American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1934)

January 1934 0 American Cinematographer 363 Effects in Your Titles The Screened Tif/e r/G.5 by George J. Lancaster, A.S.C. TRIPLE exposures, wipe offs, dissolving and lap dissolving titles bring forth a new era in photographing titles, truly an art in itself. Title departments in major studios have slowly grown into a considerable institution with all sorts of new fangled gadgets and dodads that would fill a small volume if one were to write about them. There are mechanical reasons why it is almost impossible to go into lengthy details concerning the operation of them and the resultant effects obtained from them. That leaves me face to face with a problem of explanations which I shall try to write in my humble way. The simpler operations in producing various effects which the 16mm producer might be inclined to try, may make truly novel titles for his or her films providing, of course, he or she owns a camera which has incorporated the variable shutter control, 8 to 64 speed control, hand crank, allowing for winding back the exposed film and the stop motion appliance. The October issue, the article of Trick Photography, had much written about dissolves and lap exposures. The same principle is applied to the titles, so let us start with captions photographed over backgrounds, by double exposing. Let us suppose you are covering a football game. Of course you will have some sort of continuity to your story. The campus would be an appropriate background for your main title. Secure a still picture of the campus having at hand the captions on title cards describing the incidents and so forth. First photograph the picture in sufficient length corresponding to the required length of your title card reading matter. This done, fade out, close shutter, wind back the footage, place the title card on the board, open shutter and start exposing and fade out as you have done on the picture. You have made a unique title with an animation. Now let us suppose it is desired to add a sub-title and you desire to have the main title letterings dissolve out as the lettering of the sub-title dissolves on. Example ( I ) "Stanford vs. California," the sub-title (2) "Leaving for the U. C. Bowl." Operation: Photograph the picture background, ample footage exposed fade out, close shutter, wind back footage exposed. Place card No. 1 on board, open shutter and photograph half of exposed film of background fading out on title card. Be sure to note exact footage you started to fade out on and the exact length of fade out, as you have to repeat this operation. Shutter closed wind back to starting point, place card No. 2 on board. With shutter closed start camera in action just at the point where you started the fade out on card No. 1 , start fading in on card No. 2, continuing on with the second half of exposed film of the background, fading out at the end as you have done on the background, leaving the title and background fade out together. In Fig. 1 you have side view of camera, mat box and title board. Fig. 2 is front view of mat box, note white lines half inch apart. The size of the aperture opening should be twice the size of the title card. Inside of mat box should be painted dull black. Fig. 3 shows the action of the wipe off card in downward motion cutting off title card at each exposure. This gives you the wipe-off. Fig. 4 also shows card in downward motion, but this time instead of closing aperture it is opening the aperture and giving you a wipe-on. Fig. 5 is a diagram of film in wipe-off action, the half marked No. 1 leaving the screen as the other half marked No. 2 comes on. Now we come to an operation that is somewhat complicated, requiring the building of a large mat box to be placed before the camera lens for producing photographed wipe offs. No doubt the readers have often viewed titles in the theatre, where one capition leaves the screen, the other proceeds either across, right or left, or from up or down simultaneously. Note in the accompanying cut around the outer edges of the mat box are painted white lines half an inch apart. These white lines are used to guide each movement of the black mask card for masking off the entire mat box aperture step by step, in accordance with the white lines. Operation: Set up first title card, generally the main title, focus camera through mat box. Photograph the required footage of main title; stop camera. The next procedure, photograph the title in stop motion. Carefully note footage at this point, for winding back. Now bring the black card into play. Start the card at first top white line and proceed down, stop exposure, move card to next white line, stop exposure, and so on until you have completely blanked off the opening of the mat box. Close shutter or cap lens, wind back the film to the point where you started stop motion, place credit title card on board, open shutter, now start exposing as you had done in the beginning. Instead of closing in on open aperture, start with mat box closed and open downwards from white mask to white mask; stop motion at each movement as you have done when you first started when the mat box is completely opened; proceed filming at regular speed 8 frames per second. Sufficient footage for reading exposed. You have obtained a wipe off effect worthy of praise and so I hope my readers will enjoy this pastime of producing titles of this kind.