American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

Lighting Switchboard (Continued from Page 368) master, a numbered amber pilot lights up by the master handle. Across the center of the board is a row of calibrated, interlocking dimmer handles. Four of these control Ward Leonard 110-step, 1000-2000-Watt dualrated dimmers. These dimmers have a capacity of 2000 Watts but will dim a 1000-Watt out without any ballast. When a 500-Watt ballast is connected across them they will dim a 500-Watt load completely out. The large handle on the right is the master handle. Directly below these dimmer handles are the circuit switches. These are Frank Adams theatre switches and they are two-pole double-throw with off position. They are rated at 30 amps. When this switch is in the up position, the circuit is on "hot" without the dimmer. The center position is off, and the down position connects the dimmer into the circuit. Below this switch is a fuse and a green pilot-light, indicating when the control circuit is on. In the bottom row is the ballast switch with its read pilot light. The line switch in the lower righthand corner is a Mole-R;chardson brush type switch such as is used on their 150 amp. arcs. Kleigl pockets arc installed in the side of the console for each of the dimmer circuits as well as various "hot" outlets. A dummy plug is inserted in pocket No. 8 when it is being used as the master. The entiic equipment is mounted on an iron framework covered with sheet steel with shelt-x ventilating inserts. Doors are provided to give access to the dimmer contacts and the ballast lamps. The front panels are of burled duralumin. The chassis is mounted on solid-rubber wheels and has a tongue for towing, and lifting bars on the sides. A small work light is also provided to aid the operator in seeing the calibration marks on the dimmer handles. END. Background Action (Continued 'from Page 369) paratively few patrons may actually be there. We can use the same trick — and get the same result — in filming scenes of a similar nature. Properly grouped, a skillful director or cinematographer can make an economically small handful of extras seem like a much larger crowd. As a matter of fact, I have only once seen an actual crowd packed tightly together like sardines. That was some years ago in Naples, when I saw Mussolini addressing an enormous audience in that city's great square. But everywhere else, I've noticed that no matter how many people get together, regardless of race, color or nationality, the average human likes a bit of elbow-room, even in a crowd. It's a psychological fact we can put to work to good advantage in filming our crowd scenes! Another highly important aspect of coordinating the background and foreground elements of a scene is avoiding distracting tonal contrasts. This is a particularly ticklish thing for a director to guard against, for he is not likely to know the photographic values of fabrics, etc., as thoroughly as does his colleague at the camera. Therefore, when the director is picking out extras to carry on background action in closer shots of his principals, he will, if he is wise, check this detail thoroughly with his director of photography. And the man at the camera should certainly tell him, if this advice isn't asked, that this girl in the blue dress is likely to make a distracting, light-toned spot in the background, and it would be better to use that other one in the photographically darker green costume. This detail is becoming increasingly important in making Technicolor pictures. The color camera, as we're beginning to learn, has peculiar affinities for certain colors. And these affinities do not always coincide with the visual appearance of a fabric. Often two fabrics which are visually very similar — even identical — shades will photograph quite differently. I think this was well brought out in The American Cinematographer's review Hi' a recent Technicolor production, in which it was pointed out that in one scene an extra girl, wearing a certain shade of blue, repeatedly distracted attention from the star simply because of the peculiarly penetrating quality of that particular shade of blue. This was true, even though the blue-clad extra was positioned some thirty or forty feet behind the star! A costume of almost any other coloring, so the color-experts tell me, would have been inconspicuous in that scene; but that particular shade of blue caught and held the eye even though one of the industry's most attractive feminine stars was singing in the immediate foreground. In checking these and innumerable similar details, the services of an alert operative cameraman are invaluable t'> both director and cinematographer. The director is usually busy with the principals. The director of photography is usually equally busy with his gaffer, arranging the lighting. But the cameraoperator sits there with his eye glued to the finder — and if that eye is really open, he can often detect these flawbefore either director or cinematographer have a chance to notice them. Therefore, while the operative is usually classed as the cinematographer's righthand man, I feel he can be fully as valuable to the director, too. An operative, for example, like Maurie Gertzman, whc has operated the camera for Milton Krasner, A.S.C., on our last two productions, and is both willing and able to make constructive suggestions to both of us, is a real asset to any troupe. After all, even though director and cinematographer may take the greatest pains to avoid any of these compositional conflicts between foreground and background action, checking the scene through the finder before each take, and riding the boom or dolly, the operative is the only man who is actually following the scene through the finder during the take — and he is the only man who can accurately spot these little mistakes before they show up on the screen ! In closing, I hope that this necessarily brief discussion of one of the detail problems confronting both director and cinematographer may prove of constructive value to members of both professions. We can all use more such discussions, from members of both crafts, for only as we all of us work together can we come closer to our joint goal of making consistently better pictures. END. Canada's War Movies (Continued from Page 370) duced films which actually had widespread theatre circulation and for which rental was paid by theatres. "The River," "The Plow that Broke the Plains," and "The Fight for Life." chalked up extensive theatre circulation. John Grierson in his work for Canada is doing what Pare Lorentz did in the U.S., with the additional advantage of having a determination and a need tproduce on schedule and not for art's sake alone. Lorentz hardly ever fig on regulated time and effort as essential to full success, but Grierson has included driving power to maintain a productioi schedule in his National Film Board set-up. Keeping pace with the March of Tin* Grierson produces and releases on schedule a different feature each month oi 39C> August, 1941 American Cintii viogkapher