American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1942)

1 DON'T WASTE FILM! GET your picture — the first time and every time! Flash with a Kalart precision Speed Flash. New booklet gives interesting facts on how to put life w^eToVio^r-^t FREE BOOKLET! THE KALART COMPANY. INC. Stamford Dept. 151 Connecticut MOVIOLA FILM Used llluttra EDITING EQUIPMENT In Every Major Studio ted Literature on Request 1451 Gordon MOVIOLA CO. St. Hollywood, Ci ilif. FAXON DEAN INC. CAMERAS BLIMPS-DOIXYS FOR neivT Day, NOrmandie 22184 Night, SUnset 2-1271 4516 Sunset Boulevard for dimemll tk»lt — THE ORIGINAL Scheibe's Monotone Filter INDICA1>^ instantly how c^en color and lifiht value of a scene or object will be rendered in the finished print htfor* taking GRADUATED FILTERS fOO SC(N(S, DIFfUSlO fOCUS AND OTMEI (FFfCTS Gcorqo H. Schoibo 'IGINATOR OF EFFECT FILTERS VEST 78' ST LOS ANOELES CAL aesthetic values and practical necessities. At this point, a word might be put in to distinguish between the layout-man and the background artist. The background man's special job is to render up in color the finished background that the painted eels will work against and which will be photographed in Technicolor. He exercises no particular creative initiative, but follows the toned pencil sketch of the background prepared by the layout-man, reproducing it faithfully for size and set-up in water-colors or oils. Illustrating this article is a simple, yet characteristic example of the progressive stages that a story idea goes through in production. The set-up sketch that the layout-man designed follows the first-hand suggestions of the story-sketch artist for direction of action, but improvements in the staging of the scene were instigated to add to the dramatic and pictorial effect. First, the rough suggestions for the background were developed into a wellrendered forest scene. Then instead of keeping a close shot on the character, the camera was pulled back to a medium shot, with the purpose of stressing the smallness of the baby deer in relation to the huge forest around him, and to punch his problem in hopping over the large log. The size of a character is governed only by his relationship to objects of a known size around him, and the best way to dramatize the littleness of the deer was to keep him small in the set-up. This is one example of the way the layout-man can help put across a story idea by the proper design of the setting. The animator is provided wit^ a tracing of the layout-man's background, along with a series of rough poses to indicate the exact path of action of a character, as well as careful indications for sizes and perspective. The position of the camera at the start and finish of the scene is also shown, established by the layout-man with an eye toward the best composition of the scene. The animator is free to move the camera around to suit the action of his character, but must maintain a good composition at all times. The technicalities of camera moves in relation to the animator will be explained in more detail in the next installment of this series, which will deal with Animation. MOTION PICTURE CAMERA SUPPLY, M. 1600 BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY, N. Y. EASTERN REPRESENTATIVES MITCHELL CAMERA COUP. • Sales • Service All makes of Cameras • Blimps Dollys # Rentals Lights and Studio Equipment Every procedure concerned with the production preparation of a picture is overlapped in order to move the story into animation as soon as possible. These procedures have been handled as sepaarate phases in this article for the purpose of clearer explanation, but in actuality, they're all going on at the same time. While the director is timing the picture, the layout-man is busy developing the layouts, and the assistant director is organizing test reels and recording sound-effects. Then as soon as the story sketches have been translated into working set-ups, the director starts calling the animators in to pick up animation. The animation of a picture might start at any point in the story, depending upon the layouts that have been completed, the dialog that has been already recorded and upon the availability of the animators themselves. Animators are "cast" on pictures according to their individual aptitude for handling certain types of action or characters. Some animators are best handling personality animation, others specialize in action stuff. The Disney studio has animators who specialize on certain characters — "Duck men," "Pluto men," and so forth. With stock characters like Mickey, Donald and Pluto, who are used over and over again, such specialization is very desirable. The animator, in picture to picture, can work towards the improvement of a character in drawing and in the development of its personality, and this specialization also eliminates the need for an animator to "warm up" on unfamiliar characters every time he starts on a new picture. The animator is usually familiar with the story, having attended at least one of the story meetings, but sometimes, just to be safe, the director will outline the complete continuity to him, and then concentrates on the sections that animator is to handle. This scene, or sequence of scenes, is explained in the minutest detail by the director who gives his conception and timing of the action. The animator will "play back" the action to the director, to insure that he has the intent and purpose of the scene firmly in mind, and also to suggest better timing and pantomime. Between the two of them, they plot the exact course of the action on the layouts, and time it out, accountmg for every action down to the last frame of film. If there's dialog in the scene, a print of the dialog is on hand to be run on a Moviola, accompanied by pantomime. The director must also have a streak of the actor in his jack-of-all-trades makeup. He must have a feeling for all the basic fundamentals of pantomime. During the course of explaining action to the animator, he will often go through all sorts of gymnastics. He will crawl on the floor, stand on his hands, bark like a dog, grimace like an ape or wriggle in the fashion of a 236 May, 1942 American Cinematographer