American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1942)

Trick Titles (Continued from Page 416) by using colored gelatins on the spotlights, you can get all sorts of fascinating color combinations. "Table-top titles" also give you opportunities for animation. For instance, you can have a jointed doll-figure apparently pick up the cut-out letters from a pile and arrange them into words. Or you can have a toy truck or train apparently haul the words in. And you can — but if you want additional ideas, study a few of George Pal's "Puppetoons," and you'll get ideas by the carload! END. Editor's Finder (Continued from Page 399) way; twenty and more exposures on a single negative was an every-day commonplace for the old-time trick-artist. A return to this practice would in many cases be feasible, and would not only conserve film but would give the improved quality of an original negative rather than a dupe. How to do it? Ask any old-timer! He knows — even if the industry as a whole seems to have forgotten! Little "Big Games" (Continued from Page 410) teresting, but I wouldn't try it until I was reasonably familiar with the team's general style of play. Then you can get really characteristic bits of action in slowed-down speed, rather than wasting film on something that isn't important. Very often — and particularly in the small schools — you can get acquainted beforehand with the coach of the home team, and probably arrange with him not only to give you an official OK to scamper up and down the sidelines with your camera, but to provide him, in exchange, with the privilege of viewing and studying your films of the game. In that event, you'll probably work more in a moderate slow-motion — 32 or 48frame speed, which can in projection be slowed down to almost the equivalent of 64-frame shots by slowing the projector. He'll appreciate slow-motion, as it gives him a better chance to study the faults of his players. Sometimes a coach will be able to help defray the cost of film used this way; at other times he won't, but he'll still be glad to have your assistance as the team's official or semi-official cinematographer. As a matter of etiquette, however, make sure beforehand that the team doesn't, already have an official cameraman. Some of the larger big-city high-schools do, I believe, have one — usually a professional, but sometimes an amateur from the student body. If you find another amateur is covering the games directly or indirectly for the school, you may sometimes be able to work in collaboration, each "covering" certain angles or certain phases of play so that each man's scenes supplement the other's. Finally, be considerate of the people in the stands behind you. After all, they can't see through you — and as most of them are likely to be students of one or the other of the schools represented on the field, they're eager (and decidedly entitled) to see the game. Do your best not to block their view a bit more than you can help. In the smaller school games, you'll probably have to develop an armor-steel resistance to jibes from the stands. The atmosphere of these games is usually very informal, and when the crowd in the stands feels you're blocking their view too much, they don't hesitate to tell you so, individually and collectively. Very pointedly, too. When you've reached the point where you can take this "razzing" good-naturedly, and still bring back a good picture, you can really call yourself a good sports cinematographer! After all, it's all in fun — and you'll find more fun at these little "big games" than at the really big ones you've been accustomed to filming! END. Autumn Byways (Continued from Page 411) Then as the autumnal coloring grows more vivid and profuse, you can accentuate it by using a very slight degree of underexposure — very slight, you understand; not more than you'd get by using your meter set for Weston 10 instead of the usual 8 speed-rating. Then later, when the coloring has died out, and fall is merging into winter, you can, if you like, reverse the trick, and by giving a very slight overexposure — say shooting at Weston 6 instead of 8 — you can soften the coloring, and make the whole scene tend more toward the pastel shades. This is especially useful in the scenes depicting the first soft snowfall, where you deliberately want to soften the impression of color. The best of all of this is that you can get a really interesting picture, as out of the ordinary as your pictorial ingenuity can make it, without going far from home. In fact, you could make a complete picture like this without ever having to stir out of your own front yard! END. Uncle Sam's Cameramen (Continued from Page 395) — have given unstintedly and enthusiastically of their time and effort to make this project a success. Due in no small part to their efforts, we have been able to ci-ani an absolutely incredible amount of practical instruction in exterior cinematography into an unbelievably short time. Fortunately, these students do not require instruction in the much more intricate phases of interior cinematography and lighting to do their work for the Army. But as far as exterior camerawork goes, every one of the graduates so far has emerged from the course as a field cinematographer you could trust on any assignment. "This wouldn't be possible if the students weren't, in the most literal sense, picked men. Every one of them begins the course with a better than average grounding in the scientific fundamentals of photography, and, as a rule, a good deal of practical experience in substandard cinematography as either a genuinely advanced amateur or a 16mm. professional. The 'beginner amateurs' and snapshooters are weeded out before the start. The men we get really aren't what I'd call amateurs at all, but serious, well-educated hobbyists. Most of them have an understanding of photographic science and fundamentals as good or better than that of the average professional. We simply build on that. "The proof of this is the high grades the students have so far made. We grade very conservatively: but the lowest course mark we've been able to give so far is 84 — and the average is up in the 90's. The students are graded not alone on their photographic ability, but upon initiative, physical and mental alertness, and ability to shoulder I'esponsibility and to perform under pressure. Those receiving the highest marks will go into service as Master Sergeants or Technical Sergeants and will probably work in the field or at Headquarters in charge of their own camera crews. Those with lower grades, receive lower ratings. Those who fail in the course remain in the Signal Corps, but emerge as privates. We have yet to produce our first private! "None of us here knows what will be the future of this training plan. Our job right now is to turn out cameramen until the Army says it has enough. I believe we're doing it. But I can't give too much credit to the cooperation we've received from everyone in the industry, and to the remarkably high type of material we've had to work with as trainees. If they're representative of the country's amateurs and 16mm. professionals, the country may well be proud of them. And as they get out into the field, I'm sure they'll give us additional reason for pride." END. Planned Projection (Continued from Page 412) habit of rewinding our films with the projector's power-driven rewind: but you'll find that rewinding on a handpowered rewinding board is a lot quieter, and much less distracting to the audience than the chatter of two projectors — one projecting, the other rewinding — going at once. For all practical purposes, it's just as fast, too; I've known of skilled amateur projection-teams who worked so well together that the rewindoperator could get a reel rewound and hand the empty reel to the projectoroperator before the projectionist had the next reel so far threaded through the projector that he was ready to feed it into the take-up reel. If you want mechanized speed, of course, you can easily build a motorized rewind out of an inexpensive electric 418 September, 1942 American Cinematographer