American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

8mm. In the Air (Confirmed from Page 179) other way; after all, you know, the Government says "Thou shalt not fly thy plane nearer to any other plane than 300 feet — " and there's a lot of good, sound common-sense in that ruling. After all, you don't want to get so intent on your shot that while you're making it, your two ships tangle in the air! The telephoto is a godsend there. Using a 1%-inch telephoto on my eight, I've frequently been able to bring other planes apparently so close to the camera you could see and recognize the pilot. Yet at all times we stayed the prescribed 300 feet apart! Choosing subjects for aerial movies is one matter where you've pretty well got to take what the occasion offers. There's an endless fascination to shots of cloud formations, especially when they're big, puffy white cumulus clouds, maybe towering thousands of feet above you, against a dark blue sky. The interplay of light and shadow on a cloud-bank photographed from above is fascinating, too, especially if you fly over occasional holes in the clouds and get a peep of ground below. Other ships in the air, whether flying conventionally or stunting, can do a lot to liven up your air sequence, especially in Kodachrome. Get a brightlycolored plane against a background of clouds, or blue sky, or mottled brownand-green farmlands, and you've an eyecatching Kodachrome shot. Shooting at objects on the ground, it is best to pick out something that is very plainly discernible. Bays and harbors are of course fine subjects — San Francisco bay from the air is one of the most impressive sights I've ever seen — but be careful now-days about using your camera when flying over some of Uncle Sam's Naval ports; with the best of intentions you might include something the authorities wouldn't like displayed on film, and you're very likely to get a sharp note from the military or naval intelligence department, who keep a close watch on such things. Rivers, lakes, dams like Boulder and Grand Coulee, and so on, are other plainly-evident features of any aerial landscape, and are fine camera-subjects. But my favorite are mountains. They're always picturesque — different each time you see them — in every different lighting and weather-condition. And they're so big they stand out handily in the finder — no small advantage, believe me. Perhaps for this reason, I've filmed an unusual number of mountains all over Western America — from Pike's Peak to Mt. Rainier and Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the United States. An aerial shot of one of these mountains is an impressive lesson in how small and insignificant we humans are. We fly along in our planes, proud that the power of our ship and the skill of our piloting have lifted us to an altitude of eight or ten thousand feet above the earth. Then we come to the mountain — and find it towering nearly a mile (sometimes more) above us. In reality or on the screen, it's an impressive sight! END Idea Exchange (Continued from Page 182) haphazardly into the picture and suddenarrange themselves to spell out your title. For 8mm., where you can't use the upside-down camera trick, you can sometimes work this by stop-motion animation, shooting a frame or so and then moving the balls a bit, shooting another frame, moving the balls in a bit MOTION PICTURE EQUIPMENT Studio and Laboratory Tested Since 1929 Automatic Developing Machine Complete in Every Detail Immediate Delivery HOLLYWOOD USERS CAN ATTEST MACHINE'S SUPERIORITY — USERS ALL OVER THE WORLD CAN RECOMMEND THIS DEVELOPING MACHINE. • SENSITESTER • SOUND RECORDING SYSTEMS NEW ADDRESS ART REEVES 1515 Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood, Cal., U. S. A. Cable Address: ARTREEVES more, and so on. If you have a spotj light, it's a good place to use it, for h sharp beam of the spotlight will m; kc the balls look round, and throw inter esting shadows. R. D. THURBY. Home Movie Previews (Continued from Page 180) number (this is printed on the edgil of the carton). Then, if you are rea-j sonably sure of your exposure technique hold all your film until the end of ths vacation and send all of it to the process ing-plant together, so it goes through toi gether, under uniform processing co tions. In the particular scenes in question, either the color-balance of thd ' film itself or of the laboratory on Um day it was processed, leaned too fafij toward the blue. All told, however, "Boots and Saddle' takes place among the most exception^ ally fine vacation films we've ever screened. We'll be anxious to see more of Miss Marx's filming. Movie Clubs (Continued from Page 181) this film an average rating of 96$ . The Club's new officers were subsequently installed at the Annual Banquet, held on March 19th. Photographic dealers in the Philadelphia area provided a total of 21 door prizes, and the member? and their guests, over 200 strong, were1 addressed by Judge Earnest DuPille oni' his life and membership in the Adven-. turers' Club. Film Fare included a. Kodachrome film on the Boy Scouts, pre-, pared from a script by Arthur Gale. A.C.L., who also spoke on scripts and preparation, and the showing of the^ First, Second and Third Prize films from, the Club's Annual Contest, presented. with synchronized music and soundeffects. B. N. LEVENE, President. Bull-Fight for L. A. Cinema Club The program at the March meeting of the Los Angeles Cinema Club was more than ordinarily varied. New member Gaetano Faillace presented a thrilling Kodachrome film of a bull-fight filmed on his recent visit to Mexico City; Ray and Marguerite McMillin, a beautifullyfilmed picture of Yosemite, also in Kodachrome; Ray Patin presented "Flying Feathers," an out-of-the-ordinary film in black-and-white 8mm. demonstrating the expert skill required in archery; and the film part of the program closed with President Hight's Kodachrome film ol Glacier National Park. The balance of the evening was devoted to an innovation — a "Ciner a Quiz" — -which provided a lot of real fun as well as information. The winner received 50 feet of Kodachrome, which was captured by Mr. McMillin. JACQUES SHANDLER. Secretary. 196 April, 1941 American Cinematographer