American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1942)

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If you want to make a set representing just a single wall of a room, take enough flats to give you the desired width for your set and put them together, edge to edge. Prop them solidly upright with the 2x2 angle-braces you've already made, and nail the sections firmly together with nails passing through the two adjacent frames on the back of the flats. For this, and most other nailing in assembling flats and their braces into sets, use the special double-headed nails we use in the studios for this purpose; they're often called "jew nails." In appearance, these are like ordinary, fairly heavy nails, but they have two heads, one above the other. You drive the nail in up to the first head, getting a good, solid fastening as though you had used an ordinary nail. But — when you want to dismantle your set, there's the second head projecting about a quarter of an inch above the plank, so you can quickly yank the nail out without damaging either the wood it is in or the nail itself. To cover the gap where two adjacent flats join, apply a strip of heavy finishing-paper— or a strip of paper tape or even butchers' wrapping paper if you can't get what we use — to cover the joint. We often use this "blank stock" to paper over the whole surface of the flat before finishing with a coat of paint or paper. Now you can paint or paper your setwall in any way you want. In the studios, we usually use a simple water-color paint, rather like kalsomine, in any desired color. This can be washed off by simply applying water. If we want to reproduce a plastered or stuccoed wall, we simply mix in a bit of sawdust, to give the necessary rough texture. Any kind of wallpaper can be applied over a flat. With modern wallpaper, you can not only get the conventional wallpaper patterns, but flat colors, and special papers which imitate all sorts of other textures — wood panelling, tile, and even marble. You'd be surprised how many of the "marble" walls of movie banks, hotel lobbies, and the like, were simply "marbelized" wallpaper! And to the camera — even in color — they're every bit as convincing as the real thing. As you use and re-use your flats, you'll find that often several layers of wallpapers can be applied one after another before the flat needs refinishing. When it does, hot water or steam, assisted by a good scrubbing, will remove the paper. Then re-shellac your flat, and it's ready for more use! If you want to make an L-shaped, two-walled set, it is a simple matter, of course, to arrange two walls made of flats into the desired right-angle arrangement to make your set. More often, you'll want a three-walled room. Of course you can do this with flats, too. Just arrange your wall-panels to make the necessary U-shaped set, and there you are. With this type of set, it is often a good idea to run a fairly sturdy brace (above the camera-angle, of course) across the open end of the U. This has two advantages. In the first place, it makes your set more rigid. In the second place, it gives you a scaffold from which you can hang lamps for overhead front-lighting. Sometimes when you're working in a set like this, you'll find you have to reverse your camera-angle, and shoot toward what would be the open end of the U. For this, we use what we call a "wild wall." For that matter, we use "wild walls" often enough to provide the second or third wall of a two or threewalled set. A "wild" wall is simply a wall of a set which is built as a unit, separable from the rest of the set. Put in place, it completes the set. But by merely pulling out a few nails and removing the supporting braces, the wall may be removed to give the cameracrew more room in which to work. If there is any overhead scaffolding for the lamps, set and scaffolding are completely separate units; the wall may be removed without disturbing the lamps and their catwalk. For that matter, a "wild" wall may be — and often is — swung completely from one side of the set to the other, as needed, so that a single wall provides two sides of the set, according to the camera-angle. In most instances, you'll find it an advantage to plan things so that you can place some overhead lighting-units (especially spotlights, if you have them) along the top of your set-walls to provide back-lighting on the players and some of the lighting on the set-walls themselves, as well. Professionally, we do this by hanging a railed catwalk or platform directly above the set-walls, but With the exception of the railing. thi$ set is built of standard "flats." Note how window-panel is recessed, and corner treatment, to give breaks in contour for better lighting. Notice also how lamps are hung on wall. usually suspended by one means or another from the ceiling girders of the sound-stage. This catwalk may or may not be anchored in some way to the set; most often, it isn't. But for amateur use, you'll seldom need to go to this trouble. Instead, drill holes in the upper framing of your flats, spaced about two feet apart, into which you can fit the bases of some of your lamps. Better yet, use clamp-on reflectors — if possible fitted with concentrating "snouts" — in which you can burn either No. 2 or preferably No. 4 Photofloods. And an ordinary step-ladder will give your electricians a chance to reach up to adjust these lamps as your cameraman may direct. Often in closer shots you'll find you need some back-lighting from a lower angle than is possible this way. There's a professional gadget that fits this, too. Ours is made of metal, but with most amateur lamps, you'll be able to use fairly light wooden construction. The gadget is simply a fairly long pole with a hook at its upper end. The hook fits over the top of the flat, and the pole or rod extends down along the wall into the set, with a provision at its lower end for mounting a lamp which can be directed as necessary to provide the back-lighting you want. The cable feeding the lamp, of course, extends upward and over the top of he flat, safely out of camera-range. Now a simple set that consists of straight, flat walls may be adequate for the action, but it isn't always conducive to the most effective sort of light(Continued on Page 225) American Cinematographer May, 1942 211