of the river’s glamour in a story film ? Remember how Priestley, in ” Angel Pavement,” used London’s river for prologue and epilogue ? The professional film people, as you may have seen in your newspapers, are at last making a story film in which the Thames is the principal actor. Arnold Ridley, the playright, and George Cooper have written the script, and a cargo of film actors are on the river. I don’t know anything about the story they are filming, but I know there is plenty of scope for the amateur to step in and, with no great expense, capture romance and glamour. 28 342