American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1942)

You eventually bring your finished film to the collaborator who has exerted a constant moral pressure upon every function of its making from the start — the audience. Our initial mistake, which we are well over by this time, was placing our documentary work in an avantgarde category of film-making, stressing tricks of direction, photography, cutting and presentation which introduced a note of studied technical brilliance which often threw our films out of tune with the audience. As soon as we recovered the social function of documentary, we recovered a healthy relation to our audience. I believe that the documentary filmmaker has a great responsibility to his audience. The very absence of a fictional coating is almost enough cause for this great responsibility, but add to this that we are constantly touching unfamiliar social themes and concepts, and to influence people's oi)inions on these closer, but more unusual subjects is a considerable task. Today, those of us who are making documentary films (and that now includes an increasing number of directors, writers and cinematographers from the entertainment-film field) have the added responsibility of making our films and the message they convey play a dynamic part in the War Effort. Eut if our responsibilities are increased, so, too, are the possibilities our films can realize, and it is not, I hope, over-optimistic to predict that under this new impetus, we shall have the opportunity of proving — on a larger scale than we ever enjoyed before — our contention that the documentary film, intelligently handled, is capable of doing a truly great and constructive woik for society. END. Boom For Miniatures (Continued from Page 297) mounts, while the boom -arm itself is raised, lowered or I'evolved manually, by a separate crew. In addition, a series of levers overhead control electrical current fed through the supporting wires to the plane, not only to spin the miniature propellor, when necessary, but, operating through i-elays, to work any special effects that may be desired, such as smoke, fire, explosions, and dropping bombs, flares or parachutes. These relays may be pre-set and ' operated by remote control from a single button, so that the director, with this 1 button in his hand, can set off his effects 'himself, knowing that, say, the first trip, la machine-gun will fire, at the second, a bomb drop, at the third, smoke will 'appear, at the fourth, a fire will start, and at the fifth, the plane may explode and break up, and so on. As seven or eight relays are available, and may bo pre-set in any desired sequence, an almost infinite number of possible combinations of eff'ects is possible. The boom may be used in inany different ways. We have used it with a sta tionary camera, and with a camera mounted on a dolly or camera-car travelling beside the miniature plane. Where the boom itself is moved along a track, the duration of "flights" will be Hmited only by the dimensions of the set or backing used. Even when the boom itself is stationary, it is possible to obtain a surprising effect of straight flight by revolving the boomarm and keeping the arc of the flightpath straightened out by rotating the two mounts at the end of the boom. And by combining the various movements possible with this device, almost any evolution is possible. We have made planes approach the camera, dive, circle, climb and then fly away again, and thread their way in and out of the smoke of miniature forest fires with remarkable realism. The use of this boom is supplemented by a large, outdoor sky-backing which, while built especially to simplify the exposure problems of the Technicolor miniatures for "The Forest Rangers," seems certain to prove almost as useful as the boom itself in meeting the increasing need for miniature plane shots in the future. END. Slater (Continued trom Page 296) very conspicuous pilot-light is dark. A manual switch is i)rovided so that the slating lamps may be turned off if long periods elapse between one scene or setup and the next. The design for this slater was conceived by Warner Camera-Chief E. B. ("Mike") McGreal, and engineered by A. W. Tondreau of the studio's precision mechanical department. "In developing our slater," says McGreal, "we designed and actually constructed three other designs over the i)eriod of the last two years, not to mention some others which never progressed beyond the drawing stage, before we evolved a design which met the requirements we had set for ourselves. "Biiefly, we wanted a slater which would be as nearly automatic — call it foolproof, if you like — in operation as was possible. We felt that a scene-slater should, if possible, require no manual manipulations on the part of the camera A War !«>avin^s Bond lloughf IVow l^Vill Buy You a Taniera After the War! SOUND FOR YOUR 1 6 MM MOTION PICTURES # Send us your completely edited film — Black and White or Koda ehrome with a typewritten script, and we will return a completed sound picture as instructed. Write for Prices TELEFILM INCORPORATED 6039 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood, Calif. Gladstone 5748 B&H-THC LENSES Exceeding current technical demands and anticipating future requirements, these cine lenses are truly long-term investments. Write for literature. BELL & HOWELL COMPANY Exclusive world disfributors 1848 Larchmont Avenue, Chicago New York: 30 Rockefeller Plain Hollywood: 7 1 6 N. La Brea Ave. Walhinglon, D. C: 1221 G. SI., N. W. 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