American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

that is, one in which the silver reflecting surface is deposited on the front of the glass support, rather than on the back. Most glass or mirror shops can make these up. That front surface must be protected, by the way, as it's delicate. With this mirror in place, the silver is carefully scraped from the glass over an area of precisely the right size and shape to permit the real, full-size set and actors to be viewed by the lens. The photo, miniature or painting which is to complete the shot is then positioned, over at the side, at right angles to the lens, in such a position that its reflection and the real set blend into a single image. This way, you can get an apparently spectacular set — say a huge interior of a castle, or the like — on the screen, while all you have to build in full-size construction is, say, a small back-wall, a door, or the like, just big enough so your actors have a little room to move about in. Naturally, you can have this real set of any size and shape you want, even masking off unwanted parts of a real room or building by simply leaving the silvering of the mirror where it will conceal that part, and reflect into the lens something entirely different, though blended with that part of the real scene you photograph. Several words of warning are necessary to anyone who tries any of these tricks. First of all, remember you can't pan, tilt or dolly your camera in one of these shots. Each set-up is good for only one camera-angle. Usually, it's the long-shot. If you come closer, for medium-shots or close-ups, you'll either have to make a completely new glass-shot, miniature or Schuefftan set-up, or plan your action and camera-angles so that your real background will be sufficient, and not reveal that the previous shot was a trick. However, that isn't much of a handicap. If, for example, you're putting a ceiling on a room, or Schuefftan-processing a big room around your actors, once you've established the spec tacular setting in a long-shot, your audience's imagination will put it there, even if in the closer angles it only sees a simple, plain back-wall. Secondly, your camera must be absolutely steady on its tripod, and have as steady a film-motion as possible. Otherwise, you may have the nearer painting or miniature visibly weaving, while the actually more distant "real" part of the set stands steady! Finally, doing these tricks and doing them at all convincingly takes genuine skill and precision. You can't get away with crude painting or a crude miniature, even though superabundant detail may not be desirable. And the perspective of the "artificial" part of the shot must be accurate, or the composite scene on the screen will look phoney. And the alignment of real action, artificial addition, and camera must be pr-ecise to the Nth degree, or again, your shot will be so "fakey" you might better not try it. All of these methods have been used many times in professional filming, sometimes even with cameras hardly better than today's best substandard outfits. With precision and skill there's no reason why they can't be used in 16mm. and 8mm., in either black-and-white or color. But — don't expect success the first try! It takes patient, painstakingwork to do any camera-trick, and do it convincingly. And these call for really exacting work. But, properly done, they can add immeasurable "production value" to amateur scenario and documentary films. END. Normal Exposures (Continued from Page 382) test scene in color comes out as three contrasty black-and-white images in the earlier stages of color-film processing. The practical limits of error with a contrasty film are about plus or minus half a stop: if exposure varies outside these limits the image will be sufficiently affected for the change to be seen clear EVERYTHING PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CINEMATIC FOR PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR The World's Largest Variety of Cameras and Projectors. Studio and Laboratory Equipment with Latest Improvements as Used in the Hollywood Studios. New and Used. BARGAINS. Hollywood Camera Exchange 1600 CAHUENGA BOULEVARD HO 3651 Hollywood, California Cable: Hocamex LANDERS CAMERA RENTALS MOTION PICTURE CAMERAS BLIMPS DOLLIES AND ALL ACCESSORIES PHONE HI-8333 NEW ADDRESS 6373 DELONGPRE AVE. NEAR IVAR STREET HOLLYWOOD Night HE-1311 ly on the screen. With a soft film, t may sometimes be possible to extend these limits to plus or minus one stop, but as a rule such a change would affect the image gradation even if the chant; in brightness failed to attract attentioi.. In color films, smaller limits of error an required on account of color-balance: changes outside plus or minus a quarter of a stop may be quite clearly obvious on the screen in certain types of subjects. In quoting these limits of error, it is necessary to point out that they are I based on a critical appreciation of screen brightness, and that those who set them | selves lower ideals than perfection may find it permissible to make greater mistakes. It is also important to bear ii. mind that mass-produced exposure meters cannot be expected to show no errors whatever from perfection, particularly where double-range instruments are in question. If anomalous results are obtained which cannot be explained in other ways, it is consequently worth while having the meter checked for response, although out of several hundred meters which have been through the writer's hands in the last few years only two have been found to be seriously incorrect in this respect. Although the above instructions can be used for the production of standard quality images, and can be applied without further ado for all normal work, there are times when some other type of image is required for special purposes. Such special-effects, as they may conveniently be called, are produced either by varying the image contrast, or by varying the screen brightness from the level which has been set up as a standard. Scenes in haunted houses, for example, are usually shot with extremely high contrast, so that much of the scene is so much under-exposed as to be black, while the main subject has more or less standard screen brightness: night scenes filmed by day are merely produced by reducing the normal screen brightness to a much lower level and overcorrecting the sky. Contrast is usually a matter, in such effects, of careful lighting, for artificial light offers infinitely greater possibilities than daylight, and will be considered shortly', but screen brightness levels have already been examined by making a speed test to establish the normal standard image, and a run through the speed test will show just what effect varying exposure-levels have on the screen brightness of standard objects. It is thus a simple matter to put down on paper the number of stops more or less exposure in the camera are needed to produce a particular type of screen brightness, and these variations from normal can always be used to obtain a pre-determined result on the screen. So long as the standard exposure for matched face-tones is used as a basis for this variation in screen brightness, the results on the screen will be both consistent and reliable, but they are quite 402 August, 1941 American < im mvtographer